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What Does That Smilie Mean To You?


CoyoteRed

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Well, when I started the game, I thought a smilie ment that you had been out, searching, looking and finding the cache. I was surprise to see what people were ready to do to get them and soon realized that those smilies didn't mean nothing no more. So now, they only represent something to me. I may see a catcher with over 1000 finds but did he really went out and find all of them????

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To me, the smilie means that I don't have to revisit that cache.

 

I'm not sure if anyone has noticed the correlation between the simile and the blue dots that show up on the map screen of the GPS. It seems that the only way I can get rid of those pesky blue dots is to log a find on gc.com. :huh:

 

There are certain caches that I watch to see who has attempted them and who has found them. Those are far more interesting than that park n' grab type of caches. Still ALL the blue dots have to go, so that means I have to find ALL the caches as quickly as I can.

 

I'm glad I'm not addicted to this activity.

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Social observation: Is this the month of measuring pee-pees on threads or what? :huh:

 

I was surprise to see what people were ready to do to get them and soon realized that those smilies didn't mean nothing no more.  So now, they only represent something to me.  I may see a catcher with over 1000 finds but did he really went out and find all of them????

 

My smilies only have meaning for me. As do my TB stats and every other stat on this site. If MY stats cause you to become angry, to envy, to become aroused in any way, it's on YOU.

 

Go to terracaching.com if you want to lord stats over someone else. They have a leaderboard and everything..... :huh:

 

Jeremy isn't handing out gold bars to the cachers with the highest stats on this site.

 

Yet, people spend an inordinate amount of time looking over other's fences to see how much poop is in their yard and then pointing it out. I find these mind police to be very entertaining.

 

I got a great piece of advice in business many years ago; if someone is showing their a$s, there's not much need to point it out.

 

Not to sound holier than thou. I do in fact have a few opinions (some quite strong) about how others play the game. I just find it nearly, not always, but nearly pointless to discuss it in the forums.

 

"Everyone plays their own game. There is no sense in trying to police another's mindset as long as it falls within the general parameters of the game." Me (quoting myself from the poll that I posted on 10/23/03.)

Edited by Snoogans
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What does a smilie mean to you?

 

I ask this in the context of does a smilie mean you found a cache, did something worthy other than find a cache, attempted a cache, or... ?

 

What should a smilie represent?

 

How do you think others view a smilie and what it represents?

Why do I get this feeling that if I answer this openly and honestly that somebody out there will disagree and thus find fault with it? Not a problem in itself, but then they have to plaster it all over the forums and draft the wordy explanations and bad premises. (or is that premisi?)

 

This ground is a little shakey.

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Since the smiley is associated with a "found it" log it is simply an indicator that that I found a cache. It's not not a reward, or an award, nor is it an indicator of a nice try or valiant effort.

 

You find a cache and get a smiley, you don't find it you don't get one.

Edited by briansnat
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Why do I get this feeling that if I answer this openly and honestly that somebody out there will disagree and thus find fault with it? Not a problem in itself, but then they have to plaster it all over the forums and draft the wordy explanations and bad premises.  (or is that premisi?)

 

This ground is a little shakey.

Don't be intimidated to assert your opinion if you feel compelled to.

 

I and the OP of this thread seldom agree. I never learned much from someone that always agreed with me.

 

This is my favorite qoute of the week:

 

So what's wrong with icon hounds? Or numbers hounds? Or prolific forum posters?It's funny how some people can make anything sound like a bad thing. It's a GAME! It's supposed to be fun.

 

How someone finds fun in a game/sport/hobby/obssession as relative as THIS one is, is very much up to them. Still the control freaks will have something to say about it.

 

God bless 'em. These forums wouldn't be half as entertaining without 'em and every now and then one changes my perspective. :huh:

Edited by Snoogans
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A smilie means the quest has been completed. Got to the destination and didn't find the cache? That's when you get a special smilie saying your quest isn't yet done (DNF frownie face). Went on the quest again? That's when you get to write a note about trying to relive the experience, but it will never be the same as that first time (note). The smilie means you did the quest and found the cache, your task is complete so you get a smilie. Some smilies take a lot of work, others just take a little. Either way, you only get one smilie for each quest.

 

Ever been to Disneyland and ridden Space Mountain? Ever ridden it several times in succession? Wasn't the first time a different experience than all the others? That first time you didn't know exactly where you were going or which way the path would lead. That first time you earned that smile. Every visit after that you already knew where the path was leading. It might still be an exciting ride, but you will never regain that "first time" feeling. Visit enough times and you can even anticipate every turn. You might even notice the cookie flying through "space". That's a lot like geocaching, the first time you don't know exactly which path to take or where exactly the cache is hidden. If you go back to the cache later, you might not even have to follow your GPS or spend any time hunting for the container. You can't find something you've already found.

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It means that the cache owner and I agree that I have done something worthy of a smiley. I include the cache owner because they have the right to remove a smiley that they don't believe I've earned. That happened once, when I logged a virtual and posted a photo that someone else had already posted. The owner pointed out my mistake, i thanked him for his diligence, and life went on. Smilieys are the page numbers of my geocaching journal.

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Snoogans,

 

That was a good post. A really good post. :huh:

 

In regard to the OP:

 

What does a smilie mean to you?

It means I was there when and where the the cache was found, and that I personally signed the log (except, of course, for virtuals and LCs - for those, I was just at the spot). For whatever it's worth, it means I was one of a tiny, tiny minority of people on this planet who did so. It means I achieved a small personal objective that day.

 

What should a smilie represent?

 

How do you think others view a smilie and what it represents?

Generally speaking, I don't give much thought to what the smilie means to others. I understand the argument that when someone logs a false find it can be misleading to people searching later. But I think you can make yourself crazy trying to reconcile different personal preferences like this.

 

I will admit that I really enjoy the Found It = Didn't Find It thread, however.

 

edit: added a missing space

Edited by cache_test_dummies
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Still the control freaks will have something to say about it.

Ah, here's the rub. Who are the control freaks? The one's that assert the find count should reflect the number of caches actually found or the one's who assert the find count means whatever they want it to mean or mean nothing at all?

 

In the present environment, who is asserting more control over which group?

 

:huh:

 

Kind of mirrors many social issues in real life, doesn't it?

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Still the control freaks will have something to say about it.

Ah, here's the rub. Who are the control freaks? The one's that assert the find count should reflect the number of caches actually found or the one's who assert the find count means whatever they want it to mean or mean nothing at all?

Well, for the sake of argument it would be the former.

 

If it were the latter then there would already BE more strict logging requirements, a leaderboard, a thick book with all kinds of RULES, and all the other competitive crap for the latter to fight against.

 

BTW- I was already thinking the use of "control freaks" to be incorrect. The proper term would be anal. Anal people neeeeed rules to follow and find the grey areas in guidelines to be distasteful. They seek to define those grey areas to others to feel better about they way they play their game in the see, I'm doing it right, sense of the word. It's these same people who put little signs up pointing out their version of poop in other people's back yards.

 

I hafta admit though, where geocaching is concerned, that once in awhile (for me) they have a valid point.

 

I used to hate anal people until I started taking management courses and found out how important they are to a team. I still don't much care for anal behavior being a totally disorganized free thinker myself, but they can help focus and direct a group to a better outcome. Sometimes it even happens in the fourms.....

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Likes sands through the hourglass, so are the smilies of my life. Smilies are not a reward or a mark of achievement; they are not a representation of how much fun I’ve had (sometimes I had no fun at all). They are certainly not a measurement of accomplishment or status. Smiles are just a record, like birthdays. I have accumulated X# of smilies and I will continue to accumulate X# of smilies, and then I will die.

 

Think of smilies as an old (or current) calendar. There may be moon periods listed there. Do I care about how many full moons occurred last year? Do blue moons affect me? How many times has Christmas occurred in my lifetime?

 

I think there is far too much emphasis on smilies; I think most people think of them as money or something of value. This is why I don’t get riled up about bogus or counterfeit logs and petty arguments about what can and should be counted as a smilie. Most of the time, I can’t even tell you how many smilies I have.

 

Shucks, sometimes I can’t remember how old I am either. Does it really matter? :huh::huh:

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I'm always amazed at cachers who don't know what a smilie is. I have to explain that it's the little smiley face you get when you post a 'found' log.

 

The usual response I get is:

"Oh, I never saw that."

 

And this is from folks with 100+ finds...

 

As far as I'm concerned, if the cache page says you get an extra smilie for posting a photo of yourself wearing a tinfoil hat while standing one one leg at the cache site, and you do that, you earned it. It's all about having fun. You had fun wearing the hat, we all had fun seeing the photo of you doing it. We all should get a smilie for doing something silly. When you think about it, the whole game is kinda silly, isn't it? Along with geocoins, icons, and sticker burrs, smilies are just one more part of the fun. Collect 'em all!

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Likes sands through the hourglass, so are the smilies of my life. Smilies are not a reward or a mark of achievement; they are not a representation of how much fun I’ve had (sometimes I had no fun at all). They are certainly not a measurement of accomplishment or status. Smiles are just a record, like birthdays. I have accumulated X# of smilies and I will continue to accumulate X# of smilies, and then I will die.

 

Think of smilies as an old (or current) calendar. There may be moon periods listed there. Do I care about how many full moons occurred last year? Do blue moons affect me? How many times has Christmas occurred in my lifetime?

 

I think there is far too much emphasis on smilies; I think most people think of them as money or something of value. This is why I don’t get riled up about bogus or counterfeit logs and petty arguments about what can and should be counted as a smilie. Most of the time, I can’t even tell you how many smilies I have.

 

Shucks, sometimes I can’t remember how old I am either. Does it really matter? :huh::huh:

Sept1c_Tank's Theory of Geocaching Smilie Relativity :P

 

I LOVE it! :)

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Think of smilies as an old (or current) calendar. There may be moon periods listed there. Do I care about how many full moons occurred last year? Do blue moons affect me? How many times has Christmas occurred in my lifetime?

But surely on a personal basis a smilie can be considered to be worth something. My birthday, Christmas, and the passing phases of the moon occur whether I put effort into it or not. I've had to put at least some effort and thought and planning into every single cache I have found.

 

 

(sorry, I didn't mean to call you 'surely' ... :huh: )

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Smilies=status :huh:

 

No wait, that's not right!

 

My smilies only have meaning for me.

 

There we go, that's what I meant!

 

One thing that needs to be pointed out, though- The forums are for discussion. Just because someone brings up an opinion doesn't mean they're expecting gc.com to enact new legislation. We're just talking here! There's been no 911 calls to the thought police.

 

I never understand the "nothing to see here-move on" posts. If that's true, stop posting and move on! We're trying to have a discussion here!

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Actually, smilies have no meaning (worth) to me; neither do birthdays.  :huh:  :P

What about how many canoe trips you take in a year? Now those deserve a smilie ... :P

"Tanks," for the memories! :):D

 

Edited to add (Paul Simon): Preserve your memories; they're all that's left you. :huh::huh:

Edited by sept1c_tank
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What does a smilie mean to you?

It means I logged a find on Geocaching.com. It is usually a result of meeting a requirement on a cache listing.

 

I ask this in the context of does a smilie mean you found a cache, did something worthy other than find a cache, attempted a cache, or... ?

This one sounds like a loaded question, especially the "attempted a cache" remark. :huh: To me, it usually means completing an activity which means arriving at a location to sign a log, take a photo, or answer questions to verify the visit.

 

What should a smilie represent?

It should represent a new form of currency, so we can get tangible rewards like natural resources for the "work" we accomplished. :P Seriously, what it represents is more or less the same as what it means, as I answered above.

 

How do you think others view a smilie and what it represents?

Many have proclaimed "everyone plays their own game" which I think is the answer most suitable for this question. There are times I disagree with how others Geocache, but I try not to waste too much time analyzing how they view or represent the activity.

 

From what I've observed, majority of Geocachers in my area subscribe to the minimum standard, which is to meet the requirement of logging a find by signing the log, answering questions (virtuals), or posting coordinates and photos (locationless). If you are worried about people creatively finding shortcuts for the sake of virtual achievements (video game scores, find counts, icons), then this isn't just a Geocaching problem but a societal problem that won't be solved here in the forums. :huh:

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Personally I want a set of standards, I want a set of rules. It's true for most games I play. When I deal Blackjack I bury the top card. Of course that's explained before we start. If that makes me anal or a purist,...yeah whatever.

 

I'm just waiting for the day that when a cache owner denies a find they are accused of not letting people play the game "in a way that doesn't affect anyone else".

 

I take that back, that's already happened, I guess I'm waiting for the day when there is no more support for the cache owner.

 

Why? because you can't have it both ways.

 

 

edit: removed sentence.

Edited by BlueDeuce
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smilies=time spent with the spouse + time not spent watching tv + some exercise + some sunshine (most days) + road trips with friends + making new friends + trying new things (who knew S would actually rapell down that wall!). And yes, we earned every one of them and signed each logbook.

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Normally a smile means I was out and about on a caching day with my twins or haning out with my bestest girl friends or EVEN hanging out where Snoogans is hanging. Now that is something to smile about!

 

Now Nomade if you came at twin girls (almost 12 now) with this statement:

I may see a catcher with over 1000 finds but did he really went out and find all of them???? I'm sure your libal to get kicked in the shin! :(

I would have to guess the girls have at least 1500 finds since we started caching almost 4 years ago.

 

Cache on! :(

 

Pepper

Edited by Pepper
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For every cache listing in existence at any given time, I have either found at least one related cache container or interesting object at predefined coordinates, or I have not. For each listing for which I have, I have exactly one smiley, unless the listing involves a "final" cache (i.e. a multi, as opposed to caches at an event) that I have not found, in which case I have exactly zero smilies. I have no smileys other than those generated under the above tautologies. I have no smilies on cache listings owned by myself.

Edited by Dinoprophet
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I may see a catcher with over 1000 finds but did he really went out and find all of them????

For the 1000+ find cachers I know the smilie means they found 1000+, or what ever there number, is caches. I know one thing none of them post on the forums and complain about how many finds some one has. Do numbers matter, yes and no to the person who found 1000+ caches yes they had fun doing it and it is part of the game for some. No to me because well why should I care but I do have respect for the 1000+ folks I know because I know they have spent a lot of time doing it.

So why are there so many threads resent worring about peoples number maybe it is cache envy?

 

cheers

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What does a smilie mean to you?

 

I ask this in the context of does a smilie mean you found a cache, did something worthy other than find a cache, attempted a cache, or... ?

 

What should a smilie represent?

 

How do you think others view a smilie and what it represents?

A smile means to me exactly what it I suspect it means to over 95% of all other geocachers. Been there, found it and if available signed the logbook.

 

This is what I want it to mean to at least 95% of everyone else also.

 

I read close to half of the comments in the DNF = Found It topic. I believe that most of those finds should be politely deleted by the cache owners as gc.com intended us to do when they said we are responsible to maintain our caches. People will learn not to log inappropriately much faster if they get an immediate request to change the log followed in a few weeks by an owner deletion if they don't.

 

Occasionally a smile is awarded for effort, or a good story. As long as this is kept to a bare minimum I see it as contributing to the interest in the game. I don't know what a bare minimum is but somewhere between 1/2% and 1% of the total finds of a specific cacher might be appropriate. Or in the case of owner awarded finds it might be the same percentage of the total finds posted on all of the caches owned. 2% would be pushing it and 5% would set off alarms for me.

 

It seems pointless to me to complain about "awarded" finds if the numbers are within the limits suggested above.

 

I think most geocachers view a smile just about the same as I do. After all, I didn't invent my suggestions outlined above, I merely observed them and participated occasionally.

 

It is clear that some geocachers think a smile is for purposes of FC-SL only (or maybe additionally for qualified virtual & locationless finds). If I thought there was a system wide abuse of the "awarded" finds concept I would probably change my opinion and lobby in some way to reduce the % back to acceptable range.

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