So, geocaching is fun and all but it can be a bit tedious at
times. Don't you just hate some of those descriptions that seem to
just go on forever? Some cache owners seem to want to tell you
about every step, turn in the path, rock, bush, tree, view, forest,
nook, cranny, cliff, building, parking lot, point of Historical
interest, lighthouse, canon, book, mile marker, shop, pipe,
shipwreck, beach, submarine lookout, chapel, canal, bat, picnic
spot, blockhouse, library, mall, cave, reservoir, mine, kiln, wind
farm, zoo, ostrich, billboard, peak, gully, bit of granite,
children's park, bandstand, jetty, canal, steam engine, botanical
garden, square, arboretum, cableway, place of childhood or pet
memories, business park, stadium, wine farm, coffee shop, bridge,
mountain pass, graveyard, monument, museum, statue, flag pole, farm
stall, restaurant, radar station, fire lookout, Kramat, harbour,
loo with a view, rose garden, tree house, traverse, tunnel,
scramble, step over, weir, rock formation, wild horse, second hand
store, labyrinth, ham radio station, wind farm, fort, leopard toad,
war memorial, hedge, other half, university, rock in the sea,
leopard, gun, windmill, dam wall, broken plate, log, cube, fence,
pier, animal rescue, swamp, sand dune, overhang, tourist bus,
home........or bubble.....that you may encounter.
Nothing like this nice brief listing of course. They add waypoints
for everything! It's like that GPS must show every step of the way.
Park here, find the faint path over here, enter the gate here, turn
left here, look at the Ginko Biloba over there. So much detail that
it can all just be a little overwhelming. They don't just give you
the waypoint for the final, with a brief description and let you
find your own way there. Oh no, we have to be lead by the hand!
Even the attributes are overdone. I mean, really, when ever don't
you need to use a bit of stealth? Even on the middle of an
Antarctic ice shelf, there could be some muggle on a snowmobile
watching you. Ha! So when ever does a cache need a snowmobile? A
snowmobile icon! I ask you! This is Africa! We don't use
snowmobiles! Some people just add arbitrary things like that to the
listing, just to flesh it out a bit. What about the reviewers? Why
don't they give advice how to edit it down a bit? I get long emails
explaining why I cant publish the one I just put on a very scenic
bit of railway track, even if the listing is really concise. Those
reviewers and their rules, rules, rules. Proximity this, government
instillation that. Why don't they focus on all the gumph in those
long listings instead of hassling me about minor things like
private property. And don't get me started on the Forums! Waffling
on and on about bits of geocaching minutia. Reams and reams of
stuff about the tiniest details. Some people seem to sit at their
computers tapping that little keyboard all day long instead of
getting out and finding caches. Don't know where they find the
time. And what about the logging? Some guys really don't know when
to stop? As a rebuttal to that most brutal of logs; "TFTC", there
are a bunch of cachers who now compete to write the longest log
ever. They tell you EVERYTHING! When they woke up, had for
breakfast, who was with them, what colour underpants they had on,
what the dog did, what the child did, what the weather was like,
what they did at Stage 1, how the neighbors were watching them, and
whether they had toothache or not. Worse still if the cache has
some kind of theme. Then they really go off! Talking like pirates,
hobbits, rescuers, wizards, detectives or even elephant vets, for
pages and pages! I think they all use that GSAK thingymajig to
generate long lists of stats and take pride when their average log
length is 7000 words. Sometimes you just need a break from it all.
Just a few concise words. A listing that doesn't make you read the
entire life and times of Cecil John Rhodes ( we all already know he
was an important dude, don't we? So why do we have to read through
all that stuff?). Or one that doesn't just ramble on and on and on
like a person with verbal diirrh0€@. And once the cache is
found we want logs that show concisely that there is understanding
for why the cache was placed there, with a brief acknowledgment of
for the effort put in, and a quick indication that they enjoyed the
cache. Clearly, being TOO brief when logging is no good, but
sometimes, just sometimes, one wishes that people would
just.......
GET TO THE
POINT!
Anyone
offended by this listing probably should be.