Helping The Newbies – Building A Guide
For cachers who have been into the game of geocaching for awhile, you tend to take certain pieces of knowledge for granted. Things like what trackables are, what the general FTF guidelines might be, and other aspects of the game that you just picked up along the way as you played. All of those little things you learned you now find yourself doing without even thinking twice about it. When newbies come along and aren’t aware of the general practices of an area, they have to learn all of this new stuff from scratch. Many times some of us seasoned cachers may even get a little put off or annoyed by what we consider “newbie” mistakes. Generally we offer good advice and try to help out as best as we can, but in many cases, the new cachers simply have not been exposed to the right people or situations to be “in the know” about how things work.
Milosheart mentioned to me recently that it might not be a bad idea to try and put together a “Welcome To Geocaching” pack that would contain a multitude of information that would help cachers ease some of that newbie pain they might experience as they start off. Geocaching.com has a great deal of information, as do the forums, but a lot of the time, the things that really matter either are buried in with all the junk, or are simply things that don’t get addressed typically. Cache Up NB also has some good resources for people who are just starting in the world of caching (I will admit that some of it needs updating) but for cachers who are brand new, it might not be a bad idea to put together something that can be easily downloaded and read and gives them the jist of all the little things that we all take for granted. Cut out all of the extra marketing garbage and just get to the point of caching.
I’ve put together a very modest list of some of the things I think would be useful in such a pack. It is by no means a complete list, but it is a start. I wanted to solicit some feedback from some of our readers to see what things you’d like to see included in such a resource. In fact, I encourage newbie cachers to comment and tell us what things would have been useful for you to know off the bat.
I’ll compile all of the information together and use it to try and build us a nice pack to give to new cachers. Here’s the list I started:
- Geocaching.com Basics
- Finding caches
- Map basics
- Notifications
- Watchlists
- Best practices
- Hiding caches
- Best practices
- Good/bad containers
- Attributes
- Guideline basics
- Trackable basics
- Geocaching Jargon (TFTC, FTF, TNLNSL, etc)
- Associations / Websites
- Municipal caching challenges / tours
- Caching related software (GSAK, EasyGPS)
- GPS Navigation Basics (accuracy, etc)
- Logging of caches / FTFs / Best practices (why we write longer logs, what an FTF is supposed to be, etc)
- Mentors
- Map basics
- NB specific caching knowledge (winter friendly, types of containers, water issues, etc)
Please go ahead and post comments that contain additional things you think should be included.
A great idea. When I think of all the things we have learned over the years and the fact that all of this info came from many different sources, it would be helpful to have it in one place in an easy to read, bullet type format. I know most everything you need to know is on the official geocaching site but, truthfully, I’ve never bothered to read it. Too long, too dry, too boring.
Appropriate sites to place caches would be top of a list I might compile. A newbie might not think of schools being out of bounds, is parking easy and always accessible? Will the change of seasons make getting to this cache dangerous? Lots to consider when placing a cache.
Although swag is rather out of vogue now in this region , I still think it is something that needs addressed. What is appropriate to leave, and fair to trade.
A bit of safety too could be included. Hiking into the woods if you’ve never done it before can be a challenge. Then if heaven forbid, something happens, knowing before hand about basic safety could save a lot of trouble.
The list is endless, you’ve already noted the most important basics above.
Again, this is a great idea, if you need any help, I’d love to contribute.
Ms. CD
If it’s too long and wordy, people will lose interest. If it’s too short and sweet, people will walk away with more questions than answers. Finding the happy medium between the 2 is key.
A lot of this stuff is already here in the resources section, maybe we need a better way to get it out there and update it once and a while.
This is another great post that will help bring new cachers aboard.
Yes, so much is here in Resources.
Maybe the guide could use its own tab, where it’ll be more visible. And better still, the guide could be a downloadable PDF file that folks could print, copy, and take anywhere. I for one would love to have something introductory, simple, yet informative that I can leave for people to read at a later date.
I’ve introduced many to caching, but the GPS unit continues to be a bit of a barrier to folks actually taking up the hobby. All those buttons….
We know better, but the GPSr is not that complicated, nor do we actually use all of its functions. The guide could have a brief intro into how to use it.
So much potential in this post….
Plenty of ideas online too…
http://geocacher-u.com/
Here’s an old, dated PDF, but it must have been useful 7 years ago.
http://www.tumbleweedandcactus.com/wp-content/uploads/geocaching-class-060707-presentation.pdf
I see that we moderate two or more links in a post…
yes, stops spamming.
If this gets made I will ensure that it shows up on the NB Tourism website as well. Be nice if it was bilingual as well.
I’ll do my best to put something together that looks nice and is simple. If I think it works well enough, I’ll see about getting Tiger Tracker or someone else to translate it into French. I’d love to be able to share it with the tourist folks.
I can also help with the translation if Tiger needs some help, just let me know.
i can help with design & assembly as always Zor if you need.
I don’t have big numbers (I know, it’s not about the numbers…but still, it says a little something about experience). So, as a newbie…
I’ve been at it for almost 2 years now, but still, I feel like I know very little about geocaching.
I went to a breakfast event in Saint John in the fall and that’s when I realized that geocaching was not just a “virtual” game (easy to forget it when both the start and the end of the hunt takes place in front of the computer) : actual (and local!) people are behind every aspect of it. Then I found this site. I’ve been coming here for about 3 months, reading everything there is to read, getting familiar with how things work, and it has been most helpful. Before all this, I never knew there was an actual geocaching COMMUNITY! This changes everything! Especially for logging… I know there has been a post on frustrations about geocachers simply logging TFTC or just “Found it”, and I admit having done it a few times myself. But the truth is, until you realize there is actually someone behind those caches, interested in the stories behind the finds, there isn’t much point. (I noticed the proposal of “best practices” under logging…that is great! It would have gotten me to write longer logs much sooner if I had known it was ok to do so!)
Anyway, all that to say that I agree that a “Newbie Guide” is a great idea. Not too long, not too boring, one that addresses local practices. But I think a section on “geocaching community” would be helpful. Even if it only had a link to groups in different areas of the province, making it easier for newcomers to get involved.
And maybe also, under geocaching software, something for Mac users…
Something that occurred to me which I thought I would pass along here…
One thing that seems to be agreed upon is anything that is long will typically put people to sleep, and not be read. But what if you were to break it out into individual PDF/links for the various things people should know about. Instead of giving them a huge pile of stuff to read, give them a page/link they can go to that has everything itemized out with links to the actual resource pages, or PDF downloads. A bullet list with things like Jargon, Trackables, First Hide, First Find, Associations, etc, with each bullet having a link to a full on article on CUNB and a PDF download.
The PDF downloads could be easily read and be a more compact edition of the full online article. The PDFs could also be bilingual to support those who want it in French.
Rev mentioned how we have it online now with sections about all of the various things people need to know about. Some of it is a bit lengthy, but there’s a lot of good material there. I’m thinking of using some of the old with some of the new and simply create some sort of very visible link or item that’s on our main page that new cachers can see and go to easily.
The resources tab we have now is really good but if a new user doesn’t look through it, they might not have any idea of what they can learn in there.
Thoughts on breaking it our vs one giant guide?