Can I log a "find" if i give directions to someone else ?

[+M4ISU]

I'm a newbie with a dilemma . I am in U.S. and went to Puerto Rico this week for business. I was able to load a few caches in my GPS and was pleased to see some very close to places I was visiting. So I was able to hunt for these two while there. One I did find ( yeah ! ) the other I could not, I even had two muggle co-workers helping, since we were literally across the street from the hide eating lunch one day. After returning to the US and logging , I saw the hints ( had not read them before) and now I have a good idea of where the one that I could not find is located. One of my co-workers who was with me is still in PR - I have sent him the hint. If he is to go back and look and find, do you think it's ethical for him to sign the log on my behalf, and I record as my find ? I'm thinking "no" - but just curious to what others think (or have done). Maybe I've missed it on the website - are there specifc rules I can reference ?

[+Bear and Ragged]

No 'Rules' to say you can't...

 

Do you feel you can live with it, if they 'sign' for you?

(As you've asked here, I suspect you won't claim it as Found. )

[+Croesgadwr]

I suppose its a bit like "Phoning a Friend"...but in reverse!!

As long as its your 'name' on the log, then who will know the difference??

I don't see any rules being broken by doing it.

[+CanDMan47]

While the real answer is "play any way you want", I would feel this is not in the spirit of the game. Technically speaking, your name would be on the log, and if you didn't reveal how you did it, the CO would never know and therefore couldn't delete your online log.

[+taggdog]

If I personally don't sign the log I don't claim it. To each his own but this is what I go by.

[+WRASTRO]

I have never logged a cache as you describe, so my answer would be not to log a find. I have logged notes or DNFs on caches where I was not willing to do what was necessary to retrieve the cache even though others with me did the retrieving. You have to follow your own beliefs. Your decision either way really only affects you.

[+Planet]

Ask the cache owner.

[+ChileHead]

You can do what you want, of course. There are some people (married couples for example) who share an account, and will log all finds to it regardless if it was one, the other, or both actually physically present. I'm assuming your co-worker isn't your spouse or domestic partner or part of your geocaching "team".

[+Michaelcycle]

Go find a mirror. Pretend that the person looking back at you is your conscience. Ask that person what to do.

No, I'm not making fun of you. For me the answer is clear (sorry, I'm not saying) but I've read enough over the last few years to see that people play this game in a lot of different ways. And attitudes keep changing. Find your path and follow it.

 

What am I saying?! You asked for an opinion, here it is. I don't claim the find unless the cache was in my hand (or, occasionally, the hand of someone right next to me to save time) and I signed the log.

[+The A-Team]

I'm a newbie with a dilemma . I am in U.S. and went to Puerto Rico this week for business. I was able to load a few caches in my GPS and was pleased to see some very close to places I was visiting. So I was able to hunt for these two while there. One I did find ( yeah ! ) the other I could not, I even had two muggle co-workers helping, since we were literally across the street from the hide eating lunch one day. After returning to the US and logging , I saw the hints ( had not read them before) and now I have a good idea of where the one that I could not find is located. One of my co-workers who was with me is still in PR - I have sent him the hint. If he is to go back and look and find, do you think it's ethical for him to sign the log on my behalf, and I record as my find ? I'm thinking "no" - but just curious to what others think (or have done). Maybe I've missed it on the website - are there specifc rules I can reference ?

Think of it this way:

Let's say you emailed a random cacher in another country. You asked them to sign your name on the next cache they find. Would it seem right for you to log the find? Obviously not. You didn't find the cache. I consider your situation no different.

Technically, as long as your name is in the log, Groundspeak will leave it alone, but ethically it's completely wrong.

[+popokiiti]

I think you have to go back to Puerto Rico and find the cache and log yourself - and take us with you please! Our lovely snow is being washed away by miserable rain...........

[diggingest_dogg616]

It's not what I would do (but that's me and not you).

 

If *you* are guiding someone to a cache because they don't have a GPS or whatever, and they actually find it, then they can log a find if they want to because they were tho ones who ultimately found it (or seems to be the verdict on the "geocaching by proxy" thread).

 

With that in mind, it seems to come down to who actually found it. It's not a rule by any means, but I personally feel that if you didn't actually find the thing and sign it, then you shouldn't say you did. That's what going back is for Although who knows when you can return to Puerto Rico

 

Really, there a few caches around my town that I haven't found, but if I look on Google maps and zoom way in with the satellite imagery, then I know exactly where it is, even down to a certain lamp post. Can I log it as a find because I know where it is even though I haven't touched it? Maybe, but I'm not going to. Perhaps the cache has suddenly disappeared. Maybe the log is full and if I actually visit and then say "BTW, log is full dude" or state that it's wet or whatever. Maybe it isn't exactly where I thought. Different thing altogether, but you can stretch things out to suit your needs how you like.

 

I only log finds that I find (or my dad finds as long as I'm there when it's found).

 

It's up to you and what feel okay with at the end of the day

 

Group trip to Puerto Rico!!

[+luvvinbird]

Try this scenerio; ask your friend to find, date and sign your name on the cache, and don't mention any of this to us on the forum. Feel guilty? If you do then don't do it.

[+M4ISU]

Wow - what an active board - I can't believe I had that many responses so quickly. I decided what I will do is tell my co-worker if he does want to go back and find it using the hint, to open an account and start geocaching himself. I would not want him to sign my name. This is a hobby for my kids and I to share, so if anyone of us finds one on a hunt, we found it as a team; but I wouldn't want to have anyone else sign our name to a log, even if I did get them most of the way there.

 

I may be able to go back to PR and find it myself next year. Next time I will translate the hints before I go ! actually the one I did find I think would have been way too easy with the hint - I'm glad I found it without.

 

FYI - 84 when I left PR yesterday - 19 when I got home !

 

Thanks for all the responses - this is a great hobby and great community

[+Lieblweb]

If I personally don't sign the log I don't claim it. To each his own but this is what I go by.

Same here!!

 

Just a few weeks ago we tried a multi-cache that involved a stage in a creek (wading required). The area was changed from flooding and it hadn't been found since. We used a PAF and still didn't find it. The PAF gave us the final coordinates. We actually found the final and signed the log.

At that time, we did not log a find online.

We went back a couple weeks later (after the CO replaced the stage) and visually saw the container in the creek and finally logged the find.

 

That was the right thing to do.

[+briansnat]

I wouldn't log a found it unless I found the cache. Most geocachers I know play that way. Some don't. I suspect that because you asked you feel it might be a bit cheesy. Follow your heart.

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

Question is... did you log a DNF?

 

As others have implied or stated, if "I" find it, "I" log it found. It is a simple little word, "I".

 

Maybe you are just asking for permission?

 

It's your game, play it your way.

[+Gamaliel]

I'm my opinion, no. Geocaching is a game about specific places, and if you aren't in that place, you haven't found the cache. Working as a team in the immediate geographic proximity, sure, log the find if you aren't the one to sign the log, but that's as far as I'd personally stretch the definition of find.

[+DanOCan]

I wouldn't do it. It's just a smiley. In the end smileys aren't important but having a realistic representation of your caching experiences will be -- at least to me.

 

Many of my better caching memories are captured as DNFs.

[+Planet]

I said above to ask the cache owner.

Me, I wouldn't log it. I found out about caching right after I was in France and up on the Eiffel Tower. There was a cache up there, and I know where it was. But I can't log it.

[+BigAl437]

I agree with the above posts. I would not log it unless I actually held it in my hands, or the hands of someone I was actually with at the cache. Otherwise I would call a friend of mine in Nicaragua and have him find the caches around his area since I was there a few years ago, but that would just not be right. Keep it above board and honest. Remember, we are teaching our kids we take out caching what we think is right. Let's set the example. Besides, you were pretty sure from the start of what the answer was going to be. Now get out there and cache some more.