Cache Maintenance - 'Not Founds'

[+Goofster]

I've been planning some road trips and trying to incorporate a bit of caching at the same time. During my planning I've encountered quite a number of caches with mulitple 'not found' logs. If two or more consecutive people cannot find the cache, we have an obligation to investigate. If the cache is still there, we need to note this on the cache page; if the cache has gone missing, we need to replace it or archive it. I have crossed a number of potential caches off my 'to visit' list because the owners have not bothered to respond to these logs in any meaningful way.

[+Renegade Knight]

Why two? Why not one, or three? Or let the cache owner decide based on their knowledge of the cache, the finders (newbies get skunked more often) or the comments 'looked for 5 min then quit'.

 

Etc.

[Stefanoodle]

I fully agree that the owner should take note and investige/do maintenance. There could be the problem that a cacher might not have looked properly, but there are definitely listed caches which have been raided (debris found, destroyed by fire, etc.), and they are not being archived, replaced or maintained. Same goes for reports of waterlogged or otherwise damaged caches.

 

I'm probably guilty of not always contacting the owner when I suspect a real problem. I have made contact before, and in one case there was no response, in the other there was confirmation that the cache could be MIA, but still it was not archived. So I think I have also just crossed it off my list, but of course, this doesn't help the next person going to look for it.

 

There is the option to recommend a cache for archiving when you go to log it, but I think it would be rude to do so before contacting the owner first.

[+Crow T Robot]

If a cache is recommended for archival, one of the admins will attempt to contact the owner and evaluate the circumstances before taking any action. It is very helpful for cache owners to add notes to the cache logs every time they check on the cache so people will know it's still there. If a cache hasn't been found in a long time or has been disabled for more than 3 or 4 months, we'll try to ascertain it's condition. However, those are often the ones destined for archival - particularly when the cache owner hasn't logged in to the site in a long, long time and the logs indicate that the cache has been destroyed.