Ethics and Geocaching – Second Part

[wzbt03]

First off, yes we all error and to forgive is divine. I don’t even think forgiving is something most of us need to do because it really didn’t matter a lot to begin with.

The subject if this thread was always ethics, not lets get those who violate.
It was asked that those who violated the ethics to explain why they felt this was okay.
Three have come forward and explained and it appears they realize what they were doing was wrong.
From an ethics standpoint I have just a bit of trouble with the explainations of “it was getting dark, the gates were about to lock” etc, but they apolgized subject closed.
The bottom line is they were wrong, they have deleted the logs and its time to move on.

What would be the proper way to address this if you thought it was happening?
1- How about pointing it out to our board members to discuss.
2- Taking their advice on the best way to approach it if they elect not too.
3- Following that advice in the way you feel is least invasive to the people directly so they might get the hint.

Hmmm wonder if that all happened.

Now its time to move on and go out there and find some hidden tupperware.

[Ms. WISearcher]

I have not chimed in on purpose until now. This topic was brought up to the board prior to this posting and we discussed it…we had determined that there was nothing to do since it was all accusations.

Personally- we had a goal to hit the “big one” (1000) we had a date set, a very special cache picked, and then word of this came up…I personally immediately lost interest. (I can’t speak for Mr. WISearcher) What once had been a great family activity and a wonderful way to experience nature had suddenly been reduced to “So what”. What does it mean to get 1000 caches?…apparantly anyone can do it.

Our milestones will continue…we will get back out on the trails again hopefully soon. This has been good for us actually as we now know that it really isn’t about the numbers to us(although it certainly is fun to go all out and get 20+ on a day and to hit new milestones)…and that we will cache for our own reasons.I think it is more an issue of respect for me. I would rather be respected for the quality caches that I put out or the way I (geo)cache. It is obvious from this thread that numbers do not equal respect.

There are only 1-2% of caches that we have that we haven’t done together as a team (mostly because Tony did some while out of state while at a conference). There was also one of the my favorite days of geocaching where I teamed up with a female member of another team and Tony teamed up with the male member(the four caches that he referred to earlier in this thread)Ladies vs the guys…we all had a blast (even if the guys found theirs first).

We may not all (geo)cache the same, but hopefully we can acknowledge the aforementioned misdeeds and learn from them.

I personally take offense when people point fingers at the board for letting this discussion (or others like it)take place. I think this has been a healthy process for members of the WGA community to share their opinions, feel that they have been heard, and most importantly to learn and heal from this. I acknowledge that it must have been hard for those that admitted this to speak up…furthermore, I think that it is possible that they have learned from this the most(at least that is how I read Tami’s post in particular). I stayed out of posting as a board member because I didn’t want my opinions to influence the WGA members’ opinions…please understand that sometimes saying nothing is not the same as doing nothing.

Rhonda-Ms. WISearcher
WGA BOD

[GrouseTales]

First off, I’d like to thanks our friends who showed great integrity by offering their appology.

Secondly, I would offer my own appology to these individuals for some of my stern examples which I cited above. In my head I had invisioned how this practice could lead to hundreds of false logs. I am glad to see that the scale of this was much smaller, and this wasn’t the big conspiracy I was picturing.

As Rhonda explained, the WGA Board heard some rumors about this activity several weeks ago. At the time they were just rumors, and no one was willing to provide any names so we could contact these cachers in private.

For the record, Linus4cache mentioned this was occuring, but did not release the names of those involved. After Linus posted this story, many cachers came out of the woodwork and contacted me by private email. It seemed like everyone knew about this but me.

I shared these names with the other Board Members and sought their advise. Ray and I felt it would be best to contact them by private email so they could learn of the accusations and give their side of the story. Without being told, they may not even know they were suspected of the activity.

After hearing the other side of the story, it was evident that this isn’t the big issue that it appeared. This isn’t a large scale conspiracy to inflate numbers. This is just a group of (geo)cachers who enjoy each others company and go on some marathon missions. Unfortunately some corners were cut that shouldn’t have been.

I wish this all could have been handled by private email from the start, and not be hashed out in the forums. But as things stand, sometimes it’s good that situations are presented so we can refocus and get back on track.

I’ve had some people comment that I must be pretty mad about all this. I can assure you that I am not mad at all. I felt more hurt and disappointed that this may be happening. My words were strong because I felt the situation as presented, was a matter of right from wrong. We’ve had a few heated debates in these forums regarding opinions on one thing or another. Everyone has their own opinions on what they like or dislike, but this was more a matter of right from wrong.

As WGA Board Members we are not a governing body. We are not the Geocache police. Although some of us are volunteer cache reviewers, we don’t proclaim to have any authority over Geocaching. Our approvers stick to guildlines that GC.com develops, and Jeremy’s rules for the game. I think one of our more important roles may be that of mentors. Whether you agree or disagree, know that our hearts are in the right place.

Thanks again for those who came forward and offered their appology, and for putting our worries to rest. I think we can all put this matter behind us and move on to the fun stuff again.

---

“There are two kinds of hunting: ordinary hunting and grouse hunting.”
-Aldo Leopold, A sand county Almanac

Brian
WGA President
Grousetales at wi-geocaching dot com
KC9GMW

[This message has been edited by GrouseTales (edited 11-14-2004).]

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