What Does That Smilie Mean To You?

[+Criminal]

Regurgitated from the other thread:

 

It's LAME, sorry, no two ways about it. The smilie is not an 'award' for effort, it simply means that you found what you were looking for (or in some rare cases, found someting you were not looking for). If you find a cache, log it as found and move on to the next. What's next, one smilie for each rating star?

 

If I look down, see a quarter in the street, and pick it up, I've found 25 cents. If I throw it back down three more times, have I now found $1? If you cannot grasp this, maybe Fizzy can explain it better, that dude is pretty smart.

[+Salvelinus]

If I look down, see a quarter in the street, and pick it up, I've found 25 cents. If I throw it back down three more times, have I now found $1? If you cannot grasp this, maybe Fizzy can explain it better, that dude is pretty smart.

Sometimes I wonder if they really think picking up that quarter 4 times really IS the same as finding a dollar. See the logs on This Cache.

 

I'm still scratching my head, since it seems it was never found.

 

Salvelinus

Edited December 12, 2005 by Salvelinus

[+wandererrob]

What does a smilie mean to you?

 

It means I found the cache and signed the log.

 

What should a smilie represent?

 

I found the cache and signed the log.

 

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

 

It varies. I've seen a lot of um... interesting interpretations of a 'find'.

 

I DNF'd one cache where the next cacher, deeming the cache muggled, took it up on himself to replace it, gave himself a find on it, then later posted a note granting himself FTF since he replaced it and returned to it first to better camo it.

 

I've seen others log finds when they've found what they think to be the right location.

 

Then there's plenty of "logged with owner's permission". Those are odd to me too. I've DNF'd caches to find out they were muggled and I was in the right place, but I stil won't claim the smilie. I didn't find the cache.

 

But in the end, you play this game the way you want to. Though I don't agree with some smilies, I really don't sweat it much. It really doesn't effect my finds/DNFs at all. So, whatever gets you through the day is cool. I just may shake my head and laugh at you.

[+Criminal]

Apply the same logic to a hide instead of a find. If I hide a 1/1 cache (and you know I wouldn’t) that is more like a 2/4, are you going to be upset? Heck, what if I don’t even bother to hide one, just report there is one there. After all, it’s just another number on my stats, and I can play the game anyway I like.

 

A lie is a lie, no matter how you choose to justify it, it’s a lie. You just don’t go changing the definitions of words to suit your own needs.

[+briansnat]

Heck, what if I don’t even bother to hide one, just report there is one there. After all, it’s just another number on my stats, and I can play the game anyway I like.

 

Hey, you're playing your own game, why not? I'm sure the "play your own game" crowd here would support that.

[+flask]

the smilie means i went there, found the cache, and signed the log. except for once or twice when the log was missing or otherwise not signable and i signed the container.

 

then i go home and i write about it, sometimes at great length. i may decide to post pictures (hey, CR! i have some new and beautitful parking lot shots that you should check out!) and sometimes i even make audio recordings.

 

i might go out, take pictures, record audio and write at length about the experience, but if i didn't actually find it, no smilie for me.

 

no "i found where it ought to be", or that other thing from which i will withhold comment.

[+fizzymagic]

Heck, what if I don’t even bother to hide one, just report there is one there. After all, it’s just another number on my stats, and I can play the game anyway I like.

It's been done, believe it or not.

 

It's a great way to get lots of DNF logs so you can act all superior because none of those dumb seekers can find the cache you didn't hide.

 

But everyone plays their own game, right?

[+GRANPA ALEX]

It means I am qualified to walk on water (on very cold days) and speak in platitudes of meaningless jibberish that tend to elevate my status in the community while I dictate policy to others and lord it over anyone who has fewer smilies than I do . . . or not!

 

Okay, this is probably a NOT situation - but it does mean that I did not ignore the cache & cache owner and got it off my nearest the better way . . . finding it and signing the log to encourage the hider to hide more which is a good thing. It's always more about the other guy than it is about me.

Edited December 12, 2005 by GRANPA ALEX

[+cudlecub]

Smilies have meant multiple things to me:

 

1) A trip to possibly discover a spot I never knew existed in an area I've called home for many years or maybe make me, as a visitor, aware of a special place in a new town.

 

2) An enjoyable day out with friends that we spend the time with joking around and getting to know one another even better.

 

3) A lesson and / or reminder of the history of the area I live in.

 

4) They symbolize something someone has given to a "sport / hobby" I have enjoyed to make it grow.

 

But lately it is the smilies I have decided to go after and not provide others the opportunity to gain them from me. I see other's smilies as a manner to criticize the efforts I or others have taken to expand caching, whether it be with a lame urban micro or either a hike into the woods. It's the variety that keeps it interesting and we shouldn't hunt it if we don't like it. . . . right???

[+GRANPA ALEX]

They symbolize something someone has given to a "sport / hobby" I have enjoyed to make it grow.

 

. . . whether it be with a lame urban micro or either a hike into the woods. It's the variety that keeps it interesting and we shouldn't hunt it if we don't like it. . . . right???

All I can say is AMEN, brother - you have nailed it!

[+altosaxplayer]

What does a smilie mean to you?

 

To me, it means that I:

 

1) Found the cache

2) Signed the log

3) Didnt have to log a DNF

4) Had a really good time caching

[+Thrak]

The only smileys that matter to me are my own. To me they mean I got excited and went out and found the cache and wrote my name on the log. They mean I DID it and I succeeded. They are a way for me to keep count of my caching accomplishments but I don't expect anybody else to be impressed.

 

I'm pretty new to caching still and was greatly saddened to learn that others log caches they didn't find, log finds multiple times, "move" coins they never touched, etc. People say "play the game however you want". I'll play it my way - straight.

 

If I have a coin icon you can be sure I own the coin or found the coin in a cache and will move it along. If I log a find on a cache page then my name is on the log inside the thing. If I have a note for a travel bug you can be sure that I either picked it up from a cache to move somewhere else or that I have actually left it in a cache. Others can do whatever they want. I really LIKE geocaching and do it as I think it was originally intended to be done. I really want to get out and find the thing. I think it is FUN!

Edited December 13, 2005 by Thrak

[+gof1]

Thrak, you are a bald headed, grey bearded old...no...wait a minute...I'M the bald headed old...never mind.

 

I think you are right on the money. But the most important word in your post was the last one, FUN.

[+Thrak]

Thrak, you are a bald headed, grey bearded old...no...wait a minute...I'M the bald headed old...never mind.

 

I think you are right on the money. But the most important word in your post was the last one, FUN.

LOL - You peeked!

[+CraigInCT]

They mean we've accomplished something other than sitting on the couch all day.

Aw man, I earned a lot of couchies in the past year.

 

Smilies used to mean a lot to me. But after the hearing about the "from your couch" caches and the weenies who just add a few to run, 'cause hiders don't, as a rule, compare signed logs to web logs, I don't care.

 

I'll still acknowledge numbers as _I_ pass milestones. But I know your numbers are fake - every one of you.

 

Ok not you - but the next poster and every third after that one and occasionally the one who didn't post here...

 

I'm planning a few week trip this winter to Nashville and Jacksonville. How will I feel about smilies after signing a thousand lame micros. Who knows?

[+CraigInCT]

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

what - you're just kidding right?

[+TeamGuisinger]

I feel that it means that my GPS and my brain were working together to achieve a goal, and actually pulled it off. I have only walked away with DNF on 2 that I can remember, 1 of them was missing.

=challenge completed

[+BlueDeuce]

(First try here)

 

What does Smilie mean to me?

 

S is for that special stat you give me

M is for the miles on my car

I is for the Ivy that makes me itchy

L is for the list of caches I’ve found so far

I is for the illusory camouflage of the cache (still working on that one)

E is for exercise that I desperately needed.

 

Put them all together they spell smilie, a yellow-faced guy that means the world to me.

[+Isonzo Karst]

It means I remembered to log the cache so it won't come up again on a query. I have hunted the same cache twice - and not been 100% sure until I saw my signature in the book. This is a function of my memory, not of a lousy cache. A nice ammo can in the woods, approached from two different directions.

 

I'm planning a few week trip this winter to Nashville and Jacksonville. How will I feel about smilies after signing a thousand lame micros. Who knows?

 

I can't speak for Nashville, never cached there, but there are no lame micros in JAX

 

On the GeoWoodstock III page are links to some bookmarked lists. The St. Augustine list seems to be broken - too bad. Anyway, some nice info for caching JAX area.

Edited December 13, 2005 by Isonzo Karst