rainafyre

I'm one of the all time biggest ranters against TFTC (around here, at least), And I'd never email a poor newbie and blast them for it on one of my caches. Although now that I think of it, I did make a wisecrack in a note after getting one on one of my caches with 30 or so favorite points. Never mind. Seriously though, I wouldn't email, especially every single TFTC logger, like it sounds like this guy does. I do have a couple questions for you though. 1) Had you visited the website, and looked at any cache logs, and notice most people don't log with TFTC? (and the ones that do are almost always new). According to a Groundspeak employee in another thread around here, still less than 2% of logs are TFTC. 2)How the heck did you figure out what TFTC even meant, and started using it? Sometimes I'm amazed at how quickly a newb will start with the TFTC logs, and wonder how they know what it is. 1 - yes, I started on the website before going out looking. I looked around the area where I lived to try and find out where I should start and how to log. I read the way some people logged and noticed the trend of "TFTC" very often (around our area) and wasn't until after this incident that I noticed it was mostly those with under 1,000 finds who were doing this. It wasn't until the last week or so that I really started paying attention to these forums, so I'm learning more and more each day. 2 - it wasn't very hard to figure out what TFTC meant. It's very nice to hear that you wouldn't act like that gentleman has, even though it does irk you. I even asked him, "Do you email all the people who write 'tftc?'" He replied that he pisses a lot of people off with the emails about it. He and I reached an understanding now and he offered his help if I needed anything, which was nice, but I'll never forget him calling me a "snot-nosed princess." lmao.

I think you've summed up a lot in your (very good) post here. With the best will in the world an email intended to come across as "it's great if you..." can often come across as a "you're stupid because you didn't..." - this applies across the board rather than just to geocaching. Throw in the way the official app seems to encourage new geocachers to cache in a way that annoys established cachers and it's easy to see why misunderstandings and annoyance result. Personally I see a major party of the problem as the way caching seems to be seeking the lowest common denominator, and so those who want to put in a bit more effort would like a bit of reciprocation. When I find a film pot behind a sign it's often hard to think of much to say about it, so a log is unlikely to be much more than "3 of 4 today" and I'm more likely to comment on the glorious weather than the inventive hide. That said on the (increasingly rare) occasions when I do find something out of the ordinary I'm more likely to write something specific about it, not least because I still remember it when I get home. Remembering what made one film pot behind a sign different from the next film pot behind a sign is difficult, simply because so often there is so little different between them. If someone has taken the time and trouble to come up with a very creative hide and taken the time to find somewhere off the beaten track that people might not ordinarily find (and that people would be pleased to have found), it seems a bit lame to write "tftc" and leave it at that. Likewise if someone has hidden a film pot behind a sign it's hard to see how writing much more than "tftc" can be inspired, unless the sign has something unusual about it. In many ways I'd think of it as being similar to our response to receiving a gift. If someone gives us a gift that obviously has a significant amount of thought and effort in it, we are likely to be more effusive in our thanks. If someone gives us something that looks like it came from a service station we may be less expressive. Exactly! They were simple nanos on street signs(100 to be exact) throughout the countryside. It became repetitive and I was dodging tractors/cars, etc so I was trying to make quick logs before heading to the next. Constant stop & go while losing signal. I would say, "wet log, unable to sign, but tftc" in some(lol), but other than that what was I supposed to say?! He wanted me to copy and paste a story for each one. I suppose I could've said something like, "Beautiful saturday morning and enjoying the Wisconsin countryside. Thanks for this series." BUT I didn't know if owners really cared,as long as you found it. In my opinion, if he wants this kind of log, then add it to the description. He says he "doesn't play favorites" and that he sends his "TFTC" speech to everyone who logs it. In my opinion, it felt like he has to show off his superiority-complex.

I recently discovered geocaching within the last month or so. This weekend I had my first run-in with an annoyed CO with my "TFTC" log. When I started, I knew no one else personally who geocached, so I learned logging by watching others and assumed the acronym was common practice. Well, this CO "suggested" in an email that I put more thought into my logs. It highly offended me because it made me feel talked down to and like I was an idiot. Maybe I'm naive, but I thought this was supposed to be a fun experience and there were no set "rules" in logging, so I defended myself(not in a mean way). His response was NOT friendly whatsoever - he ended up calling me a "lazy" logger and a "snot-nosed princess" who "shouldn't bother finding anymore of his caches if I'm going to write 'TFTC.'" That shook me up and I was really offended! We hashed it out via email for awhile and came to an understanding, but it's still bothering me. I understand the reasoning why CO's want to read about the experiences people have finding their cache. I get the hard work it takes to set these up and to continue the game, BUT it's also his own CHOICE to create the cache. I believe people have the right to log how they want until they get the hang of things. It shouldn't be reprimanded or make anyone feel inferior. It felt like he just wanted me to satisfy his ego and to show off how much more he knows about the hobby. *shrug* Either way, yes, I learned to put more thought into my logs from now on, but I refuse to kiss anyone's butt in logs - especially when they have 100 nano's every 500ft. Newbies are learning and our game will evolve, just be patient with us!