There are a few things that I might get excited about when it comes to geocaching, one is spoilers in the logs the other is geocache quality. Those two are hot buttons for me because they affect how other people are forced to play the game. If you want to read the hint before you get to a cache, fine by me. That’s not my style but I’m playing my game, not yours. I am not to excited about seeing hint in the log that’s for sure. I’m not a fan of that because it’s hard to avoid. If you put out poor quality caches either by choosing a less than worthy location or by using an inappropriate container then that affects all who play the game.

What I’m not going to do is get worked up by someone “cheating”. In this respect geocaching is like golf. If you cheat in golf you are affecting your game play not mine. If someone wants to hack a Where I Go cartridge, go ahead. If someone gets the final coordinates from a friend, go ahead. Just keep that information to yourself. I’ll play my way and you play your way. As long as what you are doing isn’t affecting how other people get to play then I’m not going to make an issue out of it. One caveat here. Doing things that adversely affect the general public’s perception of geocaching does get me excited and not in the happy face kind of way. I want to keep playing for a long time and that won’t happen if we aren’t courteous to those who also use the spaces we do.

Geocaching is so much better when we are having fun. Can we focus on that for a while?

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2. How Much of a Hint
3. Curation vs Reviewing

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I listened to the Geocacher Podcast today and one of the cache owners of the ET Highway series read the message he received advising him the series would be archived.   In that message he mentions that the Nevada Attorney General was involved.  It is never a good thing for geocaching when officials at that level are involved.  The cache owner was clear in what he was told but I don’t think we are getting the full story on why these caches were archived.

I’m sure it is true that there were close calls on the road.  I also believe it’s very easy for a government to use safety as the public reason for making a controversial decision.  Who can argue with safety?   I have not found any of the caches along the ET highway but I have talked to geocachers that have.   Typically the caches in this series are not far from the road.  I wonder if the cache owners received permission from the Nevada DOT to place the caches where they did?  When you read this post,  Goodbye Geocaching ET Highway, written by a reviewer, you see that  the number one recommendation to avoid issues is to get permission.  I think the combination of safety and lack of permission is what led to this series being archived.

As geocachers we have to maintain good communication with all levels of government.  It is one of the reasons I got involved with the Ontario Geocaching Association.  By and large the kind of places we want to place caches will at some-point put other geocachers on government owned/managed land.  We all know that we need permission to place a cache on private property.  Getting that kind of permission is usually not too hard.  On the other hand dealing with governments is never easy.

I”m sure the reviewers at geocaching.com will be a lot more sensitive to caches along highways.  Some reviewers here in Ontario have been sensitive to this for some time.   Thanks!  Your diligence helps minimize the number of land manager conflicts we face.

My biggest fear for geocaching is that a few cachers that don’t respect proper etiquette will ruin it for the rest of us.  If you care enough about geocaching to read this blog then you likely aren’t the kind of person that will cause problems for other cachers.  The real challenge for all of us that do care is educating the people that either don’t know better or don’t care to do better.

Related posts:

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The Night Cache Cover

I just finished reading Andy Duncan’s, The Night Cache and I enjoyed it, you might too.  As a novella the book is not very long and I was able to read it in one sitting.  The book gave me a few ideas that I’d like to incorporate into some future caches.

Follow this link to read my longer review of The Night Cache.

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