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

[Team Tierra Buena]

>  In addition, after the newspaper woman
> interviewed me for the second article, I was told by a friend 
> that several on the list were unhappy with me about it 
> because I have logged few caches and they didn't think I had 
> any business talking about geocaching with the reporter,

I can say only that I do not recall hearing or reading that opinion
expressed at any time. I for one was grateful that she went beyond the
Phoenix-Tucson axis to look for sources.

> especially since she described me in the article as an "avid"
> geocacher.  Well, we are avid.  We just don't log.

I can think of more than a couple of people/teams who were right up
there in the numbers game and, for whatever reasons, disappeared from
the scene. They still have high find counts. Does that make them more or
less avid than you? You're avid if you say you're avid.
  
> 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 on the web.  We certainly have no 
> objection to others who enjoy that aspect of the sport, but 
> we didn't, so we just find them and "log them mentally" for 
> our own satisfaction.  Yes, we keep a personal list, sort of 
> like a birders life list, or we would have long since lost 
> track of where we have been.

But the birds will be there whether you "log" them or not. I can
understand that if you equate logging with competition and you find the
competitiveness not to your liking, then you would feel the same way
about logging, but I think you are overlooking another aspect of
logging, and perhaps doing a disservice to those who place caches in the
process.

One of the many joys I get from Geocaching is the one that comes when I
open an email that contains a log entry from one of the caches we've
placed. It literally brings a smile to my face when someone writes that
they enjoyed the hunt, or the location, or whatever they may trouble
themselves to mention to me.  Why would I, or I suspect anyone else, go
to the trouble of creating a cache if it weren't for the acknowledgement
that our efforts have brought pleasure to others? If all
"non-competitive" cachers quit logging, I suspect it wouldn't be too
long before you'd run out of caches to find.

If you wish to continue your non-logging approach to caching, it's one
of the beauties of how Geocaching has evolved that you are free to do
so. But I would beg you to please log your "not founds" if nothing else.
Such logs provide valuable information to cache hiders, and they have no
effect on your find count.
> 
> 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 bunch, 

As one who has advocated this in the past, I need to rethink it. If that
position is being perceived by you or others as a barrier to
participation, then  either I need to do a better job of explaining why
I think it's a good practice, or I need to subordinate its importance to
the importance of people feeling comfortable about Geocaching. And there
are any number of people who have hidden caches without finding any; the
pioneers of the game did just that.


> and should
> keep some sort of ratio between your finds and your hides.  
> Since we don't log finds, we felt we could not place any more caches.

And there are any number of people who have found many caches who have
never placed any. I don't think that or any other statistic for that
matter has ever affected the way anyone's posts have ever been received
on this list.

> 
> Anyway, I thought this was as good a time as any to describe
> another way of looking at the sport.  To repeat, I don't 
> think our approach is anything but different.

Couldn't agree with you more. I do think there are some legitimate
reasons that those of us who are asking you to reconsider your logging
philosophy are making that request, but if you decide to continue as
you've been doing, in the end, it's only a game. And it's fun no matter
how you play it.

Steve
Team Tierra Buena
Making Geocaching harder than it ought to be...