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The Ultimate Lazy Cacher...


ArtieD

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I have seen threads in the past about lazy loggers that only use "TFTC" as a log, but this takes the cake.

 

I have seen this person log other caches, some easy and some challenging and it's the same thing. They logged a couple of mine today with the same log...what's the log?

 

:laughing:

 

That's it. I mean, how lazy can a person be that "TFTC" is hard work?

 

:)

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I've got that beat.

 

I had a cache, GC1W651, which is in a stunningly beautiful canyon alongside a historical creek. I spent weeks writing up a history describing its natural beauty and its historical significance to the local Native Americans and subsequent European settlers. I know most people don't bother to read it all, but I wrote it mostly for me. But aside from my incredibly verbose description, the path to the cache is truly beautiful.

 

Most people at least comment on how nice the trail is if they don't comment on my description.

 

On April 12th of this year, I got the following comment, and I quote: "#6".

 

A real winner, eh? At least your finder conveyed some emotion with his smiley.

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When I see those short notes, I like to hope (pretend?) that they are logging "live" through their phone and will add in a whole story of text when they get home. I realize that's not always (often?) the case.

 

Such as with the issue of people leaving junky old dirty swag, I think the only way we can influence them is by leading by example and leaving more detailed logs ourselves .. thus setting the standard which hopefully others will then follow.

 

I also am wondering if it's feasible for prizes or maybe even those new souvenir badges or something .. where the owner of a cache can design one and award it to the best log story or something ... at that point, it would have to be one they could give/take away since the logs are living documents ... not sure how that would work.

 

Maybe even just an "honorable mention" of the best log so far .. and call that out in the description for some "fame and recognition" would help?

 

Of course, none of that should be necessary .. going to the effort of hiding the cache in the first place is worth more than 4 letters left by a finder. The one thing about expectations which is certain is that there will always be someone there to miss them. :)

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My young daughter has her own profile, so she has to do her own logging. She's of an age where getting her to do anything is a chore, so if we've grabbed a bunch of caches in the day and she has to write something for each one then it would never happen. I try encourage her to write something descriptive, but we're (me and the CO) are lucky to just get a TFTC.

 

I've also done a few hard puzzle caches that have involved weeks of background solving, followed by a hardish trek to the GZ. I've been tempted to just leave a 'TFTC' just for my own selfish amusement. :)

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I have seen threads in the past about lazy loggers that only use "TFTC" as a log, but this takes the cake.

 

I have seen this person log other caches, some easy and some challenging and it's the same thing. They logged a couple of mine today with the same log...what's the log?

 

:laughing:

 

That's it. I mean, how lazy can a person be that "TFTC" is hard work?

 

:)

Honestly, it seems that you are choosing to get upset over something innocuous.

 

The finder left a log that consisted of a smiley face. One would assume that this meant that sahe enjoyed finding the cache. It seems kind of silly to get upset because someone enjoyed the cache and communicated same.

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I've haven't had the pleasure yet of receiving one, but I have seen the incredibly awesome amazing log of a period, yes just a period

 

.

 

Couldn't they have at least used a semicolon or a comma.

 

I have seen this on caches too. But the "." was encrypted! And it was on good caches...

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I like the smiley more than the ubiquitous TFTC. I think I may actually adopt that. Its easier and gets the point across, especially when i have nothing to really say about a LPC in a Walmart parking lot.

 

I agree, what or how much can you say about the numbers trails that you find on a street sign every 6 or 7 hundred feet? It gets very monotonous. If it is a good cache with great scenery, or they spent some time with the container that's another matter, but a contact case under a light post skirt.... :)

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There's a cache owner who on his profile page has threatened to delete logs that only contain "TFTC". He feels that if he went through the trouble to hide the cache, people should at least leave more than 4 characters in their logs. I wonder how he'd feel about someone logging a period.

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Sometimes my husband just leaves the B) or :lol: . He's not a writer and doesn't spell well, so he hates to type something that is full of spelling errors. I try and say something about the cache itself or the area or at the very least what we are doing on our current run, but if we've had a long day, sometimes the descriptions suffer especially on micros stuck to a guardrail.

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There's a cache owner who on his profile page has threatened to delete logs that only contain "TFTC". He feels that if he went through the trouble to hide the cache, people should at least leave more than 4 characters in their logs. I wonder how he'd feel about someone logging a period.

I wonder how he'd feel about TPTB reinstating those logs that he improperly deleted.
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I've haven't had the pleasure yet of receiving one, but I have seen the incredibly awesome amazing log of a period, yes just a period

 

.

 

Couldn't they have at least used a semicolon or a comma.

 

Now wait there is some serious misunderstanding about the 'period' as a response. See back in the early 1st century roaming nomads often would have to sign hundreds of caches a year. The nomads only occasionally ran into the Bic clan caravans that would restock their pen supplies for a few rabbit skins. Since they wanted to conserve ink they would often mark their caches with a simple period or in some cases an x. In actuality it means this...

 

Dear sir or madam:

 

We would like to place our names in consideration for a logged find on this cache. The Gunter clan found this cache four moons past the harvest day sacrifice. We would like to thank you for a well thought out and well hidden cache. The view of the slime pits of Mugglethrop were quite beautiful and the smell was quite lively on this sweltering day. We took an arrowhead and left a McDonald's clan toy. Signed log. Thanks for the cache.

 

Someday I'll tell you how they traded for the batteries they needed for their GPS.

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With my experience with the Trimble App for Blackberry, it loggs a field note and then allows you to go back and type out your experience on the computer later... people that leave the default "Logged from my phone using the Geocache Navigator by Trimble" without telling about their experience are lazy too...

 

I used to leave that in there with my log of my experience, but now I remove it entirely...

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So what you're saying is a smiley face only log? Got one a month or two ago. C'mon now, you never noticed this??? It's the smartphone Geocaching Apps, hands down. Do you really think someone with 50 finds who signed up last month even knows what "TFTC" means, let alone posting it as their entire log? I'lll bet half of them don't even know it's being uploaded to the Geocaching.com website as a find log. :lol:

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From another point of view. I am a noob and for a lot of my caches, I simply say thanks. As stated before, what do you say about a magnetic holder in the Home Depot parking lot? There more interesting ones get a more interesting response!

I try to say something nice about every cache in the logs regardless of how lame or parking lot light holder dweller it may be. Some people just are not creative in hiding or logging. "Something" usually happens when you found the cache. The sun shone, the birds sang, horns honked, shopping cart accident occurred or you spotted a freaky walmartian wearing spandex and little else. The CO made some effort to hide a cache. If I would criticize someone I would try my best to be constructive.

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From another point of view. I am a noob and for a lot of my caches, I simply say thanks. As stated before, what do you say about a magnetic holder in the Home Depot parking lot? There more interesting ones get a more interesting response!

I try to say something nice about every cache in the logs regardless of how lame or parking lot light holder dweller it may be. Some people just are not creative in hiding or logging. "Something" usually happens when you found the cache. The sun shone, the birds sang, horns honked, shopping cart accident occurred or you spotted a freaky walmartian wearing spandex and little else. The CO made some effort to hide a cache. If I would criticize someone I would try my best to be constructive.

 

Yes! This is how I feel about leaving logs! There's always a story to tell, even quick and easy caches. LP hides, nanos on stop sighs...something happened. I'm grateful to any CO for any hide! I've never left a short log.

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seen the smiley many times, but one local (new) cacher here has something different. every single found log of theirs says "good times!"

 

the funny part is that they also rigorously log their DNFs. of course the message for the DNF logs is also just a template, it says "not so good times!" :lol:

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seen the smiley many times, but one local (new) cacher here has something different. every single found log of theirs says "good times!"

 

the funny part is that they also rigorously log their DNFs. of course the message for the DNF logs is also just a template, it says "not so good times!" :D

 

:):lol:B)

 

I rigorously log my DNFs but not like that! ROFL

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I've noticed that since I started logging out in the field with the mobile apps I have started leaving shorter and blander logs. This is partly because typing with the smaller keyboard is more difficult for me, and also because I have limited time to cache and spending the time typing the logs in the field takes away from finding.

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There's a cache owner who on his profile page has threatened to delete logs that only contain "TFTC". He feels that if he went through the trouble to hide the cache, people should at least leave more than 4 characters in their logs. I wonder how he'd feel about someone logging a period.

I wonder how he'd feel about TPTB reinstating those logs that he improperly deleted.

He'd probably feel as though he sent his message, loud and clear. And good for him!
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From another point of view. I am a noob and for a lot of my caches, I simply say thanks. As stated before, what do you say about a magnetic holder in the Home Depot parking lot? There more interesting ones get a more interesting response!
My most recent response to those is, "Thanks for the practice. I'm getting better for each of these that I find." Or something similar. I've been more outrageous than that in the past, once posting three phony DNFs before saying that I drove home and did a PAF, then finally drove back and found the cache. Have fun with your logging!!
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I've noticed that since I started logging out in the field with the mobile apps I have started leaving shorter and blander logs. This is partly because typing with the smaller keyboard is more difficult for me, and also because I have limited time to cache and spending the time typing the logs in the field takes away from finding.
Then stop doing that! Its a poor carpenter that blames crappy work on his hammer. The worst part is, you apparently are fully aware of the decreasing quality of your logs ("shorter and blander").
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LOL why do the smartphone users get picked on so much! Bullies! :lol: I log from my BlackBerry exclusively, from the field!
I don't see anybody picking on smartphone users... at least not in this thread. I do see people complaining about minimalistic logs, and some saying, most rightly so, that a good deal of those minimalistic logs are due to the smartphone apps and their interface.
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From another point of view. I am a noob and for a lot of my caches, I simply say thanks. As stated before, what do you say about a magnetic holder in the Home Depot parking lot? There more interesting ones get a more interesting response!
My most recent response to those is, "Thanks for the practice. I'm getting better for each of these that I find." Or something similar. I've been more outrageous than that in the past, once posting three phony DNFs before saying that I drove home and did a PAF, then finally drove back and found the cache. Have fun with your logging!!

 

I've come to the realization that if I don't spend my limited caching time finding those caches I don't have to spend any time at all logging them.

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LOL why do the smartphone users get picked on so much! Bullies! B) I log from my BlackBerry exclusively, from the field!
I don't see anybody picking on smartphone users... at least not in this thread. I do see people complaining about minimalistic logs, and some saying, most rightly so, that a good deal of those minimalistic logs are due to the smartphone apps and their interface.

 

Exactly. I'm not dissing smartphone users. Even though I bring it up a lot. :) I just noticed, I don't know, maybe a year ago at most, that there was an extremely high incidence of people with 50 finds or less, who joined maybe a month prior, to log "TFTC" (and nothing else) as a cache log, no matter how "good" of a cache it was. I was totally baffled by this bizarre phenomenon!! I mean where there thousands of n00bs running around logging "TFTC" for every cache in 2006? No, there wasn't. I was actually very impressed with myself when I finally solved this mystery. :lol:

Edited by Mr.Yuck
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on the other side of logging I did a really incredible puzzle cache recently and just didn't quite know what to say when the end result was a bison tube with a moldy log that I just didn't want to touch

 

In this case I would be honest, and leave a log saying how I enjoyed the amazing puzzle, but was disappointed by the condition of the cache.

 

I always write something specific to the cache; either positive, or constructive criticism. In the latter case I try to be very careful with my wording, to try not to offend and to be specific about what I think could be better.

As a CO, I like detailed logs (positive or constructive); but if I just get TFTC or a smiley face, that's OK.

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I have seen threads in the past about lazy loggers that only use "TFTC" as a log, but this takes the cake.

 

I have seen this person log other caches, some easy and some challenging and it's the same thing. They logged a couple of mine today with the same log...what's the log?

 

:)

 

That's it. I mean, how lazy can a person be that "TFTC" is hard work?

 

:P

 

I've typed a couple of responses, but now I finally looked at some of the OP's caches. Yup, the smiley face logs came from a 56 find account who joined in August. And I also notice at least 2 "TFTC" only logs from an account that joined over the weekend. These are open and shut cases of smartphone logging. What was once considered rude and uninspired is now savvy and hi-tech. :D

 

Seriously though, even though many of us established computer logging geocachers find TFTC logs to be rude, I don't think there is going to be enough of an outrage that an angry mob is going to storm Groundspeak HQ, or we're going to see developers flashing "logging TFTC is considered rude" across cell phone screens. Bottom line, get used to people who joined last weekend dropping TFTC logs on your caches.

 

I thought the laziest cachers are the one where their found log is only the "Logged from my iPhone" default msg with no changes.

 

I'll take a TFTC! or the smiley face, because they actually typed characters.

 

Actually, from what I'm told, they're not typing it, and they are using hot keys in the App to produce TFTC, or Smiley face logs.

 

So that's all I have to complain about today, Sol Seeker. I must be doing pretty dadgum good. :P

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There's a cache owner who on his profile page has threatened to delete logs that only contain "TFTC". He feels that if he went through the trouble to hide the cache, people should at least leave more than 4 characters in their logs. I wonder how he'd feel about someone logging a period.

I wonder how he'd feel about TPTB reinstating those logs that he improperly deleted.

He'd probably feel as though he sent his message, loud and clear. And good for him!

Seems like that message would be blunted by the fact that the 'TFTC' log would be allowed to remain and that he would be cautioned against future such deletions. The finder, of course, would have teh happy feeling of learning that there was nothing wrong with the way that he/she logged the cache and that the cache owner was in the wrong.

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