Once again, thank you for the question Cheeto.

As I stated in my candidate’s post that I am an advocate of individuals playing the game as they see fit. Personally, after my first event, I no longer log temporary caches because that is not the way I choose to play. Is it right or wrong? I am not prepared to place judgement on those that do or don’t. As a side note, Geocaching.com DOES allow multiple finds on geocaches as there is nothing in the rules that prevents this. I have this information directly from a Lackey as I was appealing a reviewer’s decision on a puzzle series placement.

I have mentioned this to emphasize that it really is up to how you want to play the game. As far as the WGA, they have made and passed that motion and that is how they operate their sanctioned events.

If it were to come up to vote again, my decision would be based on the majority of the members that expressed their opinions to me. Afterall, my representation on the WGA Board is not about what my opinions are, but rather about the opinion of the majority of those I would represent.

I guess I have answered this question about a million times now, but I suppose new people have not heard my view on the matter, so I will repeat my views one more time.

First of all, I have no problem with temp caches. Not a bit. Geocaching is a game, and only a game. If some people enjoy placing, finding or logging temp caches, that is their business, and not mine, so I have no problem with any of those activities. People need to remember that the number of finds a person has is just a number. It is not a score. A cacher who has found 1200 caches is not “ahead” of someone who has found 800. Since there is no score in geocaching, it can not be cheating if someone finds and logs a temp geocache. I personally do not log temps, but I do not begrudge how others choose to play the game.

Second, in the early days of geocaching, temp caches were needed at events, to provide people at events something to look for. So people who found and logged temp caches in the early days of geocaching are not low down dirty cheats, as some would like to suggest. However, temp caches are no longer needed to hold an event. There are plenty of perm caches nearly everywhere now, and it is not really that much more trouble to place a good quality perm cache to support an event than it is to place a temp. So while temp caches were once needed for our events, they are not needed now.

And third, the WGA was a victim of our own success in placing temp caches. We placed so many temps at our events, that we would have thousands of “attended” logs the day after the event. This was noticed by many people in the geocaching community, and the WGA suffered significant derision as a result. Sadly some cachers viewed the WGA as an organization set up to enable cheaters log a bunch of phony finds. This was never in fact true, but our reputation as a group suffered greatly from this false perception. As a result, the board decided to move away from the practice of logging temps at our events.

As you point out Cheeto, we have been without temps now for 2 major events. Both were very successful events, though to be honest if you just look at the numbers of how many attended, attendence is down from the peak when people could log 50 – 80 temp caches at the event.

I continue to support having some very limited temp caches in the future, like it was this past year, with a few “Kids Caches” and some temp night caches. These should not be loggable as finds.

In short, I have no problem with folks having temps at non-WGA events, even though I do not log them myself. I do however, feel strongly it is important that we safeguard the reputation of the WGA, and will continue to strongly oppose logging temp caches at WGA events.

zuma

Thank you for the question, Shane.

When I attended my first event temp caches were placed and at the time I logged multiple attended logs for each cache that I found at the event. As I continued caching, attending events and learning more about caching my attitudes on logging temp caches has evolved. I don’t care all that much if someone logs temp caches but for me on a personal level it has become something I no longer feel right doing.

Now as for WGA sponsored events and temp caches go I feel that the decision that was made to no longer allow logging of temp caches at our events was the correct decision for the following reasons:

1. The WGA as an organization really needs to have good working relationships with not only Groundspeak but also with other state geocaching organizations. The multiple attend logs at events had put the WGA and Wisconsin geocachers in a poor light when it came to people outside the state and I feel that the move away from temp caches at events has helped with that.

2. The placement of permanent caches for WGA events has the added benefit of adding to the quality caches that are placed in the areas where we are holding our events, which not only is good for the event but will also hopefully be enjoyed by geocachers for years to come.

If elected to the BOD I would have to vote to keep the current policy in place if the issue were ever revisited.