Love and Hate

For all your general chit chat, caching or not.
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pprass
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Re: Love and Hate

Post by pprass » 02 August 10 10:08 pm

blossom* wrote:I like hints - to me caching is done for fun, not for frustration. But I accept that everyone has their own reasons and methods.
Quite right - some cachers enjoy the challenge and the hunt.

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caughtatwork
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Re: Love and Hate

Post by caughtatwork » 02 August 10 10:12 pm

pprass wrote:
Trigg-A-Nomics wrote:... I try to make my hints cryptic but sometimes I do get more specific when the hide warrants it.
That's what I do when it is a difficult cache as well. However I believe that we usually give accurate co-ords so that there is no need for a hint on some of our simpler caches.
Unless it's gone and people are tearing apart the area not knowing that it's gone.
If a cache has a hint you have a better chance of keeping the area somewhat intact.
And not some esoteric like "look harder" or "not in the ferns". I know where it's NOT, I need to know where it IS so I can confirm that the damn thing is missing.

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pprass
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Re: Love and Hate

Post by pprass » 02 August 10 10:27 pm

caughtatwork wrote:If a cache has a hint you have a better chance of keeping the area somewhat intact..
Sure - but not all caches are in sensitive areas. eg Bus shelters, picnic tables/shelters, guard rails, under steps, under platforms, deep in the bush in hollow logs/stumps etc.

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Re: Love and Hate

Post by caughtatwork » 02 August 10 10:37 pm

But surely you wouldn't place a cache is a place so mundane?

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pprass
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Re: Love and Hate

Post by pprass » 02 August 10 11:13 pm

caughtatwork wrote:But surely you wouldn't place a cache is a place so mundane?
Well:
Bus shelters - no
Picnic tables - no
Picnic shelters - maybe (twice I think, one starting WPT and one final :oops:)
Guard rails - no
Under steps - no
Under platforms - no but if it is at a lookout - then yes
Deep in the bush in hollow logs/stumps etc. - yes!

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Richary
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Re: Love and Hate

Post by Richary » 03 August 10 12:12 am

Started a bit of discussion, but I pretty much agree with the OP about what I love/hate about geocaching. And not to denigrate our country cousins I have found many brilliant hides out bush, and probably a higher number of lame ones in the city. But after all it is easier to be creative with a good hiding spot in the bush than if you are working on a suburban park with limited hiding options.

Caching is different things to different people and I think we all accept that. Some days I just feel like a couple of easy finds. Other times I don't mind a challenging hard hide. I do agree that if the cache is in an environmentally sensitive area a hint or text in the main description can help limit damage. And I also appreciate a hint being available if I have to go on a long hike to find the thing, only to get frustrated by poor GPS coverage at GZ that I didn't know about. If it's a drive by I often won't look at the hint unless I can't find the thing, but if I have to go more than say 500m from the car I will look at any hints before I leave the laptop.

With that said, with experience you also start to learn whose hides you enjoy and whose you find a bit ordinary. Without bringing any particular names into the discussion I know when I lived in Adelaide that if certain cachers put one out you knew you were going to enjoy it. Other cachers after finding a few of theirs it was a case of any new ones are just worth doing if you are passing anyway and want another smiley. I haven't found it that much in Sydney to be the case though.

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squalid
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Re: Love and Hate

Post by squalid » 03 August 10 8:08 am

While I mostly agree with the love & hates list, I try to accept what I find and not get too annoyed by a bad experience. It is just a game after all. Too much [-X is creeping into it.

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pprass
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Re: Love and Hate

Post by pprass » 03 August 10 8:24 am

squalid wrote:...I try to accept what I find and not get too annoyed by a bad experience....
We do too - but I reckon that from time to time we just need to check on where the standard of this great game is heading.

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Re: Love and Hate

Post by pprass » 03 August 10 8:39 am

Richary wrote:...Without bringing any particular names into the discussion I know when I lived in Adelaide that if certain cachers put one out you knew you were going to enjoy it. Other cachers after finding a few of theirs it was a case of any new ones are just worth doing if you are passing anyway and want another smiley....
In Melbourne there was one cacher who freely admitted that he had a dozen set up caches in the boot of his car at any one time and he would put one or two out on the way to work whenever he found a likely hiding spot. He totally saturated a region with mostly non descript caches, but we all went out and did them. There were lots of comments in the logs from cachers about why? and what's the point and not one of our best finds, in an effort to try and educate him as to what makes a good cache - don't think he listened to any of it. In fact he used to delete any log that he didn't like :-k
It's now become just a rich numbers gathering trip where it could have been one of the great regions around Melbourne showcased by caches.

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Re: Love and Hate

Post by caughtatwork » 03 August 10 9:02 am

There are between 3,000 and 4,000 active cachers in Australia. We can't even get agreement in this thread of a dozen people, what chance 4,000 people all agreeing on what they love and hate?

I get very annoyed at people trying to "make the game better" based on what "they" want. Damn it, I'll play the game the way I want.

If that means chucking a hundred micros out, then I will do it. You are not obliged to find them, nor do you have the right to put them down. If you "must" do them to "clear an area", then leave a TFTC log.

If I want to include spoiler hints, then so be it. Don't read them if you can't find it. Use the perfect GPS you have. If I want to play the numbers game and hit 100 in a night, then you have no right to comment on the way I play the game.

If I don't want to log a DNF then I shouldn't be forced to, by rule or convention or agreement between a few caches who think "their" way is the "best" way.

The beauty of geocaching is that you find a cache, write in the log book, log it online. No other rules. No other guidelines. You play the game the way you want to play the game.

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pprass
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Re: Love and Hate

Post by pprass » 03 August 10 9:25 am

caughtatwork wrote:I get very annoyed at people trying to "make the game better" based on what "they" want. Damn it, I'll play the game the way I want.
Hmmm - that's a rebellious blast. I know you have a different approach to the game. BTW - I am not trying to make the game any better - just wanting to maintain/reinforce the standards - and I reckon that from most if not all of the cachers that I speak to - so do they.

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Yurt
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Re: Love and Hate

Post by Yurt » 03 August 10 9:58 am

So within the rules I could:

1. place a crappy non-waterproof container
with
2. a post-it note pad with no bag or pencil
in
3. a mundane location which may result in every second geocacher being frisked by police
and
4. never respond to "needs maintenance" logs
because
5. I only use a spam email address which I'm never going to check.

Bring it on! =D>

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Re: Love and Hate

Post by caughtatwork » 03 August 10 10:15 am

pprass wrote:
caughtatwork wrote:I get very annoyed at people trying to "make the game better" based on what "they" want. Damn it, I'll play the game the way I want.
Hmmm - that's a rebellious blast. I know you have a different approach to the game. BTW - I am not trying to make the game any better - just wanting to maintain/reinforce the standards - and I reckon that from most if not all of the cachers that I speak to - so do they.
I'm not having a go directly at you, btw, this is all part of the discussion.
What standards?
There are no standards.
There is what has gone before and there is what it yet to come.
Why do they have to be the same?

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caughtatwork
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Re: Love and Hate

Post by caughtatwork » 03 August 10 10:39 am

Yurt wrote:So within the rules I could:

1. place a crappy non-waterproof container
with
2. a post-it note pad with no bag or pencil
in
3. a mundane location which may result in every second geocacher being frisked by police
and
4. never respond to "needs maintenance" logs
because
5. I only use a spam email address which I'm never going to check.

Bring it on! =D>
There are no rules at GCA.
At GC point 4 might be an annoyance, but you say you can maintain the cache, so what you are doing is not against the rules / guidelines.

As theUMP has said before, he will hold his nose as he hits the publish button, but your cache meets the listing guidelines at GC.

Not everything can be gold. Sometimes you get silver which tarnishes with age, sometimes you bronze, sometimes you get lead. You take your chances and seek what you think you will enjoy.

You DO read every cache description before trying to find a cache don't you? No? What if the cache description said exactly what you just wrote but you don't read it. You would then turn up and be disappointed by the "crappy" cache, but the owner actually told you just how crappy it was going to be.

Why should the owner take flack for YOUR inability to read and interpret the cache listings. A micro will be listed as such (barring some exceptions). If you don't like micros because they're spoiling the game for you don't bloody well seek them. But no, people go try to find them, then wrote a log saying "a micro in the bush". Damn it, the cache listing is there for your benefit. If you don't take the time to do your research, then you have no right to get all pissy at the owner.

"you" being the generic you, not specifically you.

There is a wealth of information on the cache page and previous logs. Use them to decide what to seek, not just be a numbers whore and find everything then disparage the owner because you didn't like what the listing said you would find.

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pprass
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Re: Love and Hate

Post by pprass » 03 August 10 11:25 am

caughtatwork wrote:There is a wealth of information on the cache page and previous logs. Use them to decide what to seek, not just be a numbers whore and find everything then disparage the owner because you didn't like what the listing said you would find.
That's a very good point (and sort of makes me flinch a bit), however I wouldn't want other cachers (new cachers specifically) to come across caches like that and think that that is the norm and therefore that is how a cache should be set up.

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