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Indiana Phone a friend Network


Wolverine Warriors

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Okay I have a question for all you Indiana cachers is there a Indiana phone a friend list. In Migo we have a phone a friend list and if you want your name on it you let the person who is in charge of it know. Then he mails out a list to everybody who wants to be on the list. Plus evey month or so he sends out a new and updated list of the new cachers who have joined the list and if there was any phone number changes. For those of you who don't know us yet. We live in Coldwater, MI which is the first town to the north on I-69 and we are about 15 Mins. from Pokagon State park. We do alot if not the majority of our caching in Indiana so we thought this could be handy to have. Especially after yesterday when we DNFed several multi's and puzzle caches in Ft. Wayne yesterday. What does everybody think and would somebody be willing to run the list. I would be willing to do it but I don't know if you would want a michigander running it. :laughing:

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Let's see if I understand this correctly: You want to set up a network of cachers who will tell each other exactly where caches are hidden? :rolleyes:

 

No we want to set up a network...so that if you're at a cache site and you CAN'T find the cache you can call a friend to find out if it's REALLY MIA or if you're just overlooking it....or if you have the wrong answers on a puzzle cache....woth the hope and trust that the person you're calling will just give you hints and not give you the location....

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One time we were looking for one of Mr I's hides. All I would want from a phone a friend would be to say Yes or no to questions like....I'm between blah and blah is this the right place? Does that make sense?

 

I know exactly what you're talking about....and we've called people for help with the hint before.....cause the hint references some TV show or movie from the 40s or something and I HAVE NO CLUE what they're talking about.

Edited by Wolverine Warriors
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I've done it and think it's a good idea. I use to cache alone quite a bit and it was always nice to know that I had a friend on the other end of the phone who could find me if I got hurt or lost.

 

That is an excellent point and one that I had never thought about. There is plenty of times that I go out by myself and what if I were to fall and break a leg for example. Now I would have a list of names and numbers of people that could come and find me by giving them my coords.

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I have done some caching in the Detroit area and I saw the reference to phone a friend on some logs. I thought that was nice and a fun way to stay in touch with fellow cachers that you only see at events. I have both my sisters families that cache and I have used the phone a friend option before. But we don't just tell the other person where the caches is what fun is in that. I would love to be on your list.

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If I can't find a cache I mark it as a DNF and move on. Other than the obvious enjoyment of the trip, for me finding caches is the basis of the experience and to phone someone for help seems to miss the point entirely.

 

I agree. And if I hid the cache I would like to think people find it themselves, not call a previous finder for help. Can't find my cache? Contact ME for a hint, I'll decide how much you should know. :huh:

Other than that I don't have a problem with the list, just keep it fair and honest. :unsure:

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I think people are getting the wrong idea or think of this as a way to cheat. When we have used it we have used it in cases were we have looked for quite awhile and I call some one just to make sure that I'm looking in the right spot. I am stubborn and hate walking away with a DNF and there is several times that I have found I was looking in the right spot but the cache was gone and there was one time that I was looking for a cache and the coords were over a hundred feet off and I had the owners phone number so I called him he gave me a hint and I found the cache. Later he went out and sure enough his coords were a hundred feet off. We also have used it to make last min. plans to go caching with some of our caching friends. Instead of waiting for them to get there e-mail and by then you might already be out caching. There has been several times we have gotten a call saying hey I'm on the road and am in your area do you want to meet up and do some caching since i'm in your area. I'm just saying that there are alot of reasons to do this and it is not meant to be some way of cheating and finding caches quicker. If you are interested I will start getting this rolling send your

 

Geocaching Name

Real Name

Cell Number

Home Number

E-mail Address

City you live in

 

You don't have to fill in all the catergories just the ones you are comfortable with. If you don't want to do this that is fine but for those of you that do send your e-mail to Wolverine_Warriors@Yahoo.com and once I have a few names I will get the first list of the Indianna Phone A friend list out to the people who want to participate as new people add their info to the list I will update the list and send out the new list to everybody on it.

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I agree. And if I hid the cache I would like to think people find it themselves, not call a previous finder for help. Can't find my cache? Contact ME for a hint, I'll decide how much you should know. :)

Other than that I don't have a problem with the list, just keep it fair and honest. :P

Cool, whats your phone number? :D

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I agree. And if I hid the cache I would like to think people find it themselves, not call a previous finder for help. Can't find my cache? Contact ME for a hint, I'll decide how much you should know. :D

Other than that I don't have a problem with the list, just keep it fair and honest. :P

Cool, whats your phone number? :D

 

I'm seldom near my home phone without being online, e-mail works best there. :)

Just come on a Sunday and I'm almost always here. :D Other days it's hit and miss.

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I agree. And if I hid the cache I would like to think people find it themselves, not call a previous finder for help. Can't find my cache? Contact ME for a hint, I'll decide how much you should know. :)

Other than that I don't have a problem with the list, just keep it fair and honest. :)

Cool, whats your phone number? :unsure:

 

I'm seldom near my home phone without being online, e-mail works best there. :huh:

Just come on a Sunday and I'm almost always here. :unsure: Other days it's hit and miss.

I think I'll stick to contacting others I'm already familar with :), sorry if I miss you.

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I agree. And if I hid the cache I would like to think people find it themselves, not call a previous finder for help. Can't find my cache? Contact ME for a hint, I'll decide how much you should know. :)

Other than that I don't have a problem with the list, just keep it fair and honest. :)

Cool, whats your phone number? :unsure:

 

I'm seldom near my home phone without being online, e-mail works best there. :huh:

Just come on a Sunday and I'm almost always here. :unsure: Other days it's hit and miss.

I think I'll stick to contacting others I'm already familar with :), sorry if I miss you.

 

LOL, no problem, we all gotta do what we think best. Which brings us back to the list. Would I really want to call somebody I've never met and know very little about, wondering if they are at work or dealing with a family crises or who knows what, and asking them about a cache they found weeks ago?

Would I want a stranger I've never met calling me in the above situations about a cache?

 

Seems like "phone a friend" should be just that, and unless we've met, or at least conversed enough on here to get a feel about each other, are we friends?

I'll gladly give my info to friends, but this list is open to anyone who wants it, what if one of them isn't very friendly?

 

I'll give it some more thought, but I prefer not to rush in to anything.

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LOL, no problem, we all gotta do what we think best. Which brings us back to the list. Would I really want to call somebody I've never met and know very little about, wondering if they are at work or dealing with a family crises or who knows what, and asking them about a cache they found weeks ago?

Would I want a stranger I've never met calling me in the above situations about a cache?

 

...

Thats true, but how is it any different than emailing someone you don't know and have never meant, to ask for help on a cache? :yikes:

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LOL, no problem, we all gotta do what we think best. Which brings us back to the list. Would I really want to call somebody I've never met and know very little about, wondering if they are at work or dealing with a family crises or who knows what, and asking them about a cache they found weeks ago?

Would I want a stranger I've never met calling me in the above situations about a cache?

 

...

Thats true, but how is it any different than emailing someone you don't know and have never meant, to ask for help on a cache? :yikes:

 

Because I normally don't check my e-mail unless I have the free time to read and respond to it.

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LOL, no problem, we all gotta do what we think best. Which brings us back to the list. Would I really want to call somebody I've never met and know very little about, wondering if they are at work or dealing with a family crises or who knows what, and asking them about a cache they found weeks ago?

Would I want a stranger I've never met calling me in the above situations about a cache?

 

...

Thats true, but how is it any different than emailing someone you don't know and have never meant, to ask for help on a cache? :yikes:

 

Because I normally don't check my e-mail unless I have the free time to read and respond to it.

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LOL, no problem, we all gotta do what we think best. Which brings us back to the list. Would I really want to call somebody I've never met and know very little about, wondering if they are at work or dealing with a family crises or who knows what, and asking them about a cache they found weeks ago?

Would I want a stranger I've never met calling me in the above situations about a cache?

 

Seems like "phone a friend" should be just that, and unless we've met, or at least conversed enough on here to get a feel about each other, are we friends?

I'll gladly give my info to friends, but this list is open to anyone who wants it, what if one of them isn't very friendly?

 

I'll give it some more thought, but I prefer not to rush in to anything.

 

I can understand you're reasoning and in a way I totally understand...we've only contacted people that we've met and conversed with at least once...Not that we don't have the contact information to people that we haven't met, just haven't ever needed to contact people that we don't know.

And through this topic we've gained info on most of our caching friends in Indiana that we didn't have before. And so far that's the only ones that have felt comfortable joining this.

Also we have a TB hotel in our back yard and we invite ALL who visit to knock on the door so we can meet you. I guess we're just outgoing people and so are most of our caching friends, I'm sure.

I personally have caller ID on both my home and cell phone, so I can always ignore if I'm too busy and call them back later. But I understand your reasoning. Usually it goes..."hey, that cache you found last week, is it in the rock quarry? Yeah, okay, we'll keep looking." and they ask us a question about the cache that they're currently at, that we found last month...And actually we've made good friends with some people, because we've only met them once or twice but through the phone a friend, we're always caching in the same areas, so we've met up a few times and cached together.

But it's always about your comfort level, and thank-you for giving it the time to think through, and not just dismissing it as a way to cheat out finds.

Hope to see you on the trail someday.

Heather of Wolverine Warriors

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LOL, no problem, we all gotta do what we think best. Which brings us back to the list. Would I really want to call somebody I've never met and know very little about, wondering if they are at work or dealing with a family crises or who knows what, and asking them about a cache they found weeks ago?

Would I want a stranger I've never met calling me in the above situations about a cache?

 

...

Thats true, but how is it any different than emailing someone you don't know and have never meant, to ask for help on a cache? :yikes:

 

Because I normally don't check my e-mail unless I have the free time to read and respond to it.

So your saying if we can't find a cache, we're SOL on getting any help? :huh:

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LOL, no problem, we all gotta do what we think best. Which brings us back to the list. Would I really want to call somebody I've never met and know very little about, wondering if they are at work or dealing with a family crises or who knows what, and asking them about a cache they found weeks ago?

Would I want a stranger I've never met calling me in the above situations about a cache?

 

...

Thats true, but how is it any different than emailing someone you don't know and have never meant, to ask for help on a cache? :D

 

Because I normally don't check my e-mail unless I have the free time to read and respond to it.

So your saying if we can't find a cache, we're SOL on getting any help? :D

 

Hmm, how do I normally handle a DNF?

Ah yes, I go home and read the listing again for clues, that's been enough so far. If more is needed I would e-mail the cache hider for a hint. If far from home I would file it and forget it until or unless I returned to the area at a later date. Until this thread I'd never even considered phoning another finder for a clue, guess that's the loner in me. :D

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So your saying if we can't find a cache, we're SOL on getting any help? :D

Would that be that such a bad thing--- really? :D I like to find caches as much as the next guy, but it's not like I feel like everyone should help me find them.

 

We have phone numbers for a few cachers we know. If we're out hunting one of their 1/1 caches and don't find it after a half an hour, we've been known to call and let them know where we've looked--If they end up telling us exactly how and where they had it, and we assure them we are looking right there, and we've also looked everywhere else x feet around and they want us to do something about it (like replace it), we will. But if it's one of their deliberately sneaky caches and they don't want to give it away, we're cool with that too. I'm not calling them just to get the find. I'm calling because I really think there is a problem, and since I'm right there anyway, I'm willing to help out.

 

On the other hand, I do understand the feeling of security you get when you can contact a local in a strange place. When we know we'll be traveling to a new area (like when we went to Chicago a couple of years ago), we'll find a few caches we know we want to do and email the owners ahead of time to get recommendations on other nearby caches. Sometimes folks offer their phone number in case we run into problems. It's great to know I could call someone and ask them how to get to a particular shpping mall, or if "Thames park" is what the locals call "43rd Avenue Park", if it's legal to park on campus on Sundays if you aren't a student, or where to eat lunch if I really want a good sit-down fish meal, or whatever. I almost never end up calling them, but it's nice to know I can.

 

All that said, if I meet you and you want my number, let me know. But I also don't think I'd want to put my telephone number out on a generic list of cachers. I can think of one former cacher that I would not want to have my telephone number--ever--for any reason. I certainly wouldn't feel right calling one of you I hadn't met to ask you a question about a cache--not without at least feeling you "might" be expecting me to call.

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LOL, no problem, we all gotta do what we think best. Which brings us back to the list. Would I really want to call somebody I've never met and know very little about, wondering if they are at work or dealing with a family crises or who knows what, and asking them about a cache they found weeks ago?

Would I want a stranger I've never met calling me in the above situations about a cache?

 

...

Thats true, but how is it any different than emailing someone you don't know and have never meant, to ask for help on a cache? :rolleyes:

 

Because I normally don't check my e-mail unless I have the free time to read and respond to it.

So your saying if we can't find a cache, we're SOL on getting any help? <_<

 

Hmm, how do I normally handle a DNF?

Ah yes, I go home and read the listing again for clues, that's been enough so far. If more is needed I would e-mail the cache hider for a hint. If far from home I would file it and forget it until or unless I returned to the area at a later date. Until this thread I'd never even considered phoning another finder for a clue, guess that's the loner in me. :unsure:

Ok, you've lost me. Can you be contacted for a hint if someone couldn't find your cache or not?

First you say you wouldn't call someone incase they're having a crisis, and you don't answer email unless you have time, but now you say you'd go home and try to email them (after looking for other hints).

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So your saying if we can't find a cache, we're SOL on getting any help? :rolleyes:

Would that be that such a bad thing--- really? <_< I like to find caches as much as the next guy, but it's not like I feel like everyone should help me find them.

...

 

All that said, if I meet you and you want my number, let me know. But I also don't think I'd want to put my telephone number out on a generic list of cachers. I can think of one former cacher that I would not want to have my telephone number--ever--for any reason. I certainly wouldn't feel right calling one of you I hadn't met to ask you a question about a cache--not without at least feeling you "might" be expecting me to call.

I don't think people will find every cache, even with help.

 

Yea I'm pretty much the same way, I wouldn't want people I haven't met calling me. But thats not my topic, I'm trying to understand the resistance to the idea that some people will call each other for hints. I personally don't like the phone much, and I generally avoid calling people in favor of email. But I realize some people need instant gratification and use phones for hints. Even if it were possiable to make a phone call to every cache owner, I think some would call their friends instead just because its more comfortable to interact with people you know.

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LOL, no problem, we all gotta do what we think best. Which brings us back to the list. Would I really want to call somebody I've never met and know very little about, wondering if they are at work or dealing with a family crises or who knows what, and asking them about a cache they found weeks ago?

Would I want a stranger I've never met calling me in the above situations about a cache?

 

...

Thats true, but how is it any different than emailing someone you don't know and have never meant, to ask for help on a cache? :)

 

Because I normally don't check my e-mail unless I have the free time to read and respond to it.

So your saying if we can't find a cache, we're SOL on getting any help? :)

 

Hmm, how do I normally handle a DNF?

Ah yes, I go home and read the listing again for clues, that's been enough so far. If more is needed I would e-mail the cache hider for a hint. If far from home I would file it and forget it until or unless I returned to the area at a later date. Until this thread I'd never even considered phoning another finder for a clue, guess that's the loner in me. :)

Ok, you've lost me. Can you be contacted for a hint if someone couldn't find your cache or not?

First you say you wouldn't call someone incase they're having a crisis, and you don't answer email unless you have time, but now you say you'd go home and try to email them (after looking for other hints).

 

No, I never said I only check e-mails "when I have time"

I said "When I check my e-mails I have time thenb to respond", just like I have time right now to make this post. One hour ago when I was still at work I did not have the time.

So if you e-mail me for a hint at 9:00 AM I may not respond until 9:00PM, but I will respond.

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LOL, no problem, we all gotta do what we think best. Which brings us back to the list. Would I really want to call somebody I've never met and know very little about, wondering if they are at work or dealing with a family crises or who knows what, and asking them about a cache they found weeks ago?

Would I want a stranger I've never met calling me in the above situations about a cache?

 

...

Thats true, but how is it any different than emailing someone you don't know and have never meant, to ask for help on a cache? :P

 

Because I normally don't check my e-mail unless I have the free time to read and respond to it.

So your saying if we can't find a cache, we're SOL on getting any help? :P

 

Hmm, how do I normally handle a DNF?

Ah yes, I go home and read the listing again for clues, that's been enough so far. If more is needed I would e-mail the cache hider for a hint. If far from home I would file it and forget it until or unless I returned to the area at a later date. Until this thread I'd never even considered phoning another finder for a clue, guess that's the loner in me. :P

Ok, you've lost me. Can you be contacted for a hint if someone couldn't find your cache or not?

First you say you wouldn't call someone incase they're having a crisis, and you don't answer email unless you have time, but now you say you'd go home and try to email them (after looking for other hints).

 

No, I never said I only check e-mails "when I have time"

I said "When I check my e-mails I have time thenb to respond", just like I have time right now to make this post. One hour ago when I was still at work I did not have the time.

So if you e-mail me for a hint at 9:00 AM I may not respond until 9:00PM, but I will respond.

I'll take that as a 'yes', thanks :P

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I'll take that as a 'yes', thanks :P

 

Yes, it's a yes, and you're welcome.

BTW, my names Douglas A. Shrader

I've been thinking about the whole proposal, and I've come to a few conclusions.

For most people, our names, addresses and phone numbers are already freely available to complete strangers, so why should we worry if our fellow Geocachers see it?

Yes, there is the chance we will anger somebody in the game and they'll use it against us, but that same chance exists in our real world contacts already.

So on that level I see nothing wrong with it, no hidden dangers that I don't already face, so to speak. With one exception, SPAM bots trolling websites for info. I'll gladly send my info to any who wish it though, and maybe I'll add it to the list later on.

 

Doug

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I don't think the intention was ever to post cachers private information online somewhere. I believe it was just a list that was going to be compiled and then sent out to those who had submitted their info. At least, that was my understanding, and I HOPE that that is the case, as my info is already sent!

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