Find of the Month

My personal find of the month is a puzzle cache located in Hamilton, Ontario. The cache title only states a couple words and a number which is the clue. The cache was newly released so my geocaching partner and I went off in search of an FTF (new caches are becoming more scarce as winter begins to roll in). Upon our arrival we could not find anything at the GZ that would would point us in the direction of the cache. We even tried several times to add the number of a local by-law off a street sign to the number in the title of the cache. To no avail of course.

Finally I went inside the building by the GZ (a library/recreation center) and it hit me. The number was a Dewey decimal! Of course the library wasn't open until 10 am, so we had to wait it out (similar to something on the Amazing Race). Luckily no one else came and we made the FTF (6 month streak now). It was a great cache and my first FTF puzzle cache.

Got any stories to share?
*Note I'm not naming the cache because it could spoil it for others

Debate: Virtuals...They're Baaaaaaack

Virtuals are a contentious issue in the geocaching community.  The problem, they aren't really caches. The good thing? They're still a lot of fun. 

Virtuals were grandfathered (disabled from being made) for quite some time. Waymarking, a sister site of Geocaching is the uncle of Virtuals. Waymarking is what a lot of people point to when virtuals are brought up. But there's a couple problems with it: 

1. The site itself! I mean look at it, this is what's known in the web design community as a mess. There's tabs everywhere. Compare this to the geocaching site. There’s a simple side bar, sign in, introduction and geocache search. Let me just say, it doesn’t get easier as you navigate the Waymarking site.
2. They aren’t interesting. Here’s an example. Geocaching this is not. Compare this to a virtual, like The Other End of the Trail where you see the end of the Bruce Trail and also get history in the area. In fact, of the 17 virtuals I’ve done I can say not one of them were boring. I could just sit at my computer for the next hour and log waymarks.

There is a problem with virtuals though. Namely, why can’t this be made into a stage for a multi cache or puzzle cache? They’re a pain: You have to take a picture or write down information, then e-mail the owner, then log the cache. E-mailing the owner is especially a hassle.

Benefits of virtuals? They’re pretty much permanent. They get lots of user participation and are usually a lot of fun. Look at this Las Vegas virtual. HOLY CRAP! Seriously look at it! Almost 2500 logs and almost 250 pictures. For something that hassles people more than normal caches, geocachers love them.

So if you couldn’t tell from the title, they’re coming back. How? Well that’s not really clear yet. So that’s the real question.

The first thing that should be addressed is the requirements. They shouldn’t be eliminated, but be made easier to submit. On the log page of a virtual, you should be able to submit your answer or picture with the log, which would be seen by only the owner.

What about standards though? It should probably be left up to the cache moderators. Guidelines about relevancy and requirements should be given to the moderators and they should be pretty strict about what’s allowed.

So what do you think? How should they be brought back? Should there be qualifications for virtuals? What would they be? Tell me what you think.

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