To all:

I would stay away from clues that are too cryptic, esp. if you are going
to plug the letterbox
in the ground. You will need to get them to an exact location. Also,
its no fun to have been
lead on a wild goose chase, to have expended a great deal of energy
seeking out a location
and come up with nothing. Its true that the hunt is a big part of the
fun, but its no fun at all to
not find anything in the end.

If you're worried about making it too easy for vandals you can
accomplish the same thing by
having exacting clues that are very involved. For example see

http://www.pclink.com/elf/sewanee.htm

This would take the same length of time as clues that are cryptic. But
the difference is in
the end you will find your prize with these clues. It is no more likely
that a vandal will go
through the trouble of of finding a box with involved clues like these
than it would be for
a vandal to go through the trouble of finding a box with cryptic clues.

And there are lots of other solutions to keep vandals away that will not
frustrate legitimate
seekers. You want to keep the crooks away, true, but you want to allow
discovery too.
There's no point if you don't allow discovery for people who are willing
to follow your
clues. It IS the whole point of providing a letterbox: To make it so
people who are willing
to follow the clues can find it.

One solution is the well hidden box. We already discussed this. The
idea is to avoid
accidental dioscovery as has happened with a few of our boxes already.
So make sure
that in order to find the box you MUST have clues.

Another solution is to NOT put the box way out in the boonies where it
is easy for would-be
vandals to hide their activities. I suppose if it is WAY out there that
will dissuade a lot of
vandals. Problem is it will probably dissuade legitimate seekers too.
And worse than that
it will provide a nice hiding place for the crook to conceal his or her
activities.

Some alternative hiding places are: Letterbooks at local libraries &
bookstores, Pubs, or even
the end of your driveway. Also, I'm thinking of Rachaels first box. It
was by a boat launch,
probably not a very remote place. Crooks don't like to be seen. They
will tend not to hang
out where their activities can be noticed. Remember, crooks do things
in hiding (in the dark,
so to speak), so keep everything out in the open as far as possible.

I think it was Trevor Dallas (from Dartmoor) who shared that the worst
thing for a letterboxer
is to spend hours looking for a letterbox only to not find it. I think
it would be even more
disheartening for some of our letterboxers because they will have to
drive to a place to find
some of our letterboxes. Who wants to drive for 2 hours and then come
up dry?

So I would steer clear of clues that are too cryptic. If they are
cryptic enough to dissuade
crooks they will dissuade legitimate seekers too.

The Fallacy that Maps make it too easy:

Even having a nice map and compass bearings will not guarantee finding a
letterbox.
The GPS coordinates and the point on our maps are only accurate to about
300 feet. It
does NOT give away the box location. When you take into acoount the
scaling factor of the
map it becomes even less likely that you will locate the letterbox from
the map. The dot
on the map that represents the location is itself about 200 yards across
when you take into
account the scaling factor. No, the maps are primarily tools to allow
people to get started.
They provide nothing for vandals that vandals would not be able to
discover by some
other means. But they are nice for a muiltitude of other reasons.

Even compass bearings can be obscure and inexact for people seeking a
letterbox.
You can have several objects on one line with a compass bearing. Just
providing a map
and a bearing is NOT a giveaway. Even 2 bearings is not a giveaway.
You have to
have at least 3 bearings to tie down a location. This can be
mathematically proven.
So our problem is not that we are too exacting with our clues. It is
that we are not
being clear enough.

One more point: Cryptic clues do nothing for children. The fun for
them will be in learning
to seek something out that has guides and certain rules about it. Kids
like guidance and
direction. Its part of the learning process and part of the fun for
them.
Cryptic clues will turn off most adults and probably make it impossible
for the kids.

I think we have to accept the risk involved. If you provide a certain
way to find the box
you are opening the door to vandalism. But as of yet we have only
explored a few of
the other possible ways to limit vandalism - ways that will not make the
seeking of a
letterbox cryptic or inordinately difficult.

I think one of the best ways to do this is to keep your letterboxes out
in the open where
they are visible to people. Or, alternately, keep them inside an
establishment (library,
bookstore, etc.) where thy can be guarded by people. But these are only
a couple of
ideas. I'm sure there are many more than these if you think about it.

Let's explore some of the other possible ways to solve this problem.
Maybe we should
put some boxes out in some of these alternative ways. Bear in mind that
we are not on the
moor. Most of us are urban dwellers. That itself will put a different
characteristic into
USA letterboxing.

Dan




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