Locked Listings?

[+ChileHead]

Why are some archived caches "locked" against posting logs? I was going to post a note on an archived cache and got:

The listing has been locked and is not accepting new log entries.

 

How/why does a listing get locked? All archived caches don't act that way.

[+Renegade Knight]

Good question. I noticed the Yellow Jeep became locked fairly soon after I got it and I've wondered ever since.

[+briansnat]

With Yellow Jeep I'm sure it was done because people were still logging finds on it long after it was archived.

[Keystone]

One example of when an admin or volunteer will lock a listing is when an archived cache page is being misused; for example, as a forum for an ongoing debate about why the cache was archived.

 

In January, it is likely that most existing locationless caches will be locked after they are archived, in order to prevent further logs.

 

I hope that these examples are helpful. Ninety-something percent of archived caches are not locked. Out of more than 1300 caches that I've archived, I have locked perhaps a dozen.

[+DavidMac]

Good question. I noticed the Yellow Jeep became locked fairly soon after I got it and I've wondered ever since.

Just speculation... I wonder of the locking of the Yellow Jeep locationless had anything to do with the release of the YJTBs shortly thereafter... I can just imagine the dozens of "finds" with people taking pictures of a yellow jeep travel bug.

[+ChileHead]

The case I was looking at was not a locationless but a real one: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...9b-756c9d1fe723

 

This was archived some time ago (but still physically present and listed on navicache.)

 

I had found it a few weeks ago and logged my find on both sites, but now it's locked.

 

No big deal, but I was curious why this one got locked while most other archived ones are not.

[+welch]

Maybe the owner requested it be locked?

[Jeremy]

All locationless caches, once archived, are locked.

[+Markwell]

Good question.  I noticed the Yellow Jeep became locked fairly soon after I got it and I've wondered ever since.

Just speculation... I wonder of the locking of the Yellow Jeep locationless had anything to do with the release of the YJTBs shortly thereafter... I can just imagine the dozens of "finds" with people taking pictures of a yellow jeep travel bug.

I highly doubt it. Jeremy has said in the past that the problem with the Yellow Jeep Loctionless cache had to do with the fact that there were THOUSAND AND THOUSANDS of logs on that cache, and that this extreme cache illustrated the reason that locationless caches were moving to Waymarking.com: Geocaching.com pages were not designed to handle that many logs. Every time someone visited the page (especially in "view all logs" mode) it hammered the server. So the page was locked.

 

IIRC, the fact that Jeep supplied Geocaching.com with yellow jeeps suitable for Travel Bugs was a jab at the Yellow Jeep cache that had become somewhat of a joke with the forums when we pointed to what was wrong with many of the locationless caches.

 

I believe that the locking of the YJLC had NOTHING to do with the release of the YJTBs.

[+dogbreathcanada]

The case I was looking at was not a locationless but a real one: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...9b-756c9d1fe723

 

This was archived some time ago (but still physically present and listed on navicache.)

 

I had found it a few weeks ago and logged my find on both sites, but now it's locked.

 

No big deal, but I was curious why this one got locked while most other archived ones are not.

Might have something to do with the navicache.com links all over the page. I can't see anything else in particular that would have been a reason to lock the listing.

[Jeremy]

Might have something to do with the navicache.com links all over the page. I can't see anything else in particular that would have been a reason to lock the listing.

Probably. The owner archived the cache in protest so it probably didn't make sense to list it elsewhere and log it on geocaching.com. I didn't lock it personally but the log entry made it seem obvious why it was locked.

 

Listing owners often request that their listing is locked as well. They don't like getting emails for their archived caches.

[+The Blue Quasar]

I have a "Locked Cache". I requested the Lock for reasons I would rather not discuss. Suffice it to say, it was from a time when you could get around the system through a loophole that I exploited. The variation I wanted to create did not exist at that time, so I created an alternative. That hole has been plugged long ago, and I'm happy that it is.

 

But it comes down to this...

 

When a cache is Archived it is no longer available.

 

If it is a physical container style cache, it is removed (supposed to be) and since there is no logbook there is no way to properly log the find, as per the rules/guidelines.

 

If it is what is now a Waymark style of cache, the opportunity has past and the owner no longer wishes to perform maintenance on the cache, like verifying finds and pictures and co-ordinates and in the case of locationless the duplication of finds.

 

I can understand that people sometimes forget to log a find, and discover it after a cache is archived. But after three months... my opinion is they really didn't care enough about it in the first place.

 

The problem comes when caches are "Abandon Ware" and people keep logging it after. The responsible thing is either adopt the cache, or better yet remove the old cache entirely and place a new cache.

 

The Blue Quasar

[+Prime Suspect]

There are other reasons why people might log a long-archived cache. For example, someone who used to cache as part of a team, and has decided to create their own account and want to update it with the caches they've already found.

[+Jamie Z]

What about the locationless cache I found mascarading as a physical. The cache looked interesting until I saw that it had several hundred finds. Further reading led to a paragraph on the page that suggested one could log the find by either finding the cache itself, or by taking and posting a picture of a similar object.

 

Those kinds of caches going to be archived and locked?

 

Jamie

[+dogbreathcanada]

The responsible thing is ... remove the old cache entirely and place a new cache.

Well, you can't do that, not without checking the other listing sites. As one of the caches in this thread shows, just because it is archived on geocaching.com, doesn't mean it doesn't exist as a cache on terracaching or navicache or movingcache.

[+Corp Of Discovery]

All locationless caches, once archived, are locked.

I've got a question on this. All LC are scheduled to be archived the 1st of the year. I am planning on doing 1 or 2 more before then if possible but may not be able to log them right away. Will they be locked immediately also or will there/can there be a short (1 week or so) grace period to log them after they are archived?

[+Mopar]

The case I was looking at was not a locationless but a real one: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...9b-756c9d1fe723

 

This was archived some time ago (but still physically present and listed on navicache.)

 

I had found it a few weeks ago and logged my find on both sites, but now it's locked. 

 

No big deal, but I was curious why this one got locked while most other archived ones are not.

The cache in question was archived on this site and listed on another site 3.5yrs ago. It hasn't been a Geocaching.com cache for years. Why should you get a Geocaching.com smiley for finding it? It's obvious the owner doesn't want his cache listed here, and you already logged the find on the site it's the owner wants it listed on.

To me it looks like the only reason was to basically cheat at an offsite geocoin game.

Edited December 15, 2005 by Mopar

[+yumitori]

What about the locationless cache I found mascarading as a physical. The cache looked interesting until I saw that it had several hundred finds. Further reading led to a paragraph on the page that suggested one could log the find by either finding the cache itself, or by taking and posting a picture of a similar object.

 

Those kinds of caches going to be archived and locked?

 

Jamie

 

Have you pointed it out to your local reviewer or the admins?

[+robert]

All locationless caches, once archived, are locked.

I've got a question on this. All LC are scheduled to be archived the 1st of the year. I am planning on doing 1 or 2 more before then if possible but may not be able to log them right away. Will they be locked immediately also or will there/can there be a short (1 week or so) grace period to log them after they are archived?

I think now is the grace period (from the time Jeremy made the announcement, through the end of the year), then come Jan 1, that's it. Could be wrong, however.

 

We'll find out soon!

 

[+The Blue Quasar]

dogbreathcanada  Posted on Dec 15 2005, 09:05 AM

 

QUOTE (The Blue Quasar @ Dec 14 2005, 09:27 PM)

The responsible thing is ... remove the old cache entirely and place a new cache.

 

Well, you can't do that, not without checking the other listing sites. As one of the caches in this thread shows, just because it is archived on geocaching.com, doesn't mean it doesn't exist as a cache on terracaching or navicache or movingcache.

 

If a person discovers the "Geocache" by accident and reads the enclosed literature and/or referrences the site for more information, they will find out that it is abandoned.

 

This reflects poorly on the Geocaching community, in that the Cache became Trash. It was disposed of and left to polute the wilderness.

 

A responsible placer would have corrected this instead of leaving it abandoned as garbage. Proper maintainance of any placed 'cache' would include removing indications of it belonging to Geocaching, and only being a Navicache or Terracache etc.

 

We were talking about people logging Archived Caches on Geocaching.com that is no longer available...

 

As for the creation of a new account and then relogging it.. if the new account was formed after the cache was archived... I say too late to log it. Did that account sign the logbook? Nope. Then not a find. Accounts should only be able to log active caches.

 

Just my take on it.

 

The Blue Quasar

[+HHL]

[…] I hope that these examples are helpful. Ninety-something percent of archived caches are not locked. Out of more than 1300 caches that I've archived, I have locked perhaps a dozen.

what about a locked active listing? seems weired to me.

 

happy hunting - the old fashioned way (trads only, exceptions may appear)

[+ChileHead]

what about a locked active listing? seems weired to me.

 

happy hunting - the old fashioned way (trads only, exceptions may appear)

 

What's weirder is that it all seems gibberish, like it's written in some weird foreign language or something. Oh wait, nevermind.

[+The Jester]

And it won't be placed for over three months...

[+ChileHead]

Usually event caches are listed a month or more in advance to let people log "Yup - I'm coming!" ... maybe the cache owner didn't want to see all the "will attend" notes on that one until later?

[+DavidMac]

Oops. Duplicate post (due to some strange PHP error) removed. See below.

Edited February 20, 2006 by DavidMac

[+DavidMac]

Whoa, that was strange

 

Anyway, it's listed as an event, but is it even an event? I can't find a translator for the page, but it looks like general information about geocaching and contact information for the region's reviewer(s). I see references to things like the 161 meter rule (that's the 528 foot rule if you live in the US), so I wonder if the reviewer created the listing as a place to post caching guidelines in the local language.

[+HHL]

BUMP

[…] I hope that these examples are helpful. Ninety-something percent of archived caches are not locked. Out of more than 1300 caches that I've archived, I have locked perhaps a dozen.

what about a locked active listing? seems weired to me.

 

happy hunting - the old fashioned way (trads only, exceptions may appear)

[+ODragon]

what about a locked active listing? seems weired to me.

 

happy hunting - the old fashioned way (trads only, exceptions may appear)

 

From looking, it's a reviewers page that he can send to people in his region that don't speak english. It looks like explainations to me. Why would anyone log that?

[+benh57]

what about a locked active listing? seems weired to me.

 

happy hunting - the old fashioned way (trads only, exceptions may appear)

 

From looking, it's a reviewers page that he can send to people in his region that don't speak english. It looks like explainations to me. Why would anyone log that?

 

To post an SBA.. which it should be. Unfortunately it looks like it's the reviewer himself who is violating the site rules, so it's unlikely to be paid attention to.

[+ODragon]

To post an SBA.. which it should be. Unfortunately it looks like it's the reviewer himself who is violating the site rules, so it's unlikely to be paid attention to.

 

I can't see why it would bother you, it's no where near you. However, if you're that upset by it, I would suggest sending an e-mail to contact@geocaching.com.

 

(My guess is that he's not violating the rules but has an excemption from the mothership. There are others with excemptions floating around if you look).

[+TotemLake]

egads! I answered a stale post.

Edited November 22, 2006 by TotemLake