+Oregon_Trail Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 Signed up as a basic member back in 2006 but have not done anything with Geocaching until this past weekend. The wife and I have now decided to give-it-a-go and see if Geocaching is for us. Our question concerns having a single user name and listing all our finds as a “team” of if it would be better for each of us have our own user name. Did a search and could not find anything on point and not sure what is “customary” or the pluses and minuses of either approach. It would be very rare that we would go out on our own and find a cache that only one of us participated in. Any guidance form the group would be appreciated. Thanks, Gary. Quote Link to comment
+Wintonian Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 Basicly it is entirly up to you. Lots of pepole log with a team name and others have individual accounts. If you are looking to change your user name then take a look here which should explain it for you, I changed mine the other day and as Groundspeak were open at the time it took less than an hour. Quote Link to comment
+Puppy Dawg Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 Lots of people use two seperate usernames. I'd say its a bit of a better way to do thing...you can both write your own logs and hide your own caches. Quote Link to comment
+The Blorenges Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 I think it depends on what your geocaching-life-style is likely to be... Are you often apart, due to work or family committments? Do you take separate holidays from time to time? (SCUBA diving in the Red Sea v. Llama trekking across Nepal? ) Do you want to log your own personal experiences of each cache find separately? Is one of you much more enthusistic about geocaching than the other? If so, then separate usernames makes more sense. On the other hand (and this sounds more like you, from what you've said), are you likely to do nearly all your geocaching together? Do you enjoy similar types of geocaching experience? Do you mostly agree about most geocaching stuff? (A tricky one, I know... ) Then having the one account name for both of you as a couple makes sense (and will entail only half as much logging.) The Blorenges (two of us) use the one account. On the fairly rare occasions when only one of us finds a cache we get round that one by putting either (MrsB) or (MrB) at the end of the log. This is so that in 30 years time, when we look back at our geocaching experiences, we can be re-assured that the reason we can't remember doing a particular cache is not senility, but the fact that "the other one" found it. As for cache setting: We sometime get individually creative and set caches in our separate names. You can use whatever name you want, to appear at the top of the cache page, but the notifications will go through to the one account name anyway. MrsB Quote Link to comment
+Steve&GeoCarolyn Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 (edited) Are you often apart, due to work or family committments? Do you take separate holidays from time to time? (SCUBA diving in the Red Sea v. Llama trekking across Nepal? ) Someone does way more interesting caches than we do. We started with two separate user names and now have one. We pretty much always cache together. The advantages for us are: 1) Only one of us needs to do the logging. My beloved hates logging. It reminds him of work. I love logging and photographing our visits so I do that. It is a natural division of labor for us. 2) On the other hand, I dislike touching damp log books to sign them. He doesn't mind signing our name even in a damp smelly log book. So he does that. Once again, natural division of labor. 3) He can do things I can't. He's taller than me and can reach things that are too tall for me without a ladder. Sometimes I'll get myself caught by the hair in a patch of brambles and will look around for help and I'll see that he has shinnied up a tree and is surveying the landscape. 4) I will happily do things he won't, like walk through mud and brambles. 5) He dislikes all the organizing so I organize our stuff and carry the gear. I'm the one who says, "This situation calls for the long poking stick. It's in the second pocket left side." 6) He protects me from snakes and has a fairly good sense of direction. He's also more rational than I am about what we can manage. So he protects me from myself. When we had separate accounts I felt guilty about the things I couldn't do on my own (climb trees, reach tall things, etc.) and frustrated that he didn't log or didn't log very well. I worried that we should be each searching separately. With one account we each do what we do well and feel that we are contributing to the team effort. It reduces competition between the two of us. Our natural way of interacting is as a tightly focused team and the joint account supports that. Those are the advantages for us. The only disadvantage I've encountered in a team account is that it discourages us from caching alone. I hadn't thought of doing what Mrs. B does. Perhaps we will consider that. Carolyn Edited July 16, 2009 by Steve&GeoCarolyn Quote Link to comment
gojkgo Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 There's two of us caching under this name (we're married). So far we've done all of our caching together. We don't have much interest in caching alone, although J is 10 finds up on me, so I'm becoming ever more tempted. We keep a separate file on J's computer that lists all of the caches we find and who actually found it. We decide "finds" by whoever lays eyes on the cache container first. Quote Link to comment
+OlderNDirt49 Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 The Blorenges (two of us) use the one account. On the fairly rare occasions when only one of us finds a cache we get round that one by putting either (MrsB) or (MrB) at the end of the log. This is so that in 30 years time, when we look back at our geocaching experiences, we can be re-assured that the reason we can't remember doing a particular cache is not senility, but the fact that "the other one" found it. MrsB 30 years time? My goodness, MrsB. I get the destinct impression that in 30 years time, I have a much better chance of being a cache then finding a cache! Sorry, couldn't resist! Quote Link to comment
crawil Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 We (Mom, Dad and 3 kids) started out with one username. The two older kids now have their own names - and backdated all of their finds to keep the count correct. I will go caching by myself or with Mrs. CRAWIL, but she won't go without me so one account for us works very well. Quote Link to comment
+The Blorenges Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 The Blorenges (two of us) use the one account. On the fairly rare occasions when only one of us finds a cache we get round that one by putting either (MrsB) or (MrB) at the end of the log. This is so that in 30 years time, when we look back at our geocaching experiences, we can be re-assured that the reason we can't remember doing a particular cache is not senility, but the fact that "the other one" found it. MrsB 30 years time? My goodness, MrsB. I get the destinct impression that in 30 years time, I have a much better chance of being a cache then finding a cache! Sorry, couldn't resist! ... Well, as I'm planning on living to be over 100, I reckon I'm just around "middle-aged". MrsB Quote Link to comment
+solo63137 Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 I say do whatever works for you two... How do you feel about it... Would you rather have a single username to track all your finds and hides on or one for each of ya??? To me it seems easier to do it under one name/account... Easier to remember everything, posted, loged, edited, uploaded. etc... If you guys want to use one accout and both log, you could just start the log with something like: This log is being written by (insert yourname or some cute name) One half of Team (insertname) the proceed with Log data.... Or something like that... Later, I guess you could always create a second account and go from there if so needed... In the end, I think this game/hobby has a lot of flexibility... Good Luck and Have Fun!!! Quote Link to comment
+StarBrand Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 Completely up to you. Our family just uses the one account - Under that about 30% of finds - the whole family was together. About 20% was me and some combination of family. Only 3 were solo by my wife - the rest solo by me. Works for us. Quote Link to comment
+Colonial Cats Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 My wife and I are collectively the "Colonial Cats". The one account works out fine for us since we do 99% of our geocaching together. However, it all depends on what works for you. Quote Link to comment
Sweet_T Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 Signed up as a basic member back in 2006 but have not done anything with Geocaching until this past weekend. The wife and I have now decided to give-it-a-go and see if Geocaching is for us. Our question concerns having a single user name and listing all our finds as a “team” of if it would be better for each of us have our own user name. Did a search and could not find anything on point and not sure what is “customary” or the pluses and minuses of either approach. It would be very rare that we would go out on our own and find a cache that only one of us participated in. Any guidance form the group would be appreciated. Thanks, Gary. Quote Link to comment
Sweet_T Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 (edited) My family agreed on a username and we all use it! But if you would rather have a seperate one, HAVE AT IT! It is totally up to you! Edited July 16, 2009 by Sweet_T Quote Link to comment
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