Armchair Cachers

[+The Wobbly Club]

Hi whilst we were out yesterday we came across a number of times that log entries have been made on Geocaching.com cache pages but NOT in the logbooks of the caches.

We can only assume that the cachers did not actually either find the cache or indeed visit the cache!

What is the point of cheating. Is it a numbers game where they can say "we have found more than you".

It is only a game, and certainly not a numbers game for us.

 

Daphne + Colin

[+Delta68]

It happens

 

Sometimes there might be a a valid reason

eg one member of a team logging old finds with a new individual id (although the online log ought to explain this)

 

Sometimes caches get logged by mistake, a handwritten cache code has been misread etc

 

A not so valid reason might be no pen (cachers should always carry a pen :-) )

 

I know of cachers who log finds on caches they haven't been to.

Seems pointless to me...

 

 

 

Mark

[+Gushoneybun]

Cache owners are supposed to keep an eye on their cache listings. It may be worth advising the cache owner, if you think it was an armchair cacher. In the end they are only 'cheating' themselves by logging caches they have not visited. I did see a thread a while back on the website forums where cachers had logged caches in several continents (not even countries) on the same day, I guess enough CO's do not delete the logs so they 'get away with some finds'.

 

 

But as Delta68 said sometimes there are genuine reasons. We have logged a cache from Texas (as many did at the 2008 Mega) plus ones in Australia, Canada and Belgium (the later was the Peter Pan series where I was the Liverpool finder) when the caches were found which required a team effort, each team member was then entitled to log the rest of the series when each one was actually found by the member in that country. Just for my own benefit I then corrected the coords in GSAK which creates my profile for each cache based on where I actually found them so they are all in Yorkshire and Merseyside.

[+HazelS]

Sometimes a cache owner might think I've not done a cache, but it's been logged under a team name to save writing loads out on every cache, or to save space in a small log book...

 

I'm thinking here of when a group of us go out, we'll call ourselves a different name each time, but when we get back, we'll all log it as our own name...

 

Saturday there was 6 different teams out caching with us, and we just logged every cache as "Birthday Buddies" but we all logged under our usual names when we got back.

[+grand-moff]

Along a similar vein, I more often and not go out geocaching with my wife and kids, and just recently they have decided that they would like their own account, now is it necessary for us to go out and refind our previous caches just so they can sign under their new name or can they just log all the finds from home? I know some will say it doesn't matter but just wanted to know the correct caching etiquette.

 

cheers Grand-moff

[+Von-Horst]

just log all the finds from home.

 

The norm seems to be to relog (on the original date) with a note saying "found as part of #### and now relogging under my own ID" or something of that ilk.

 

Mike

[+The Blorenges]

What usually happens in such cases is that the new account logs the previous caches under their new name, backdating the log to agree with when they were at the cache. It's a courtesy to the cache owner to put a line of explanation in the log: Something like "Found while caching with XXXX. Now logging this one under my own username."

 

MrsB

 

 

Snap!

Edited September 22, 2009 by The Blorenges

[+Lost in Space]

What is the point of cheating. Is it a numbers game where they can say "we have found more than you".

It is only a game, and certainly not a numbers game for us.

 

Why does it bother you so?

[+The Wobbly Club]

Who said it bothered me?

 

I just asked a question.

[+Lost in Space]

Who said it bothered me?

 

Sorry, I gathered it bothered you by the use of the word "cheating".

 

Who, are these so called armchair cachers, cheating?

[+richard701]

A couple of times I have found a cache and not had a pen or pencil with me and there has not been one in the cache either and I have taken a photo of the log book and included that with my log on gc.com.

[+agentmancuso]

Who, are these so called armchair cachers, cheating?

 

'Cheating' is a perfectly reasonable description.

 

Claiming to have done something that you have not done is cheating. Claiming to have visited a cache that you have not in fact visited is cheating.

 

But I'd argue that failing to sign the log does not amount to substantive evidence of failing to find the cache. I haven't signed the logs of some caches I've visited for a variety of reasons - broken pencil, absent mindedness, heavy rain, muggles close by etc. Deliberately posting a dishonest 'found it' log is a different sort of offence altogether.

[+The Patrician]

I've claimed caches where I haven't signed the log book for one reason or another. A micro at Castlerigg stone circle springs to mind (I didn't have anything to write with). I took a photo of the cache to use as proof if anyone queried my find.

 

On the other hand there's a cache hidden on a reasonably busy street in a local town that I've touched but not claimed. If I'd pulled it out and opened it up I would have claimed it, but there were too many people about. I'm waiting for the dark mornings to return, then I'll have this one!

 

Regards,

 

Neil

[+Lost in Space]

Claiming to have done something that you have not done is cheating. Claiming to have visited a cache that you have not in fact visited is cheating.

 

But, (excuse the bad grammar), who are they cheating? Themselves, I would suggest. Certainly not anyone not concerned with numbers.

[+agentmancuso]

But, (excuse the bad grammar), who are they cheating? Themselves, I would suggest. Certainly not anyone not concerned with numbers.

 

I think they are cheating everyone involved in geocaching, but particularly the person who set the cache and others who have actually found it.

 

But as you say, they are probably cheating themselves at a deeper level.

 

I agree also that the spectre of someone getting too het up about the numbers is comical in itself.

Edited September 23, 2009 by agentmancuso

[+Team Noodles]

But, (excuse the bad grammar), who are they cheating? Themselves, I would suggest. Certainly not anyone not concerned with numbers.

 

I think they are cheating everyone involved in geocaching, but particularly the person who set the cache and others who have actually found it.

 

But as you say, they are probably cheating themselves at a deeper level.

 

I agree also that the spectre of someone getting too het up about the numbers is comical in itself.

 

good to see we all agree the 'winners' are the losers.

 

but mostly, who cares, I play this game 'solo' and stuff I hide is a selfles courtesy to someone else, not a (way)point in a match

 

happy caching!