Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Newbies - Day 12 of the Chill

Newbies.  Rookies.  First years.  Freshman.  All these words conjure up inexperience.  Some handle their "newbiness" better than others.  Hopefully, when I joined an organization or tried something new, I didn't stick out like a sore thumb.  I know when I was a freshman in high school I probably did, more than likely because I was immature and didn't think things through.

 Newbies learn from people who have been around for awhile.  In geocaching, that hopefully means they go out, find some caches, learn how others hide caches and then eventually they go out and hide their own cache.  Somewhere in this process though, things have broken down.  I blame the app.
In the good ol' days of geocaching, back when it was fresh spankin' new, we didn't have those new fangled geocaching apps.  We had to input everything into our GPSr by hand!  We had to print out cache pages on paper!  We went on a hike of a couple of miles and found one cache!  But the one thing that almost all of us did, before we went out and found our first cache was to read the freaking FAQ page on the website so we knew what we were getting ourselves into.

 Now, if you haven't figured it out, some of the above was sarcasm, but some of it was very real.  Smartphones and apps have changed geocaching in a variety of ways.  People can discover geocaching in a variety of ways and then download the free app and go geocaching right away.  They don't read the FAQs, so they don't know the risks or possible problems they may encounter.  They don't have to register with the Geocaching.com website.  Now, why is this a problem?

 Newbies tend to be very excited about things, but a lot of that excitement doesn't necessarily translate into staying power.  Newbies will go out, find a cache or two and then think they know how to hide a cache.  They hide a cache, but then get bored of the process and move on to something else.  Trust me, for every newbie cacher who stays at it for a year, there's probably 10 times as many cachers who don't.

 Because the free app doesn't require you to register, there's no way to contact the person if there is a problem with their cache.  There's no way to contact a person to encourage them to stick around.  There's no way to contact a person, because the free app doesn't require you to leave an email address.  

 Because most of the Newbies never read the FAQs, they never realized that hiding a cache, and maintaining a cache, takes work.  Oh, this is work?  Maybe this isn't for me.  But no, they don't read the FAQs, they just head on out like a bull in a china shop.

 Now, the landscape is littered with poorly thought out geocaches hidden by newbies that aren't being taken care of and until you can prove to geocaching.com that there's a serious problem with the cache, the cache will languish there for months, leaving a potentially good area without a decent cache.

And so it goes.  Can you tell you struck a nerve with this prompt?
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6 comments:

  1. KatherineJanuary 20, 2015 at 6:20 PM

    It DOES take work maintaining them. And I know everyone is tired of hearing how both of my AND MY YOUNG DAUGHTER'S amazing caches were moved, then everything taken out of them, and then stolen.... I was so frustrated. And my daughter was heartbroken. It is not only a lot of work to keep the cache going but to keep it THERE in my experience. :) Maybe we will try it again some day.

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    1. Paul MyersJanuary 20, 2015 at 7:54 PM

      It takes a special kind of idiot to up and move a cache for no reason, outside of the fact they think it should be somewhere else. Where do they get off thinking that a different hiding spot would be better than where you decided it to be? I'm sorry you've had bad luck with your hides.

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  2. LindaJanuary 21, 2015 at 11:21 AM

    I can tell! I take from this that geocaching is fun, it is work, it takes research and understanding what it's all about and that the lack of regulation is damaging the experience for others. Just out of curiosity, what kind of things make up a cache?

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    1. Paul MyersJanuary 21, 2015 at 4:45 PM

      The only thing that has to be in a geocache is a log sheet, so the finder can sign his name that he found the cache. Anything else is extra. Usually you will find kids toys in larger geocaches, because it tends to be a family oriented game. Most caches that are hidden, are usually fairly small and have a log sheet and maybe a pencil. Smart geocachers always bring a writing instrument so they can sign the log. Technically, if you don't sign the log sheet, you haven't found the cache. That doesn't stop some people from logging the cache multiple times however. And so it goes.

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  3. P.J.January 21, 2015 at 12:45 PM

    It's a shame when people are like this. We have had several like that in my area. And now, it seems, there aren't many people hiding because there aren't a lot of active cachers. So that means even when I place caches, they are rarely found, which stinks all on its own. It would be nice if they had to register and then could be emailed about it because it stinks when a cache is in crappy shape and it takes months to get it archived.

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    1. Paul MyersJanuary 21, 2015 at 4:49 PM

      Agreed. I very rarely if ever hide urban micros, so most of my finds hardly get found either, because you have to hike (oh no - we have to exercise to get this cache?) to get to most of mine. Very few people hike in this area.

      I hiked 8 miles last Saturday and found 56 geocaches.

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