Bye Bye Geocaching

[+Firth of Forth]

Ok, I give up. I have tried hard for several months to ignore the snide innuendoes and more recently the outright insults, but now I've had enough. I apologise to the UK geocaching community in advance for posting something that will not concern most people, for bringing a negative tone to the Forum, and for a very long post.

 

After the nonsense on this thread, I received no less than 3 abusive emails from The Forester in one day. I decided to ignore them, and set up a filter on my email system to block him from sending me anymore. I think that most people would agree that this was a reasonable course of action.

 

Since then, The Forester has used whatever opportunities there have been on the UK Forum to have a dig at me, and most recently to make direct insults.

 

Such as these excerpts from his posts:

"Back in late February or early March of this year I started to put together some course materials for a course to teach a geocacher some intermediate and advanced level land navigation. Unfortunately, my student lost interest and so my easy instructional course never came to fruition."

 

and this:

"On the other hand, I've also recently visited (twice!) a cachesite which was placed by a very highly experienced cacher. That one broke several rules of geocaching and of common sense. It was placed without bothering with such niceties as considering whether the landowner/landuser would co-operate. It was placed in a location where a regular sweep for foreign objects could reasonably be expected. An array of light coloured rocks had been placed in an arrow shape immediately adjacent to the cache to indicate its location, thus inviting muggledom. Inside the cachebox the name of a completely unrelated (and possibly nonexistent?) cachesite was listed both on the inside of the lid and in the logbook, thus making it impossible for a benign muggle finder to look it up on the GC.com webpage. A polite email enquiry about that to the cache-placer did not receive either an answer or even the elementary courtesy of an acknowledgment of receipt. Not a very good ambassador of geocaching!" Due to problems with the aforementioned cache, I archived it some time ago.

 

and this, in response to my comments about Scottish Laws of access:

"Do we in Scotland have absolution from our own geocaching rules?

 

Which geocacher gave us that right?

 

Gawd bless 'im/'er!!!"

 

and this:

"Something else which considerate cache-placers can do to avoid caches being treated as litter by landowners is to write the name of the cache inside the cachebox so that a muggle finder has a reasonable chance to look it up on the GC.comwebsite. That's not too much to ask, is it? Another thing they could do to the credit of geocaching is to privately respond to privately sent emails which enquire about such things. That's not too much to ask either, is it?"

 

and this:

"Oh Gawd.

Now nationalist/tribalist strife hits geocaching?!

The Tribal Chieftain of the Embra clique has taken up the cudgels on the dark side of Hadrian's Wall."

 

There have been others over the last months, but that gives enough of a flavour. I ignored all of this, and was prepared to continue to ignore further negative remarks, but to use one of The Forester's own phrases, he "has gone too far" with his most recent post:

 

"Their narrow mindedness is unfortunately abetted by their narrow-minded leadership. It is a sheep-like imitation of the non-communication which is characteristic of their leader, the Good Shepherdess, whose family dictum is "Shut the flock up". It is the ultimate in non-communication. It is caused by a closed mind and it is the result of blinkered thinking. One of the several beauties of geocaching is its inclusiveness. The exclusivity of the gang mentality is the opposite. It is exactly the type of racism/nationalism/tribalism which is the bane of human civilisation and is exempified by the idiotic England v Scotland tribalism which was so regrettably disclosed and promoted recently by a clique chieftain."

 

If the Forester insists that this does not refer to me, then I can easily post part of one of the abusive emails to me which echoes, more rudely, what he has said here. The Forester seems to think that he can insult whoever he chooses - other geocachers, me, or my children - and never apologise. I have no idea why he has developed an irrational belief that I lead Scottish geocachers in some negative fashion. The theme of his negative comments is his frustration with my non-communication. Is it any wonder that I do not wish to communicate with him?

 

Thanks to everyone, apart from The Forester, for making the UK Forum a fun place to be. But if this Forum can be used as a vehicle for carrying out a personal vendetta against another geocacher, then I have no further reason to frequent it. In fact, maybe I shall give up geocaching altogether and find another hobby.

 

Thanks to The Forester.

[+perth pathfinders]

Thank you FOF for opening our eyes to this. While we have read various threads, I had no idea who was being targetted and cannot believe these insults.

 

While there have been England vs. Scotland comments, we have taken them in fun, being English and living in Scotland perhaps helps?

 

While I was aware that the Forester had been making digs at FOF I certainly never realised it had gone this far. Complete with personal e-mails.

 

I am sure everyone reading this thread will agree with me that FOF has spent a lot of time and hard work setting/seeking permission for caches, and ...

 

"UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL WE ALLOW HER TO LEAVE GEOCACHING!!!!! "

 

"PERMISSION NOT GRANTED"

 

Your best cache yet is the one where you sought permission to bring the Scottish Parliament building into caching - EXCELLENT - have just been looking at it and hoping to do this one shortly.

 

I do hope you have not been unduly upset by all of this, after all Geocaching is such fun, as long as certain people see it this way

 

I hope that the approvers read this thread topic and are able to do something about this as it can no-longer go on, this has gone way beyond silly banter and daft insults now!

 

Reading this thread in horror and most upset by it all

Guess that's us off the Foresters Xmas list now!

 

PPs

Edited December 3, 2004 by perth pathfinders

[+wildlifewriter]

I'm slightly surprised that FOF even bothers to read the stuff posted here by that individual.

 

Nobody else does...

[+perth pathfinders]

I'm sure FOF does ignore comments on the forums, however when she is getting personal e-mails as well It has really gone too far.

 

While we all ignore a good laugh, enough is enough

 

PPs

Edited December 3, 2004 by perth pathfinders

[+Team Clova]

We are in full agreement with PP in all the statements they have made.

 

In the past few weeks we have seen the posts which have been directly targeted at FOF and have admired her ability to treat them with the contempt they deserved. The attack on her in last nights post and obviously the news that she had been recieving abusive e-mails have sickened us.

 

I think I can speak for most (if not all) of the Scottish geocaching community when I say that FOF has been and hopefully will continue to be a a great ambassador and asset to us all. I know I have never thought of her as a leader but more as one member of our happy family.

 

I can see no place on the forum for the continual attacks from The Forester and hope that he can have the good sense to at least apologise for the upset his behaviour has caused.

[Lactodorum]

OK folks, that's enough. After trying to take a hands off approach I'm now intervening in this dispute. The people involved will now take their dispute offline and not continue it in the forum.

 

Please remember - Geocaching is about getting out in the fresh air and hunting for worthless "treasure". It is NOT about writing here. By all means stop posting in the forum but please reconsider getting cold, wet, muddy, tired, scratched, stung, etc. in the hunt for plastic lunchboxes

 

Topic closed.