swillen26

What you describe is not a challenge cache. From the challenge cache guidelines: The series you describe is just that: a series. It's just a bunch of caches along with an additional (presumably) puzzle/unknown/mystery cache. I've never seen a series final listed as a challenge cache, and I seriously doubt a reviewer would publish one as a challenge cache. Since it isn't a challenge cache, the only requirement there can be on the final is that the log be signed, as stated in the guidelines under the "Logging of All Physical Geocaches" section: The owner cannot delete a find of the final on the basis of not finding all of the series caches. As long as someone finds the cache and signs the log, it's a legitimate find. The same thing goes for someone who accidentally stumbles upon the final of an extremely difficult puzzle which they didn't solve. The fact that they didn't solve the puzzle does not negate the fact that they found the cache. I was a bit confused at first when looking at your caches hidden, but then realized the series in question is under your partner's (?) account. I have to point out that the cachers in question did not "ruin the series". All they did was find a cache, which is what this game is all about. They didn't destroy or remove the cache, or do anything else to otherwise prevent other cachers from finding the caches. In my opinion, disabling the series caches and archiving the final is an extreme over-reaction that only serves to punish and deny the enjoyment of those who were working on the series (of which it sounds like there were many). My suggestion is to take this as a learning experience and let the matter drop. In the future, if you really want people to find all of the series before finding the final, structure it in such a way that it's impossible for them to locate/access/open the final without finding all of the series caches. Some suggestions are to have the finders gather numbers from each cache to build the coordinates for the final or use a completely sealed container so the log can only be accessed by unlocking it (as an aside: the fact that they got the log out without unlocking it tells me it isn't a watertight container, so you may want to reconsider that specific container anyway). This probably wasn't the answer you were hoping for, but I hope you at least consider what I've written above. This is actually a great response. We were looking for some outside persepective on this. I guess we just felt deceived, but now that you have given your 2 cents, what they did makes sense. Good point on it not being water tight. Wasn't sure where this topic should have been posted. Not well versed in community blogging. Thanks!

Question. We had a situation pop up where we had a series of caches, and the final cache was locked, but you could turn the cache upside down to get the log to slip through a tiny crack. In order to get the code to unlock the cache, you had to find all of the other caches first. Unfortunately, a couple of cachers went after the final before logging the rest in the series and took a new trackable that hadn't been dropped, and the $5 ftf prize. We wouldn't have known that they did this if we hadn't gone to the cache and put more items in it. They purposefully didn't log it since they hadn't found the other ones. The final cache was archived, and the active caches have been disabled, with four unpublished as of now. I sent a polite email to both cachers, requesting that they return the coin, and the FTF prize because they didn't find all of the other caches first. The cacher who took the coin and the ftf prize said that they would return the coin, but that they gave the $5 gift card away so they couldn't return that. So with this back story, can they log the archived cache? Unfortunately for us, we didn't know that we had to put the word 'challenge' in the title in order to require all other caches be found before finding the final. Even after sending an email to both cachers, they still logged the archived cache as a find. We've met these cachers several times at FTF's, and it's a hard situation for us to be in. We like to follow the geocaching etiquette and play fair, so we feel that both of their logs of the final should be deleted. Do we have any ground to remove their logs? If we can remove their logs, who is to say that they wouldn't delete logs from caches that they own that we have found? One of the cachers has a reputation for not signing nanos, came straight out of his mouth, and doing other shady activities. We really enjoy geocaching, and to have a few cachers play it this way really takes the fun out of the game.

The smileys are off center inside the white area of the icon. Not a fan of the new smiley. I guess I will have to keep myself from zooming in to avoid seeing them. They're turning into facebook. Making updates to simple things that could just be left alone.