Would this be considered cheating or would it be okay?

[+RunYell]

I have a friend who's currently in China and I'm planning on making him find and sign Geocaches for me while I log them back here in the Philippines, would this be considered cheating or would it be okay? We technically co-own the account and we go out every time we Geocache, he also said it's okay.

[+colleda]

Why can't your friend log them? Not really his account? Does he have a seperate account?

IMO if you didn't find them, you don't log them.

[+Max and 99]

2 hours ago, RunYell said:

I have a friend who's currently in China and I'm planning on making him find and sign Geocaches for me while I log them back here in the Philippines, would this be considered cheating or would it be okay? We technically co-own the account and we go out every time we Geocache, he also said it's okay.

I say it's not o.k. 

What does that mean: he technically co-owns the account? 

I don't think you should be making your friend go find caches for you. 

He can have his own account, and if he wants to go find a geocache in China he can log it himself. Not you. 

 

Edited August 27, 2023 by Max and 99

[geoawareUSA9]

8 hours ago, RunYell said:

I have a friend who's currently in China and I'm planning on making him find and sign Geocaches for me while I log them back here in the Philippines, would this be considered cheating

 

Yes, I think most people would conclude that logging finds on caches you've never seen would be inappropriate, regardless of whether you had someone sign them for you.

[+niraD]

9 hours ago, RunYell said:

I have a friend who's currently in China and I'm planning on making him find and sign Geocaches for me while I log them back here in the Philippines, would this be considered cheating or would it be okay? We technically co-own the account and we go out every time we Geocache, he also said it's okay.

So which is it?

 

Are you having a friend in another country sign cache logs for you, so you can log them on your account? That's cheating.

 

Or is it a shared account, where sometimes group members go geocaching together and sometimes group members go geocaching separately? That's just a group account. (I know a number of couples that share an account this way.)

[Keystone]

I split off the above posts into their own topic.  They were originally posted to a thread about summer weather.

[+JL_HSTRE]

10 hours ago, RunYell said:

I have a friend who's currently in China and I'm planning on making him find and sign Geocaches for me while I log them back here in the Philippines, would this be considered cheating or would it be okay? We technically co-own the account and we go out every time we Geocache, he also said it's okay.

 

1. Why didn't you start your own thread to ask this unrelated question?

 

2. This is a great example of why you shouldn't "co-own" a geocaching account with a friend: even if you usually cache together, sometimes you won't.

 

Joint accounts are allowed for a variety of reasons, but they're usually a bad idea.

 

3. "Making him find and sign geocaches for me" is a multilayered problematic statement, not just for reasons of logging propriety.

[+cerberus1]

10 hours ago, RunYell said:

I have a friend who's currently in China and I'm planning on making him find and sign Geocaches for me while I log them back here in the Philippines, would this be considered cheating or would it be okay? We technically co-own the account and we go out every time we Geocache, he also said it's okay.

 

Are you a shared account or not?  "Technically" not a thing...  Your name here sends me to a profile with the same name.

We know of hundreds of "family accounts" over the years, and if you're a couple, no big deal.  Log 'em.  Cache safe.

My other 2/3rds travels a lot more than me because of her job.  She usually logs them unless it needs to be wordy. 

 - Think she's telling me something?   Anyway... I don't cache solo when she's out caching. That's a day for yard work, hiking, or a fly rod.

She does have her own account that's for the hundreds of coins that used-to get in the way of each log.

[+NanCycle]

IMO, "joint" accounts between spouses are iffy, all others are a bad idea.  (I originally wrote "cheating" but changed it to "bad idea")

[+arisoft]

14 hours ago, RunYell said:

would this be considered cheating or would it be okay

 

These are not alternatives. Geocaching is not a competition so, practically, you can not cheat. To be okay - the rule states that the player must visit coordinates and sign the log.

 

Here the definition of the player is important. You wrote that you are making him find and sign Geocaches for you. This is not the case if your account is collective. If your player account is collective then any participant may find caches for the collective - they are not your finds in this context.

Edited August 27, 2023 by arisoft

[+CAVinoGal]

I know several "team" account players - husband and wife, or family, that cache under one name.  Sometimes together, sometimes individually, but they use the same account name.  That's not "cheating" per se - but it can get tricky if they are in different locations on the same day and logging caches at those locations...

 

Hubby and I usually cache together, the majority of caches we've logged are the same.  But there are differences, and we each log our finds on our own account.  I know lots of cachers where each family member has their own account.  The caches listed under my finds are the ones that I found, and logged.  It's MY caching history; same with hubby.  Those are the ones HE found and logged, with me or with other cachers - we do go out separately at times!  I wouldn't want him to sign my name on a cache I didn't find!

Edited August 28, 2023 by CAVinoGal
typo corrections

[+Smitherington]

I wound never want my name signed for a cache I did not find. Only exception is a group hunt after an event but even if I did not find it myself I was there for the find. 
 

I cache because I love to travel so my cache list shows where I have been, not where someone else has been. 

[+captnemo]

I had grabbed a TB that wanted to go to a state I would not likely go to. A  friend  was headed there so I asked him to drop it there which he did. He also signed the log with my name. I never logged the cache because I  didn't find it and even thou my name is in the log and I wouldn't feel right.  

So to answer your question, while it may not be cheating I wouldn't do it .

[+L0ne.R]

13 hours ago, RunYell said:

I have a friend who's currently in China and I'm planning on making him find and sign Geocaches for me while I log them back here in the Philippines, would this be considered cheating or would it be okay? We technically co-own the account and we go out every time we Geocache, he also said it's okay.

People do this a lot when group caching. Often the cache is not seen by everyone, maybe one or two cachers sign for the group. I've complained a lot about this practice but get shouted down every time.  You will have to decide for yourself how important it is to you to have caches on your found list that you didn't actually hunt for and locate. Many would log a cache that they haven't found themselves and many sanction this practice especially when caching with others. 

 

An example might be an island cache when one person kayaks out and signs for everyone in the group (which is similar to your situation but rather than a boat ride to an island on a lake, it's a plane ride to a country). Or when someone climbs a tree and signs for everyone in the group. Or when a group divides up and everyone claims the day's finds. Or power trails where groups leap frog. 

 

Maybe, if you want to make it feel less like "cheating", use FaceTime/WhatsApp so you can virtually be there when he signs the log.

[+thebruce0]

The easy way I think of it - if it's my account (regardless of whether I let someone else use it) it doesn't simply feel right at all that there I finds logged on my account that I did not find.  Why would you want to have finds logged in a different country for you when you know you did not find those geocaches? You miss out on all those experiences (many almost certainly would be amazing) for the sake of... a numerical stat on your profile that implies something not true?

 

As others have said, joint accounts are different. But if I had one of those, I wouldn't think that the find implies "I" found the cache, but in that case that my partner did towards our shared journeys. However, I'm pretty OCD and I'd want to somehow record that it was one that she found and not me; which is why I'd generally avoid joint accounts At the moment I have a bookmark list for caches she's found as she generally doesn't use her own account and log them, heh.

 

So yeah, it literally doesn't make sense, it logically doesn't make sense, and personally it just entirely skips the spirit of the activity. How that feels to you personally tho is entirely subjective.  I would hope the spirit of the hobby informs your personal ethic towards general propriety...

Edited August 28, 2023 by thebruce0

[+GeoElmo6000]

I agree with others, don't do it.  In fact, split your account into two and go through the time to have the one with the new account log the caches they found.

 

I once had a coworker offer to log a cache for me that was near where he was camping on a vacation / holiday.  He meant well but I politely declined.

[+vw_k]

I think you should each create individual accounts for yourselves so you can log caches as individuals when you are on your own.

 

Keep your co-owned account for when you are caching together.

[+Oxford Stone]

Near vw_k and I was a couple with one account - he's in the Royal Air Force and one day logged a cache in British Indian Ocean Territory while his wife was finding a cache in England. So their furthest travelled in a day is quite impressive. 

 

 

Edited September 1, 2023 by Oxford Stone