The Future of Caching?

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Alansee
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The Future of Caching?

Post by Alansee » 17 June 11 5:18 pm

I have noticed that an essentially new form of cache is occurring, particularly in the USA, but there are some here. These are "Challenge" caches, where you find a cache, but to be able to log it, you have to have done something cache related. For instance, find 10 Earthcaches, or find all the caches within 5 km of your home location. These caches are listed as Unknowns.

Fair enough so far I suppose, as long as everyone has to do the same thing (unlike a cache in Victoria not so long ago which made people with over a certain number of finds do about 4 times the work to get the same cache).

However I reckon this takes the cache. Or should I say cake.

GC2X8Z6 Challenge of a Milleneum http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_de ... 019c95375d in the US,
Makes you find 1,000 caches within a state before you can log it. Thing is, if you have found 1,000 caches in more than one state, you can log it again, without refinding it. And again and again, for each state you find 1,000 caches in.

Just imagine - if there were one of these only in each state, you could find, say 1.000 caches in each of 10 states, and log those 10 a total of them 100 times. 15 states, 225 times! 20 states, 400 times.

Oooh, the possibilities - they are endless! How about another cache you could log for EVERY 1,000 finds? Or even 500 finds? Or one you could log for every type of cache that you had found? Each Year?

Multiple logs on caches? You have got to be kidding me!

And I DO exclude the grandfathered caches here which come out each year like the Crackerjack - you have to find them every time in a new location to get those.

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Re: The Future of Caching?

Post by Yurt » 17 June 11 5:50 pm

... and they can't even spell millennium.

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totalube
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Re: The Future of Caching?

Post by totalube » 17 June 11 5:51 pm

I thought groundspeak removed all ALRs, or have they reinstated them now?

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Trigg-A-Nomics
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Re: The Future of Caching?

Post by Trigg-A-Nomics » 17 June 11 5:57 pm

They've kept ALRs for challenge caches. Are there any challenge caches active in Australia?

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Re: The Future of Caching?

Post by Philipp » 17 June 11 8:07 pm

Trigg-A-Nomics wrote:Are there any challenge caches active in Australia?
There is only one in VIC:
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_de ... 895f82377c

However I asked theUMP of this one would fly:
Bollocks Challenge by º wrote: Groundspeak Guidelines wrote:
A challenge cache is a variation of a puzzle cache. This will typically require the cacher to meet a reasonable Geocaching-, Waymarking- or Wherigo-related qualification. An example is finding a cache in each county of your state. If you are thinking of creating such a cache, be sure to do your research first.

Bollocks!

I am not a big fan of mystery caches where the riddle is one of the types "look how smart I am and you are not". By that I mean riddles which involve very special knowledge which is not common among the geocaching community. In the end I like geocaching as an outdoor activity HOWEVER that is just me

Groundspeak banned the additional log requirements some time ago except for the so called challenges - a very special type of mystery caches. This time you don't have to sit in your own home and figure out how weird someone elses mind is - these ones is about ... well ... adding a lot of CO2 into the atmosphere. In order to avoid that I just thought to place a one-challenge-fits-all-cache. So let's just get it over with. Pick one of the challenges below and achieve it. Now you're eligible to log the cache as a found if you find the box as well.

Get at least 15 Souvenirs in your profile
Find all 81 D/T combinations (Project 81)
Clear all days of the year (Project 366)
Find caches on 70+ days in a row
Find 20+ caches in a day
Find 80+ caches in a month
Find 400+ caches in a year
Find caches on 5 or more of the 7 continents
Have a found in at least 15 different countries
Find 12 different cache-types
Clear all Container types
Clear all Distance to Finds ranges
Have 6+ cachetypes as milestones

You are only allowed to log this cache ones however everytime you unlock another challenge feel free to log a note and add kudos to your caching karma.

FTF
Here comes the twist: In order to claim the FTF you have to achieve all challenges.

Laighside Legends
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Re: The Future of Caching?

Post by Laighside Legends » 17 June 11 8:50 pm

Bollocks Challenge by º wrote: ...Have 6+ cachetypes as milestones...
Is it kinda worrying that I have already done this and only have 600 finds? :D

Do these challenge caches actually have a box to find at the end? or are they just a locationless cache of sorts?

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Re: The Future of Caching?

Post by gmj3191 » 17 June 11 9:10 pm

Philipp wrote:
Trigg-A-Nomics wrote:Are there any challenge caches active in Australia?
There is only one in VIC:
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_de ... 895f82377c

However I asked theUMP of this one would fly:
Bollocks Challenge by º wrote: Groundspeak Guidelines wrote:
A challenge cache is a variation of a puzzle cache. This will typically require the cacher to meet a reasonable Geocaching-, Waymarking- or Wherigo-related qualification. An example is finding a cache in each county of your state. If you are thinking of creating such a cache, be sure to do your research first.

Bollocks!

I am not a big fan of mystery caches where the riddle is one of the types "look how smart I am and you are not". By that I mean riddles which involve very special knowledge which is not common among the geocaching community.
How is that different to setting up caches where you have to be able to ride a bike faster than a fit person who is a regular cyclist.
How can a poor old fella on the wrong side of 60 complete that?

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Re: The Future of Caching?

Post by danozz » 18 June 11 12:20 am

:-"

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mtbikeroz
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Re: The Future of Caching?

Post by mtbikeroz » 18 June 11 11:49 am

There is one in Canberra, Canberra's Toughest Challenge , where you have to have found ALL the following in the ACT:
the 10 toughest Traditionals + the 10 toughest puzzles + the 10 toughest Multis.

In 7 mths, only 2 finders so far, and one has qualified but not yet gone and got it.


And just to make things more interesting, one of the puzzles can only be solved by visiting a further 4 caches. (1 trad, 1 multi, 2 puzzles)

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Re: The Future of Caching?

Post by noikmeister » 18 June 11 6:26 pm

I was wondering how this ever got approved (not that I object to it, I am actually chasing it) and now I understand.
mtbikeroz wrote:There is one in Canberra, Canberra's Toughest Challenge , where you have to have found ALL the following in the ACT:
the 10 toughest Traditionals + the 10 toughest puzzles + the 10 toughest Multis.

In 7 mths, only 2 finders so far, and one has qualified but not yet gone and got it.


And just to make things more interesting, one of the puzzles can only be solved by visiting a further 4 caches. (1 trad, 1 multi, 2 puzzles)

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Re: The Future of Caching?

Post by Philipp » 18 June 11 11:22 pm

mtbikeroz wrote:There is one in Canberra, Canberra's Toughest Challenge , ...
And I thought place caches so others can find them :-k

-snip-
gmj3191 wrote:How is that different to setting up caches where you have to be able to ride a bike faster than a fit person who is a regular cyclist.
How can a poor old fella on the wrong side of 60 complete that?
Use a jetski, fly a plan / helicopter, take some sailing lessons, ...
>> bottomline: with the wherigo cache at Elwwod beach you have several options which doesn't work with challenges where you just have to tick the right boxes.

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Richary
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Re: The Future of Caching?

Post by Richary » 19 June 11 12:16 am

Philipp wrote:
mtbikeroz wrote:There is one in Canberra, Canberra's Toughest Challenge , ...
And I thought place caches so others can find them :-k
I have several problems with this one. For a start it is listed as a mystery (as GC says it should be), there is nothing to indicate it is a special "Challenge" cache on the listing. If they want to have a new category then they need a new category. There is no indication there is anything to sign so it should be listed as a virtual.

It also directly breaches this guideline that GC have published for Challenge caches...
Requiring cachers to find an explicit list of caches (rather than a broader category of caches) will likely prevent the cache from being published.
I am not criticising the owner for getting it published, but it would be going straight on my ignore list if I lived there.

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Re: The Future of Caching?

Post by Zalgariath » 19 June 11 12:18 am

This came up in another thread were I posted on the prevalence of them here in Ireland and the UK. The ones in Ireland so far are great... but like ANY cache type there is the potential for abuse. Just think of powertrails, poorly placed traditionals, mystery/multis that are placed to get around other restrictions... I personally like the idea of the Challenge cache, btu some people will always take it too far like that stupid Millennium Cache. One Cache, One Find.

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Re: The Future of Caching?

Post by noikmeister » 19 June 11 8:43 am

Richary wrote:
mtbikeroz wrote:There is one in Canberra, Canberra's Toughest Challenge , ...
There is no indication there is anything to sign so it should be listed as a virtual.
Actually in the listing it says:
The cache is found at the above co-ordinates.
But I agree that there should be a separate cache type.

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Re: The Future of Caching?

Post by mtbikeroz » 19 June 11 9:39 am

And being one of the only 2 (so far) finders, there IS a container & log book to sign. Even without the required 30 (+4) extreme caches to find, the trek/path/bush bash/terrain to this one is still an effort.

Yes, I agree too, these cache types should be listed separately as a challenge type cache. I had no idea this was a "Challenge type cache" until I came across this forum yesterday.

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