GCPC EPISODE 477 – Geocaching Deadly Sins – Bad Geocache Designs and Hides

[powerpress]

November 30th, 2016

In tonight’s episode of the Geocaching Podcast:
Headhardhat and Sarah T-S are “on assignment” so CloakNDagger will be in as guest host. Tonight’s topic is a bit of a rant show when it comes to bad geocache designs and hides. Everything from poorly made, poorly disquieted and more. This all can lead to unhappy geocachers, muggles and let’s say uniformed parties. Suitable suggestions to help will be provided by the hosts.

Be sure to check it out! Please share with other geocachers.

We meet on Wednesday nights at 9:30PM ET at http://www.geocachingpodcast.com/live so you can see us record the show live and join in the chat room. See you there!

#geocaching #geocachingpodcast #headhardhat #podcast

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The Video Version of our Podcast

GCPC EPISODE 477 Show Notes

GCPC MAILBAG at GCPCMAILBAG@Gmail.com

NEWS:
Have you planned your 2017 travel?
One of the coolest things about geocaching is that it’s played by people around the world in so many different ways. To celebrate this, we’re releasing five new country souvenirs over the next few weeks!

If you’ve already found a geocache in any of these countries, you’ll automatically receive the souvenir on your profile. Souvenirs that are currently available can be found here. You can view which ones you’ve already earned by checking out your Souvenirs on Geocaching.com.

Stay tuned for the first new country souvenirs announcement in next week’s Geocaching newsletter.

Looks like they’ll be announcing one a week for the next five weeks. The first one is Slovenia
https://www.geocaching.com/blog/category/geocaching-com-souvenirs/

SB: just bags, plastic toys

TAZ:
Cheap plastic ‘Gladware’ type containers that disintegrate within weeks when exposed to the environment.
Anything not airtight in humid environments (not as much of a problem out here in Cali.)
Used Mini Mouthwash container w/o the cap (Yes, a ¼ inch hole in top, with paper jammed inside and no cap. I was FTF on one of these.)

C&D:
In order of highest irritation to lowest.

Reviewers not being on the same page (they have a huge grey area of what is acceptable and what isn’t) and every reviewer is different in interpretations of cache is allowable and what isn’t.

No logging requirements, though geocaching encourages people to write a log containing at least two sentences, they allow emojis and “one word Acronyms.

Limited geocaching adoptions, there are circumstance where a great geocache has been placed and the CO has quit playing or has died, there is no option to adopt these caches to either preserve the memory or the age of the geocache.

Complaints about geocaches being PMO.

Poor swag hides/illegal hides

Abandoned geocaches

Not enough resources to help establish Large events.

Groundspeak store does not engrave your geocoins like Coins and Pins does.

Infoferret’s list of Rants! (not necessarily in order of importance).

These are probably mostly placed by newcomers to the game:
Inaccurate coordinates (10m + out).
Meaningless cache hints.
Unrealistic D/T Ratings (appreciate that this can be entirely subjective!)
Flimsy / unsuitable containers (e.g. takeaway boxes). Eclipse mint tins which have not been camouflaged (shiny metal tins, which can look like litter). Ditto caches with glass containers (I’ve CITO’d enough glass that the idea of deliberately putting more out there seems crazy).
Caches that look like something dangerous. (e.g. bombs, pest traps etc.) I’m all for creativity, but there are limits!
Caches placed at the exact same spot where one (or more) have been archived in a short space of time previously. (Could reviewers make suggestions here?)

I guess much of this could be fixed by ‘cacher education’ e.g. requiring cachers to have found a certain number of caches before being allowed to place any?

Location type issues:
Hides in Gorse (or other spiky plants), near nettles or in large clumps of Agapanthus or flax (Phormium tenax) plants. (NZ cachers will know where I’m coming from here). Poison Ivy etc for those in the States?
‘Needle in a Haystack’ type hides (unless I’ve been warned that it’s like this and it’s part of the challenge). An example is ‘Base of a tree’ – in a forest.
Caches placed in a dangerous area (e.g. near a cliff edge or a major road), without the appropriate warnings and attributes.
Hides Waaaaaay up high (I’m 5 foot 1 ½ inches). If I can get to them, do not necessarily expect me to be able to return them as found if I can’t reach!
Event caches in noisy pubs where I can’t hear myself think, let alone talk to the person next to me!

Cache Maintenance issues:
Logbooks that have turned to Mush.
Puzzle caches based on signs / items in a museum etc. which are not updated when exhibits change – so some of the info is no longer available & you have to guess the missing numbers.
Unappealing SWAG. If you wouldn’t like to find it, don’t leave it! (I appreciate this is probably not the fault of the CO). I have a friend who really dislikes small or micro caches when there is space for something larger, or caches with no stuff in it for kids to find that interests them.
Owners not maintaining their caches and expecting others to do it for them & then sending you a snarky e-mail when you report that a cache ‘Needs Maintenance’. (This has happened to me – I won’t name names, but I reckon that many NZ cachers could guess who that could be…..).

Linked to…Cache owners who whinge when you don’t leave fulsome logs or award their caches FP’s when they think they deserve them (and you don’t).

Other issues (whilst I’m venting…)
Bloody stupid puzzles that I have no idea where even to get started.
‘Spell it’ and ‘huge numbers’ type challenges – they get pretty samey after a while – but these should hopefully have been stopped. I do love an interesting challenge that makes me think about whether I qualify and how to do so if not.
ANYONE who archives a Virtual or Webcam cache for any reason (other than something like the location no longer physically exists).
People boasting about the numbers they have found – I like listening to newcomers as well as people with thousands of finds (both have great stories).
‘The Professional FTF hunters’ – could somone else have a turn occasionally?
People who don’t log DNF’s. How else will a CO know there could be a problem?

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