Team Accounts

January 30, 2016

My kids and I all have our own personal accounts and we have decided to make a Team Account. My question is: Can we log the finds from our personal accounts on our Team Account? Thanks in advance!

15.3k · January 30, 2016

Yes, you can. Just be sure to date the new logs under the team account with the date of the original find, and to explain the situation in your new logs.

January 30, 2016

Yes, you can. Just be sure to date the new logs under the team account with the date of the original find, and to explain the situation in your new logs.

Awesome! Thank you for the help!

3.5k · January 31, 2016

Yes, you can. Just be sure to date the new logs under the team account with the date of the original find, and to explain the situation in your new logs.

Awesome! Thank you for the help!

Yep - below is an example that I noticed while checking out some caches. This cacher is a team account. All finds they had on their two separate accounts have been relogged under their team account. This relogging was done in 2015, but they are still using the original find date (2010 in this case) when they relog under the team account.

https://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?LUID=e5c84a76-fa5b-4ab3-afe6-bb7595132f11

January 31, 2016

I found out that I CANNOT log the finds from my personal account to my Team Account UNLESS you have found them WITH your team . That's ok though, being that my teammates are my kids, there are lot of them that my kids were with me.

2.7k · February 1, 2016

I found out that I CANNOT log the finds from my personal account to my Team Account UNLESS you have found them WITH your team . That's ok though, being that my teammates are my kids, there are lot of them that my kids were with me.

Who told you this? I now of more than a few teams who log all their finds under the team account, regardless wo which team members are present when a cache is found. Sometimes the team logs caches in different states on the sate day.

My basic premise regarding teams is; "Your team, Your rules" when it comes to when you log a find with the team account. Others may do things differently.

February 1, 2016

I found out that I CANNOT log the finds from my personal account to my Team Account UNLESS you have found them WITH your team . That's ok though, being that my teammates are my kids, there are lot of them that my kids were with me.

Who told you this? I now of more than a few teams who log all their finds under the team account, regardless wo which team members are present when a cache is found. Sometimes the team logs caches in different states on the sate day.

My basic premise regarding teams is; "Your team, Your rules" when it comes to when you log a find with the team account. Others may do things differently.

Here is the exact email I received from Groundspeak:

Hello Audie-Thank you for contacting Geocaching HQ.

You can only log them on your team account if you found them with your team, so... unfortunately, no.

Please let me know if I can help you with anything else.

<br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Janelle

Geocaching Community Manager

15.3k · February 1, 2016

To me, it sounds like there is more going on than appears in this thread.

February 1, 2016

To me, it sounds like there is more going on than appears in this thread.

Such as what? I asked Groundspeak the exact same question as I asked in this thread and that email was the response I received.

1.4k · February 1, 2016

I agree with GS that you should probably only log the ones you found together as a team for your team account. I am also in no way saying you should now log them. But I think what niraD is saying is it will most likely let you do it if you choose to do so.

February 1, 2016

I agree with GS that you should probably only log the ones you found together as a team for your team account. I am also in no way saying you should now log them. But I think what niraD is saying is it will most likely let you do it if you choose to do so.

I tend to agree with you. As much as I would LIKE to log all of my finds, in all fairness to the geocaching community and to myself, I should not and will not log any caches that my team did not find as a group.

Thanks to everyone for their input on this. It is greatly appreciated.

February 5, 2016

If all 4 of you didn't find the same geocaches then you can't take credit for finding geocaches that you werent there for!

February 5, 2016

If all 4 of you didn't find the same geocaches then you can't take credit for finding geocaches that you werent there for!

I agree. We ended up only logging the ones that we were all there for. I wouldn't feel right logging the caches that we weren't all 3 there for.

Thanks to everyone for their input.

5.7k · February 5, 2016

I have what I consider as a "team" account. Started out with my wife and I, now we have a daughter. So, if I go out solo to find a cache, I'll end my online log with "Christian (one third of hzoi)," whereas if all of us find it, I'll leave all three of our names. For the handful of caches that my wife found without me, she left the online logging to me, so I signed hers as "Kelly (one half of hzoi)."

Only difference is that we do not have separate accounts for each of us. If/when my daughter wants a separate account when she gets older, I've used a geocoin to keep track of all the times she was there when we found a cache, and I'll let her decide which she wants to go back and log or not.

February 5, 2016

I have what I consider as a "team" account. Started out with my wife and I, now we have a daughter. So, if I go out solo to find a cache, I'll end my online log with "Christian (one third of hzoi)," whereas if all of us find it, I'll leave all three of our names. For the handful of caches that my wife found without me, she left the online logging to me, so I signed hers as "Kelly (one half of hzoi)."

Only difference is that we do not have separate accounts for each of us. If/when my daughter wants a separate account when she gets older, I've used a geocoin to keep track of all the times she was there when we found a cache, and I'll let her decide which she wants to go back and log or not.

That's cool. I like the geocoin idea.

February 8, 2016

Does your team name appear in the log book?

If so, that log it, if not I would not log it, there is no way for a cache owner to filter out bad or fake logs with out matching the names on paper to the online logs.

February 9, 2016

Really who is it hurting if only one member of a team found the cache but logs it on the team account. It's really doing nothing to anyone else.

February 9, 2016

Really who is it hurting if only one member of a team found the cache but logs it on the team account. It's really doing nothing to anyone else.

If the "one" member of the team is there for ALL the findings logged then it isn't hurting anybody. I know of a person who found many geocaches she used to take her family but now its just mostly her and her husband. She logged all of the caches she found under her account but used it as a team name. I think what the main concern was people taking credit for finding caches when really they weren't there for the find. If the family themselves wants to a "Team" and the head of the team is there for all the finds then that IS acceptable behavior. Another person I know claimed an FTF for her husband so people knew that he found it with their friend in the morning and that she actually found the cache later in the day.

7.8k · February 10, 2016

Really who is it hurting if only one member of a team found the cache but logs it on the team account. It's really doing nothing to anyone else.

If the "one" member of the team is there for ALL the findings logged then it isn't hurting anybody.

If the "one" member of the team isn't there for ALL the findings logged, is it hurting anybody? Assuming at least one member of the team account was there, I don't see what the problem is. If you think there would be some harm from this situation, can you explain it to us?

I can't think of a single family account in my area where every member of the family was present for every find, and I just don't understand why that would be necessary.

15.3k · February 10, 2016

Really who is it hurting if only one member of a team found the cache but logs it on the team account. It's really doing nothing to anyone else.
If the "one" member of the team is there for ALL the findings logged then it isn't hurting anybody.
If the "one" member of the team isn't there for ALL the findings logged, is it hurting anybody? Assuming at least one member of the team account was there, I don't see what the problem is. If you think there would be some harm from this situation, can you explain it to us?

I can't think of a single family account in my area where every member of the family was present for every find, and I just don't understand why that would be necessary.

And then there's the issue of identifying the "one" member for a team account. I know family teams where sometimes they cache together, sometimes they cache separately, and it all gets logged with the team account. Those who know them might be able to tell which was responsible for each of their hides. And you know one of them liked your cache if you get a Note later, when they bring other team member(s) to see it.

It works for them, and it doesn't cause problems for anyone else.

February 10, 2016

Exactly. It is not hurting any other cachers by a team logging finds if not all members are present. Who cares?

February 10, 2016

I have what I consider as a "team" account. Started out with my wife and I, now we have a daughter. So, if I go out solo to find a cache, I'll end my online log with "Christian (one third of hzoi)," whereas if all of us find it, I'll leave all three of our names. For the handful of caches that my wife found without me, she left the online logging to me, so I signed hers as "Kelly (one half of hzoi)."

Only difference is that we do not have separate accounts for each of us. If/when my daughter wants a separate account when she gets older, I've used a geocoin to keep track of all the times she was there when we found a cache, and I'll let her decide which she wants to go back and log or not.

Your logging methodology seems legit and practical. I think what some have a problem with is when a team of 20 or 50 unrelated individuals join a team account and members of said team find and log caches under team name and then other members of the team log a find under their own geonic for a smiley when they were not even present when the signer for the team made the find. This does occur and in my opinion lacks the integrity the activity began with. But like most other things in this country, as the volume of participants in an activity increase the purity and adherence to its standard will drop.

7.5k · February 10, 2016

Exactly. It is not hurting any other cachers by a team logging finds if not all members are present. Who cares?

I don't care, but that doesn't mean I won't call abuses silly when I see them that way.

The OP isn't considering anything abusive, so that discussion's kinda off-topic. To the OP, my only question is "why bother?". Why not keep the caches you found by yourself in your personal account and the ones you found with your team in the team account? Even if some of the previous caches could be considered team finds retroactively, since the team account didn't exist back then, why not just use the team account for future team finds?

7.8k · February 10, 2016

I think what some have a problem with is when a team of 20 or 50 unrelated individuals join a team account and members of said team find and log caches under team name and then other members of the team log a find under their own geonic for a smiley when they were not even present when the signer for the team made the find.

:blink:

There are actually people doing that? That's absurd. Those logs are straight-up bogus and should just be deleted by the cache owners.

February 11, 2016

Really who is it hurting if only one member of a team found the cache but logs it on the team account. It's really doing nothing to anyone else.

If the "one" member of the team is there for ALL the findings logged then it isn't hurting anybody.

If the "one" member of the team isn't there for ALL the findings logged, is it hurting anybody? Assuming at least one member of the team account was there, I don't see what the problem is. If you think there would be some harm from this situation, can you explain it to us?

I can't think of a single family account in my area where every member of the family was present for every find, and I just don't understand why that would be necessary.

If their mom found all the caches then she can take credit for 1,000 finds if the account reaches that milestone. It hurts if multiple people are in the same group and Sally has 35 finds, Suzie has 35. But Eric had 35 but somebody takes credit for 105 finds when in reality they only had 35.

February 11, 2016

But the only people it's messing up is them. If Sally, Suzie and Eric weren't there for all the finds but the team logs all the caches it is in no way hurting or affecting you. So who cares?

14k · February 11, 2016

But the only people it's messing up is them. If Sally, Suzie and Eric weren't there for all the finds but the team logs all the caches it is in no way hurting or affecting you. So who cares?

I care, but only because not caring would mean to me that such a ridiculously absurd definition of finding something is something that I agree with.

Riding around in a car while someone else miles away goes out and retrieves a container and then stamps a logsheet with a team name on it isn't even close to the definition of finding something. Why is it that when a group of people form an adhoc team in order to "find" as many caches as possible that the team suddenly dissolves when it comes to posting found it logs?

I don't think there's anything wrong with a team account when the team is made up of family members or even a couple of people that almost always cache together. I know of a local "team" (a family) that has split up and found caches on two different continents (North America and Australia) on the same day, but as far as I know, they don't make a habit of it. I wouldn't really expect one person in a family to refrain from going out and finding a few caches just because another happened to be traveling.

However, putting together a "team" and splitting up specifically to "find" as many caches as possible is just using a loophole to game the system. It shows a lack of integrity and I would prefer that if I am going to call myself a geocacher, that by association, I'm not part of a group of people that play a game without integrity.

February 11, 2016

I read the OP question a little differently than they way this conversation is going. To me, I read it to mean that every member of the family had a personal account. They wanted ADD a team account, to actually create an account on GC.com. They didn't appear to want to stop using their personal accounts, and merge everything into the team account. If I was doing something like that, I would only want caches that the entire team found logged on the team account.

NY Paddle Cacher makes a great distinction between long term team accounts, versus ad hoc teams. For the former, there is an actual GC.com account. In the latter, there is no account, they are probably signing the log with the ad hoc team name (possibly to save time during the signing process, and maybe to conserve log space on small logs). The first case will fall under the terms of use for GC.com, because there is actually an account created on their web site.

Skye.

February 11, 2016

This is EXACTLY what we are doing. We cache separately with our own accounts and when we all go, we use the Team account.

Thank you for explaining that for me. For the life of me I couldn't figure out how to explain it so everyone would understand it. Thank you!

7.5k · February 11, 2016

But the only people it's messing up is them. If Sally, Suzie and Eric weren't there for all the finds but the team logs all the caches it is in no way hurting or affecting you. So who cares?

I care, but only because not caring would mean to me that such a ridiculously absurd definition of finding something is something that I agree with.

Riding around in a car while someone else miles away goes out and retrieves a container and then stamps a logsheet with a team name on it isn't even close to the definition of finding something. Why is it that when a group of people form an adhoc team in order to "find" as many caches as possible that the team suddenly dissolves when it comes to posting found it logs?

I don't think there's anything wrong with a team account when the team is made up of family members or even a couple of people that almost always cache together. I know of a local "team" (a family) that has split up and found caches on two different continents (North America and Australia) on the same day, but as far as I know, they don't make a habit of it. I wouldn't really expect one person in a family to refrain from going out and finding a few caches just because another happened to be traveling.

However, putting together a "team" and splitting up specifically to "find" as many caches as possible is just using a loophole to game the system. It shows a lack of integrity and I would prefer that if I am going to call myself a geocacher, that by association, I'm not part of a group of people that play a game without integrity.

This ^^^

The original type of team, as the OP describes is fine. It's pretty minor stuff, and doesn't affect the hobby negatively.

14k · February 11, 2016

I read the OP question a little differently than they way this conversation is going. To me, I read it to mean that every member of the family had a personal account. They wanted ADD a team account, to actually create an account on GC.com. They didn't appear to want to stop using their personal accounts, and merge everything into the team account. If I was doing something like that, I would only want caches that the entire team found logged on the team account.

NY Paddle Cacher makes a great distinction between long term team accounts, versus ad hoc teams. For the former, there is an actual GC.com account. In the latter, there is no account, they are probably signing the log with the ad hoc team name (possibly to save time during the signing process, and maybe to conserve log space on small logs). The first case will fall under the terms of use for GC.com, because there is actually an account created on their web site.

Skye.

Just as a point of clarification. I don't consider the formation of ad hoc teams (without a GC account of the same name) to be necessarily a bad thing. If 4-5 people are caching together, jotting down a team name does save time and space in the logs, and if everyone indicates in their online log that it was signed as "Team Whatever" it tells the CO why a specific geocaching handle isn't in the log sheet. It's when a team starts to split up and does the 3 cache monte thing or looks for caches, separately, in complete different areas, is when I think that they're just trying to game the system.

7.5k · February 11, 2016

I read the OP question a little differently than they way this conversation is going. To me, I read it to mean that every member of the family had a personal account. They wanted ADD a team account, to actually create an account on GC.com. They didn't appear to want to stop using their personal accounts, and merge everything into the team account. If I was doing something like that, I would only want caches that the entire team found logged on the team account.

NY Paddle Cacher makes a great distinction between long term team accounts, versus ad hoc teams. For the former, there is an actual GC.com account. In the latter, there is no account, they are probably signing the log with the ad hoc team name (possibly to save time during the signing process, and maybe to conserve log space on small logs). The first case will fall under the terms of use for GC.com, because there is actually an account created on their web site.

Skye.

Just as a point of clarification. I don't consider the formation of ad hoc teams (without a GC account of the same name) to be necessarily a bad thing. If 4-5 people are caching together, jotting down a team name does save time and space in the logs, and if everyone indicates in their online log that it was signed as "Team Whatever" it tells the CO why a specific geocaching handle isn't in the log sheet. It's when a team starts to split up and does the 3 cache monte thing or looks for caches, separately, in complete different areas, is when I think that they're just trying to game the system.

Yes, exactly.

Small groups 2-5 people writing a team-for-a-day name in the log, when everyone was at the cache when it was found is OK. Not an abuse of the system.

It's the large team-for-the-day power groups that are abusive.

I sometimes think about adding a blurb to our cache descriptions that says, 'Teams should log under one team name account. Individual online logs must have an accompanying signature in the physical cache or their online log will be deleted.' I don't delete online logs, but I'm willing to do it if it puts a dent in the numbers game practices that go on in my area.

1.5k · February 12, 2016

I read the OP question a little differently than they way this conversation is going. To me, I read it to mean that every member of the family had a personal account. They wanted ADD a team account, to actually create an account on GC.com. They didn't appear to want to stop using their personal accounts, and merge everything into the team account. If I was doing something like that, I would only want caches that the entire team found logged on the team account.

NY Paddle Cacher makes a great distinction between long term team accounts, versus ad hoc teams. For the former, there is an actual GC.com account. In the latter, there is no account, they are probably signing the log with the ad hoc team name (possibly to save time during the signing process, and maybe to conserve log space on small logs). The first case will fall under the terms of use for GC.com, because there is actually an account created on their web site.

Skye.

Just as a point of clarification. I don't consider the formation of ad hoc teams (without a GC account of the same name) to be necessarily a bad thing. If 4-5 people are caching together, jotting down a team name does save time and space in the logs, and if everyone indicates in their online log that it was signed as "Team Whatever" it tells the CO why a specific geocaching handle isn't in the log sheet. It's when a team starts to split up and does the 3 cache monte thing or looks for caches, separately, in complete different areas, is when I think that they're just trying to game the system.

In the past couple of months I've noticed a couple of different groups of 3 or 4 cachers each finding some of my caches. in theri online logs they would say something like "out today with xxxxx caching as team xxxxx bla bla bla". I'd get the same sort of log from each of the party members as they logged. I actually appreciate this because then there's only one short signature in the cache, (sometimes with a very small log) preserving log space.

15.3k · February 12, 2016

Just as a point of clarification. I don't consider the formation of ad hoc teams (without a GC account of the same name) to be necessarily a bad thing. If 4-5 people are caching together, jotting down a team name does save time and space in the logs, and if everyone indicates in their online log that it was signed as "Team Whatever" it tells the CO why a specific geocaching handle isn't in the log sheet. It's when a team starts to split up and does the 3 cache monte thing or looks for caches, separately, in complete different areas, is when I think that they're just trying to game the system.

So the problem isn't with team accounts, or with groups signing physical logs with ad-hoc team names, or with team caching in general.

The problem is with leapfrogging or other divide-and-conquer techniques used by certain numbers hounds. That's a different problem, and really just a variation of armchair logging.

February 15, 2016

I read the OP question a little differently than they way this conversation is going. To me, I read it to mean that every member of the family had a personal account. They wanted ADD a team account, to actually create an account on GC.com. They didn't appear to want to stop using their personal accounts, and merge everything into the team account. If I was doing something like that, I would only want caches that the entire team found logged on the team account.

NY Paddle Cacher makes a great distinction between long term team accounts, versus ad hoc teams. For the former, there is an actual GC.com account. In the latter, there is no account, they are probably signing the log with the ad hoc team name (possibly to save time during the signing process, and maybe to conserve log space on small logs). The first case will fall under the terms of use for GC.com, because there is actually an account created on their web site.

Skye.

Just as a point of clarification. I don't consider the formation of ad hoc teams (without a GC account of the same name) to be necessarily a bad thing. If 4-5 people are caching together, jotting down a team name does save time and space in the logs, and if everyone indicates in their online log that it was signed as "Team Whatever" it tells the CO why a specific geocaching handle isn't in the log sheet. It's when a team starts to split up and does the 3 cache monte thing or looks for caches, separately, in complete different areas, is when I think that they're just trying to game the system.

I completely agree with you. I think that forming a "team" and some of that team goes to certain caches and others go to different caches is not cool. But if you are all together finding the caches and signing as a Team name that's okay in my book. Saves the CO from having to go replace the log because 8 or 9 finders signed in. In the instance of what the OP said though they're caching as a family. I don't see any hurt if they log a find under their team account if say only 3 out of the 4 members were present.

February 20, 2016

I suppose I am in the opposite position to the OP. We started off as a family caching under one account. There have been occasions when out of the 3 of us, only 1 or 2 have been present but that is always annotated within the log. My daughter is 7 in March and we are planning to buy her premium membership for an account of her own. I've done the maths and of the 211 finds the family account have, Rosie was present at 175 of them. So I'll go through the lot and add a log for her account before I present it to her.

I really wish I'd thought of the geocoin idea to track when Rosie was there, it would've saved a lot of time!

I should add that I'll still be running the admin for her account until she is old enough to take it on herself.

Team Accounts

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