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Write Note - But what date do you claim the challenge?


KrillKat

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I am curious how others handle this issue. When you "write note" and sign a challenge cache, you usually do so because you are not sure if you qualify. Once you do qualify, do you log it on the date you qualify, on the date you go through your data and discover you qualify or on the date you signed it? I tend to log it on the date I discover I qualify. I am curious what others do.

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I am curious how others handle this issue. When you "write note" and sign a challenge cache, you usually do so because you are not sure if you qualify. Once you do qualify, do you log it on the date you qualify, on the date you go through your data and discover you qualify or on the date you signed it? I tend to log it on the date I discover I qualify. I am curious what others do.

 

To avoid creating anomalies in the space-time continuum, I don't attempt to sign the log until after I have completed the challenge requirements.

 

This has come up before:

 

In those threads, I link to a suggested feature that would include differentiation of the challenge-completed event from the log-signed one. I believe the feature should be implemented for the sake of the temporal integrity of the universe.

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To avoid creating anomalies in the space-time continuum, I don't attempt to sign the log until after I have completed the challenge requirements.
Yep. Doc Brown made it very clear that we must avoid chain reactions that might unravel the very fabric of the space time continuum. Worst case, such events could destroy the entire universe. Best case, the destruction would be very localized, limited to merely our own galaxy.

 

But seriously, challenge caches are listed as mystery/puzzle caches, and I wait until after I've completed the challenge requirements before I add the cache to my "solved unfound puzzles" bookmark list, so I don't even see the listing on my device until after I've completed the challenge requirements.

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I've got a bookmarks list with 42 challenge caches that I have pre-signed but haven't yet qualified for. Most of them are interesting challenges that I encountered while traveling to locations where I'm unlikely to return anytime soon. Many of them are challenges that probably will take me years to complete and might be archived by the time I finally qualify for them.

 

When I pre-sign these challenge caches, I log a "Write Note" online to indicate the date that I found the physical cache. When I complete these pre-signed challenges, I log an online "Found it" for that date (and mention in that log the date when I pre-signed the physical log). This messes up my cumulative cache-to-cache distance statistic, but I don't care about the accuracy of that measurement.

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A bit in reverse:

 

If I find that I qualify, and the listing information required is extensive, I may post a "Write Note" with all of the qualification information, and log the "Found" after I've been able to put the physical cache on an itinerary and actually signed the log. The "found" date I use is the date the cache is actually found and log signed.

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I, too, don't bother to sign until I qualify, so I don't have this problem, but you are allowed to claim the find on a challenge caches when you've signed the log and have met the requirement, so it makes sense to me to date it the date both are accomplished, i.e., the latter of the two. Your third suggestion, when you actually determine that you qualified, is immaterial for the same reasons the date you get around to logging a find on a traditional is immaterial, only the date you found the traditional matters.

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For challenges I've "found" before qualifying I have written a note at the time of finding, then changed that log to a "Found it" when I qualified, leaving the oringinal date on the log (i.e. in the past) and adding a comment about the date I qualified.

 

+1

 

So you guys are the ones to blame for mucking up the space/time continuum! :ph34r:

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For challenges I've "found" before qualifying I have written a note at the time of finding, then changed that log to a "Found it" when I qualified, leaving the oringinal date on the log (i.e. in the past) and adding a comment about the date I qualified.

 

+1

 

So you guys are the ones to blame for mucking up the space/time continuum! :ph34r:

 

I got an award for designing Norway, and they've given me Africa on the next Earth, but I'm doing it with fjords as I think it gives a nice baroque feel to the place, so fiddling with the space/time continuum holds no fears for me ;)

Edited by MartyBartfast
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If you can't log 'found it' until you actually meet the challenge, I don't see how you can justify using the signature date.
Some people like posting FIND logs with the date they actually FOUND the cache container. Perhaps they like keeping some "miles traveled while geocaching" stat accurate. Perhaps they just think FIND logs should refer to actually FINDING the cache container.

 

It doesn't seem that hard to justify to me. It isn't the solution I use, but it doesn't seem all that unreasonable, given the existence of challenge caches where you can sign the physical log before you qualify for the smiley.

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I've got a bookmarks list with 42 challenge caches that I have pre-signed but haven't yet qualified for. Most of them are interesting challenges that I encountered while traveling to locations where I'm unlikely to return anytime soon. Many of them are challenges that probably will take me years to complete and might be archived by the time I finally qualify for them.

 

When I pre-sign these challenge caches, I log a "Write Note" online to indicate the date that I found the physical cache. When I complete these pre-signed challenges, I log an online "Found it" for that date (and mention in that log the date when I pre-signed the physical log). This messes up my cumulative cache-to-cache distance statistic, but I don't care about the accuracy of that measurement.

 

This is what I do too.

 

But there is no "right" way; using the date you physically found the cache works too.

 

You have to choose between:

1. Having the "Found it" log date show a date when you had not qualified, or

2. Mess up cumulative cache-to-cache distance statistic

3. Avoid the issue by never signing a log unless you've already qualified.

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The question is, does the online "Found It" log date represent

A] The physical finding of the logsheet and signature

B] The completion of all requirements in order to post a "Found It" log online

 

Literally, it would be A. Conceptually, it would be B. Most people abide by B. But there's no explicit rule stating which is proper, only interpretation in light of special cases such as Challenge Caches, Earthcaches, and Virtuals (arguably Webcams too)

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The question is, does the online "Found It" log date represent

A] The physical finding of the logsheet and signature

B] The completion of all requirements in order to post a "Found It" log online

 

Literally, it would be A. Conceptually, it would be B. Most people abide by B. But there's no explicit rule stating which is proper, only interpretation in light of special cases such as Challenge Caches, Earthcaches, and Virtuals (arguably Webcams too)

Unfortunately, there are many among us that need one rule for all cases, exceptions are anathema. You just have to be able to look at it from the other direction and appreciate certain caches may not have "additional requirements". In my world the online "found it" log would align with B] which works for all cases.

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The question is, does the online "Found It" log date represent

A] The physical finding of the logsheet and signature

B] The completion of all requirements in order to post a "Found It" log online

 

Literally, it would be A. Conceptually, it would be B. Most people abide by B. But there's no explicit rule stating which is proper, only interpretation in light of special cases such as Challenge Caches, Earthcaches, and Virtuals (arguably Webcams too)

Unfortunately, there are many among us that need one rule for all cases, exceptions are anathema. You just have to be able to look at it from the other direction and appreciate certain caches may not have "additional requirements". In my world the online "found it" log would align with B] which works for all cases.
Following this logic, since EarthCaches require you to send your answers to the cache owner, the date of your log for an EarthCache should be the date you sent your answers to the cache owner. Ditto for virtual caches and webcam caches, since they too have logging requirements beyond whatever you need to do on-site.

 

That doesn't make sense to me. I'll continue to log such caches with the date of my visit to the cache location, even if I don't technically complete all the requirements until later, when I get home and sort through my field notes.

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The question is, does the online "Found It" log date represent

A] The physical finding of the logsheet and signature

B] The completion of all requirements in order to post a "Found It" log online

 

Literally, it would be A. Conceptually, it would be B. Most people abide by B. But there's no explicit rule stating which is proper, only interpretation in light of special cases such as Challenge Caches, Earthcaches, and Virtuals (arguably Webcams too)

Even your A case isn't especially literal, since there are many caches that don't have a physical log sheet that must be found and signed: EarthCaches, Virtuals, Webcams, various events/parties/celebrations, Lab caches, and Locationless caches. Groundspeak's definition of a "find" doesn't match a dictionary's definition very well.

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The question is, does the online "Found It" log date represent

A] The physical finding of the logsheet and signature

B] The completion of all requirements in order to post a "Found It" log online

 

Literally, it would be A. Conceptually, it would be B. Most people abide by B. But there's no explicit rule stating which is proper, only interpretation in light of special cases such as Challenge Caches, Earthcaches, and Virtuals (arguably Webcams too)

Even your A case isn't especially literal, since there are many caches that don't have a physical log sheet that must be found and signed: EarthCaches, Virtuals, Webcams, various events/parties/celebrations, Lab caches, and Locationless caches. Groundspeak's definition of a "find" doesn't match a dictionary's definition very well.

Not sure what you mean by the bolded. EarthCaches, Virtuals, Webcams, various events/parties/celebrations, Lab caches, and Locationless caches don't have to be found and signed, they just have to have the logging requirements completed (sending in answers, posting the webcam photo, etc).

 

It is an interesting parallel though, Challenge Caches and Earthcaches (or Virtual or whatever) - most of us date CC's as of the date it's both found and qualified; those same most of us likely also date Earthcaches as of the date visited, not the date answers were sent in (if they don't already coincide).

 

In which case, I think many of have a different definition of the "Found It" online log, depending on the cache type in question. :P

But, as it doesn't seem that GS enforces a universal "log date" requirement, it doesn't really matter. IMO, as long as the log history makes sense given the cache type (which is how I read them; eg, CC find history means different than a Trad history).

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Following this logic, since EarthCaches require you to send your answers to the cache owner, the date of your log for an EarthCache should be the date you sent your answers to the cache owner. Ditto for virtual caches and webcam caches, since they too have logging requirements beyond whatever you need to do on-site.

Finding caches to satisfy a challenge is an act of geocaching, so the logic suggests the date of the last geocaching act be the date the challenge cache can be considered found. Sending in answers to an EarthCache is just an administrative act, so it has no more to do with the date of the found log than writing the log itself.

 

Although this is the way I look at it, I don't claim that's the only way to look at it, I'm just explaining how following "this logic" can lead somewhere other than where you say it does.

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The question is, does the online "Found It" log date represent

A] The physical finding of the logsheet and signature

B] The completion of all requirements in order to post a "Found It" log online

 

Literally, it would be A. Conceptually, it would be B. Most people abide by B. But there's no explicit rule stating which is proper, only interpretation in light of special cases such as Challenge Caches, Earthcaches, and Virtuals (arguably Webcams too)

Even your A case isn't especially literal, since there are many caches that don't have a physical log sheet that must be found and signed: EarthCaches, Virtuals, Webcams, various events/parties/celebrations, Lab caches, and Locationless caches. Groundspeak's definition of a "find" doesn't match a dictionary's definition very well.

Not sure what you mean by the bolded.

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Oh heh, before you (CR) fix the reply, I just read and understand now what you meant by the bolded :P I read it as "caches that don't have a physical log sheet (pause) that must be found and signed", rather than "caches that don't have (pause) a physical log sheet that must be found and signed." lol #oops

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