Ageleni

What would you do? On Saturday someone dropped a trackable into a cache. On Sunday I took it and logged it. This morning she wrote to me and asked to have it back. It originated in Florida, and she is going to Florida this week and "was asked to bring it to Florida where it began." Here is the TB in question: https://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?tracker=TB7D92D My inclination is to say no, mainly because I like the organic process of moving trackables. I like them to go where they land, to give an accurate look at their travels. And there is nothing on the page that indicates that it should return to Florida. I'd like to put it in the next large cache I find, and let it continue on its journey. HOWEVER, if some folks here make some interesting arguments as to why I should give it back, I am certainly open to discussion.

Ideally a reviewer will assess the situation--call for CO maintenance, eventually make the decision whether or not to archive. But sometimes nothing happens. I've seen caches with enormous DNF lists and requests for archive that go back YEARS and nobody has done a thing about them. Some are for clear reasons, like the phone booth is no longer there or the farmer said to get off of his property, but the local reviewers are as inactive as the COs!

Only about 10% of my caching is pre-meditated. Mainly it's just my making stops around and on the way home from work when I have a gig in a new location. No way I could have anyone come with me at those times even if I had a regular caching partner!

I agree reviewers cannot edit. However, you can have a friend look at it before you list it. Or just read it through a couple of times to make sure the more obvious errors are caught before you send it out.

I placed a cache called "To the 21st Power" next to an electric light pole at the foot of my driveway. The title was clever because my house number--21--was on the pole. You read the title, see the power pole, see the 21, and...AHHH! But then the city removed the numbers on the pole. So now the title of my cache makes no sense!

I don't like overly long descriptions, but I also dislike descriptions that are too short. "Film canister." "Happy caching." Um...okay? Don't tell me to do things I already plan to do, like putting the cache back as I found it, or to bring a pen. It wastes words. If you change the cache container, update the listing to reflect this. Don't tell me I am looking for a blue box when the cache is actually a green bison tube. And don't put a hint unless it is a hint. "No hint needed" and "Have fun" are not clues.

I am the patriarch here, unless you consider whoever wrote the article that got me interested as my parent! I've got four children. One is the pet child (my young nephew)--he will surely carry on the family name and will likely give me a grandchild or two. One is the child who visits every holiday (my youngest son)--he will stay loyal but I am not sure if I will get any grandchildren from him, as he's mainly only interested in it when I am. My third child (a friend) promised to make me a happy mother, but then she forgot about me. My fourth child (my second-youngest son) rarely visits and is honestly just my child in name only. I've also got four adopted children who have participated in the hobby but do not have accounts--my mother, my ex-boyfriend (who was more delighted in learning that you can hide things under lamp skirts than in the game itself), and two friends. None of these four people is ever even going to find a mate, let alone give me any grandchildren, but it's nice to know that they once called me mama.

Anyone remember Flat Stanley? A book about a guy who got flattened by a steam roller or something, and he was able to fit inside and envelope to be mailed all over the world. Schools picked up on this as a project, where kids would color and laminate a Flat Stanley and send them to friends and family around the world, who would take Stanley to various places and photograph him there before sending him back. I see the "Visit" option like that: A way to track where the TB has been before returning it. I personally HATE "Visit" logs. I want to see the actual travels of the TB not just where the current holder has been. To me, it seems almost childlike to show where the TB has "visited," like going from place to place should somehow be exciting. Do you actually take the TB out, dip it into the cache, and care? I find that these logs really muddy up the TB page.

I've definitely let a few loose before. Sometimes graciously ("Nice cache, but coords are about 50 feet off"), but sometimes I get really angry and let them know it! Example, coordinates that led to the middle of a ball field that had four or five small buildings/structures surrounding it. I consider geocaching a GPS-based game, and I expect the coordinates to get me to the cache, not within 500 feet of it...and I let the CO know how I felt about wasting my time driving out there. Another time, a description was all about the great view of a local landmark, and I complained that the landmark was nowhere in sight. (That CO actually wrote back apologizing for the growth that had occurred in the years since he had placed the cache...)

I agree, but it's not necessarily true with everyone. I use a mobile device for 99% of my finds (logging them on the spot), and I either spend a few minutes tapping it out in the car, or I use voice recognition technology to tell the story. But being of the keyboard age, I have the "wanting to tell the story" mindset, so it is natural that I wouldn't give in to the easy TTFC fix like some people who do most of their correspondence in text-speak.

Agreed here! I admit, sometimes the cache itself is unextraordinary enough to warrant a one- or two-sentence log. But usually I write a little something unique about my experience in finding it: ** I looked far too long for something that ended up being right under my nose. ** I saw a snake while getting to this one. ** This design is just precious! ** My muggle friend found this one before I did. ** It was snowing lightly when I found this. And so on. As a CO I like to read a little about people's experience in finding my cache, and as a cacher I like to make my logs a sort of journal of my caching story. (In another topic, the argument came up that if you couldn't get to the cache, you shouldn't log it as a DNF, but I do this as well, because there's a story with my NOT finding a cache too.) My logs are as much about me as about the caches.

I have one out at the base of my driveway. It got a few finds within the first couple of weeks. I recognized some of the names from logs on caches I had found in this area--you know, it's a big community where we all recognize each other's names even if we never meet! Well, I started working for a murder mystery theater company about six months after I placed my cache. I met an actor who mentioned that he liked to geocache. Yay, someone to talk to about it! We both are in the St. Louis area right now, but he was recently from Vegas, while I used to live in southern Utah and would to go Vegas frequently to visit a boyfriend there (and still go out to visit, including a few months prior). I thought it was cool that he was from Vegas, and asked what his user name was. It sounded really familiar to me. I realized that I had seen it on one of the caches that I had found in Vegas that year. But then it hit me--he was one of the first to log the cache in my yard! I told him about it, he remembered the cache, and we talked about how my son and his friend gave him hints to find it, and he told me the swag he had taken from it! It was so cool finding a fellow cacher who I essentially know from three different circumstances--Seeing his user name in Vegas, having had him find the cache in my yard in Illinois, and working in the theater with him!

I don't think it's wrong, per se. It's definitely up to what the owner wants to do. It just bummed me out a little, because those caches are in great shape and many were fun or in very interesting locations. I suppose I could swoop in and replicate the caches in some of the cooler places.

In addition to my usual gemstone swag, I have a handful of tiny malachite and white onyx chess pieces that I plan to leave in caches if I can find a good long trail. I like the idea of someone slowly accumulating an entire gemstone chess set as they find the caches on a trail!

Interesting, I didn't even realize that the GPS capabilities on a phone would not work in remote areas. My GPS takes no data, and it works 100% of the time, regardless of where I am. Sometimes I am unable to post logs, but the caches always show up fine. I use c:geo on an LG Stylo.

I sign wherever there is room, so someone writing their name in enormous letters doesn't bother me. (People will just squeeze their names in the empty spaces!) Sometimes, if the log is tightly rolled and I don't wish to unroll it and re-roll it, I will sign at the loose edge. Other times, if the log is full, I will sign over the lightest signature there. I know it's more orderly to sign in sequence, but think of it this way: The log is a history of the cache. The way people sign it (too big, out of sequence, along the edge, with initials, without a date, as one group, with stamps or stickers instead of pen) is an insight to who is finding it. I would suggest you just enjoy the different people who come in contact with your cache, and not worry so much about the rules you have set up.

A local geocacher has just archived all of their caches, citing that they are no longer able to maintain them. This makes me sad. I found a lot of them, and they are in good condition, and have easy finds as recently as last week. I understand COs archiving when it becomes clear that one of their caches needs maintenance, but I've never seen someone archive dozens of caches at once just because they would not be able to maintain them in the future. Seems like they could have kept them in play until one went missing, and then archive it. (Maybe they removed all of them physically, not wanting to litter.)

Then they should not ignore it. There's a cache in Peoria, Illinois, that has about five finds and hundreds of DNFs. It's still there, despite all of the DNFs. If multiple DNFs mean automatic disabling of the cache, then some really hard ones would not still be in play. Surely there is something the CO can do to make sure their cache does not get archived just from a couple of DNFs. Probably some. That's their choice. We all know that some people simply cannot find caches that are there. I found one the other day with a string of recent DNFs since the last find. It couldn't be found recently by a handful of newer players, but was easy for me. This happens all the time. Are you saying that nobody should ever post a DNF, on the chance that other players who don't look at the logs might ignore it because they didn't realize that a bunch of newbies didn't know that you can lift up a lamp skirt?

If I write, "I have no doubt it is there, but my boots were starting to mire down in the mud, so with the help of a well-placed branch, I backed out before I got stuck. I'll try again when it is drier." then the CO can clearly see that no maintenance will be needed. Future cachers will also see that they have a good chance of finding it, so unless it genuinely *IS* gone, they will leave Found logs and the CO will know it is still there.

I would. As a finder I also like to know where some particularly interesting thing came from. I always note what I left.

This is why, when we took it up again last year after a long hiatus, I had my kids each make their own accounts. Granted, they have never cached without me. But I want them to have that in place if the time comes that they start going out on their own, because I certainly would not want someone using MY account to log caches that I had never been to!

I would be opposed to this. There are a ton of newbies who get the premium membership as soon as they sign up. It wouldn't keep clueless or dishonest people away. Moreover, making everyone pay might cause some people to feel entitled to some sort of physical reward, so they might be even more apt to take whatever they find on the basis of, "Hey, I paid for it!"

Haha! Geocaches are some of the nastiest things out there! Touched by goodness knows how many people who have almost certainly not washed their hands recently, scattered in dirt or debris, shoved into armpits or held in teeth while the log is being signed, possibly pooped or peed on by birds and animals. I think some old dead skin cells from a lipstick are the LEAST anyone would have to worry about!

I would NOT put values of the items in the listing, for several reasons. 1. Those items will eventually be taken, rendering the inventory list useless. 2. It sounds bossy. 3. It sounds whiny. 4. If people plan to steal, they will steal, regardless of how much you harp about the value. Here's what you might do instead. First, on the listing itself, allow people to plan ahead, with a line something like, "There's a lot of great swag in the cache. Please be sure to bring something nice for trading, so you won't be left out!" This lets them know that they are in for a treat, while also reminding them that they need to trade for it, and that they should grab something before they head out. Then, inside the cache itself, put some friendly reminder like, "Please take something and leave something of equal or greater value in return!" This starts with the invitation, so it's friendly, but closes with the reminder that they can't simply take what they want unless they plan to trade.

No, but having been in the car for a while, it likely wasn't going to get used again anyway.