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How are you entering your logs? What's your process?


seven_neves

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So after only a little while in caching, I've identified logs to be a critical part of the process and good logs are highly regarded in the scene, often being a short story (a 'novella log' perhaps?) of the finder's personal experience. Flicking though the previous logs you can often notice some quality time has been spent on some and improves the cache.

Another thing I noticed recently was FTF on a cache I had just published made a 'field log' to time-stamp the find, but then later edited the original log in a more detailed fashion.

Admittedly, I hardly have the time to cache, I'm lucky if I get 3 in a week - let alone time at the scene to log in a super-appreciative fashion with a novella log.  Plus as a CO I now find a log referring to my username in the log feels far more personal, but on the phone app you have to back out of the logging screen to get that if you forgot to add it on the way in.

So, my questions is: how many folks out there are logging in a field log status, then updating later? or if not FTF are you perhaps making a few quick paper notes, then logging when you have the time to think about the more detailed novella log?

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I don't use a phone so I just "log" on my GPS. When back home I connect the GPS to the computer, import the "logs" into GSAK, write my logs while still offline, retrieve/drop/discover trackables, add photographs and when all this is done I just hit "publish all" and sit back until all is done.

For the first time since I started I did not log my founds on the same day but waited until we got back home from holiday. Internet access was so limited I didn't want to spend the time in the evening waiting for the logs to upload.

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40 minutes ago, on4bam said:

I don't use a phone so I just "log" on my GPS. When back home I connect the GPS to the computer, import the "logs" into GSAK, write my logs while still offline, retrieve/drop/discover trackables, add photographs and when all this is done I just hit "publish all" and sit back until all is done.

For the first time since I started I did not log my founds on the same day but waited until we got back home from holiday. Internet access was so limited I didn't want to spend the time in the evening waiting for the logs to upload.

That's exactly the way I do log my finds today and in the beginning.

Hans

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I make notes as I walk (and my caching is usually part of a walk in the countryside, I dislike drive by caching and seldom bother with it)  on a tiny MP3 recorder, and mark the caches 'found' on my Garmin GPS as I go. When I get home I upload the found caches list from the GPS to GSAK on my laptop, and then type an indicidual log for each cache based on my audio notes from the MP3 recorder. My 'phone is no more to me than a back up GPS/recorder/camera - it's a 'phone, the other functions are a compromise of what can be packed into that shape running off that battery.

GSAK has templates I've custom set which 'frame' my individual comments with some statistics so I can keep track of my find order easily, it also allows me to automatically dip the TB I use to track my mileage in every find , dip, drop or pick up other TBs at the click of a button, and it even picks up the CO's name (correctly spelled !)  from the cache listing and drops it in the 'thanks' bit at the end. I generally re-read my logs for stupid mistakes before pressing the 'publish' button which sends the lot (all the cache logs, TB logs and photos) out automatically to Groundspeak.

Yes, this all takes a while: sometimes longer than the actual cache finding , but I use my logs as a diary for myself as well as feeling that a cache setter deserves some decent feedback from finders after they made the effort to set caches. On other threads recently a few folk have bleated about feeling excluded at events ... I go to events alone, and many times outside my local area have known no-one at all, but what regularly happens is someone recognises my caching name and says "You are the one who writes those logs !" and I have an instant connection .Which is nice ! I also get lots of e mails from CO's who appreciate having individual logs worth opening and reading, and have made good caching friends that way. It works the other way too, decent logs on my caches generally get a thank you from me, especially if they are a newish cacher, got to reinforce good habits !

Unless it's been a particularly big days caching I try to log on the same evening (GSAK picks the found date from the GPS info,  so no need to worry about backdating) but sometimes it takes a day or so, in which case I may e-mail the CO and briefly let them know I found their cache(s) and a log will be coming soon. If delayed I'll also immediately sort any TB retrieval/dropping using the TB listings and notes so the record is accurate ASAP.

I don't change my routine for FTFs, not that I go for many, but if I do and it takes me 2 hours to type my logs and someone thinks that means they wasted their time finding the cache second, well, they don't have much respect for the cache or CO if they feel the effort to make the find is pontless simply because their name isn't at the top of the paper ...

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I've always made notes in the field, and then written real logs later, when I had a real computer and a real keyboard.

Early on, my notes in the field were text memos on my Palm PDA. Eventually, I started using Android apps that could post field notes. Sometimes, I've used a handheld GPSr that saves field notes, and I've uploaded those field notes to the geocaching.com sites. Later, Groundspeak renamed field notes and started calling them drafts.

Occasionally, I've posted real logs in the field using the data connection of my smartphone. For example, when a cache's camouflage fell apart in my hands and I couldn't re-hide it effectively, I posted the NM log (and sent the CO personal email) explaining the situation. I still waited to post my Find log until later though.

I would never post a "more later" log and then edit it. The CO and anyone else who follows the cache will see only the "more later" log. The site does not send email for edits.

And I've had only a few FTFs, but I logged them the same way I logged all my other finds.

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4 hours ago, seven_neves said:

how many folks out there are logging in a field log status, then updating later? or if not FTF are you perhaps making a few quick paper notes, then logging when you have the time to think about the more detailed novella log?

On my Garmin Oregon, I type very abbreviated notes in the comments on each log (found or not). In the case of a series of caches (20-cache Geotour or whatever), I write additional notes in my Indiana Jones diary style notebook, including advance plans for the sequence I intend to find them.

I upload them later using “drafts” and type a proper log. I use a word processor, then copy-paste, never typing into the log directly. I avoid using the word “first” in any cache log. But I tend to wait til I'm at my PC before submitting logs, after a day of caching.

On my wifi-only phone at a Hotspot, I type a short log in special cases.  I may type a couple of paragraphs for a cache log, but that's later when I can get to my PC word processor. The site and especially the Apps have “lost” my log story way too many times while I'm typing it.

With no data subscription to send logs immediately in the field, for FTF I sometimes type my log and the time of the find (with a photo of the one signature with time shown) post it with the rest of the drafts, and leave it at that.

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I hand-enter caches to my old GPSr, and still put notes (and maybe a hint) of the day in a notepad.

When I get home  I  log finds and any trackables.  Often wordy, so usually with help of a coffee   

When we started, few had smartphones, and the FTF side-game was luck of the draw.  We all realized that FTF simply depended on you paying attention, and a bit a luck. We stopped counting FTFs at 350,  and still get a couple here n there just by walking for those a little farther.

These days, for some odd reason, folks seem to feel they need to be notified when another finds a cache first.   Doesn't seem much of a game (to me) if someone's being told whether to participate....      :)

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16 hours ago, seven_neves said:

... So, my questions is: how many folks out there are logging in a field log status, then updating later? or if not FTF are you perhaps making a few quick paper notes, then logging when you have the time to think about the more detailed novella log?

I use my phone to geocache, with the official app.  I use the "Drafts", and create the log (be it DNF, Found It, or Write Note) as a Draft.  Once I get home,or somewhere I can use my laptop and the website, I go back to my drafts and log the cache with my story or whatever from my notes made in the field.  I've found I make too many typos and mistakes trying to log in the moment, at the cache site - so everything is done as a draft and I publish it all later.

I rarely go after FTF; I don't know that it would change the way I log.  My drafts have a timestamp and seem to put things in order on the cache page from the draft timestamp, not from when I actually upload the log.  Plus my signature on the "virgin" log sheet would verify the FTF, in the rare case that happens. (One certifiable FTF that wasn't part of a group after an event, but an FTF after publication, in the 9 months I've been geocaching.)

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I guess I'm old school; I rarely visit more than three or four caches in an outing - often it's just one, particularly if it's a higher D/T cache - so it's not too hard for me to remember enough about them to compose my logs on the computer when I get home. I also take lots of photos, both to go with the logs and to help as reminders of interesting things along the way. The only real exception is FTFs, when I'll post a bare bones field log for the benefit of the CO and any other seekers, then flesh it out later.

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I am as comfortable typing on my phone as on a computer so I don't have a problem logging my find on the spot.  Sometimes even a very long log.  If it is say a FTF and I don't have time to say all I want I might say "More Later" but once I update my log I also log a note saying "Log Updated" then I wait a few min to make sure the CO will get that email.  Then I delete the note. Not sure if that is a good way to do it but that is the way I have done it many times.

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I have a very limited data package, a fairly old phone and no desire to spend time typing when I could be walking.

So I leave logging until I get home on almost all occasions. Usually the same day, occasionally the day after and very occasionally longer than that. Very rarely I'll end up doing something like logging whilst I'm on a train, but only if I have a larger device with me.

I sometimes scribble the odd work on the map I'm using to help me remember stuff, but I'm usually fine with remembering the more important bits and bobs. I find a glass of wine helps when I'm logging as well...

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I never find more caches in a day than I can remember so I usually just wait until I can get to a computer with internet access, bring up the map page and start selecting the caches in the order that I found them and writing a log for each.  I have used my smart phone more often than I used to (when geocaching domestically) and have taken to writing full logs in the field.  I'm never so much in a rush to find the next cache that I can't sit down for a minute to write a few sentences.  

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17 hours ago, Blue Square Thing said:

...  I leave logging until I get home on almost all occasions. Usually the same day, occasionally the day after and very occasionally longer than that. ... I find a glass of wine helps when I'm logging as well...

Of course, a glass of wine helps with logging, and with most everything else as well.  :)  

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