Puzzle of all Puzzles!

[ShadowCachers]

Anybody out their think they are good at puzzle caches. You need to take a look at this one thats located in Florida. The cache has been sitting their for along time without a find. Its above my skill level. Check it out! GC18M5B Mafia Boss! Brettp2004 asked me for some help because its close to his hometown and would love to score a level 5 FTF. So any help would be great.

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=d1f5bdd1-da0c-4665-a72d-9764c7c3a9d7

[TnT]

Reading through the groundspeak.com forums, I see that it is generally considered bad form to ask for puzzle hints in a public forum.

(edited for clarity)

I did look at the puzzle in question. Zork, I think I know how to solve it. It would take some time to solve, and I don't have the time to give to a cache so far away that I'd never be able to claim anyway.

[HikerRon]

Bad form? i have had a lot of help from a lot of cachers on puzzles. and ihave helped others solve puzzle caches that werent mine. i dont think there's anything wrong with it. sometimes the collaboration is a lot of fun.
i dont see it as being much different than a group of cachers searching for a cache at the same time, then someone finds it and everyone logs it.

in the case of this particular cache i think the owner said he would delete a persons log if they got help from someone else. that's a little different i guess.

[TnT]

To "Shadowcachers":

I didn't intend to in any way berate you for posting this in the forums. If it has come across that way, I apologize.

In general, I don't help people with someone elses puzzle caches because the owner has put effort into designing the puzzle in order to challenge others just as someone puts effort into a great camo hide, they wouldn't want someone who finds it to tell everyone else the secret to the hide.

On the other hand, if the cache/puzzle owner isn't active and I can't get a hint directly from them, I might ask for a hint from a previous finder/solver.

To me, personally, seeing a "Found it" log from somebody on one of my puzzles caches that I know didn't solve it is alot like a "TFTC" cut and past log, but that's only me personally.

Also, as hikerron points out, geocaching is a social game and team hides / solves are part of the social aspect. In that instance I would put in my log something like: "Found with hikerron who had previously solved it. Glad he showed me how to solve, I learned something new."

Anyway, all that being said, I did put what I think is a hint to solving that particular puzzle in my original post.