In November of 2000, Jeremy added a Guide to Creating and Hiding a Stash to the Geocaching.com website. Surprisingly, the guidelines haven't changed much in over a quarter-century.
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In 2004, the guidelines expanded slightly, with a stronger focus on ensuring cache containers are placed in suitable locations and that they are maintained. The page also include a hyperlink for filling out an online form to report the cache (Step 4).
In 2015, Podcacher added a guide to their website: How to Hide a Geocache, and the Official Geocaching Blog wrote an article, How to Hide Your First Geocache in 2020, followed by a second article, Hiding Your First Geocache, in September, 2021.. This was followed five years later in 2025 with, A Guide to Hide Your First Geocache from Geocaching.com This latter blog post provides plenty of links to subject areas within the Help Center, the most interesting being a Hider Quiz.
Here is the most current summary of hiding a geocache:
- Read the guidelines.
- Take the hider quiz.
- Choose an ideal location.
- Choose a great container.
- Collect coordinates.
- Set it up and go (create a cache page).
- Communicate with your reviewer.
- Maintain your cache
The Geocaching Associate of Great Britain (GAGB) has a webpage dedicated to Hiding a Geocache, and even WikiHow has an article on How to Create and Hide a Geocache.
With all this information out there and available through a simple web-browser search, it surprises me how many times I have found a poorly hidden, or maintained cache. But, I suppose it is all part of the game. But as I have often been told, "If you know better, do better."