If a group of cachers seek together..?

[gerboa]

As a lone hunter, I wonder what happens when a group with individual accounts and their own GPSr's hunt and find a cache.

Does only the one who lays hands on it get to log it? Do they take turns until someone finds? Or do they all claim a find ?

I suppose the reply will be "However they want to play it". but is it cricket if everyone logs a find.?

[+BlueDeuce]

Some play that when ones finds it they say nothing, walk away, sit down and enjoy the other's envious looks.

 

Some let one find and all sign.

 

I think the smaller the group the more sharing. If it's two people, chances are they will be looking for more and the next time the other could be first finder.

[+Moose Mob]

Here's a bit more discussion in this thread.

 

(the important thing is gettinag away from the TV and having fun)

[gerboa]

Here's a bit more discussion in this thread.

 

(the important thing is gettinag away from the TV and having fun)

 

Yes very good points, although I implied only the first should claim, I recognised an exception recently, where the terrain was the problem, bit of an understatement, and the find easy, and all claimed.

[Neos2]

You know, it's odd that this same question has been popping up a lot lately. I wonder why --perhaps now that the weather is colling off in some places, more people are getting out again?

 

What you feel like doing probably has to do with what that little found it icon means to you.

 

To me, the icon is just an indication that I've done that cache.

 

My husband and I cache together most of the time. Other than a little good-natured ribbing though, we don't usually care who finds a cache first. We're just out there to have a little fun, enjoy the day and each other's company, and find a few caches.

 

Once in a great while we come across a cache that is hidden so cleverly that we want the other one to have the fun of finding that one, too.

 

We've been on lots of group hunts, and no one has ever wanted to do the "if you see it first, walk away and let everyone else find it" thing--although I would go along with that request if anyone ever asked. Or I'd try to at least--They'd probably never invite me to cache with them again because I'd keep getting excited about finding the cache and giving it away when I spotted it.

[+The Leprechauns]

We just had this thread. If I posted my opinion again, it'd be like logging two smileys on the same cache.

[+tozainamboku]

Why is it that some people think there is a competition for most to find? They think that people who cache alone are at a disadvantage to those that go together in a group. It's even worse if you have Team or Agency in your name, you must be cheating. If you think you deserve more respect because you found every cache by yourself, without using lifelines, or decrypting the hints, or whatever, put a note on your profile. Because no one cares. They're having fun caching, instead of worrying about the score.

[+budd-rdc]

As a lone hunter, I wonder what happens when a group with individual accounts and their own GPSr's hunt and find a cache.

Does only the one who lays hands on it get to log it? Do they take turns until someone finds? Or do they all claim a find ?

I suppose the reply will be "However they want to play it". but is it cricket if everyone logs a find.?

I often write in the logs who spotted it first, even if it's not me. That demonstrates that at least I was paying attention during the hunt. Sometimes I will let others search even if I spotted it right away, to let everyone enjoy the hunt.

 

If you have kids in the group, they enjoy announcing the find to everyone in the group, so applying this "each must search and find" rule will become cumbersome. Majority of cachers want to participate, so this isn't a big problem, at least in my experience.

[+sbell111]

Sometimes we'll wait around until each of us find it. Other times the finder will crack the cache open and all will sign.

 

I don't see the point of allowing only the initial finder to log the smiley.

[Sadie]

It's not about "finding", it's about the location.

 

Some would argue that tricky hides should be against the guidelines since they often result in the destruction of landscaping. The trails through the garden, and the broken tree branches. 100 finds on a cache probably means 125-150 people (once you cont couples and kids) all poking and prodding at an area.

 

To some of us, the cache log is just a formalty when we go to a great location that someone was kind enough to share with us.

 

And sometimes.. it's not finding the cache, but retrieving it that's the issue.

 

[+Zzyzx Road]

I look at it as a true team effort. My cousin, daughter and i all hav eour own screen names, but we team up to go caching.

She or I drive (that's one position), another will work the GPS in the car and set it up for the on foot hunt, and sometimes, my daughter is just skinny enough or nimble enough or whatever that SHE has to be the one to actually grab the cache.

We all sign.

Now, if just my daughter and I go out, we don't sign my cousin's name, and she doesn't sign ours when she goes. In fact just recently, we hit a string on the way home from an event. Some of the ones I had lined up we all needed to get, a few though were what my cousin or my daughter needed. So we went to the general location and I let the one in persuit find and sign...

[+GreyingJay]

As I said in another thread... when you do a jigsaw puzzle as a family, you don't claim it was not properly done just because you, yourself didn't put every one of those 1,000 pieces into place. It's not so much the physical act of completing the puzzle so much as the quality time spent with your family and friends.

[+Kacky]

If you are close enough to sign the log, you should claim a smiley even if someone else turned up the container. If you sign as a team, your team should all be there to lay eyes on the container unless it's a temporary situation like a team member giving birth that day or something. If you don't count smileys, you shouldn't post in a discussion about smileys.

[+DocDiTTo]

In a relay race, if the guy carrying the baton crosses the finish line first, his TEAM wins. He alone does not. It's the same with caching. If we're all looking for something, obviously only one of us will find it first. However it's a team effort, and we all assisted. Whether the group all signs the log immediately, or whether the first finder keeps quiet and allows the others to find on their own is up to the group and either way is fine. I've done both. Everyone eventually writes their name in the log, and all log it as found. I've never known anyone to play any other way.

[CoyoteRed]

If you sign as a team, your team should all be there to lay eyes on the container unless...

 

I'm a little confused by what you mean with this statement.

 

Are you talking about an impromptu team and sign as a team, but log as individuals? Or are you talking about a team that generally caches as a team, signs as a team, and logs as a team?

 

If you're talking about the former, then that's not even a practice that I'll accept. You sign the logbook like you're going to log online. Either as a team or as individuals.

 

If you're talking about the latter, then that, too, is not something I'll accept. The wife and I have been logging as a team since we started letterboxing which is before we started geocaching. We don't always hunt together--the vast majority of the time we do, but not always. When we log we log as a team with very, very few exceptions. It doesn't matter if both or only one of us find the cache, it's logged as a team. If it's logged as a team, then it's not logged individually. In short, not every team member has to be there for the team to log that cache.

[+Kacky]

...not every team member has to be there for the team to log that cache.

Oh, we disagree completely on that one.

Edited September 16, 2006 by Kacky

[CoyoteRed]

...not every team member has to be there for the team to log that cache.

Oh, we disagree completely on that one.

 

Good to know.

 

You're the first and only person I know of to disapprove of the practice in the 4+ years we've been doing it.

[Sadie]

It all boils down to "who cares".

 

I really don't care if I meet CR's criteria, or Kacky's or anyone else. I am out to enjoy my day, if I log as a team, if I log as an individual, if my tam mate isn't there, or if my buddy saw it first...

 

I/we went to the location. I/we saw what the cache hider wanted me to see. I/we logged the cache. Or maybe I didn't log the cache. Maybe I/we never went to the cache and logged it anyways.

 

What's "right" is what makes us feel good. Around here, folks stopped giving special recognition to folks with the most finds. We do give recognition to folks that help keep the sport fun, no matter how many finds or hides they have.

[+DocDiTTo]

...not every team member has to be there for the team to log that cache.

Oh, we disagree completely on that one.

 

I think you are confusing a "family" team account with an impromptu "hunt for a day or two team" where there is no one team account to log finds under. Many families use the family account when only one of them is there for a find, as that's just how they log finds, and that's perfectly ok in my book. But if you're caching as an impromptu team with others and you all regularly log finds individually, then all the individuals should be there if they're going to log the find. I think that's what CoyoteRed was saying.

[+The GeoGadgets Team]

If you are close enough to sign the log, you should claim a smiley even if someone else turned up the container. If you sign as a team, your team should all be there to lay eyes on the container unless it's a temporary situation like a team member giving birth that day or something. If you don't count smileys, you shouldn't post in a discussion about smileys.

 

My family and I have been caching together since late 2001. We did pick a team name, though all of us have individual 'screen' names. The very first cache found was by just Steak and I, but we logged it under our Team name. There were times when my youngest would get freaked out around certain terrain (berry vines, yuck), and with him being only 4 years old, I'd head back to the car with him. Does that mean that Steak and Red XIII, even having found the cache, traded items and signed the log, cannot log it as a find? I think not.

 

When my kids are in school I sometimes cache alone. I still log it as a Team find, because I do not have, nor do I see a need to have an individual user name or account.

 

If your 'rules' applied to all Geocachers, CCCooper Agency wouldn't be able to claim a fraction of their finds. If you are an individual and you feel slighted by this, maybe you should re-think your perspective.

 

If for example, each of the four of my family Team get into four different vehicles to go on a Geocaching Expedition, all heading in a different compass direction, and we all find different caches and sign the log a "The GeoGadgets Team", who is really going to know? A member of the Team found that cache, signed the log and followed 'the rules" (by rules I mean, found it, logged in the logbook - those are the only 'rules' I've ever been made aware of for Finds), then why shouldn't it be logged by the Team?

 

May sound like cheating to you, but if I climb that hill, fight off those skeeters and manage to find the cache and log it, who can claim I did any different?

[+edscott]

So a team of say 10 people scattered all over the county could easily do a hundred caches a day for the next several years and never really meet one another except on line?

[+Kacky]

So a team of say 10 people scattered all over the county could easily do a hundred caches a day for the next several years and never really meet one another except on line?

 

That's my point, thanks Ed. Or those people who went for a smiley record and some of them were a mile apart hunting other caches at the same time.

 

ETA - everyone, please don't panic just because someone disagrees with you! Sheesh, it isn't that important!

Edited September 16, 2006 by Kacky

[+edscott]

.....May sound like cheating to you, but if I climb that hill, fight off those skeeters and manage to find the cache and log it, who can claim I did any different?

 

No one can claim you didn't, but did the rest of the team do the cache? If I was on your team I would feel cheated that I did not have a chance to at least participate in the hunt. ....but whatever feels right to you.

[+edscott]

So a team of say 10 people scattered all over the county could easily do a hundred caches a day for the next several years and never really meet one another except on line?

 

That's my point, thanks Ed. Or those people who went for a smiley record and some of them were a mile apart hunting other caches at the same time.

 

 

Hey maybe we can get corporate sponsors, and all kinds of cool decals for our cachemobiles, and flashy uniforms... stay in five star motels, have personal trainers, and party all night. This concept has some real potential. Now those "Draft Choice" comments on the other thread are starting to be meaningful.

 

Looking for a dedicated cacher willing to join my team and relocate to a cache rich area. Must be willing to work 70 hour weeks for minimum wage until business matures.....

[hannieIII]

I would cut off my arm before I signed a log that I hadn't found unaided...but that's me, others do their own thing.

[+The GeoGadgets Team]

.....May sound like cheating to you, but if I climb that hill, fight off those skeeters and manage to find the cache and log it, who can claim I did any different?

 

No one can claim you didn't, but did the rest of the team do the cache? If I was on your team I would feel cheated that I did not have a chance to at least participate in the hunt. ....but whatever feels right to you.

 

Okay, then maybe you should look at my the overall numbers for my Team since we started in '01? Not 1k, barely just broke 600 finds in all that time.

 

How do you think that CCCooper Agency works? Do you think that only one person has found... what is it now? 10k in finds? by themselves? Uh, no... especially when you see that they have multiple finds in two or three different states (each) all on the same day. That is how they have garnered those numbers. Now, the numbers means something to them, obviously.

 

Do you think that my two sons feel cheated when they get to go to a friend's birthday party and Mom and Dad decide they'd rather spend some quality time Geocaching? No. Should we not use our time alone together to do something we enjoy? I think not. You know what my nine-year old says when we tell him we've been out night-caching? "Did you bring me anything?"... but then he says the same thing when I come home from Wal-Mart, too. Is the rest of the family cheated then?

 

A 'corporate team' like CCCA and a 'family team' like we GeoGadgets are two completely different critters. Obviously, to us the numbers are a nice added extra. It doesn't mean that we are better or worse than other cachers. It does mean that we have some great memories of our caches done together, and those done with/without the kids. My oldest son spent three weeks in Texas with his biological father. My ex and his family are Geocachers, too. They went out and found a cache to place a Travel Bug that wanted to go to Texas. Yes, we counted that as a find... kind of had to. I picked up the TB and Red XIII doesn't cache enough alone to get his own account. I'm sorry if you think that we all cheated, but I didn't hear anyone complain when I logged it as a find. A member of the Team was there, photos were taken, swag traded, and the log was signed with "Red XIII of The GeoGadgets Team".

 

Are you going to tell me now that I have to do more than one cache per state to consider saying that I have Geocached in any particular state? Whatever...

[+BlueDeuce]

I wonder what happens when a group with individual accounts and their own GPSr's hunt and find a cache.

 

Hey, look what I found. A topic.

[+wavector]

Hey, I have a cache for that question!!!

 

The group search question is one that applies to this cache in a very particular manner, you might say that this cache puts that question in the batting box.

The person who actually finds Swim signs the log but everyone who is there when the cache is lifted off the bottom will also sign the log. Having everyone in the group find this cache is actually pointless in my mind and I do not ever expect to see "Found cache, placed back in the lake so that others out with us on the hunt could continue diving to the bottom of the lake."

This cache actually takes two people to find as there is always a shoreline helper, so far everyone present when the cache is found signs the log.

 

Huckle Buckle Beanstalk doesn't work either.