CRY BABY OR NOT

[+THEHIWAYMAN]

This is the DNF log a received from a fellow cacher Im putting this out for all your opinions...

I admit that I made a mistake on entering the coordinates on a new cache... I appologise Im just glad that he was the only one who did not find it...It was my fault ill admit it I messed up... with that said This was his reaction... I think hes a crybaby and doesnt get the whole idea of caching we keep going back and forth on the notes and e mails wich is not the place to do so...

 

CRY BABY OR NOT??? VOTES PLEASE

 

September 7 )

spent... I mean wasted 3 hours of daylight on this cache and still didn't find it. flipped over every rock probably possible. What a waste of time this was. we wanted to be a FTF for the new cords but after 3 hours of looking we headed out. it's caches like ths that make this hobby not fun. I think Ima dig a hole w/ my hands as deep as possible put a huge rock over it then give cords 50 feet away and then be like go this many steps this way then that way and there it will be. As you can tell I am rater aggrevated. I wish this cache could give me my 3 hours of life back instead of a FTF cert.

 

My response was as follows and it gos on in several other emails.

 

So Sorry sorry sorry I had made Three way points on my scouting day and picked the wrong one when I was back home entering the cache info into the web-site

That being said and I do mean the apology. I will be adding a piece of hard cheese to go along with the whine of not getting the FTF! also I will mark the trail With diapers and kleenex tissues to mop up the tears of despair.

 

I never consider caching a waste of time and I never want the time of not finding something added back to my life... Thats just the way it goes... (lOOK AT THE PREVIOUS GULLY) LOGS

Gc'n Is a game of chance and the important thing is not a stupid piece of paper or how many numbers you have in your profile!

Sorry you didnt find it... That was my stupidity but your greed of a FTF is your issue.

sorry for the sarcasm, but Ive never read such a pitifull log...

 

Respectfully yours, THEHIWAYMAN

 

What do you think, besides why am I wasting time with this...

Edited September 8, 2008 by THEHIWAYMAN

[+Proud Soccer Mom]

I think you need the cheese for your own whine.

 

I wouldn't have spent 3 hours for a find that wouldn't have a difficulty to match that time. If I had spent that time needlessly, I'd be aggravated. Then to get mocked by the CO when it was their muck-up? You're far more childish here.

 

Posting their username and message to the forum is just gravy.

 

- Elle

Edited September 8, 2008 by HauntHunters

[+Airmapper]

You two ought to go cache together, then both of you can whine together.

[+wapahani]

Who cares if you made a mistake and who cares they didn't FTF.

 

Its a hobby, if it isn't fun then stop.

If you make a mistake, so be it.

Its not like their life depended on it.

 

Had they not whined about it, you could have given them the new coords, disabled the cache, allowed them 1 day to find it and then put it back up.

Then again, I would have just left it be, rechecked the coords and sent it on its way.

 

Again, I'm not a FTF hound either.

Some and again I say "SOME" FTF Hounds are CRYBABIES that just don't get it.

Again I say SOME not ALL.

[+THEHIWAYMAN]

I think you need the cheese for your own whine.

 

I wouldn't have spent 3 hours for a find that wouldn't have a difficulty to match that time. If I had spent that time needlessly, I'd be aggravated. Then to get mocked by the CO when it was their muck-up? You're far more childish here.

 

Posting their username and message to the forum is just gravy.

 

- Elle

 

Quite rite... Just eddited that name out...

 

I agree it was my muck up..Ive had DNF's but its the reaction that fired me up... This is not a gauranteed sport some you find some you dont... a simple what up here would have clued me in...

 

I agree I probably am being just as childish here.Its just got my feathers ruffled.

 

I wish i didnt even ask about it now...

[jholly]

The seeker had a rant, some what justified, but his/her problem is that they didn't know how to cut the losses and move on. You response is down right rude, mean and really scarcastic. Totally uncalled for. A simple "I'm sorry, I messed up" would have worked much better and you would have looked a whole lot better.

 

I don't think your going to get very many gold stars for your response.

 

Jim

[+TotemLake]

Mistakes happen. I have a cache where a similar incident occured. I was fortunate to recieve the following log:

 

Taking my son on his first backpacking trip we decided to forgo the extra climb with our full packs and camped at the lower Anderson Lakes. However, took a small pack for a day trek over the hill to Watson.

The coordinates took us up to the ridge line and what a gorgeous view! That was worth it, but still wish we could have found the cache. If we ever make it back this way, will have to seek again with the new coords.

 

Official Census: At least 10 fish popping up out of the water to say "Hi."

 

I sent them an apology for the goof and it ended at that. I'm hoping they'll stop by again in the near future. It's a great place to hike and/or camp.

[+THEHIWAYMAN]

The seeker had a rant, some what justified, but his/her problem is that they didn't know how to cut the losses and move on. You response is down right rude, mean and really scarcastic. Totally uncalled for. A simple "I'm sorry, I messed up" would have worked much better and you would have looked a whole lot better.

 

I don't think your going to get very many gold stars for your response.

 

Jim

 

Quite right again, I think Ill go delete my response back to him... Who ever it wrong or right I was taught to wrongs dont make a right...

 

I was just Ticked...

[sdarken]

If I'm reading the original post correctly then I'd say that your response was a lot worse than his log. He had a reason to be a little "aggrevated". Rubbing salt into the wound is a good way to make yourself very unpopular. You should have provided an apology and that's all.

 

That said, spending 3 hours looking for a cache seems a little excessive (obsessive?). Trying to be FTF comes with a risk of looking for a cache that isn't there (or isn't at the posted coordinates). It happens more often than you might expect.

[+whistler & co.]

You took THREE waypoints? Why only three? We usually use two GPS units and take at least ten or more with each. Our coords are generally dead on, and if someone says they are off, we often find the cache has been moved. If you take multiple waypoints and then average them, you will avoid causing such distress to not only FTF seekers, but also all cachers thereafter who hunt for your hides. Just choosing one of the three waypoints you take is not enough...they need to be averaged to allow for movement of the satellites. Your local cachers will thank you!

[+THEHIWAYMAN]

You took THREE waypoints? Why only three? We usually use two GPS units and take at least ten or more with each. Our coords are generally dead on, and if someone says they are off, we often find the cache has been moved. If you take multiple waypoints and then average them, you will avoid causing such distress to not only FTF seekers, but also all cachers thereafter who hunt for your hides. Just choosing one of the three waypoints you take is not enough...they need to be averaged to allow for movement of the satellites. Your local cachers will thank you!

 

Yup 10-4 on that...

The good news is me and VB have come to an agreement through our private emails, and actually realised that we both over reacted...Had a few laughs even...

Like I said to him Ive never met a fellow cacher I didnt like But we all have Unique personalities. and they can sometimes clash...

 

Case closed... learned alot on this one... THNX.

[+SixDogTeam]

All's well that ends well.

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

Sorry, but peace love and harmony are not allowed in this forum, you must continue the fight!

[+Star*Hopper]

Well, you've been told what your reaction amounts to - YOU whining, plus excessive (IMO) sarcasm in your response couldn't help but raise his ire -- and after all, he did have a legitimate gripe. Your kneejerk reaction, & I think you'll recognize it as that, just went overboard....and I think you recognize that too.

 

And if that wasn't enough, 'laying it all to bare' here was the icing on the cake, that makes the whole incident extra-ugly. My take is you don't really want votes - you want some sympathy & support for your side of things. Instead, if you're truly sorry about your gaffe, why don't you try to repair things?

 

That said - best remedy I can offer is, take this lemon & see if you can't make some lemonade. I'll tell you what I'd do, & it's up to you whether you want to see it thru. How about contacting the guy, and apologize for EVERYthing, and tell him you sincerely want to try to make it up to him. Invite him to meet you for a lunch, or even a dinner if you want to take it that far, at your expense. When you meet face-to-face & break bread together, I'd think it will do a lot in healing the rift.

 

Sure, you can't give him back the 3 hours he felt like he lost....but a nice hour-long meal & shared conversation (you should have lots to talk about, seeing as how you both enjoy this wonderful hobby) should go a long way towards making him feel like he gained from the experience.....and who knows, you might even find a lifelong friend out of the deal - a win-win for all concerned.

 

My 2,

~*

[+Tequila]

Both of you should have spent the 3 hours in a spelling/grammar class.

[+Harry Dolphin]

Both of you should have spent the 3 hours in a spelling/grammar class.

 

That was my first thought.

 

Then I thought of my obstinance in searching for a cache with obviously wrong coordinates. West coords were good. The North coords were bad. Took me four hours over four days to FTF that one! But, the difference is that I knew the listed coords were wrong.

[+WRASTRO]

I posted a really great response to the OP but I managed to click on the wrong thread and now I can't find it again. Glad you kissed and made up. Hope you fixed the posted coordinates and everyone goes out and finds more caches.

 

For future reference, in many cases FTF hunt = Beta tester.

[+infiniteMPG]

Both of you should have spent the 3 hours in a spelling/grammar class.

.... I have had locals do a FTF on one of my caches and then inform me that something was amise. Quickly corrected but all done in good fun. If I spend three hours seeking a FTF it better have a 4-pack of cold Boddington's inside.... or it would have to be after a 4-pack of Boddingtons had already hit the recycling bin. And by then the log wouldn't have enough proper grammar to identify it was in English....

[+Parabola]

 

Quite right again, I think Ill go delete my response back to him... Who ever it wrong or right I was taught to wrongs dont make a right...

 

I was just Ticked...

 

When you find yourself PO'ed due to a log I've found it best to walk away from the computer and come back to it later. It can save a week's worth of arguing over something silly.

 

Glad to hear it all work out alright though.

[+Renegade Knight]

...What do you think, besides why am I wasting time with this...

 

They wasted about a minute. The other two hours and fifty nine minutes are on their time. They are the ones who weren't having fun. The moment the fun meter bottomed out they should have use the Stop, Drop and Roll method. Stop, Drop what they are doing that's not fun, and Roll on out of there. Since people normally don't do what they don't like doing these folks clearly like having no fun.

[+Renegade Knight]

...We usually use two GPS units and take at least ten or more with each...

If you really wanted accurate coords you would let your GPS average overnight. You need different atmospheric conditions and satellite constellations. That or a full fledged GPS with differential corrections from a base station over a known point. Averaging over a short time really only makes us feel better.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

...We usually use two GPS units and take at least ten or more with each...

If you really wanted accurate coords you would let your GPS average overnight. You need different atmospheric conditions and satellite constellations. That or a full fledged GPS with differential corrections from a base station over a known point. Averaging over a short time really only makes us feel better.

 

And in most cases, is probably unnecessary.

 

As I have written before, we're not trying to find a location identified by a set of coordinates, we're trying to find a geocache. If the published coordinates take you to an area such that you can identify potential spots where a cache might be hidden they're generally "good enough". Where really accurate coordinates help is when you arrive at the location and there are dozens of spots where the cache might be hidden and trying to get to the exact published location can narrow down your search. I have found that for most caches, the title of the cache, information in the description, or hints provide will narrow down the search to the hiding spot better than accurate coordinates. For example, last weekend I found a cache called "Tree-Ents Maw". It was along a seasonal road and I stopped and got out of my care when my GPS said I was about 100' away. When I good out of the car I started to move in the direction my GPS was telling me to go when I saw a very large and strange looking tree with a big vertical hole in it about 70' away. I headed straight for it and found the cache. As I was standing next to the tree my GPS said I was 60' away from ground zero.

[+whistler & co.]

...We usually use two GPS units and take at least ten or more with each...

If you really wanted accurate coords you would let your GPS average overnight. You need different atmospheric conditions and satellite constellations. That or a full fledged GPS with differential corrections from a base station over a known point. Averaging over a short time really only makes us feel better.

 

Hmmm...that kind of sucks. I think then that our use of the two different GPS units must be the thing that helps then, because they generally deviate from each other by about 20-40' if you put the coords into GoogleEarth. I guess the "happy medium" of averaging the two sets of coords must be what gives us our accuracy. I wonder what would happen if we added coords from the Magellan to the mix?

Edited September 11, 2008 by whistler & co.

[+fox-and-the-hound]

...We usually use two GPS units and take at least ten or more with each...

If you really wanted accurate coords you would let your GPS average overnight. You need different atmospheric conditions and satellite constellations. That or a full fledged GPS with differential corrections from a base station over a known point. Averaging over a short time really only makes us feel better.

 

Hmmm...that kind of sucks. I think then that our use of the two different GPS units must be the thing that helps then, because they generally deviate from each other by about 20-40' if you put the coords into GoogleEarth. I guess the "happy medium" of averaging the two sets of coords must be what gives us our accuracy. I wonder what would happen if we added coords from the Magellan to the mix?

 

I'm quite sure the portal to the 78th dimension to hell might open up and swallow your cache at that point!

 

Keep doing it the way you have been. I've had only 2 of your caches more than an easy arm-reach away ever (one time I even had to take a step)