I'm fairly sure I'm not supposed to share the items publicly during the hunt, but I will once it is over next weekend.

We can share the item list, we just can't share photos :)

This is my 3rd year. Hoping to find some gishing letterboxes near me!

I've looked at the site, but can't seem to find the 2017 List... is there a link for it?

You can find the item list (and previous years' lists) here: http://www.fangirlquest.com/gishwhes/

Yeah, letterboxing.org doesn't offer any social options. They're very traditional - LTCs, events, etc. are out.

Atlasquest's box title and box clue searches are both great. Not sure about LBNA's. So that would be a way to find relevant boxes, were we to be searching.

Of course, since we're not to "collude" I'm not saying that's what I'm going to do...just that it would be common sense if people did that. ;)

I couldn't remember about the item list - thanks.

I may have pointed out that LBNA has a tendency to crash (did they finally get a new server and is it working)?

Just setting my letterbox up for Team Tute! I've never done this before, is it frowned upon to use store bought stamps? I have some that I've never had a use for so I was excited to bust them out!

Store bought stamps are perfectly acceptable. Especially when accompanied by such enthusiasm!
Welcome to the wacky world of Letterboxing. I hope (once the chaos of gishwes dies down) that you get the chance to peruse the wonderful boxes and clues in the Seattle area... it just so happens that the owner of this site is in Seattle (when he isn't off traipsing trails) (he's a serial traipser).

Go Team Tute!

Like any hobby, we have our more particular people. They may be less inclined to find a store-bought stamp. But I've found some really charming boxes with store-bought stamps. It's really a combination of logbook/stamp/location/clues.

For what it's worth, though, stamp carving is a relatively inexpensive artistic hobbies to pick up. You can probably get what you need for $20-$30

Does anyone know of a GISHWHES team in MD that needs a coordinating team on the letterbox item? My stepdaughter would like to know...

Welcome to the new letterboxers signing up because of GISHWHES. So far I've seen AtroxQueen and The Butterchers Team post here. Let's hope that all of the new letterboxers stick around.

If you need any help or encouragement then just ask. We're a friendly bunch. Nevertheless, there are still some who may bite, like a certain moose we all know. However, his bites are usually only "flesh wounds". ;-)

I was so excited to see this item!!!!! I jumped on it right away. I'm hoping someone else plants a northern Illinois box so I can grab it. I think so far I'm the only person on my team who already knew about letterboxing. I love that this is dragging a bunch of people into it. I agree on the hope they all stay.

Team Racecar Radar saying hi! Our box in the Upstate South Carolina area will be placed today!

I'm hoping someone else plants a northern Illinois box so I can grab it.

I know that participants can't reveal the list until it is over, but this item appears to be to hide a letterbox and list it on LBNA or AQ. I hope that there is a large percentage that stay in letterboxing afterwards.

I'm from the team Illusive Yetis and I will be planting a box around West Michigan, Grand Rapids area if someone is around here that is also going to be doing it!

Bugger. We're team Uberlanders in Portland, Or. Anyone near by to go find?

Team Uber landers down in pdx if you need to trade to find a box!

Do you think it's considered colluding if I tell you there's going to be a GISHbox in Traverse City today?

I'm the captain of Team [REDACTED] Pudding Pie! I'll be planting our box in Oregon (somewhat near Banks).

GISH on, you beauties!!!
<3
3H

I'm pretty sure you have to be signed up to see the items. But here's the letterboxing item:
"Letterboxing (http://www.letterboxing.org/ or see https://www.atlasquest.com/) is a game where people hide small weatherproof boxes in publicly accessible spaces with a logbook & a stamp. They share the clues to find their box on the web or via word of mouth. Create a letterbox for your team & share clues so other teams can find it over social media. Leave a logbook with your team stamp on it in the box. Then, find another teams’ box and leave them a message of encouragement along with your team’s stamp in their log book. Submit proof that you found at least one other team’s book & the message you wrote. NO COLLUSION! (And that goes for you, too, Donald.)"

Maybe GR on Thursday ...

If you could get it to GR on Thursday I can totally hit it. I have to work all week and wont be able to drive up to T.C

No i don't. My team has one planted in Rockford.

As soon as I read about this letterboxing thing for GISHWHES, I immediately fell in love and will be doing it for myself after the hunt is over. I made our stamp on Sunday, but have yet to plant it (metro Atlanta) and hope that another team has one nearby.

I can't wait to get started. How did I not know about this before? I've been involved in scavenger hunts and clue solving/finding games for decades!

Yeah! I am glad there are more people coming on board because of this. It's something that seems to be hard to get the word out about. I think there are a couple of reasons for this: 1) it's so specific that it might not come up on scavenger hunt searches, and/or not in the first pages of search results; 2) Not everyone is impressed when you describe it to them; it's a lot more fun to see in person. When I first told ArnoldZiffel about it, she wasn't impressed. But she was tagging along when I found one and now she's obsessed!
I'd definitely like to have more people involved. It's exciting to find new and different boxes. There are only 4-5 usual planters in my town, and while all are great, variety is the spice of life.

Right on cue, I see LBNA went down today. Definitely good they got AQ added. Ryan seems to have more bandwidth here.

Seems like a fun event!

I always encourage new boxers to find a few boxes before planting their own, but it seems like this GISHWHES challenge is encouraging newbies to plant a box without having found any letterboxes first, leading to an influx of new boxes (yay!) that unfortunately are incorrectly listed, have vague clues, boxes in potentially poor locations, etc. (oh no!)

Maybe somebody involved could encourage the organizers to modify the challenge so that people first find x boxes (3-5?) and only then plant their own, after they've hopefully seen a few examples of high quality boxes by more experienced planters.

I'm against anything that tells people how to box/experience a hobby or that might come off as unwelcoming and discourage new boxers. We can always skip the box if we see it's been planted by a new member, or that the clues are poorly written, etc.

Having participants find boxes first could be challenging, too, especially for those in areas with few boxes (a friend of mine has to drive a half hour to find the nearest box, for example). Since it's a week long event with a lot of different challenges, the time that it might take to find five boxes would be pretty prohibitive.

Also, high quality is in the eye of the beholder :)

Encouragement to find a box before planting a box, unless worded harshly, isn't unwelcoming at all IMO. And it certainly doesn't have to be a strict requirement for people in box-less areas.

Of course we can skip finding certain boxes, but unfindable or poorly packaged boxes, especially by people who never go on LbNA or AQ again, just become litter, which is something we should try to avoid as much as possible as a hobby.

Hi! My Gishwhes team is MotherofChuck. I appreciate the tips! I do have a question, probably a dozen, but one that comes to mind at the moment, can we post our box on this site as well as letterboxing.org?

You sure can! Both sites have easy crosslisting options where you can just add the link to the box on the other site.

Because different letterboxers have different preferences as to which site they use, it's great to post it on both to get a wider audience.

The requirements are generally the same for everyone, so as a practical matter, those in boxless areas would be left out. And I do think it can come off as "you're not good enough, we don't want your box" even if that's not what's intended.

As for the litter, I doubt a 3-5 box find requirement would impact that in any way.

I wonder how they found out about Letterboxing!! sounds like such an awesome way to raise money for charity!