The reviewers are in a very tough place - they are volunteers who do sterling work but they have to toe the corporate line of whichever listing organisation they "work" for.
The listing company is in a difficult position as they have to try to deal with every eventuality that a CO can ever think of. Fundamentally, I have no issues with the wording of the current guidelines as they have been a modification of pre-existing guidelines and I am sure that through open discussion and relevent debate that they will be changed again in the future. No "governing" body of a sport has *EVER* got the wording of their rules/guidelines correct the first time.
The issue I have with it is the inconsistency. The guideline has *always* been "no burying" but there are very famous caches such as ET#1 which is very clearly buried. Is a piece of desert any different than a piece of the UK ?
All I am asking for (and hope to get) is a consistent message which COs and finders can deal with *and* which is consistently implemented throughout the world (as much as any rule can be). That would help me as a finder to know that a cache I came to met/did not meet the guidelines and it would mean that no-one could chastise the reviewers or the listing company as they could point at a consistently implemented rule.
I understand that there are caches out there and it could be that the listing company decide that certain caches are grandfathered in or that a cache has specific landowner permission to do it.
We are all supposed to have landowner permission and I cannot see how, if the landowner agrees to the "burying" of a cache, how the listing company can refuse the listing (apart from the obvious !) as long as all local and international laws are adhered to.
There are so many caches out there that could be in breach of the guidelines - caches in trees can harm the environment as people break branches etc, caches in rivers can lead to damage to riverbanks etc, caches in "open" spaces lead to geotrails being created which harm the environment. Does that mean we should report all of these ?
The main point is consistency as well as a reasoned debate