gazurtoid

Why would you go to the trouble to look up the cache data, go out and hunt for a cache, locate it, open it and look at the trinkets inside, but then put it back without signing the log? What is the purpose of geocaching? To me, the purpose is to have fun, explore interesting places, and be outdoors. For my family in particular, I'd add "to find treasure" and "to keep the kids interested while we walk the dogs". Signing a log sheet doesn't really fit into the purpose, for my family. If that means we aren't playing the official game correctly, no problem, we'll play by ourselves. I have no objection to signing the log; I just don't see a reason to do so, for my family. I understand that serious players want to, and that's great for them. It's like having a referee to keep official score in an organized hockey game. But some of us are interested in playing hockey just for fun. We don't need to know who's winning. That's why I suggested the new "Signed the log" status for serious players. To answer your question niraD, it would be like if you went out to play frisbee with your dog, and whenever she catches the frisbee, instead of just saying "good girl, good catch!", you'd be required to also record the teeth marks on the frisbee to prove that your dog caught it.

Interesting. It's clear to me now that for some cachers at least, there's more to "Finding" a cache than simply finding it. i.e. if you go out and hunt for a cache, locate it, open it and look at the trinkets inside, don't sign the log, and go home, and your spouse asks you "hey honey did you find the cache?" you'd say yes, but if the question were instead "hey honey are you going to log a Find for that cache?" you'd say no. I understand the difference, but speaking for my family only, we're only interested in the small-f "find". As others have said, maybe the official game isn't for us. The game my family wants to play is simpler: if you found it, you found it. I think we'll just play by ourselves and I'll log my family's finds in the database I've set up. I'll probably keep logging Finds online too, to get those smiley-faces on the map, but if COs delete our Finds, at least I'll have an accurate record of our finds. Hey here's an idea (that will probably get shot down immediately): add another type of logging status: "Signed the log". Then serious players could use that status, while those of us who are just interested in small-f "finds" can continue to use the "Found it" status. Cache owners could then ignore all the online "Found it" entries, and focus instead only on the "Signed the log" entries. If fraudulent entries are found, they could be bumped down to "Found it" status (or deleted).

Thanks again to everyone for all the enlightenment. I am learning now that this hobby is taken very seriously by some people. Okay I can understand that. I still don't understand the point of cheating though. I could walk around telling people I'm a billionaire, but if I'm not, what's the point? Okay in the billionaire case, some people might treat me differently, but in geocaching, I would be surprised if people treat me differently if I say I have a high find count. Thank you Touchstone for that video about virtual caches. One phrase was particularly interesting: "... some people had discovered the joy of armchair logging..." What? What joy can you get from logging a find when you didn't physically go to the cache??? That makes no sense! Thank you niraD for your explanations too. I like what you said about trying to contact a potentially bogus cacher before deleting their Find log. That seems only fair. For example, if a cacher is from a faraway country and couldn't physically sign the log sheet for any reason, they will probably never be able to sign the log sheet, so it would be unfair to delete their log entry without asking first. In my opinion anyway. Maybe it's best for me to log my family's "finds" in my own database instead of using the online log. I don't want to log some finds, only to have cache owners delete our finds because we couldn't sign the log sheet. About logging finds without actually opening the container: I cache with my kids, and they would stop coming with me if I didn't open the containers. And they would cry. Even if I go by myself, I would never expend the effort on finding a cache without then opening it. Except maybe micro or nano caches where only a log sheet can possibly fit in it. Chief301, I think your personal ethos matches mine.

Thanks for all the replies. I understand the reasoning now, but at least in my case, it still doesn't really make sense for me to write on the paper log, for these reasons: - it will often be raining, so the less time I have the log sheet out, the drier it'll keep. - My family has found only about 10 caches so far, but in about half of them, the log sheet was wet. In one case, it was frozen in ice. - I have absolutely no desire to win any prize or anything for accumulating caches. Therefore I have absolutely no desire to "cheat" and log a cache as found, when I didn't find it. (is there a prize or sense of status for accumulating caches? If not, why would anybody cheat?) - If a geocaching administrator or someone like that says that because I didn't sign the log sheets, my found caches "don't count", I'd say "I don't care", because I'm not in this for money or status. As long as the website shows my found caches with the smiley-face icon, I'm happy. Some more questions, after reading the replies: - what's wrong with virtual caches? - as a cache owner, why would you want to verify that people have signed the log sheet instead of trusting the online log? If there are armchair cachers who've cheated, that will inflate the number of finds. Is that bad? - as a cache owner, if you find that there are online finds that don't have corresponding paper log entries, what do you do about it?

Just starting into this hobby, and I'm wondering, what is the purpose of the paper log book/sheet in the cache container? I can see that in the "old days", it would have had a purpose, but now that we can log all info on geocaching.com, I don't understand why we're supposed to sign the paper log sheet/book.