Bill Nolan wrote:

> What ever happened to those nice, old clichés, like “different strokes 
> for different folks,” or “walking to the beat of a different drummer?” 
> Why is it necessary for people to make the sort of dictatorial 
> comments like the one below? Come on, Adolph, lighten up!
>
I'm afraid that I have to agree with those comments. There ARE rules to 
geocaching as listed on the official site at:
http://www.geocaching.com/faq/
they are listed as:

*What are the rules in Geocaching?*

Geocaching is a relatively new phenomenon. Therefore, the rules are very 
simple:

1. Take something from the cache

2. Leave something in the cache

3. Write about it in the logbook

It does mention that the Taking and Leaving part of the rules are 
optional elsewhere in the FAQ, but nowhere does it say that signing the 
log is optional. Signing the log book is the only reward that the people 
placing the caches get. If it wasn't for the log book, the cache would 
just be trash in the desert that people keep looking for.
To show how important following the rules are to geocaching imagine a 
different aspect of the game of geocaching known as the travel bug. Now 
imagine that people just moved the travel bug from cache to cache 
without logging it, what good does that do for anyone. The entire 
purpose of that travel bug is to log where it's boon. Sometimes the bug 
has a particular place in mind as a goal, but without the logs of where 
it's been, it just the worlds poorest, most unreliable shipping service.

Without the logs, I might as well flush my cache or travel bug down the 
toilet... it will do me the same amount of good, the the cache/travel 
bug will still get to go on an adventure.

At the other extreme of people that feel it's OK to make up their own 
rules, there was a certain Pirate a year or so ago that decided their 
rules were "Take contents, Take log, leave note". I don't remember what 
actually happened with that whole deal, I think the pirate just 
disappeared instead of going through with the rest of their plan for the 
cache contents, mostly due to the fact that there were people out for blood.

Brian Cluff
Team Snaptek