This is the story behind the geocache I recently had published "What, Me Worry" I'm sure some people are curious at to why I dedicated a cache to the reviewers, and in particular The Mad Reviewer.
A few months ago, the only interaction I had ever had with a reviewer were a few short suggestions about difficulty ratings, or attributes, the general sort of things that go along with trying to get your cache published on Geocaching.com. Then in April, I published two caches, that I thought were going to be an on going series called What/Where. I have wrote about those caches in more detail here previously, but basically I posted a satellite image from Google Earth of where the cache was hidden and that was it. The local reviewers published them, the caches had a few finds, and they received positive feedback. But for reasons not of my local reviewers doing, they had to be archived. I was a little upset at first and I sent the reviewers a note to pass along my concerns about my caches being archived, for no good reason in my opinion at the time, to whom ever wanted them archived. I never heard back from the reviewers, and afterward I thought maybe I shouldn't have voiced my complaint. Hey it's just a game, and if I want to play with the frog, I have to play by his rules. I also realized that geocaching.com is not the only place to post a puzzle cache. (But it is the place with the most traffic)
After that, things began to change slowly. Realizing the human element behind the reviewers, I started leaving more and more detailed reviewer notes, I even joked a little. Then I published "The Deam Wilderness Watering Hole." I left a question in the reviewer notes and the The Mad Reviewer kindly provided an answer, and even suggested a funny name. And over the last couple of months, every time I have published a cache I have tried to be more and more personal in my reviewer notes.
Then out of the blue I recieved an email from The Mad Reviewer. She (I'll refer to The Mad Reviewer as female, I don't know if TMR is male or female, but I have a feeling she is female, if I'm wrong I appologize) says she wants to send me a gift. She explained that she had recieved some special volunteer items, and had decided to give them away to cachers that met a few key criteria. She felt that I placed neat and interesting caches, and I was also kind to the reviewers and other cachers. Now I don't think I am any more deserving than any other cacher, but hey if being nice to my fellow humans gains me accolades, I'll take them. So after a few more email exchanges, she let's me know that I should be receiving something in my mailbox soon.
Well after nearly wearing the hinge out on the door to my mailbox, the post man finally left me my present. In amongst all of the bills and junk mail I found the following:
After that, things began to change slowly. Realizing the human element behind the reviewers, I started leaving more and more detailed reviewer notes, I even joked a little. Then I published "The Deam Wilderness Watering Hole." I left a question in the reviewer notes and the The Mad Reviewer kindly provided an answer, and even suggested a funny name. And over the last couple of months, every time I have published a cache I have tried to be more and more personal in my reviewer notes.
Then out of the blue I recieved an email from The Mad Reviewer. She (I'll refer to The Mad Reviewer as female, I don't know if TMR is male or female, but I have a feeling she is female, if I'm wrong I appologize) says she wants to send me a gift. She explained that she had recieved some special volunteer items, and had decided to give them away to cachers that met a few key criteria. She felt that I placed neat and interesting caches, and I was also kind to the reviewers and other cachers. Now I don't think I am any more deserving than any other cacher, but hey if being nice to my fellow humans gains me accolades, I'll take them. So after a few more email exchanges, she let's me know that I should be receiving something in my mailbox soon.
Well after nearly wearing the hinge out on the door to my mailbox, the post man finally left me my present. In amongst all of the bills and junk mail I found the following:
Now how cool is that! I feel like I won the Geocaching lottery.
And that's the story of "What, Me Worry? or: How I learned to stop complaining and love the coin!
And that's the story of "What, Me Worry? or: How I learned to stop complaining and love the coin!