What to do about possibly missing caches?

[+Tater & Cupcake]

OK, I have two caches that I need to ask about...

 

On one, the cache has been confirmed as missing, a NM log has been posted, but the cache owner (who is a fairly frequent GC.com visitor) has failed to do anything about it.

 

On the other, there are a few DNFs for the last five visits, however, the cache owner hasn't logged in since January 2007, so there is no way to determine if the cache is even still there.

 

What do we do in these situations?

[+gof1]

In the first case drop a friendly note to the owner. Maybe offer a little help.

 

The second one perhaps you can contact previous finder. Or you can post a SBA or contact the local reviewer.

 

Or you can do nothing at all. There is no rule that says you need to police the caches in your area.

[+oldschool]

Generally speaking if a cache and/or its owner are mia for a long enough period of time and enough people post dnf's for a few of their caches, both the cache owner and their caches will be archived with any of their remaining active geocaches adopted by other people. Not to worry, its something the local reviewer will eventually take care of.

[+joranda]

In the first case drop a friendly note to the owner. Maybe offer a little help.

 

The second one perhaps you can contact previous finder. Or you can post a SBA or contact the local reviewer.

 

Or you can do nothing at all. There is no rule that says you need to police the caches in your area.

 

Well said.

[+Ambrosia]

Generally speaking if a cache and/or its owner are mia for a long enough period of time and enough people post dnf's for a few of their caches, both the cache owner and their caches will be archived with any of their remaining active geocaches adopted by other people. Not to worry, its something the local reviewer will eventually take care of.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by the cache owner being archived. If a cache owner is MIA, and they don't respond to issues with one of their caches that is having problems, then it may be archived. But if some of their other caches are doing fine, then they will probably stay active and be findable by cachers.

 

The adoption policy has changed a bit recently, and there are no longer any involuntary adoptions. The owner has to be involved in the process: Forum link to Adoption FAQ.

[Clan Riffster]

What do we do in these situations?

Visit the cache and post a DNF.

[+TeamGuisinger]

Other than contacting the owners, you shouldn't do anything about either one of the caches until you go look for them. Then and only then should you post your DNF and your NM. A Found or DNF log should be required before you're able to post a NM. Maybe the growing number of DNF's showing on stats would decrease the posting of NM logs from the comforts of home. If the cache or it's owner is missing and a VALID NM log goes unanswered, GC will shut it down. It's all those INVALID logs that cause extra work on owners and lessen the appeal of placing caches.

[Keystone]

If the cache or it's owner is missing and a VALID NM log goes unanswered, GC will shut it down.

Not necessarily. Nobody but the owner and the watchlist/bookmark list folks are notified when a "needs maintenance" log is entered. Someone would need to e-mail Groundspeak or a volunteer reviewer, or leave a "needs archived" log on the cache page, to attract immediate attention.

 

A minority of reviewers will scan their territory for caches with the "needs maintenance" icon or many consecutive DNF's, but this is totally optional. I cruise through my territory for this purpose maybe twice a year, at the most.

 

Also, if the owner is missing but there is no problem with the cache, then why shut down the cache? Some sort of guidelines violation is needed; most often, it is the "cache maintenance" guideline.

[+Kit Fox]

I posted a second needs maintenance log on this cache. I doubt it will make much difference since the first NM has been ignored since January.

[+edscott]

In the case of the one that is confirmed missing I would just ignore it. For the other one I'd put it on my watch list and see if anyone confirms it's existence.