When do you read the Cache Hint?

Papa Bear_Left · Post by **Papa Bear_Left** » 21 January 06 1:57 am

Oh, I couldn't expect people to log a visit to a tunnel and somehow keep it a secret for long.

For caches where it's really important to not give stuff away, I use a Winners Page offsite. See "What would MacGyver do? Episode 1" for how that works. (Codeword available for out-of-towners on request)

Detourism · Post by **Detourism** » 21 January 06 4:40 pm

If I'm setting out on my own I usually take the cache printout with the encrypted hint with me. Not having the hint staring me in the face reduces the temptation to use it straight away.

If I have my 5 and 8 year old daughters with me I usually read the hint as part of the preparation. They don't have the patience to spend 30 minutes searching for a cache with their Dad. On these trips I usually give them some subtle directions so that they can find the cache themselves anyway....

ZED! · Post by **ZED!** » 21 January 06 7:41 pm

My method has changed a little, or lots. When I first started Geocaching I did so without the use of a GPS so I read the hint as a part of my preperations because how accurate is a screenshot of Google Earth with a circle drawn on it? 
But recently with the addition of an iPAQ I only read the hint if I need it (after 20-30 mins) and that's if I remember to take the iPAQ with me and not leave it in the car, like I seem to do quite a lot. 
Today however, I did 9 geocaches without even reading all the descriptions, I just downloaded the WP's into the GPS and went. I had them loaded into GPXview if I needed, but they were all quite easy finds as all bar 1, the co-ords were pretty spot on.

On a side note in reference to the Bear_Left's geocache, that was my second ever find and I mentioned taking a torch in my log, when I thought about it, I went to change the log and delete the reference but found the whole log had been deleted and had I received an email from B_L asking me change my wording

I see they're a little more lax about it now

xf king · Post by **xf king** » 22 January 06 4:38 pm

Durimng caching I usually bring out y cache papers. To save on Printer ink I dont print out the logs, but sometimes if i'm in a rush during the day I do have a look how long the hint is before I print it out..

If the hint length is reasonable and doesn't take more than 5 minutes to decode I will print it out as a encrpted hint, but if the hint is say 2 or 3 paragraphs long and it takes a long time to decode I will print it out in a decoded format.

I try not to read the hints until I have done the cache and have searched for about 30 minutes.

Weather it has been decoded or not.

I usually state if I did or didn't use the hint. All I can say is that please keep hints within a sentance or two. Not many paragraphs!!..

It makes it easier for us manual decoders on cache site.

Facitman · Post by **Facitman** » 22 January 06 5:15 pm

To slightly skew the topic to one that I've had a number of conversations with other cachers recently.

Should the hint be a hint or an answer aka a spoiler? I try to avoid reading the hint until I've done some searching but when I do want some help I would like a *hint*. If the hint says "under the rock 2 metres from the tree" I'm disappointed! I would rather get a "It's at ground level". To me, if I want the answer I can call a help line.

The floated idea (in this thread) of multiple levels of hints would interest me if it could work like my current hint decoding on the clunky Palm VX... decode the first hint. Still stuck? decode the second and so on. But the infrastructure is probably difficult to implement.

just my 2cents

Cached · Post by **Cached** » 22 January 06 5:40 pm

I just hate the hints that say "take the dirt road" or something that just gets you to the location - and you're already there!

TeamAstro · Post by **TeamAstro** » 22 January 06 6:17 pm

The hints I need are inversely proportional to the time I have. If I am on a flying visit to somewhere and donÃ‚â€™t have much time (eg geo muggles in the car or a lunch time cache) and/or you know you wonÃ‚â€™t be back to the middle of nowhere soon, then I like a good hint. I try and stick good hints on my more remote caches Ã‚â€“ if someone goes out there, you WANT them to find it. Of course, I still make the hint not too give-a-way-ish but fair (even if it is on a PDF that you need to download at home before hehehe).

Oh, my caching rules of thumb:
1. DonÃ‚â€™t get too upset if you canÃ‚â€™t find it if you are under pressure and in a rush. (still log a no find though Ã‚â€“ if I know I am in so much of a rush, I may refrain from looking even if itÃ‚â€™s a drive by). Rushing never assists and normally results in a BlokeÃ‚â€™s Look.
2. The Astro rating on a cache always increases by at least 1 (in D and T) at night.
3. (possibly) Hint details required are inversely proportional to your search time.

Simple rules but I think they are Ã‚â€œFundamental Caching Laws Of NatureÃ‚â€

Damo. · Post by **Damo.** » 22 January 06 11:27 pm

Facitman wrote: multiple levels of hints would interest me if it could work like my current hint decoding on the clunky Palm VX... decode the first hint. Still stuck? decode the second and so on. But the infrastructure is probably difficult to implement.

You could always make use of the []. The hint on one of my caches looks like this:
[Hint 1:]Vg'f abg rnfl orvat terra.[Spoiler Hint 2:] Pbhag friragl sbhe hc.

Pretty obvious where you should stop if decoding by hand. Guess it might be hard to resist if already decoded.

Papa Bear_Left · Post by **Papa Bear_Left** » 22 January 06 11:58 pm

I've done this on occasion:

[puzzle clue]gevt, abg fcryyvat
[cache clue]abj ebg2: jcstg uape gdrz iwxginiwgtt b ugdb bpgztg

where that second bit decodes to:

[cache clue]now rot2: wpfgt hncr tqem vjktvavjtgg o htqo octmgt

so that auto-decoding a hint for the puzzle bit doesn't automatically give you the hidey-hole hint. In this case, it's at the top of a 900m+ mountain, so the hint is an absolute give-away. No way I'd send someone up there and _not_ have them find the box!

TeamAstro · Post by **TeamAstro** » 22 January 06 11:59 pm

POLE RESULTS so far: esp the middle one amuses me:

After 30-60min of looking and i'm ready to give up
43% [ 22 ]

Hard to believe. (read real hard to believe). Are we kidding ourselves?? Sorry, convince me guys you are telling the truth.

clear skies, Astro.

Facitman · Post by **Facitman** » 23 January 06 9:58 am

Bear_Left wrote:I've done this on occasion:
[puzzle clue]gevt, abg fcryyvat
[cache clue]abj ebg2: jcstg uape gdrz iwxginiwgtt b ugdb bpgztg
where that second bit decodes to:
[cache clue]now rot2: wpfgt hncr tqem vjktvavjtgg o htqo octmgt
so that auto-decoding a hint for the puzzle bit doesn't automatically give you the hidey-hole hint. In this case, it's at the top of a 900m+ mountain, so the hint is an absolute give-away. No way I'd send someone up there and _not_ have them find the box!

I would be very happy if more hiders did this. I suppose it depends on the cache type and it's location. I agree with the comments that I wouldn't want to travel great distances and come away empty handed due to a dud hint, and I also don't like the unhelpful hint as described by Cached.
 
On the pole. Do I wait 30-60 minutes? Probably not but I try not to look until I've given the area a good search, I don't use a stop watch when caching

but I think it's more like 20minutes. somewhere between option 2 and 3. It does depend on lots of other factors, weather, muggle count, my time availability etc
 
another 2c

Post by **caughtatwork** » 23 January 06 10:37 am

Other ROT systems would be of use if people knew what ROT meant.

I was discussing a ROT system with a cacher a while and and they had no idea that ROT13 was used to encrypt / decrypt the hint.

I wonder how many people would be buggered in the bush if they had to ROT2 a hint? How many would know how to do it?

Persoanlly, I have no problem, I wonder how many others who don't know the underlying methodology would fare?

Not against the idea, but remember people are playing geocaching (go and find the box) and don't necessarily want to learn and undertstand different ROT methods.

Spruce Mooses · Post by **Spruce Mooses** » 23 January 06 11:56 am

OK OK, we print the page out clue decoded!

But, If we are using the car computer or PDA, the clue won't come out until we've started searching and can't find anywhere obvious in the first few minutes. 
Also often decrypt the clue at work, but quite often forget it when we get to GZ. Ah well. We're suckers for 'Quickie' caches.

Waterwells · Post by **Waterwells** » 23 January 06 6:14 pm

TeamAstro wrote:POLE RESULTS so far: esp the middle one amuses me:

After 30-60min of looking and i'm ready to give up
43% [ 22 ]

Hard to believe. (read real hard to believe). Are we kidding ourselves?? Sorry, convince me guys you are telling the truth.

clear skies, Astro.

Ditto!!

------ Have been watching this thread with interest and it's very hard to believe!!

We've never once spent 60 minutes looking for a cache. We decode the hint after 10-15 minutes of searching and then if we haven't found it within the next 20 minutes or so, we post a DNF. If the next log shows that the cache has been found, we'll go back for another look at a later date. (We can think of only two exeptions in our cache hunting history thus far!)

And we thought we were the norm???