Not a geocacher, joined to find something out

9.3k · August 1, 2010

Had the OP supplied the GC code when asked, then much of this thread would not have occurred.

I'm still not convinced the OP is who she says she is. But now that I have the GC code, I can wait until the CO and mtn-man have a chance to investigate this and figure out if this is a legitimate complaint or not.

Come again? Are you saying that the OP not only had to
figure out that it was a geocache

find out which geocache it was

find the website

create an account

start a forum thread

But in addition, understand what a GC# is and provide us with that information? She already went way above and beyond the "call of duty"!!!

+1

With +5 defense against undead.

August 1, 2010

Another problem hide leaving a bad impression on non-cachers.

How about another forum thread leaving a bad impression on non-cachers and cachers alike...

August 1, 2010

I am sorry if my hesitation was seen as other than caution in foreign territory and that my upset was a comical drama to one of you, but perhaps you may like to try and understand the need for me to go slowly.

I do not know any of you or your hobby,indeed until a couple of weeks ago I had never heard of it . I certainly don't know the owner of the things I have.I have no idea what or who I am dealing with, at my age it pays to be cautious. My health is not good and I have to be a careful.

This stuff I have could belong to a young child.. diving in without thought may well have caused that child distress.This was my primary concern and still is.

I see someone has written a message on the owners site so it is now out of my hands, I would have preferred to be cautious and get all the info I could before contacting them.

However as the person has put a link to this awful post to be read..child or not, it may well solve my problem but at what cost worries me.

I have sent an e mail to the owner now, perhaps that would have been best in the beginning, I did think I could get good advice about a delicate issue and how to handle it discreetly and safely but the post went a different way.

I just hope that the owner is not hurt as this was the whole point of my joining and posting and that I can return the property without causing any more distress to either of us.

I wish you all well with your hobby, even though I am astounded at the things said about me.

My grateful thanks to the folks who did try to help me, and those of you who e mailed me offering help,you were very kind,sadly the meaner posts made it more difficult and put a lot of pressure on me to go even more slowly as they made me very nervous..

I am very worried now that I have hurt a young persons feelings with my stumbled attempt at doing the right thing.

To say this is very difficult but my introduction to your hobby has not been a positive one and that makes me very sad. I read all I could before I posted and it seemed so friendly and good. I have great grandchildren and my first thought was this may be a lovely surprise for them, having stumbled on what at first looked like fascinating pastime among caring folks who had the environment at heart . I couldn't in all honesty point them in this direction now.

Sadly you don't know me, but have judged me against a very poor yardstick. It never entered my head that that may happen when trying to do something kind.

Good luck to you all with a hobby that I might have been interested in under different circumstances.

Sincerely XX Jeannine

2.4k · August 1, 2010

I am in BC and have contacted the OP. I also placed a NA log - then saw GeoBain had already done so. As GB has contacted the CO already, I will leave it there. Maybe some BC mainland cachers in the PoCo area can touch base with this lady.........

7.2k · August 1, 2010

What an absolute embarrassment. This topic should be pinned to the top of the forums so others can learn how NOT to deal with a possible issue with a cache.

I have now deleted three Needs Archived notes from the cache page. Some of those notes are an embarrassment as well.

To Jeannine... the cache owner *is* a kid. I don't know their age, but I know they are just a kid. This is their second cache they have had problems with, and based on this topic and some of the emails most likely sent by the some of the people in this topic, my guess would be that they would be forever nervous about ever placing a cache again. I hope that this can be worked out so the cache owner can move their cache into another part of the community garden. They are part of the community there, I think they are also working part of this garden too, so the assumptions by some of the geocachers in this topic and in the Needs Archived notes posted to the cache page that they are trespassing are probably as incorrect as their conduct in this topic.

In the future, those of you that wrote the cache owner should write to Groundspeak. Just as you assumed wrong on the original poster, I would bet none of you took into account that this might be a kid you wrote to when you wrote the cache owner. Now they have a barrage of emails from a ton of different people. This is much easier to deal with if you go through the proper channels. That would be Groundspeak and/or the local reviewer.

I agree with Keystone totally and will also deal with things of this nature in the same way in the future. Frankly, some of you should just post nothing more here in this topic and move on. I think some of you have done plenty of damage here already.

Edited August 1, 2010 by mtn-man

7.2k · August 1, 2010

I am sorry if my hesitation was seen as other than caution in foreign territory and that my upset was a comical drama to one of you, but perhaps you may like to try and understand the need for me to go slowly.

I do not know any of you or your hobby,indeed until a couple of weeks ago I had never heard of it . I certainly don't know the owner of the things I have.I have no idea what or who I am dealing with, at my age it pays to be cautious. My health is not good and I have to be a careful.

This stuff I have could belong to a young child.. diving in without thought may well have caused that child distress.This was my primary concern and still is.

I see someone has written a message on the owners site so it is now out of my hands, I would have preferred to be cautious and get all the info I could before contacting them.

However as the person has put a link to this awful post to be read..child or not, it may well solve my problem but at what cost worries me.

I have sent an e mail to the owner now, perhaps that would have been best in the beginning, I did think I could get good advice about a delicate issue and how to handle it discreetly and safely but the post went a different way.

I just hope that the owner is not hurt as this was the whole point of my joining and posting and that I can return the property without causing any more distress to either of us.

I wish you all well with your hobby, even though I am astounded at the things said about me.

My grateful thanks to the folks who did try to help me, and those of you who e mailed me offering help,you were very kind,sadly the meaner posts made it more difficult and put a lot of pressure on me to go even more slowly as they made me very nervous..

I am very worried now that I have hurt a young persons feelings with my stumbled attempt at doing the right thing.

To say this is very difficult but my introduction to your hobby has not been a positive one and that makes me very sad. I read all I could before I posted and it seemed so friendly and good. I have great grandchildren and my first thought was this may be a lovely surprise for them, having stumbled on what at first looked like fascinating pastime among caring folks who had the environment at heart . I couldn't in all honesty point them in this direction now.

Sadly you don't know me, but have judged me against a very poor yardstick. It never entered my head that that may happen when trying to do something kind.

Good luck to you all with a hobby that I might have been interested in under different circumstances.

Sincerely XX Jeannine

Wow. I wish we could keep you around. Perhaps you could teach some folks a thing or two.

I've written to the cache owner now myself. I have told them to disregard any other emails except for an email that would be coming from your account (piddlepuss). I have told them that a very easy solution is to just get the containers back from you and then we could move the cache to a better place within the garden area. We can then simply update the coordinates on the cache page and get the cache activated again.

I am sorry that you now have a bad impression. I've spent the day with cachers having a great time at an event and there really are a lot of good folks out there geocaching. It is indeed a fun game for kids to play and we as a community sponsor many clean up events across the globe to help preserve our environment (Cache In Trash Out Events). My hope is that you and the cache owner do meet and that the two of you can find a new location that works for everyone and that the cache can continue to bring people in to show them these community garden areas. Honestly, the first time I ever saw one was when I was geocaching. I even saw one about a month ago over in Hope, BC.

Thanks for hanging in there Jeannine. It would have been easy to just walk away from this, and no one could have blamed you.

1.4k · August 1, 2010

I am sorry if my hesitation was seen as other than caution in foreign territory and that my upset was a comical drama to one of you, but perhaps you may like to try and understand the need for me to go slowly.

I do not know any of you or your hobby,indeed until a couple of weeks ago I had never heard of it . I certainly don't know the owner of the things I have.I have no idea what or who I am dealing with, at my age it pays to be cautious. My health is not good and I have to be a careful.

This stuff I have could belong to a young child.. diving in without thought may well have caused that child distress.This was my primary concern and still is.

I see someone has written a message on the owners site so it is now out of my hands, I would have preferred to be cautious and get all the info I could before contacting them.

However as the person has put a link to this awful post to be read..child or not, it may well solve my problem but at what cost worries me.

I have sent an e mail to the owner now, perhaps that would have been best in the beginning, I did think I could get good advice about a delicate issue and how to handle it discreetly and safely but the post went a different way.

I just hope that the owner is not hurt as this was the whole point of my joining and posting and that I can return the property without causing any more distress to either of us.

I wish you all well with your hobby, even though I am astounded at the things said about me.

My grateful thanks to the folks who did try to help me, and those of you who e mailed me offering help,you were very kind,sadly the meaner posts made it more difficult and put a lot of pressure on me to go even more slowly as they made me very nervous..

I am very worried now that I have hurt a young persons feelings with my stumbled attempt at doing the right thing.

To say this is very difficult but my introduction to your hobby has not been a positive one and that makes me very sad. I read all I could before I posted and it seemed so friendly and good. I have great grandchildren and my first thought was this may be a lovely surprise for them, having stumbled on what at first looked like fascinating pastime among caring folks who had the environment at heart . I couldn't in all honesty point them in this direction now.

Sadly you don't know me, but have judged me against a very poor yardstick. It never entered my head that that may happen when trying to do something kind.

Good luck to you all with a hobby that I might have been interested in under different circumstances.

Sincerely XX Jeannine

Wow. I wish we could keep you around. Perhaps you could teach some folks a thing or two.

I've written to the cache owner now myself. I have told them to disregard any other emails except for an email that would be coming from your account (piddlepuss). I have told them that a very easy solution is to just get the containers back from you and then we could move the cache to a better place within the garden area. We can then simply update the coordinates on the cache page and get the cache activated again.

I am sorry that you now have a bad impression. I've spent the day with cachers having a great time at an event and there really are a lot of good folks out there geocaching. It is indeed a fun game for kids to play and we as a community sponsor many clean up events across the globe to help preserve our environment (Cache In Trash Out Events). My hope is that you and the cache owner do meet and that the two of you can find a new location that works for everyone and that the cache can continue to bring people in to show them these community garden areas. Honestly, the first time I ever saw one was when I was geocaching. I even saw one about a month ago over in Hope, BC.

Thanks for hanging in there Jeannine. It would have been easy to just walk away from this, and no one could have blamed you.

Agreed.

August 1, 2010

This is dreadful and exactly what I wanted to avoid.

Is there a way you can put a sticky or something on your site to help with situations like this.I had no idea what to do or who to ask and it would be really great if someone in the same position as myself could be directed to a place that gives help.

I feel so responsible now for causing distress to this yougster.

If I ever made a bad decision in my life it was coming on thus forum to ask for advice.

What a mess.

XX Jeannine

August 1, 2010

Our pots clashed, thank you so much for the info about letting me e mail though. It is so important to encourage children and this needs to be done gently, they are all adults in the making.

I so hope I can meet with this yound person, return the stuff and if I can I shall certainly make it a goal to encourage the hobby.

Thank you for your kind reply, it has certainly been a journey.

XX Jeannine

7.7k · August 1, 2010

If I ever made a bad decision in my life it was coming on thus forum to ask for advice.

While I understand your frustration, I would like to respectfully point out that you received helpful and pertinent advice in the first 10 replies.

August 1, 2010

O M G

Reading that has put me off my breakfast this morning. Wish I hadn't. But also glad I did. A lot to be learned about different aspects of human nature in this thread.

And I know who came out with the greatest dignity, and respect, in my mind.

Also a great explanation as to why lots of folk don't read the forum and won't post in it.

Poor lady. Wonderful lady. Dignified lady.

August 1, 2010

This is dreadful and exactly what I wanted to avoid.

Is there a way you can put a sticky or something on your site to help with situations like this.I had no idea what to do or who to ask and it would be really great if someone in the same position as myself could be directed to a place that gives help.

I feel so responsible now for causing distress to this yougster.

If I ever made a bad decision in my life it was coming on thus forum to ask for advice.

What a mess.

XX Jeannine

I think that it took a lot of courage to come to a site you were not familiar with and deal with a lot of the baseless ridicule in this thread. Thank you for sticking it through to the appropriate resolution of this problem.

Basically, don't worry about it. What happened with you finding the cache is a natural part of this game, and the fact that you will be able to return the container to this child is a lot better situation than the hundreds of containers that simply go missing, with no trace of where they ended up.

The posters in this thread that are obsessed with seeming witty by pointing out whether someone is a forum troll or not were completely out of line.

Please don't judge this entire hobby on the actions of some individuals. There are many people from all walks of life that play this game, and there is only a very small subset of that population represented here in these forums.

I wish you the best and I encourage you to talk a little bit about geocaching with this child when you coordinate getting his container back. I would wager that he has never stepped foot in these forums and will just be happy to get his container back.

You don't have to worry about treading lightly with matters like this. I don't see any of your actions unreasonable, but in the future you know that the best course of action is to contact the owner of the cache and deal with the problem through them. They will not be offended to receive an email from you.

Best of luck.

August 1, 2010

If I ever made a bad decision in my life it was coming on thus forum to ask for advice.

While I understand your frustration, I would like to respectfully point out that you received helpful and pertinent advice in the first 10 replies.

Even if the OP had just read those replies and never returned (but lets face it who starts a thread and stops coming back to see what folk are saying after the question has been answered), that's not really an excuse or a reason for what happened after those 10 replies. Is it?

By that logic, if an OP has had what others consider to be helpful replies that fully answer the original question, for goodness sake don't revisit the thread because after that it turns into a playground and people will just start being nasty about you.

Hmmm. Nice.

Don't think the OP can be blamed for seeing, reading and being upset by what was written. It simply shouldn't have been written.

Bear in mind also that the OP is used to another forum where I wouldn't mid betting things are a little more gentile than they can be here, so reading on through the thread might, in her mind, have made her new friends and got her into geocaching with her kids/grandkids.

That's another reason why she might not have stopped reading the thread after she got her answers.

14k · August 1, 2010

As a moderator here, be assured that the next forum regular to holler "sock puppet" as a knee jerk reaction without good cause will feel the full force of the forum disciplinary system. This thread started off quite nicely, but a subgroup's obsession with sock puppet accounts ran it off the rails. Don't let that happen again. If you suspect every new poster as a having a nefarious purpose, we will scare more people away from this forum than is currently the case.

The person causing the recent puppet angst has been dealt with - you can go research that - so give it a rest and get back to helping the OP with her questions.

Good enough.

Good enough? I'd say, excellent! This is certainly not the first time that someone new has come onto the forums then after a few posts, commented how bad the forum experience was and left with what was likely a very poor impression of geocaching, or a least a subset of those that participate in the game. Often, the only chastizing we'll get is "try to say on topic". When someone like what's happened in this thread occurs we may not only be scaring away people from the forums, but we may be scaring people away from the game. There should be consequences for those that present geocaching in a bad light.

1.2k · August 1, 2010

What an absolute embarrassment. This topic should be pinned to the top of the forums so others can learn how NOT to deal with a possible issue with a cache.

I agree with Keystone totally and will also deal with things of this nature in the same way in the future. Frankly, some of you should just post nothing more here in this topic and move on. I think some of you have done plenty of damage here already.

As a moderator here, be assured that the next forum regular to holler "sock puppet" as a knee jerk reaction without good cause will feel the full force of the forum disciplinary system. This thread started off quite nicely, but a subgroup's obsession with sock puppet accounts ran it off the rails. Don't let that happen again. If you suspect every new poster as a having a nefarious purpose, we will scare more people away from this forum than is currently the case.

The person causing the recent puppet angst has been dealt with - you can go research that - so give it a rest and get back to helping the OP with her questions.

I'm glad to see this. There's a good side and a bad side to the forums. Usually the good heavily outweighs the negative.

2.3k · August 1, 2010

There should be consequences for those that present geocaching in a bad light.

I've made a formal apology.

I'm going on a real vacation this week, so that doesn't really count. So I will put myself on a self-imposed 1 month vacation.

If that's not enough, then let me know.

I'm not sure what else I can do at this point.

2.3k · August 1, 2010

I'm glad you apologized, but you weren't the only one on that bad wagon either. You have done the right thing to make amends and admit you were wrong.

And I'm glad at least one person has stood up and done so.

1.1k · August 1, 2010

To the OP, let me say that Geobain is one of the best people you could ever meet. He has done a tremendous amount of work on my own Forums for free, and I have met him in person though the visit was far to short. He means what he says, us crusty old pirates just don't always act polite enough in mixed company

August 1, 2010

Ashnikes is married to a guy and disabled??

ashnikes is a 20+ guy in Florida. Or a 40+ guy. Or a hillbilly. Or from Ithica (sic) New York. Or married to one of the socks. Wouldn't surprise me if he's now an elderly disabled lady married to a guy. Still, I'm undecided. This thread raises several flags, but does not smell particularly like ashnikes. Maybe he's getting better at it.

Anyway, the advice given so far are good, and there's not much that can be added to it.

He's getting better. But next time he needs to choose a real geocache instead of making on up.

Google indexes geocaching.com pretty darn well. If you know how to use it correctly, you can find just about anything you want. This cache does not exist. But if it does, I will gladly pay the OP the $30.

Hold on, I will go make a listing with those phrases...

And I will expect the $30 in the next couple days.

I expect you to take me out to brunch with this booty.

3.8k · August 1, 2010

Wow!!!

First off piddlepuss, sorry for your damaged crops and the train wreck that was this thread. Next time I am in your area I would love to meet you and show you what Geocaching is really about.

To the forum regulars I would like to point out that the oft given but seldom observed advice about trolls would have detoured this havoc.

Don't Feed the Trolls.

If the OP was a troll, which I am convinced they aren't and never felt they were, a couple correct answers and then NO MORE responses would have bored them and they would have left.

In this case were the OP was genuine the question would have been answered and the OP would have thought better of us.

1.7k · August 1, 2010

I wish someone would close this thread.

6.7k · August 1, 2010

I wish someone would close this thread.

Seconded!

August 1, 2010

Before it is closed, I have contacted the OP through the other forum she mentioned, and offered to replace the seeds she had planted. Being in Australia, it should be a lot easier for me to source them for her, than for her to get them imported.

1.8k · August 1, 2010

Can I be honest?

There are many, many threads I don't participate in because the forum 'seniors' tend to gang up on the forum newbs. It's just an observation I've seen and that was illustrated here.

Sure, some people really enjoy fighting online and come in to stir the group up, but I'm just saying that we have a group here that is primed for such a situation.

I hesitate to post here at times, and have actually typed up an entire post (on my iPhone!) and deleted it prior to sending.

See, I love this hobby and don't want to spoil it on a forum fight.

Now, I'll save the fighting for my nursing website forum

Edited August 1, 2010 by JesandTodd

1.7k · August 1, 2010

Seems like people are coming out of the woodwork to scold the poster who screwed up. They already know they screwed up, and they've made amends the best they can. Why dump on them more?

That's why I wish this thread would be closed. The point's been made and received.

19k · August 1, 2010

Seems like people are coming out of the woodwork to scold the poster who screwed up. They already know they screwed up, and they've made amends the best they can. Why dump on them more?

That's why I wish this thread would be closed. The point's been made and received.

Anybody hear anything new about Flask's neighbor's cat? Or Flask herself, for that matter.

7.7k · August 1, 2010

If I ever made a bad decision in my life it was coming on thus forum to ask for advice.

While I understand your frustration, I would like to respectfully point out that you received helpful and pertinent advice in the first 10 replies.

Even if the OP had just read those replies and never returned (but lets face it who starts a thread and stops coming back to see what folk are saying after the question has been answered), that's not really an excuse or a reason for what happened after those 10 replies. Is it?

By that logic, if an OP has had what others consider to be helpful replies that fully answer the original question, for goodness sake don't revisit the thread because after that it turns into a playground and people will just start being nasty about you.

Hmmm. Nice.

Don't think the OP can be blamed for seeing, reading and being upset by what was written. It simply shouldn't have been written.

Bear in mind also that the OP is used to another forum where I wouldn't mid betting things are a little more gentile than they can be here, so reading on through the thread might, in her mind, have made her new friends and got her into geocaching with her kids/grandkids.

That's another reason why she might not have stopped reading the thread after she got her answers.

You read too much in my response. What I'm trying to point out to piddlepuss is that there are helpful people here who gave her good suggestions on resolving the original situation, and how to prevent further damage to the plants.

I do not know if she took any of the advice. While most of it had already been done, I do hope she follows up with placing a sign on the planting bed, so that those who haven't heard the news will not continue searching.

That she chose to ignore that there are helpful people here from the way the thread went is understandable, but doesn't mean that they don't exist.

1.8k · August 1, 2010

Seems like people are coming out of the woodwork to scold the poster who screwed up. They already know they screwed up, and they've made amends the best they can. Why dump on them more?

That's why I wish this thread would be closed. The point's been made and received.

Lol. It's ok to dump on newbies all we want, but once we get called out THEN it's time to close the thread down?

22k · August 1, 2010

The topic of this thread is about a found cache and the issue is being handled.

So unless you have something to add to the already answered question...

1.7k · August 1, 2010

Seems like people are coming out of the woodwork to scold the poster who screwed up. They already know they screwed up, and they've made amends the best they can. Why dump on them more?

That's why I wish this thread would be closed. The point's been made and received.

Lol. It's ok to dump on newbies all we want, but once we get called out THEN it's time to close the thread down?

Um, pretty sure that's not what I said. *rereards post* No, that's not what I said, sure enough.

August 1, 2010

I am just here to say thank you to all those folks who contacted me, and to say to those who have aplologised, it is done and forgiven. I do truly wish you all well with your hobby . I agree this thread is better closed now. I have looked for a button to do so but cannot find one. Please will a moderator do so on my behalf.

I think I have answered all the emails I have been sent.If I missed anyone among the many it was by chance,

Thank you once again,Good luck woth your hobby.

Bye

XX Jeannine

7.3k · August 1, 2010

I wish you all well with your hobby, even though I am astounded at the things said about me.

You are to be commended. Instead of being angry at people messing up your plantings (I know how that can feel!), you were more concerned about the cache owner's feelings. Most people would not have reacted that way. You wanted to find a way to fix the situation, and possibly return the caches to the owner. I've had many caches taken, with no one trying (that I know of) to contact me, even though I have notes in the caches with my personal email address in them. So I really appreciate what you have done. I hope that the cache owner can see through all this stuff to recognize that.

I know it's hard to not feel personally hurt by this thread, but do know that none of these people in this forum were directing their innapropriate comments to you as a person. They were directing those comments to ashnikes, thinking that you were he. If they could have seen beyond their worries that they were being teased by a forum prankster, they would have been able to see what a wonderful person you are.

(hugs)

edit: spelling

Edited August 1, 2010 by Ambrosia

5.3k · August 1, 2010

Since the issue has been taken care of, let's halt the train wreck at this point.

Enjoy the rest of your day.

Not a geocacher, joined to find something out

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