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A cache is a find if it's been signed is pretty standard. Some times they're signed with invisible ink. As a c/o you can delete that find. Lately I've received many finds on my caches that say they virtually signed it. So as a c/o during this pandemic should we let that go. I think I will but I'd like of your thoughts. KH

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Understanding the times, if a person wants to go out caching and won't adequately prepare for actually making the find with appropriate safety materials, they should just find something else to do.  There's nothing unique to caching that they shouldn't be doing in most other 'outside the home' events where things have to be touched, even grocery shopping.

 

As the CO, it's definitely your call, but even if I were feeling like a generous CO who was prepared to ignore the guidelines, I'd at insist on a picture at a minimum.

I'm not accepting 'virtual' logs at this time, and don't yet see a time when I would be doing so.

 

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I deleted two logs this week for not signing the paper log. There was no proof they had visited the cache, which is what signing gives. They "forgot their pen". I sent an email and got no reply, so deleted. The polite thing in that case would be to have contacted me BEFORE logging and giving me photographic evidence as most can that have their smart-phone, of at least a very good description. I would be very unlikely to have refused.

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5 hours ago, kayak hunter said:

A cache is a find if it's been signed is pretty standard. Some times they're signed with invisible ink. As a c/o you can delete that find.

Lately I've received many finds on my caches that say they virtually signed it. So as a c/o during this pandemic should we let that go.

I think I will but I'd like of your thoughts. 

 

If you already made up your mind, curious why you'd want our opinions ?  Thanks.  :)     Your first sentence shows you understand...

This virus thing isn't enough to to make this hobby go downhill,  but getting folks in the habit of not signing logs might.

 - There's a couple "virtual/take a pic" location games out there, this ain't one.

It's a good thing to take a walk for sun, fresh air, and a little bit of exercise.  To play this hobby, there's a log to sign.

 

Edited by cerberus1
addds
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1 hour ago, cerberus1 said:

 

If you already made up your mind, curious why you'd want our opinions ?  Thanks.  :)     Your first sentence shows you understand...

This virus thing isn't enough to to make this hobby go downhill,  but getting folks in the habit of not signing logs might.

 - There's a couple "virtual/take a pic" location games out there, this ain't one.

It's a good thing to take a walk for sun, fresh air, and a little bit of exercise.  To play this hobby, there's a log to sign.

 

He got your thoughts sure enough.;)

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Funny how my attitude has changed over the years. Unless it's blatantly obvious that they were never at the cache, I'll let it go. On the other hand, the logs I'd LIKE to delete are the obnoxious block cut-and-pastes, especially the ones that start out, "sorry in advance for the cut-and-paste log" and then a long paragraph about events in their life. Or, "I'd like to thank all the cache owners for taking the time and trouble..." but they can't take half a minute to write a real log.

As long as I'm drifting off topic, let me add this:

 

You're not going to catch Corona Virus from touching a cache. You have to ALSO take no precautions. 

Don't wash your hands or use hand sanitizer.

Don't wear a mask or use gloves.

Then touch your nose or mouth.

The point is, fear of catching CV as a reason for not signing is really not even legitimate.

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This is hilarious.  Delete them.  Geocaching is one of the SAFEST coronavirus hobbies.  First off, you are touching something that very few people have touched, and it's likely that it hasn't been touched in days or longer, rendering it completely "clean" (in a viral sense).  Secondly, you are out in the open, often away from places where there would be lots of people in tight spaces.  Thirdly, you're outside, in the air, exercising, which makes your overall health better and helps you fight off infections better.  If anyone gives the excuse that they didn't want to sign it due to the pandemic (but apparently touched everything around it up to the point where they found it), they are lying to get a smiley.

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14 minutes ago, Ageleni said:

and it's likely that it hasn't been touched in days or longer, rendering it completely "clean" (in a viral sense).

Many caches where I live might not have been found for weeks; some not for months. I did a section of a power trail the other day, the day after some restrictions were relaxed, and I was the first finder of all those caches for almost two months.

You reminded me that I sent a note to a couple of cachers I couldn't find the signatures for on a log. Three weeks grace was long enough. One had got back with a good excuse and a description of the way the cache is hidden (fairly unique), so I accepted that log, but the older never got back to me, so delete.

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15 minutes ago, mac266 said:

Lately I've been logging, "Found but didn't sign the log due to coronavirus" in my online account.  

 

That's fine if that's what you want to do, but just know that in Geocaching, you didn't 'Find' those caches, so a tough CO would be allowed to delete your 'Finds' without recourse.

 

The definition of "Find" in GC is not the generic English definition; it ALSO encompasses the action of signing the log. (And, the definition of 'sign' is also up for discussion...ELSEWHERE!)

 

In my opinion, you should be filing "Write Note" logs saying that you found (small "f") the cache, but didn't sign. No points. If that's important, come back when you can and sign the log.

 

Or, figure out how to sign it now.

 

Edited by TeamRabbitRun
niraD, you posted whilst I was composing.
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If I'm just out to "f"ind geocaches, I tend to refer to the action as "located" or "spotted" to clear up any confusion around the "find" vs "Find".  I've had to explain a number of times (to newbies) that "find" in a geocaching context means "find it, sign it, log it online".

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Whether a surface has residue of coronavirus or not, or how long it may or may not last on a surface, the virus cannot cause illness by merely being on the skin, should it be there by some miniscule chance. Containers that have been sitting out in whatever location are not likely to be in the most germ-free state at any time, coronavirus or not, and I don't know about anyone else,  but I am able to resist putting my fingers in my mouth/eyes while caching. So that's one answer, keep your fingers out of your mouth and wash and disinfect your hands when done.

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53 minutes ago, mac266 said:

Lately I've been logging, "Found but didn't sign the log due to coronavirus" in my online account.  

 

Took a look at some caches you've hit, and I feel it'd be better to not say anything.    :D

A few red wrenches say maybe the COs aren't that concerned anyway...

 

Most we know with low D/T hides rarely check.   We don't. 

If ours, even on the last low D/T one we have left, if you admit to not signing the log, we'd delete it.

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1 minute ago, cerberus1 said:

 

Took a look at some caches you've hit, and I feel it'd be better to not say anything.    :D

A few red wrenches say maybe the COs aren't that concerned anyway...

 

Most we know with low D/T hides rarely check.   We don't. 

If ours, even on the last low D/T one we have left, if you admit to not signing the log, we'd delete it.

 

In every epidemic or pandemic in the past 20 years, I've gotten it.  I don't want this one.  I finally have a job that allows teleworking, and I'm not doing anything whatsoever to intentionally risk an exposure.  

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3 minutes ago, mac266 said:

In every epidemic or pandemic in the past 20 years, I've gotten it.  I don't want this one.  I finally have a job that allows teleworking, and I'm not doing anything whatsoever to intentionally risk an exposure.  

 

And that's fine ...  And there's nothing stopping you from "just taking a walk" either...    :)

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I've had two interesting logging events happen in the past week. Someone logged a find on one of my caches, "Found but didn't sign due to CV"

On a cache that I found that required a strenuous climb up a hill with a fantastic view, someone had logged a find describing the effort needed, the view, the surroundings. But they didn't sign the log. There was only one sig, the FTF. I was the third to find, the second to log.

What did I do about these logs? Well, I thought about messaging the finder of my cache asking him to change it to a note.

I thought about messaging the last finder of the difficult cache to go back and sign the log, or to write a note to the cache owner describing what I found.

In the end... I did nothing on either of them. Folks, these are weird times. If people get a little relief from geocaching, that's a good thing. I'm not going to expend any energy on making them feel bad about how they've chosen to deal with things during this stressful time. This is supposed to be a fun distraction! We don't need cache police shaming people for not doing it the "right" way. I agree that my examples are both examples of NOT doing it the "right" way. But so what?

As an aside, my hides are being logged in numbers I haven't seen in years, and I personally have more finds in the past 3 months than I did in all of 2019.

This despite being in two of the highest risk groups for CV. But that's another topic...

 

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3 minutes ago, hukilaulau said:

As an aside, my hides are being logged in numbers I haven't seen in years, and I personally have more finds in the past 3 months than I did in all of 2019.

This despite being in two of the highest risk groups for CV. But that's another topic...

 

I guess we all have our own ways of moving through this predicament. For me, this is my only statistic that's been increasing:

 

image.png.4c102fc6a50ab488cbb9b872ca2092d5.png

 

The restrictions in New South Wales, amongst the toughest in Australia, prohibit non-essential travel but allow exercise in your local area. As I've found pretty much all the caches I'm allowed to get to (there's one front-yard cache that I have no desire to attempt), my only caching-related exercise has been visiting some of my own hides that are near home. As for activity on my hides, that's been pretty minimal since the end of March except for a few newbies who did the rounds of some of my near-suburbia hides around Easter time. The last couple of weeks there's been nothing.

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32 minutes ago, hukilaulau said:

As an aside, my hides are being logged in numbers I haven't seen in years, and I personally have more finds in the past 3 months than I did in all of 2019.

 

Definitely more finds on my hiking caches!  I'm down to one find a day, for my streak, and my exercise.  I've stopped heading east into North East Jersey.  Too COVID congested.  Twelve caches on a woods road in the Newark Watershed?  I'll hike it twelve times!  For a find and an exercise a day.  Though the bridge on the woods road was destroyed by ATVers.  So I found a different hike in, but a half mile each way longer.

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15 hours ago, thebruce0 said:

If I'm just out to "f"ind geocaches, I tend to refer to the action as "located" or "spotted" to clear up any confusion around the "find" vs "Find".  I've had to explain a number of times (to newbies) that "find" in a geocaching context means "find it, sign it, log it online".

 

Some  seem to think that a "Find" doesn't actually require a "find it", but as long as there is a signature it can be logged online.  I also prefer to use "locate".  One can locate or spot a container, then retrieve the container, open the container, sign the log, then replace the container.  Only then can one log a Find online.

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