When to log a find

[nickelcitylove]

I've noticed that different cachers seem to have different criteria when it comes to what you have to do to log a find. Some cachers don't log a find unless they are able to sign the log - no exceptions. On the other extreme, I have seen people log a find when they just spotted a cache, but weren't able to get to it.

 

In my opinion, if a cache is placed in a hard to reach spot, part of the challenge is being able to actually find a way to grab it. So I wouldn't log a cache as found if I only saw it. But if I am holding on to the cache and something prevents me from signing the log -- too wet, no room, can't get it out, forgot pen, etc -- I will still log it on the website.

 

What is your opinion on when to log a find? What do you think is the norm?

 

-Nickel

[+ayrbrain]

I have read logs online where folk have said they could see it but it was too busy with muggles etc but they log it as a find online anyway without having got to the container . I only log a find online if I have physically had the cache in my hand, or like you say if the log is too wet etc then I will log it as a find. So far I have always managed to put initials or my name in a log in the container or placed another log or piece of paper into the log . So in answer to your post, if I could not get to the cache container then I would not log it online as a find.

[+niraD]

Generally, I've written my name on the physical log before I've posted an online Find log.

 

There have been exceptions though. On group trips, sometimes someone else has signed my name for me. Although I was there and saw where the cache was hidden, I may or may not have actually touched the cache or the log.

 

On other group trips, sometimes we've signed a single group name, rather than having everyone sign their own name. This is more likely with larger groups, with smaller caches/logs, and/or with more remote (i.e., harder to maintain) locations.

 

On the few occasions when the existing log has been unusable, I've left an additional log sheet (printed on RITR paper) and signed that. I've yet to encounter a situation where the log was so full that I couldn't squeeze in my name somewhere, where I couldn't get the log out of the container, or where I didn't have anything that could write on the log.

[+Legochugglers]

I've noticed that different cachers seem to have different criteria when it comes to what you have to do to log a find. Some cachers don't log a find unless they are able to sign the log - no exceptions. On the other extreme, I have seen people log a find when they just spotted a cache, but weren't able to get to it.

 

In my opinion, if a cache is placed in a hard to reach spot, part of the challenge is being able to actually find a way to grab it. So I wouldn't log a cache as found if I only saw it. But if I am holding on to the cache and something prevents me from signing the log -- too wet, no room, can't get it out, forgot pen, etc -- I will still log it on the website.

 

What is your opinion on when to log a find? What do you think is the norm?

 

-Nickel

 

I think caching will always be a game of honesty (usually with oneself).

 

I build in very few exceptions to the way I play and I consider signing the log is very important.

Too wet. - It would have to very wet with no alternatives.

No room. - I have always managed to sign somewhere.

Can't get it out - You have come unprepared.Unless the container needs maintenance so I don;t want to break it then there should always be a way.

Forgot pen - Inexcusable. use mud, stick, signature item.

 

If I havn't signed I will explain why and often e-mail CO with reasons. Even then it may still bug me if I haven't signed.

[+ayrbrain]

Generally, I've written my name on the physical log before I've posted an online Find log.

 

There have been exceptions though. On group trips, sometimes someone else has signed my name for me. Although I was there and saw where the cache was hidden, I may or may not have actually touched the cache or the log.

 

On other group trips, sometimes we've signed a single group name, rather than having everyone sign their own name. This is more likely with larger groups, with smaller caches/logs, and/or with more remote (i.e., harder to maintain) locations.

 

On the few occasions when the existing log has been unusable, I've left an additional log sheet (printed on RITR paper) and signed that. I've yet to encounter a situation where the log was so full that I couldn't squeeze in my name somewhere, where I couldn't get the log out of the container, or where I didn't have anything that could write on the log.

[+ayrbrain]

Yes it is different if you are in a group for signing, there are just the 2 of us Mr AB isn't a real cacher though but he does come in handy if the cache is too high or in a dark place Oh and he is always saying "lets me see the gps'". So i think he is a closet cacher.

[+Totem Clan]

For me I have to have the log and hand for it to be a find.

 

I say 'log in hand' because there have been a few times where the log was soaked, and I mean dripping wet. On one of those it was an ice cube. Out of 1,000 finds I would say I've only found maybe 5 or 6 that were so bad I couldn't write something on the log with my pen. That's less than 1%.

 

Even if the log is full I can find someplace to write 'TC' on the log.

 

The only time I have ever claimed a find but didn't sign the log because I forgot the pen, was on a friend's cache. He happened to pull up just as I was reaching the car to retrieve my pen before hiking back to the cache. He told me not to bother.

[+Totem Clan]

There have been exceptions though. On group trips, sometimes someone else has signed my name for me. Although I was there and saw where the cache was hidden, I may or may not have actually touched the cache or the log.

Ok I forgot group runs. But still my name was on the log before we left the cache.

[+Don_J]

I go by a pretty simple set of rules.

 

If I'm not holding it, I don't log it online, unless I am with a group and it's clearly obvious that I would find the cache and be able to retrieve it if I were alone.

 

If the container is damaged and I can't get to the paper log, I log it.

If the container is a puzzle box or has a lock that I can't figure out, I do not log it.

If the log is too wet to sign, I log it. If it is a remote cache, I'll add some paper. If it's an urban, I let the owner maintain it.

If the log can hold 20 sigs, yet has 200 on it. Yeah, I can probably find a place to sign but why bother?. No one will ever be able to look at it and prove that I didn't sign it. I may or may not sign it, but I will log it.

 

I never forget a pen. I have a Sharpie attached to by GPS lanyard in case I forget to put a regular ink pen in my pocket. The Sharpie also helps with damp logs.

 

If for some reason I don't have a pen, I would never vandalize the log with mud, blood, leaf juice, burned sticks or punching holes in it. I'd log it and if the CO had an issue, I'd delete it and maybe do it again, maybe not.

[+unabowler]

I'm kind of a stickler but not to an unreasonable degree. Once early on in my caching career I forgot to bring a pen and logged a cache that I found but hadn't signed. I probably wouldn't do that now but I've got plenty of spare pens in my pack. I can call to mind 4 caches that I could see and get within feet of, but not retrieve and felt it would violate the spirit of those caches to log them. If the log is too wet, I log even if I haven't signed and mention it in the log and/or post a NM. If the log is full I squeeze in initials. Once I DNFed a cache, and the CO determined it was missing, emailed me and gave permission to log it, but I went out and signed that one.

[+Legochugglers]

I go by a pretty simple set of rules.

 

If I'm not holding it, I don't log it online, unless I am with a group and it's clearly obvious that I would find the cache and be able to retrieve it if I were alone.

 

If the container is damaged and I can't get to the paper log, I log it.

If the container is a puzzle box or has a lock that I can't figure out, I do not log it.

If the log is too wet to sign, I log it. If it is a remote cache, I'll add some paper. If it's an urban, I let the owner maintain it.

If the log can hold 20 sigs, yet has 200 on it. Yeah, I can probably find a place to sign but why bother?. No one will ever be able to look at it and prove that I didn't sign it. I may or may not sign it, but I will log it.

 

I never forget a pen. I have a Sharpie attached to by GPS lanyard in case I forget to put a regular ink pen in my pocket. The Sharpie also helps with damp logs.

 

If for some reason I don't have a pen, I would never vandalize the log with mud, blood, leaf juice, burned sticks or punching holes in it. I'd log it and if the CO had an issue, I'd delete it and maybe do it again, maybe not.

'Vandalize' seems a harsh description. The three or four times I have made a stick quill and a mud ink to make sure the log was recorded it was probably smaller and neater than my normal signature.

[Andronicus]

You know the old saying: For every mile of road, there is two miles of ditch. I try to stay out of the ditch

 

I almost always sign the log.

 

Exeptions I have made:

No pen (usualy will go back to the car, a couple of times I had no pen in the car either).

Cache lid frozen shut (I did manage to squeez a signature wooden nickl in)

Log book is too wet. Only once or twice this happened. Usualy you can still make some indentifying marks on the log.

Log book is a ball of molding pulp (usualy in a ziplock bag). I have run into this 2 or 3 times.

Log is too full (I have always managed to find some space except once when there was literaly no square mm left)

 

When I was new (less than 20 finds) I thought I had found a cache frozen in the ice. I emailed the CO, and he said I should log it. then later I went to find it again with my daughter, and realized that I had not found it the first time. I learnt from that to not log finds unless I have the log book in hand (kind of like Totem Clan mentioned)

[+niraD]

If for some reason I don't have a pen, I would never vandalize the log with mud, blood, leaf juice, burned sticks or punching holes in it.

Really? Marking the log with ink or with clay and graphite is fine, but marking it with anything else is "vandalism"?

[+BCandMsKitty]

I think you'll find the vast majority of cachers will only log a cache once they've signed the log book.

 

Rare exceptions have been cited and the only two times I've ever logged without signing the book is two caches that I found literally frozen in place (in the hollow in the fork of two trees. You could see the caches in the ice! In both cases I would have destroyed the cache to get it out, and in both cases I emailed the CO pics of the caches, explaining I had logged a find without signing. Both of them thanked me for not destroying their caches to comply with the "letter of the law" so to speak!

Edited November 9, 2012 by BC & MsKitty

[+Mitragorz]

I think you'll find the vast majority of cachers will only log a cache once they've signed the log book.

 

Funny you bring that up! I DNF'd a cache the other day because I only found the what the cache was supposed to attached too. It seems like it was a bison tube attached to a rubber snake that was hidden in a tree. Well, I found the rubber snake but no actual cache.

 

Someone logged a "find" the next day:

 

Found the "camo" but i noticed the micro container i saw in another users photo wasn't there. it got ripped off his jaw and needs maintenance. nowhere to be found on the ground. worst feeling is finding a cache that you cant sign.

 

But you're right, the vast majority wouldn't log that as a find. I didn't log a find because I didn't find a cache... I found a rubber snake in a tree. Everyone plays by their own rules, and I don't let it bother me. I'm not too proud to log DNFs

 

 

If I forget my pen, I'll use anything else I can find to sign the log, including sticks that I press into the dirt! Makes me feel all rustic

Edited November 9, 2012 by Mitragorz

[+WarNinjas]

I think over all my finds I have logged 2 finds where there was muggles around and I found the cache and wanted to grab it and sign it but felt like if I did it might get muggled. I did wait for a while on both of them. These muggles were watching. Sure I could have taken a chance and pulled it out and signed it and put it back. As a cache owner of many caches I would rather someone do that and log the find rather then take a chance and sign it and then me have to go back to replace it. These were extreme situations as most times even if muggles are around I can still manage to sign it.

If it was a hard one up a tree or something and I spotted it and couldn't get to it because of muggles I would not post a find because that is part of the hide. I have not posted on those but these ones were right there and I just felt better not taking any chances. I also didn't use those for our streak and found others those days. If the CO decided to delete my find I would be OK with it.

-WarNinjas

[+redsox_mark]

99.9% of the time if I've logged a find I've signed the log.

 

I will make an exception for a "technicality" where I feel I have met the spirit of a find. E.g. the example where the lid is frozen shut (though that hasn't happened to me). I've also taken a photo of a logbook when I didn't have a pen. (I know I could have signed in mud or blood, but a photo seemed a cleaner solution).

 

But in a case where I can see it but can't get to it - no.

[+unabowler]

I'm not sure if I'd log the one frozen in ice, maybe I'd consider it one to come back to and sign later. It doesn't sound unreasonable to log it, though.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I'm not sure if I'd log the one frozen in ice, maybe I'd consider it one to come back to and sign later. It doesn't sound unreasonable to log it, though.

 

I would and I have. I've encountered two caches in 5.5 years of caching that were encased in ice. One was an ammo can that I was eventually able to open. The other was in the crotch of a tree encased in a couple of inches of ice. I logged it as a find and let the CO know about it. If he were to delete my log I'd be fine with that, but wouldn't drive 70 miles round trip to a small park and walk to that tree just to make the find "legitimate".

[+RobDJr]

Signing the log is important for me. My rule is very simple, I either sign the log somehow (the vast majority of my finds fall in this category), or in the very few times I didn't sign the log, it was a situation where in other circumstances nothing would have stopped me from signing the log (i.e. the cache was full of water and frozen into an ice cube). I usually take a picture as proof of the find in that situation in case the CO questions my log.

[+Totem Clan]

I'm not sure if I'd log the one frozen in ice, maybe I'd consider it one to come back to and sign later. It doesn't sound unreasonable to log it, though.

While living in North Dakota I found two in ice. One was an ammo can that ended up in a ditch somehow and was froze into it with about half the can sticking up above. That one I chipped out. I signed the log and claimed the find. The other was a small gladware under the snow and ice during the spring thaw/freeze cycle. I waited a few weeks and came back to claim my find.

 

Thankful, here, I don't have to worry about that anymore.

[+ras_oscar]

Everyone has their own rules, here are mine. If I find the cache and sign the log I log a find. If not I log a DNF. A couple weeks ago I searched for a micro near a roadside feature. I spotted the container, but when i reached in to retreive it I pushed it further into its hiding spot. Rather than make it even more difficult to retreive I logged a DNF and a NM, alerting the CO to the problem I had caused.

 

Another cache I searched for, (not recently) I retreived a piece of PVC pipe with a screw-on plastic cap. I could not remove the cap, so I logged a find and sent a PM to the CO alerting them as to the special cirsumstances surrounding my found it log with no signature. I also requested that they delete my log if in fact I had not found the cache. I received a polite note back stating that I had found a red herring, and that they would perform maintenance on the stuck cap. They also requested I delete the found-it log myself, since they believed it was rude for a CO to delete someone else's found it log. I did so immediately.

[hoosier guy]

If I sign it I log it. If not I don't. Course the only person you play against in this game is yourself, so what others do doesn't matter much to me.

[+briansnat]

Generally if I sign the logbook, I log the find. If the logbook is unsignable (mass of wet pulp), or missing, I'd still consider it a find.