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? HUHHHH ? Travelers Meet and Greet Events


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9 hours ago, Touchstone said:

If you intent is to meet some local cachers at these ports of call, the obvious solution is to contact them and see if they'd be willing to Host an Event when you are in the area.  If they don't, then it sounds like the Reviewers impression of the Events was correct in the first place.

 

That sounds good in theory, but in practice, I’d be very uncomfortable asking a stranger to arrange an event to welcome me to their country.  Just seems a bit presumptuous.

 

I definitely recommend joining any local Facebook groups, to gauge the feeling, ask advice, and so on.  Who knows... if a reviewer pushes back, you may be able to persuade them there is enough interest from the local community.  And if that doesn’t work, tell your new ‘friends’ the sorry tale, and maybe one of them will step in to host an event for you.

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12 hours ago, ScoutrP said:

I'm not quite getting the whole idea of not being able to host events at multiple ports of call on a Cruise vacation.

 

A couple of the issues that have come up with port of call events:

 

- The event is located on private resort property, or in an airport or ship terminal, that is only accessible by ticketed passengers and ship/airline/whatever employees.

 

- The ship or plane is late.  Magically, of course, the event time is changed to accommodate the host.

 

And, of course,

 

- The events are only logged by the same cachers who are traveling with the host, or even only by a single cacher, the host.  It's hard to conclude that the intent was ever truly anything other than to have a guaranteed smiley, because events are now the only types of cache one can both own and log.

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I don't get why people need to host events at ports of call or in airports during layovers other than trying to get another smiley. Sure, I've hosted events on vacation before, but always at places where I knew there would be other cachers. I'd not hosted an event in Iran or Ethiopia, and won't be hosting one in Lebanon later this year because for me it's about meeting other people. What's the point of an event if the chance of meeting other people is very slim? Asking this to people who think those kind of events are fine.

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I've cruised to many foreign ports and visited many cities. I would never consider holding  an event on spec where someone may or may not turn up. Instead, before I travel I search for events coinciding with my visit. The planets have, so far, only aligned once about four years ago when we found an event in Anchorage. It was in a city park and well attended. Even a some of real live visitors from Germany:D. I've done fourteen ocean cruises and four river cruises and have never come across any cachers on any of them.

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I have hoste events on vacation, and unfortunately a few have had no one turn up, but some have had a few turn up and that was a very welcome turn of events and was a highlight on that part of a holiday. I had an event near in beach in Vietnam where a couple traveled several miles to attend ant that was on Christmas Day morning. Sometimes I will host an event in a country just because there is a very slim chance that I might  find a cache in that country due to a lack of physical caches in the region, and I collect countries.

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On 3/12/2019 at 1:31 AM, Touchstone said:

If you intent is to meet some local cachers at these ports of call, the obvious solution is to contact them and see if they'd be willing to Host an Event when you are in the area.  If they don't, then it sounds like the Reviewers impression of the Events was correct in the first place.

 

LIke others, I would feel awkward asking someone I don't know to arrange an event on my behalf.

 

It has happened to me but "naturally", and that was great.    E.g. in preparation to a visit to another country, I ask a CO for some help on his puzzle caches.   He is helpful and we begin chatting, he also gives me helpful advice about where to visit etc.. and then he offers to arrange an event which coincides with my visit.   I was very appreciative of this; but I wouldn't ask someone outright to host one.   

 

I've never arranged an event myself while travelling; but I don't have an issue with it.    I attended one this weekend arranged by a group of visiting cachers from Germany.     I do always look to see if events are already scheduled when I am planning to be in a location, and I've attended several events like that.

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14 hours ago, colleda said:

I've cruised to many foreign ports and visited many cities. I would never consider holding  an event on spec where someone may or may not turn up. Instead, before I travel I search for events coinciding with my visit. The planets have, so far, only aligned once about four years ago when we found an event in Anchorage. It was in a city park and well attended. Even a some of real live visitors from Germany:D. I've done fourteen ocean cruises and four river cruises and have never come across any cachers on any of them.

The planets aligned for me just once as well. I had a 23 hour layover in Zurich on the way to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and had booked a hotel near the airport and train station so I could get to the city to do some caching.  Turned out that the day that I arrived was a WWFM  and there was one at the train station *and* another event in the evening.  I had also arranged to meet a couple of cachers to find a few caches after the flash mob.   The WWFM had over 400 attendees and there were probably 50 or so at the dinner event.  I didn't get back to my hotel until midnight but I had a great time.  

 

I've had a couple of misses.  In one case I was on a plane en route to Addis Ababa on the day of a WWFM and an event occurred while was in flight.  I was planning on attending a meet up in Cancun when the event owner sent a message the day before indicating that his flight from France had been cancelled.

 

I've never been on a cruise, but I would probably collect a few more countries in the Caribbean if I did.

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On 3/18/2019 at 2:23 AM, dprovan said:

The fact that the chances are slim makes it pretty cool when it happens.

 

This.

 

I hosted an event in a foreign nation in the early AM where several people showed up. I hosted a dinner event in Houston, a city of nearly 2.5 million people, home of hundreds of active geocachers, and NO ONE showed up. I say so long as it's not an exclusive location (resorts etc) then who cares. Why do you care if an event host benefits from it? Seriously, get over yourselves for those of you that are against it.

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1 minute ago, bflentje said:

 

This.

 

I hosted an event in a foreign nation in the early AM where several people showed up. I hosted a dinner event in Houston, a city of nearly 2.5 million people, home of hundreds of active geocachers, and NO ONE showed up. I say so long as it's not an exclusive location (resorts etc) then who cares. Why do you care if an event host benefits from it? Seriously, get over yourselves for those of you that are against it.

 

I'm not against it, but I do reserve the right to have the opinion that someone is just gaming the system if they knowingly create an event somewhere just so that they can convince themselves that they've found a cache in some exotic location.   

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39 minutes ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

I'm not against it, but I do reserve the right to have the opinion that someone is just gaming the system if they knowingly create an event somewhere just so that they can convince themselves that they've found a cache in some exotic location.   

If you know that's why they're doing it, then I have no problem with you having that opinion. But I suspect you assume such event owners are morally bankrupt without a shred of evidence, and if I could prove that's the case, I'd have a poor opinion about you. But as it is, I'll assume you only have the opinion that they're gaming the system when you have proof they only created the event so they can say they found a cache at some exotic location, and the rest of the time, you give them the benefit of the doubt. Right?

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On 3/20/2019 at 1:38 PM, NYPaddleCacher said:

 

I'm not against it, but I do reserve the right to have the opinion that someone is just gaming the system if they knowingly create an event somewhere just so that they can convince themselves that they've found a cache in some exotic location.   

 

I have no problem with one owning an opinion. But having an event in an exotic location where other caches may not exist in no way affects you. It's not lying. It's not cheating. It's nothing and doesn't affect you. If events outside of your home area shouldn't be allowed then ban it as a practice. Period. Otherwise game on.

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On 2/5/2019 at 12:00 AM, DerDiedler said:

I´m also finding it pointless to host an event only fpr [sic] yourself. It might always be possible that some people show up, but this cruise ship stops are verry random events.

I´d kinda like the idea, that a published event, where only the owner attended will be deleted. I can have events with my self every day, on the toilet for example :P

 

So I realize I'm bringing up an older friend (though by no means close to "zombie" status) but I recently had a similar experience with an event. As it's an event I hosted and I'm the CO I'm comfortable sharing the GC code here - GC88RCE. This event was planned in a well populated caching area with a pretty active community, I would however qualify it as a "vacation event" as I currently live several thousand of miles away. To that end I have to agree... if no one shows up can you really call it an "event?" 

 

Now with that being said...

 

 

On 2/5/2019 at 2:56 PM, The A-Team said:

While I agree with much of what you've said, I can also see why this particular one was rejected. If nobody showed up the year before, it isn't unreasonable to assume that there's a good chance the same would happen again.

 

Here's a quintessential case where you have the self-fulfilling prophecy. Just because nobody showed up to an event in this park this time, does that mean next time in Waterford I should be blocked from hosting an event here, because my last one was unsuccessful?

Just food for thought. 

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I travel to a particular spot in the Deep South (USA) regularly because I still have a home there and tend to its upkeep.  Upon the very rare occasions that spare time presents itself, I have done a little cache hunting. The majority of caches are in a nearby college town, and I noticed many that were well-tended for a few years, then eh.  (Maybe they graduated?)

 

I will have to do some extensive work, spanning a few weeks, adding up to more bits of spare time.  I sent a message to a few long-term cachers in that area who had recent finds (meaning, I hoped, they were still active), asking for tips they might be willing to share, such as the caches that seemed to be no longer maintained/were the COs still active?, don't-miss caches ... and stressed that I wanted no hints.  I also asked how active the caching community was, and if they thought there would be any turn-out if I were to host an event when I was there. ( I really *would* like to meet the local cachers.) 

 

I got a nice, welcoming, and complete response from one, who said she not only would be at least one more person besides me at an event ?, but also would like to hit some caches that she'd rather not do alone.  (Her "muggband" doesn't cache.)  Win-win! 

 

I've emailed with an ex-pat friend in another country about having an event, but it would be at a city center location, nowhere near a terminal of any sort.  I hope that would still  fly (no pun intended) when/if that becomes a reality.

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As far as cruising to another country and hosting an event at whatever port - especially when there are no caches near the port ...

If there are *any* caches, there should be somebody who is caching-savvy, at least (such as a person involved in a maintenance plan).  If there are none ... what is the purpose of the event?  How would anybody know about it?

 

I will tell you of one time I did consider having a land event somewhere at a cruise's port city.  GIFF.  Would have been LOTS of muggles , but my thinking was that it could introduce a whole lot of folks to geocaching in nice little bite-sized pieces.  An appetizer party of geocaching, so to speak.  Not having contacts at the port city made the logistics cumbersome, at best.  In the end, the cruise was cancelled.

 

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8 hours ago, VAVAPAM said:

How would anybody know about it?

 

Whenever I travel somewhere, I always check for local events.

 

I was in the south of France last week, and attended an event held by a cacher from Colorado.  Unfortunately, only one local made it, but we had a great evening.

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I took the other approach when in a new country with sparse caches (just one!) - the dreaded throwdown. (Hey, if people are going to admit to calling a family party an event, I'll happily admit to a throwdown!) I did it with the blessing and thanks of the CO both before and after the event; cache maintenance by proxy, let's call it. Looking at log pics the cache is on another incarnation... and the area now has a smattering of other caches.

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2 hours ago, Oxford Stone said:

I took the other approach when in a new country with sparse caches (just one!) - the dreaded throwdown. (Hey, if people are going to admit to calling a family party an event, I'll happily admit to a throwdown!) I did it with the blessing and thanks of the CO both before and after the event; cache maintenance by proxy, let's call it. Looking at log pics the cache is on another incarnation... and the area now has a smattering of other caches.

If the CO gave prior permission, it isn't a throwdown. 

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I hosted an event when I visited Iceland. I didn't know if anyone would show up but I 'shared' it in the local FB group hoping to meet some other locals. Some were interested, even someone else foreign, but all were 'maybes'. I ended up having a great meal with ONE local, after which time we walked around a few blocks downtown to see a couple of caches, and I learned a lot about local culture and politics.   If no one logged a Will Attend, I would still have been there - I don't know if someone would come who didn't post a WA. And what if I post an event in my own hometown and no one shows up? Is that "still an event"?

 

No, if you host an event, it's an opportunity for people to come and socialize. If no one shows up, that doesn't in any way invalidate the event, nor does it imply you're doing it just to game the system. That of course doesn't mean that no one does it to game the system. But to cast some universal claim that anyone hosting an event in a foreign country while visiting is somehow 'cheating' in some way - whether if affects you or not - is ludicrous. Again, if it doesn't affect you, then, even while yes you may have the right to hold that critical opinion, it's probably better for your own good to just let it go. Let it gooooo...

Edited by thebruce0
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7 hours ago, IceColdUK said:

 

Whenever I travel somewhere, I always check for local events.

 

I was in the south of France last week, and attended an event held by a cacher from Colorado.  Unfortunately, only one local made it, but we had a great evening.

 

Thanks for the reminder.  I'm going to Sheffield, UK next week and should see if there are any local events.   Several years ago, when GS still had the WWFM events, I had an overnight layover in Zurich, arriving on the WWFM day.   I attended a very large WWFM event at the train station, did some caching with a couple of local cachers, who then accompanied me to another evening event.  

 

About a year later I was traveling again, this time to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.    As it turned out there was a local geocacher that had published a WWFM event cache for the day I was to arrive but I was actually in flight during the event, and from what I understand only 1 other geocacher attended.   I know that the local Ethiopian cacher has tried hosting other events, hoping to meet traveling geocachers but hasn't had much sucess.  If I ever get back to Addis I plan on hosting an event there so that I can meet that local cacher (and potentially any others).

 

I've never had any inclination to host an event in another country to ensure that I got a find in the country.   That just feels too much like gaming the system to me.  

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8 minutes ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

I've never had any inclination to host an event in another country to ensure that I got a find in the country.   That just feels too much like gaming the system to me.  

 

In this context, would I ever host an event while passing through a country I wouldn't be stopping to actually find a geocache in? Probably not. But otherwise? If the opportunity is there, I don't see why not, nor would I consider that in any way gaming the system.

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4 hours ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

I've never had any inclination to host an event in another country to ensure that I got a find in the country.   That just feels too much like gaming the system to me.  

 

Well this is a game, isn't it? Kind of like watching your post count on the forums go up.

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5 hours ago, thebruce0 said:

 

In this context, would I ever host an event while passing through a country I wouldn't be stopping to actually find a geocache in? Probably not. But otherwise? If the opportunity is there, I don't see why not, nor would I consider that in any way gaming the system.

 

Same here.  If there’s already an event on the calendar - whether the organiser is a local or another traveller - that’s great.  If not, I’m quite happy to organise one myself.

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14 hours ago, IceColdUK said:

 

Whenever I travel somewhere, I always check for local events.

Point well taken. 

I've seen several ships docked at the same port, and wondered how many of the passengers on various ships might be heading to geocaches.  The same could be said for events, as well.

I guess it would be important to be sure not to word it in such a way that it seems to be a "let's go find all the caches here" event.

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7 hours ago, VAVAPAM said:

Point well taken. 

I've seen several ships docked at the same port, and wondered how many of the passengers on various ships might be heading to geocaches.  The same could be said for events, as well.

I guess it would be important to be sure not to word it in such a way that it seems to be a "let's go find all the caches here" event.

There wont be many, if any, on cruise ships. Of 15 ocean cruises and 4 river cruises I've done, there has not been any geocachers on board apart from myself. On one occasion there was another ship in port and I bumped into a cacher from that one.

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10 hours ago, colleda said:

There wont be many, if any, on cruise ships. Of 15 ocean cruises and 4 river cruises I've done, there has not been any geocachers on board apart from myself. On one occasion there was another ship in port and I bumped into a cacher from that one.

 

This past March / April I was on a vessel and there were two separate  caching groups on board.  The mini cruise included Miami, The Cayman Islands and Cuba.  Shortly after departure the groups became aware of one another; eventually there were "cross-overs" as elements of each itinerary were of interest to the other group.

 

"Event Caches" on Grand Cayman, and Cuba drew local cachers into the mix ... non cachers were afforded the opportunity  to "drink the kool-aid".  Muggles discovered the social nature as well as the explorative aspects of this ?activity, sport, hobby?.

 

Remember; this was during the spring of discontent when the folks at "The Lilly-Pad" were denying cruise caches out of hand with statements suggesting that such events were solely to benefit cruisers thus in some respect were non-social and or exclusionary and perhaps even insultive to the caching communities around the ports of call.  

 

 

Granted my recent experience may be skewed >>>>> but then so am I.

 

GEO-HUUGGGGZZZZZZZ to all

 

 

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15 hours ago, colleda said:

There wont be many, if any, on cruise ships. Of 15 ocean cruises and 4 river cruises I've done, there has not been any geocachers on board apart from myself. On one occasion there was another ship in port and I bumped into a cacher from that one.

Wow, bad luck. It seems like whenever I go on a cruise these days, I run into a few people from the ship roaming around finding the caches within easy striking distance of the dock.

 

The closest I got to an event was one someone on another ship had in the morning when my ship docked in the afternoon. I went to GZ several hours late, just in case, but everyone was gone, of course. The CO gave me permission to log it, anyway.

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1 hour ago, dprovan said:

Wow, bad luck. It seems like whenever I go on a cruise these days, I run into a few people from the ship roaming around finding the caches within easy striking distance of the dock.

 

The closest I got to an event was one someone on another ship had in the morning when my ship docked in the afternoon. I went to GZ several hours late, just in case, but everyone was gone, of course. The CO gave me permission to log it, anyway.

Perhaps I picked the wrong cruises??

Although I'm from Oz four of my cruises were Alaska & Inside Passage (x2), Ft Lauderdale/San Diego Panama Canal and Mississippi River (by Steamboat) plus one Danube/Main/Rhine river cruise of two weeks. I also join my cruise roll calls and mention my Geocaching interest but had nil contact there. It doesn't bother me though as I prefer caching solo rather than in a group. I was once lucky enough to stumble on an event in Anchorage that was on the same days as our tour hotel stay. I nice bunch of people which also included some cachers from Germany. That has been the only time an event coincided with any of our town/port visits while on vacation.

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I usually check to see if there are events near where I am traveling. The timing is always bad, however. I think I've found three events that happened to be occurring that I was able to attend, but those were all for short trips (within my state or just outside of it). This is in 17 years of caching, and tons of travel.

 

When we were in SE Asia last year, I found a couple events hosted by travelers, but we just missed them. One was in Cambodia, hosted by a cacher from Italy. It happened the day after we left the country. I left a note saying I would just miss it, and another cacher (possibly from New Zealand or Australia) noted that they would miss it by 12 days. It ended up being attended by a couple of cachers from the Netherlands. It would have been fun to have been able to attend, I was bummed.

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We attended a meet in Moscow a few years ago a couple of German guys hosted it an we were the only ones to turn up besides them, apparently they had hosted it to be able to gain a certain amout of types of caches in a country to qualify for a challenge,now in our eyes this is wrong and should be stopped,but how you can distinquish between genuine meets and meets just for this type of thing is difficult so yes if your not from the region/country you shouldnt be allowed to host one.

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2 minutes ago, The Whittles said:

We attended a meet in Moscow a few years ago a couple of German guys hosted it an we were the only ones to turn up besides them, apparently they had hosted it to be able to gain a certain amout of types of caches in a country to qualify for a challenge,now in our eyes this is wrong and should be stopped,but how you can distinquish between genuine meets and meets just for this type of thing is difficult so yes if your not from the region/country you shouldnt be allowed to host one.

 

See, I've come to the realization that (especially in the case of events) what they're doing doesn't negatively affect anyone else at all, so what does it matter? It's a proxy outrage, really. Here, they host an event for people to attend; there isn't even a log to inaccurately indicate the state of a cache. It's an event. Attend, or don't; who cares why it was hosted? If it's allowed, great for them.  It may seem 'cheap' to qualify for a challenge in that way, but it's a personal ethic, and I'm sure I do some things they may think are dumb. But if it's allowed and doesn't hurt the experience for others, then, "whatev!" Not worth stressing over :)

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1 hour ago, The Whittles said:

We attended a meet in Moscow a few years ago a couple of German guys hosted it an we were the only ones to turn up besides them, apparently they had hosted it to be able to gain a certain amout of types of caches in a country to qualify for a challenge,now in our eyes this is wrong and should be stopped,but how you can distinquish between genuine meets and meets just for this type of thing is difficult so yes if your not from the region/country you shouldnt be allowed to host one.

Why do you want to distinguish? The challenge encouraged them to host an event in a foreign country where they can meet other people. Why is that wrong compared to any other reason one might want to host an event? I'm sure they also went out of their way to find a virtual cache on the same trip. Would that, too, be wrong because they weren't doing it for the "pure" motive of wanting to experience that specific virtual?

 

A major purpose and one of the great joys of challenges is that they encourages people to do things in geocaching that they wouldn't otherwise do. That's a good thing. I have no idea why you're looking down your nose at it in disgust. OMG, you got to meet them!. Why in the world would you want to prevent that? How dare you judge their motives with your silly standards.

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1 hour ago, thebruce0 said:

I've come to the realization that (especially in the case of events) what they're doing doesn't negatively affect anyone else at all, so what does it matter? It's a proxy outrage, really

 

But can this type of behaviour have a negative effect on the pastime? Here's my take. 

 

When done to collect countries and souvenirs, or to fill grids, or to qualify for challenges, the events lose their real intent. 

 

Quote

 

3.1. Geocaching events

Geocaching Event Caches are get-togethers listed on Geocaching.com. They are organized by local geocachers and geocaching organizations. They range from meet-and-greets, to education seminars, to environmental cleanups. Anyone is welcome to attend! Events are a great way to meet fellow geocachers, learn about geocaching, and get involved in the geocaching community.

 

 

 

This behaviour permeates into all kinds of cache placements. Many caches are not placed or found for their intent, but rather for to collect countries and souvenirs, or to fill grids, or to qualify for challenges.

 

Recently I've found letterboxes where it was very obvious the letterbox aspect was not important to the CO (or the finders). The stamp was bare-minimum, cheapest they could find, tiny dollar store party favour (about 10 cents apiece),  that had nothing to do with the theme of the cache. The intent of the letterbox cache type was not to provide people with a good letterbox experience, but rather to provide a rare cache-type for grid-fillers and challenge-players.

 

When the primary intent is for numbers-style play, it can have a negative effect on the pastime overall. 

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16 minutes ago, L0ne.R said:

But can this type of behaviour have a negative effect on the pastime? Here's my take. 

 

When done to collect countries and souvenirs, or to fill grids, or to qualify for challenges, the events lose their real intent.  

 

Events are "a great way to" - not a requirement. I know plenty of well-intentioned events that do none of the above other than exist as a social "hello" or souvenir-grabber, etc. So, if you argue that 'vacation events' are effectively pulling the hobby down, then all those events are. It's making a mountain out of a molehill. The event was social. Geocachers can attend and be social, and talk about geocaching. That's all there is to it. Even if the CO only wants to do it to get another icon in another country.

Everything is a slippery slope these days; all you have to do is present another example going in the wrong direction. Everything about geocaching can be argued as a slippery slope. Well that's really why we have guidelines - to encourage people to climb the hill, not toss things down it - even though there will always be rocks and pebbles tumbling down, gaining speed, and sometimes whacking people in the forehead.

 

16 minutes ago, L0ne.R said:

This behaviour permeates into all kinds of cache placements. Many caches are not placed or found for their intent, but rather for to collect countries and souvenirs, or to fill grids, or to qualify for challenges.

 

That in and of itself is not a bad thing. But how people act and interact while doing that could be.

 

16 minutes ago, L0ne.R said:

Recently I've found letterboxes where it was very obvious the letterbox aspect was not important to the CO (or the finders). The stamp was bare-minimum, cheapest they could find, tiny dollar store party favour (about 10 cents apiece),  that had nothing to do with the theme of the cache. The intent of the letterbox cache type was not to provide people with a good letterbox experience, but rather to provide a rare cache-type for grid-fillers and challenge-players.

 

As long as those people's actions don't affect me (or the immediate community, ie log history) then if it's following the rules, I say it's okay.  Is it positive and improving the state of the game? Likely not. But is it worth my time getting worked up about it being a 'bare minimum'? Not really. Especially if me getting worked up gets other people worked up.

 

If the LB didn't have a stamp (which it's required to have), I'd probably NM it, or at worst report it.  I wouldn't complain that it's bare minimum if it only had a tiny stamp (I've found plenty of micro LBs with a mini-stamp and nano log - is that wrong?).  And we're not in the business of rating 'quality' on the scale of what is allowed.

Rather, more effective would be to place a new Letterbox that really encourages or demonstrates what a LB cache can be.

 

If an event was published by a vacationer, excellent!  Now if the host didn't show up (especially if others did), then I would absolutely take issue. 

There are far too many unknown factors to claim the slippery slope "vacation events lead to ruining geocaching".

 

 

"When the primary intent is for numbers-style play, it can have a negative effect on the pastime overall."

 

Yep, any habit in this hobby taken to the extreme can 'ruin geocaching'.

Edited by thebruce0
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1 hour ago, dprovan said:

The challenge encouraged them to host an event in a foreign country where they can meet other people.

 

Not exactly.  Challenges can't be based on hiding caches

 

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They have to be tied with cache finds.  And the only cache you can both own and find these days is an event cache.  So: host an event, and attend it, and you get your guaranteed find.

 

And that's OK, if the event is still open to whoever comes by.  But people were holding "events" that were designed to cater only to the folks that were traveling.  You can't hold a cache on a moving plane or ship - so let's make it in the airport terminal or on the cruise ship dock, which is only open to ticketed passengers and crew.  Or on the Disney private island.  So Groundspeak had to change the event guidelines and remind touring cachers that the purpose of events is not to have a guaranteed find at the next port of call, but to meet other geocachers.

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1 hour ago, L0ne.R said:

Many caches are not placed or found for their intent, but rather for to collect countries and souvenirs, or to fill grids, or to qualify for challenges.

 

What is the intent of a cache?  To be found.  Period.  Anything else is secondary - views, hike, adventure or, with Challenges, filling a grid or types or whatever - all are secondary to finding the cache.  When I log a cache it indicates that I found it.  There can be other reasons, aside from just finding the cache, for someone to go for a particular cache, but finding it meets the intent of the cache.  For a CO to expect a certain motivation for the finders of that cache is setting him/herself up for failure.  Putting expectation on someone else will never work - whether for caches, relationships, or anything - as they are an individuals and have their own motivations, agendas, expectations.

 

For a couple of years while traveling I was targeting the oldest cache in the state as I passed thru - that was my motivation to find that cache, but still I had to find the cache fulfilling the intent.  Is that motivation worse than 'this is a random cache I saw on the GPSr so I stopped'? 

 

Many years ago I did a trip, the goal of which was to find Mingo as my 1,000th cache.  Does that make all the finds I did along the way "bad" since I needed them for the numbers to line up right? 

 

We got lost (following the GPSr!) twice on one trip - once for a cache to fill a D/T combo, the other for the oldest cache in the state - making the hunts an adventure that I would have missed (other caches along the route would have been so much easier to find) without the motivations to find those particular caches. 

 

I've done hikes when I've been out-of-shape that I did not enjoy the journey, but I found the cache.  I've been to viewpoints where you couldn't see anything (the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland were so foggy we could hardly see the edge much less the cliffs, a really bummer) but I found the cache.  Because I didn't enjoy/experience what the CO expected does that make those finds any less?  Nope, I found the cache fulfilling the intent.

 

The intent of Geocaching is to find caches, the individual motivations to find those caches vary (even day to day) but results in people finding caches - so those motivations (whether you agree with them or not) are fulfilling the intent of caching and are not having a negative impact on the game.

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7 hours ago, The Whittles said:

We attended a meet in Moscow a few years ago a couple of German guys hosted it an we were the only ones to turn up besides them, apparently they had hosted it to be able to gain a certain amout of types of caches in a country to qualify for a challenge,now in our eyes this is wrong and should be stopped,but how you can distinquish between genuine meets and meets just for this type of thing is difficult so yes if your not from the region/country you shouldnt be allowed to host one.

 

YOU think its wrong so IT SHOULD BE STOPPED? Good grief.

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5 hours ago, L0ne.R said:

When the primary intent is for numbers-style play, it can have a negative effect on the pastime overall. 

 

I hold events for numbers, challenges, and heaven forbid, to earn souvenirs. I hope this is isn't too much to convince you to quit the game. [eyeroll]

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4 hours ago, L0ne.R said:

Many caches are not placed or found for their intent, but rather for to collect countries and souvenirs, or to fill grids, or to qualify for challenges.

 

A couple of years back I spent a full year seeking out, travelling to and finding caches with a D/T rating of 2/4 to qualify for a challenge. I enjoyed them, wrote long logs with lots of photos, awarded FPs to many, moved any TBs along that were in them, in short did all the things I would have done had I not been attempting that challenge, except, well, for many of them I probably wouldn't have sought them out in the first place. Some were in pretty remote spots and rarely get found - the challenge cache itself, also a D2/T4, hasn't had any more finds since mine when I qualified and found it in September 2017. I'm not sure how going out and enjoying rarely-found caches for the purpose of fulfilling a challenge is bad for the game.

 

Likewise with my own challenge cache, which requires 20 finds on caches with the Takes more than an hour attribute, I haven't had any COs complain that people are finding their caches because of my challenge. Quite the opposite, actually; when it was published, a few of the COs with qualifying caches posted notes on the local FB group promoting their caches as qualifiers for my challenge. I created that challenge in the hope that it might encourage a few people to visit some of those rarely-found caches. How is that bad?
 

Again a couple of years back I hosted an event for the "Where in the world is Signal?" souvenir. The intent of that event was to provide a means of getting that souvenir, since the only way to get that souvenir was to attend an event that weekend, and I'm sure many of the 21 attendees only came because of the opportunity for the souvenir, but most stayed for the full two hours or more, joined in the chit-chat, shared in the nibblies, swapped TBs and did everything else they normally do at events. Had it not been for the souvenir, there wouldn't have been an event. In fact the most recent event in this region, and the only event since my Signal one, was also for a souvenir promotion, the Cache Carnival one earlier this year.

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My nephew attended an event in Thailand.  From 16:00 to 16:30.  The event owner did not make it to the event, but logged a long 'found it' with the history or the area.  The event owner hosts many events, frequently while travelling.  Quite a number of times, the only attendees are the event owner and companions.  

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14 hours ago, Harry Dolphin said:

My nephew attended an event in Thailand.  From 16:00 to 16:30.  The event owner did not make it to the event, but logged a long 'found it' with the history or the area.  The event owner hosts many events, frequently while travelling.  Quite a number of times, the only attendees are the event owner and companions.

 

Yep.  Not much of a "get together" if the attendees have already got together.  (Or if they don't show up.)

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3 minutes ago, BugLuv said:

I’ve zero experience with events. I assumed they were all large, multi day events-not sure why I pictured this.  Question: if you attend an event, it is logged as a normal find?

 

Yes, an ‘Attended’ log on an event is essentially treated the same as a ‘Found’ log on a cache.  The difference, that supplies most of the fuel for this topic, is that you can attend your own event (but not find your own cache).

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10 minutes ago, BugLuv said:

I’ve zero experience with events. I assumed they were all large, multi day events-not sure why I pictured this.

Most of the events I've attended have been short 30-60 minute "meet and greet" gatherings. Geocachers get together and hang out for a while, talking about geocaching, other hobbies, or whatever they want to talk about. The large multi-hour events are the exception. Large multi-day events, even more so.

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21 minutes ago, BugLuv said:

Thank you. I’m admittedly not a social person or a hostess personality...but, isn’t it awkward to meet 3-4 people? I’m trying to picture what is planned for these small gatherings? The legit effort ones.

Have you ever gotten together with a few people for breakfast? That's pretty much what the smallest event I've attended was like. The four of us met at a local Starbucks and sat around a table drinking coffee and visiting. Then the event organizer took several trackables and headed to the airport to catch a flight, and the rest of us went to work. It didn't seem awkward to me at all.

 

Not all events need to have something planned. Sometimes it's just meeting at a coffeehouse before work, or at a restaurant at noon.

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