[Az-Geocaching] Re:sport/hobby/log books

[Scott Wood]

At 02:23 AM 12/1/2002 -0700, you wrote:

>We have a great time locating geocaches, but we have no interest in the 
>competitive aspects of
>the sport.  When we first got involved, we logged a couple of caches, but 
>then I suscribed to
>this list and we saw all the emphasis on totals, etc.  So, we just quit 
>logging caches.  We
>didn't quit finding them, but we did quit writing in the log books and we 
>did quit logging them

While I can see where you are coming from, I do disagree with not logging 
them in the caches log book.  There is no tie to the paper logs and the 
numbers that get posted on either geocaching.com or 
azgeocaching.com.  Infact, when I have done maintenance on a number of my 
caches, or read the logs at caches I find, I almost always find more 
entries in the book than there is online.

As a cache owner, I really like reading peoples online logs.  I put that 
cache there for people to find, and want to know that people are actually 
taking the time to get out there and find them.  I see the paper log in the 
cache as more important to the history than the cache, but the problem with 
only logging that is that the feedback from the cache finder is not as 
immediate.

I can understand your concern about this being turned into a competition, 
but it is only that way if you make it that way.  There might be comments 
made about total numbers on the list, but they are almost always made in a 
matter to be a joke or a congratulatory statement.  I can't speak for 
others, but I certainly don't look down on those that have found less 
caches than me, and I hope that no one else does either.

>Unfortunately, this has restricted us from another aspect of the activity 
>that we know we would
>enjoy.  We placed a cache very early in our geocaching careers, but then, 
>after getting on this
>list, discovered that people think you should not hide caches until after 
>you have found a

That is the true shame in all of this.  If people don't hide caches, then 
there are no caches for others to go out and find.  While I think that 
waiting until you have found a few caches before you hide one is a good 
guideline, it is hardly a hard and fast rule, and should have nothing to do 
with logging your finds.  Some of the best caches I have found were hidden 
by people who only had 1 or 2 finds when they hid there cache.


Scott
Team My Blue Heaven
www.myblueheaven.com/geocache