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Etiquette question - Cache dedicated to a particular geocacher - GC9GJZX


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Hi all - I've been a geocacher for years, but don't have that many finds, only recently getting active again with the kids out... so my email alert went off for a new hide, and I pulled it up to see that it was dedicated specifically to a cacher who had recently passed 10K finds and who turned around FTF on this new one within a few hours,.. I never would have beat him/her/them to it anyway, but this raises a question in my brain.   Would it be considered bad form or inappropriate to not allow them to get the FTF if they hadn't jumped on it so quickly?   Anyone have other examples of etiquette faux pas that get under your skin?

 

Thanks!!

 

Scott - ShortFatBaldGuy.

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9 minutes ago, ShortFatBaldGuy said:

Anyone have other examples of etiquette faux pas that get under your skin?

First time hider. Hid a geocache around the lake in his neighborhood. My husband and kids spent a very long time and two trips looking for the nano. Hider's child claimed first to find. Coords were 400 ft off. If they had used the posted coordinates like the rest of us got, they wouldn't have found it so they only got first to find because they knew where it was hidden. 👎 

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15 minutes ago, ShortFatBaldGuy said:

I've been a geocacher for years, but don't have that many finds, only recently getting active again with the kids out... so my email alert went off for a new hide, and I pulled it up to see that it was dedicated specifically to a cacher who had recently passed 10K finds and who turned around FTF on this new one within a few hours,.. I never would have beat him/her/them to it anyway, but this raises a question in my brain.   Would it be considered bad form or inappropriate to not allow them to get the FTF if they hadn't jumped on it so quickly?   Anyone have other examples of etiquette faux pas that get under your skin?

 

How long would folks be required to wait ?   A day?   Ten?    Usually here, the "dedicated to..." cacher already has a heads-up...

If a cache came out that was dedicated to a cacher, I'd wait a day and head out, careful that I'm not removing something meant to go to them.

When this comes up at events, I've asked that we aren't "gifted" a cache, after one we were "honored" with was a film can shoved in a fence...

One time the other 2/3rds and I headed out to a series that was in a park, in another state.

We were FTF on all, and were so pumped about it that we left some really nice swag.

 - It turned out they were all meant to be for an event the next day, and the EO didn't temp disable them when the Reviewer published them.  :laughing:

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2 hours ago, GeoElmo6000 said:

In my area, among experienced cachers, we hold back on any FTF attempt until the one being honored with the cache has a chance to go for FTF. 

 

Same here, though the cache page usually does state to allow the honoree to be the FTF, just in case there's someone out there who isn't aware of the local etiquette.  We've also done hides for grandkids, and gave them the pre-publication page after we had hidden it, and they got to find it first; then we submitted for publication and the post-publication FTF got to claim it as well.  It's just how we roll locally!

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8 hours ago, cerberus1 said:

How long would folks be required to wait ?   A day?   Ten? 

No one's required to wait. They just wait. Or they call the honoree and offer to accompany them. When you say "required", you're overthinking it.

 

And the sword cuts both ways. Others don't rush out for the FTF, true, but if the honoree isn't on the ball and snoozes, he can still lose.

 

It's just a game among friends.

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10 hours ago, dprovan said:

No one's required to wait. They just wait. Or they call the honoree and offer to accompany them. When you say "required", you're overthinking it.

And the sword cuts both ways. Others don't rush out for the FTF, true, but if the honoree isn't on the ball and snoozes, he can still lose.

 

Yeah...  don't get sarcasm ?  

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I'm not playing this side game and don't want to start the old dicussion about FTFs but I do get the thrill being the first finder of a cache.

But what stretches my imagination by far is how can it be satisfying for anybody being "giftet" with an FTF by hindering others to claim a find?

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1 hour ago, Hynz said:

I'm not playing this side game and don't want to start the old dicussion about FTFs but I do get the thrill being the first finder of a cache.

But what stretches my imagination by far is how can it be satisfying for anybody being "giftet" with an FTF by hindering others to claim a find?

 

It's just a respect thing.  Someone creates a cache in honor of a cacher - "This cache honors Hynz for their longstanding dedication to the local geocaching community with great mentoring of new cachers, fun hides, and bringing the community together with some great events" - and others see that and step back and let the one being honored find the cache first.  It's not about giving the one being honored the thrill of the FTF, it's like letting the one whose birthday it is get the first piece of cake.

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7 hours ago, Hynz said:

I'm not playing this side game and don't want to start the old dicussion about FTFs but I do get the thrill being the first finder of a cache.

But what stretches my imagination by far is how can it be satisfying for anybody being "giftet" with an FTF by hindering others to claim a find?

I've never seen it here.

I don't really get it.

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9 hours ago, GeoElmo6000 said:

It's not about giving the one being honored the thrill of the FTF, it's like letting the one whose birthday it is get the first piece of cake.

Then the CO should "serve the first piece of cake" to the honoree by providing the cache info to the honoree before everyone else. I've found a series like this, where the CO said that the honoree had already found the caches, but that STF (second to find) was available.

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The one time I've hunted a cache like this, I got to the first waypoint the same time as the "birthday girl" and we did the rest of the cache together, joined by the cache creators near the end. There were two groups of hunters ahead of us the whole time and at no point did anyone even hint that etiquette was being breached (except with regards to one group of hunters apparently taking a shortcut through private property).

 

But essentially, published caches are fair game to all and FTF hunting is a race. It can be a friendly race full of cooperation, but it's still a race and you can't show up to a race saying only one person is allowed to compete.

 

If you want a private caching experience, don't publish the cache. I wasn't around in the early days but I know it was reasonably common for hiders in my area to publish the cache details on IRC or their personal homepage etc. while waiting for approval on gc.com. Today it would be a faux pas to claim an FTF on cache before it's listed, but I assume the "honoring" here is supposed to be the cache itself, not awarding "points" in a sidegame.

 

Your local practices may vary of course.

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Here, FTF is strongly competed for. No one is waiting for anyone. People down knifes and forks, etc, jump in their cars, on their bikes, etc, and head straight off. First there gets it. People who arrive at the same time and search together, do tend to share the FTF though. The FTF is often claimed, only a few minutes after publication. No waiting.

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1 hour ago, Goldenwattle said:

Here, FTF is strongly competed for. No one is waiting for anyone. People down knifes and forks, etc, jump in their cars, on their bikes, etc, and head straight off. First there gets it. People who arrive at the same time and search together, do tend to share the FTF though. The FTF is often claimed, only a few minutes after publication. No waiting.

 

Around here FTFs are a bit like snail racing. On one of my fairly recent hides (GC8JGWN), FTF was claimed a day after publication and 2TF rolled up almost two months later. A similar thing happened on a cache last year near Wondabyne railway station (one of the Sidetracked series) where I claimed FTF the day after publication and it was six weeks before anyone else came along. Admittedly I had a head start by living just one stop away, but even so I don't think our trains are that slow.

Edited by barefootjeff
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1 hour ago, Goldenwattle said:

Here, FTF is strongly competed for. No one is waiting for anyone. People down knifes and forks, etc, jump in their cars, on their bikes, etc, and head straight off. First there gets it. People who arrive at the same time and search together, do tend to share the FTF though. The FTF is often claimed, only a few minutes after publication. No waiting.

That's the way it is here, too. Except for tribute caches. For tribute caches, they defer to the honoree.

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3 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

Wondabyne railway station (one of the Sidetracked series)

I loved visiting that station. (GC8JHNC) I like collecting SideTracked caches.  Nervous though because it's a 'demand' stop and I have never alighted at a 'demand' stop before. However there were no problems. A scenic walk up the hill to the cache, but steep.

I see I am still the last finder, way back in February, although the CO had it disabled for awhile because of Covid.

Wondabyne Rail Station.jpg

View from train.jpg

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Some years ago (about 11 years) someone in our area started a series of tribute caches.  Here are the FTF logs:

 

From the honoree:  "Well, with a cache name like that, we were obligated to be FTF! (Even though it was cold and raining!) Thanks for the cache!"

 

From the honoree:  "How very cool! Super windy out there today. A bit intimidating with all of the possible hidey holes. Coords spot on. Many thanks for the cache and FTF!!!"

 

Someone else:  "FTF on this one! Thanks for the cache in a really interesting place!"  The honoree posted as STF:  "Now that the FTF has been established, I'll log my find! Was out with SugarPug when she found this spot for a cache. Little did I know, that she was going to name it for me! TFTC!!!"

 

On the cache that was  "for me" someone else posted: "FTF! Visiting family and saw this one just got posted. TFTC".  I didn't even know it was there--12 miles from my home, outside of my normal notification area; no way I could have beat the First Finder to the cache even if I had seen the publication notice. I finally found it about 10 months later.  I don't care about FTF anyway--rather let someone else do the beta testing--I think I have 2 FTFs over the years.  

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On 9/22/2021 at 2:43 PM, GeoElmo6000 said:

In my area, among experienced cachers, we hold back on any FTF attempt until the one being honored with the cache has a chance to go for FTF. 

 

There was one created for me once and I posted that I wouldn't be able to find it for a while so have it FTF seekers.  

 

I will hold back as well because I know others care about this. But I'm in the minority though and would not want anyone holding back on a cache placed in my honor. I don't see the point, it's not fun either, claiming ftf on a cache that I knew no one else was trying for. 

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