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Throwdowns


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Throwing down is generally quite accepted in the Geocaching mainstream. The forums ain't the Geocaching mainstream though. But rest assured, The Frog and it's volunteer reviewers are all vehemently anti-throwdown.

I don't think its so much being anti-throwdown as it is a commitment to the idea that the physical cache is the property of the cache owner. When people start replacing containers without permission you run into the issue of who owns the new container. If there is a problem, can the cache owner just say that the container isn't theirs?

 

Funny thing is that on the forum is that many people who would say it's okay to replace a broken or leaky container with a new one are appalled when someone leaves a throwdown for a cache that is presumably missing. In either case, you've created a issue as to who owns the container.

 

You couldn't be more wrong about your assumptions. We hate throwdowns because of the following:

 

1. It's a lame attempt at a smilie

2. It can/will cause confusion when more than one container will be at the physical location. I have seen numerous cases of this in my general area.

 

Replacing an obviously damaged geocache is not the same thing. You FOUND the original, so you can log a smilie without feeling cheated and you know that the replacement is the only one that will remain.

 

3. It results in lame/unmaintained caches

 

Replacing the container can breathe life back into a cache that has seen better days, but as some would say, it is performing maintenance on a cache that has been abandoned. That's a good debate to have, but I for one am ok with maintaining a cache if I choose to.

 

EDIT: And by replacement cache I mean like-for-like or better. If an ammo can is damaged and you put a film pot in its place, that's not a replacement, that's an insult!

 

Once upon a time, I found a cache in South Carolina. Interesting cache, using a pulley in a hollow tree. Checked back on it some time later. The CO was missing. The tree had been cut down. So, some throwdowner, who would not accept DNF as a possibility, tossed a film pot 30 or 40 feet away. Not even close. Wrong cache container. Hints were no longer appropriate. Got archived for soggy log. Many people logged the throwdown, wondering about the hint.

Hey! It was a nice cache in its day. But the tree got cut down.

This was just wrong! But some cachers will do anything to avoid a DNF!

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I often go through my DNFs to check up on them, see if others have found them.  Always get a little bummed when others can find them and I couldn't!  Most seem to be legitimate finds, but there's this one couple who throw down all over the place, and cheerfully announce it in their ("Found") logs.  Suddenly, my DNF means nothing.  I can't even say how mad that makes me.  When I searched, it was an honest search.  Maybe it took me a while, and maybe I couldn't find it because I was simply not clever enough.  It is not my place to determine that a cache is missing.  There have been several caches that EVERYONE seems to be able to find, but I cannot.  Each seeker is individual.  There is such an enormous arrogance attached to the notion that, since I can't find it, it must absolutely be gone.  Today, someone reported that one of my caches is missing.  I checked, and they were right.  I plan to make a new one to MY specifications, and fill it with new swag that represents ME, because this is MY cache.  No one else has the right to put a new one there in my name.

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2 hours ago, Ageleni said:

I often go through my DNFs to check up on them, see if others have found them.  Always get a little bummed when others can find them and I couldn't!  Most seem to be legitimate finds, but there's this one couple who throw down all over the place, and cheerfully announce it in their ("Found") logs.  Suddenly, my DNF means nothing.  I can't even say how mad that makes me.  When I searched, it was an honest search.  Maybe it took me a while, and maybe I couldn't find it because I was simply not clever enough.  It is not my place to determine that a cache is missing.  There have been several caches that EVERYONE seems to be able to find, but I cannot.  Each seeker is individual.  There is such an enormous arrogance attached to the notion that, since I can't find it, it must absolutely be gone.  Today, someone reported that one of my caches is missing.  I checked, and they were right.  I plan to make a new one to MY specifications, and fill it with new swag that represents ME, because this is MY cache.  No one else has the right to put a new one there in my name.

 

I couldn't have said it better myself! I do the same thing with DNF's. Luckily we don't get a lot of throwdowns in my neck of the wood but the mere idea of a throwdown really ticks me off, and I think Ageleni has hit a lot of nails on their heads with her post.

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There have been a few times that I've found two containers at GZ, with one clearly being a throwdown. I make it a point to mention that I also found a throwdown at GZ when I log my find. If I remove the throwdown container, then I mention that in my log too. No point in having the CO come out to remove the throwdown if I have already removed it.

I wouldn't be surprised if there have been times that I've found a throwdown, thinking it was the actual cache.

 

 

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I recently went around to a half a dozen multiple-DNF caches where a 20K-find couple placed new ones (it's easy to claim 20,000 finds when you turn every single DNF into a smiley by throwing a new one down), and removed them!  Left a note asking them to be archived.  And they were. 

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22 minutes ago, Ageleni said:

I recently went around to a half a dozen multiple-DNF caches where a 20K-find couple placed new ones (it's easy to claim 20,000 finds when you turn every single DNF into a smiley by throwing a new one down), and removed them!  Left a note asking them to be archived.  And they were. 

 

If only cache owners would delete the find of people who leave throwdowns. I bet they would quit that malpractice.

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2 hours ago, K13 said:

 

If only cache owners would delete the find of people who leave throwdowns. I bet they would quit that malpractice.

Someone couldn't find one of my caches and threw a replacement down. I told them I wasn't happy they did that and to change the log to a DNF or I'd delete it.

 

One cache, I found three different throw downs. I've found a cache one day and the next, someone couldn't find it and placed a throw down. I think Geocaching is turning into Pokémon, got to "catch" em all.

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15 hours ago, K13 said:

If only cache owners would delete the find of people who leave throwdowns. I bet they would quit that malpractice.

 

Agreed.  Usually the first name on the "new" log.  

We did a series that had the same name lines down from the start of the log strip.  We only noticed because some didn't have a name above theirs.

It turned out the throwdowner did that, I guess thinking that the spacing would get filled in above, sorta removing them as the culprit.

Kinda telling what someone's like,  actually taking the time to figure that out...   

 - Anyway the CO noticed people confused in Found It logs and asked.  They came clean, and logs deleted.   Weird.

 

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