Finding your friends caches

[+Indy.Sparkles]

It seems like a sketchy place. I am in the first part of a 400 day stretch and have brought some new cachers to the hobby... they really want to hide caches, but want me to help them with their placement since they are new and I have been caching for a few years. My question: Is is unethical for me to log the finds if I am helping them hide them? (not literally going with them to hide, but giving them insight to locations to hide them, help making the cache, letting them use my GPS to hide it, and helping them post it on the site).

 

I wouldn't be going to the site with them, but I would know if it was in a park or something. Should I let someone else be FTF and go find it on my own? I don't want it to look like I am using my friend to make my 1/day for 400 days possible... Any tips?

[+macatac1961]

If this is about a challenge cache you're attempting, this might be a question for that cache owner. What is ethical for one person, might not be for another. You're level of what's proper or improper is completely up to you. It's a lot like golf in that respect and I think GS wants to keep it that way. In the end you'll be the only one it will really matter to. IMO, I don't think there's anything wrong with logging a friends caches, without peers this game wouldn't exist. They hid them, you found them and signed the log. As long as they are okay with it, not much else matters. Good luck on your quest.

[knowschad]

The way you describe it, I think that few of us here would see anything wrong with it... you don't know any more about the cache than somebody that reads the cache page.

 

But..

 

You already answered your own question when you said "I don't want it to look like I am using my friend to make my 1/day for 400 days possible."

[+badger10]

I say go for it. In regards to the streak just make sure you do someone elses cache on the day you find your friends cache and there should not be any concerns. I had a similar thing happen to me. The only difference is it is my sons cache and I helped him hide the cache and write up the listing. I, of course, will not claim that find.

[+Ike 13]

I have helped a few people hide caches. Whether it's showing them a spot I found but hadn't used for my cache or just providing assistance in getting coordinates. I've also had people beta test a couple of mine. The agreement in these cases is we never go after the FTF we wait awhile and we eventually go out and do it.

 

It sounds like these friends would have hid the cache(s) with or without you, and you are just giving assistance to make it better. I see nothing wrong. There are plenty of areas where I have seen someone hide a streak extender for a local who is on a super long daily streak. There's nothing wrong with it. Now if you made a second account that had the purpose of placing caches to help you on this challenge, then that would be hokey.

[+NeecesandNephews]

It seems like a sketchy place. I am in the first part of a 400 day stretch and have brought some new cachers to the hobby... they really want to hide caches, but want me to help them with their placement since they are new and I have been caching for a few years. My question: Is is unethical for me to log the finds if I am helping them hide them? (not literally going with them to hide, but giving them insight to locations to hide them, help making the cache, letting them use my GPS to hide it, and helping them post it on the site).

 

I wouldn't be going to the site with them, but I would know if it was in a park or something. Should I let someone else be FTF and go find it on my own? I don't want it to look like I am using my friend to make my 1/day for 400 days possible... Any tips?

 

You can pretty much do whatever your conscience will allow you to. Don't be surprised if you are the subject of scorn or ridicule for your choices though.

 

You gave them the location, (insight) helped make the container, and helped make the cache page. Are you going to be listed as a co-owner?? Cause this would appear like you are logging your own cache, which most feel is lame.

Should you let someone else be FTF. Again... if you are trying to avoid the look of any impropriety, it would be wise.

As far as your streak, again...(see above) .. I would not count on those caches alone to fill a day.

 

Bottom line is... there is no prize, no medal, no national recognition, for what you accomplish in this game. You know if what you are doing is right or wrong. Someone is always going to find a reason to nit-pick. If what you are doing is lame or cheesy, it is still not "illegal". You can do it anyway.

 

If you are unsure enough to come to the Forums and ask, you must already have reservations about what you are planning to do, or how it will be perceived. I would go with that first instinct. If you think it might be wrong, or might LOOK wrong... don't do it. Only YOU can decide what fits in either of those categories.

 

edit to add: helping others get into caching the way you have presented it is a great thing to do. I don't know a lot of people who would go to that length to get someone started in the game. If you are doing it to pad your numbers, FTF's, or keep your streak intact, I think it sucks. Keep in mind... WE don't know your intent, and none of what I said is meant to be accusatory. Please don't take offense.

Edited June 3, 2012 by NeecesandNephews

[+wimseyguy]

If you are not there when the cache is placed, then you have nothing to be concerned about.

You saw a listing on the website, you entered the coords into your GPS, you followed the arrow to the hide, and found a cache. What's wrong with that?

 

I've discussed future hides with friends before placing them. I even picked up an evil container from an out of state friend and brought it back in the car with the rest of the crew I was traveling with. (But they only saw the outside of the boxes muhahah)

 

The fact that the hiders are friends and newer cachers than you is a non-issue IMO.

But you have enough hesitation to post here, so I would suggest not running out to be FTF nor making it your only find of the day while streaking. That should keep anyone from pointing a finger at you that would flick poo.

[+briansnat]

I never log finds on caches that I was involved with hiding, but by being involved I mean hiking out to the cache site with the hider.

 

Since you aren't involved at that level I think you can visit the caches and log finds until your heart's content. There is no cheese factor at all in what you are doing.

[+CanadianRockies]

When you say you helped your friend make their cache, I assume you mean adding contents to a Lock & Lock, ammo can, or other standard container and perhaps applying some camouflage tape. In that case, I don't see any problem with logging a find.

 

On the other hand, if I helped create a cleverly camouflaged container (e.g., a hollow brick to be placed amongst other bricks), then I probably wouldn't log a find for it even if I didn't know where exactly it was hidden.

[+Sol seaker]

The question is, can you "find" it?

If you know where it is, you can't "find" it.

If you've got to search like everyone else, then it can be called a find and it's good to log.

I would leave FTF for someone else since you were involved though.

[+Dan2099]

It seems like a sketchy place. I am in the first part of a 400 day stretch and have brought some new cachers to the hobby... they really want to hide caches, but want me to help them with their placement since they are new and I have been caching for a few years. My question: Is is unethical for me to log the finds if I am helping them hide them? (not literally going with them to hide, but giving them insight to locations to hide them, help making the cache, letting them use my GPS to hide it, and helping them post it on the site).

 

I wouldn't be going to the site with them, but I would know if it was in a park or something. Should I let someone else be FTF and go find it on my own? I don't want it to look like I am using my friend to make my 1/day for 400 days possible... Any tips?

 

From the sounds of it you would know about as much as any other cacher....on a lot of pages people list what the container is and the maps give you a pretty good guess, I don't see anything wrong with it....the only advantage you may have is a better idea when the cache will be approved and get a small head start on the hunt.

[medoug]

I would strongly suggest not being the FTF on the cache. This would look suspicious reguardless of how little you aided in the hide. Some people get pretty competitive about the FTF thing.

 

I recently claimed a "found it" on one of my brother's caches that I helped him hide about 5 years ago. I had kept it on my watchlist. Someone posted that they returned home from finding the cache and discovered that they had accidentally put the logbook in there backpack and would not be returning to the cache area any time soon. I did the maintenance by putting a replacment logbook in the cache. I had to find the cache at night using a flashlight. I knew the general area of the cache, but things had changed over that time. It wasn't meant to be a tricky hide so I really didn't have any advantage over other seekers. I actually had a disadvantage since I was searching for it at night. Since so much of the hide was new to me, I logged it as a "found". As others have mentioned, it's up to the individual if logging such a cache feels right. In this case, it felt right and I don't think anyone would complain.

[+thewingfamily]

I often go caching with my neighbor and my son. My son does not go out when we place caches because he wants to be able to find it. He helps put the cache together, he helps me to figure out what we want to write for the description, but he does not know where it is. I have put him as one of the owners of the caches that he helped with and after several people have found it, he can go out and look for it. Since he does not know where it is, I do not see a problem with it. I would not have him be FTF, since he does have "pre-knowledge" of the cache.

 

JMHO,

K

[+Gustav129]

When I hid my last cache last weekend, my GF (seperate account) and one of her friends (who has an account also) were present when I made the cache and hid the cache. They both signed the log before it was published, and both put "Not First To Find" on the logs. Both aren't very active cachers, so they aren't trying to pad numbers (Trish has maybe 25 in 1 year).

 

I specifically put on the cache page that there are two signatures on the log book, and that FTF bragging rights are still up for grabs. Like somebody else said, it's between the CO (me) and the logger (Trish and her friend). I don't care what the "old-timers" are going to say, I'm leaving the logs. It doesn't happen very often, but I have seen other's do this on other caches, but they all put their "find date" as before the published date and stated that they were there or helped with the cache, and that they are not first to find.

[Mr.Yuck]

Lots of long replies here. I have hidden a couple caches with a sock puppet account. And in this particular case, it was literally a puppet, a Geocaching mascot, of sorts. I put them on my ignore list, but put them on my watchlist. Little known fact, you can watch an ignored cacbe while ignoring it. I know that from watching these two caches, and the occasional "OK, this this train wreck is on private property, but I'm going to watch it to see what happens" cache.

[+Don_J]

It seems like a sketchy place. I am in the first part of a 400 day stretch and have brought some new cachers to the hobby... they really want to hide caches, but want me to help them with their placement since they are new and I have been caching for a few years. My question: Is is unethical for me to log the finds if I am helping them hide them? (not literally going with them to hide, but giving them insight to locations to hide them, help making the cache, letting them use my GPS to hide it, and helping them post it on the site).

 

I wouldn't be going to the site with them, but I would know if it was in a park or something. Should I let someone else be FTF and go find it on my own? I don't want it to look like I am using my friend to make my 1/day for 400 days possible... Any tips?

 

If it bothers you, go find your 1 for the day, then go find your friend's cache. As far as finding your friends caches and logging a find, that is strictly up to you and them.

 

In our area if you we hiking with someone and they decide to hide a cache, we sign the log and then wait for the FTF. We then log a find as a "Beta Tester", regardless of the level of testing that we actually did. It was that way in 2005 when I started and it's done 7 years later, and, everyone in the area does it so there is no one to snicker at you behind your back at the local Meet and Greet. If someone on the forum wants to snicker at me virtually, so be it. The last thing anyone should do is let this forum be your moral compass. People here continually redefine the word "find" to suit whatever their particular argument is at the time.