When I first started out in this pastime, someone on a forum somewhere suggested the notion of "critical mass". The idea is that there needs to be a certain minimum number of letterboxes available for hunting in a particular area before the pastime will catch on. If there are only one or two, people who hear about the pastime may dash out and find those one or two, say "Gee, that was fun, but there are no more to hunt!" and never letterbox again.

Now, I know some of you considered yourselves "hooked" after finding one box -- or even before finding any boxes, you were rarin' to go before you hunted your first! But in general, I'd like to hear opinions on what constitutes "critical mass". How many boxes would have been needed near your home for you to become addicted to this pastime? And what exactly does "near" mean in this context? Would x number of boxes within ten miles have done it, or would there have to have been a couple within two miles? Or would a couple within 50 miles have worked?

And does it depend on the quality of the boxes found? I have a sneaking suspicion that it does, that finding a couple of rather poor examples right near your home might be worse than having to travel ten miles to find your first, if that first was a good one. Do you need to be really impressed by one or two in the first half dozen before you're sold on the whole letterboxing idea?

And what if there is a pretty good assortment -- say, a dozen -- with 25 miles of your home, but then the pickin's are slim unless you're willing to drive 200 miles? What's the likelihood that you'll find the dozen and then abandon the pastime because there's too much travel involved to find any more?

I've done a lot of thinking on this.

My first 6 boxes or were all store boughts. I had fun on the hikes, but wasn't like "I WILL DO THIS FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!"

Then came the Holy Turnpike! box. It's a beautifully carved stamp unique to the location it is planted in. That box got me hooked forever. So, to jbzfarm, thank you.

So I would definitely say quality has something to do with it.

Additionally, I think if people are made to feel like they have joined a family they'll be much more likely to continue boxing.

One semi-proliferate boxer who emails back and forth about the newbies finds might do a lot more good than a bunch of boxers who don't communicate very well. If I were to define the propensity for getting hooked, it would be something like this:

Letterboxing mania (LM)= (((Number of boxes within 25 miles) * (Number of handcarved stamps))/(Number of attempted finds))*(Number of Communications with other local boxers)

If LM >= 30, I would say this person would be hooked.

I think the quality, too, has a lot to do with those early experiences being grabbers.

The first box we found was well-clued, in a very clever hiding place [but not terribly difficult to find], in a nice tight locknlock, with a lovely hand-carved stamp--and all of this in a secluded surburban spot near a river.

That was a wonderful introduction. They haven't all been like that!

There are an average amount of boxes near us, and we make the occasional 25-40 mile trek to neighboring counties for others. We'd always like to see more within our own!

Mommo

Oooh, this is kind of an interesting topic.

For us Gryffindors... when we found our first box, I was thinking, "Holy Crap! I can't believe that actually worked!" I still absolutely believe from the moment we opened the box and saw Team Garlic's beautifully carved Padilla Bay stamp, we were goners. I had no idea people could carve stamps like that.

Our second find wasn't nearly as fun and it was a little cheapo store-bought stamp... but it was there, right where it was supposed to be.

Then came a string of missing stamps... 3 or 4, I believe.

What if our hunts had been reversed? What if the 3 or 4 missing ones had been our first attempts. Would we still be here? I don't know, but it's only a 50-50 chance, probably. Friends of ours that we have raved to about this took all 3 of their kids (all under 6) out for 2 days and didn't find a single box to show for their efforts. They've never really been interested in going again.

So I think that having boxes near you is certainly part of the hook. I remember looking at the boxes on LbNA listed nearby and being floored that there were some in places I had been to many times before. (And places I had never really heard of nearby too!) But I also think that a successful hunt very close to the beginning is important too.

Carianna of the GG (who doesn't often have 2¢ to stick in, but today I do!)

I have thought a lot about this question, too. I fell in love with the idea of letterboxing 5 years ago, but there were no letterboxes in my area. So, I started planting them. The only guides I had to reference were websites like lbNA. My first letterbox was a very badly hand-carved eraser in a pencil box, zipped in a plastic bag. But, I learned from my mistakes and just kept creating them. My P-count is now 70. Most of these have been planted within 25 miles of each other.

Still, there hasn't been a lot of local interest in the hobby. There are no beaten paths to any of my letterboxes. Most (but not all) of the finders traveled more than 25 miles. There are a lot of geocachers here, but not a lot of letterboxers.

I am only one person, so my style of letterbox creation might not suit everyone who would be interested in this hobby. Because I am a mother of young children, by default my letterboxes are usually urban, short walks, near play areas. This would not appeal to some people, other than the challenge of figuring out the clue. So, I vary the clues in a way that I can not yet vary the locations.

Also, some people simply rotate around their hobbies. Not everyone is capable of being addicted to one hobby like some letterboxers, and prefer to experience many different "sports".

I can't say what would make me become an addicted Finder. There are a few letterboxes in my area that have been here for years and I have yet to hunt them. I have an F-count of about 7. But, I think hunting is much more enjoyable with a partner or a few of them. I really don't have anyone to letterbox with (at least not anyone who LIKES it) and I think that has a bigger effect than the number of letterboxes or the quality of them in my area.

So, I guess if I really wanted to get a letterboxing fad started in my area, I'd communicate with others about it and try to find people who'd enjoy meeting occasionally for short trips, or just getting together to talk about it. Again... not the kind of thing I can do very often at this point in my life. But, something that I would suggest for anyone who has more free/alone time.

I have four children ages 8 and under who come letterboxing with me (and hubby.) At this point the fun is not necessarily in the quality of the stamp, but the fun of the hunt, and WHO gets to stamp in the book. One gets to stamp the logbook, one gets to stamp our book, and one doesn't get to do anything which means we have to find another letterbox so everyone gets a turn! (The other one is still a baby, so she isn't fighting for a turn.....yet)

As an adult, I do apperciate hand carved stamps. We have only found one box with a store bought stamp, but it was planted by a family with small children, so again, the fun was in the hunt, and for the planter it was fun for their children to have someone just come and find their box. As a parent I can understand that.

I think letterboxing is so cool because you can do it anywhere. With kids I don't get out LBing as much as I'd personally like, but if we ever travel anywhere we can bring clues with us and search at our destination.

There are many boxes in our area and most of them we haven't even attemped to find, but it is nice to know that they are there in case we ever do want to go looking for them.

ht

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And does it depend on the quality of the boxes found? I have a sneaking suspicion that it does, that finding a couple of rather poor examples right near your home might be worse than having to travel ten miles to find your first, if that first was a good one. Do you need to be really impressed by one or two in the first half dozen before you're sold on the whole letterboxing idea?

I have to say that this is totally off the mark for me. It really didn't matter what was in the box aside from the logbook! The success of finding something that other people didn't know about and then looking through the logbook and seeing who did know about it and where they came from was all I needed. All I had was a store-bought stamp myself and didn't know much more.

I don't think the quality of the stamp is a big factor starting off-- after all geocachers look for caches with just a logbook in them sometimes.

Being nearby is a factor, though. If I had to drive a long way just to try it, I doubt I would have. There was only 2 nearby me. After that I had to drive 45 minutes just for 3 more. Then nothing-- had to start planting. And my first plants were pretty crappy. It expanded the area and people seemed to appreciate having something to hunt.

Now that I have carved and planted I appreciate a good quality stamp (but I didn't before). In fact, if I had found something initially amazing I would probably have been too intimidated to plant any myself.

For us it was proximity and the thrill of the hunt and, as mentioned, the success of finding something that no one else knew was there almost in plain sight! That and communication with the planter made us feel like we had found a secret club which combined exercise and creativity (well, we DID!)

It helped that we could continue to find other boxes very nearby also...if I had to travel further it may not have caught on so quick. Quality of stamps helped but had nothing to do with our interest. My favorite stamps are those that are simple and even primitive. I know that the person isn't hung up on perfection but the joy of the game. (Not that I don't thrill at an awesomely carved stamp!)

My 25 cents worth,
dewdrop

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Letterboxing mania (LM)= (((Number of boxes within 25 miles) * (Number of handcarved stamps))/(Number of attempted finds))*(Number of Communications with other local boxers)

That's funny. Reminds me of a "paper" I wrote while working at Pizza Hut to calculate the time it would take to make an order. Whenever we took phone orders, we were supposed to estimate how long their order would take to be ready. Some workers seemed to have no flipping clue how long an order would take and would tell the person 15 minutes when 30 was probably more realistic. So the customer would come walking in thinking his pizza was ready to find out it was just now getting into the oven. Very annoying.

So on a boring afternoon after a certain calculus class I had, I started scribbling notes about a "scientific" way of calculating how long it took to cook a pizza based on pizza size, type of pizza, size of the oven, and the always present "management competency factor." I made it needlessly complex that required the use of physics, integration to "prove" my method of quoting an accurate order time. Ran on for four or five pages. Barrels of laughs. =)

Most of my co-workers flipped through it and thought I was nuts. Only one co-worker actually understood the math I used and was shocked that it was actually real math and--even more surprising--worked pretty darned well if you used it. =)

Nobody ever really used it, though. Not that I expected them to. I didn't even use it. I could estimate a good time far faster than running it through a calculator. (Of course, good estimates come with experience, and after working in the hut for a couple of years, I was very experienced.)

-- Ryan

I come from an area where "critical mass" has been achieved. I live in CT. I probably would have continued my search for letterboxes even with a sparse number in the area because I truely enjoy the "thrill of the hunt". I really enjoy the treasure seeking aspect of the hobby and the stamps that I find are the icing on the cake.

There are many wonderful carvers and clue writers in this area, and they have brought me to a number of beautiful places in the area that I would have otherwise passed right on by. So, I am fortunate to have had these people seed the area with their wonderful talents and an eye for a good hiding spot. Thank you to all who have come before me to make this hobby that much better.

Fire Goddess

I didn't care about the box quality in the beginning. I know more now, but when I started (last summer), I didn't care at all.

I had heard about boxing years ago and always wanted to try it but finally made time to start last year. My first find was a primitive stamp on an eraser in a waterlogged box. I didn't care! I was so blown away (like someone else said) that it WORKED. There was something THERE, hidden in the woods, that no one else knew about. This still blows me away when I stop to think about.

Of course, even if I hadn't been hooked then, I would have been after my 2nd find, which was Murray7's Turkeyrama. What a fun box! Finding and managing to work with the box in the middle of a crowded restaurant--man, what a thrill!

Anyway--I was predisposed to be hooked, admittedly, but at the beginning I didn't know good from bad, I just knew I LOVED it.

-Cottage Magpie

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I fell in love with the idea of letterboxing 5 years ago...

An early convert! I didn't hear about either geocaching or letterboxing until just before Thanksgiving 2004, and nowadays I feel like one of the old hands.

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...but there were no letterboxes in my area.

My first find -- either letterbox or geocache -- was a letterbox 3 hours from my home. That was, in fact, the nearest letterbox at the time. There were a good many geocaches nearby, I just didn't get around to them before heading off on my Thanksgiving trip.

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So, I started planting them.

Did you actually start planting without ever having found a box? That's pretty impressive! I don't think I would have done that. Nowadays one of the issues I keep running up against is people finding my boxes who express the opinion that they are not ready to plant. I don't know how to get across that they don't need to be ready, just go for it!

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My first letterbox was a very badly hand-carved eraser in a pencil box, zipped in a plastic bag.

Today I am ashamed to admit that my second placement included a stamp hacked out of an eraser with the attitude that I wish I didn't have to make a rubber stamp in order to place a box. It was horrible largely because I didn't care about the stamp, it was a chore to have to carve it. Yes, that box has since been pulled -- but the lousy stamp wasn't the only reason, I made other mistakes as well.

Ironically, my first placement is a whole 'nother story. I created one of my most creative stamps, largely because I knew nothing about how it's supposed to be done, I was making it up as I went along -- and working with the materials and abilities I had. It's still one of my proudest stamps and proudest placements.

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My P-count is now 70. Most of these have been planted within 25 miles of each other.

My P-count is in the 70's, but less than half of these are within 25 miles of home. After planting enough in my area to constitute what I considered a "critical mass", I largely quit planting around here. I didn't want to saturate the area simply because I wanted to leave lots of choice planting locations for others to start planting! Of late, basically all of my plants are made while I'm on a trip somewhere -- usually in some other area that's far below critical mass! There's no shortage of such areas in Florida/Georgia/Alabama. I recently planted the first letterbox in Dothan, Alabama, and Dothan isn't a small town!

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Because I am a mother of young children, by default my letterboxes are usually urban, short walks, near play areas.

Gee, I guess perhaps because I don't have children, a lot of my boxes are waaay out in the woods. In fact, I usually try to put them as far out as possible, because it's hard to put boxes waaay out in the woods because it's difficult to tell people how to get there. Without a deliberate effort to place boxes requiring long hikes, you often end up with lots of drive-bys.

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Not everyone is capable of being addicted to one hobby like some letterboxers, and prefer to experience many different "sports".

Geocaching, terracaching, and geodashing! :-)

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There are a few letterboxes in my area that have been here for years and I have yet to hunt them. I have an F-count of about 7.

Wow! A placer but not a finder! I've run into the opposite -- people who find but never plant -- but this is the first I've heard of someone who plants but doesn't care to find.

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But, I think hunting is much more enjoyable with a partner or a few of them. I really don't have anyone to letterbox with (at least not anyone who LIKES it) and I think that has a bigger effect than the number of letterboxes or the quality of them in my area.

Very good point! SWMBO wasn't too thrilled at first -- especially when I spent $100 on a GPS receiver -- but fortunately she came around.

Perhaps there'd be some value in setting up a "meet a letterboxing partner" system of some sort. Like, everybody who lacks somebody to letterbox with would get paired up. It's a can of worms, of course.

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And does it depend on the quality of the boxes found?

I have to say that this is totally off the mark for me. It really didn't matter what was in the box aside from the logbook! The success of finding something that other people didn't know about and then looking through the logbook and seeing who did know about it and where they came from was all I needed. All I had was a store-bought stamp myself and didn't know much more.

Actually, when I mentioned "the quality of the boxes", I wasn't speaking only of a lovely hand-carved stamp. By "quality", I meant everything that makes a box a fun find. Being a clever hide in a little-known park, for example. We've all seen boxes that were just stuffed under a rock in front of a McDonald's or something, with directions that just tell you to go here and look there. I'm suggesting that if the first three or four boxes found are of this sort, you might lose interest.

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Now that I have carved and planted I appreciate a good quality stamp (but I didn't before).

That, of course, is what bothers me about people who find but never plant.

I was really impressed by the first box I found; I thought the hand-carved stamp was amazing. In hindsight, it was nothing special. But after doing some more geocaching and letterboxing, running into Red's Bunch's Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption series in Moultrie, GA simply blew me away. It hadn't occurred to me that letterboxes could be this creative, nor that hand-carved stamps could be that impressive. It changed my outlook on the pastime and set me on the road towards trying to make my carvings seriously better.

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In fact, if I had found something initially amazing I would probably have been too intimidated to plant any myself.

Another worry of mine. In fact, I've actually had people tell me they were intimidated by my boxes. But I can't see planting lousy boxes just so as not to intimidate newbies.

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My first find was a primitive stamp on an eraser in a waterlogged box. I didn't care! I was so blown away (like someone else said) that it WORKED. There was something THERE, hidden in the woods, that no one else knew about.

I guess what we're hearing here is that DNF's are bad for getting newbies hooked.

Speaking in terms of fishing I was only gumming the hook (not trully hooked but the hook is in a fish's mouth) untill I planted my first box. I rememberthat It might have been the worst box ever (gladware container, a rele boring handcarved stamp, and a stickey pad for a logbook) but i was SOO proud when it got its first visitor (I checked weekly). So perhaps newbies should be encouraged to plant a box in order to be hooked?

Fish or man

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I guess what we're hearing here is that DNF's are bad for getting newbies hooked.

You know, I hadn't thought about it, but I think you're right. I did have a DNF my 2nd day out, but I found a couple of others the same day too. If I had gone out searching for a bunch of boxes and not found any my first couple of trips, I might have given it up as not working.

-Cottage Magpie

Good question. How many boxes is needed in an area to hook a letterboxer? I agree that there needs to be a dozen or so within 30 miles to first really get the LBing thorns in. I think finding a well found box in a neat area with a good hike first is also a great incentive. I know when I found my first box, after a wonderful hike in a unknown park 5 miles from my house I was hooked. I was so excited about "meeting" new parks and there were the other stamps... It intrigued me to see all these other people in my area who had been boxing for awhile. The stamp in the box to me is always great. Just like when you get another stamp in your passport. I don't judge the quality, but am just thrilled to add to my letterboxing "art" collection!

I think I am the most prolific planter now in my area and I'm hoping some of those others will start to add more. Thanks to all the Cleveland area planters. Each and every box has been a joy to find!

Travel'n Turtle

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I was so blown away (like someone else said) that it WORKED. There was something THERE, hidden in the woods, that no one else knew about. This still blows me away when I stop to think about.

I agree with this sentiment. I think that the initial hook is set when we actually find that first box and realize that these treasures are lurking nearby us in parks waiting for us!

Travel'n Turtle

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Speaking in terms of fishing I was only gumming the hook (not trully hooked but the hook is in a fish's mouth) untill I planted my first box.

This is a good point. I was too just as eager after seeing all those finders in the first box to place my first box and get them to visit mine! Well said Fish or man.

Travel'n Turtle

We owe our first several finds to castles16 who was the only person planting around here then. Of course, living in GA means that you NEVER run out of boxes to hunt.

Of course, living in GA means that you NEVER run out of boxes to hunt.

Especially if you're in metro Atlanta, particularly the east side (Stone Mountain, Gwinnett County, etc.). Seems like there's a new box at the Big Rock every day...

Of course, now that drgdlg is/are moving to SC, I expect that the number of plants in Gwinnett will slack off a bit.

When I started in 2004, there "was" one box within 40 miles of the house, and it was Missing.

In the two-month interim between the discovery and the first find, I had the chance to read a lot about it, and actually had two stamps carved before I had a sig stamp. It took a trip to Rhode Island, where there were 3 boxes a stone's throw from my parents' house in a little park in which I spent countless hours when I was a child. Even having not been there for years, as I read the clues I could imagine myself walking down those faded yet familiar paths, and almost see EXACTLY where the boxes were hidden.

Of course, since the boxes were planted by Jay Drew and his Clan, I was spoiled from the get-go.

A week after that, I planted those two boxes, then another in December, and then not again until April. By that time, there were only a few locals (ie, within 25 miles) that started and still haven't stopped. There have been a few others that found one or two boxes, then disregarded the hobby.

But they were probably scared away by those nefarious "clothesline" spiders, ticks, mosquitoes, water moccasins, poison ivy and bugs, bugs bugs.

I guess what we're hearing here is that DNF's are bad for getting newbies hooked.


I would agree. I my case, out of my first 4 attempts, I only found 2. I was a bit discouraged (actually, it didn't discourage me, but the kids were whining when I would drag them out and then there wasn't a box--which made it tough for me to get them out again). However, it was thanks to this poor find ratio that my sister suggested I join a local yahoo group to find out if anyone knew the status of the 2 letterboxes we couldn't find. (Turned out they were both missing.) It had never dawned on me that there was a yahoo group in my area for letterboxing! Fortunately, Red's Bunch and Mark had just recently created the LbSE group. They were both so welcoming and helpful that it kept me hooked until I was completely addicted. :-)

It's THEIR fault!
Amyrica (who misses both Red's Bunch and Mark while they're in semi-retirement)

Of course, now that drgdlg is/are moving to SC, I expect that the number of plants in Gwinnett will slack off a bit.

Ohohohoh........now we Sandlappers can expect more and more!!!!!! YEAH!!!

I learned about letterboxing last September from a magazine article. We went right out to look for some in our area. Out of 10 we found one that was still active. All the rest were missing. It did not deter us. We planted our own. When we have time we will look for the ones farther from home, 50 miles or so. As our child gets older, I see us driving farther to look for letterboxes. I see this as a life long hobby. Not I found them all and will now quit.

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I think that the initial hook is set when we actually find that first box and realize that these treasures are lurking nearby us in parks waiting for us!

So, the critical mass is ONE?

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I was only gumming the hook (not trully hooked but the hook is in a fish's mouth) untill I planted my first box.

Then there are Oldhounder and Siamese who I believe were well past 1500 finds before they ever planted a box. I think their P-count is still something like four or five, most of which involved someone else's carving (two are mine).

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Of course, living in GA means that you NEVER run out of boxes to hunt.

Correction: Living in _north_ GA might mean that you never run out of boxes to hunt. The southern half of the state isn't well populated with boxes at all, with some areas almost completely devoid of boxes. I planted both the first letterbox and the first geocache in Bainbridge, and the only letterbox or geocache in Moultrie at one time was the Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption letterbox series, and it's been retired. I dunno if any other boxes have been placed there since.

Same thing is true of Alabama, I believe. The Alabama forum often bemoans the lack of boxes in the state, but what few boxes they have are all in the northern half.

Of course, living in GA means that you NEVER run out of boxes to hunt.


Actually, that's a bit of a myth. When I started boxing last summer, there were THREE in the Augusta area. That there are more here now is a concerted effort on the part of myself and YankeeChik with the help of a few others. However, if *I* want to box, I now have to travel at least an hour away from home to find anything. If you're in south Georgia, the challenge is even greater. I've got plans for the Savannah area this summer. :-)

Now...if you live in the metro ATL area...oh yeah....lol....boxing for DAYS.

JPMcD

>Of course, living in GA means that you NEVER run out of boxes to hunt.

South Georgia is a different story! (I'm trying to change that, though!)

Mandy
GJ