Logging FTF - how?

[+hockeysocks]

I'm new to logging a FTF.

Yesterday picked up a  brand new cache - at 910AM no one else had logged a find online nor signed log.

there was a spot in log for FTF to sign, so we did and marked down time.

i took a photo of cache and log with our FTF signature.

 

I was not able to log online my find until about 12 noon, only to find another player claimed the FTF at 11AM.  

 

I added my subsequent log online immediately and attached photo showing empty log with our signature.  

 

Curious I returned to cache at 520pm, to find other player had wrote FTF and signed right below our name claiming they had signed an empty log and they had logged online first.  Took a photo of log - they hadn't signed in FTF spot.

 

is first to sign log or sign online the FTF?  Not trying to be petty - just trying to get rules right.

 

maybe I should not have used green ink.

 

 

[+Windstorm+]

I don't think there's a problem with green ink. Perhaps the other cacher didn't read your info at the top, possibly assuming it was CO and cache information. I'd suggest just letting it go and not worrying about it. FTF is a side game and you don't "lose" your FTF just because someone else is also claiming it (possibly by accident).

[+The A-Team]

My guess is that the way they unfolded the log, they didn't see the top portion and only saw the blank space starting at the "NAME/DATE" line. Their claim of FTF would therefore just be an honest mistake.

[+Camroo]

yeah... i wouldnt care too much about it... if you really care about it then just send a friendly message to the cacher who claimed the FTF

[+K13]

In your online log, note the time of your FTF, and attach a your photo of the log. Anyone who cares will see that you are the real FTF, and the other guy may (or may not) change the text in his log. 

The stat of FTF is something that only you can keep track for yourself, so there is no system to count these, nor to officiate in case of a difference of opinion.

 

[+Max and 99]

4 hours ago, hockeysocks said:

I'm new to logging a FTF.

Yesterday picked up a  brand new cache - at 910AM no one else had logged a find online nor signed log.

there was a spot in log for FTF to sign, so we did and marked down time.

i took a photo of cache and log with our FTF signature.

 

I was not able to log online my find until about 12 noon, only to find another player claimed the FTF at 11AM.  

 

I added my subsequent log online immediately and attached photo showing empty log with our signature.  

 

Curious I returned to cache at 520pm, to find other player had wrote FTF and signed right below our name claiming they had signed an empty log and they had logged online first.  Took a photo of log - they hadn't signed in FTF spot.

 

is first to sign log or sign online the FTF?  Not trying to be petty - just trying to get rules right.

 

maybe I should not have used green ink.

 

 

Even if you never logged your find online, you're still FTF.  The geocachers who came after you can certainly claim FTF,  but they're not.

 

I've been second to find and the FTF never did log the cache online. 

Edited August 30, 2019 by Max and 99

[+VAVAPAM]

In our area, it's customary for FTF to send an immediate online FTF log as a courtesy to others who may be headed there to find it first. 

Not a full and lengthy log, just a Write Note, "FTF at 0910," with the actual Found log to follow later.  This practice may also help in a situation like yours.

I have seen others call themselves FTL, First to Log, knowing they didn't find it first but were the first to post an online log.

 

You've shown that you were the first to sign the log, and others who sign it later will see that, too.  You know, they know, everybody knows that you were FTF.  Expecting the other fellow to change the wording of his log may not be realistic.  Don't let that tarnish the memory your first FTF.  Make up a FTF dance and do it. 

Fist pump!

 

[+CAVinoGal]

1 hour ago, VAVAPAM said:

Make up a FTF dance and do it. 

Fist pump!

I typically log a draft (field note) at the time we find a cache - time, any interesting keywords to help me remember that particular find, etc. Then I write a proper log on the computer when I get home later in the day.

 

When we are the FTF on something local, I will log either a Write Note or a quick draft with the time and More later... as I know there are a few FTF "hounds" that track new hides and go after them quickly.  As a courtesy to save someone a trip across a toll bridge with expectation of an FTF, we'll log it when we find it.  Most in our local group will do the same.

 

I really dislike logging on my phone as I am very prone to typos and auto correct errors.  That's why I prefer to log a draft and upload the actual log later.  I make an exception when/if we are the FTF.  And even then, it's very short and to the point - timestamp, FTF, more later....

[+Max and 99]

Too often there is no cell service in the rural areas where I grab FTFs. I'll log as soon as I can, though.

[+cerberus1]

6 hours ago, hockeysocks said:

I'm new to logging a FTF.

Yesterday picked up a  brand new cache - at 910AM no one else had logged a find online nor signed log.

there was a spot in log for FTF to sign, so we did and marked down time.

i took a photo of cache and log with our FTF signature.

I was not able to log online my find until about 12 noon, only to find another player claimed the FTF at 11AM.  

I added my subsequent log online immediately and attached photo showing empty log with our signature.  

Curious I returned to cache at 520pm, to find other player had wrote FTF and signed right below our name claiming they had signed an empty log and they had logged online first.  Took a photo of log - they hadn't signed in FTF spot.

is first to sign log or sign online the FTF?  Not trying to be petty - just trying to get rules right.

maybe I should not have used green ink.

 

There are no "rules" for FTF.  If FTF was something that could be determined, I believe it'd be in our stats...

The 30th in line can say they're FTF, but most accept that the first to find the cache and sign the log is FTF.

You say you included a pic of the log (a lotta FTFers do now...), so all can see you were.    

[+kunarion]

25 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

Too often there is no cell service in the rural areas where I grab FTFs. I'll log as soon as I can, though.

 

My phone doesn't have service in various parts of town. Iphone 8, and the same phone chip I took out of my 'droid phone that had similar issues. I think it's my prepaid phone service (Straight Talk Wireless). Anyway, I couldn't log if I wanted to. Which I tend to not want to, until I return to my PC and can type proper logs.

 

But I hardly ever “claim FTF” anymore*. I sign a blank log, and my online log says that I found it, and I include the time I found it. People can figure it out.

 

 

* An eye-opener was as a newb Geocaching, I made a log about how some cache was the first one I found that day. And it began to seem in the ensuing logs by FTF hounds, that they were intent to bite my head off, because THEY WERE FIRST, THEY WERE FTF, not me. Um. Just wow. Eventually, I pretty much decided to be a lot more careful with the word “first” in my logs. And I pretty much don't “claim FTF”, for any reason.

 

Edited August 30, 2019 by kunarion

[+cerberus1]

2 hours ago, VAVAPAM said:

In our area, it's customary for FTF to send an immediate online FTF log as a courtesy to others who may be headed there to find it first. 

Not a full and lengthy log, just a Write Note, "FTF at 0910," with the actual Found log to follow later.  This practice may also help in a situation like yours.

 

When we started, the other 2/3rds was one of the first to use a phone locally (a blackberry in '05).

The rest of us laggards had to wait until we got home to log and post pics.  Many of us still do that today.  

Anyone who ever really played the FTF side-game should admit there's little concern with "courtesy". 

IIRC, we had around 200 FTFs before she got the app for iphone, yet still logged when home.  That's just the way it was done.

Now people need "confirmation" rather than "take your chances" ?   That's not a game...

We finally stopped counting after 350 because of this silliness...

I don't mention the rare times I'm the first to find the cache the way the CO intended in my logs anymore.

 - Yet following logs "congratulate", and some COs now have animated "award" things with your name on it flashing across the cache page, wanted or not. 

Sheesh...

 

[+kunarion]

29 minutes ago, cerberus1 said:

You say you included a pic of the log (a lotta FTFers do now...), so all can see you were.    

 

There's a cache where I included a picture of the log sheet with my signature alone, and I've wondered about it ever since.

 

This was a strangely unfound puzzle cache in Oregon. Here in Georgia, I discovered a couple of what I thought may be typoes in the puzzle that made it impossible to solve, and mentioned it to the CO who fixed the typoes. I couldn't be certain I was right unless the puzzle was right. And it was kind of unfair to be “FTF” after discussing the typoes, so now everyone has a fair shot at it. Cool.

 

My vacation finally arrived and with select caches in mind, I flew to Oregon, and drove the additional 3+ hours to the cache. Moments before I got to the cache, I checked at a Hotspot, and still no logs! I arrived and found the rolled-up blank log sheet, signed it, noted the time, and took a picture with my proxy dragon sitting on the log. All seemed in order to me. Nobody had solved it, that was my guess.

 

And I couldn't actually log it online til I got to the hotel which had wifi, later in the afternoon. I have more caches to find before I show up at the relatives' place, at which point no more caching shall occur, of course.

 

As I was about to submit my log, I discovered that someone logged it online as Found that same afternoon. Same day. He evidently doesn't participate in the FTF side-game, because he didn't mention anything about any signatures on the log already. So I've wondered whether his signature is first on that log roll, maybe on the other side. I didn't do a decent enough photo documentation to be absolutely sure.

 

I don't participate in the FTF side game. Yet I do, in the sense that if I'm FTF, others aren't, and they tend to know it when they see a previous finder has signed the log. And if someone else is FTF, they may wish to say so, without me saying I signed a blank log when there was a signature on the other side already.

 

But at least I didn't claim I was FTF. So that's a load off my back.

[+funkymunkyzone]

On 8/30/2019 at 10:38 AM, The A-Team said:

My guess is that the way they unfolded the log, they didn't see the top portion and only saw the blank space starting at the "NAME/DATE" line. Their claim of FTF would therefore just be an honest mistake.

This.

[+funkymunkyzone]

On 8/30/2019 at 2:10 PM, VAVAPAM said:

In our area, it's customary for FTF to send an immediate online FTF log as a courtesy to others who may be headed there to find it first. 

Not a full and lengthy log, just a Write Note, "FTF at 0910," with the actual Found log to follow later.  This practice may also help in a situation like yours.

 

 

I really wish that people that do this would do it with a Found log instead of a write note.  The website does not recognise a cache is found until it has a Found log, so it still shows up as unfound in lists and PQs... If a write note is so easy, why not a found it - it's even one less click in the app lol

[+niraD]

26 minutes ago, funkymunkyzone said:

I really wish that people that do this would do it with a Found log instead of a write note.  The website does not recognise a cache is found until it has a Found log, so it still shows up as unfound in lists and PQs... If a write note is so easy, why not a found it - it's even one less click in the app lol

If you log a Find and later edit it to include a real log, then the CO (and anyone watching the cache) will see only the original Find log. They will not get email notification when you edit it to include a real log.

 

If you log a Find and later delete that Find and log a new one, then that Find will not count towards your quota of Favorite points.

 

Personally, I've logged all my FTFs the same way I've logged all my other Finds, from a computer with a real keyboard, when it's convenient to do so.

[+funkymunkyzone]

1 minute ago, niraD said:

If you log a Find and later edit it to include a real log, then the CO (and anyone watching the cache) will see only the original Find log. They will not get email notification when you edit it to include a real log.

A non-issue *in my opinion*.  The CO (and I am one too) will eventually open the cache page one day and see the edited log.  It's not that hard.  For some COs less emails might even be better so it's kind of swings and roundabouts.

 

3 minutes ago, niraD said:

If you log a Find and later delete that Find and log a new one, then that Find will not count towards your quota of Favorite points.

That's a bug that Groundspeak should fix.  But then I think my response above covers it... just edit the log and you don't lose your 1/10th of a FP.

 

4 minutes ago, niraD said:

Personally, I've logged all my FTFs the same way I've logged all my other Finds, from a computer with a real keyboard, when it's convenient to do so.

Personally I do a variety of all three - log my complete log in the field having just found the cache, log a quick found log and edit later, or go home and write up the whole log (which I will generally do if I cache with someone else and they've already logged a quick found log in the field).  And as soon as a found it log is on the cache, every other FTF nut is aware.

[+colleda]

2 hours ago, niraD said:

If you log a Find and later edit it to include a real log, then the CO (and anyone watching the cache) will see only the original Find log. They will not get email notification when you edit it to include a real log.

 

If you log a Find and later delete that Find and log a new one, then that Find will not count towards your quota of Favorite points.

 

Personally, I've logged all my FTFs the same way I've logged all my other Finds, from a computer with a real keyboard, when it's convenient to do so.

As a CO I agree and prefer the WN. My problem is that I forget which of my caches had a "Found It" log along the lines "Full log to follow". It's very frustrating.

Edited to add.

The "Full Log" may not happen for days, weeks even, if it happens at all.

Edited September 3, 2019 by colleda

[+niraD]

1 hour ago, funkymunkyzone said:

The CO (and I am one too) will eventually open the cache page one day and see the edited log.

You do? I almost never look at the logs on my own cache pages, and when I do, it's only the handful of recent logs.

 

1 hour ago, funkymunkyzone said:

It's not that hard.

The difficulty of the task isn't the issue. Ironing shirts isn't hard either, but the last time I did that was a LONG time ago.

[+kunarion]

On ‎8‎/‎29‎/‎2019 at 6:16 PM, hockeysocks said:

I'm new to logging a FTF.

Yesterday picked up a  brand new cache - at 910AM no one else had logged a find online nor signed log.

there was a spot in log for FTF to sign, so we did and marked down time.

i took a photo of cache and log with our FTF signature.

 

I was not able to log online my find until about 12 noon, only to find another player claimed the FTF at 11AM.  

 

I added my subsequent log online immediately and attached photo showing empty log with our signature.  

 

Curious I returned to cache at 520pm, to find other player had wrote FTF and signed right below our name claiming they had signed an empty log and they had logged online first.  Took a photo of log - they hadn't signed in FTF spot.

 

is first to sign log or sign online the FTF?  Not trying to be petty - just trying to get rules right.

 

maybe I should not have used green ink.

 

 

 

You might sign the log sheet "FTF at 9:10AM", and then when you do the online log, also say so, and that you signed in green ink.

 

I like when the FTF adds the time.  I might consider hunting a new cache in the morning, and seeing the log "FTF at 7:12am", I'm just happy for them! Cool!  More power to ya!

 

…because I sure ain't getting up at 7:00am...

[+barefootjeff]

4 hours ago, kunarion said:

I like when the FTF adds the time.  I might consider hunting a new cache in the morning, and seeing the log "FTF at 7:12am", I'm just happy for them! Cool!  More power to ya!

 

…because I sure ain't getting up at 7:00am..

 

Back in 2014 there was a new bushland cache published at the top of a hill not far from home, so I cycled over at the crack of dawn, clambered to the top, made the find then sat back watching the rising sun sparkling off the waters of the bay down below. Just as well I made an early start as 2TF trundled along a couple of hours later at a more civilised hour and wasn't impressed to find he'd been beaten to it.

 

[+thebruce0]

On 8/30/2019 at 1:21 AM, kunarion said:

This was a strangely unfound puzzle cache in Oregon. Here in Georgia, I discovered a couple of what I thought may be typoes in the puzzle that made it impossible to solve, and mentioned it to the CO who fixed the typoes. I couldn't be certain I was right unless the puzzle was right. And it was kind of unfair to be “FTF” after discussing the typoes, so now everyone has a fair shot at it. Cool.

 

On the other hand, no one else contacted the CO about the puzzle to prompt them to check that the puzzle was correct. So in a sense, you still deserve it and I wouldn't say it's 'unfair'. Part of the 'puzzle' was noticing there was probably a typo. heh

 

5 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

Back in 2014 there was a new bushland cache published at the top of a hill not far from home, so I cycled over at the crack of dawn, clambered to the top, made the find then sat back watching the rising sun sparkling off the waters of the bay down below. Just as well I made an early start as 2TF trundled along a couple of hours later at a more civilised hour and wasn't impressed to find he'd been beaten to it.

 

Yep, we have the same issue here with some people. The FTF game is alive and well in some regions, and some people will travel great distances to grab them. I was greatly hammered by someone because I found a cache while I was on the road and didn't log the ftf until I was at home, but during that time he'd traveled to get it and was furious I didn't log my ftf right away.  Well ya know, before we could log right away, going for an ftf was a risk - it's still a risk, and any number of reasons could inhibit someone from logging their claim right away. If you choose to travel a great distance for an ftf, you'd better be prepared for the chance of seeing another name on the log first.  Another day, I went to log an ftf later in a day, and noted that that same person had signed the log hours earlier, but hadn't logged the ftf.  hmm.....  I wasn't going to kick the hornet's nest, but.. I made a joking comment and that was sufficient to rile up the cloud.

(and this thread hasn't even talked about group finds and types of claims and whatnot)

 

The FTF game is a very very touchy one. Tread lightly.   Be courteous however you can if you want to avoid getting stung. Fortunate if you live in an area with no stingers.

 

[+kunarion]

6 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

On the other hand, no one else contacted the CO about the puzzle to prompt them to check that the puzzle was correct. So in a sense, you still deserve it and I wouldn't say it's 'unfair'. Part of the 'puzzle' was noticing there was probably a typo. heh

 

Yeah.  I thought that, and also thought that it may just be that it's not a typo and I still need to solve it properly.  So I knew if I asked and it was a typo, it would be fixed.  And so I decided, that's fair.  It's not like I could go there right away anyway.

 

As it applies to the OP, more info is good.  If you find a cache, adding the time to one's log is cool, "FTF" or not.  And a coordinate checker is suitable on most any puzzle.

[+terratin]

On 8/30/2019 at 5:10 AM, VAVAPAM said:

In our area, it's customary for FTF to send an immediate online FTF log as a courtesy to others who may be headed there to find it first. 

Not a full and lengthy log, just a Write Note, "FTF at 0910," with the actual Found log to follow later.  This practice may also help in a situation like yours.

I have seen others call themselves FTL, First to Log, knowing they didn't find it first but were the first to post an online log.

 

You've shown that you were the first to sign the log, and others who sign it later will see that, too.  You know, they know, everybody knows that you were FTF.  Expecting the other fellow to change the wording of his log may not be realistic.  Don't let that tarnish the memory your first FTF.  Make up a FTF dance and do it. 

Fist pump!

 

 

Phew.. far too complicated. I logged a FTF yesterday around noon and had hardly any phone signal for most of the day. I came home at 22:00 and was knackered. I finally logs this late morning. That's good enough. Of course the indication that someone has taken the FTF is nice, but often not possible.

[+hzoi]

I don't go for FTF much anymore, but when I do, I take a picture of the log, usually with my FTF coin.  I try to log my find on my phone right away (to avoid sour grapes from other FTF hunters), but if that's not possible, I get to it as soon as I can.