THE CACHE LISTING
Your listing is the first thing that potential finders see, and it creates the all-important first impression. Check your spelling and Grammar.
Cache Name
Don't use a business name or a brand name in your cache's name - that's not allowed, but a clever play on words is OK.
Information
When you're giving a lot of information, then try to put the important cache info at the top and the bottom, with the optional information in the middle. Many cachers don't bother to read all the blurb if it doesn't interest them - they just want to get to the nitty-gritty, and go find the cache.
Information about the location is important. Not everyone will read it, but most will, and if they go away with something they didn't know before, then that's added to the value of your cache. Feel free to link to websites providing additional info, but remember that links to commercial websites are not allowed.
HTML is a nice touch to bring colour and appeal to a listing. Groundspeak now has a simple but effected HMTL editor built-in to their cache listing page. But more advanced Firefox or Chrome Add-ons exsist such as ‘Write Area’ Another option is to chat to older cachers at events, etc and get them to pass on tips they have gathered when listing caches.
Use a dedicated handheld GPSR device to hide a cache if possible. Iphones, Nuvi's and TomToms and other similar GPS enabled devices lack the precision that is needed for placing geocaches. These devices end up with coordinates that are 30 to 50 feet off from true "ground zero" coordinates, which could put geocachers on private property or in other sensitive areas!
Contents of the Cache
It's not necessary to list the initial cache contents on your cache page. After a few visits that will have changed and be irrelevant anyway, and then it just clutters up your listing.
Difficulty and Terrain Ratings
These are very important, and if done incorrectly, can be very frustrating for finders. It's especially important if your cache warrants 3 or more stars for terrain, then it's also wise to say something in your listing about why
On the cache edit page, there's a link to the cache rating tool which is excellent for standardizing difficulty and terrain ratings. This generally provides a very good indication of what the terrain and difficulty should be, but tweak it up or down a bit if you feel it necessary.
Images
Adding images to cache listings makes them attractive, but can take away some of the surprise of the location. After a few visits, there are likely to be uploaded images in the gallery anyway.
The Hint
Giving an encrypted hint is optional, but recommended. Keep your hints short because a long hint can be a mission to decrypt on site. Remember that most cachers will use the hint to find the cache. It's a minority who use it only as a last resort. Keep your hint relative to your difficulty rating. If you want to have a challenging hide, it's pointless to give it away in the hint. Information that is pertinent to the find, i.e. the cache cannot be found without it, should rather be in the body of the description than in the hint.
Additional Waypoints
Adding additional waypoints into the system is required for multi-caches and mystery caches, and optional for parking locations, turnoffs, points of interest, etc. This is also important when caches are off the beaten path, waypoints are crucial to avoid a nasty surprise or costly detours. Or “bee-lining / bushwacking” instead of following a well-marked trail.
Attribute Icons
These are the cute little pictures which we can put on our cache pages.
These are helpful at quickly identifying dangers or if special equipment will be need.
The caches in this series are:-
- GC3QACA - Geocaching Etiquette - Hiding a Geocache
- GC3QE60 - Geocaching Etiquette - Submitting a new Cache
- GC3E5N1 - Geocaching Etiquette - The Cache Hunt
- GC3Q7RH - Geocaching Etiquette - Online Logging
- GC3729Y - Geocaching Etiquette - The Compleat Geocacher