Acquiring Unmaintained Geocaches.

[+CommunistOnions]

Hello all, in my local area there are two geocaches which owner is now inactive. I see they are at a threat of being archived and I want to acquire them. How do I contact the original owner respectfully and without getting reported or something else bad happening? The geocaches’ codes are: GC4F7QP and GC4FD46. 

Edited January 19, 2021 by CommunistOnions
A different question about the same topic.

[+sernikk]

With acquiring I understand you mean adoption. There is nothing disrespectful with offering help with maintenance of a cache and no reasonable owner would argue with that. If a cache is unmaintained and the owner is no longer interested in keeping it alive, there are several options of what can happen:

– owner finds a cacher interested in maintaining it and this cacher can adopt the cache,

– someone from the local community feels it's right to keep this cache alive and he contact's the owner by himself so the cache adoption process can be started,

– the owner can't find or he's not willing to find anyone for his geocache so he archives it to free room for new ones,

– the owner is inactive (no contact with him is possible), after some time the cache may be archived by the reviewer.

 

More information about the adoption process itself can be found here: https://www.geocaching.com/help/index.php?pg=kb.chapter&id=38&pgid=54

[+MartyBartfast]

I often see that people who nolonger can or want to maintain their caches will post something in a local facebook group asking if anyone wants to adopt their caches, or else just put the word out among their friends.

 

[+cerberus1]

10 hours ago, CommunistOnions said:

In my local area I see many geocaches which are unmaintained and I see people acquiring them.

How do they do this? And also, how do they convince the original cache owner to transferring them without being disrespectful?

 

We don't see anyone "convince" anybody.  The CO wants to get rid of their cache(s), and someone says they'd like to take 'em over.   

Most owners wishing to dump their caches either head to faceboook,  post a write note log on the cache's pages, and/or write in bold their wishes in the cache's description.

 

That doesn't mean that folks shouldn't use the helpful action logs (DNF, NM...) if a cache isn't being maintained in the meantime...

[+msrubble]

Adopt or transfer a cache

 

Write to the owner and say you'd like to adopt the caches. You can't take over the caches without the owner's permission.

 

If the caches are archived, you could hide new caches in the same locations.

[Keystone]

I merged together two threads about the same subject.

[+oz_bean_counter]

On 1/17/2021 at 4:40 PM, CommunistOnions said:

Hello all, in my local area there are two geocaches which owner is now inactive. I see they are at a threat of being archived and I want to acquire them. How do I contact the original owner respectfully and without getting reported or something else bad happening? The geocaches’ codes are: GC4F7QP and GC4FD46. 

 

There is no meaningful threat of them being archived. They don't even have NM's on them.

[+Max and 99]

11 minutes ago, oz_bean_counter said:

 

There is no meaningful threat of them being archived. They don't even have NM's on them.

That is true but one hasn't had a log in a while. 

Edited April 15, 2021 by Max and 99

[+barefootjeff]

8 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

That is true but one hasn't had a log in a while. 

 

Three of my caches haven't had any finds since 2019 but I don't consider them at risk of archival (other than perhaps by me if I get sick of checking on them). In these parts at least, I've never seen a cache archived by a reviewer simply for not having been found for a while.

[+oz_bean_counter]

14 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

That is true but one hasn't had a log in a while. 

 

Less than two months. Given the COVID situation and the local lockdowns we've experienced, I'm not surprised or concerned.

[+Lynx Humble]

55 minutes ago, barefootjeff said:

 

Three of my caches haven't had any finds since 2019 but I don't consider them at risk of archival (other than perhaps by me if I get sick of checking on them). In these parts at least, I've never seen a cache archived by a reviewer simply for not having been found for a while.

I concur, in my area there are over 1000 caches not having been found for 4.5 years and no risk of archival unless missing

[+Max and 99]

1 hour ago, oz_bean_counter said:

 

Less than two months. Given the COVID situation and the local lockdowns we've experienced, I'm not surprised or concerned.

Three months.

[+oz_bean_counter]

20 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

Three months.

Are we talking about the same caches?

GC4FD46 - last found 10th April

GC4F7QP - last found 28th February

[+Max and 99]

2 hours ago, Max and 99 said:

That is true but one hasn't had a log in a while. 

 

2 hours ago, oz_bean_counter said:

Less than two months. Given the COVID situation and the local lockdowns we've experienced, I'm not surprised or concerned

 

51 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

Three months.

A physical log.