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Lazy Geocachers?


Zeke&PI

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Someone (not revealing a name here) is putting stamped geocache slips of paper in the caches instead of signing the logs.

This is occurring in the Yuma AZ area...what a pain in the neck as some of the caches are small and this little piece of paper makes

a real jumble.  Is this a new "thing" with geocaching?

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20 minutes ago, Manville Possum said:
29 minutes ago, Zeke&PI said:

Someone (not revealing a name here) is putting stamped geocache slips of paper in the caches instead of signing the logs.

This is occurring in the Yuma AZ area...what a pain in the neck as some of the caches are small and this little piece of paper makes

a real jumble.  Is this a new "thing" with geocaching?

 

No, it's actually quite common. Lot's of cachers have personal stamps made for stamping geocaching logs.

Stamps are common.  Jamming in a separate scrap of paper that has been pre-stamped, rather than stamping the actual log sheet, is not. 

But it's a variation on a theme.  I've seen others with business geocaching cards.  I toss them out when I find them in my micro geocaches, because there's no room in a PET preform tube for excess paper.  As long as they're not excessively cluttering things up, I don't bother taking them out of my larger caches until it's time to move and I clean out the cache anyway.

Aside from them being somewhat proof of the card/stamp owner visiting the cache, I feel they're about as useful as a used ticket stub.  But I'm sure the card/stamp owners feel differently.

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39 minutes ago, Zeke&PI said:

Someone (not revealing a name here) is putting stamped geocache slips of paper in the caches instead of signing the logs.

This is occurring in the Yuma AZ area...what a pain in the neck as some of the caches are small and this little piece of paper makes

a real jumble.  Is this a new "thing" with geocaching?

Not really.  We know a few who'd place a business-like card with their caching info as the signature in the log book when we joined in '04.  Issues with log sigs and COs (people were taking their cards as sig swag), and the decline of books (replaced with tiny paper strips) got most of  them to use a stamp in the "log".  Guess they just didn't want to write anything. Sounds like this is a variation, and may end up the same way eventually.  :)

We've seen hundreds of "sig cards" start in the log , they flutter out when others sign, and find its way into the rest of the carp at the bottom (or scatter to the ground).  Most did sign the log as well.   

Anyone who remembers what it was like to open a log book and have stickers falling to the ground around you like birthday card glitter, I can see some may get ticked as you say, by more tiny paper carp having to be pitched along with other trash at maintenance.  There goes their sig as well...

Though none was as bad as the "power cacher" group who totaled our area and another state, signing the outside of most containers found.

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37 minutes ago, Manville Possum said:
1 hour ago, hzoi said:

Stamps are common.  Jamming in a separate scrap of paper that has been pre-stamped, rather than stamping the actual log sheet, is not. 

It would be more fair to state the you and I can only speak from our own observations, and I see those pre-stamped paper logs added quite often, but I don't play the micro cache game. 

Your statement didn't clarify separate sheets, it just talked about stamps being common.

And since I'm not a Groundspeak lackey, moderator, or volunteer reviewer, then the implication is that I only speak for myself.

But if you'd like me to be specific, then OK. 

Based on my personal experience of 8400+ finds and 185 hides, across 39 countries and 41 US states over the past 11 years, I haven't seen that leaving separate sheets of paper with a stamp on it in lieu of signing or stamping the log sheet provided is a common practice.  But I don't speak for everyone, and I specifically don't speak for Manville Possum, whose experience over 10 years, 1100+ finds, and 121 hides across six US states may vary.

Better?

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4 hours ago, Zeke&PI said:

Someone (not revealing a name here) is putting stamped geocache slips of paper in the caches instead of signing the logs.

This is occurring in the Yuma AZ area...what a pain in the neck as some of the caches are small and this little piece of paper makes

a real jumble.  Is this a new "thing" with geocaching?

I've never noticed it, but perhaps what I've thought were just sig items were actually the practice you're talking about. Normally I expect someone leaving a sig item to also sign the log, but it's not as if I check.

I don't think I'd call this practice as "lazy". I don't know why they're doing it, but making and carrying a bunch of prestamped pieces of paper and pulling one out to put into every cache doesn't seem any easier than just signing the log. Especially in the case you mention specifically: if it's hard for you as the next cacher to deal with them because they don't fit in the cache, it must have been hard to the person leaving them to fit them into the cache.

You don't actually ask about this, but if I run into anything that seems like trivial swag, like business cards or a little piece of paper with a name on it, I don't think twice about taking it with me and throwing it away when I get a chance. I mean, normally I'll just leave it be if it's not hurting anything, but if it caused the slightest problem -- far less than "pain in the neck" level -- I'm not going to waste any time trying to get it back in.

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I think what you're seeing is a carry-over from power trail "caching" (or they may have been power trail caches you saw these in, considering those are common in the US southwest). In that variation of geocaching, the finders use a number of tactics (with varying degrees of widespread acceptance) to attempt to find as many caches as possible in the shortest amount of time. Anything they can do to make the process more efficient - like pre-signing slips of paper - means they can pack in more finds. Of course, like dprovan pointed out, trying to squeeze a slip of paper into the container may not actually be all that efficient.

The problem that sometimes arises with using some of these tactics is that the users might use them on all caches, rather than just the ones where the use of those tactics is more accepted. There have been issues in the past when a cache that wasn't part of a power trail got swept up in a three-cache-monte process and got moved away from where it was supposed to be.

There was also a Mega event in Yuma in February, so there would have been cachers coming from far and wide bringing their own "tactics" to the area.

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As a newbie to this game I had been wondering about the etiquette of stamps as in quite a few logs I found recently someone who has been there ahead of me is using a stamp & on the very small logs it takes up the space where 8 to 10 cachers could date & sign/initial.  Maybe COs don't mind, but if it was me who had hidden a very small cache with just the capacity for one of the narrow log strips I would be hacked off to find this large motif had used up a couple of inches of paper.  Grrr!  But at least they stamp the log rather than leave a trail of confetti.

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17 minutes ago, grimpil said:

As a newbie to this game I had been wondering about the etiquette of stamps as in quite a few logs I found recently someone who has been there ahead of me is using a stamp & on the very small logs it takes up the space where 8 to 10 cachers could date & sign/initial.  Maybe COs don't mind, but if it was me who had hidden a very small cache with just the capacity for one of the narrow log strips I would be hacked off to find this large motif had used up a couple of inches of paper.  Grrr!  But at least they stamp the log rather than leave a trail of confetti.

That's why I bought a smaller stamp - and I don't even use it as often as I used to use my bigger stamp.

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7 hours ago, Zeke&PI said:

Someone (not revealing a name here) is putting stamped geocache slips of paper in the caches instead of signing the logs.

This is occurring in the Yuma AZ area...what a pain in the neck as some of the caches are small and this little piece of paper makes

a real jumble.  Is this a new "thing" with geocaching?

I  have neither heard of nor seen that before!

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Must admit first time I saw a stamped log it crossed my mind as a sort of good idea, then after finding several examples of the same stamp often on very tiny logs it started to irritate me.  Like someone taking up two seats on the bus when others are standing.  A small stamp, used respectfully only on suitable size logs, would seem to be OK, but even so it is probably no easier than just signing.

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1 hour ago, grimpil said:

As a newbie to this game I had been wondering about the etiquette of stamps as in quite a few logs I found recently someone who has been there ahead of me is using a stamp & on the very small logs it takes up the space where 8 to 10 cachers could date & sign/initial.  Maybe COs don't mind, but if it was me who had hidden a very small cache with just the capacity for one of the narrow log strips I would be hacked off to find this large motif had used up a couple of inches of paper.  Grrr!  But at least they stamp the log rather than leave a trail of confetti.

Stamps aren't uncommon and are fine to use on appropriately-sized logs, but mindlessly stamping every log regardless of size comes across as arrogant. Something like, "I can't be bothered to get out my pen and sign in an appropriate size. You should be happy that I signed/stamped your piddly little log at all, and I don't care about anyone who comes after me."

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I would think it would be more efficient to simply sign the log. The longest I've ever spent putting my name on a piece of paper has to be well under 30 seconds. I can understand the argument that sometimes logs get damaged and it would, therefore, be easier to throw in a pre-signed slip of paper, but at the same time, if you've got the space to carry around pre-signed slips of paper, you could most likely do others the courtesy of packing logsheets instead. 

I don't approve of placing more tiny sheets of paper in an already chaotic cache container, but at the same time, I find that to be a much rarer and far less annoying practice than that of signing one's name across an entire page of a logbook or using a large and ink-laden stamp in an area where moisture is common so that the ink bleeds through and ruins the opposite side of the sheet. 

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1 hour ago, The A-Team said:

but mindlessly stamping every log regardless of size comes across as arrogant. Something like, "I can't be bothered to get out my pen and sign in an appropriate size. You should be happy that I signed/stamped your piddly little log at all, and I don't care about anyone who comes after me."

LOL, jeez it's easy to judge here in the forums. There are so many other legitimate gripes in geocaching, why get offended over the most mundane details?

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Personally, I think the whole idea of "signing" a log book is ridiculous. I mean this is 2018 and this is a GPS/technology oriented hobby. Signing the electronic log is far more important, at least to me, than manually signing some paper log book. I could care less about manually logging in a find.  Take time to log in the find electronically and all is good.

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23 minutes ago, TreasureWatch said:

Personally, I think the whole idea of "signing" a log book is ridiculous. I mean this is 2018 and this is a GPS/technology oriented hobby. Signing the electronic log is far more important, at least to me, than manually signing some paper log book. I could care less about manually logging in a find.  Take time to log in the find electronically and all is good.

Oh boy...

 

giphy.gif

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1 hour ago, TreasureWatch said:

Personally, I think the whole idea of "signing" a log book is ridiculous. I mean this is 2018 and this is a GPS/technology oriented hobby. Signing the electronic log is far more important, at least to me, than manually signing some paper log book. I could care less about manually logging in a find.  Take time to log in the find electronically and all is good.

May I refer you to another thread, which was just a bit down the index page from this one:

 

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1 hour ago, TreasureWatch said:

Personally, I think the whole idea of "signing" a log book is ridiculous. I mean this is 2018 and this is a GPS/technology oriented hobby. Signing the electronic log is far more important, at least to me, than manually signing some paper log book. I could care less about manually logging in a find.  Take time to log in the find electronically and all is good.

Make a sentence with the following words... "Opened I worms can a just". :rolleyes:

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2 hours ago, TreasureWatch said:

I think the whole idea of "signing" a log book is ridiculous

It has become ridiculous. For the majority of paper logs I've seen, it's quite obvious the owners don't care. You have a 99.9% chance that an owner will not delete your online log if you don't sign the paper log (as long as you don't say in your online log that you didn't sign the log).

I've never understood why people bother to unfurl a button nano log and squeeze in initials then spend 5 minutes trying to tighten up the log and stuff it back into the tiny space. The owner will never check, he can't, most of the squiggles are unrecognizable. 

I've never understood why people add a dry bit of paper to a soaked cache. What's the point? No one cares. The owner sure doesn't.

The reason I have logbooks (never a sheet) is that I consider it a memento. I keep them. It's a habit I started from the early 2000s. My logbooks had some actual sentences in them, even doodles, some cool stickers, some fun personalized stamps. I liked that old connection with visitors. It added a charm you don't get with online logs. 

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38 minutes ago, L0ne.R said:

I've never understood why people add a dry bit of paper to a soaked cache. What's the point? No one cares. The owner sure doesn't.

I usually carry a notebook when out geocaching.

Even if the cache is junk I'll leave a page or a strip with my sig on it - just as proof I found it, just in case anybody wants to check.

At least that way I can ignore the high pitched whining noise that seems to follow an NA log these days.

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Personally I don't care if the CO no longer cares about their cache & whether anyone has signed.  I just enjoy the fun of finding them, & signing them (especially the miniscule log I found today) is part of the challenge/fun.  My satisfaction is in having left a physical mark of my presence in some pretty interesting places.  Every log I sign has the potential for someone far into the future to wonder who I was.  Today I discovered over 20 caches  & all the time I was searching/signing I had the following in my head.

This was in an area where from far & wide (from most of the caches) I can see the ruins of the farm where in 1871 my then 15 year old great grandfather was working.  From that point he would have looked out daily & had no concept that in 2018 one of his great grandchildren, born 50 years after his death,  would be looking back in his direction.

Those physical evidences of my being there mean far more than sticking my name on yet another wodge of digital media.

 

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5 hours ago, L0ne.R said:

I've never understood why people bother to unfurl a button nano log and squeeze in initials then spend 5 minutes trying to tighten up the log and stuff it back into the tiny space.

I've never understood why it takes some people 5 minutes to reroll a log sheet. I don't think I've ever taken an entire minute to reroll a log sheet, even for the most tattered log strips in the smallest nano-caches.

5 hours ago, L0ne.R said:

I've never understood why people add a dry bit of paper to a soaked cache. What's the point? No one cares. The owner sure doesn't.

Well, obviously the people who add a dry bit of paper care. Some of us even make a point to use weatherproof paper for the supplemental log sheets we leave.

But if the existing log was ruined, leaving a weatherproof log sheet doesn't fix the problem that ruined the existing log. A Needs Maintenance log is still in order.

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19 hours ago, grimpil said:

Every log I sign has the potential for someone far into the future to wonder who I was.  Today I discovered over 20 caches  & all the time I was searching/signing I had the following in my head.

I found a cache in a game park in Tanzania. When I signed the log sheet I noticed the previous name on the log:  Hugh Grant.  I didn't see an online log with the same user name.  

Several years ago I was driving from New York State down to the outer banks and found a few caches along the way.  On one of them, at a rest stop in Maryland I saw that it was owned by someone I had met while doing a night cache a mile or so from home.  The two previous logs were from a couple of geocachers that  I had met and live about 10 miles from me.  I found a couple more caches along the way then several in the Outer Banks that they had signed.  They had taken the same trip that I did about a week earlier. As Lone-R said, the paper logs are nice way to connect the community, something that unfortunately seems to be getting lost in this game.  

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Was very common on "The Trail Of The Gods" series / powertrail ... some were stickers and stuck on and or in the containers or log sheets.  Was tough getting the log sheets out.

Mega glad to have seen the sticker trend go away.

I suppose the practice is considered to be a time saver, HOWEVER, when the chaff blows away how can a log be verified.  *(just taking)*

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