MaybeLost

Granted, I'm new, and this is definitely a learning process. I do appreciate the input and guidance from more experienced people. Thanks! To me, there's a difference between things I've attempted and haven't yet succeeded at, and things that I know better than to attempt in the first place. If I don't succeed at an honest attempt, I'm happy to log DNF and will try again once my skill improves or someone more talented proves the cache is still there. Maybe caring about the difference is irrelevant in the grand scheme, and will change with experience. You're probably right about the "should be archived" route. I'm still stuck in timid newbie phase, which is likely making me way more squeamish than I should be about this issue. Will definitely give that some serious mulling over.

The server threw some kind of php script timeout error when I hit the "post" button, and appears to have processed the command twice. Could a mod please delete one of these 2 identical threads? Thanks!

Off the top, please allow me to bow deeply and gush about how much I'm enjoying and appreciating the sport, and this wonderful resource! I'm new (2 months), and I really hope I'm not stepping on any toes by bringing this up. Please forgive the length - I'm not trying to be pushy. I just believe the fair thing to do is put everything on the table before asking someone else to form an opinion. As background, this started off on the Canada board, in the "Police leave warning, take nothing" thread. The incident that got me involved is explained in my first post. Credit for the idea goes to danoshimano, who mentioned it in this post. The Blue Quasar nicely pointed me to this board as the place to put it forward for consideration. The nutshell on the original thread is that the final search for a cache container in questionable locations can: 1) make the seeker appear guilty of criminal behaviour 2) put seekers into areas frequented by dangerous individuals 3) alarm people who live/work nearby 4) tarnish geocaching's reputation and cause public relations problems danoshimano's idea of a Did Not Search log is, I believe, an excellent alternative to "did not find" for times when you get to the end point and have to back away out of respect. "Did not find" indicates a personal failure on your part - you didn't succeed at something you should have been able to accomplish. Finding the cache area, and choosing to back away for the good of someone else, or the sake of the sport itself, isn't a failure. It's a noble thing to do, and benefits the whole community. It would be nice to have the log reflect that you did a good thing, rather than suggest that you weren't good enough. Giving the Logged Visits bar a Did Not Search icon between Found It and Didn't Find It would be a quick and handy way to draw seekers' attention to a possible problem that they should search the logs for. This is definitely something that I would personally use every single time I looked at a cache description. Thanks for reading this through. Anyone have any thoughts?

I think your DNS is a fabulous idea. Now how do we get it implemented into geocaching.com for logs? Making it an officially sanctioned option would encourage people to back off bad cache locations before they create a public relations land mine. It might also help encourage cache owners to use more suitable locations, without being confrontational. If nothing else, seeing "3 found it, 2 didn't find it, 10 didn't search" would keep people from wasting time on long drives or multi caches that end in unsuitable locations.

Avoiding lurkers is something to think about, but I'm more concerned about my actions alarming people in their own homes. On Sunday night, Hubby and I decided to try a local "recommended at night" cache while we waited for some restaurant tables to open up. Neither of us were familiar with this little dead end road. I usually read everyone else's logs before we head out, but in the rush to get out and back for dinner, I didn't bother. Sure wish I had. We'd assumed this was your standard uninhabited rural boat launch. Wrong. It's a bunch of little houses clustered at the dead end of a road. The houses are jammed right on top of each other, and it's more of a driveway than a road. Even on the launch ramp itself, you seem to be in someone's tiny little yard. I was shocked to see that a cache had been set out in such a private location - and then labelled as "come poke around these people's homes with flashlights." Granted, I grew up in the sticks where you look out for your neighbors, but my gruff city-raised husband didn't want any part of this location either. We immediately turned the car around and left as unobtrusively as we could. I still feel like I should apologize to someone for being there at all. If one of these homeowners called the police, I'd certainly understand why.