Can I combine finds?- multiple accounts

[+High_Body]

I have had multiple names over the years.. is there a way to combine all my finds under my new account name?

[+lee737]

I'm assuming you were after something easier than 'print one out and manually enter into the other...' - You can do that, usually include a spiel in your (backdated) log that this is what you're doing....

Automatic methods.... I don't know. My first instinct is that you'll be out of luck on that one.

[+Mausebiber]

Import all your finds from one account into GSAK and use "Publish Logs" to log those with your new account.

Note:  While you use this automated log feature, I would include a statement for the various cache owner that you combine some accounts.  So they know, why you log a cache today you found years ago.

[+Mausebiber]

8 hours ago, High_Body said:

I have had multiple names over the years.. is there a way to combine all my finds under my new account name?

 

If you don't like you account name or if you think something else sounds better, you don't have to create a new account, you can change the account name in geocaching.com

 

From the help center:

1.3. Edit username

You may update your geocaching username at any time, using the Geocaching website.

1. Log on to Geocaching.com.
2. Next to your username in the top right corner, select the down arrow to select Settings.
3. Under Profile Information, edit the Username.
4. Scroll to bottom of page and select Save Changes.

Usernames must be between 2 and 20 characters. Geocaching.com supports the following characters for usernames, all other characters, including spaces, are invalid:

• a to z
• A to Z
• 0 to 9
• _ [underscore]
• ä ö ü ë ï ÿ æ œ ß á é í ó ú ý à è ì ò ù â ê î ô û ç ñ å ů č ě ň ř š ž ť ø ď

Usernames must comply with the Terms of Use. Occasionally a username is unsuitable for a variety of reasons. Should this happen, we will ask you to choose a new username. We also reserve the right to change usernames ourselves when necessary.

Changing a username does not remove any account history, including previously found geocaches.

[+TeamRabbitRun]

8 hours ago, Mausebiber said:

 

If you don't like you account name or if you think something else sounds better, you don't have to create a new account, you can change the account name in geocaching.com

 

From the help center:

1.3. Edit username

You may update your geocaching username at any time, using the Geocaching website.

1. Log on to Geocaching.com.
2. Next to your username in the top right corner, select the down arrow to select Settings.
3. Under Profile Information, edit the Username.
4. Scroll to bottom of page and select Save Changes.

Usernames must be between 2 and 20 characters. Geocaching.com supports the following characters for usernames, all other characters, including spaces, are invalid:

• a to z
• A to Z
• 0 to 9
• _ [underscore]
• ä ö ü ë ï ÿ æ œ ß á é í ó ú ý à è ì ò ù â ê î ô û ç ñ å ů č ě ň ř š ž ť ø ď

Usernames must comply with the Terms of Use. Occasionally a username is unsuitable for a variety of reasons. Should this happen, we will ask you to choose a new username. We also reserve the right to change usernames ourselves when necessary.

Changing a username does not remove any account history, including previously found geocaches.

 

I don't think he's talking about changing names. That would be no problem; I did it when I started. My original cacher moniker was my NAME, and that didn't last long.

 

I think he's HAD several names on different accounts and wants to consolidate all the activity under one account.

 

Yes, as others have written above, you can with some work, recreate your activity under a new ID, but potentially, this is a not a wonderful idea.

 

It bumps the 'find count' on all those caches.

 

Maybe nobody cares about only a 1-up on high-volume caches, but any FTF's would look weird and low-volume caches would have their stats change.

 

I suppose if he's VERY careful to make sure that all the logs have the correct dates, AND THEN HE GOES BACK AND DELETES THE FINDS UNDER THE OLD NAMES then it might be ok, sort-of, BUT....

 

• We know that "logs-in-order" on the same day is funky, depending on whether it was originally a draft log or Field Note, or App-sourced or Web-sourced, or whatever other screwy  phase-of-the-moon factor was in control on that day. Doing it this would absolutely put his new logs LAST on the day, maybe. FTFs at the END of a busy day?
• Trackables.
• Any log activity that causes 'actions' in the system to occur will give you headaches. For example, Publishings, Change-Coord logs, NA logs, OM logs, etc.
• Did I mention Trackables?
• Cache Ownership factors. Any owned caches would have to be transferred to the new account.
• Historical ownership factors. 
• Message histories. The records would show that another player would have been talking to someone with NO activity.
• Don't forget Trackables.

 

What a mess, if you care about any of these things.

 

I don't know if there are any other reasons to want to do this, but without considering anything I don't know, I'd say...Embrace your Past!

 

Put a note on your current account's page saying something like "I've been reincarnated! I USED TO be__________!"

 

And, enjoy the fact that unlike the rest of us, you get to claim more than one smiley on the same cache.

[+Mausebiber]

10 minutes ago, TeamRabbitRun said:

I think he's HAD several names on different accounts and wants to consolidate all the activity under one account.

Yes, but why does he has several names on different accounts?

[+High_Body]

The reason is because I started under this account. I played for a along time, and got my Ex-girlfriend into it, we thought it would be better just to have 1 name together, we traveled all around New England geocaching. (Obviously not expecting to separate). I’d like credit for those finds because I was talking about places we had been with a fellow geocacher and tried to bring up the place. I did find them under a different name, but regardless what I signed on the paper, I still found it.. I’m not worried about any FTF or anything like that.. just so my map shows finds I completed 

[+dprovan]

8 hours ago, High_Body said:

The reason is because I started under this account. I played for a along time, and got my Ex-girlfriend into it, we thought it would be better just to have 1 name together, we traveled all around New England geocaching. (Obviously not expecting to separate). I’d like credit for those finds because I was talking about places we had been with a fellow geocacher and tried to bring up the place. I did find them under a different name, but regardless what I signed on the paper, I still found it.. I’m not worried about any FTF or anything like that.. just so my map shows finds I completed 

I understand your reasoning and I don't disapprove of what you're trying to do. Furthermore, I admit I've never been in this position. But whenever anyone brings this up, my reaction is always the same: I would think of the team with my ex-girlfriend as different than me geocaching alone, so I'd find it more logical to just leave those caches in that account without considering them finds for my personal account. And it makes sense that they aren't finds on your map because, since you haven't found them with that account, there's no logical reasons you shouldn't feel free to find them again, enjoying the same geocaches with your new girlfriend and logging them on your other account...if you want.

[+Gill & Tony]

I disagree with dprovan.  High_Body found those caches and should be able to include them in his own account.

 

If you use GSAK then it is fairly straightforward.

 

1.  Create an empty database.

2.  Run the MyFinds pocket query for the joint account and load the file into the empty database.

3.  Use the Publish Logs feature of GSAK to add these caches to your personal account.  I'm not sure how to keep the original log text for the new logs, but someone on the GSAK forum will help

4.  Move these caches to your finds database.

 

If you want to include DNFs or write notes from the joint a count it will take a bit longer, but is still possible

[+dprovan]

On 11/12/2022 at 11:23 PM, Gill & Tony said:

I disagree with dprovan.  High_Body found those caches and should be able to include them in his own account.

I agree he should be able to include them, I'm just pointing out a way of looking at it that argues against him wanting to.

 

But, no, he didn't find those caches. He and his ex-girlfriend as a team found those caches. The problem would be clearer if the ex-girlfriend found some caches on her own and logged them under the team account.

[+Gill & Tony]

Add step 2(a) Delete any caches found only by ex-girlfriend

[+dprovan]

6 hours ago, Gill & Tony said:

Add step 2(a) Delete any caches found only by ex-girlfriend

Yes, of course, but then it's not a question of combining the finds from two accounts but rather logging his personal finds retroactively. Once you add a manual step -- whether it's manually logging each cache you did find or manually deleting each cache that you don't want to include -- I start to ask myself whether the old finds on the team account really should be considered finds for my personal account. If I want to leave out caches she found on a trip without me, do I also want to leave out caches she found before I got to GZ? Or ones she found after I'd given up and started walking away?

 

If I really do consider them finds for my personal account, why didn't I log them back then at the same time I logged them on the team account? When I created the team account, I was obviously thinking, "This is a whole new geocaching life. To heck with my previous history." Why then do I now want to pretend that phase of my geocaching career didn't happen because it ended?

 

I admit I'm a little abnormal here since I really don't care about the numbers. I suspect that people who must to have those additional caches in their find count can't really understand what I'm saying. Although I've never had a second account, when I'm logging finds, it's for the history, not for the numbers. If I had a family account, I'd want the history to reflect that my family found those caches while my personal account reflects the caches I found without them. But I don't expect everyone to feel that way.

[+Gill & Tony]

6 hours ago, dprovan said:

I really don't care about the numbers.

The rest of your post proves that to be incorrect.  You may not care about your own numbers but, for some reason, you do care about the OP's numbers.  Why do you care why the OP wants to combine two accounts.  Why do you care which finds he wants to combine?  Frankly, it is none of your, or my, business why he wants to combine them.  We can either help him to do the job he wants or we can ignore him.  Telling him why he shouldn't do it is not constructive.

 

The way you would do things or the way I would do things is irrelevant.  Let's try and help him do things the way he wants them done.

Edited November 15, 2022 by Gill & Tony

[+TeamRabbitRun]

17 hours ago, Gill & Tony said:

The rest of your post proves that to be incorrect.  You may not care about your own numbers but, for some reason, you do care about the OP's numbers.  Why do you care why the OP wants to combine two accounts.  Why do you care which finds he wants to combine?  Frankly, it is none of your, or my, business why he wants to combine them.  We can either help him to do the job he wants or we can ignore him.  Telling him why he shouldn't do it is not constructive.

 

The way you would do things or the way I would do things is irrelevant.  Let's try and help him do things the way he wants them done.

 

Well, Gill (or Tony) under that logic, then we shouldn't really be offering our opinions about ANYTHING people ask us.

 

We're the pundits! We offer opinions about how we think the hobby should be pursued according to how we do things ourselves, the recipient of the information evaluates all the disparate opinions, then decides whom, if any of us miscreants resonates logically and applies all or some of the contradicting pearls of wisdom.

 

"Telling him why he shouldn't do it", as you say, is part of our stock in trade! We are the upholders of the SYSTEM! The combatants of ANARCHY!

 

If we didn't do this, then I'd have to spend that half-hour every day actually working here at my desk, and even my boss wants to minimize that.

 

 

[+Hynz]

On 11/15/2022 at 1:05 AM, Gill & Tony said:

The way you would do things or the way I would do things is irrelevant.

I don't agree. I would say for the development of our hobby it is even more relevant what you, I and everybody else is actually doing or proclaiming than what Groundspeak is offering as guidlines or rules.

[+Gill & Tony]

37 minutes ago, Hynz said:

I don't agree. I would say for the development of our hobby it is even more relevant what you, I and everybody else is actually doing or proclaiming than what Groundspeak is offering as guidlines or rules.

I agree with this in general.  However, in the context of someone asking for help, "How can I do some specific thing?" telling them that you or I wouldn't do it isn't relevant.  They want to do it, so help them, or don't bother.

 

In the context of someone asking "Should I do this thing?" giving an opinion is relevant

[+dprovan]

On 11/14/2022 at 4:05 PM, Gill & Tony said:

The rest of your post proves that to be incorrect.  You may not care about your own numbers but, for some reason, you do care about the OP's numbers.  Why do you care why the OP wants to combine two accounts.  Why do you care which finds he wants to combine?  Frankly, it is none of your, or my, business why he wants to combine them.  We can either help him to do the job he wants or we can ignore him.  Telling him why he shouldn't do it is not constructive.

 

The way you would do things or the way I would do things is irrelevant.  Let's try and help him do things the way he wants them done.

What are you blabbering about? I've said over and over i don't care how he does it. Sheesh.

[+dprovan]

6 hours ago, Gill & Tony said:

I agree with this in general.  However, in the context of someone asking for help, "How can I do some specific thing?" telling them that you or I wouldn't do it isn't relevant.  They want to do it, so help them, or don't bother.

 

In the context of someone asking "Should I do this thing?" giving an opinion is relevant

I disagree. I think most people asking about moving caches from one account to another have never thought of alternative ways to look at it that make it an unnecessary chore without as much logic behind it as it seems.

 

What business is this of yours, anyway? If he doesn't want my advice, that's up to him, not you.

[+High_Body]

Wow This post went off the Rails. 

 

We only geocached together, she never played without me so that isn't the issue. Your saying i should have logged it under my account and under our joint account (that is basically exactly what I'm trying to do) I don't want to go back and find caches I've already found, that actually happened already when i went with my daughter and wife, i know right where it is so i have to kind of sit it out so they can enjoy it. 

 

i dont care about FTF or the souvenirs or any of that as much as i just want them on my list.

 

If you agree or disagree is highly irrelevant to me, your entitled to your opinions, but the post wasn't asking for that. 

 

i appreciate the help from the members that offered help. ive been playing a long time and introduced hundreds of people to the game. I enjoy getting out and playing and finding caches and i want them reflected on my account