Logs with same photos

[+sernikk]

I have a topic I would like to run by somebody outside my area. It's about found-it logs containing multiple photos on caches I own.

 

There is a group of cachers that are posting as many of photos as possible to do quickly, with their found it logs. But it's not scenery, a nice view next to the cache, or the container even. These are up to 20 photos of e.g. blurred grass/trees/path in the middle of nowhere,  some equipment photo or random logos, geocoins with codes to discover. To say shortly I consider those the lowest you can get spam-photos to get maximum on the 20 photos all-in-one upload limit when logging. To make it even worse, these are very often the exact same photos uploaded to hundreds of caches.

 

The fact that this is not a nice thing to do to anybody (gallery is then full) is already obvious to me. The question I have is if there is anything that prohibits me as the cache owner to delete those photos? I couldn't find anything about images per se in the guidelines, only about logs. I don't plan to spend time deleting all of those, but on some specific caches I would like to keep the gallery clean. 

 

Thanks

 

[+brekkcaching123]

9 minutes ago, sernikk said:

geocoins with codes to discover.

Go ahead and delete these. Geocoin/TB logs can't be posted without the TB owners permission.

[+sernikk]

5 minutes ago, brekkcaching123 said:

Go ahead and delete these. Geocoin/TB logs can't be posted without the TB owners permission.

They are the owners.

[+Max and 99]

I can't see all the same photos.

[+arisoft]

1 hour ago, sernikk said:

if there is anything that prohibits me as the cache owner to delete those photos?

 

I don't know any reason. When you delete a photo, a reason is asked for the deletion. If you explain that the photo is not related to the cache, it should be very good reason to delete the photo.

Edited May 30 by arisoft

[+Max and 99]

I remember those ridiculously long logs that mentioned project GC and why they were padding the logs to make them as long as possible. Is there a similar thing for photos added to logs? That's just as ridiculous. 

Edit: please tell me this is not what they are doing. 

Edited May 30 by Max and 99

[+The A-Team]

It didn't take long to figure out the accounts being referenced here: they're 4 of the top 5 image uploaders in the country.

 

Not only do they seem to upload every random photo they took at each cache, but they very strangely all upload the same photos. That is, each of the 4 accounts will have the same 4 random photos of a street, a photo of the cache description on a phone, the logbook, and a few other random photos. I wonder if they're actually going to the effort of sharing the photos so each of them can upload, or if it's just one person logging for all 4 accounts.

 

I fully expect that they just upload whatever junk they can in order to inflate their photo numbers and get higher on the Project-GC "Top image uploaders" leaderboard. There are some people doing that in my country too, and it just seems unbelievably cheesy and lame. I'm up there in my region, but my photos are all unique, show something of interest (or are required by a cache), and I take the time to edit them. I don't just upload whatever is on my phone at the time, and would never send photos to another cacher so they could upload the same ones.

 

As for what to do about these... I'm not sure. What they're doing isn't against any rules that I know of. It's lame, but there isn't a rule against being lame. You could try contacting them to explain why what they're doing is lame, but I doubt they will stop. Everyone caches for their own reasons. Apparently, this group caches so they can have an obscenely-high number of images in their galleries.

[+A J Pombo]

If they shut down the information aggregator sites that provide statistics, leaderboards, and rankings of geocachers, 99% of these problems will go away.

[+Sottiwotti]

Maybe they should stop geocaching and take photography as their new hobby

 

Humans are weird

Edited May 31 by Sottiwotti

[+Bear and Ragged]

2 hours ago, Sottiwotti said:

Maybe they should stop geocaching and take photography as their new hobby

 

Humans are weird

 

Quote

These are up to 20 photos of e.g. blurred grass/trees/path in the middle of nowhere,  some equipment photo or random logos,

 

Maybe they need a few lessons first? 

[+x7Kevin]

That was interesting to learn there is a leaderboard for images uploaded in logs. The number one cacher in the US for photos by far with 34000+ (nearly 10k more than second place) has all legitmate and nice pictures. It looks like they weren't even thinking about stats they just shared pictures normally. The even crazier part is that 99% of their pictures are from before 2017 (2001-2017). 

 

I think there should be a rule about spam photos, especially for someone just reposting the same photo over and over again. It does negatively impact others by cluttering up galleries for no good reason. 

[+kunarion]

1 hour ago, x7Kevin said:

That was interesting to learn there is a leaderboard for images uploaded in logs. The number one cacher in the US for photos by far with 34000+ (nearly 10k more than second place) has all legitmate and nice pictures. It looks like they weren't even thinking about stats they just shared pictures normally. The even crazier part is that 99% of their pictures are from before 2017 (2001-2017). 

 

I think there should be a rule about spam photos, especially for someone just reposting the same photo over and over again. It does negatively impact others by cluttering up galleries for no good reason. 

 

Where are these leaderboards?  I can't find that.  Are they in the subscription version?

[+x7Kevin]

46 minutes ago, kunarion said:

 

Where are these leaderboards?  I can't find that.  Are they in the subscription version?

 

No, it's the free version of Project GC. Statistics > Top image uploaders, then just choose a country and search. 

[+kunarion]

2 hours ago, x7Kevin said:

 

No, it's the free version of Project GC. Statistics > Top image uploaders, then just choose a country and search. 

 

OK, I found it!  I've uploaded 3963 photos.  But they're not the exact same photos every time.  At this rate, I'll never win! 

[+geodarts]

16 hours ago, Bear and Ragged said:

These are up to 20 photos of e.g. blurred grass/trees/path in the middle of nowhere,  some equipment photo or random logos

Clearly it is someone’s art form. 

[+Sottiwotti]

20 hours ago, Bear and Ragged said:

 

 

Maybe they need a few lessons first? 

Maybe it's just an art form we don't know the existence of. The art of low-effort photos perhaps?

[+Weber_and_Sons]

Once in awhile when I go on a geohike and see a pretty view I'll post the picture to maybe a couple of the caches near but not all; also whenever there is two virtual caches at the same place that both want photos of the same thing ill just double upload the picture.

[+JL_HSTRE]

On 5/30/2025 at 5:20 PM, The A-Team said:

As for what to do about these... I'm not sure. What they're doing isn't against any rules that I know of. It's lame, but there isn't a rule against being lame. You could try contacting them to explain why what they're doing is lame, but I doubt they will stop. Everyone caches for their own reasons. Apparently, this group caches so they can have an obscenely-high number of images in their galleries.

 

This is what happens when people are allowed to turn everything into a competition. This is an example of the cost of not gatekeeping this hobby. This is the price of freedom. This is why we can't have nice things.

[+PlantAKiss]

I post photos but they are all photos taken of things found on the journey to the cache or items that are in the cache area (mostly woodland caches). I want to show people the beautiful things they might miss when focusing soley on the cache and not the beautiful surroundings. 

[+sernikk]

Thank you for all the comments and valid points.

 

Still missing the clear guideline here, as it looks to be up to personal judgement. It's becoming harder to be a cache owner.

[+elrojo14]

I would think at some point, it is going to become a website and storage issue on the technical side. 

 

And I am a photo poster. It takes me so long to post everything that I am currently over a year behind in uploading my photos. A lot of mine come from trackables. I snap photos of them and take drone videos of them as I travel. Right now the trackable photo uploader is broken. 

 

I am at 12077 photos!