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"muggles?" Come On, People!!


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I leave geocaching for six months while moving and taking care of an infant, then get back into it and find that the whole place is stinking with references to "Muggles." Meaning people who don't geocache.

 

Ugh.

 

Look, I love the Harry Potter books--I read them to my wife, and eagerly await the next book and movie. But, please, are we so devoid of creativity that we have to coopt a word that means something completely different, just because it's famous?

 

I don't want to be going out on nice hikes to beautiful places, deciphering well-crafted puzzles from my fellow cachers, and just generally revelling in this healthy and unique hobby, only to feel this weird association with gown-wearing, wand-swinging British kids--not to mention the 800-pound marketing monster built up around them

 

We aren't sorcerers, we're adults who go on scavenger hunts. And we aren't born this way; take any one of the dreaded "muggles" you all are referring to, stick a GPS in his hand and give him a minute and a half's worth of instruction and presto! We have a cacher.

 

And is a "muggle" someone merely ignorant of caching, or hostile to it? I've seen both connotations used. That's part of the problem when a word is used that comes with its own baggage.

 

I beg of you all to forcibly reject this too-precious word choice. Let's find our own word--here's some suggestions to start us off:

 

--Igbys (short for Ignorant Bystanders)

--Plastics (cache or plastic--get it?)

--Encods (NCOD's--non caching outdoor dwellers)

 

Well, am I alone here?

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Going back in the forums, the first use of Geomuggle was Feb 25 2002 by macdaddymd when he said:

 

My term for the unaware passersby comes from Harry Potter... I call them GeoMuggles!

 

And the first use of Muggle without the Geo prefix was on Sep 5 2002 by Lyra when he wrote:

Anyhoo, something's been bubbling in the back of my mind about that movie since, and a giant exclamation point just appeared over my head when I thought of this. It's a new Geocaching lingo term:

 

Muggle: \mug' gl\ n: any person who has no knowledge of the sport of geocaching and who causes geocachers to become surreptitious about their activities in order to avoid a cache becoming exposed to non-geocachers. (The geocacher found what he knew must be the cache site, but waited until the muggles left so they would not see him and possibly plunder the cache)

 

In case you're one of the three of four people who haven't either seen the movie or read the books, a muggle is the term the wizard people use to describe someone who lives in the ordinary world and has no idea that wizardry and magic exists.

 

Kinda neat, I thought. Hope this term catches on so that I can go down in the annals of history in this sport, in case they open a Hall of Fame some day. (The Hall of Fame building will likely be located 150 feet off a well-maintained trail, but watch out for the mosquitos, ticks and poison ivy. It's located under an downed tree in an old ammo box.)

 

It became a verb (muggled) relatively recently, on Aug 3rd 2003, when Kelia wrote:

I went looking for a cache 2 days ago that had recetnly been 'muggled'.

 

So its been around waaaay more than 6 months.

Edited by briansnat
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Actually, the term I frequently hear is "Geomuggles", but muggles is also commonly used. The way I understand is that this is recognizable termanology and geocachers are adapting it to suit the "geo"world. It's the same way the term "geocache" came into being, really. Someone took one recognizable term and modified it to suit the need of the sport. It very well could have just as easily been called "Electronic treasure hunting" or "The world wide techno easter egg hunt"; but those aren't as catchy, are they. The fact that almost everyone knows what a "muggle" is is what makes it so easy to adapt. I can think of half a dozen things "easter eggs" refer to besides actual eggs.

 

 

 

 

edit:spelling

Edited by DigiFerret
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Barnstable wrote:

But, please, are we so devoid of creativity that we have to coopt a word that means something completely different, just because it's famous?

 

I wouldn't say it means something completely different. In the books, Muggles are people who are completely unaware of another society of people that is quite attuned to both themselves and the Muggles. Much in the way that a cacher is very cognizant of the proximity of non-cachers whereas the non-cacher likely hasn't noticed him at all.

 

we're adults who go on scavenger hunts. And we aren't born this way; take any one of the dreaded "muggles" you all are referring to, stick a GPS in his hand and give him a minute and a half's worth of instruction and presto! We have a cacher.

 

Presto! I don't agree with you. In my opinion, that's like saying, "Give a chimp a wooden bat, put him at home plate and presto! We have a baseball player!" "Give a guy a few tips, tools and a chunk of marble and presto! We have Michelangelo!"

 

I'm not going to insist that our sport is the most esoteric in the world. It isn't, and I'm glad of that. It reminds me of another hobby of mine, kayaking. Sure, pretty much anyone can herd a kayak down a river or across a lake. It takes a certain kind of person to WANT to do it, to want to learn how to eskimo roll, to want to row to a far-off island and spend the night, to want to scout a length of white water for 3 hours and then spend 15 minutes shooting down it.

 

When I was a boy in Catholic school we had a priest who had a style of preaching that sounded almost like he was swearing. When he was at his most fervent he would say, "You gotta pray...Good God Almighty! You gotta listen....Lord Jesus Christ!!" Then he would pause and narrow his eyes at his audience, and deliver the coup de grace. You gotta wanna!!! He drew the world out, like Whaa Naah! It made a profound impression on me then. It's the meaning of life, in a way. I don't think a geocacher is a person who can use a GPS. Because, as the priest says, you gotta wanna, and the wanna makes a cacher.

 

I do like your nicknames. Clever, plastics. How about PotPIEs? Potential pilferers in the environment?

 

Actually, no offense, and not to be contrary, but I like Muggles, though I'm not the one that applied it to this.

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a word that means something completely different, just because it's famous?

It's not all that different. The people walking around us have absolutely no idea that there are caches hidden in the parks (and other places) where we're poking around in. They use these places for such boring activities as walking, playing frisbee, baseball, etc.

 

There's this huge worldwide game that involves such a small percentage of people, and when I found out about it I was just blown away. It really felt like I was in on a really cool secret.

 

The word fits.

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I read the first Harry Potter book and was bearly able to finish it. The first book (and the series) is very childish and did not hold my interest. However, the term muggle used in geocaching has no effect on me one way or the other. It seems to be used a lot in these forums so the chances of changing it would be slim.

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I beg of you all to forcibly reject this too-precious word choice. Let's find our own word...

 

Well, am I alone here?

I hope so.

 

I love using the word muggles. Since HP is the all-time best selling book series everyone knows what is meant by a reference to muggles. And just like in Harry Potter, it is not a derogatory term unless the user puts that spin on it.

 

Who says we have to be original? (Though there seems to be no shortage of originality in how people find and places caches.)

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Muggle was the right word at the right time to describe something we all needed to describe. There is a person who used it first but a lot of people did start using it independantly during the same period of time and within a few months all the independant efforts merged and drowned out anything else that might have been forming. I suppose we could of used the word infidel...but it just doesn't have the right tone.

 

The last time we tried to look at when muggle was first used, I learned that while I did used it without knowing of anyone else doing the same. There were others doing the same thing and more than a few beat me to it.

 

Muggle didn't take long at all to become universal. Swag though is still slowly gaining ground. Some terms seem to have come and gone. I hardly hear any refereces to the hula and drunken bee dance anymore but the boomerang effect is becomeing well known. And so on.

Edited by Renegade Knight
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Points are well taken. American English is a fast-and-loose, mongrel of a language, heavy on the borrowing. So I can understand using the leverage that the term already had going for it.

 

Still, being a lover of words, especially newly-coined and apt ones, I guess I saw this as an opportunity wasted.

 

By the way, to the one who said I should lighten up a little... no.

 

I think I'll just go ahead and feel the way I want to feel, thanks very much. I wouldn't ask you to be any more serious about this than you want to be--why tell me what level of feeling I should have about anything?

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I'm new to geochaching and was wondering what muggles was an acronym for. I am one of the 3 people who have not seen nor read HP. Now that I know, I think i like igbys better.

I must be one of the three....I'd never heard the term before I started caching, so it doesn't bother me in the least.....but I'll go on the record to state that I hate Harry Potter and anything related to it with almost as much passion as I hate Furby's, Lord of the Rings, Barney the Purple Dinosaur, Beanie Babies, and Teletubbies.......

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--Igbys (short for Ignorant Bystanders)

--Plastics (cache or plastic--get it?)

--Encods (NCOD's--non caching outdoor dwellers)

Yuk. Come up with a better name and as a community we'll adopt it.

 

"Shh, a person who shall not be named is coming. Hide the cache!"

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I hate Harry Potter and anything related to it with almost as much passion as I hate Furby's, Lord of the Rings, Barney the Purple Dinosaur, Beanie Babies, and Teletubbies.......

 

Everyone is entitled to his/her opinion, but how can you group Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings with any of the other things you listed. That's like saying, "horses, cows, chickens, and Volcanoes." There is no relationship between them.

 

Having said that, Barnstable, if you like coined words so much than come up with one for another part of geocaching that has yet to have a new-coined name. I think that it's going to be pretty tough to get a new word for muggles going. If only because people are now used to it and know what it means.

 

McWeb

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Having said that, Barnstable, if you like coined words so much than come up with one for another part of geocaching that has yet to have a new-coined name. I think that it's going to be pretty tough to get a new word for muggles going. If only because people are now used to it and know what it means.

 

McWeb

You're right, McWeb, and it's something I'll look at. But as for giving up the ghost on the muggle (shudder) thing, guess you can call me Don Quixote--gonna keep tilting at that windmill...

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I must side with the original poster; I personally dislike using the term muggle for non-cachers. On the one hand the thought of any pejorative for non-participants smacks of elitism, on the other hand this IS a community, and there will inevitably be shibboleths created to distinguish those 'in' from those 'out.'

 

It's hard to criticize those who use it, but I would level another complaint: it's so common. The Wall Street Journal printed an article last year which observed the proliferation of the word 'muggle' throughout the professional world. Could we not be original enough to come up with our own term?

 

The problem with 'mundane' is that it means 'of the earth' and if anyone could be called people of the earth (given that they spend so much time out in it), it would be cachers. That and the SCA/RPG crowd uses it already.

 

Why not simply 'cachers' and 'non-cachers'? :lol:

Edited by RexDart
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Everyone is entitled to his/her opinion, but how can you group Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings with any of the other things you listed. That's like saying, "horses, cows, chickens, and Volcanoes." There is no relationship between them.

The same way you group books/movies like Lord of the Rings in with crap books/movies like Harry Potter, I guess. :lol:

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Everyone is entitled to his/her opinion, but how can you group Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings with any of the other things you listed.  That's like saying, "horses, cows, chickens, and Volcanoes."  There is no relationship between them.

The same way you group books/movies like Lord of the Rings in with crap books/movies like Harry Potter, I guess. :lol:

 

You can group them simply by the fact they were a book then a movie, and they made millions of dollars. I do like Harry Potter, but I have to agree that Lord of the Rings awesome, and not in the same league.

Edited by mcweb
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Yeah. The term isn't cheeky or high brow, but I would say it is pretty darn effective in a crowd. All you have to do is mutter "muggle" under your breath and everyone in the group instantly knows what you mean. It has a reduced number of syllables and brings the point home.

 

Cheesy? Yes. But effective.

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Yeah. The term isn't cheeky or high brow, but I would say it is pretty darn effective in a crowd. All you have to do is mutter "muggle" under your breath and everyone in the group instantly knows what you mean. It has a reduced number of syllables and brings the point home.

 

Cheesy? Yes. But effective.

No argument here. It's like putting the prefix "Mac" in front of something to connote corporate soullessness (MacHomes, MacJobs, etc.). It's easy, quick, and you get the benefit of the connotations built into the word. However, you also have to accept ALL the connotations of the word, and some of them don't apply so well, thus my (and at least a few others') discomfort with the term.

 

I will admit to being in a quite small minority, though, from the looks of things on this board.

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It's like putting the prefix "Mac" in front of something to connote corporate soullessness (MacHomes, MacJobs, etc.).

I hope you're not also referring to Mc (i.e McWeb). Which by the way, is a mix of part of my married name and part of my maiden name. Originally my husband and I were going to be one team, and I thought it was a good name that applied to both of us. He ended up making his own account and I've just kept the name.

 

McWeb :lol:

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I don't mind the term "muggle" but I prefer to call them "bums" or "aliens" depending on how well dressed they are. Sometimes if I have to wait on them a log time to find or rehide a cache I call them other things which I can't type in the forums...

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