Archiving viable caches

[+muchado]

First, let me preface this post by saying that this is not a rant about cache spew.

 

There is a very active and prolific group of cache hiders in my area. Of course, the majority of the caches are micros in very uninteresting places. There are a lot of reasons for this and I'm sure you all can come up with several. I've been wondering if one reason is that all the good places have been snatched up by existing caches. I'm beginning to think that a way to re-invigorate and encourage hides may be to start putting caches of a certain age to bed.

 

I have a series of 39 caches that are all fairly active and are mostly located in interesting areas. Most of the caches are 1 - 2 years old. I'm toying with the idea of retiring/archiving the caches on their second anniversary of life. I'm hoping someone will go into the newly freed area and put another cache there. In general, I think most of the cachers that are interested in doing my caches have done them or will do them before they reach 2 years old.

 

I think this may be a good way to keep my area interesting by seeing what new cachers can do in a newly vacated area. I can remember several times that I've come across an old or poorly maintained cache in an area that I thought I could do much better with. Later in my hiding phase, I even monitored archive notices in my radius so that I could recycle areas.

 

On the other side of this thought, I consider most of my caches to be pretty good and have gotten predominantly good feedback on most of them. There's no guarantee that they'll be replaced with "better" caches.

 

I've made no decisions either way. I'm wondering what people think about this?

[+StarBrand]

This is a long standing debate topic.

 

I fall on the side of leaving them alone. There is no sense in removing a perfectly good cache. New players will start up, new cachers will come through town. Leave them be.

 

Geocaching to me is about discovering new places and seeing old ones from a new perspective. I don't really need to return to the same spots once per year because somebody put a newer piece of tupperware there.

[+Renegade Knight]

My opinion is varied a bit on the issue.

 

First if you don't enjoy owning them for whatever reason. Archive them.

Second. If the locals have all found them and the finds are greatly diminished...they are a candidate for archival.

Third: If they are in a spot where the locals find them at a very slow clip, OR out of towners seem to find it a lot. It's probably got a lot of life left in it as a cache.

 

Of course archiving existing good caches will open up the are for new caches. If your area sucks at caches. Odds are you are not making the world a better place by making room for more of the same to be placed. Just as you suspect.

[+Totem Clan]

I agree with StarBrand. Leave them for new cachers and cachers from out of the area. Older caches with a history become something special in and of themselves also.

 

Plus caches tend to 'archive' themselves. Muggles, the weather, and animals can damage/remove caches. This will 'get rid off' some caches.

 

However the bottom line is.... They are your caches you do what you think is best for you and your caches.

[+butrflybec]

Yeah I'm of the opinion that if the cache currently there is fine, then leave it. While I've been several places I'd like to revisit, there are many that one visit was enough. And there is nothing like the dissappointment of heading to find a new cache, just to realize you found a similar cache there a few months ago, and the location wasn't worth a revisit.

 

However when I first started caching, I adopted 2 caches in good locations where the owner had gone awol and the containers were in disrepair and ended up archiving the originals and setting up new caches in new locations in the general vicinity of the area, and never heard a complaint from folks who found the original. So it just depends on the situation.

 

I still wouldn't archive a current cache for the sake of placing a new one so folks would return to the same place for another find. But that's just my opinion.

[+ThirstyMick]

I love flipping through the logbooks of older caches in my area. Reading logs from people with four digits worth of finds for whom that was find # < 100, seeing who's no longer playing, and the like. It's a piece of history I say keep em. Besides theres no guarantee yours will be replaced with better or equally as good hides, and no guarantee they'll even be replaced at all!

 

I like StarBrands response

Geocaching to me is about discovering new places and seeing old ones from a new perspective. I don't really need to return to the same spots once per year because somebody put a newer piece of tupperware there.

[+webscouter.]

Leave them, then I can find them instead of the quickly created cache that someone puts in to take there place.

[+gof1]

As much as we try not every one of our caches is an unparalleled success.

I'm going to cull some of my earlier caches. The ones that are not quite up to what my cache style has grown into.

[+tomfuller & Quill]

Forty of the oldest caches that I have found were placed in 2000 and 2001. Among those are at least 10 of my favorite caches. Many of the forty do not have another cache within 0.2 miles so there is plenty of available places to hide caches without having to consider removing viable caches in good places.

Most cachers like the idea of having a new cache hidden "on the way" to theirs so that theirs gets more visits.

If a park or other area has reached saturation, It's time to find another hiding area farther out of town.

[Motorcycle_Mama]

Leave 'em unless there is a reason having to do with the cache itself or you circumstances not to free up the location.

 

The world is a BIG place. There are tons of places for people to hid caches. And lots of space.

[+El Diablo]

I'm an advocate of archiving caches to open the areas for new hunts. My feeling is after most of the locals have found it...it's time to open the area for a new hunt that all can enjoy again.

 

I also believe that this is the main reason for lame micros, besides just plain laziness. So many early logs talked about what a great place the cache was located in. Now that they have found it, they will most likely never go back.

 

Fortunately for those of us that started way back when we had prime pickings of the best spots. Which of course we took advantage of. I archived most of my original caches to open the area, and they have all been replaced with new caches by different cachers. Now people have a reason to go back to that great spot that I originally took them years ago.

 

As far as leaving them for the new comers....Let me ask you this. What difference does it make if the newbies find a freshly placed cache, versus one that has been there forever? If you replaced the original with one a couple of hundred feet away, or even with a new twist, you have now added a cache for newbies and oldies to enjoy.

 

I have one cache that has been in place for 6 years. The reason why is that it is in a remote hard to get to area, and has only been logged about 30 times. It's the only cache within miles the last I checked. Those types I can see leaving alone.

 

There are too many people that are obssed with how long their cache has been there, and that 500 people have logged it. If it was redone, another 500 would log it.

 

Once again that's just my opinion for what it's worth.

 

El Diablo

[+Harry Dolphin]

I see no reason to archive a perfectly good cache. In most areas, there are a lot of places for people to hide other, good caches. No need to archive one to make room for others to hide caches. We have a local cache owner who archives his older caches routinely. That makes me less likely to hunt for his caches.

Lack of nice locations is not the cause of micro spew. Micro spew is caused by lazy cache owners, who probably do not know any better.

[+frogsaunt]

I would say leave them in place. Even if the local have found them already you might have someone that's on a roadtrip that will find them.

[+geos of the jungle]

We say leave them be, ...especially since we haven't had a chance to get up to your area and do more of your fine caches!

[+TrailGators]

Why not rehide some of them yourself? You could archive the old ones and release the new ones. You've already got the territory so you could do something different with some of the locations. I've thought about doing this myself for some of my caches.

[+El Diablo]

Why not rehide some of them yourself? You could archive the old ones and release the new ones. You've already got the territory so you could do something different with some of the locations. I've thought about doing this myself for some of my caches.

 

My point exactly.

 

El Diablo

[+TrailGators]

Why not rehide some of them yourself? You could archive the old ones and release the new ones. You've already got the territory so you could do something different with some of the locations. I've thought about doing this myself for some of my caches.

 

My point exactly.

 

El Diablo

Sorry about that I missed that.

 

Going one step further, what I will probably do is upgrade mine whenever they get muggled. A new location with a new cache is a good way to prevent the same muggler from striking again.

[Clan Riffster]

I think the key for me would be, are they still getting regular visits when they reach their second birthday? If so, I'd leave them alone. If not, I might consider making them go away. I recently nuked several of my puzzle caches for this very reason. They had been found by just about everybody around here, and were becoming dormant. Now that they've met their maker, hopefully someone will hide more caches for me to find. The locations were all interesting enough that I would be happy to go back.

[CoyoteRed]

Someone brought up a good idea in a similar thread a while back. Archive your least liked caches. It could either caches you're not so proud of or it just doesn't get the logs you'd like. Archive 'em. If the spot is not snatched up, place a better one. Or you could go ahead and plan a better one, and then archive the old one as you submit the new one.

 

If everyone did that, then as an area got more populated the quality of the caches would go up and the numbers hounds would be happy with the fresh opportunities that present themselves.

 

As has already been mentioned, though, some folks don't particularly like having to return to an area to find new caches. It's sort of a "been there, done that" thing.

[+TrailGators]

Someone brought up a good idea in a similar thread a while back. Archive your least liked caches. It could either caches you're not so proud of or it just doesn't get the logs you'd like. Archive 'em. If the spot is not snatched up, place a better one. Or you could go ahead and plan a better one, and then archive the old one as you submit the new one.

 

If everyone did that, then as an area got more populated the quality of the caches would go up and the numbers hounds would be happy with the fresh opportunities that present themselves.

 

As has already been mentioned, though, some folks don't particularly like having to return to an area to find new caches. It's sort of a "been there, done that" thing.

I really do like the idea of upgrading. We all learn a lot so why not apply some of the knowledge to our own older caches that we are not crazy about anymore?

 

As far as going back to an area....

If the area is enjoyable then I will go back. I will also go back if the cache gets some good reviews (word of mouth or logs).

[+briansnat]

I've made no decisions either way. I'm wondering what people think about this?

 

I think it's entirely up to the owner. If he is still interested in maintaining the cache, they I see no reason to archive it to make room for anybody.

 

I don't see the point of archiving a cache just so someone else can place a cache in nearly the same spot. Besides, there is no guarantee that your nicely stocked ammo box won't be replaced by a film canister that will have a soggy logbook in 2 weeks.

[CoyoteRed]

If the area is enjoyable then I will go back.

Same here. Some places are worth the trip even without the cache at the end.

[+El Diablo]

I've made no decisions either way. I'm wondering what people think about this?

 

I think it's entirely up to the owner. If he is still interested in maintaining the cache, they I see no reason to archive it to make room for anybody.

 

I don't see the point of archiving a cache just so someone else can place a cache in nearly the same spot. Besides, there is no guarantee that your nicely stocked ammo box won't be replaced by a film canister that will have a soggy logbook in 2 weeks.

 

You could replace it yourself with a new twist or simply 100 feet away.

 

For those of you who don't know, Brian and I went head to head on this same topic a couple of years ago in Today's Cacher. I made more sense than he did then as I do now. Just teasing. Brian is considered a friend and I respect his opinions.

 

El Diablo

[+The Leprechauns]

Why not rehide some of them yourself? You could archive the old ones and release the new ones. You've already got the territory so you could do something different with some of the locations. I've thought about doing this myself for some of my caches.

 

My point exactly.

 

El Diablo

In 2002, I hid a four-stage multicache on a bike trail. It was the first cache on that trail, and I wanted to encourage folks to ride the whole trail rather than parking at the nearest access point and grabbing the cache. Six years later, the trail has a nice variety of caches hidden at different times by different hiders. Few people bother to find my multicache, as it's so much more work for one smiley when there are others close by. Most of the veterans have done it.

 

But, I've got the coolest spot on the trail -- a stage of my multicache is inside an old railroad tunnel. I plan on archiving the multicache and replacing it with a variety of "evil micro" single stage caches along the heavily trafficked trail. You can bet that one of the new caches will make use of the tunnel.

[+TrailGators]

Why not rehide some of them yourself? You could archive the old ones and release the new ones. You've already got the territory so you could do something different with some of the locations. I've thought about doing this myself for some of my caches.

 

My point exactly.

 

El Diablo

In 2002, I hid a four-stage multicache on a bike trail. It was the first cache on that trail, and I wanted to encourage folks to ride the whole trail rather than parking at the nearest access point and grabbing the cache. Six years later, the trail has a nice variety of caches hidden at different times by different hiders. Few people bother to find my multicache, as it's so much more work for one smiley when there are others close by. Most of the veterans have done it.

 

But, I've got the coolest spot on the trail -- a stage of my multicache is inside an old railroad tunnel. I plan on archiving the multicache and replacing it with a variety of "evil micro" single stage caches along the heavily trafficked trail. You can bet that one of the new caches will make use of the tunnel.

Sounds like fun!