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Logging Founds on my own cache


BigFurryMonster

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It's there since one could log their own caches.

 

You could have had a non-caching spouse place the cache for you. And then you actually found it sometime.

Or you could have adopted a cache that you had not previosly found.

Or any number of reasons.

 

Now, when you host an event, it's totally reasonable for you to "attend" your own event. That's a slightly different thing.

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I think the only problem lies with people who only care about the points behind there name. Why would you log your own cache? And what's the use of closing that possibility? It will only mean that those only interested in maximizing their scores will create an account just for dropping the caches, so they can log them as found.

As far as the FTF is concerned... if hunting for FTF's is not based on running a race in a respectful, honest, sportman's like way, that it's a stupid silly activity that needs a lot of pity for those involved. So why would the owner do such weird stuff anyway?

 

And if someone does, so what? Their problem, just ignore it.

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I'll tell you why I logged one of my own caches and you can judge me as you wish. Tod was my caching partner and best of friend! We were working on a long hard 5/5 cache here, but never had the chance to finish, Tod was killed in a motorcycle accident.

 

Some friends and I finished the cache making it a tribute cache, we were all FTF for it as well as hiders.

 

Sometimes, there's a reason.

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All you are doing is lying to yourself.

Several people have given reasons where you might log a cache that you own where you wouldn't be "lying to yourself". I suspect the ability is there for those reasons.

 

Some people want the Found It log to have a specific meaning. Since this is a game of hide 'n seek they want the 'Found It' log to be used only by someone who finds a cache they didn't hide, were not with the hider when it was hidden, and have not found previously. They like to say "How can you find something when you know where it is?"

 

Other people see the Found It log as a report of their visit to the cache site. Either the cache was there and they "found it" or thhey were unable to find the cache and could not confirm whether it was there or not, in which case they "did not find it". These people would be perfectly correct in logging a "Found It' log not only when they first found the cache but every time they subsequently visited the site and find the cache is still there. It would also be correct for them to log their own caches when they go back to do maintenance. Logging "Found It' this way updates the date last found field, which is helpful for others who want to know when the cache was last found (meaning when it was last confirmed to still be there).

 

Theoretically, both groups should be able to coexist. However those in the first group who see the "find count" as some kind of score will complain that those in the second group are cheaters and liars. Those in the second group could conceivably call the first group liars as well, "You found the cache was still there yet you only posted a note or an Owner Maintenance log, and now the the last found date is wrong". I'd suggest that instead of calling people liars we accept that there are different ways to interpret the use of the Found It log.

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Actually, that option is very deliberate. If you ever do log your own cache, a loud buzzer goes off at Groundspeak, and everyone gets together and has a huge laugh over it. Then an email alert goes out to everyone except you in a 100 radius of your home coordinates, and THEY have a huge laugh over it. Don't do it... you'll never live it down!! ;)

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I know somebody from a neighboring town that is planning on moving across country in 6 months, she has like 100 caches in this area, but doesn't want to try and maintain them when she's gone, so she placed them all up for adoption (and whatever isn't adopted she's going to archive) so far about half of hers have been adopted and then after it goes through, she's logging them as finds. I thought it was kind of weird at first, but when I think about it now, it seems perfectly reasonable.

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This one falls to the "tacky" side. You can't count a find for something you placed yourself. If it makes her feel better, so be it. Everyone now knows that all of her "counts" are suspect but so what. It really can't count for too many anyway. What's an overcount of 50 over a couple thousand finds.

 

Now, if the new owner's of the caches decide to move it a few feet, then, maybe a find is in order. Of course, if it's moved, then all previous finders can have a crack at it as well. Oh, and she still has to go to the cache and sign the log. That's if you really want to be technical about this.

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On the other hand, I don't see much wrong with her doing that. She is just using her logs as a way to keep a record of her caching experiences. Since they won't show up on her list of hidden caches once she adopts them, they may as well show up on her list of found caches. She did at least find the spot for them. Her logs, her business.

 

I considered something doing similar. We went on vacation to another state and met up with a local for a day of caching around his town. I had talked to him in the forums. He was new to caching--really new--he had found five caches and didn't even have a gps yet. He wanted to hide one, though, and he had the spot all picked out. We supplied the ammo box and some of the swag, he supplied the rest of the swag and the log book. He picked the exact spot, we showed him how to get good coords. He wrote the cache page and submitted the cache. He did all the maintenance on the cache--well, once we sent a little swag to help fill it up again. If it needed to be moved a little, he did it. If it needed a new log, he supplied it.

 

He put our name on the cache page, too, and that suited me well enough as long as the cache was active. I told myself that I'd go out and "find" it if we ever went back down there again and maybe then I'd log it as a find. Finally urban sprawl took over the cache area and it had to be archived. For some reason, at that point, I wanted to put it down in our caches found list. I haven't yet, and I may never do it. But I'm saying I understand the desire to do it. My logs, my business. I can't imagine that anyone would much care about my find count, since I can't find a reason to care about theirs.

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Logging FTFs on your own cache is a bit (no, a lot) tacky. Logging your own cache as a find is also tacky, except in extreme circumstances.

 

However, it is possible. All you are doing is lying to yourself.

 

hey, i have brain damage. i can't remember where a lot of my caches are and so if i go to do maintenance, i might spend an hour looking for it.

 

i should get to log a find for that.

 

 

 

i've never actually done this; i'm just sayin'...

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I know somebody from a neighboring town that is planning on moving across country in 6 months, she has like 100 caches in this area, but doesn't want to try and maintain them when she's gone, so she placed them all up for adoption (and whatever isn't adopted she's going to archive) so far about half of hers have been adopted and then after it goes through, she's logging them as finds. I thought it was kind of weird at first, but when I think about it now, it seems perfectly reasonable.

No, it's weird. Just because the ownership changed, she didn't magically forget where she put them. That's just numbers padding. It's just as bad as people logging a find on a throw-down cache.

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hey, i have brain damage. i can't remember where a lot of my caches are and so if i go to do maintenance, i might spend an hour looking for it.

 

i should get to log a find for that.

 

i've never actually done this; i'm just sayin'...

 

You just raise the difficulty. At least that is what I did on one of my caches when I had a hard time finding it. :D

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I agree with Trainlove and the only reason I can think of is event caches. You set it it up and do all the work, why not log it.

 

Hmm. Lets take this another way. You do all the work placing and maintaining a cache, so why not a special smiley for doing that?

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You get credit for one or the other. Not both.

 

Says who?

You can Attend an Event you hosted, you can Find your own cache, it works fine, just the way it is supposed to work.

Your personal standards have nothing to do with other people and how they log caches.

When you step into a public forum and suggest that people are lying because they fail to meet your personal standard you are being "tacky".

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Sure you can have a special something. That's why your profile page (the Geocache Tab) has two sides. The left is for found and the right is for placed. And, that's why your Stat Bar lists them separately too, so you can get the credit and display it. You get credit for one or the other. Not both.

Although the stat bar says "Hidden" what is really shows is the number of caches you own. If you adopt a cache it gets added to your count and subtracted from the count of the person you adopted it from. If I went by the rule that you can only "get credit for one or the other" that would mean that you should delete your Found It log from any cache you adopted (and reduce your found count by one). The reason I give for why it is OK to log your owned events is that I've been to several where the event owner was unable to attend because of some last minute family emergency. If you can not attend your owned event then it only makes sense that you can attend it. It would seem the Attended log is the proper one to use when you attended the event. Please understand what the stat bar is. It simply shows the number of caches that a person owns and the number of Found It, Attended, and Webcam Photo Taken logs a person has. It is not a badge of how much credit a person is due or what kind of geocacher he or she is.

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You get credit for one or the other. Not both.

 

Says who?

You can Attend an Event you hosted, you can Find your own cache, it works fine, just the way it is supposed to work.

Your personal standards have nothing to do with other people and how they log caches.

When you step into a public forum and suggest that people are lying because they fail to meet your personal standard you are being "tacky".

 

Good post! it's an activity which has many variables, no two cachers will do things exactly the same! I see the numbers as a history of what "I" have done, since we're not here to judge each other by their numbers! What "I" have done has no bearing on what someone else has, it's my numbers... Since my history should only matter to me, what difference does a find on my own cache, an attend on my own event etc make to anyone else?

 

For those who hardline it with the answer NO or BAD or whatever, do it your way and don't worry about others! It's not always simple to judge someone, especially when you have no idea what is going on. If this were a sport with a trophy at the end, it might be different, but there isn't and it's not cut and dry!

 

And, like I said (and some others as well), sometimes there's a reason! This is supposed to be fun, why do people seem to want to force their beliefs on others?

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There are still 50 or 60 grandfathered Moving caches out there. It's perfectly valid for the owner of a moving cache to log it as a find, since once it's been moved, they're on a level playing field with everyone else.

 

Does anyone have a bookmark or list of these grandfathered Moving caches?? I have never found a moving cache.

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You get credit for one or the other. Not both.

 

Says who?

You can Attend an Event you hosted, you can Find your own cache, it works fine, just the way it is supposed to work.

Your personal standards have nothing to do with other people and how they log caches.

When you step into a public forum and suggest that people are lying because they fail to meet your personal standard you are being "tacky".

 

Good post! it's an activity which has many variables, no two cachers will do things exactly the same! I see the numbers as a history of what "I" have done, since we're not here to judge each other by their numbers! What "I" have done has no bearing on what someone else has, it's my numbers... Since my history should only matter to me, what difference does a find on my own cache, an attend on my own event etc make to anyone else?

 

For those who hardline it with the answer NO or BAD or whatever, do it your way and don't worry about others! It's not always simple to judge someone, especially when you have no idea what is going on. If this were a sport with a trophy at the end, it might be different, but there isn't and it's not cut and dry!

 

And, like I said (and some others as well), sometimes there's a reason! This is supposed to be fun, why do people seem to want to force their beliefs on others?

This whole discussion has to do with "Logging Founds on Owned caches". Someone asked a question, I replied to that question. Not all the other variations of the topic. If you read my original post, you would know that, for that specific issue, I see it as number padding. But if that's what makes you happy, so be it. I already said that. I'm not here to judge anyone. I just like to know what rules everyone plays by so I know what their numbers mean. Whether someone has 2500 finds or 2520 really makes no difference anyway.

 

My comment focused on actual caches such as Traditional, Multi, etc. My opinion is that logging a find on something you've placed generally isn't logical. But I also allowed for exceptions which many folks have already pointed out, with a bit of venom for added emphasis. I won't log finds on my own caches but that's my rule for me, not you. Play by whatever rules you want.

 

The find count is just a general measure of experience and participation anyway. There are all kinds of strange nuances to the numbers anyway. Events aren't finds but they are counted that way anyway. Teams post counts that are the merged "finds" of the members - no one person found all that are posted. And I didn't even mention the multiple "Attended" logs for finding unofficial, temporary caches at events. They are workarounds for a counting system that doesn't cover all the possibilities anyway.

 

To address your comments about "Events" specifically, of course you can attend your own event. That's just logical. (As an aside, you don't get a smiley anyway, you get a different icon.) We have monthly events and the organizer sometimes can't make it. He gets a count for "owned" but doesn't log an "attended" (his rule).

 

Adopted caches, if found prior to adoption or during the process should count. You didn't know where was exactly anyway. You started with the same level of information as everyone else who read the cache page.

 

Moving caches - this is a moot point since there are so few anyway. But that's how they were set up so, go for it.

 

As far as I'm concerned, this game is about going out and caching, not wrangling over counts and numbers.

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I think the only problem lies with people who only care about the points behind there name. ...

I think the only problem lies with people who care too much about the points behind other people's names.

 

wow. no, see, the problem is with this word "points", as if the find count is some kind of score in a regulated match.

 

no one is being awarded points here. some people think they are, but they're not.

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You get credit for one or the other. Not both.

 

Says who?

You can Attend an Event you hosted, you can Find your own cache, it works fine, just the way it is supposed to work.

Your personal standards have nothing to do with other people and how they log caches.

When you step into a public forum and suggest that people are lying because they fail to meet your personal standard you are being "tacky".

 

Good post! it's an activity which has many variables, no two cachers will do things exactly the same! I see the numbers as a history of what "I" have done, since we're not here to judge each other by their numbers! What "I" have done has no bearing on what someone else has, it's my numbers... Since my history should only matter to me, what difference does a find on my own cache, an attend on my own event etc make to anyone else?

 

For those who hardline it with the answer NO or BAD or whatever, do it your way and don't worry about others! It's not always simple to judge someone, especially when you have no idea what is going on. If this were a sport with a trophy at the end, it might be different, but there isn't and it's not cut and dry!

 

And, like I said (and some others as well), sometimes there's a reason! This is supposed to be fun, why do people seem to want to force their beliefs on others?

This whole discussion has to do with "Logging Founds on Owned caches". Someone asked a question, I replied to that question. Not all the other variations of the topic. If you read my original post, you would know that, for that specific issue, I see it as number padding. But if that's what makes you happy, so be it. I already said that. I'm not here to judge anyone. I just like to know what rules everyone plays by so I know what their numbers mean. Whether someone has 2500 finds or 2520 really makes no difference anyway.

 

My comment focused on actual caches such as Traditional, Multi, etc. My opinion is that logging a find on something you've placed generally isn't logical. But I also allowed for exceptions which many folks have already pointed out, with a bit of venom for added emphasis. I won't log finds on my own caches but that's my rule for me, not you. Play by whatever rules you want.

 

The find count is just a general measure of experience and participation anyway. There are all kinds of strange nuances to the numbers anyway. Events aren't finds but they are counted that way anyway. Teams post counts that are the merged "finds" of the members - no one person found all that are posted. And I didn't even mention the multiple "Attended" logs for finding unofficial, temporary caches at events. They are workarounds for a counting system that doesn't cover all the possibilities anyway.

 

To address your comments about "Events" specifically, of course you can attend your own event. That's just logical. (As an aside, you don't get a smiley anyway, you get a different icon.) We have monthly events and the organizer sometimes can't make it. He gets a count for "owned" but doesn't log an "attended" (his rule).

 

Adopted caches, if found prior to adoption or during the process should count. You didn't know where was exactly anyway. You started with the same level of information as everyone else who read the cache page.

 

Moving caches - this is a moot point since there are so few anyway. But that's how they were set up so, go for it.

 

As far as I'm concerned, this game is about going out and caching, not wrangling over counts and numbers.

 

You seem to be all over the map here. You say it's numbers padding, then you say the numbers don't matter, then you say it's illogical...you try to sound as if you aren't judging anyone, yet your post seems very judgemental. Why do you care what someone else's numbers mean?

 

You'll likely get a "venomous" comment when you start to try to judge others and call their actions illogical, it will happen! I've learned from many here that my count matters only to ME, so why do you find my actions illogical? Maybe illogical to you, but then, I won't worry about how you play, so please don't label me as illogical simply for doing things the way I want! btw...my comment wasn't venomous, sorry if you took it as such!

 

So everyone understands, I do log attends on my harder events (the weekend cache/camps) and I have logged my own find on one occasion for a very special reason. I don't practice logging finds on my own caches and I could care less what others do!

 

Only time it might bother me if someone is playing differently, when a group decides to do a numbers run and just ravage the area. When you find the cache, put the stupid thing back where it belongs and NOT thrown down in your hurry to get to the next please!

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You get credit for one or the other. Not both.

 

Says who?

You can Attend an Event you hosted, you can Find your own cache, it works fine, just the way it is supposed to work.

Your personal standards have nothing to do with other people and how they log caches.

When you step into a public forum and suggest that people are lying because they fail to meet your personal standard you are being "tacky".

 

Good post! it's an activity which has many variables, no two cachers will do things exactly the same! I see the numbers as a history of what "I" have done, since we're not here to judge each other by their numbers! What "I" have done has no bearing on what someone else has, it's my numbers... Since my history should only matter to me, what difference does a find on my own cache, an attend on my own event etc make to anyone else?

 

For those who hardline it with the answer NO or BAD or whatever, do it your way and don't worry about others! It's not always simple to judge someone, especially when you have no idea what is going on. If this were a sport with a trophy at the end, it might be different, but there isn't and it's not cut and dry!

 

And, like I said (and some others as well), sometimes there's a reason! This is supposed to be fun, why do people seem to want to force their beliefs on others?

This whole discussion has to do with "Logging Founds on Owned caches". Someone asked a question, I replied to that question. Not all the other variations of the topic. If you read my original post, you would know that, for that specific issue, I see it as number padding. But if that's what makes you happy, so be it. I already said that. I'm not here to judge anyone. I just like to know what rules everyone plays by so I know what their numbers mean. Whether someone has 2500 finds or 2520 really makes no difference anyway.

 

My comment focused on actual caches such as Traditional, Multi, etc. My opinion is that logging a find on something you've placed generally isn't logical. But I also allowed for exceptions which many folks have already pointed out, with a bit of venom for added emphasis. I won't log finds on my own caches but that's my rule for me, not you. Play by whatever rules you want.

 

The find count is just a general measure of experience and participation anyway. There are all kinds of strange nuances to the numbers anyway. Events aren't finds but they are counted that way anyway. Teams post counts that are the merged "finds" of the members - no one person found all that are posted. And I didn't even mention the multiple "Attended" logs for finding unofficial, temporary caches at events. They are workarounds for a counting system that doesn't cover all the possibilities anyway.

 

To address your comments about "Events" specifically, of course you can attend your own event. That's just logical. (As an aside, you don't get a smiley anyway, you get a different icon.) We have monthly events and the organizer sometimes can't make it. He gets a count for "owned" but doesn't log an "attended" (his rule).

 

Adopted caches, if found prior to adoption or during the process should count. You didn't know where was exactly anyway. You started with the same level of information as everyone else who read the cache page.

 

Moving caches - this is a moot point since there are so few anyway. But that's how they were set up so, go for it.

 

As far as I'm concerned, this game is about going out and caching, not wrangling over counts and numbers.

 

You seem to be all over the map here. You say it's numbers padding, then you say the numbers don't matter, then you say it's illogical...you try to sound as if you aren't judging anyone, yet your post seems very judgemental. Why do you care what someone else's numbers mean?

 

You'll likely get a "venomous" comment when you start to try to judge others and call their actions illogical, it will happen! I've learned from many here that my count matters only to ME, so why do you find my actions illogical? Maybe illogical to you, but then, I won't worry about how you play, so please don't label me as illogical simply for doing things the way I want! btw...my comment wasn't venomous, sorry if you took it as such!

 

So everyone understands, I do log attends on my harder events (the weekend cache/camps) and I have logged my own find on one occasion for a very special reason. I don't practice logging finds on my own caches and I could care less what others do!

 

Only time it might bother me if someone is playing differently, when a group decides to do a numbers run and just ravage the area. When you find the cache, put the stupid thing back where it belongs and NOT thrown down in your hurry to get to the next please!

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An onwer returns to their cache to perform maintenance but the cache is not where it was originally placed. The logs indicate that the cache is being found regularly and no DNFs have been posted so the owner searches around and eventuallly find it about 30 feet away from where it should be. Are they entitled to log this find on their own cache.

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An onwer returns to their cache to perform maintenance but the cache is not where it was originally placed. The logs indicate that the cache is being found regularly and no DNFs have been posted so the owner searches around and eventuallly find it about 30 feet away from where it should be. Are they entitled to log this find on their own cache.

To do so would be pretty sad. That's just a routine part of maintenance. So what if you had to look around for it a bit. Who's that desperate for a smiley?

 

When I see people post finds for things like that, I just assume from then on that their find count is completely bogus.

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The situation which trainlove mentioned actually happened to me. I adopted a cache I hadn't found, then went out and found it. But beyond that, after I fixed it up, I passed it on to someone in a better position to maintain it long-term, so I'm not the owner any more. Shouldn't I log my find? I don't own it. Yet I owned it when I found it.

 

I have two challenge caches. I don't have any advantage over other cachers -- in fact, both have been found several times by others, yet I still haven't qualified to find the one I placed almost a year ago, and I'm a long way from qualifying for the other. In both cases, they build on and honor the prerequisite caches and their hiders. Shouldn't I join the community in finding an honoring that set of caches, by logging a find on the final once I qualify?

 

I could say more, but toz and trainlove already said it well. I'm amazed at how judgemental some people get.

 

Edward

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I asked this question months ago and got mostly the same answers I see here.

 

For me, I see only a few reasons why I would ever log a find on my own caches:

 

- It's a cache I have adopted but never actually found. Logging a find seems reasonable since I never actually hid the original cache.

 

- Logging an "attended" on an event that I created. Even if I listed the event, there's still the possibility that I am not going to the event. I think it's fair to say I should be able to log my attendance.

 

- A log on a real find has been deleted and I wish to keep my numbers true to my actual find count. This could be seen as a bit controversial. If I logged a legit find on a cache and for some reason that cache's owner decided to randomly delete my log, I do not see the harm in logging a find on a cache that I own to keep my "find" count accurate. I would simply put in the GC code and an explanation of why there's a log on my own cache. This would keep the find number accurate to the actual amount of caches I have "found" despite having the original log deleted.

 

- Excessive difficulty in finding my own cache during a maintenance run. Although I have never done it, I have thought about it. I spent a good 30 minutes trying to find a cache that I hid and because people did not replace it back where it was supposed to be, I spent a great deal of time trying to find it. I think that depending on the person, and the situation, if you have to spend a large amount of time looking for a cache that you hid (and therefore should know where it is), then logging a find on that cache should not be a problem. I think that it would vastly depend on the person as in my situation, even though I spent all that time trying to find it (a nano in a cart corral) I still did not feel it was appropriate to log a find. I would however not hold it against someone if they did.

 

For me, those seem to be the most logical reasons to log a find on your own cache.

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Of all of the reasons that have been mentioned, I see at least one absence: a quest cache. That is, some cache that requires a collection of other caching requirements (e.g., every DeLorme grid in the state, every county in a state, a 9x9 difficulty-by-terrain completion, etc...; my definition is that the expected number of component caches needed in order to succeed on the quest is at least 5**)

 

In fact, I intend to find one of my own quest caches (GC19A60) sometime in the next few months. What I am going to do, however, is to ask a geofriend to pick some future date (so I can warn other cachers of the plan) to hide it elsewhere (within 0.1 miles) at about the same difficulty/terrain level. Then, I will in fact go to FIND it (and put it back where it normally is). I wouldn't do this for a normal cache at all, but for the bragging rights of having completed the quest, and by actually creating the conditions for an authentic find, I wouldn't feel ashamed to do so.

 

As an aside, I have finds on 2 caches that I have SINCE adopted. I didn't magically UNFIND them by adopting them.

 

** The awkward wording (as opposed to just saying "needing 5 or more other caches") came from the now archived Need Space? Bonus cache, for which the 4 pieces of true coordinates that needed to be collected were hidden randomly amongst 16 possible Need Space caches. Though it would be possible to succeed with only 4 component caches finds, the expected value, where it finally becomes more likely than not, was actually 14 of the 16. Note: this was a non-trivial calculation here.)

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