logging temps

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

You can choose to use this info to modify your opinion, or not. (Isn't this the basis of internet forums, after all.)

 

Oops. I thought the basis was that I was right, and all of you are wrong, and if I type forcefully enough (or even IN ALL CAPS), I can bend you all to my will.

 

If you use all caps a lot, you'll just have people adding you to their "ignore" list.

[+the4dirtydogs]

We don't log temp caches. I don't think we ever found a temp cache. I see no reason to log a cache, event cache or any other type cache more than once. This practice really doesn't make any sense to us but the great thing about this game is you can play it the way you want.

[+Harry Dolphin]

A temporary cache is not loggable: It doesn't have a GC#. Don't know why anyone would log 'attended' more than once for an event. With certain exceptions, I don't know why anyone would log any cache more than once.

Do we log caches listed on other sites here? (Found a letterbox nearby, so I'm logging this cache twice???) Do we log all the geocachers at the event? Some things are just to silly for words.

[Mr.Yuck]

I didnt know it was a big controversy, and I didnt know it wasn't done everywhere. I have been to a couple events where I have logged all the temp caches I have found. I dont feel cheap by doing so, though. Those were caches put out by geocachers, I had to use my GPS to find them, and I had permission to log them from the even coordinator (cache owner). Its fine with me. I DO see how this could be abused into skewing numbers.....and thats really important only if you care about numbers.

But they didn't meet the basic guidelines of this site to be listed on thier own merits. So why use this site's resources to log them?? Might just as well use a competitors site to log them.

 

Thats true. Has Ground speak addressed the issue?

 

Sort of - follow this link - Jeremy is the Owner of Groundspeak.

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=99980&st=150&p=1524015entry1524015

 

So he says its up to the cache owner, but don't abuse it...basically.

Honestly, I DID NOT know this was NOT done elsewhere. I thought thats what you did at these events. After thinking about it for a while...I am going to reconsider doing this. I'm in a club that puts on an event like this...where you log multiple times per "temp cache". I think at our next meeting I will talk about restructuring things.

 

Are you referring to the Geocaching club that it appears hosted just about every event you've attended? I don't know man, you can bring it up at the meeting, but temp cache logging in Ohio is pretty friggin' entrenched in the culture, in my opinion. People expect to go to an event and log it 80 times. But who knows, maybe every person on the committee thinks this happens at every Geocaching event everywhere in the world, and when they find out it doesn't, maybe they'll consider a change. I still tend to think it's unlikely they will, but The Wisconsin Geocaching Association obviously had a meeting about it at one time, and decided to abandon the practice. Or maybe they had a member vote, you'd better not quote me on that one.

[+BlueDeuce]

I didnt know it was a big controversy, and I didnt know it wasn't done everywhere.

 

It's not a big controversy it's a big circle. A couple three years ago it was popularly acceptable to log temp caches by logging multiple attends (according to the forums) and if you said anything against it you were a dirty rat. Before that it was a bad idea, before then, Good. Now we're back to bad.

 

I don't care for it myself - I don't see the point. But at least this time around I'm not the one taking the flack.

[+firemanjim903mfd]

Thanks for the help answering my question . I got WAY more help than I had bargained for and I didn't intend on opening a BIG can of worms . I went to the event over the weekend and I didn't log the temporary caches that I found and I even went as far as taking off the temporary caches that I logged last year . I had NO intent on logging this years temporary caches . I was just wondering on what to do with the ones that I had logged last year ( hey, it was my first event last year and I had only been caching for less than 6 month ) so I should have have asked this question a little bit different .The bottom line is last year I didn't know any better and now this year I do . Now I'm afraid to log a regular cache .

[Mr.Yuck]

Thanks for the help answering my question . I got WAY more help than I had bargained for and I didn't intend on opening a BIG can of worms . I went to the event over the weekend and I didn't log the temporary caches that I found and I even went as far as taking off the temporary caches that I logged last year . I had NO intent on logging this years temporary caches . I was just wondering on what to do with the ones that I had logged last year ( hey, it was my first event last year and I had only been caching for less than 6 month ) so I should have have asked this question a little bit different .The bottom line is last year I didn't know any better and now this year I do . Now I'm afraid to log a regular cache .

 

Naw, not that big of a can of worms. It used to be a lot worse when the practice was more widespread. Bottom line is, this is allowed!! But if your conscience tells you it's cheesy, than you made your decision. Why are you afraid to log a regular cache now though?

[+firemanjim903mfd]

Thanks for the help answering my question . I got WAY more help than I had bargained for and I didn't intend on opening a BIG can of worms . I went to the event over the weekend and I didn't log the temporary caches that I found and I even went as far as taking off the temporary caches that I logged last year . I had NO intent on logging this years temporary caches . I was just wondering on what to do with the ones that I had logged last year ( hey, it was my first event last year and I had only been caching for less than 6 month ) so I should have have asked this question a little bit different .The bottom line is last year I didn't know any better and now this year I do . Now I'm afraid to log a regular cache .

 

Naw, not that big of a can of worms. It used to be a lot worse when the practice was more widespread. Bottom line is, this is allowed!! But if your conscience tells you it's cheesy, than you made your decision. Why are you afraid to log a regular cache now though?

I was just joking in the regular caches . Im not rally afraid just dont want to make another big stink .

[+bflentje]

I have a quick question . Im going to an event tomarrow can I log the temp caches as a regular find ?

Have you had your question answered? When I was new at this, I, too, was given that same information that I could claim all of the temps by repeatedly claiming the event. I didn't have any way of knowing that it was something that wasn't done everywhere. I did that at perhaps three events before I stopped. To this day, it is obvious by looking at my stats where it says "has found 356 caches (329 distinct)". Do I walk around with my head hanging down in shame over that? Of course not. But I do wish now that I hadn't. If you have done that, and decide that you'd like to delete the duplicates, do it now rather than after you have important milestone caches that will get messed up.

 

Ayep, I made that mistake. I deleted 70-something temp cache finds and forgot to consider that my milestones were out of whack. It was a major pain in the rear to get that repaired.

[+bflentje]

On the rare occasion I host events, I don't hide temp caches. I either hide permanent caches or hide nothing at all.

[Pup Patrol]

I must be weird...I find it annoying that "attended" logs are included in my "finds" total. I always subtract them from my "finds" total.

 

I didn't "find" the event, so why is it included with the number of caches I did "find"?

[+bflentje]

I must be weird...I find it annoying that "attended" logs are included in my "finds" total. I always subtract them from my "finds" total.

 

I didn't "find" the event, so why is it included with the number of caches I did "find"?

 

If it's not about the numbers then it shouldn't matter..

[Pup Patrol]

I must be weird...I find it annoying that "attended" logs are included in my "finds" total. I always subtract them from my "finds" total.

 

I didn't "find" the event, so why is it included with the number of caches I did "find"?

 

If it's not about the numbers then it shouldn't matter..

 

But it is "about the numbers"...

 

accurate numbers, for me at least.

 

And for others who might want to track milestones, etc.

 

"Events" should be a separate category. They're not even close to the same thing as "caches".

[+WVangler]

Just to clarify, do not stereotype all of West Virginia as participating in "temp cache" frenzies as was indicated in an earlier post. This particular event in question is the only one I've heard of that does this. I am one of only 3 or 4 people to host any events in central/southern WV in the past 4 years and I have not yet ever attended an event that involved temporary caches of any kind, let alone a question of how to "log them". Event caches are rare in WV and temp caches even more so.

[+alanfreed]

I'm glad to see that logging temp caches isn't something that has been widely adopted outside our area (SW PA) and a few others. I've been disappointed to see how often people log events over and over again for temps that aren't listed on GC.com. Not to be a total wank about it, but it's frankly discouraging me from attending events at all if this is the direction we're heading. I enjoy seeing my numbers climb, but they're all legit numbers.

 

To me, logging "caches" (which have ranged from actual cache containers, to spotting a man in a wolf costume at a library) is as legit as logging how many times I visited the restroom at an event. I just don't see the point.

 

Now that I've honked off 90% of the people in my area... I'll go moan about something else

[+WRASTRO]

I'm glad to see that logging temp caches isn't something that has been widely adopted outside our area (SW PA) and a few others. I've been disappointed to see how often people log events over and over again for temps that aren't listed on GC.com. Not to be a total wank about it, but it's frankly discouraging me from attending events at all if this is the direction we're heading. I enjoy seeing my numbers climb, but they're all legit numbers.

 

To me, logging "caches" (which have ranged from actual cache containers, to spotting a man in a wolf costume at a library) is as legit as logging how many times I visited the restroom at an event. I just don't see the point.

 

Now that I've honked off 90% of the people in my area... I'll go moan about something else

The good news is this practice seems to be waning so there shouldn't be any need for you to stop attending events when you want to.

[+tozainamboku]

but it's frankly discouraging me from attending events at all

Nobody can force you log temps if you don't want to. Some people even refuse to log a single attended on an event because they don't think events should count as finds.

 

The find count should not be viewed as a score. It is simply the total number of Found It, Attended, and Photo Taken logs that someone has entered.

 

I would think the best way to demonstrate that logging of temporary cache isn't necessary is to attend an event, find the the temporary caches, and then log one attended log in which you say how many temporary cache you found. If someone asks later why you didn't log finds, you can say that the find count isn't important. You had just as much fun as they did finding the temporary caches and you only had to add one short sentence to your event attended log to let everyone know. Ask them why they spent an entire evening posting copy and paste logs for each of the temporary caches.

[+alanfreed]

Nobody can force you log temps if you don't want to.

 

I never said they did... I'm just saying that if this is the motivation for people to attend events, I find that kind of discouraging and it makes me less enthusiastic about attending. I'd be happier if people were more interested in the fellowship of it all, and less interested in artificially boosting their numbers.

[+alanfreed]

As a side note... about a year ago I noticed that my "distinct finds" number was one less than my "finds" number, and that drove me nuts. I finally realized how I could use GSAK to pinpoint where I had logged more than one find on a single cache, and I found that I had done that accidentally on a cache a couple summers ago. I removed the duplicate, which kinda stunk because it threw off a few key milestones I had done... but at least I feel better about it now.

[+KBLAST]

Ohio cacher here proudly displaying a distinct == found count. I actually think this practice is regional even within Ohio. I have a few friends who have gone to events in "that region" who have done it/do it, but I put on a 10 years anniversary event here (with temporary AND permanent caches) and no one logged it more than once. I think someone may have asked me if it was allowed, and I probably said "no" (not knowing at that time that this kind of thing happened in other regions.) At any rate, I hope this helps people see that the practice is becoming even more "weeded out". I know a number of my friends who didn't know that this was a regional thing log these, and they are all a little torked now that their distinct does not equal their found count. I also have friends who are proud of their numbers. I also have friends who don't log monthly events as found its because they "only found the event once." I also know that there is a monthly event in our state that has had the SAME event ongoing for a number of years (they've never archived it - they just keep rolling the date.) I don't get it all, but I play my way and let others do the same.

[+Bergie Bunch]

But then I also think it's lazy to just hide temporary event caches. Make 'em permanent and get 'em published so everyone can go look for them. If you want to have the event next year, then archive last year's event caches and publish a new series for the next event.

Had you come to the event, you may have learned something. The temps were historic markers and plaques and buildings around the area, you had to read to find information to fill in a 75 question crossword puzzle. There was NOTHING lazy about the work that went into this event in any way. The MAD COW grew a small local event into a MEGA event in just a few years. 565 people came to Wheeling, learned a good bit about it's history, set a record and enjoyed the company of other cachers. To say it is lazy is rude ignorant and shows a total lack of respect for your fellow cachers. Do you have any concept of what goes into making a MEGA event happen? I thought it was quite an ingenious way to have a great time, learn some history of a wonderful city and cache the day away, nothing LAZY about it at all. As to the logging of the temps, you can't log temps for a mega event, so the host said that if anyone wanted to log the temps, do so on the night before event cache page. If it is not about the numbers to people why do you care if people log them or not, Jeremy said his opinion, and it is up to the event host.

[+humboldt flier]

Sometimes and in some places, cachers have been known to log the event cache page itself multiple times for temp caches at events. It isn't widely done however.

 

Both logging the same cache multiple times and logging temp caches are considered by most cachers I know to be a fairly cheesy thing to do. Just have fun finding them and call it it a day!!!

 

I am in agreement

[+humboldt flier]

Thanks for the help answering my question . I got WAY more help than I had bargained for and I didn't intend on opening a BIG can of worms . I went to the event over the weekend and I didn't log the temporary caches that I found and I even went as far as taking off the temporary caches that I logged last year . I had NO intent on logging this years temporary caches . I was just wondering on what to do with the ones that I had logged last year ( hey, it was my first event last year and I had only been caching for less than 6 month ) so I should have have asked this question a little bit different .The bottom line is last year I didn't know any better and now this year I do . Now I'm afraid to log a regular cache .

 

Naw, not that big of a can of worms. It used to be a lot worse when the practice was more widespread. Bottom line is, this is allowed!! But if your conscience tells you it's cheesy, than you made your decision. Why are you afraid to log a regular cache now though?

 

This is scary, but I agree with Mr. Yuck

[Mr.Yuck]

Thanks for the help answering my question . I got WAY more help than I had bargained for and I didn't intend on opening a BIG can of worms . I went to the event over the weekend and I didn't log the temporary caches that I found and I even went as far as taking off the temporary caches that I logged last year . I had NO intent on logging this years temporary caches . I was just wondering on what to do with the ones that I had logged last year ( hey, it was my first event last year and I had only been caching for less than 6 month ) so I should have have asked this question a little bit different .The bottom line is last year I didn't know any better and now this year I do . Now I'm afraid to log a regular cache .

 

Naw, not that big of a can of worms. It used to be a lot worse when the practice was more widespread. Bottom line is, this is allowed!! But if your conscience tells you it's cheesy, than you made your decision. Why are you afraid to log a regular cache now though?

 

This is scary, but I agree with Mr. Yuck

 

Why did this thread come back from the dead?

 

And Why is it scary you agree with me? Do we disagree that often? Shucks, now I feel like Sbell111 or something.

Edited March 27, 2011 by Mr.Yuck

[Mr.Yuck]

Ohio cacher here proudly displaying a distinct == found count. I actually think this practice is regional even within Ohio. I have a few friends who have gone to events in "that region" who have done it/do it, but I put on a 10 years anniversary event here (with temporary AND permanent caches) and no one logged it more than once. I think someone may have asked me if it was allowed, and I probably said "no" (not knowing at that time that this kind of thing happened in other regions.) At any rate, I hope this helps people see that the practice is becoming even more "weeded out". I know a number of my friends who didn't know that this was a regional thing log these, and they are all a little torked now that their distinct does not equal their found count. I also have friends who are proud of their numbers. I also have friends who don't log monthly events as found its because they "only found the event once." I also know that there is a monthly event in our state that has had the SAME event ongoing for a number of years (they've never archived it - they just keep rolling the date.) I don't get it all, but I play my way and let others do the same.

 

Hard to tell exactly where you're from from your hides, but I'll generally assume Columbus Area? I guess I did assume it was done there too. I do know I've never seen it way down say Cincinnati way, so I guess you could say it's regional within Ohio. And definitely regional in West Virginia, I apologize to that poster too (I didn't even see that back when it was the last post to the thread).

 

C'mom, be nice to me. I was just naming a few States for the overwhelming majority of Geocachers in the world, whom have never heard of these zany antics.

 

This does have me wondering though, was it ever regional in Wisconsin? Just kidding, no one answer that.