Family Geocaching - Logging "rules"

[geovideo]

My family went geocaching together for the first time today. I went with my wife and two boys. My question: Do we each log that we found the cache? Thanks.

[+New England n00b]

My family went geocaching together for the first time today. I went with my wife and two boys. My question: Do we each log that we found the cache? Thanks.

If you have a Team account, it should be one find per cache(s) found.

If you each have your own accounts, each should get one find for each cache found.

 

Keep in mind that due to a website change, account names will be locked in on May 15th - meaning you will not be able to change your username.

 

There is nothing to prevent you, though, from creating accounts for each member later, if you so choose. It has been done before where a child becomes old enough & or responsible enough to use a computer. They can then go back and log old finds under their new account name. Teams and individuals should still both be able to log a cache each.

 

For example: Wife is fine with a joint account, and teh youngest (for whatever reason) you restrict from computer usage right now. The oldest though, may soon be able able to make an account (with your permission and supervision) and log finds that he made earlier with the team. Just make sure that the logs are dated correctly.

[salkids]

I found myself asking that very question on my local forums. My sons are very competitive, and they want to log each find for themselves. Sometimes I only take one child when the other is busy with something else, and sometimes I go all by myself. We have decided to log each persons find individually. I am going back as we speak tonight to log my oldest son's finds. I have logged my finds and my youngest sons already.

 

Just one more thing to ponder - when they get older or my husband goes out by himself with the boys and they find a really interesting cache, I will want to keep up with the fact that I have not done that cache, and go back and log it for myself.

[+briansnat]

If everyone wants to have their own account, its fine if they want to log all of the finds on their own.

 

If you want to just hunt under the Geovideo account, you probably should log only one find. Maybe you can let everyone add their own comments to the log if they diesire.

[+Semper Questio]

What I jhave seen often is a common family or team account then each member fo the family has their own individual account. SOMEBODY would have to do some double-posting, but you can log under the family name for everyone when yu go together, then the individuals can log ontheir own if they wish for those and for the caches they get on their own.

 

In our family, I am the only one that has any interest in the online aspect and the rest of the family never caches without me, so all finds go under my account. If only I go or if we all go, the find counts the same - 1 find log per cache find.

[+Sputnik 57]

When I cache alone, I log under this account name. When I cache with my partner, I log under our team name. Looking at either account doesn't give you the full picture of my "numbers," but then, its not about the numbers (for me)

[+Worf's Pack]

After about a year my son wanted his own account. He now wants to hit 300 by his 11th birthday. My daughter has an account but dosn't always log finds. But thats her own choice. But I'm not paying for premium memberships for them. And Thats final Kids.

[+New England n00b]

After about a year my son wanted his own account. He now wants to hit 300 by his 11th birthday. My daughter has an account but dosn't always log finds. But thats her own choice. But I'm not paying for premium memberships for them. And Thats final Kids.

Ahhhh, they can share your Pocket Query. And since you are a member, there are ways for a non-member to log a MOC cache if they want.

 

On teh other hand you could buy Groundspeak two more hamsters with the kids accounts.

[+HaLiJuSaPa]

If everyone wants to have their own account, its fine if they want to log all of the finds on their own.

 

If you want to just hunt under the Geovideo account, you probably should log only one find. Maybe you can let everyone add their own comments to the log if they diesire.

 

What I jhave seen often is a common family or team account then each member fo the family has their own individual account. SOMEBODY would have to do some double-posting, but you can log under the family name for everyone when yu go together, then the individuals can log ontheir own if they wish for those and for the caches they get on their own.

 

In our family, I am the only one that has any interest in the online aspect and the rest of the family never caches without me, so all finds go under my account. If only I go or if we all go, the find counts the same - 1 find log per cache find.

 

That's what we do (of course my kids are a little young to be "hypercompetitive" about it anyway ). I did make one change though with the May 15th lockdown approaching. My former username (which I use for just about everything else online except eBay where it was surprisingly already taken) really just reflects me, so I changed the username to one that reflects the whole family (rather than explain the boring details, you can see the meaning of both in my profile).

 

We do one log signing with the username. Then on the online log I note who in the group found it first (on 2 occasions it was actually my 4 1/2 year old son and on one it was even my 2 1/2 year old daughter!). If I only go for the cache myself (still pretty rare), I usually just sign the log and bring them to it eventually if they wish to trade, they're more interested in that aspect than I am.

Edited April 24, 2006 by HaLiJuSaPa

[geovideo]

Thanks everyone for all your responses. At first I was thinking that we'd each have our own. Then I thought hey it would be nice to do it as a family. Then some of you convinced me of another possibility. Then... Okay, so now I'm not sure which way I'll go. Probably I'll stick with the individual names because we each may do it with other people (especially my kids). Also everyone in my family has already chosen a name. What can I say, we did it once and we're hooked.