Ken,
I personally really like your museum caches. It think they are well thought out and reasonably challenging to complete the 'find'. They make a good virtual cache and they sure are a nice break from the summer heat in Arizona.
One of the kicks I've been on lately is asking what would the community or local authorities think of these caches. From their perspective I think these caches also get two big thumbs up. The Museum staff that I talked to sure didn't mind.
I guess you could over do a good thing. I wouldn't want all caches to be like these. There probably doesn't need to be one on every corner, but I don't think you've over done it.
Have Fun,
Jerry (Cache-Quest)
----- Original Message -----
From:
ken@highpointer.com
To:
az-geocaching@listserv.snaptek.com
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2002 1:01 PM
Subject: [Az-Geocaching] Geocaching.com administrator questions whether my museum caches are really "geocaches"
Hello Geocachers,
While traveling out of the state in the past two weeks, I stopped and visited two small historical museums, one in southeastern Utah and the other in northwestern Oklahoma. I made virtual geocaches from these museums, similar in style to the six that I have currenlty active in eastern Maricopa County.
Geocaching administrator erik88l-r approved these two new virtual geocaches, but upon doing so he sent me this note, which I have pasted below:
User erik88l-r has contacted you with the following message:
Hi,
I posted your caches, but have to ask before others attack you for it in the forums - are all these museums really "geocaches"? Don't get me wrong, I love museums, but is a GPS required to find them? I just don't want to see you going overboard on something that might result in a backlash. Sometimes too much of a good thing results in that reaction. ;) My suggestion would be to hide a physical cache near such places in the future - that way people will visit the area without questions about whether something should or should not be a virtual cache.
All the best,
erik - geocaching.com admin
I replied to Erik that these museum geocaches are very popular among geocachers in Arizona. It is g! reat to introduce people to places where they can learn about local history and bring the entire family for little or no cost, and they are particularly great to visit on hot summer days because they are air-conditioned.
It is true that you don't need a GPS to find these museums, but I argue that one can find many virtual caches without a GPS, because they are typically large items like statues or historical markers that are out in plain view in public places. Also, what is wrong with having some virtual geocaches where a GPS is not mandatory - not everyone has a GPS, so this opens up our activity to people who can't afford to own a GPS.
Also, I disagree with his suggestion to place a physical geocache near these museums. Most of these museums are located in highly visible areas where there is no good place to put a physical geocache.
What do Arizona geocachers think about the comments of Erik and myself? Should I continue to create virtual geocaches at museums? Remember, these are not the easiest caches to complete fully - typically I have six or seven questions that requires one to visit every part of the museum, and as many of you are aware, some of the answers are not easy to find.
Ken (a.k.a. Highpointer)
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