Conduct Unbecoming Of A Geocacher.

May 7, 2004

Recently a Geocacher in a neighboring city decided that most of our member name was better for him. We nicely asked him to go back to his original member name or use something else because the similarity in our member names was confusing other Geocaches. (If he lived a hundred or more miles away, then we would have never would have asked) He said no way and was rude about it. So we let it go. A couple of weeks ago we visited one of his caches and logged our visit. We had nothing but great things to say about his large size cache. Today we got an email notifying us of a "Log Deletion Notice". Out of the blue, the owner of this cache decides to delete our log. As a result, we lost a find. We don't know what's up with this individual, but we are starting to get concerned that he will start attacking the caches that we have placed. In fact we already have had to replace a cache (that we adopted) that is close to some of his caches (that has been around far longer than he has been in Geocaching). Yes, he has already logged a visit to it (before he changed his member name).

Geocaching is a fun activity for our family and we want to keep it that way, for us and everyone else!

We are looking for suggestions from other forum readers/Geocachers as to what we should do if things start to get real crazy! We are not about to lower ourselves to his level and start deleting his logs from caches that we own or tampering with his caches!!! Is there a place to report "Geocacher user abuse, or conduct unbecoming?

-Team Spirit of '76

21.9k · May 7, 2004

I am sorry to hear of the difficulties you've encountered.

If you have not already done so, you may wish to send an e-mail to the contact at geocaching dot com address, including full details of what has occurred. Attach any correspondence from the other player which might be violative of the site's terms of service. Include links to his profile and any relevant caches. Let the Groundspeak folks look into the situation for you.

As you wish to seek opinions from the forum community, I am moving this thread to "General Geocaching Topics" since it does not relate to Getting Started in the game of geocaching.

May 7, 2004

Thank-you Keyston Approver for the correction and moving this forum to the correct Thread!

-Team Spirit of '76

May 7, 2004

What a terrible situation!

Not only cobbed part of your name, but deleted your log as well?!? Sounds very unsportsmanlike.

You don't give any clues, what "part" of your name did he/she decide was better suited to him/her? Merely mentioning the handle here may just be enough to help the offending individual to see the error of his/her ways and possibly even encourage them to revert to their old handle.

Of course; you may not want to generate any ill will with someone who is in fairly close proximity, and I would understand that.

Keystone Approvers's helpful advice might be the best way to go.

Hope this situation works out for the best, and doesn't diminish your enjoyment of Geocaching.

Best wishes!

May 7, 2004

You don't give any clues, what "part" of your name did he/she decide was better suited to him/her?

Well, lets just say that he's not a TEAM player.

3.9k · May 7, 2004

Well Team Spirit of '76, you've come to he right place. First, go with what Keystone said. Second, well just look what happened in this thread. Cache page.

You should also keep loging your find. Maybe he will get tired of deleting it.

BTW, which cache was it?

Edited May 7, 2004 by JMBella

May 7, 2004

That's a terrible story, Team Spirit. I've been disturbed for the longest time over what could become of our sport if it was indulged in by the wrong sort of person. Sometimes I swear 90% of the world consists of inconsiderate jerks. It seems like long odds to hope that one of them wouldn't take it into his head to ruin a great thing for cheap kicks.

A code of honor should be instituted, and rules for its enforcement put into place. We'll call it cachivalry! Let us hope it never becomes a necessity.

I still have hope that you can resolve your issues with this particular person. Never underestimate the power of diplomacy!

1.3k · May 7, 2004

I missed something. When did we get to call dibs on names, especially names that are common phrases?

Edit: Hey, Renegade Knight, someone in this thread stole part of your name!

Edited May 7, 2004 by bons

38.2k · May 7, 2004

I missed something. When did we get to call dibs on names, especially names that are common phrases?

I don't think we have dibs, but for another geocacher to take a name that is close to someone else's, especially if they are in the same region can only cause confusion and you have to wonder about their motivation. I'm sure if someone calling himself Bons., or Team Bons started in your area, you might be a bit annoyed. Doubly so if they started deleting your logs.

Edited May 7, 2004 by briansnat

3k · May 7, 2004

I missed something. When did we get to call dibs on names, especially names that are common phrases?

Edit: Hey, Renegade Knight, someone in this thread stole part of your name!

It's probably not so much the name as the log deleting that's being done that is the problem. Still, two similar names so close to each other could confuse other cachers. But is that a problem?

May 7, 2004

We are looking for suggestions from other forum readers/Geocachers as to what we should do if things start to get real crazy! We are not about to lower ourselves to his level and start deleting his logs from caches that we own or tampering with his caches!!!

Are you sure you haven't already lowered yourself below that individual's level? It appears to me that you did an excellent job casting aspersions and thoroughly trashing that individual.

While I agree that deleting legitimate find logs is wrong, I note that in these forums people are quick to rush to judgment on the basis of scant information that may or may not be factual. Yep, one sure does encounter a heck of a lot of calumny in these forums.

22k · May 7, 2004

He turned me into a newt!

May 7, 2004

I am still sort of new here, but I don't remember anything that listed out other people's names that were close to the one I had chosen when I signed up. Maybe it was an honest coincedence for the name thing. I know I wouldn't want to change my name now if someone was named Team Golem3, even if they were within 100 miles of me. As for the deleted log, maybe it was a mistake, or maybe because the names are so similar, they might have thought they accidently logged their own cache (yeah I know that sounds unlikely ). Anyhew, I am sure both groups can work it out if they discuss it reasonably and if not, let geocaching.com mediate. Just my .02.

1.3k · May 7, 2004

I'm sure if someone calling himself Bons., or Team Bons started in your area, you might be a bit annoyed. Doubly so if they started deleting your logs.

Actually, in 1985 I was saddled with the nick "bonsai" for a number of reasons. I was unable to shake this nick and it followed me for years. About a decade ago I was the only (or at most one of the few) "bonsai@" addresses on the net. (by that time I had grown used to it and was even getting sent checks payable to "bonsai" from people who didn't know my birth name).

As more "bonsai@" addresses occurred on the internet, it became obvious to me that this was a trend that wasn't going to stop. Since most people I knew had abbrievated my nick to "bons" (when spoken) I just decided to do the same thing online.

In short, instead of complaining to everyone else that they were using MY name, I simply changed my name to something that was a lot less common.

----------

Yes, the log deletion is upsetting, but so far I've only heard one side of the story. When I hear both sides of the story then I'll start deciding for myself which side went too far first.

24.7k · May 7, 2004

I missed something. When did we get to call dibs on names, especially names that are common phrases?

Edit: Hey, Renegade Knight, someone in this thread stole part of your name!

Allways good to see another member of the Knight family.

Locally we have two other Knights running around. My favorite is "The Other Knight". One of them actually has Knight as his last name. The other one has my actual last name. I'm looking forward to meeting them one of these days.

Still Leatherknight, & The Other Knight are hard to confuse for RK. Team Spirit (assuming that's the part that was taken) Would be easy to confuse for having dropped the 'of 76 part'. I agree that we don't get dibs, but a little courtesy for not naming yourself after other locals would be a good thing. It's just something that can't really be enforced.

The log deletion though is a bit much. A find is a find.

38.2k · May 7, 2004

Team Spirit (assuming that's the part that was taken)

That wouldn't be so bad. The name that was taken however was "Spirit of 76", which is easily confused with "Team Spirit of 76".

2.6k · May 7, 2004

Team Spirit (assuming that's the part that was taken)

That wouldn't be so bad. The name that was taken however was "Spirit of 76", which is easily confused with "Team Spirit of 76".

Oh. I though the part taken was 'Team'.

4k · May 7, 2004

We had a similar situation, minus the animosity and deleting of logs, between two cachers. Apparently, one had been caching quite a while, then stopped. The other, not knowing about the first, coincidently picked up the same name. The first cacher started caching again, and was finding caches with his name in the logs and got confused. He has since changed names. So, now we have Displaced Husker, and The Real Displaced Husker. They get along famously, and live just a few miles apart.

I'm really disgusted more about the person deleting your legitimate, and apparently complimentary log. That's just not right. Hope it all works out for you!

9.4k · May 7, 2004

We had a similar situation, minus the animosity and deleting of logs, between two cachers. Apparently, one had been caching quite a while, then stopped. The other, not knowing about the first, coincidently picked up the same name. The first cacher started caching again, and was finding caches with his name in the logs and got confused. He has since changed names. So, now we have Displaced Husker, and The Real Displaced Husker. They get along famously, and live just a few miles apart.

I'm really disgusted more about the person deleting your legitimate, and apparently complimentary log. That's just not right. Hope it all works out for you!

I hope you're not offended by my cousin "Warky-Spatts" who happens to live in Kansas

4k · May 7, 2004

We had a similar situation, minus the animosity and deleting of logs, between two cachers. Apparently, one had been caching quite a while, then stopped. The other, not knowing about the first, coincidently picked up the same name. The first cacher started caching again, and was finding caches with his name in the logs and got confused. He has since changed names. So, now we have Displaced Husker, and The Real Displaced Husker. They get along famously, and live just a few miles apart.

I'm really disgusted more about the person deleting your legitimate, and apparently complimentary log. That's just not right. Hope it all works out for you!

I hope you're not offended by my cousin "Warky-Spatts" who happens to live in Kansas

Is he related to "Spakky Warts"?

2.2k · May 7, 2004

warty spakks?

on topic. i had a legit log deleted once. finally got it solved, but i was very peeved.

Edited May 7, 2004 by uperdooper

May 7, 2004

I really wouldn't let the name thing bother me. 'Spirit of 76' is a cool name, but also a well known phrase. It doesn't surprise me that someone would use a similar name. You could always change your team's name to something more unique, but again I wouldn't worry about it if it were me.

The deleted log, though - Yikes! I thought that I knew which cache your log was deleted from, but when I checked it I saw that you still have a very complementary log entry in place. If only one of your logs on the other spirits caches was deleted I'm wondering if it's possible that it was deleted in error? Or maybe in a one-time fit of pique over the name dispute? If so it was rude but could you overlook it, re-enter your log and hope for the best?

I would really hate to see this get out of hand, especially since it is in my area. Your team and the other spirit both have numerous hides, and I've really enjoyed searching for many of them.

May 7, 2004

If someone in my area were to pick the name Mastiffmuncher I would be really upset!

2.3k · May 7, 2004

He turned me into a newt!

ROFL!

2.3k · May 7, 2004

Actually, in 1985 I was saddled with the nick "bonsai" for a number of reasons.

Why? Are you short, gnarled and live in a pot? :lol:

A local cacher goes by the user name bonsai. Very nice guy, if it's any sympathy!

:bad:

2.3k · May 7, 2004

There's nothing you can do to get him to give up his name, but you can relog your find. over and over again.

7.2k · May 7, 2004

Today we got an email notifying us of a "Log Deletion Notice". Out of the blue, the owner of this cache decides to delete our log. As a result, we lost a find.

Same thing happened to me, and that cache owner turned out to be a complete jerk. I ended up converting an old note to a find with an explaination.

If you would like, I will let you log one of my caches as found with an explaination note. I would help you through the process and tell you which cache to log. You found your cache and you deserve your smiley.

May 7, 2004

Same thing happened to me, and that cache owner turned out to be a complete jerk. I ended up converting an old note to a find with an explaination.

If you would like, I will let you log one of my caches as found with an explaination note. I would help you through the process and tell you which cache to log. You found your cache and you deserve your smiley.

Gee, perhaps there should be an official "Unfairly Deleted Find" cache where, with the permission of TPTB, anybody who has unjustly been denied a legitimate find, or had their legitimate find deleted, can log their story and claim their "smiley."

7.2k · May 7, 2004

Same thing happened to me, and that cache owner turned out to be a complete jerk. I ended up converting an old note to a find with an explaination.

If you would like, I will let you log one of my caches as found with an explaination note. I would help you through the process and tell you which cache to log. You found your cache and you deserve your smiley.

Gee, perhaps there should be an official "Unfairly Deleted Find" cache where, with the permission of TPTB, anybody who has unjustly been denied a legitimate find, or had their legitimate find deleted, can log their story and claim their "smiley."

:lol:

May 7, 2004

He turned me into a newt!

I hope you got better!

HAHAHAHAHA

Peace!

May 7, 2004

I was just showed this week that there is another player with the name Shadow Ace. We use ShadowAce. I had no idea. So today I sent them email to introduce myself.

The name is not so much the issue as the deletion of logs. I know exactly how you feel since I have had a log removed for no reason other then the 'cache owner' did not like the story we wrote. Nobody that I have shown it to had anything bad to find in it.. The owner though did. I decided that it was the game they want to play.

I then hid some caches and that person has since posted logs to mine.. I was very tempted to delete the logs just because but I decided I was better then that. Even when he posted no so nice information about his 'opinion' of the cache. The funny part is the cacher went in the dark with no flashlight to the wrong place then posted how this was a bad place for a cache to be hidden.. I am still laughing about that.. :lol:

I can only offer this in advice; We have someone who upset alot of people with an action they did at a cache. Since then alot of cachers have decided this person is not worth dealing with and we just dont hunt what they hide. I know it would be nice to see justice done, but in the case of children, you can only offer advice. They will still play with matches when alone. I do not see a way to stop this person from doing what they do.. If they get banned they just create a new account with new information. It is the sad world we live in and I can only hope that someday they realize this is a game. I do not look at it as a score type game because nobody wins or loses a prize. the prize for our family is the joys of finding new places and new unique hides.. My children always glow when they get to find a cache without help from the 'big people'. So to you I say, scratch that one find and just ignore them. When they come to your cache, be nice, be friendly and even thank them for taking the time to find your cache.

I am always amazed when a rude person gets a friendly response and they suddenly realize that being nice does not hurt. One person at a time, we can dream of getting along.

Except my appology for the lack of ethics if you can, but realize we will always have some that do not fit in. Enjoy the hunt, enjoy the views.. Ignore the twinkies.

20.7k · May 7, 2004

I feel your pain. A local bevis has been deleting my finds for years.

May 7, 2004

If you would like, I will let you log one of my caches as found with an explaination note. I would help you through the process and tell you which cache to log. You found your cache and you deserve your smiley.

Thank-you mnt-man! I we will be sure to keep this option in mind when we get close to our 1000th find. If we come up short for the event because we lost a log again, then this will be a good way to make repairs!

7.2k · May 7, 2004

If you would like, I will let you log one of my caches as found with an explaination note. I would help you through the process and tell you which cache to log. You found your cache and you deserve your smiley.

Thank-you mnt-man! I we will be sure to keep this option in mind when we get close to our 1000th find. If we come up short for the event because we lost a log again, then this will be a good way to make repairs!

:lol:

2.3k · May 7, 2004

Thank-you mnt-man!

Yeah, and mtn-man is pretty nice, too! :bad:

Now back to work wit ya! :lol:

May 8, 2004

I'm looking forward to a 2setter or a 5setter. Shoot, even a 51setter would be good. :lol:

3.1k · May 8, 2004

Sounds like a jerk. Wonder why he has it in for you Team?

I had a legit log deleted once. It pissed me off. I ended up logging one of my own archived caches just to keep the tally straight.

1.8k · May 8, 2004

I think we can rest comfortably knowing that nobody would ever want to steal a name as ridiculous as ours. :lol:

May 9, 2004

Why are you concerned over losing 1 cache count?

It's just a cache. There's plenty more out there.

As for the name, you can leave it as is, rename yourself, or argue with this guy until he gets hostile.

Lessons to learn:

cache count ain't a big deal

don't argue with jerks, they'll just make you mad

Don't hunt caches by people you don't like

ignore posts/notes/findes from people you don't like

It's easier to change yourself, than to change other people.

Janx

May 10, 2004

janx, that's a small part of the big picture. If he did it once he will do it again. That's the problem. Ignoring him won't stop it. Well it could if he got bored of it.

Edited May 10, 2004 by SirPoonga

1.5k · May 10, 2004

Is he related to "Spakky Warts"?

I think you can get ointment for that!

1.2k · May 10, 2004

Team Spirit (assuming that's the part that was taken)

That wouldn't be so bad. The name that was taken however was "Spirit of 76", which is easily confused with "Team Spirit of 76".

You could always rename yourself to The Original Spirit of '76.

'Original' will stand out better than 'Team'.

(If someone would show up and call themselves The Original Shunra, I might not be very happy, though.)

2k · May 11, 2004

I have it easy. Mine IS my name and is all over the web with some of my work. If anyone were to try and take my name I would happily notify the local law enforcement agencies, maybe it would take some of the heat off.

2.7k · May 11, 2004

Same thing happened to me, and that cache owner turned out to be a complete jerk. I ended up converting an old note to a find with an explaination.

If you would like, I will let you log one of my caches as found with an explaination note. I would help you through the process and tell you which cache to log. You found your cache and you deserve your smiley.

Gee, perhaps there should be an official "Unfairly Deleted Find" cache where, with the permission of TPTB, anybody who has unjustly been denied a legitimate find, or had their legitimate find deleted, can log their story and claim their "smiley."

It is simpler just to post a cache yourself then archive it. You don't even have to get it approved. You can log finds to it all day and only you can see it.

If all you want is to get your smiley back, it is the simplestway that won't end up offending anyone.

I use this method (under a different username) to log "lost cache patrol" missions, most of which will by definition be DNFs. The bogus cache allows my "find count" to keep a running total of "missions" whether or not I actually find a cache.

May 11, 2004

I know exactly how you feel, we became the Riddlers as we live in Riddle, and one month after we had started a Miss Riddler appeared about 50 miles away. Others noted it too. I wrote to her and her last name was Riddle. So we had two choices, change our name or live with it. We are living with it and everyone seems to pick up on the fact that there are two of us with similar names.

Now if she were to delete a log or write bad, I would be so madddddd but she wouldn't do that as she is a very nice person and but I do know how you feel.

Edited May 11, 2004 by Riddlers

May 11, 2004

It is simpler just to post a cache yourself then archive it. You don't even have to get it approved. You can log finds to it all day and only you can see it.

I know how simple it would be, and I think many people will take undue advantage of the ability to do it. That's why I suggested a centralized, "official," geocaching.com owned-and-operated cache as a place for people that were unfairly denied a legitimate find to write their stories and claim their "smiley."

22k · May 11, 2004

and call it The Spurious Cache

1.4k · May 11, 2004

Same thing happened to me, and that cache owner turned out to be a complete jerk. I ended up converting an old note to a find with an explaination.

If you would like, I will let you log one of my caches as found with an explaination note. I would help you through the process and tell you which cache to log. You found your cache and you deserve your smiley.

Gee, perhaps there should be an official "Unfairly Deleted Find" cache where, with the permission of TPTB, anybody who has unjustly been denied a legitimate find, or had their legitimate find deleted, can log their story and claim their "smiley."

It is simpler just to post a cache yourself then archive it. You don't even have to get it approved. You can log finds to it all day and only you can see it.

If all you want is to get your smiley back, it is the simplestway that won't end up offending anyone.

I use this method (under a different username) to log "lost cache patrol" missions, most of which will by definition be DNFs. The bogus cache allows my "find count" to keep a running total of "missions" whether or not I actually find a cache.

Other uses of cache pages such as this have been talked about before and I'm pretty sure TPTB wish people wouldn't take up cache #s for their personal use.

4.5k · May 11, 2004

You got really peeved about him making his cache name so close to yours and i bet you gave him a hard time about it. Why he would want to do that is beyond me but its not something i would ever fret over. I just thought of something, my name is Glenn and i betcha there are other persons in the world with that same name,,, arrrgghhhhhhh .

Theres still no excuse for deleting your find log and thats something that would irritate me too!

1.2k · May 11, 2004

It is simpler just to post a cache yourself then archive it. You don't even have to get it approved. You can log finds to it all day and only you can see it.

If all you want is to get your smiley back, it is the simplestway that won't end up offending anyone.

Other uses of cache pages such as this have been talked about before and I'm pretty sure TPTB wish people wouldn't take up cache #s for their personal use.

Yep.

Moreover, what makes you think only you could see it, just because it's archived? One only needs to go to your profile page.

Indeed, when you do it with a dummy account AND a summy cache, nobody would see, but that wouldn't get you your smiley back onto yourreal account.

Conduct Unbecoming Of A Geocacher.

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