Two Different Accounts For One Family

[+Greg2dot0]

My wife and I are relatively new to Geocaching, and have started with much enthusiasm, and I was wondering what the best way to manage the Geocaching account(s).

 

1. Share an account and tag all Forum correspondence with the individuals name

2. Create separate accounts

3. Others ideas?

 

It's not that we can't play nice together, but there's this sense of ownership (and God forbid the sense that one might embarrass the other) but the separate account thing also has its drawbacks.

 

I was just wondering what other couples we doing to deal with the issue.

[+sbell111]

If you always cache together, go ahead and have one account. You might consider having a seperate forum account if you both will participate.

 

If you don't ALWAYS cache together, have two accounts.

[+Renegade Knight]

It depends on you and your wife. Do what works for you. Some use one account and it's a team account. Some have different accounts. Some it's "His account" and she tags along the hunts but has no presence in the forums or the logs, and vice versa.

[+Jennifer&Dean]

My husband and I cache together most of the time. When either of us caches alone we tag the end of our log with the loggers name- example- "Jennifer of Jennifer&Dean from Missoula, MT". I also have a seperate account for when I'm in the forums and want to have an opinion that differs from his. All my posts to the forums end with my name or an abbreviation of it. He doesn't have any interest in the forums so it works out.

-J

Edited March 15, 2005 by Jennifer&Dean

[+Greg2dot0]

We usually cache together, but there seems to be some conflict on if I happen to be in an area for work that we'd be unlikely to go to together that it shouldn't be logged under the "team" name. As far as the forums, we are both active. She likes to be serious and I like to have fun (hence the name). Since I use GSAK and she has the premium accuont, I use that to run pocket queries and keep everything up to date.

 

Wouldn't it be cool if you could have multiple logins linked to 1 account? But, I understand the complexity and implications of that.

 

Sometimes, I think about just saying "I'm with her"

 

Seems to fit with her "I'm with Stupid" T-shirt.

[+Jennifer&Dean]

I travel for work alot and Dean has always been OK with us having one account for all our logs. As long as I specify when I am alone. But some of my best friends have an account each and each log seperately for every find. Twice the work but they each can put their own spin on the log. And since one logs in Haiku, it is pretty cool how it works out.

So make a choice and play the game your way. Just remember to have fun and don't let it stress ya out.

(And if one of you goes to a cache the other has already logged under your joint account, it is usually considered something to log with a note instead of a found it log)

-J

Edited March 15, 2005 by Jennifer&Dean

[+TrotzO]

Right......

Mine had to create her own account to do her own logs, nevermind the fact that she doesn't have her own GPS and never goes on her own hunts....

sheesh, I guess she didn't like what I was logging and had to put in her own 2 bits....

[Team CharlieParker]

We haven't got his & her accounts, we just share the dog's account!

[+Super_Nate]

Gosh, you have hit my worst problem experenced during my Geocaching career! My problem is sibilings!

[+Night Stalker]

My wife and I have been caching together for some time. She finally decided to start her own account and we immediately ran into problem. 2 of the first 4 caches we found were for members only and she could not log them. It seems that we need some type of family acocunt so that wont be an issue.

[+briansnat]

I'm either hunting alone, or with my wife. She's with me about half the time and has her own account, though about 90 percent of the time she's too busy to log her finds and has me do it for her.

[+Team Tigger International]

We cache as a Team , we share one account , in the forums we end our posts with either Wulf , or Star thus most can tell which one of us is posting. On cache finds we log as a team , if we are caching without each other we still log it as a team find . We have also been known to revisit a cache if there was something special about it and want to show it to our partner , but we only log the find once (thats only polite).

However you chose to do this for yourselves will be acceptable .

 

Star

[+fly46]

NIght stalker, I'm emailing you.

 

With that said, give each person their own account. Everybody I know that caches as a family has individual accounts for each person. MonkeyBrad & Scoot The Frog, MrSimple & TNLadyBug, EssPea & JayPea, Mosestron & GranniLani, AbbysGrammy and NashvilleJoe, etc.

 

You might as well do it now. If you change your mind later and try to back log, you'll have quite a headache.

[+Team Neos]

Call me picky, but I just have to log 'em exactly as they truely happen. My logs have to give me an accurate account of where I have been and what I found or didn't find.

 

We have one joint account (member account) that we use to log benchmarks (which we almost always do together) and to place joint hides.

 

I have my own personal account to log my finds.

He has his own personal account to log his finds.

 

We usually cache together, but not always.

We each have some separate hides. The other one was not there to see the hide occur, and had to hunt it out like anyone else.

 

I would prefer to do all of this under the auspices of one account with multiple user features, if that would somehow save server space. If it doesn't matter as far as the server goes, then I am used to this and it works 'well enough'. The only pitfall to the setup the way we have it now is that only one of us can get mail and notes sent to the joint account. That is only a problem if the sender is in a hurry to get a reply.

[Shoobie & the Sand Crabs]

most people have one account per immediate family but all in all it is up to you.

 

 

Shoobie & the Sand Crabs

 

P.S. I like your name "the helmets can't stand the level of rock "

[+q22q17]

This has only recently been a topic at our house. We mostly just use my account and log all of our finds, because early on, I purchased a premium membership. Now, we are beginning to find members only caches in our area.

 

However, I do know of another family in our area, whether the husband or wife finds the cache on their own, or while travelling for work, they share in the number of finds.

 

I think it's really up to you. Both of our sons wanted their own login ID. And, although they have been created (without premium membership), neither boy has logged a find. I just note on the log whether we have our boys, family, or friends with us. One day, there were my husband (Grush) and I, plus 9 family members hiking in Arizona.

[MagicMoon]

Hi, I started caching w/ TrotzO, "Trotz" as I know him & my daughter 'Lil GPSie" just a short while ago. I do not have my own GPS yet..... But I am getting one soon. I am very ill w/ a major back surgery comming up @ end of April, so therefor I am unable to go on all the hunts. There are times when Trotz has said: "I don't want you to come!" Hmmmm.... Nice bf !??? I started my own account because Trotz has the password to the account & would not give it to me. (Even tho we ALL went on the hunts!) He told me to open my own! So... I did. He forgot to post some things when we all went on a hunt. Must be Alzheimer or... taking too many "naps" & not waking up totally when posting the hunt results.

This is my first official post. And being that TrotzO has made a stink about me having my own account, it'll probably be my last. . I guess this is just one more thing (of many) that he feels has to be kept confidential & not to be shared w/ me: "The gf". Very sad.

Edited April 7, 2005 by Lady TrotzO

[+Corp Of Discovery]

One more thing to consider. If you stick at this and your find count rises, it will be quite a bit easier to do seperate accounts now rather than later.

[+Kai Team]

We haven't got his & her accounts, we just share the dog's account!

That's our solution too!

 

We usually go caching together, although I sometimes go alone. Occasionally our 16 year old son joins us. We log all finds as team finds (i.e. our view is, if any member of the team is on the find, it's a credit to the team). We collaborate on what to say in the cache logs (i.e. she'll tell me what to say if she wants something specific in a log).

 

I don't forsee the need to create separate accounts in the future (I know, divorce happens - been there, done that - but I doubt the gc.com account would be a high priority in that event).

 

My wife and the dog are too smart to spend time in the forums so all of the opinions here are mine, for better or worse! She has no idea how often I embarrass her (or maybe she does ).

 

As others have said, it's really a matter of what works best for you and your spouse! ~ Bob of Kai Team

[+Harry Dolphin]

My caching partner and I maintain two separate accounts. More than half the time, we cache together. But I do cache on my own as well. The ones that we've found together, we both log. The ones I find by myself I log along. I'm ahead by over a hundred logs.

[Azaruk]

We always cache together. We both work during the week, weekends being our only quality time together. So we have a single account. I prefer hiding to finding, Susan is the BEST finder I have ever come across - she sees things I don't, she truly has "the force". So we make an excellent team and wouldn't have it any other way.

 

We have fun caching, we do it together, 'nuff said.

[+Ed Rad]

My wife and I are relatively new to Geocaching, and have started with much enthusiasm, and I was wondering what the best way to manage the Geocaching account(s).

 

1. Share an account and tag all Forum correspondence with the individuals name

2. Create separate accounts

3. Others ideas?

 

It's not that we can't play nice together, but there's this sense of ownership (and God forbid the sense that one might embarrass the other) but the separate account thing also has its drawbacks.

 

I was just wondering what other couples we doing to deal with the issue.

Get your own. When she divorces you then she won't be able to take the account along with everything else you worked so hard for...

 

Just kidding... separate accounts are probably best. Then you can make a competition out of it.

[+ZingerHead]

My wife hasn't been that interested in geocaching. She and the kids would go with me frequently in the beginning, then once in a while, but eventually I was caching alone. Just recently she decided to give it a try on her own, inheriting my Vista when I got a new GPS. She wanted her own account because she plans to find all the local caches that I've found already, and she wants her own online record of her finds. We've gone on a few finds together since then, and she didn't want me to give away the hiding place if I found the cache before her. So it looks like separate accounts is the way to go for us. Besides, she doesn't like my caching name . Can't blame her there!

[+lonetrekker]

I have a question that fits right in with this thread.

 

I need to keep my post separate (since the family does not get to go with me all the time - business trips). The family wants to have a record of all the caches done together.

 

The only problem I'm having is I want to get a premiun account and download GPX files for use with GPXSonar.

 

Looks like the only way to do it is to log the cache TWICE. Once for the familly and once for my premium solo account.

 

I know it is bad form to log caches twice... not sure how else to do it so I can get the data I need.

 

Robert

[+switchdoc]

Can't answer the question above (that is definitely a quandry) but I'll throw in a twist on the whole two versus one account thing.

 

My wife and I have seperate accounts even though, like others have mentioned, we usually cache together. We did this so that we could go out seperately if we wanted to, even though usually we dont.

 

But what I like about it is that even when we go together, we usually notice different things about the journey. Thus on the same day going to the same cache, her posts about it in the log might be completely different than mine. So, I enjoy reading her entries because she comes up with things I didnt notice and vice versa.

 

It's kinda cool to see the same cache from two different angles.

 

-Switchdoc

[+Corp Of Discovery]

I have a question that fits right in with this thread.

 

I need to keep my post separate (since the family does not get to go with me all the time - business trips). The family wants to have a record of all the caches done together.

 

The only problem I'm having is I want to get a premiun account and download GPX files for use with GPXSonar.

 

Looks like the only way to do it is to log the cache TWICE. Once for the familly and once for my premium solo account.

 

I know it is bad form to log caches twice... not sure how else to do it so I can get the data I need.

 

Robert

There should be nothing wrong with this. Think of the family account as 'theirs' and your 'solo' account yours. The problem with logging a find twice would be if you went back to a cache you've already found and logged it again as a find with the same account. Say you find a cache solo, then revisit it with the rest of your family. You would log a find on your solo account the first time you found it. When you return with your family you would then log a find with the family account and post a note with your solo account (if you want to log anything at all that is). Hope this helps.

[+lonetrekker]

There should be nothing wrong with this. Think of the family account as 'theirs' and your 'solo' account yours. The problem with logging a find twice would be if you went back to a cache you've already found and logged it again as a find with the same account. Say you find a cache solo, then revisit it with the rest of your family. You would log a find on your solo account the first time you found it. When you return with your family you would then log a find with the family account and post a note with your solo account (if you want to log anything at all that is). Hope this helps.

 

Duh! I can't believe the answer was so simple. You cleared up the part I was getting confused on. You see... I'm the one that does all the computer logging... so, I kept thinking that I WAS entering a find TWICE (an mentioned in the bad ettiquette info).

 

Now that you explain it the way you did I see that I not posting the same ACCOUNT twice... so, it's not really the same thing. Obviously, if I went with three of my Geocache friends we would ALL post our logs...

 

sometimes it just takes hearing it from someone else to clear things up... thanks.

 

Now that I understand... I just created my solo account. Should I go back and log the finds that we already did as a family (only 16) so that when viewing MY account I see all the caches I've been on... seems important for things like milestones...

 

robert

[+BigHank]

My wife and I share one account...she doesn't care one whit about the numbers, or logging the finds. She just cares about the fun we have doing things together, and caching is one of them....although when it comes to the actual cache hunt, she is much more serious about it than I am. I log most of our finds when I get around to it, mostly because I enjoy writing and can usually find some neat little thing to write about each cache hunt. So one account works fine for us.

 

Like most other folks here have said or implied, it's like many other things: whatever works best for your particular relationship and ways of approaching things.

[+Corp Of Discovery]

Should I go back and log the finds that we already did as a family (only 16) so that when viewing MY account I see all the caches I've been on... seems important for things like milestones...

 

robert

Sure, it's better to do it now rather than later. When we started we just logged all our finds under 'Corp Of Discovery'. Then my sons decided they'd like their own accounts. I went back and logged all the finds they were at under those accounts too...each one had well over 100 finds...took a while...lol. Make sure to make the date the same as when you found it and maybe mention in your log what you are doing.