This topic contains 14 replies, has 11 voices, and was last updated by 
BeccaDay 8 years, 4 months ago.
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Here I go….I have followed the thread regarding GSAK and people shared a lot of interesting points. Not having a smartphone, some of these cool things wouldn’t be available to us anyway, but one aspect that seems to garner a lot of excitement is logging.
I’m going into curmudgeon mode, but we started this game when there weren’t so many caches and power trails were non-existent. So was the concept of “logging from the field.” Part of the enjoyment for us as finders was sitting down at the computer later to relive the experience while writing our logs. Granted, it gets harder on power trails to say something new and different, but we still try to do that. As cache owners, we really appreciate those folks who thank us for the effort in placing them by writing at least something unique to that search that day….even if it was a not so great experience.
We have stepped away from hardcore caching the past few years. We still place them, but that’s not so fun anymore, either. Getting a big long GSAK log about the day spent caching, over and over if they get several of them, is just not telling us a whole lot. I understand not everyone is a writer. That’s okay. We’re both retired teachers and we get that. Just give some thought to showing your appreciation and reliving your experience by writing your log, even if it’s brief, mis-spelled and all the rest. We love seeing those! There are certain folks who come around and we know they take the time to do this, and we make sure to read them, see their photos and occasionally communicate a little about what they shared.
I’m done.
I know you’re not a power trail owner, so I can understand your frustration about the copy and paste logs. Generally, I do the copy and paste logs for the power trails, but Ive done a power trail along with a few random ones here and there along it. While I’ve done the copy and paste on the power trail caches, I go out of the way to write unique logs on the non power trail caches. Call me old school, but that’s just the way I roll.
-The Happy Hodag!
The buck stops here. . .and gets entered into Where's George.
Where's George? Stimulating the economy one EMS'ed dollar at a time.
Here I go….
There you go again…
I couldn’t agree more Gwyn. I’ve only done one power trail; even with that one I tried to write something unique where I could. I guess my expectation (hope?) is that if one hides unique caches, they would receive unique logs, and if one places caches in a series along power trails they can expect the cut and pastes.
I’m with T & B. Working my way through the WGA geoart, maybe the cache placement isn’t that interesting but the puzzles are. I see that T&B does have unique comments for each cache they log. I have too. Either I can comment on the information in the puzzle – which clearly did take a lot of work – or something I see when I stop for the cache, which I jot a note about so I can log it later. As a cache owner, I really do read those logs and appreciate the comments and stories – that’s what makes owning a cache fun. So I won’t do 100+ caches in a day, but I will tell you about the flora and fauna and other interesting things I discover. Yeah, old school – but that’s my style.
We will do a general copy and paste and then add a little something extra for each cache.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
-Henry David Thoreau
As a cache owner, the worst kind of log that I see come across in our notifications is the HUGE detailed log of every single day of a cacher’s three-week cross-country trip… and then it is repeated (C&P) for every single one of the hundreds of caches that were found on that trip. I don’t really care about the geoart you found in South Dakota or the adventure you had in the mud in Iowa or the snake that was in your sleeping bag somewhere in Illinois… Was there anything specific about our cache that you remember or that we need to know? While I would prefer individualized logs for our hides that are found, short C&Ps are much preferred over the novels.
Those lengthy logs are also of no use when we are looking for caches ourselves. They offer no details about terrain that was encountered, conditions of the containers, if the coordinates were off… nothing of use at all. Some (both long and short ones) are even misleading, as in: “Found XX caches today while out with A, B, and C. Replaced damp logs in some, containers for others, dropped a few travel bugs along the way. Your cache may have been one of those.” Or C&Ps for all finds, but some were really DNFs. But on the short ones, at least we can see if there is something different added. I don’t even read through those super long travel-logs that are C&P.
I will admit to writing lengthy logs myself… very lengthy. These are accounts of our adventures AT EACH CACHE that help us remember where we were and why we enjoyed doing this cache. While they may take lots of space in the previous logs on receivers, they almost always give some kind of idea about what went on in our searches but without using any spoilers. The cache owners know a bit more about their hides, and cachers who come after us might get an idea of what the caches were like. And we can go back and read what we had to say and look at the photos we may have uploaded with our log and remember the good (and not-so-good) times we had caching.
One other thing that we make a point of doing, or really NOT doing: we don’t mention that this cache filled a certain spot on our grid or that we were working on a challenge and this was… whatever. Yes, some caches were placed for those very reasons, and maybe we sought ones out for those very reasons, but we still like to thank the cache owners for placing caches to be found and for bringing us to special places. We don’t always know the COs, and since we think the caches we place are special, so are those that are placed by others.
Most of the time I enter unique logs, unless it is a power trail or many caches in a day.
However, what irks me as a CO is: Found it! or TFTC There really has to be a law against these!! 🙂
I’d Rather Be Lost Geocaching, Than Found At Home!
We usually read through every log for a cache we try to find either before we hunt for it or after. Invariably, we see a lot of caches that only say “Found it.” or”TFTC” or “out with so and so grabbing 2000 caches today” or our personal irritant, “found this one 200 years ago and forgot to log.” We have been guilty of some of those as well. Maybe, some CO’s and cachers find our logs too short, too long, too silly or too irritating. The quality of our logs definitely goes down as we increase the number of caches we get in a day.
Although we are not hiders yet, we believe the CO who did all the hard work deserves better and are attempting to reflect that in our more recent logs. Looking back at the old old logs when caching began is pure joy as cachers then didn’t care so much about numbers, but about experiences, and had lively logs with back and forth bantering.
That being said, the first rule of caching seems to be that there are no rules or mores. To each his/her own!
Katste writes logs I look forward to. Well done.
Following the signals from space.
I am currently a week behind in logging 🙁
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
-Henry David Thoreau
I think you better get on that. Word is GSAK makes logging so much easier.
The buck stops here. . .and gets entered into Where's George.
Where's George? Stimulating the economy one EMS'ed dollar at a time.
I think you better get on that. Word is GSAK makes logging so much easier.
I like to do my personal logs for each cache. I keep notes.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
-Henry David Thoreau
Word is GSAK makes logging so much easier
I like to do my personal logs for each cache. I keep notes.
Even if you use GSAK to log can you make all your logs personal. In fact if you use your gps to enter notes those notes will show up when you go to write your log. Very convenient 🙂
In fact, I used GSAK on Sunday when I hit up the Mountain Bay Trail. Even though I used a template (aka copy and paste), I was still able to put in personal logs for a few of those caches. Oh dear god, I actually defended GSAK for a change. 😀
The buck stops here. . .and gets entered into Where's George.
Where's George? Stimulating the economy one EMS'ed dollar at a time.
I really appreciate the people who write just a little more. At least when people just write TFTC, they’re saying thank you. It drives me bonkers when I get the log that’s simply “found it” or sometimes even less.
Not all who wander are lost. -J.R.R. Tolkien
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