This topic contains 8 replies, has 7 voices, and was last updated by 
Bennycams 7 years ago.
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Okay, so I was reading the forum boards over at HQ – a dangerous feat, I know – and thought I would pose this question here.
For those who are hiders, what are your opinions on cachers who search for your cache, don’t find it, yet don’t post a DNF?
When I started 3 years ago, I decided not to post an official DNF on a cache until I’d made 3 attempts at it. My reasoning was, I didn’t know if I’d be any good at this, and I didn’t want to discourage someone else for going for it just because I didn’t find it. To date, I’ve either found the cache on my 2nd or 3rd attempt, I haven’t been back, it’s been archived, or it was a particularly frustrating Ranger Boy cache at a Little Free Library I was determined to find.
Now, if I’m pretty certain the cache is missing, I’ll message the CO. Did that with the aforementioned LFL cache twice. The first time, it was there. The second, it was missing, so he replaced it. Yet, I didn’t post a DNF either time.
I’m approaching 1000 finds (19 to go!), and I’m wondering if this would be a good time to revisit this practice.
What say you?
I figure that if you can’t find a cache, there’s no shame in logging a DNF. As a CO, I certainly appreciate it because it let’s me know my cache might be missing – yes, I want to maintain my caches.
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When I was new, I didn’t post DNFs because I was sure I was just not good enough to find them. It wasn’t until I mentioned this to more seasoned cachers that I was informed that you should post them regardless of your longevity in the sport. Now I post them all, unless I give it less than a 2 minute look, like if I am in a hurry or something about the site makes me uncomfortable or if I realize I need a tool of the trade, for example. In my DNF logs, I usually reference something about my search. I might say how long I looked. I might hint to the owner where I looked without really giving spoilers. I might just say something like the cache just escapes me today. I thank the owner for placing it, regardless. I may say if I plan to return. If many DNFs precede mine, I might ask the owner if he/she could verify it is still there, especially if I want to come back again.
I also did not post DNFs when I was a newby. Once I started hiding caches, I realized how helpful it was to the CO to get that feedback. Sometimes you just have that bad day when you miss something obvious, but more often than not there is a problem with the cache if you can’t find it (or it is a RangerBoy cache 😉
All opinions, comments, and useless drivel I post are mine alone and do not reflect the opinions of the WGA BOD.
When I started, there was a “Sentinel” cache. You couldn’t log the find until you had 100 DNFs. Of course, Groundspeak did away with these “challenge caches”, which actually encouraged DNFs.
(Maybe the geocheaters posted fake DNF logs just to get a smiley…who knows!)
Anyway, by the time I got the 100, it was Archived. No shame or cheating was involved.
Okay, let’s try this scenario –
In November of 2015, 4 1/2 months after I started geocaching, I searched for Hodag’s “Cache Cow.” I didn’t find it, and in fact, wasn’t even close. In reality, I didn’t post a DNF, but neither did I message him, because, after all, I was just getting started, and it was my first try.
But, let’s say I did post a DNF. If I remember the experience correctly, I would have posted something like “Looked around for about 15 minutes, checked all the possible spots nearby, but couldn’t come up with it. It may be missing.”
For those who haven’t found it (or who aren’t Hodag), the cache is a 1.5/1.5 peanut butter jar sized container (he did change the D/T sometime after I found it, but not the location). I should have found it within the time I spent searching for it, unless it was missing. Only it wasn’t. I found it on my second attempt the following July, and even used it to drop the first TB I ever picked up. Between the two visits, the only person who didn’t find it wrote a note that it was too rainy, which means they really didn’t make an attempt. Hodag is a good CO for this cache, and has posted regular maintenance checks without being prompted by a DNF post – a practice I will surely imitate as I place more caches, and will start when I do my first check on the one I do own in November – so the cache has never been missing. It was there in November 2015 when I looked for it, less than a month after the most recent maintenance check.
Had I posted a DNF, then claimed to have found it on my next attempt several months later, especially after no more DNFs & a maintenance check, would my find been seen as legit? Or, would it be suspect because of the earlier DNF log? Granted, I dropped a TB into the cache that was later grabbed by someone else, which can’t be done unless I legitimately found the cache, but what if I hadn’t? That’s one thing I worry about, that when I go back and find the cache after posting a DNF on a previous visit, it’ll make me look like a geocheater who’s looking to up the numbers.
I would suggest to all geocachers, new and not-so-new, to log all the DNFs, including 1st trip, 2nd trip, etc. Contacting the CO instead of posting a DNF doesn’t help other cachers who may follow after you, especially if the CO didn’t read the email or is inactive.
Having said that, it seems many newer cachers do not post DNFs. If they stick with the game over time, most begin to see the value of DNF logs and start posting them. As far as I’m concerned one never has to apologize for posting a DNF log, but they have some ‘splaining to do if they do not post their DNF. 🙂
I would suggest to all geocachers, new and not-so-new, to log all the DNFs, including 1st trip, 2nd trip, etc. Contacting the CO instead of posting a DNF doesn’t help other cachers who may follow after you, especially if the CO didn’t read the email or is inactive. Having said that, it seems many newer cachers do not post DNFs. If they stick with the game over time, most begin to see the value of DNF logs and start posting them. As far as I’m concerned one never has to apologize for posting a DNF log, but they have some ‘splaining to do if they do not post their DNF.
Logging a DNF does not affect your stats either.
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 would suggest to all geocachers, new and not-so-new, to log all the DNFs, including 1st trip, 2nd trip, etc. Contacting the CO instead of posting a DNF doesn’t help other cachers who may follow after you, especially if the CO didn’t read the email or is inactive. Having said that, it seems many newer cachers do not post DNFs. If they stick with the game over time, most begin to see the value of DNF logs and start posting them. As far as I’m concerned one never has to apologize for posting a DNF log, but they have some ‘splaining to do if they do not post their DNF. 🙂
For the record, I have never not found a Hack1of2 cache that I went searching for. All have been well-maintained, and, more importantly, there.
Sometimes, I feel I give up too early on caches. I normally cache alone, and it gets frustrating when I think it takes longer than it should to find one. And if it was just found recently? I walk away knowing it’s there somewhere, but darned if I can find it. So I feel a DNF from me would really be counterproductive, at least after the first try.
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