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How often should you log a DNF on the same cache?


pldiguanaman

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Each and every attempt is how often I log them.

 

If I made 2 attempts in a single day - I'd probably just leave a single one.

 

A DNF is not a demerit of any sort - just part of your personal Geocaching history and the history of the cache. Valuable information to future seekers and the cache owner.

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or should the first one suffice no matter many times I try again and fail?

Log each new DNF. But go back armed with a new plan of attack. This depends on the cache. If it’s listed as easy (and even if it isn’t), contact the cache owner, see if you can get a hint, so you can narrow down the search, or refocus it. If you’re waiting til plants die back in winter, maybe you’ll spot the container next time. If it’s, say, a million little rocks, and you’ve determined to search them all and have only done 250,000, you should DNF the next couple of trips til you get them all. Otherwise, decide whether returning to just look in the same spots again is worthwhile. How many times are you actually going back to search?

 

You can put it on the bottom of the pile. Go find other caches. There's no time limit. Let it go for now, give yourself a break, go find it someday.

 

Sometimes I go back for the view, because I like the place. Maybe I’ll look at some plants. I’m not really searching for the cache, though I might be thinking it over a little. I may or may not log a 4th or 5th DNF, in that case.

Edited by kunarion
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How many times are you actually going back to search?

 

So far the most I have searched (and failed) is three for a particular cache. Still have not found it and owner is not giving hints so at this point I will probably forget it and move on to others. Just curious though about how tenacious some people are (or OCD) about retrying a DNF until they finally locate it. I did have one that took me three attempts to find and I was pretty happy when I did. Persistence paid off for that one. I wonder if there is some record for someone logging the most DNF for a certain cache.

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How many times are you actually going back to search?

So far the most I have searched (and failed) is three for a particular cache. Still have not found it and owner is not giving hints so at this point I will probably forget it and move on to others. Just curious though about how tenacious some people are (or OCD) about retrying a DNF until they finally locate it. I did have one that took me three attempts to find and I was pretty happy when I did. Persistence paid off for that one. I wonder if there is some record for someone logging the most DNF for a certain cache.

I have logged 5 DNFs over the course of 3 years on one cache before I finally found it. Became very anticlimactic.

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How often should you log a DNF on the same cache? If I try to find a cache and fail I will log a DNF, but if I try again for the same cache and still DNF should I add another DNF log entry or should the first one suffice no matter many times I try again and fail?

 

Each time I look for a cache and don't find it, it gets a DNF log. I think my record for 1 cache is 7.

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I guess everyone plays their own way. I usually only log a DNF the first time I look. If I return and look again, I usually not log another DNF, unless the reason for it was different somehow.

 

When,(or if) I do find it, I will state in my log how many times I had to hunt for it.

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And another method.. I log my second..third...whatever DNF on a cache by editing my initial DNF log and making each try its own dated paragraph. The entry is updated to the most recent visit. I open a new log for the find.

Edited by edscott
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Our cache was missing for an unknown time because people weren't logging their dnf's. When we replaced the container, we got logs saying things like "looked for it twice before, no wonder we couldn't find it". <_<

 

We've posted a dnf 3 times on one cache. They are probably spaced about a year apart, because that's when we looked for it and Did Not Find it.

Edited by Pup Patrol
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And another method.. I log my second..third...whatever DNF on a cache by editing my initial DNF log and making each try its own dated paragraph. The entry is updated to the most recent visit. I open a new log for the find.

 

That method doesn't notify the cache owner, as far as I understand. Cache owners only receive notifications of new logs being posted.

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If I reach GZ and search for the cache, then I log either a Find or a DNF. One exception might be a DNF near the beginning of a hike, where I return and search some more on the way back. I might log only a single DNF in that case, although I'd explain the situation in the log.

 

And my record is 6 DNFs for a single cache before finding it.

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Personally I log in my DNF's in a variety of ways. First time I always log. If I don't get near GZ due to a specific reason either funny or something that other finders need to be aware of I log a DNF regardless of which trip out it was.

 

Sometimes if I search for a cache multiple times in a day or weekend I will do one DNF for the weekend. I know others would do it each time they go out.

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I seldom log more than one DNF per cache. It serves no useful porpoise, and clogs up the cache page. Everyone knows I failed once. No need tot ell them how often I failed.

 

I know, I would hate to see that you DNF's 4 times in a row.

 

But you did.

 

I've never really bought into the whole - clogged up the cache page thing. Most complaints are by people looking for clues, aka un-decrypted hints.

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We log a DNF each time we have actively searched. If muggles or weather prevent that search from starting, we may leave a note. On one cache, close to home, we DNF'd and the CO kindly told us to pay attention to the hint. When we finally found it (I had dreamed the previous night we were successful) it turned out I had touched the cover of the cache on visit # 1. The CO actually upped the difficulty and terrain from a 1/1 due to what he read in the DNF logs - not just ours either!

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Once.... we had 17 vehicles full of geocachers searching for a cache. We did NOT find it. So..... the cache owner was quite upset when his geocache received 17 DNF logs...all on the same day.

 

We now just log one DNF for the group. We consider it a notification to the owner. We just note in the log who was there and how long we searched.

 

Sometimes I've logged additional DNF's if I went back there again...but not if it hasn't been found recently. There's no need.

 

I have one cache that I've DNF'd 5 times in 4 years....and I still haven't found it! .......but I will next time....lol.

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I usually log a DNF for every time I visit GZ and make an effort to locate the cache. I once had a cache that took 5 trips to find and I logged each one of those 4 DNFs before I was able to get the smiley face. Oh, that cache required a 1 mile hike just to get to GZ as it was in the middle of a nature preserve. Totally worth it though.

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I look at it this way. If I revisit a cache with a friend after I have found it do I log another find? I realize that DNFs are not negative marks on your record, and all the other reasons to log them. If I didn't find it the first time I log it. Then I edit the log on each visit. Eventually changing the "Didn't find it" log to "found it", but with all the log stages recorded as they were added.

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A related question to this thread is how do I log a find after previously having logged a DNF?

 

(1) Leave the "DNF" log entry and enter a new "Found it" log???

(2) Change the "DNF" log entry to a "Note" and log the find a usual???

(3) Change the "DNF" log entry to a "Found" leaving original info and adding date for the find???

 

Is there one "correct" way to do this or does everyone kind of do whatever they think is right?

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Is there one "correct" way to do this or does everyone kind of do whatever they think is right?

There isn't a single "correct" method, but I believe the vast majority do (1), although there are some that do the other two. The fact that you eventually found the cache doesn't negate the fact that you DNFed it on a previous visit. I say you should keep the history intact and leave the DNF logs as is.

Edited by The A-Team
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Is there one "correct" way to do this or does everyone kind of do whatever they think is right?

I say you should keep the history intact and leave the DNF logs as is.

 

OK - that makes sense to me. My only issue is how do I keep track of the caches I DNF'd and never found (versus the ones I DNF'd and later found), so I can remember which ones to go try for again? I don't want to give up on any caches, but sometimes I just need to leave it alone for a while before going back to it.

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My only issue is how do I keep track of the caches I DNF'd and never found (versus the ones I DNF'd and later found), so I can remember which ones to go try for again?
It's easy enough to view only the caches that you haven't found. Or are you trying to list the caches that you've DNFed but haven't found, as opposed to the caches you've never looked for at all?
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My only issue is how do I keep track of the caches I DNF'd and never found (versus the ones I DNF'd and later found), so I can remember which ones to go try for again?
It's easy enough to view only the caches that you haven't found. Or are you trying to list the caches that you've DNFed but haven't found, as opposed to the caches you've never looked for at all?

 

I am trying to list the caches I've DNF'd and still haven't found. I had been using the list of all my DNF's to remind me of where I needed to go back to. Once I found them, I had been changing the DNF log type from a "Did Not Find" to a "Write Note" so they came off my DNF list. This gave me a nice clean list of previous DNF's to use as my "to-do" (again) list. I understand about maintaining the history of the cache, but if I'm not sure how I canmaintain a list of which caches I DNF'd and still want to go back to try again.

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My only issue is how do I keep track of the caches I DNF'd and never found (versus the ones I DNF'd and later found), so I can remember which ones to go try for again?
It's easy enough to view only the caches that you haven't found. Or are you trying to list the caches that you've DNFed but haven't found, as opposed to the caches you've never looked for at all?
I am trying to list the caches I've DNF'd and still haven't found. I had been using the list of all my DNF's to remind me of where I needed to go back to. Once I found them, I had been changing the DNF log type from a "Did Not Find" to a "Write Note" so they came off my DNF list. This gave me a nice clean list of previous DNF's to use as my "to-do" (again) list. I understand about maintaining the history of the cache, but if I'm not sure how I canmaintain a list of which caches I DNF'd and still want to go back to try again.
Until Groundspeak supports DNF logs as part of PQs, I think you'd need to add DNFed caches to a bookmark list, and then remove them from the bookmark list once you find them.
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Until Groundspeak supports DNF logs as part of PQs, I think you'd need to add DNFed caches to a bookmark list, and then remove them from the bookmark list once you find them.

 

I'm still pretty new at this and haven't really explored bookmarks much, but that sounds like a reasonable solution. Thanks!

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I searched for a particular cache over ten times before I found it. I logged my first 3 or 4 trips as DNF's. On the last DNF I added a line saying "in an effort not to clutter your cache page, I'm gunna not log a DNF after this vist for a while". I think logging DNF's are extremely important. However, I think it's a bit overkill to look at a cache and see that the last number of logs are DNF's by the same person.

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How often should you log a DNF on the same cache? If I try to find a cache and fail I will log a DNF, but if I try again for the same cache and still DNF should I add another DNF log entry or should the first one suffice no matter many times I try again and fail?

To each their own. However, as a cache owner, I like knowing each and every time my cache isn't found when hunted. That can mean many times by the same person, day after day. It helps make my cache better to know what is going on when others hunt it.

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How often should you log a DNF on the same cache? If I try to find a cache and fail I will log a DNF, but if I try again for the same cache and still DNF should I add another DNF log entry or should the first one suffice no matter many times I try again and fail?

To each their own.

 

Seems that some CO's want it all, while others would rather not have their cache history cluttered with multiple DNF's from the same cacher. Prehaps the solution is to log everything and allow the CO to delete any logs they feel are excessive.

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If I look and do not find-----------DNF--Period. I have one hide that I have looked for 3 times and two of the three DNF's are listed consecutively. Now it is disabled because it needs to be replaced. I was probably looking for a non-existent cache. Oh well!

 

I personally would like others looking for any that I have hidden to do the same. I like to know the history of my hides so I can evaluate how successful I was in the entertainment provided to others by the hides.

 

Recording a DNF is not negative in any way. I still get breakfast in the morning, keep having birthdays, etc. :lol:

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I personally would like others looking for any that I have hidden to do the same. I like to know the history of my hides so I can evaluate how successful I was in the entertainment provided to others by the hides.

 

Being quite new to this, I tend to forget the "other side" of the cache (the owner). I might log my DNF more often from now on ^_^

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I log most of my DNFs, and I don't change the logs after I've found it. I like writing logs, and even if I don't find the cache it might turn into a funny story.

 

Logging DNFs will help the cache owner, but also other cachers. If I see tons of DNFs on a cache I might skip that cache if I don't have time for an extensive search.

 

At one cache I think I logged 2 or 3 DNFs in a row. In between my visits I could see that someone had been in the area, looking (tracks in the snow). But no logs. The cache was missing, but the other cachers had simply looked for it and then done nothing about it. If I hadn't logged all those DNFs it might have taken a long while before the CO checked up on that cache. But if they had logged their DNFs I might not have gone back there 2 more times :P I'm a bit bitter because the cache location was not that fun to search in after the first time.

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If you don't want to log your DNFs, even for multiple searches (exception being on the same day), then don't log your finds either!

If you search for a cache, and don't find it, log a DNF!

 

Even multiple DNFs from the same cacher, on different days will let the CO know what's happening with their cache. Cluttering up the cache page?

Nonsense! The cache page logs are there for letting people know the history of the cache. If there are many DNFs, maybe there is a problem with the cache. The CO can fix that easily by checking on the cache, and doing a Maintenance log.

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I seldom log more than one DNF per cache. It serves no useful porpoise, and clogs up the cache page. Everyone knows I failed once. No need tot ell them how often I failed.
I think it is definitely useful to know that someone has searched and DNFed multiple times. If you're concerned about cluttering up the cache page with multiple DNF logs, then perhaps you could edit your original DFN log to add details of your later attempts.
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Is it wrong for me to feel a small sense of accomplishment for hiding a cache and the first two log entries from other cachers are DNFs? It's kind of nice knowing I hid it well enough to keep 'em looking for an hour.

 

Of course there is that small voice in my mind wondering if my posted coordinates are off just enough to have them looking in the wrong area...but it actually IS a pretty good spot. Just to allay my concerns, I may have to trek out there and see if my device can get me there.

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Is it wrong for me to feel a small sense of accomplishment for hiding a cache and the first two log entries from other cachers are DNFs? It's kind of nice knowing I hid it well enough to keep 'em looking for an hour.

 

Of course there is that small voice in my mind wondering if my posted coordinates are off just enough to have them looking in the wrong area...but it actually IS a pretty good spot. Just to allay my concerns, I may have to trek out there and see if my device can get me there.

 

Best response yet!!! Thank you!!!

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