After giving this some thought, I too have to agree that this might be a
step in the right direction. I have planted almost 300 letterboxes over my
4 year tenure. A portion of those were day only plants for gatherings, a
portion are WOM, a portion are listed on personal web sites, cuckoo clues,
etc. If I'd had to pay to list the ones that are listed, would that have
stopped me from doing it? I think some of them might have not been planted..
but it would have been my earlier ones, the ones that were planted because I
was so excited to plant and I was afraid someone would take my "perfect
spot" so I put it out there without the care that I now take in planting.
Hmmm.. it needs more thought but right now I'm not seeing many negatives to
it.
Maiden
_____
From: letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com [mailto:letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of gwendontoo
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 2:52 PM
To: letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [LbNA] Re: Charging For Clues
Hi Silver Eagle
I guess I think of our (Gwen and Don's) letterboxes with shorter life
spans than you do for your letterboxes. So with that in mind I'm not
expecting our letter boxes to be around for more than 3 or 4 years
after they are planted. Now many of them are still viable after 6+
years, but that is not my expectation.
Many folks plant a few and then go away after a few months. Those
boxes are usually left out there with out much consideration from the
planter. Sure some are adopted, but those that aren't become trash.
It takes about $10(estimate not considering gas) or so to construct a
letterbox, and if a person were charged $.50 to register their clue
sheet on line I wouldn't expect that would force many planters to go
WOM.
Even if it did produce more WOM boxes is that really a bad thing?
If it stopped some folks from planting, then that too might be not to
bad. Maybe the quality of letterboxes would improve?
So rather than having a quickly made construction of a letterbox
more thought might go into it's creation, as well as more thought
into where and how it is planted.
In any case this idea would solve several problems.
Don
--- In letterbox-usa@
yahoogroups.com, "Silver Eagle"
wrote:
>
> Not sure why you think this would solve many of our current issues.
> I think this would just leave more boxes without clues, which is
> worse than clues without boxes. Some might be willing to pay for
> clues to be posted, but many would just go WOM or stop planting.
And
> what about all the boxes already out there from letterboxers that
no
> longer participate. What a shame to no longer list the clues just
> because the planter can't pay.
>
> Having free clues on the Internet can be messy, but I like the fact
> that they are easily accessible, which puts more emphasis on getting
> outdoors to find the box instead of hunting indoors for clues. As
> I said before, I would rather have clues to missing boxes than no
> clues to existing boxes.
>
> Silver Eagle
>
> P.S. I guess I will have to leave some money to LBNA when I die
> to ensure my clues are safe from future ideas like this :)
>
>
> --- In letterbox-usa@
yahoogroups.com, "Phyto" wrote:
> >
> > --- In letterbox-usa@
yahoogroups.com, "gwendontoo"
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Charge for having a letterbox clue listed for a definate time
> > > period. (3yrs?)
> > > Make it a very low nominal fee, ala Dartmoor Catalogs.
> >
> > Now you're talking. If we (pardon the phrase in light of recent
talk)
> > "adopted" this approach I believe many of our current issues
might be
> > resolved. There's a reason that 1) boxes have lasted for greater
> > lengths of time in Dartmoor and 2) the hobby is more socially
accepted
> > and has a great history of mystery and lore associated with it.
>
> > phyto
>
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