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Splitting into separate geocaching IDs... pros and cons


hoagies

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We're the Hoagies, a geocaching family. Our little one is Hoagies Jr.since she wanted her own ID and of course, some day she'll grow up and move out.

 

But the question is about us. Yesterday we went to a 5K event for a couple nearby, and got a variety of advice. The most obvious was "Split now while your numbers are low." Agreed. If we are Google to split, under 200 is the time to do it. Another said "stay together so your numbers go up faster." Sounds a little like cheating and it won't help much anyway.

 

I'd already been considering splitting since we got our Droids, because to log into Geocaching.com on both phones we either kick each other out, or my hubby (Hoagie) logs in as our daughter. That works for now, but I can see long-term potential drawbacks.

 

On the other hand, I rarely drive (disabled) so we're nearly always together when we cache. Of the ~200 caches, I've done about 10 traveling with others and 190 w/ Hoagie.

 

If you were us would you split? More important, why or why not?

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All my kids who cache have their own account. Each have their own experience to post and we know what caches each of us have or haven't found.

 

Another said "stay together so your numbers go up faster.

 

For what purpose? It's not like you get a special prize at the end of the day.

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We're the Hoagies, a geocaching family. Our little one is Hoagies Jr.since she wanted her own ID and of course, some day she'll grow up and move out.

 

But the question is about us. Yesterday we went to a 5K event for a couple nearby, and got a variety of advice. The most obvious was "Split now while your numbers are low." Agreed. If we are Google to split, under 200 is the time to do it. Another said "stay together so your numbers go up faster." Sounds a little like cheating and it won't help much anyway.

 

I'd already been considering splitting since we got our Droids, because to log into Geocaching.com on both phones we either kick each other out, or my hubby (Hoagie) logs in as our daughter. That works for now, but I can see long-term potential drawbacks.

 

On the other hand, I rarely drive (disabled) so we're nearly always together when we cache. Of the ~200 caches, I've done about 10 traveling with others and 190 w/ Hoagie.

 

If you were us would you split? More important, why or why not?

 

I would split.

 

As a disclaimer I have never done any caching as a team. I have cached with others, but not as any sort of official team, but rather more as a group of individuals.

 

To me this hobby is about the experience of the find - exploring new places and going on adventures. The number of finds is really just an interesting bit of information and doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

 

One benefit of having separate accounts is to keep track of caches one of you has found and the other hasn't. For example you mentioned you found 10 caches on your own. If your husband decides to cache on his own those caches will not come up in a search for unfound caches and he may miss out.

 

Everyone plays the game differently so your reasons bay be different than mine, but if it was me I would have separate accounts.

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If Hoagie Junior is keen enough and sensible enough to take responsibility for doing their own logs then I'd suggest letting him/her start their own account off now so they won't have too much catch-up back-logging to do.

 

For the two Hoagie Seniors, as you say that nearly all your caching is done together (which is the same as us two) I'd suggest keeping to the one account. On the few occasions when either one of us two does a cache alone we just add (MrB) or (MrsB) at the end of the log, as appropriate. This works for us because I usually do all the logging while MrB does more of the techy side of things like sorting out battery charging, doing PQs and stuffing them into our GPSs. He's not that bothered about writing logs whereas I enjoy that side of the game.

 

However, if the two of you both enjoy expressing yourselves in the logs and feel the need to write your own individual comments for the caches then I can see it would make more sense for you to have separate accounts.

 

Whatever gives you all most enjoyment in the game, I guess...

 

MrsB :laughing:

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Split the accounts now and here's why.

 

Geocaching is as much about seeing things as it is about finding things.

When you only log as a team, you may have one of your group go to a cool spot (alone) and then click off the smiley. Now on your team account that spot is done. Several years down the line another person on your team may be in the same area and would likely skip that cool spot because there's already a smiley there. If they had their own account they wouldn't have a smiley there and would, possibly, be drawn to that cool experience that the other team member had already experienced.

 

Plus it's a good way to track members of your family. :laughing:

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I started as "team" chokecherry. This was all decided in a parking lot after we found our 3rd cache ever with a phone and we needed to register or something after we bought the official app.

 

What happened was that I ended up doing more caching without my partner. Then he travels different places than me and wanted ot cache there too. I thought it would look fishy if I'm logging ones here while he's elsewhere logging them at the same time.

 

So we split eventually account wise. He caches with another friend who as far as I know doesn't have his own user name. And I cache with my mom occasionally who has no interest in her own user name or tracking things online. She's along for the ride mostly.

 

While the actual split seemed to be a little confusing etc. It has worked out well for both of our lifestyles. Easier to maintain an individual account. He can find ones I haven't found yet and I can do the same. No big deal.

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i know a couple who cache under a team account name but they frequently cache separately. all finds are logged under their team name even though most of the time only one of them has visited a cache. their find count is in the thousands.

 

i find this kind of cheesy, but, meh! it's their game to play the way they want.

 

i would probably split the accounts.

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Thank you for bringing this up, as we have been pondering the same thing. Momma Caswell does most of the caching, with the little noonies in tow, but Daddy does enjoy it too now and then. But someday the little noonies are going to be big noonies, and they may want their own accounts. Then Momma would feel silly with a name like thecaswellfamily for just one person. Right now the name makes sense, but since Momma is the one obsessed with the smiley count, perhaps she should register her very own account now? Or since she doesn't get out NEARLY as often as she'd like, perhaps we should just keep the family name until the time coes when she can give in to the obession properly? Oh the quandry! :laughing:

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I was the first to register, and so I used the internet name I always use. My husband usually caches with me, but I've found caches on my own, too.

 

Eventually, he decided to create his own account.

 

Pros:

Each account has the caches that person actually visited

No debate over slightly different logging ethics; I can do it my way, he can do it his*

He can use PQ's himself to load into his CacheBerry; I don't have to email them to him

 

Cons:

He's not as diligent about logging online as I am, which irritates me sometimes

He has to log if he wants credit; I'm not doing it for him!

 

Of course, this is a husband / wife team thing. There might be very different considerations when it comes to children.

 

--Q

 

* Not like there are major moral conflicts here...just little things like he doesn't like to log a DNF, while I will; he writes short, acronym-studded logs, and I write tomes; I want to log that day, he'll get around to it eventually...that sort of thing.

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I vote stay together. My wife and I have gotten into this as a family activity and ALWAYS cache together, which is close to you guys it sounds like. We take our children most of the time, but they aren't old enough to log yet. Sometimes we'll note if one of us finds it when the other couldn't or special observations by one or the other. But in essence, we're always going to be there together, so it doesn't make sense of us to have separate accounts. To each his own...

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We're the Hoagies, a geocaching family. Our little one is Hoagies Jr.since she wanted her own ID and of course, some day she'll grow up and move out.

Sounds like the little one decided for you. Whether you and your husband decides on joint accounts (sounds like it makes sense to), you should create a new one for your daughter.

 

And I'd say the time to do it is now. It just gets more painful as time goes on.

 

As for phone logins kicking each other out, create another account, just for viewing on one of the phones, but don't log with that one. Or report it as a bug to the software developer and / or Groundspeak.

 

Another said "stay together so your numbers go up faster.

For what purpose? It's not like you get a special prize at the end of the day.

You don't?? That's it, I QUIT!

 

 

:ph34r:

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Split the accounts now and here's why.

 

Geocaching is as much about seeing things as it is about finding things.

When you only log as a team, you may have one of your group go to a cool spot (alone) and then click off the smiley. Now on your team account that spot is done. Several years down the line another person on your team may be in the same area and would likely skip that cool spot because there's already a smiley there. If they had their own account they wouldn't have a smiley there and would, possibly, be drawn to that cool experience that the other team member had already experienced.

 

Plus it's a good way to track members of your family. :ph34r:

 

That is an excellent point.

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Our little one is Hoagies Jr.since she wanted her own ID and of course, some day she'll grow up and move out.

 

Sorry to mislead - she is 15, and already has Hoagies Jr. as her ID. She's not diligent about logging her caches, but that's her choice.

 

Sounds like I'm not the only one confused by the possibilities. As you say, Mrs. B, I'm more of the logger, though Hoagie says he wouldn't mind logging. And I do occasionally travel without him, though he has definitely had no occasion to geocache without me... I guess because I leave him home with his hands full of Hoagies Jr. ;-)

 

But the phones are a definite reason TO split. And I do like the idea of logging our own caches - we're not out to get high numbers, and I agree that to do so feels like "cheating."

 

With my disability, we really do cache as a team nearly all the time.

 

Thanks for all your ideas. I appreciate hearing different points of view, even though we're just about as undecided as we were before.

 

And 200 cometh... we found our 199th cache just before our rehearsal, and I'm hoping the weather clears while we're in here so we can do grand number 200 this evening!

 

Thanks, all!

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My girlfriend and I started caching together 8 months ago. It was her idea to get us into it, but we both signed up for seperate accounts as we were checking things out. Here we are 8 months later and she has 99 logged caches (found about 110, but that's another story) and I have 700+. We found the first 80 together, and probably could've had a 'team' account to make things simpler. I had about 120 when she got to 99. I guess my point is, you never know when someones gonna have a lot of free time and all of a sudden shoot up 600 cache finds. If you split now, it's never a question of who's been where and seen what... There's a lot to see out there!

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We started caching with a family name, and our two kids decided to branch off to their own names last summer. We were almost at 500 finds at the time. Since then they log all the finds they were there for under their own names. Me and the husband use the same name, but I do most of the caching, and have literally only not been there for 1 find, and also do all the logging.

 

One thing I did make sure my kids didn't do....they are not allowed (according to ME) to go back and log all our past finds under their new name. I told them the rules say you have to find the cache and sign YOUR NAME, and since their new name is not on the log for the first almost 500 we have done, then they have to redo them to get the smiley.

 

slowly, on days with nothing else to do in the area, I take them back and they refind the old caches...THEN and only then do I let them log under their names.

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We started caching with a family name, and our two kids decided to branch off to their own names last summer. We were almost at 500 finds at the time. Since then they log all the finds they were there for under their own names. Me and the husband use the same name, but I do most of the caching, and have literally only not been there for 1 find, and also do all the logging.

 

One thing I did make sure my kids didn't do....they are not allowed (according to ME) to go back and log all our past finds under their new name. I told them the rules say you have to find the cache and sign YOUR NAME, and since their new name is not on the log for the first almost 500 we have done, then they have to redo them to get the smiley.

 

slowly, on days with nothing else to do in the area, I take them back and they refind the old caches...THEN and only then do I let them log under their names.

 

+1

 

I am the primary geocacher in our family (the B of KBLAST). My wife has been to less than half of the finds I've been to... same with my 2yo and 8yo. But we are a TEAM. My 13yo really got into the extreme caches (climbing trees, high terrain, etc.) and made her own account so we can track when she made a climb and when I made a climb. She doesn't even bother logging non-extreme caches, but loves going with us caching.

 

When our 8yo gets old enough to actually start caring, we will do what FourRiverRatz did... I really like that.

 

IMO, if it matters to Mr. Hoagie which ones he has been to without Mrs. or vice versa, get separate accounts. If it doesn't matter (it sure doesn't to my wife and youngest kids!) then keep the account as one.

 

One more opinion - if you plan on doing a lot of caching where one of you goes one way while the other goes another (in other words, if your user name finds two caches in two different places at the same time) I don't think that's exactly fair or right.

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I log online under my own name, but sign the logs as the family name, RatRunCrew, with either minus Middle Rat (Mum) or minus Baby Rat (Daughter) and so far never as minus Big Rat (Dad)

I have asked if they wanted separate accounts,a and so far they aren't interested. I would, if they so wished make an account for the family team, and one for each individual, that way individuals can log when out alone, and the team can log as a team

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We cache as a family, and only have one account. Yes, there are a couple that my husband has found that I haven't, and a few that I've found that he hasn't. But he has no interest in the computer portion of geocaching, so probably wouldn't log anything if he had a separate account. If your husband really wants to log his own finds, then split. If not, there's probably no reason to.

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We have one account, 'Team Smokey' for our entire family which we have used since we started, but we have three players who we call Papa Smokey, Mama Smokey, and Li'l Smokey. Papa Smokey, me, is the main cacher of the family and has found all but one cache that the 'team' has found. The one in question was an FTF attempt, which Mama Smokey DID get. The cache was muggled before I could go get it. Mama Smokey has gone and gotten some other FTFs, but I decided that I wanted to find them as well.

 

For me, Papa Smokey, I would have a hard time using a team account if Mama Smokey was more independent in her caching, but she's not. For her, she doesn't particularly care that I've found caches that she hasn't, so for us it works.

 

I DO have concerns that Li'l Smokey will one day want her own account and will want to know which caches she has already found. I will not be able to tell her now that we're in the thousands and this sort of breaks my heart.

 

I would suggest that if all of the 'team' has an interest in knowing their own statistics, that you separate NOW while your numbers are low. If you pretty much go caching together, I cannot think of a better way to 'celebrate' your accomplishments together than to log them under one account.

 

Good luck!

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