Kate Rutter wrote:
>
> I'mn curious about how y'all learn about letterboxing. I read the
> Smithsonian article. Are there other ways of finding out about it? Seems to
> me the article fell on fertile ground....

Hi Kate, it took me a couple of re-readings of the article before I
thought to look on the internet. By that time Erik & Dan had already
hooked up with the other Eric and put together the ILC web site. As far
as I know, that was the internet beginnings. My web search didn't even
find a Dartmoor site. Now there are a couple of books & who knows what
else!
>
> Also...I seem to remember from the venerable Smithsonian article that
> Dartmoor l'boxers use the traditional orienteering symbols in their clues. and I'd like to incorporate them into my clues.
> What's the barometer on this?

go for it! We have been pretty lax about what kind of clues we all
prefer & orienteering clues sound great!!

--
Thom Cheney
tcgrafx... among other things

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Thom (and all);

Not to be a nit-picker, but, Dan and I (mostly Dan) established the
Letterboxing USA site before Eric and ILC came on the scene. However,
ILC hosted the first talk list.

Striving for an Orienteer's accuracy
Erik D.


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<3.0.5.32.19990518141705.007b4c8-@shell6.ba.best.com> wrote:
Original Article: http://www.egroups.com/list/letterbox-usa/?start=1584
> Hello again;
>
> Thanks to all for your responses about NoCal letterboxing. Linda, I hope to
> make a trip south to seek out your boxes! %^)
>
> I'mn curious about how y'all learn about letterboxing. I read the
> Smithsonian article. Are there other ways of finding out about it? Seems to
> me the article fell on fertile ground....
>
> Also...I seem to remember from the venerable Smithsonian article that
> Dartmoor l'boxers use the traditional orienteering symbols in their clues.
> Any thoughts on this? I found an orienteering site with a wonderful catalog
> of symbols (http://www.williams.edu:803/Biology/orienteering/o~index.html)
> and I'd like to incorporate them into my clues.
> What's the barometer on this?
>
> Thnx,
>
> -Kate
>
Kate,

Welcome to the list. Being an orienteer myself I would have no personal objection to the use of O' symbols, BUT I'm afraid it would make it rather difficult for non-orienteers. And I think it best to try to make the hobby approacheable to as many as possible at this stage. Might make more sense at a later date when there are more boxes and boxers out there.

My $.02,

JDW
West Chester, PA

PS: If you really want to go South, don't forget about CircleX in the Santa Monicas.


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> Being an orienteer myself I would have no personal objection to the
> use of O' symbols, BUT I'm afraid it would make it rather difficult
> for non-orienteers. And I think it best to try to make the hobby
> approacheable to as many as possible at this stage.

John makes good points and I had this in mind when I made my first
box sort of easy. However (and there always is a however :-)), I
would go for it anyway. :-) A suggestion may be to include a link
from your clue to the Heather William's O site or the IOF web site
which explains the O symbols. I think that would work very well.
Besides, I'm planning a photo-O with a letterbox hidden at one of
the controls once the revision of a local O map is made available
at the end of June, so people who want to hunt that box also will
have 2 reasons to learn them, not mentioning the fact that they may
have to learn them for Dartmoor, if I understand what you have said.
Besides, learning the O symbols may get them interested in O, which
is clearly a Good Thing (tm).

On the easy/hard thing, I have a little story. I was recently
hunting a box that seemed very hard. It took me 3 hours to find it
after a trail of only 2 or 3 miles. In my opinion the clues were
ambiguous and many landmarks I saw could satisfy them. Boy was
I shocked when I counted 37 [sic] entries in the logbook, including
9 yr old kids :-) Persistence paid off. I guess the point is you
never know, and John's point about getting the hobby started with
easy boxes is certainly valid, but if people want to find your box,
they will persist.

John also wrote:

> Tell me more about the [Dartmoor clue] books!!!

It is my understanding that you have to log 100 stamps before being
able to obtain one of these. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

--
Randy "the mapsurfer"
Orienteer * Letterboxer * Globetrotter
http://www.letterboxing.org/faq.html

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Bring on those old "O" symbols. I came across letterboxing through a post
on the o-net....

David


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