[Az-Geocaching] RE: people "Finding" a cache that wasn't there

[Jim Scotti]

Well, I was just lurking here, reading everyones opinions (and generally
agreeing with them for the most part), when suddenly I see my name go by.  
While I am honored by the apparent high regard for my puzzle solving
abilities, I'm not sure I can live up to my reputation here.  I haven't even
tried to solve a puzzle cache in quite some time and my favorite two such
caches took me around 120 or so minutes each to solve with graphical
techniques in one case and analytical techniques in the other.  Well, I do
love mathematical problem solving, I have to admit....  That's one reason I
became a scientist, I suppose.

So anyway, I agree that one should not claim a cache unless they were able to
sign the logbook.  There's one cache in town here that I have seen, but not
yet logged, so I have not yet claimed it, despite having laid eyes on the
container from some distance.....  While I'm sympathetic to "different
strokes for different folks", there are certain standards that any cacher
should be willing to adhere to, and signing a log or sending in the
apprpriate proof of find (for a virtual) before claiming a cache as found is
the minimum in my opinion.  It's also important to cache owners (as well as
other cachers) to report any anomalies found in a cache - be it that it was
not seen or that the container is damaged and in need of repair or that the
logbook is nearly full....  If you only see the container from 10 feet and
don't open it up but claim it anyway, you may be cheating yourself, but you
may also be impairing the ability of the cache owner to judge the state of
the cache.  Unlike a few cache owners that I've heard here, I don't go visit
each of my caches very frequently (I'm in the process of making the rounds on
most of them, but it's been quite some time since my last visits to most of
them) and rely on the reports of visitors to gauge the state of the cache and
the need for maintenance, so DNF reports and other notes on the cache by
visitors are important to me.

And now this is turning into a thesis and I better get back to work.....  
:-)

Jim.

On Tue, 7 Dec 2004, Andrew Ayre wrote:

> Mostly I don't mind - people are only cheating themselves. The only time
> I might be annoyed is if the cache is a puzzle cache. If I have taken the
> time to construct the cache puzzle and others have struggled for days (or
> minutes in the case of Jim Scotti :)) to solve it, then I would feel that
> people who didn't really find it or cannot prove they found it with an
> entry in the log, are cheating the other finders.
> 
> Andy

Jim Scotti
Lunar & Planetary Laboratory
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721 USA                 http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti/