"Finding" your own cache

[+Don_J]

Logging your own Waymark seems to be common practice for some reason, but I don't understand logging your own listing of any kind. Why?

 

When Waymarking started I created a few and I did log them as found. I don't remember the exact reason why, but it made a lot of sense at the time.

[Mr.Yuck]

Logging your own Waymark seems to be common practice for some reason, but I don't understand logging your own listing of any kind. Why?

 

When Waymarking started I created a few and I did log them as found. I don't remember the exact reason why, but it made a lot of sense at the time.

 

As someone who was around when Waymarking went live (I think it was August 2005), and I see Don is too, I seem to remember the early pioneers of Waymarking, small in number that they were, pretty much hammering out in their own Waymarking forums that it was socially acceptable to visit your own Waymarks.

 

But the fact remains that an extremely, extremely small percentage of Geocachers log their own caches as finds. Probably in the .1 percent range.

I don't know where that statistic comes from. I actually think there are substantial number of cachers who log caches they own. It may be pretty rare for someone do it on a regular basis with the intent of bumping up their find count.

 

I made it up, of course. An educated guess, we'll call it. And I'm talking people logging caches they hid themselves, under their own account. I'm always talking people logging caches they hid themselves, under their own account. Which was what the OP of this thread was asking. Logging finds for caches you later adopted is a no-brainer.

[+sbell111]

There are people who log caches that they own as 'found'. Every one of these people have a perfectly valid reason to do so, in their opinion. Similarly, every one of us has a rule about when we will not log a cache as a find and each of those rules is perfectly valid, also. Either way, I can't imagine caring that a cache owner logged his cache as a 'find'. Other than the fact that the presence of a 'find' log tells me that the cache might still be in place, I am completely unaffected by the log. This, combined with the fact that logging your own cache as a find doesn't appear to violate any official 'rule' makes the practice pretty much a non-issue, in my opinion.

 

It should also be noted that the fact that few cachers tend to do this does not strengthen the argument that the practice must stop. It actually weakens the argument, in my opinion.

[+KC2WI]

Since it's impossible to "find" something when you already know where it is...

I don't know about that. There have been a couple of my caches that I could not easily find when I went back to check even though I "knew" where I hid it. If the logs indicate everything is OK I tend to just let things be and sometimes my memory fails... I finally had to revise one micro cache because I had such problems going back to it, even though I "knew" where it should be. I think that one moved around just enough to be a problems because either people just hid it slightly differently or it fell out of its hiding place ahd people re-hid it slightly differently. There is another one that I expect I may have some trouble finding when I go check it this fall, because the woods all look the same in that area and I haven't been back in a couple of years.

[+TerraViators]

Don't really care. It doesn't affect my level of enjoyment.

[+Don_J]

There are people who log caches that they own as 'found'. Every one of these people have a perfectly valid reason to do so, in their opinion. Similarly, every one of us has a rule about when we will not log a cache as a find and each of those rules is perfectly valid, also. Either way, I can't imagine caring that a cache owner logged his cache as a 'find'. Other than the fact that the presence of a 'find' log tells me that the cache might still be in place, I am completely unaffected by the log. This, combined with the fact that logging your own cache as a find doesn't appear to violate any official 'rule' makes the practice pretty much a non-issue, in my opinion.

 

It should also be noted that the fact that few cachers tend to do this does not strengthen the argument that the practice must stop. It actually weakens the argument, in my opinion.

 

She hasn't been active for quite some time, but we had a lady locally that would use a found log instead of a note to congratulate the FTF on all of her caches. I have no doubt that she just didn't know any differently and I also don't think that "increasing her score" ever crossed her mind. In the grand scheme of things, this effected me in no way at all, except that I found it a bit amusing. Amazingly, no one pointed fingers or snickered behind her back when she showed up at events.

[+Colonial Cats]

It is proper to find oneself and its healthy to do so. However, it is tacky to find ones own cache.

[+BlackRose67]

Is it ok to 'find' your own cache? I know some people do and some don't. I am wondering what the general consensus is on this.

For caches I have actually placed myself; no, I do not log finds against them.

 

I recently adopted a series of caches that I had previously found; for those caches I kept them as finds since they were not "mine" at the time I found them.

[4wheelin_fool]

Traditionally, the forum regulars who always proclaimed that the number of caches found didn't mean one whit of anything, always tried to discourage people from finding their own cache. It doesn't make sense, but that's the way things are, and how they always shall be.

[+BlueDeuce]

Traditionally, the forum regulars who always proclaimed that the number of caches found didn't mean one whit of anything, always tried to discourage people from finding their own cache. It doesn't make sense, but that's the way things are, and how they always shall be.

 

True, but the cachers who say numbers do matter and logging your own cache is a lie do discourage people from finding their own cache.

 

Silly, I know.

[+tozainamboku]

If you believe numbers matter than either you believe that finding your own cache is wrong or you you believe that since it seems to be allowed that finding your own cache is ok (and unless you're a very prolific hider it's not going to make much difference).

 

If you believe the numbers are aren't important than either you feel there is no point in logging your own cache and it would be silly to do so or you think that sometimes there is a good reason to log your own cache and may in fact do so.

 

People who share their opinions in the forum may sometimes convince others of their point of view. I doubt that happens much. People tend to give more weight to others who share their point of view and generally come away feeling these discussions validate their opinion.

 

[+TeamSeekAndWeShallFind]

Is it ok to 'find' your own cache? I know some people do and some don't. I am wondering what the general consensus is on this.

there was this one time, when i was a kid, i played hide-n-seek by myself! i hid myself and then somehow, miraculously, i found myself! i won but didn't really feel good about it because after all, i basically knew where i was the whole time so how, HOW, i asked myself, was this fair???

[Team Dragon Racing]

only time i have found my own is when i found them before later adopting them

[+NYPaddleCacher]

But the fact remains that an extremely, extremely small percentage of Geocachers log their own caches as finds. Probably in the .1 percent range.

I don't know where that statistic comes from. I actually think there are substantial number of cachers who log caches they own. It may be pretty rare for someone do it on a regular basis with the intent of bumping up their find count. However, many of people have indicated that they would log their own caches under specific conditions. In fact most people will log "attended" on events they own. But there are also those who will log a cache they have adopted, one hidden by someone they share a team account with, a challenge cache, a cache they had to search for when doing maintenance, etc. Different people will have differing opinions about under which conditions they would log their own caches, but that fact is that a large number cachers would do so if they felt the circumstances merit it.

 

I know that on at least one very large power trail that several cachers were involved in creating the trail and using the rationale that they all could not get "credit" as cache owners they all logged every cache on the trail as a find.

[Mr.Yuck]

But the fact remains that an extremely, extremely small percentage of Geocachers log their own caches as finds. Probably in the .1 percent range.

I don't know where that statistic comes from. I actually think there are substantial number of cachers who log caches they own. It may be pretty rare for someone do it on a regular basis with the intent of bumping up their find count. However, many of people have indicated that they would log their own caches under specific conditions. In fact most people will log "attended" on events they own. But there are also those who will log a cache they have adopted, one hidden by someone they share a team account with, a challenge cache, a cache they had to search for when doing maintenance, etc. Different people will have differing opinions about under which conditions they would log their own caches, but that fact is that a large number cachers would do so if they felt the circumstances merit it.

 

I know that on at least one very large power trail that several cachers were involved in creating the trail and using the rationale that they all could not get "credit" as cache owners they all logged every cache on the trail as a find.

 

Yes sir, I remember that. It was the very first "Mega Power Trail", placed within weeks of Groundspeak opening up the floodgates, and allowing Power Trails to even exist. Technically though, I'm rather certain they created a sock puppet to be the account who placed the caches, and receive the thousands of emails. That is for the month or so the trail existed before the BLM asked for them to be removed.

 

But I'll always stand by my assertion that it's something that almost everyone considers cheesy and taboo, and almost no one does it. And you people who say "do whatever you want, it doesn't affect me" drive me bonkers. By the way, there's more of you who say that than people who actually do it.