Caching Topics A to Z # 16 Proximity

[Mix]

Within geocaching circles it is generally considered good practice to hide your cache in a location that is not too near another players existing cache.
On geocaching.com this is enforced by reviewers but on GCA this is a purely voluntary process
To facilitate this and to ensure good karma on your behalf, we provide a proximity warning if you place a cache within 150m of an existing cache (be it gc or gca).
This is purely a courtesy, it is up to you as to if you decide to move it a bit or not!

WhatÂ’s you general feeling about this?
Is it fair to have a blanket rule like GC?
How close is ‘really’ ‘to close’?
Other thoughts?

[The Garner Family]

I can envisage very few scenarios where a cache less than 150m from another, existing cache, would add value to geocaching.

A recent example I can think of was 2 multi's - the end point of one (with a hidden cache) was 10m from the start point of another. This got detected & later altered, however there a number of people who found the end point of one multi while starting the other. What could have far easier happened (and only a check of the log books would tell) is that people started on one cache and finished by finding the other... oblivioius to the cross-over.

[Papa Bear_Left]

(theUMP and I are going to try really, really hard to stay out of this one!)

[Spruce Mooses]

I've got one of my caches placed about 130 metres straight line distancce from another one in the same park. If you walk from one to the other the distance is much further, and there is a cliff and a waterfall in between. I had already hidden my cache when the other one was released, so both of us thought the park was cache worthy. The caches however focus on different things and one's a multi and one's a puzzle, so I was cool with it and they were both published.

If you only have to walk 150 metres to get to the next one - I don't agree

If there is a river, gully or something else that clearly divides the areas and you need to walk/drive more than 150 metres to get to it then I think that cache is ok and should be published

[crew 153]

I found a cache recently near a sporting field where a gardener was mowing the oval. I got back into the car and plugged in the next cache to route to and then drove the 2 kilometers to the cache to look up and see the same gardener from the over side of the oval.

[CraigRat]

As the author of the quoted comment from the wiki I'd like to point out that the GCA proximity alert feature isn't actually on the main site yet... I just out it there after I wrote the code so I wouldn't forget to put it in the wiki later.

All it does is flag the other caches within 150m if you publish a GCA cache.... it doesnt prohibit you, just flags it for your information (hence the karma comment )

Yet another of the myriad of GCA features coming soon(ish).....................................

I've got conflicting views on proximity....
I don't believe you need physical caches too close together, but I don't think a waypoint on a multi that happens to be near a cache should have the same restriction......

[SNIFTER]

This sort of thing happened to us when we placed a single waypoint cache. We submitted it only to find that there was another cache within the specified distance. Why didn't we know about it...............The 2 Dogs rarely do multi caches and this cache was not on our to do list. On saying that we then found the multi and removed ours. Why did we do the multi? The info given as to why our`cache was not approved gave us all the clues we needed to get to the multi. Cheating....you bet but hey it has been the only hiccup of its kind and given the numerous caches we have hidden I don't think anyone is gpoing to shoot us . Well I hope not.

[Rabbitto]

I got the Flux Capacitor Fired up and found this on the forum from 12 July 2026

<p>

I am quite disturbed by the 75mm cache proximity restriction placed on cache hides. This is extremely unfair as I have been unable to find one single cache hiding place within 3km of my home that doesn't break this rule, and that's in any of the standard 3 dimensions and any of the 26 other dimensions discovered over the last decade (including that new quicky inside out one). I will be glad when the governent logs that last remaining tree and opens up space for another 60 or so new caches.

<p>I am strongly considering to Zarquon 6 where the cache to population ratio is only a meagre 10,000,000 to one. What are the worlds coming to.

<p>I would have posted this earlier but I have had all 25 of my 2,056 bit mega processor computers working 24 hours a day for the last 3 years just trying to come up with a unique log in name.

<p>BTW Congratulations to Maccamob on your 10,000,000th find. It's just fantastic that you are still able to log over 20,000 new caches a day without even leaving Werribee