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Scooter Bill

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As I clicked on my profile page the other day and viewed for the one billionth time my milestones (first, 50th, 100th cache...), FTF's, Favorites,...Two words came to my mind...

 

WHO CARES?

 

When you visit the profile pages of other cachers (if you do), what do you like to see there? Are they a waste of time? What are some good...no, great profile pages that I should see? Do you care about milestones? FTF's? Favorite caches? States I've cached in? Is it all a waste of time?

 

Go ahead and view mine if you like.

 

I love caching but do profile pages make a difference overall to you?

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I like pictures and hobbies and a little bit of background.

 

I don't care about how many caches (except to get a GENERAL idea of their experience, knowing that the numbers really tell very little); don't care how many FTFs. I seldom visit personal web pages except if it might be useful to help understand or respond to forum posts.

 

I am a little concerned with privacy and therefore I have deleted the majority of personal information in my profile (after having had it online for 3 years- the horse is running around all over creation but the barn door is closed now).

 

Basically, I would say the profile is MOSTLY a waste of time, but so is forum posting.

 

WWW- World Wide Waster (of time) - IT IS WHAT WE DO :(

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As I clicked on my profile page the other day and viewed for the one billionth time my milestones (first, 50th, 100th cache...), FTF's, Favorites,...Two words came to my mind...

 

WHO CARES?

 

When you visit the profile pages of other cachers (if you do), what do you like to see there? Are they a waste of time? What are some good...no, great profile pages that I should see? Do you care about milestones? FTF's? Favorite caches? States I've cached in? Is it all a waste of time?

 

Go ahead and view mine if you like.

 

I love caching but do profile pages make a difference overall to you?

 

I care.

 

You have a nice profile. :)

 

Anything on a profile is better than nothing.

 

I go to alot of events and I ALWAYS check the profiles of the new folks that plan to attend.

 

I generally check the profiles of the finders of my caches and TBs too.

 

I check the profile of a new face in the forums if I notice it more than a few times, or the handle seems interesting....

 

Sometimes I find a real gem just poking around.

 

I went overboard on mine and then they upped the space from 3000 characters to 150,000.... :):D I add to it weekly if not daily. I wonderrr how long it will take me to use up all that space...? Strangely, people tend to keep their kids away from me at events...... :( :(

Edited by Snoogans
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Bill asked

WHO CARES?

 

Your cache reviewers care.

 

Entering your home coords help us determine if the cache you placed can readily be maintained from your home, or if we need to ask for more information.

 

Your history of hides and finds, and how long you've had an account similarly help us assess whether we need to ask basic questions like "You listed the three items in the cache, but did not mention a log book. Is there one?" or if we can take for granted that you're experienced enough to know what's required.

 

So some do care!

 

Probably wouldn't hug you though. :(

 

~erik~

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Personally I don't care;

A) What milestone caches you found.

:( What FTFs you managed.

C) What states you have cached in.

 

I am, on the other hand, very interested in what caches you have enjoyed, and why.

I like to hear what other cachers enjoy, makes my hides better.

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I agree with you totally. I couldn't care less how many finds you have.

 

On the other hand, I LOVE looking at MY numbers. The profile information I have on my page (milestones, states cached in, etc) is more for me than anyone else. If someone else wants to look at it they're more than welcome to. I wouldn't make it private if I could.

 

But to answer your question, I hardly ever look at anyone elses profile unless there's a specific thing about it mentioned in the forums (I peeked at yours to see if you'd removed the info you don't care about).

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I'll take a look at profiles of people I come accross. If someone posts a find at my cache or picks up one of my travel bugs, I'll usually look at the profile. Also, there's a couple bugs I'm watching because I'm curious to see them progress on thier missons. When one of these gets picked up, I'll take a look at the persons profile and see if that gives me an idea of where they are from. I also enjoy looking at gallery pictures.

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Thanx for the input.

I guess that I mostly wondered whether people used their profile page for the use of others or for themselves or for both.

I see it as a potentially valuable resource for fellow cachers and I'd hate to feel like I'm wasting valuable caching time maintaining it. I like to feel like I'm contributing at least a little to geocaching even if it's just my itty bitty corner.

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And then there's people who just put way too many things in their profile. :(

 

Hmmmm, you're giving me ideas..... :) Maybe I should put my favorite Vogon poem in my profile....? Naaaa, not Snooganesque enough. :D

Yeah, I'm sorry for inferring that your profile was too short! :(

 

I just keep you around to make mine look shorter. :)

Edited by Ambrosia
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There was another thread fairly recently on this same subject. Everyone pretty much agreed that profiles are great.

 

I look at people's profiles all the time. One of my favorite things about geocaching is the social aspect. I enjoy getting to know new people, and profiles help a lot with that. It's so disapointing to go to someone's profile and find nothing on it.

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When you visit the profile pages of other cachers (if you do), what do you like to see there? Are they a waste of time? What are some good...no, great profile pages that I should see? Do you care about milestones? FTF's? Favorite caches? States I've cached in? Is it all a waste of time?

 

I'm a data fiend. I like looking at the stats and profiles for other local cachers. I can sort of draw lines of commonality with them. One profile I stumbled across recently caught my attention because the guy was a model railroader. By strange coincidence, I met him on the trail a few days later, and already knew of a common interest besides geocaching.

 

Milestones I'm indifferent to. Maybe I'll feel differently when I reach one that involves more than two digits. Favorite caches certainly are of interest. None of the information someone puts in their profile really seems like a waste of effort. Geocaching has a very definite social aspect to it, and the profiles help that.

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We like to read profiles of people we meet or the ones who are often traveling the same paths as we are. (Not that we spend all waking hours reading them) The social aspect of geocaching is one that we are enjoying very much. You can learn alot about people most of the time based on what they do or don't include in thier profile, and how they include it! We've noticed the more experience people get caching the more thier profiles change because of developing different appreciations involved within the world of the sport, and reading some of the profiles of the more experienced has given us different perspectives on things on a couple of occasions.

 

After all geocaching isn't just cut and dry there are many aspects of the sport that you may or may not want to be a part of... coins, sig items, events, TB's, micros, virtuals, mysteries, extreme caching, specific groups such as truckers, and so on and so on... you may love this cause it is something you can do on your own or with your pet to get some peace from the busy world around you, or it could be that you love to do this very socially and out loud with lots of others around you!

 

Not that our profile is all that great or anything cause it is definately a work in progress, too much about this and not enough about that. Hopefully though there is enough general and specific info on it that someone could learn a bit about us if they wanted to.

 

Maybe if you read ours you will say hey... some other crazy people like us in the world... we're gonna drop in on them and eat all thier pretzels and drink all thier beer......

or

It could scare you away and when you see us at an event you will think oh no.. not them again and run and hide!

 

At any rate .. we like profiles :(

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After reading my personal profile, another cacher contacted me regarding some career-related issues. As a result of that contact, he's changed jobs and is tremendously happy with how things have turned out. Never underestimate the power of connections!

 

My current listed occupation is Hasidic Diamond Merchant and before that it was Meat Popcicle. I change my listed occupation frequently. You'd hafta pay attention to the forums, or be a local, to know what I really do. <_<:anitongue:

Edited by Snoogans
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Profile pages are entertaining for me when they have pictures, images, stuff about the person and anything that expresses who they are.

 

It's the profiles with the statistics that make me nuts. Just seems waaaaay too obsessive-compulsive to list all the different categories of caches they've found. Does anyone really care that #475 was also a FTF and that they found 57 in FLA, 687 in VA and 12 in MS and based upon that they have 0.8 finds per day in 23% of the USA at a rate of 15 miles per day covering 587 cities and 73,000 square miles?

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I love the profiles. Is it a family? A couple? A single person? Do they cache a little, a lot. I love reading everything I can about my fellow cachers. Some do brag, but so what, let them. It's nice to put a picture with a name as well. After all, we are somewhat of a community, why not get to know each other a little better?

 

The one thing that bother's me, "How much of the profile is true?" I mean, I could post a picture of Brad Pitt and say it is me. BUT, I am better looking, so I wouldn't do that.

 

So, to me, the profile does carry some value. You can find out some things bout your fellow cachers. Hopefully, they have been honest.

 

It's like the little bit of internet dating I did. If a lady said she was a "little" overweight, and then we meet, I find her definition of "little" is quite different than "mine"! If a cacher posts a 20 year old picture of themself and we meet at a cache or a function, well............ The truth always comes out.

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What i like about the profile page is the fact you can put as little, or as much, a you like on it.Some people attach whole websites about their caching adventures, others choose to write nothing. As a person who loves all aspects of geocaching, but has limited access to caches (due to geographical distance), I spend a lot of time either on forums or following different cachers exploits "on line" either via their logs or through their cache pages. I often refer back to their profile pages to find out a little more about them and put a "face"to the people or teams i am reading about.This also helps develop a sense of community among cachers. When we lost our house, and all our possessions, in a major bushfire last year, i had cachers i had never met offering everything from condolences, to caravans and a house to use, until we could re-establish. Needless to say, i have now met most of these people in person, but there are still some i only know through the "cache pages"

Edited by Mr Walker
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Thanks to everyone for their input. It has encouraged me to visit more profile pages and discover more about what others like to see on a profile page.

I think I was more apathetic about my own stats and about who cares which was my 45th virtual DNF, etc.

I think I'll put more about myself and my experiences with caching as opposed to milestones, etc.

Anyone have any favorite profile pages that I should look at?

thnx

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We definitely care! We'll almost always check out a profile to get a "feel" for other cachers and are often surprised by things we learn about everyone. Sometimes it's as simple as realizing someone you thought was one gender turned out to be another or that someone you assumed was a teenager was just a really, REALLY active retiree. It's nice to know more about others and always pleasant to meet them later and see how closely you guaged them in the forums and profiles. :laughing:

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It's nice to know more about others and always pleasant to meet them later and see how closely you guaged them in the forums and profiles. :laughing:

 

A after meeting them, NO ONE has ever matched the picture I had in my head of them through either their forum posts or their cache logs.

 

At events, people most often comment to me that I seem so normal in person. :laughing::laughing:

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When we started out, we prepared a profile because we thought that was "the thing to do."

 

After a couple of early inquiries, we explained the genesis of our geoID, "The Old Bet Brigade." Not sure if anyone examines the profile, but the inquiries stopped.

 

The stats are mainly for our own use. It's a convenient place to keep track of our caching activities.

 

We don't routinely look at other profiles. Caching locally, we usually see the same names popping up in the cache logs. When we encounter a new name, we might take a look at the profile to see where this cacher comes from. (Yes, I ended that sentence with a preposition. If you check the profile, you will see that the Brigade does not include any English teachers.)

Edited by The Old Bet Brigade
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I never understood the whole stats and visited states, etc on your profile page thing either, if you really wanna know the person's stats click on the geocaches tab.

 

Then again, I don't really care about my stats, pretty much only reason I log online is to keep track of which ones I've already found.

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I never understood the whole stats and visited states, etc on your profile page thing either, if you really wanna know the person's stats click on the geocaches tab.

 

Then again, I don't really care about my stats, pretty much only reason I log online is to keep track of which ones I've already found.

When a person has a lot of finds, it's hard to see all the states that they've cached in.

 

I keep a state map on mine, because it's pretty ( :P ), and because travel is one of the most important things in my life. I love seeing which states and countries I have done caches in. Maybe someday it will catch up to how many states and countries I've visited and not done caches in. :D

 

edit: Goodness, I just looked at my profile and realized that I have more stats throughout the whole thing than I realized, some of them a bit different than normal. :huh::lol: Then again, I'm not normal. :lol:

Edited by Ambrosia
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