PThomp,
Brian gave a good description of the term "cache Karma" and why it is
important. There is no hard and fast rule, but just keep in mind the
principle that if nobody hid any caches (or hid anymore caches) then
there would be nothing for anybody to go out and find so they can "get
on the first page", rack up their numbers or whatever the current
goal/obsession is. Then follow your own conscious....if you are
enjoying geocaching, consider contributing by hiding as many caches as
you feel comfortable with. Basically giving back to the hobby.

Prescott (and Phoenix) folks: Dan and I have discussed trying to put
out a few caches up here that can be done in the winter again, like we
did last year. Look for tricky, clever and fun, if we can get to it!

Trisha "Lightning"
Prescott



On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 08:24:58 -0700, Brian Cluff wrote:

> 
> PThomp9719@aol.com wrote:
> > Can someone explain the cache karma column and why it seems
heavily 
> > weighted for placing caches.
> 
> Cache Karma is an attempt to keep the game moving and encourage
people 
> to give as well as take.  It started at as a 20:1 ratio... you had
to 
> hide one cache for every 20 you found to keep your karma positive. 
At 
> the time that was a very reasonable value considering that there
were 
> only around 100 caches total.
> However, it soon became obvious that with the growing number of
caches 
> that the there needed to be less and less karma incentive or people 
> would hide junk caches just to keep themselves positive, or everyone 
> would be negative because you could now find 40 caches without much 
> problem and then you would also have to hide 2 just to end up back
> where 
> you started.
> At about 800ish total caches, I started thinking of a new system and 
> came up with something that immediately upped everyones karma and
then 
> tapered off over time.  In a nut shell you have to hide one cache
for 
> every 20% of total caches in existence found.  This puts the
intended 
> "feel" of the ratio back to the original 20:1 when there were only
100 
> caches.
> It also cranks up the current ratio to 120ish:1 (120 caches found
> before 
> you have to hide 1 to keep your karma positive).  Even with that
> ratio, 
> you can see there are people that have a hard time keeping positive 
> karma.  They are usually the people that have their guns out for the
> #1 
> position and that started a few months or more after Wyle E went
nuts 
> trying to find caches and are trying to catch up with him or more 
> recently azsaluki.
> 
> Brian Cluff
> Team Snaptek
> 
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