Micro-ban

January 6, 2005

Do you think micros should be discouraged? Isn't this game about finding a box of stuff in the woods? It seems there is a trend to find or make smaller and smaller containers which will only hold a log. It's getting ridiculous to find these micro/nano caches. I think some of the ideas for micros are very original (hollowed out bolts, pinecones, fake branches, etc.) but no place to hide schwag just plain sucks. It seems just like all the ridiculous virtuals awhile back. Now they are discouraged too. How about stealthy hiding of normal sized caches?

2.5k · January 6, 2005

Seeing as though I broke down and <_< bought my first magnetic keyholder yesterday Maybe I'm not one to talk?

However, I do think that there is a big difference between a keyholder on a guardrail at a beautiful park area (I'm so glad I put a cache there and no a full sized one really wouldn't have fit!) and a rediculously small cache that's almost unfindable without microscopic glasses.

I don't want to see a blanket ban on them, but maybe micro hiders should have to explain why they've chosen to hide a micro?

2k · January 6, 2005

I prefer traditional caches.

Some folks prefer micros.

I suppose as long as they are marked as such, I don't feel they need to be discouraged. It doesn't seem like something that would be fun for a very long time though.

6.5k · January 6, 2005

I agree. Geocaching is all about trading my broken hot wheels car for your cracked mctoy. It has nothing to do with the adventure of finding the container itself. Ban the micros! Ban everything small that the 30 cal. ammo boxes too. You can't really fit anything good is a one quart tupperware. In fact let's create a special award for any cacher using a five gallon bucket or greater! <_<

Sheesh.......

5.3k · January 6, 2005

Did someone make a rule that we have to find every cache? We can't just skip the ones we don't like anymore? <_<

Edited January 6, 2005 by Stunod

January 6, 2005

Work with your local cachers is the only suggestion.

New people come to the sport daily, if all they see are micro urban hides, they learn this to be geocaching. they then try to make a new micro. Which in turn leads to more micros.

If everyone stopped searching for, as my family calls them, ubermicros then people would eventually stop hiding them.

I feel a micro has it's place sometimes, but when you get 40 caches in a day and the largest is a small size altoids tin, it is sad. My children do not enjoy micros, so we usually avoid them if the kids are coming.

Banning them would be futile and silly in my opinion. Searching for them if you dislike them is even funnier. I hide caches I know my friends enjoy, if we do not like looking for the smallest button container ever made, we do not look for them.

January 6, 2005

No, I don't think micro/nanos should be banned. A good micro hunt / devious hide is enjoyable from time to time. Also, there are just some locations that can only accomodate a micro. Though if a location can support something larger than a micro, then a larger container should be used.

Personally, the schwag is meaningless to me -- but I understand it is a large part of the game for others. Give me a well hidden container and a log to sign and I'm happy. Add a good puzzle, nice hike, a historical perspective or a spectacular view - so much the better!

6.4k · January 6, 2005

January 6, 2005

In fact let's create a special award for any cacher using a five gallon bucket or greater!

YES! I would love to find one of those but haven't yet. Are they really hard to find or are people just not hiding them?

2.1k · January 6, 2005

Get over yourself, Mopar.

6.4k · January 6, 2005

Get over yourself, Mopar.

People in glass houses......

1k · January 6, 2005

No, I don't think micro/nanos should be banned. A good micro hunt / devious hide is enjoyable from time to time. Also, there are just some locations that can only accomodate a micro. Though if a location can support something larger than a micro, then a larger container should be used.

That is my thinking as well. If I have a choice I place normal (regular) cache, but if it is a nice area, but an area where I can't place a regular cache then I consider a micro or as a last resort a virtual. Each to thier own and then folks can search for them as they chose. For example I have a micro - http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...9e-4397856b4706 and nearby a normal cache - http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...51-99f900931689. Best of both worlds! <_< But where the micro is, it is not possible to hide a normal cache ... a small area of manicured gardens.

Regards

Andrew

1.5k · January 6, 2005

I like 'caches. I like them a lot! <_<

January 6, 2005

When you are going after a micro, you know its a micro. Therefore, no trades!

However, have you thought of tiny things that could be put into micros? How about: the markers from Monopoly, tiny dice, travel bugs with tiny hitchhikers, low-value gift cards, coupons, beads, whatever.

Or how about a micro with the theme, "fits on a string," with the micro being suspended by a string, and the garbage treasures must be small and can be threaded on a string, and fit down a pipe or something like that.

January 6, 2005

Get over yourself, Mopar.

People in glass houses......

... are exhibitionists!

1.8k · January 6, 2005

Size does not equate to quality. The most creative cache containers I can recall seeing have been micros. How many soggy Gladware containers have I found? Who knows!

38.2k · January 6, 2005

Do you think micros should be discouraged?

Discouraged or banned, no, but I wish some people would put more effort into their hides. This goes for hiders of micros and full sized caches. It seems however that micros attract the lazy cache hiders because they are inexpensive (often free), easy to put together and hide, which is why they get a bad rap.

When you are going after a micro, you know its a micro. Therefore, no trades!

Since when? Many micros I've found have trade items and most of the ones I've placed do.

Edited January 7, 2005 by briansnat

January 6, 2005

I agree. Geocaching is all about trading my broken hot wheels car for your cracked mctoy. It has nothing to do with the adventure of finding the container itself. Ban the micros! Ban everything small that the 30 cal. ammo boxes too. You can't really fit anything good is a one quart tupperware. In fact let's create a special award for any cacher using a five gallon bucket or greater!
Sheesh.......

Boy wimsey, I'm sure glad I know you were joking. I thought for a minute you weren't going to hide anymore of your neat, well hidden micros. What would we do when we want to geocache and we just have a little while or when we would break a bone while geocaching in the woods or after we've gone for a five mile hike and just want to cache some more (but don't have the energy for another walk) or when we do get older and the joints just won't take the long hikes anymore or when the weather is miserable and you still want to cache. Remember when we did Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water (5/5) and still had a LITTLE bit of energy left, thanks goodness nctreker had a micro just down the street. Are you still sore at us when you found out we had jerry rigged the last McD toy together and it fell apart in your hands? Seriously, since I broke my ankle caching in Nashville I wish there had been MANY more micros close to a road for me to find. We love to geocache and there should be something for everyone and at least around here there is. We love the sneaky micros, the little micros, the micros with the forked tongued hints. We also love the wonderful long walks in the woods for the ammo boxes. Folks, just search for what you want to search for and keep planting all kinds of geocaches for the horsegeeks to find no matter what size they are. And wimsey, there are still plenty of more places in downtown Raleigh for you to hide your micros.

2k · January 7, 2005

Do you think micros should be discouraged? Isn't this game about finding a box of stuff in the woods? It seems there is a trend to find or make smaller and smaller containers which will only hold a log. It's getting ridiculous to find these micro/nano caches. I think some of the ideas for micros are very original (hollowed out bolts, pinecones, fake branches, etc.) but no place to hide schwag just plain sucks. It seems just like all the ridiculous virtuals awhile back. Now they are discouraged too. How about stealthy hiding of normal sized caches?

Too bad caches aren't labeled as such. It really sucks to be looking for a full sized ammo can that's hidden under a log, only to end up finding a micro.

Wait a second ... they are labeled. How hard is it to ignore the micros?

January 7, 2005

A) This topic has been done to death already, and the general consensus is "each to their own, don't like 'em, don't hunt 'em", and B ) Is it just me, or is pretty much everything that zygote2k posts something negative? I Don't think I've seen a positive, happy post yet...

Edited January 7, 2005 by ThePup

22k · January 7, 2005

No, no, no.

You need to find one of someone stirring a pot of dead horse.

Edit: Better yet! A troll stirring the pot of dead horse.

Edited January 7, 2005 by BlueDeuce

7.3k · January 7, 2005

Yep, let's bann 'em, who wants to put up with stuff like

this or this.. Some people actually suffer DNFs! horrible.

January 7, 2005

In general have anything against nano to micro caches. What I don't like is when a cache poorly created.

Example:

I've tossed an Altoids tin in a sea of ivy. It's in there somewhere. Here are the GPSr readings I took while under heavy forest cover.

January 7, 2005

I must admit, at the risk of being placed before a flamethrower, i really do like micros. I enjoy them because:

a) i dont have to trade items (i know that is a tenet of geocaching, but i have no need/room to take in more trinkets - i am trying to 'housebreak' a pack-rat hubby, & we have no kids)

They can be a challenge to find if not revealed in clue or logs, especially if they are well blended into their environment.

c) husbands are less patient than kids at times - these are ones that i let him do mostly 'on his own' but don't tell him

d) you can do these on your own without having to 'buddy cache' or having your significant other worry about you wandering off into the woods

e) i just do <_< , should be reason enough.

Cache on!

1.5k · January 7, 2005

In fact let's create a special award for any cacher using a five gallon bucket or greater!

YES! I would love to find one of those but haven't yet. Are they really hard to find or are people just not hiding them?

My last cache (Siege of Vicksburg) ends in a 5 gallon bucket...of course, you have to find 2 tiny micros for hints first. And it's a puzzle/mystery cache that other people hate!

Where's my award??? <_<

January 7, 2005

In fact let's create a special award for any cacher using a five gallon bucket or greater!
Sheesh.......

I hid a seven gallon bucket...

Bucket-O-Cache

Where is my prize?

24.7k · January 7, 2005

Nice dead horse.

Anway, micros are fine. They have their place. That place isn't in the woods with a the clue "under the fallen log" However it is in the lamp pole base at walmart.

Where do I get my prize for using a 5 gallon bucket?

Edited January 7, 2005 by Renegade Knight

January 7, 2005

I love a deviously placed micro. Even in the woods. Even if I don't find it. Because when I DO find it, I feel like I've really accomplished something! I like a well-stocked traditional cache, too. I'm not going to say it's about the hunt, not the cache, because for me, sometimes it's about one or the other or both.

January 7, 2005

I think as long as the cache description/type states what sort of thing the cacher can expect to find then it is ok. This is a hobby/sport that can potentially have many different sub games within it. I think it would be a bad thing to ban a specific sub game unless it was dangerous or in some way degrading itself. For example I can see why the requirements for a virtual cache would be tightened if people make everything a virtual.

Dan

2.2k · January 7, 2005

I love all types of caches, but I feel people who hide micros in the woods are just lazy. It takes alot more effort and skill to hide a large cache than it does a tiny one.

January 7, 2005

Do you think micros should be discouraged?

No.

1.6k · January 7, 2005

Did someone make a rule that we have to find every cache? We can't just skip the ones we don't like anymore?

Sure we can skip caches.

Two things that we need to address though.

1. From my home zip code, the first two pages of caches listed are mostly ones I have found or placed or micros. Perhaps we could make instructions of use of PQ as a replacement for the GC listing more public, or just make it more straightforward to use? Then those who dislike micros (or any other cache type) could simply not pull them out of the database.

2. Micros filling up a place make it increasingly difficult to set up any other cache type given the 0.1 mile distance rule. In a given city, there are only so many good areas, if they all get filled up in a wave of micro dropping, the city is closed to all other forms of geocache. Perhaps a limit to the number of caches one can place or a limit on the number of geocaches of a certain type, or a limit on the number of caches in a series would be able to be set up and thus reducing pressure on a given locale.

1.4k · January 7, 2005

Banned? No. If people would place caches only in places worth going or getting to then it wouldn't be a problem. I find it hard to believe that when one is placed in a parking lot people are thinking others should really see that parking space. More like "I really want to hide one and here's a place" or "Gee there aren't 100 within 3 miles of me anymore I should put one out" or "hey, I found a place someone hasn't put a cache yet".

Edited January 7, 2005 by Nurse Dave

January 7, 2005

No, I don't think micro/nanos should be banned. A good micro hunt / devious hide is enjoyable from time to time. Also, there are just some locations that can only accomodate a micro. Though if a location can support something larger than a micro, then a larger container should be used.

Personally, the schwag is meaningless to me -- but I understand it is a large part of the game for others. Give me a well hidden container and a log to sign and I'm happy. Add a good puzzle, nice hike, a historical perspective or a spectacular view - so much the better!

Schwag is important and meaningless to me. :rolleyes: :unsure:

Even if I have no intention of taking/trading, it's always intriguing to see what other people have left. That ranges from "Kewl!" to "They thought somebody would want THAT?" Either way it makes the adventure an adventure. I personally don't care a lot for micros, since unfortunately, they've been abused (poorly excuted, very low quality, and in high quantity). The way geocaching is presented to the world is usually one of treasure filled boxes -- not gazillions of micros in lamp post bases with a damp piece of paper. I don't know if I would have been enticed into the game if I'd known the truth in advace

But hey, even the lampost micros can be entertaining to someone like me. The kids especially love a PNG when out and about the mall. I just hate to see cheapness becoming the majority. Not much you can do about it except add terracaching.com to your sources. Or, as was suggested for viruals, make them a Premium Membership only thing and require justification of worthiness before approval, so that fewer crap micros get placed.

January 7, 2005

I think some of the ideas for micros are very original (hollowed out bolts, pinecones, fake branches, etc.) but no place to hide schwag just plain sucks.

Sometimes the "schwag" isn't in the cache. Sometimes it's the location itself.

January 7, 2005

Did someone make a rule that we have to find every cache? We can't just skip the ones we don't like anymore?

Sure we can skip caches.

Two things that we need to address though.

1. From my home zip code, the first two pages of caches listed are mostly ones I have found or placed or micros. Perhaps we could make instructions of use of PQ as a replacement for the GC listing more public, or just make it more straightforward to use? Then those who dislike micros (or any other cache type) could simply not pull them out of the database.

2. Micros filling up a place make it increasingly difficult to set up any other cache type given the 0.1 mile distance rule. In a given city, there are only so many good areas, if they all get filled up in a wave of micro dropping, the city is closed to all other forms of geocache. Perhaps a limit to the number of caches one can place or a limit on the number of geocaches of a certain type, or a limit on the number of caches in a series would be able to be set up and thus reducing pressure on a given locale.

In reference to your number 2 point. Most of the micros that some people always complain about are in places where you can't put anything bigger. I have seven in a county park (that were placed for an event in total twelve) that I am slowly converting to larger caches. If another cacher asked me if they could put a full size in the area and mine was impeding then I would be glad to move or remove the micro. We work together very well in Raleigh and my guess is most other areas do to.

38.2k · January 7, 2005

Did someone make a rule that we have to find every cache? We can't just skip the ones we don't like anymore?

And how do we know we don't like them until we get there and look for them?

January 7, 2005

I love Micros.

That's is because there is no place to put full cache containers, that would only be vandalized by muggles, and so I will live with the hunt, the best part.

Micros usually lead me to parks in my area I have never seen, or enjoyed before.

Besides, verity, is a good thing, like if there were just full sized caches, it would get boring to me.

2.3k · January 8, 2005

Did someone make a rule that we have to find every cache? We can't just skip the ones we don't like anymore?

And how do we know we don't like them until we get there and look for them?

Reading the cache page is a good place to start.... :rolleyes:

6.5k · January 8, 2005

Iif that last post wasn't preaching to the choir that I don't know what would be. :rolleyes: :lol:

January 8, 2005

Even though I don't like micros, I just found Gaiter Bait. It is one of those ridiculous micros.

Micro-ban

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