I am brand new to letterboxing, so my opinions aren't really from a long-timer.

I don't particularly want to participate in the postal boxes, just
because that seems to me to be a different game, and one I don't
really want to be part of ( I have a circulating notebook I was
supposed to send on 6 months ago that I haven't done, so you
understand why I don't do postals). I have no problem with drive-bys,
though I haven't found any here (we don't have a lot of lb's in my
area to begin with). Still, I'm a long-time geocacher, and a
well-placed urban cache is as exciting to me, sometimes moreso, than
one involving a 200-foot elevation gain and spiders.

This same debate is raging all over the geocaching forums right now
(honestly, it's a constant topic for discussion), with a lot of people
calling micro caches "lame drive-bys" and the like. I think it's
snobbery in geocaching to believe the only way to play the game is to
have a 10 mile hike, and I think it's snobbery in letterboxing to do
the same. I don't tell others that they have to have a hand-made stamp
and book, even though I do-- why should someone else tell me I'm less
of a player because I don't like to hike 10 miles a day? Put in
perspective: would you tell someone that they weren't a marathoner if
they walked the 26.2 miles? If they did it in a wheelchair?

I don't like spiders either!!!
Seth
--- Stephanie Bryant wrote:

> I am brand new to letterboxing, so my opinions
> aren't really from a long-timer.
>
> I don't particularly want to participate in the
> postal boxes, just
> because that seems to me to be a different game, and
> one I don't
> really want to be part of ( I have a circulating
> notebook I was
> supposed to send on 6 months ago that I haven't
> done, so you
> understand why I don't do postals). I have no
> problem with drive-bys,
> though I haven't found any here (we don't have a lot
> of lb's in my
> area to begin with). Still, I'm a long-time
> geocacher, and a
> well-placed urban cache is as exciting to me,
> sometimes moreso, than
> one involving a 200-foot elevation gain and spiders.
>
> This same debate is raging all over the geocaching
> forums right now
> (honestly, it's a constant topic for discussion),
> with a lot of people
> calling micro caches "lame drive-bys" and the like.
> I think it's
> snobbery in geocaching to believe the only way to
> play the game is to
> have a 10 mile hike, and I think it's snobbery in
> letterboxing to do
> the same. I don't tell others that they have to have
> a hand-made stamp
> and book, even though I do-- why should someone else
> tell me I'm less
> of a player because I don't like to hike 10 miles a
> day? Put in
> perspective: would you tell someone that they
> weren't a marathoner if
> they walked the 26.2 miles? If they did it in a
> wheelchair?
>
> From geocaching, I can tell you that the attitude
> that people who like
> "drive bys" are "just numbers players" is wrong. I
> see this attitude
> all the time, usually from people who would rather
> spend three weeks
> hiking in the mountains than do anything else. I am
> not one of those--
> the woods and I have traditionally had a slightly
> antagonistic
> relationship, and while I enjoy a nice, flat, day
> hike, you aren't
> going to see me going off to be rained on, snowed
> on, or tripped to
> fall flat on my face for more than a day or so at a
> time. For some of
> us, the woods are not a welcoming retreat.
>
> There are people, like myself, who work 8 hours a
> day and commute for
> 2 hours a day. We leave home when the sun is coming
> up, and sometimes
> don't return until it is down. Sitting in our
> cubicles, we do not get
> to see the sunlight except on weekends. If, during
> the course of my
> crappy commute, I have the chance to park my car
> somewhere other than
> a gas station, get out, breathe a big gulp of fresh
> air, and exchange
> a momentary stamp with a letterbox.... well, I
> personally would love
> that. It gives me a little bit of magic in what is
> sometimes a very
> drudging lifestyle, and I don't need the hike to do
> the letterbox. If
> letterboxing were all about the hike, then there
> wouldn't be a box at
> the end and you'd call it hiking, like everyone else
> out there.
>
> --Stephanie
>
> On Wed, 02 Mar 2005 20:46:28 -0000, votremerci
> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Just for grins, for those of you who do not like
> the drive by boxes,
> > what do you feel about the postal boxes? Are
> those equally as
> > repugnant/distasteful to you? Looking for
> patterns here. Possibly
> > kicking an anthill.
>
> --
> Stephanie Bryant
> mortaine@gmail.com
> http://www.mortaine.com
>





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I would like to address both the driveby and the postal letterbox
issues here. I, for one, am glad that there are drive by boxes and
boxes with fairly short walks. My daughter, Out of Sight, is a blind
letterboxer and we would not be able to do any boxing together if it
weren't for boxes like these. I can't take her into the woods with
the Hairy Leggers to do the complicated Mapsurfer boxes but she can
still enjoy figuring out clever clues and finding the simpler boxes
with me.
As far as postal letterboxes go, these are definitely a different
game. I am very active on the PLB message board and think I can speak
with some knowledge on this. The only thing that a PLB has in common
with a letterbox is that a stamp and a logbook is involved. I have
over 100 finds in regular letterboxes and from my experience, the
order of importance is location, the hikes, the clues and then the box
itself for these boxes. In a PLB, the most important thing is the
stamp and the logbook. There are some stamps out there that are
nothing short of artwork and the logbooks that have arrived in my
mailbox show a tremendous amount of love and attention to the details.
In PLBing, the stamp is indeed the reward.

If it is repugnant to you, then you have the freedom to not take part
in either of these types of letterboxes, that is the beauty of our
hobby. Take what you like and leave the rest alone.

Jan of Team Little Dog
--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, "votremerci"
wrote:
>
> Just for grins, for those of you who do not like the drive by
boxes,
> what do you feel about the postal boxes? Are those equally as
> repugnant/distasteful to you? Looking for patterns here. Possibly
> kicking an anthill.
>
> I see lbing as a long-range goal. Not in a rush to accumulate as
> many stamps as possible, or hike the furtherest; merely to find and
> accumulate as the fates may allow, enjoying the stories of planting
> and finding - both my own and others.
>
> That contest post was a hoot. I'll be laughing for a long while.

Very well said.

missmoon


Take what you like and leave the rest alone.

Jan of Team Little Dog

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

exploited
adj 1: developed or used to greatest advantage [ant: unexploited]
2: of persons; taken advantage of; "after going out of his way
to help his friend get the job he felt not appreciated but
used" [syn: ill-used, put-upon, used, victimized,
victimised]

Why do you think exploited is a better word?
missmoon


----- Original Message -----
From: allaboutthehike
To: letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com
Sent: 3/2/2005 7:45:33 PM
Subject: [LbNA] Re: Finding Drive By-s distasteful?



Repugnant is a bad choice of words. Exploited would be better. By
the way, it wasn't meant as a personal attack. Know what I mean?

--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, "Jan" wrote:
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]