Planting a cache is a responsibility not a lark . I'm in favour of small restrictions.

I was reading Head Hard Hat's blog entry: Placing a Cache -- would it be too much to ask?

HHH asks if it would be too much to ask to follow the guidelines and not place a cache on private land with 'no trespassing' signs. He has come around to the thinking that there needs to be a minimal cache find restriction before hiding caches. He got the typical response:

Jonathan said: "One of the most exciting parts of geocaching is placing your own hides. For me, I wanted to return the favor to all of the people whose caches I had found near my house so I was placing caches right after I started finding."

Here's how I feel about it:

As a CO for the last 9 years, I agree that being a CO can be the best part of geocaching. However, there's a responsibility to the caching community attached to hiding a cache. Placing a cache on private "no trespassing" land is not "returning the favor". There are so many who plant and do not read (or choose to ignore) the guidelines and their numbers are increasing.

There are also too many that plant, get bored and drop the game within days of planting. I'm also seeing new (usually young) COs who plant poorly then become argumentative via the cache logs when the complaints come in about poor placement. One new CO said "Screw private property" after people commented that the cache coordinates were taking them to the middle of an apartment buildings parking lot.


It's become too easy for anyone to plant a cache - online maps, google earth, cell phones.

First and foremost I'd like to see a time period of at least 3 months registration before anyone can plant a cache. Then allow one initial hide. After 3 more months, once the CO has experienced the responsibilities of ownership and hasn't become bored, restrictions are lifted. This should weed out the fly-by-nighters.

I'd also like to see a small amount of cache finds required.

Do we really need COs who wouldn't wait 3 months before hiding a cache? Anyone who would quit geocaching because they had to wait a few months would likely not be a responsible owner. If you're really itching to plant a cache without experiencing this pasttime, use another caching service: 0penCaching.com, Opencaching.us but let's make geocaching.com about quality caches placed by responsibile, knowledgeable, caring COs.