Signing a log for others

[+MythicalCheesePirate]

I know this is probably a pretty common thing. Its annoying though, and dishonest. What I am referring to, are people who will go caching and sign a log for others who aren't even there so they can get a find too. I personally know one couple that I have witnessed doing this. I don't get that mentality. I would rather find them myself. What is the point of geocaching if you just let your spouse do it for you? I know this is just a hobby. And someone doing this really should have no bearing on my fun. But I can't help but to notice it.

Anyway, just thought I would see where you guys are at on this subject. Do you know people who do this? Or someone who does something else in "bad form" that annoys you?

[RuideAlmeida]

1 hour ago, MythicalCheesePirate said:

I know this is probably a pretty common thing.

 

Not at all.

[+cerberus1]

1 hour ago, MythicalCheesePirate said:

I know this is probably a pretty common thing.

 -skip -

What is the point of geocaching if you just let your spouse do it for you? 

Anyway, just thought I would see where you guys are at on this subject.

Do you know people who do this? Or someone who does something else in "bad form" that annoys you?

 

Far from it.  Only one example that we know of, but it doesn't annoy us.  We've seen how some got those high "numbers" for years...   

 - A caching "Team account" that has member's names written in the middle of the logbook somewhere. 

One person places caches, and all have a "find".  Since it is a "team account", the person placing logs it too...

 

We have a shared account, and the other 2/3rds has her own account, created at a time when we had to scroll down tons of trackables (her coins) just to log a Found It.  

If she's in another state for work or visiting, she might find a couple caches, and put them on her account and our shared.

As above, neither of us cache for numbers, as our low find count and my not logging most events would show if you knew us.

If that bugs you too, tough...

 

[+ChriBli]

2 hours ago, MythicalCheesePirate said:

I know this is probably a pretty common thing. Its annoying though, and dishonest. What I am referring to, are people who will go caching and sign a log for others who aren't even there so they can get a find too. I personally know one couple that I have witnessed doing this. I don't get that mentality. I would rather find them myself. What is the point of geocaching if you just let your spouse do it for you? I know this is just a hobby. And someone doing this really should have no bearing on my fun. But I can't help but to notice it.

Anyway, just thought I would see where you guys are at on this subject. Do you know people who do this? Or someone who does something else in "bad form" that annoys you?

In my experience, spouses (or even families) sharing  an account is rather common. Of course some of the caches will be found with not all team members present then, the alternative would be to refrain from caching when you're not together. Then it happens that spouses divorce, families split up or for other reasons the shared account can not be used the way it was before. Sometimes all the finds are then copied into two or more separate accounts, also the ones where not all the members were there. For simplicity I guess, it could be very tedious otherwise if there are many finds.

 

One person signing for more than one account when the others are not present at all should be rather uncommon. As you say, there would be no point. But I personally could not care less if someone did.

[+vw_k]

If the cache is actually there and someone actually found it then I personally don't mind if someone writes their friend or spouse's name in the log for them. It's not like they're failing to log a DNF or logging a cache that may not be there.

[+MNTA]

How would you really know?

 

 

This reminds me of the Yahtzee game I had as a kid that rings true to me for geocaching it had a great saying on the box.

 

 

[+niraD]

53 minutes ago, MNTA said:

This reminds me of the Yahtzee game I had as a kid that rings true to me for geocaching it had a great saying on the box.

 

 

 

I am reminded of Kismet, which is a dice game like Yahtzee that I played as a kid. It uses dice with different colored faces, and some of the combinations you're trying to match are based on the colors.

 

And more recently, I discovered Yams (on BGA), which uses regular dice, but uses slightly different combinations and scoring from Yahtzee.

 

Regardless, it helps if everyone at the table (or in the BGA game) plays the same version.

[+mustakorppi]

5 hours ago, MNTA said:

How would you really know?

I know of this type of logging practices because I've physically witnessed it multiple times by different people.

 

And while the yahtzee box speaks the truth, it is annoying as a matter of principle when an activity has well defined self-enforced rules that some people ignore, yet pretend they're in the same hobby. A few years ago someone set up the first proper record for self-supported cycling across Finland. A bit later someone else rode it slightly faster with his mom and girlfriend in a support car. He got newspapers to proclaim he had broken the record, when he really wasn't doing the same thing at all.

[+barefootjeff]

5 hours ago, MNTA said:

How would you really know?

 

 

This reminds me of the Yahtzee game I had as a kid that rings true to me for geocaching it had a great saying on the box.

 

Saying "you play your way, I'll play mine" is all well and good, but this game/hobby/pastime/addiction has one basic tenet:

 

You can log caches online as "Found" after you visited the coordinates and signed the logbook.

 

Sure, it's easy to get away with not visiting the coordinates and letting someone else sign the logbook for you, but that doesn't make it right. One of my friends once said, "You ahould sign the logbook yourself or have been close enough to it to have done so" and I think that's a pretty good rule of thumb to apply to group finds.

[+MNTA]

3 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

 

Saying "you play your way, I'll play mine" is all well and good, but this game/hobby/pastime/addiction has one basic tenet:

 

You can log caches online as "Found" after you visited the coordinates and signed the logbook.

 

Sure, it's easy to get away with not visiting the coordinates and letting someone else sign the logbook for you, but that doesn't make it right. One of my friends once said, "You ahould sign the logbook yourself or have been close enough to it to have done so" and I think that's a pretty good rule of thumb to apply to group finds.

 

I don't disagree with you at all. It's called integrity, but again how do you know and even if you did how does it harm you if they don't follow the same guidelines you follow. 

You have the prerogative to delete online finds when they don't sign the logbook. I've done this twice when it was very obvious. I've suspected a few others but those folks seem to cache for a week then never return, so why bother.

 

There is no actual proof of someone else signing a log for someone else so why does it bother you. Control what you can control and enjoy the game the best you can. My point is if folks wish to cheat how does that diminish my entertainment.

 

I know someone who enjoys caching at times but has very little desire to touch a cache or sign a log. Specially when there are spiders or other bugs present. Does that somehow diminish other cachers enjoyment of the game? 

 

[+barefootjeff]

17 minutes ago, MNTA said:

I don't disagree with you at all. It's called integrity, but again how do you know and even if you did how does it harm you if they don't follow the same guidelines you follow.

 

It's not just the guidelines I follow, it's the guidelines written in black and white by those who created the game. I'm not concerned about any "harm" it might do to me (which is likely none since I don't chase stats or compare my finds to others) but the harm it does to the game itself and its sense of community when that integrity is lost.

[+CAVinoGal]

On 8/13/2022 at 5:38 AM, MythicalCheesePirate said:

What I am referring to, are people who will go caching and sign a log for others who aren't even there so they can get a find too.

 

I don't think this is as common as you implied.  I haven't signed every logsheet personally, but I was there, and hubby signed or stamped my name.  I've done the same for him.  But Ithink you are referring to times when the one whose signature is on the logsheet but they never visited the cache, and I agree, that is not right.  But it happens.  My husband and I each have our own account; the great majority of the time we are caching together, but over the years we have cached separately, or with different groups, so our list of finds is different.  Our caching numbers are very similar,  and we have a sort of informal competition between us - I'm surrently 5 (or is it 4?) caches ahead of his count (I have 2518 finds).  This week he's going caching with a friend while I watch our granddaughter and he may catch up, or even go ahead of me by a few.  It's all fun.

 

The one time I can remember bending the guideline is when I was hiking alone, and I saw what I thought was the cache (a wire hook on the outside of a fence post, I thought the cache was inside the post) but it was 8 feet up and I couldn't reach it.  He went back the next day without me, was able to retrieve it (yes, it was the cache) and signed both our names.  I DID log that one as a find, as I had been there, seen it, and guided him to it.  If the cache had turned out to be something other than the bison hanging by that wire, then I would not have logged it, as what I found was not the cache.  That's the way I play it!

[RuideAlmeida]

Adding a little disclaimer (sort of)...

My prior comment relates to a different meaning of "signing a log for others".

My (our) player profile belongs since the begining in 2007, to a family of three... me, my ex-wife and my youngest son.

Currently we live in three separated countries (Brazil, Portugal and Sweden), so if each one of us go and log a cache with our family profile, it may wrongly look that we are signing for others... just because we don't use individual player profiles.

 

Now, going back to the meaning I commented.

In Brazil and especially here on the Amazon, I keep on seeing logs that say like this "My daughter went to a cruise with their grandparents and logged this cache on my behalf", or "My neighbor wrote my name on this cache, when visiting the Opera House".

On both cases, the person writing the log was not the geocacher which profile is claiming the log, nor even a geocacher at all.

 

I'm not certain if I can keep call them muggles, though.

Edited August 17, 2022 by RuideAlmeida