FtF hounds. (I've got a tiny bit of the sickness myself)

[+norsehawk]

I am not a major FTF hound, but I have gotten a good percentage of my finds as FTF's I think my total is about 7 out of 109 caches that I've found.

 

In my area, we have a few good FTF hounds, If a new cache pops up, and I think I can get to it quickly, I get out and go. I have gotten a few of my FTF's that way. I log my finds very quickly after finding the cache, since I might go out for 1-3 caches on a trip, unless I am going to a specific location to go caching, then I go for up to 8 or so. If I do this, the FTF hounds don't head for the cache since I already logged it as found.

 

what my question is. Would it be wrong of me not to log my find online until the next day, or even later in the day when I already found the cache and have gotten the FTF?

[+welch]

I think I'd say do to others, what you want them to do to you. To me this would mean logging the find whenever possiable, you don't need to buy a wap phone, but when you get the chance log it.

 

There was actually another disscussion about this same topic a few days back, its actually interesting reading... at least till it gets lost in talking about stealing somone's cache

[+Chuy!]

I agree, log it as soon as you can, but don't let any peer pressure stop you from enjoying a nice hike. I like to go caching on Sundays, starting at about 5a. I will grab the FTFs I can get and log them at noon'ish when I get home. I will note on the FTF logs that this cache was the first of X, so that cachers will understand I was out all morning. I haven't heard a complaint yet, at least not directly.

[+badlands]

There is too much competition from the FTF Hounds so I try to get there a little before they do to avoid the rush.

 

Seriously though, log it as you would any other cache......same day is nice but not always possible.

[+Cedar Grove Seekers]

We once got an FTF at around 9:00PM and intentionally didn't log it until the next morning (we convinced ourselves we were too tired to log-on). The STF found it at 1:00AM (my brother-in-law) and was pretty mad when he found out we delayed the log. He returned the favour a few weeks later and we 'got a dose of our own medicine', and it didn't taste good. Since then we've always logged when we get the chance, but certainly don't race home to do so.

[+robcaryh]

Who cares? Is it worth all the drama to say ohhh i got it first.You found it,this is Geocaching,not Firstfindcaching. You would think the way some people act that by finding a cache first they are automatically accepted to Harvard Med School or something,must not have done much in life if being first to post on the website means that much.

[+ScoutingWV]

Is it "wrong"? Heck no.

 

Enjoy the area and your time spent there. When you get back to a computer, log it as soon as you reasonably can.

 

I don't understand how the FTF not logging immediately stops the STF or anyone else from logging it online. Maybe it's some unwritten rule of geo-etiquette. If so, it should probably stay unwritten.

[+gof1]

FTFers enjoy the race. No big deal, if you don't then don't worry about it, it wont change your cache hunting.

 

The STF or TTF can still log on line before the FTF. The question is about someone running out of the house to try for the FTF when another has already found it. Around here you log the FTF as soon as you can but don't worry if you are out for a days caching and it takes a while. If you wait two days to log the FTF people will start to talk.

 

FTF hunting is different in different areas. I think it is very regional. Talk to the other FTFers in your area and try to get on the same page as them. After all, they are the people you are competing with.

[+Cedar Grove Seekers]

Who cares? Is it worth all the drama to say ohhh i got it first.You found it,this is Geocaching,not Firstfindcaching. You would think the way some people act that by finding a cache first they are automatically accepted to Harvard Med School or something,must not have done much in life if being first to post on the website means that much.

Many people care. Many different aspects of geocaching appeal to many different people. To some people racing against local cachers to be the FTF is one of the many things they enjoy about caching. Why do you care so much about what these people want to do?

[+Aquacache]

Who cares? Is it worth all the drama to say ohhh i got it first.You found it,this is Geocaching,not Firstfindcaching. You would think the way some people act that by finding a cache first they are automatically accepted to Harvard Med School or something,must not have done much in life if being first to post on the website means that much.

Many people care. Many different aspects of geocaching appeal to many different people. To some people racing against local cachers to be the FTF is one of the many things they enjoy about caching. Why do you care so much about what these people want to do?

Exactly what I was thinking. When you've found every cache within 20 miles of home, racing against the other local FTFers can be a lot of fun! But I guess you'll have to find more than 3 caches to understand.

[+GreyingJay]

I said this in that other thread, and I'll say it again.

 

Hunting for FTF is a "risk" you choose to take. You have to keep in mind there is a very real possibility that you will NOT be first to find, for whatever reason. That's supposed to be part of the fun. I lost out on a FTF because I missed an intersection -- by the time I got turned around and found the cache, someone had just arrived 3 minutes earlier. I have also had failed FTF attempts where the cache had no finds when I printed it off, but it sure did by the time I got back -- the person was logging his find just as I was driving to the cache.

 

Whether another person left their house 3 minutes before you did or whether they found it the night before and haven't had a chance to log it yet (intentionally or not), the risk is still there and it is a risk you have to accept when you go for a FTF. If you fail, it is nobody's "fault" but your own.

 

Yes, some people deliberately delay their online logs to tease other finders. I've done it. I think it's good-natured ribbing as it pokes fun at exactly that risk. And there are lots of legitimate reasons why a FTF log might not be posted immediately, including coming home too late at night and being tired, or going away on a weekend trip, or having no access to the Internet for a period of time. It disappoints me to hear stories about cachers being upset about people having "done that to them", as if it's some kind of entitlement.

[+Chuy!]

Who cares? Is it worth all the drama to say ohhh i got it first.You found it,this is Geocaching,not Firstfindcaching. You would think the way some people act that by finding a cache first they are automatically accepted to Harvard Med School or something,must not have done much in life if being first to post on the website means that much.

Many people care. Many different aspects of geocaching appeal to many different people. To some people racing against local cachers to be the FTF is one of the many things they enjoy about caching. Why do you care so much about what these people want to do?

Exactly what I was thinking. When you've found every cache within 20 miles of home, racing against the other local FTFers can be a lot of fun! But I guess you'll have to find more than 3 caches to understand.

Robcaryh posted on the wrong thread; he meant to post on the I-don't-care-about-FTF thread. He simply forgot to read the title. We'll forgive him .

[+wingnut16]

 

If you fail, it is nobody's "fault" but your own.

 

 

Spot ON GreyingJay!!!!

[+gof1]

On the rare occasion I get the urge to try for the FTF on a new cache I go knowing full well that I might not get there first. I know that risk going in. I know that there are many reasons the log might be delayed. I don't get my feelings hurt when the FTF didn't log within minutes of the find. I still think that to deliberately delay the log is rude.

 

It still may be a valid way to play the game in your area. Around here we don't do it that way. Neither way is wrong. This is why I said it is a regional thing, between you and those you compete with. For me to agree with someone 100 or 1000 miles away that we will play the FTF hunt a certain way would be pointless, we aren't racing on the same track.

 

By the way, any cache around here is found within a couple of hours of being available. We have also done a good job of keeping ourselves honest with regards to posted hours. If a cache page says that the park isn't open till dawn it is highly unlikely that it will be found in the dark. May be a couple of people parked on the side of the street 10 minutes before the sun comes up, but the park will be void of cache hunters till it does.

[+GreyingJay]

I still think that to deliberately delay the log is rude.

 

Yes. So is putting a Whoopee Cushion under someone's seat as they're sitting down. But there can be a time and a place for that too. In the end you need common sense to decide whether or not you would play such a prank on someone. I think the same goes with delaying FTF logs.

 

We have a pretty friendly geocaching community in my area, with almost 1,000 caches hidden. Cachers quickly get typecast (the FTF hounds, the guy with the tricky containers, the guy with the devious hides, the guy that loves micros, the guy that loves puzzles, the guy that micro-spews the crap out of everything). Caches won't last long before being found (a few hours at most, typically). Everyone knows how difficult it is to get FTF, so nobody goes in with any real expectations, and are pleasantly surprised when they are first. It's almost a sense of accomplishment to find, for example, the devious micro, before the devious-micro-lover does.

 

Everyone here is tired of park-n-grabs, so we have lots of difficult puzzle caches which frequently get a flurry of notes and DNF's as people try to solve them. The "classic" case of stolen DNF was a puzzle cache where two finders were clearly competing with each other to see who could solve the puzzle and find it first. For 3 days they posted notes and DNF's, and finally one of them solved the puzzle and went out triumphantly. Imagine his shock to find that, sometime during those 3 days, a third cacher had quietly solved the puzzle, found the cache, and signed the log! The logs were really quite entertaining.

Edited October 11, 2006 by GreyingJay

[+gof1]

I can't see myself slipping a whoopee cushion under someone either.

And the Three Stooges stopped being funny when I was 12.

 

The point I was trying to make is that it works for you and those you compete with.

Those that compete here have a different way of playing that aspect of the game. None are wrong.

That is the beauty of it. Caching is always different, different places, different styles, different people.

Almost always fun.

 

Two months ago the wife and I went on a caching trip. Spent a week a couple of hundred miles from home.

I was amazed at the difference that small distance made. It was a whole new bunch of fun.

 

That is why I said "Regional". A short distance away and you can find a whole new game.

[+jaredl]

i love logging my FTF's the next day. I've rushed out in the middle of the night when i saw a cache posted only to find someone found it and went home and took thre sweet time to log it.

 

it just makes it more fun, by not taking away from the rush or FTF hounds looking for it.

 

hopefully it was raining and they had to skip work to find it, only to find its already been found.

[+Hula Bum]

It's a risk you take when you go for the FTF. I wouldn't stall on purpose, but I also wouldn't worry if I picked it up and then went out to lunch and didn't make it back til the late afternoon.

If you don't like being STF, then don't head out for the FTF, cuz invariably it's going to happen.

[+Kealia]

Anybody who gets to a cache before me is sick and needs help.

 

Anybody who gets there after me is lazy.

[+RUFFLEDOSTRICH]

Part of the FTF enjoyment is grabbing a devious cache when your almost sure that you're FTF and find out another hound got it 10 minutes before you did and calling the FTFer and giving her(him) some choice, but friendly words. Otherwise, the FTF isn't worth it. It's only fun f you FTF before others in the caching community in your area that you're friendly with and it's fun competition.

 

In that situation it's good to log as soon as convenient, but don't cut short other indeavors.

 

As a HIDER though, sometimes the local FTF hound discourages other finders to make the cache a priority and you end up with few hits when (and if) you're into reading logs on caches you've hidden.

 

The consideration to the hider would be my only concern in delaying a og intentionally, but to the finders...it's part of the sport.

[+Nittanys1]

whats an easy way to search for FTF in your area?

[+Moore9KSUcats]

Notifications. Set your notifications (an option, somewhere, I forgot where) for "published" notes, and you will get an email (or phone alert, maybe?) as soon as it is published, and live. If you are lucky enough to be sitting on the computer and get an alert, you can be out the door quickly!

 

If for some reason (as happened earlier this summer) the notifications aren't working quite right for email, (a system glitch after an upgrade) someone else may beat you to the one planted 100 ft from your front door! Yes, that happened... but, oh, well..... that's part of the game. He probably had the alerts go mobile. I'm not that techie, but finally managed to get my alerts going properly to email.