I need to vent.

[TankReady]

Goodday everyone, I need to share what happened to day cause I'm still baffled and I have yet to find a reason to all this.

 

I went with my girlfriend and a couple of fellow geocacher to a fireworks show on lake Orta, in northern Italy.

Of course along the road we stopped for a couple caches, and it was at a certain point that strange things began to happen.

 

We reach gz. hint says the cache is in the wall. We check the first spot that makes sense, and inside I find... a cigarette pack. On it, written in pen, GEOCACHE. I am amazed. I check inside, a pink pencil, and the foil paper that folds the cigarettes is now a "logbuch" with a couple logs.

Not convinced, our friend check a little farther, and comes up with the real geocache, the one in the picture from other logs, and with older logs.

We put everything back in place, and proceed to the following one.

 

Once we reach gz, we check spoiler picture, shows a small wall made of stones. In the first possible hole, we come up with a small plastic bag with a grocery store receipt inside, a couple logs, and a pink pencil. We check back the picture, we realize it shows the back of the small wall, and, of course, on the other side we find the real cache.

We now have a name, the person is the same.

 

Third time gets even worse. We don't find the cache. BUT we did find the improptu candy can containing said candy can receipt, inside a hole. Same name as before. After that, two logs, same people who couldnt bother looking for the real caches before...

 

THE BEST HAS YET TO COME!

Fourth cache. GZ: first hole we check, a small canister with a teared piece of paper as logbook. We check better the picture, we quicly find the right spot, the cache is of course in there safe and sound.

BUT!!!!

Between the pictures of older logs, there is one claiming NEW SPOILER, showing the canister near the other hole in the wall.

 

So to sum it all, this guy with over a thousand cache finds, doesn't really look for caches, places new ones and signs them (leading other cachers to think those are real caches, putting in bad ligth the CO), logs them online as found, AND CLAIMS THOSE ARE THE NEW ONES!!!!

 

I honestly can't understand one single reasoning behind his actions.

 

First, geocaching isn't a competition.

I am competitive, and I want to find more, of course. But I NEED to have really found them. I can't log a cache I haven't logged physically (unless impossible to do so cause I have no pen, or the logbook is in bad conditions), it would be like cheating! And I can't cheat myself, I KNOW I haven't found them.

Second, if you want to "cheat", JUST LOG THEM ONLINE!!! Who cares!!!! You'll have thousand of finds, does that make you feel good? I'm happy for you, but don't mess this game up to others!

Third: SERIOUSLY? New spoiler? If you did this to a cache of mine I would so pissed you couldn't even imagine! How disrespectful is that! How can you be so arrogant that not only you decide to replace my cache cause you are not able to properly look for it, but also you decide that IT'S THE RIGHT ONE!

 

That's it.

Sorry, I needed to get this off my chest xD

Happy geocaching everyone!

[+cerberus1]

The good and bad thing about this hobby is anyone can play.

[+TriciaG]

I would be tempted to go and remove all his throwdowns.

[TankReady]

I would be tempted to go and remove all his throwdowns.

 

I did, left only the first one cause I had no idea, but removed all the following ones...

[+Optimist on the run]

I've had a found log deleted by the CO because I'd unknowingly found a "replacement" cache rather than the original which was still in situ nearby.

[+dprovan]

I'm sure you're right that there's an element of a misguiding feeling of competition, but I also suspect he honestly thinks he's helping by replacing lost caches. Whatever the causes, it's sad.

[+Nerre]

In Germany there was a case, in which the CO deleted 300+ logs cause of a replacement.

 

The CO was absent for a long time (more than a year not logged into his account), and somebody decided to be nice and put a new logbook into the place of the old one (old one was full or rotten, it was still the original box), instead of logging a NM or give up on the log. A lot of people logged the replacement logbook, because they didn't know it was a replacement. The first ones might have caught the replacers post by chance, but you cannot expect people to read 300+ logs back. Also, to me, a logbook is just a logbook. It is not the same as putting a complete new container there. Where I come from, it is rather considered a nice action, a little gift towards the CO, cause he might not have the time to replace it right now.

 

Then, the CO returned after a long while, and got angry when he found out about the replacement. He overexaggerated and deleted all the logs since the log of the person who placed the replacement, for the reason of it not being the original logbook. Not only the log of the replacer. To me, he punished innocent people.

 

There are always two sides of a coin. In your case, the boxes where there, and the replacers was the idiot, but in my case the CO was the idiot. He spoiled the game for 300+ people cause he didn't like the action of one person.

[+dprovan]

Then, the CO returned after a long while, and got angry when he found out about the replacement. He overexaggerated and deleted all the logs since the log of the person who placed the replacement, for the reason of it not being the original logbook. Not only the log of the replacer. To me, he punished innocent people.

If anyone challenged it, it's hard for me to believe GS would let stand the rejection of finds based on someone replacing a full log. But the rejected finds don't really concern me. What makes me sad is imagining what the CO's life must be like.

[+Nerre]

You are right. I looked through some of his pictures and other logs, and I felt pitty for him based on his behaviour.

 

It's a hobby, not a job, and it is supposed to be fun, not work and laws.