Saturday, May 05, 2007

Getting a second opinion

One thing that I stress when writing to or talking with geocachers is that I, as a reviewer, don't make the rules. My role as a volunteer reviewer is to enforce the guidelines that have been put in place by Groundspeak. However, because of the ever-evolving creativity of geocachers, situations often arise that require interpretation to see if they comply with the guidelines or may pose problems or dangers that the guideline writers had not previously thought of. In situations like those, I like to ask my fellow reviewers for their opinions about the cache. Groundspeak has a special online forum for reviewers with a topic called "What do you think of this cache?" There we can post a link to these speical situations and ask if anyone else has encountered this type of cache before. It's a great resource that helps keep all of the reviewers worldwide in touch with each other and consistent in how we review new geocache submissions.

2 comments:

welch said...

On the gc.com forums I have heard of some really weird caches being submitted such as a decaying bird, and an old tennis shoe out in the woods.
What is the 'strangest' cache that has been submitted to you?


welch

IowaAdmin said...

Wow, that's a tough question simply because of the sheer number of caches I have reviewed. I'm not one of those people with photographic memory about geocaches, but a few that I remember: Someone wanted to put four cache logs inside one container and let people log four smilies for finding it (Not approved because of 528 ft. rule between geocaches). Someone wrote to ask me if they could place an a cache inside an unconnected payphone in the woods (I said yes, but I don't think they ever did it). I guess I should ask Iowa geocachers for the answer to this, because they probably remember some pretty weird ones that I have approved and they have found.