Feedback wanted—event featuring DNF?

[Trekkin and Birdin]

A pet peeve of mine (and others, I think) is the practice of never logging DNFs or worse yet, pretending to find a cache that you really haven’t found. DNFs are not a mark of shame, but a service to those who might follow AND the cache owner. We currently show 199 DNFs. I haven’t counted up, but I think I can safely say that at least half of those were ones that turned out to be missing.

So……I was thinking of hosting one of our Caffiene and Caching Events, with a little mini-lesson on the fun of DNFs.

Feedback…..if you had such an event in your neighborhood, would you attend it?

Do you have any examples to share, either of great DNF logs you’ve written or seen, or of situations where, had someone logged the stupid DNF, it would have been in place when you came by to search?

Thanks.

(Still the ONLY logged DNF on “Welcome to Wisconsin” at the Wisconsin Welcome Center near Dubuque. Not proud of it, but not afraid to admit it, either!)

[JimandLinda]

I was hoping to put out a “Sentry” cache in the near future. You can only log a smiley after you have DNF’d 50 caches. Or 1 smiley for every 50 DNF’s you have.

But would that be considered an ALR? ❓

[lone_gunman]

“I got within 50 ft and there I spyed the enemy…..their commander was calculating and cruel….they routed every advance….no diversion would work……on the final assault they swarmed all around me…..by the time I retreated the sky was black with mosquitos….I will return and next time be warned, extra bugspray”

This was a dnf I had on one of Gotta Run’s letterboxes. Not the best dnf, but the series made for a nice epic that day.

[furfool]

Right now I have a number of DNFs. There is at least one cache (there might be one more) with multiple DNFs on it by me. If I gave an honest search and didn’t find it, I post DNF. If I couldn’t do a decent search, for example, I look in one spot and a bunch of muggles show up and won’t move along, I either won’t post anything, or I will post a note. Usually after a few days of finding a DNF, I will go back and delete my DNF. I do this so I don’t go find a cache that I already found. I have done this more than once. I will also delete old notes, will attends, needs maintenance, etc. when they are obsolete to me.

[sandlanders]

@Trekkin’ and Birdin’ wrote:

We currently show 199 DNFs.

Now we know who has that that vehicle in the photo in another forum!

But as far as attending an event? Sure. But then we usually log our DNFs, so we would hopefully be a contributor not a receiver of any mini-lessons. (Miss the teaching already, Birdin’?) I’ll go over our DNFs and see if we have any that might be appropriate for this thread.

Maybe we can all get bumper stickers: “Proud logger of a DNF!”

[TyeDyeSkyGuy]

I have dozens upon dozens of great DNF logs for our caches Match Head, Riddler series and the NEMESIS series. Take a look and use what you like.

[Trekkin and Birdin]

Thanks for the logs, everyone. If we do hold this event, we’d love to have others come and give their perspective as contributors.

We tend to operate like furfool…..if we give it a decent search, the DNF goes public, but if for some reason we feel we didn’t give it a full look, we might not, or might just make a note to that effect. I guess I feel that “Did not find” means…..I didn’t find it. For whatever reason. If we log a DNF, it stays, even if we go back later and find it. I know there are a few where we have multiple DNF logs.

Given how tenacious we can be when it comes to a search, it’s kind of amazing to realize we do have this many DNFs. When I have nothing else to do, I really need to see how many were discovered to be gone after our logs.

[lone_gunman]

If you want some more interesting reading, GC16D8C …..take a look at my logs from may of last year

[Mathman]

@Trekkin’ and Birdin’ wrote:

A pet peeve of mine (and others, I think) is the practice of never logging DNFs or worse yet, pretending to find a cache that you really haven’t found. DNFs are not a mark of shame, but a service to those who might follow AND the cache owner. We currently show 199 DNFs. I haven’t counted up, but I think I can safely say that at least half of those were ones that turned out to be missing.

So……I was thinking of hosting one of our Caffiene and Caching Events, with a little mini-lesson on the fun of DNFs.

Feedback…..if you had such an event in your neighborhood, would you attend it?

Do you have any examples to share, either of great DNF logs you’ve written or seen, or of situations where, had someone logged the stupid DNF, it would have been in place when you came by to search?

Thanks.

(Still the ONLY logged DNF on “Welcome to Wisconsin” at the Wisconsin Welcome Center near Dubuque. Not proud of it, but not afraid to admit it, either!)

So then it was you that Team Black Cat saw!!!!

@Team Black-Cat wrote:

We saw this on the highway near Mad Town. After we got done laughing, we caught back up to snap the photo.

[amita17]

Trekkin’ and Birdin’ wrote:

DNFs are not a mark of shame, but a service to those who might follow AND the cache owner.

If we log a DNF, it stays, even if we go back later and find it. I know there are a few where we have multiple DNF logs.

quote]

Not really an answer to your questions, but parallels…

When folks do Geocaching 101 or things with scouts or other groups, please make the DNF discussion part of the presentation. I never understood the importance until these forums, and as a new cacher, was embarrassed by all my DNFs. I think I averaged 40% finds, now I maybe I have 80% on a good day. I now log DNFs and understand it can help the cache owner.

Does your DNF disappear if you log a Found it? Also, I have only been logging DNF once, since I only log a cache found one time, I had only been logging one DNF, even if I looked twice. If I found it later, I would log the DNF first and the Found it when I did. Is this wrong? I know we all can play the way we want to, but I guess I don’t get why you wouldn’t log it Found after eventually finding it.

[JimandLinda]

If we DNF, we post it, and wait until some other cachers attempt it. If it is found, and we go back and DNF, we log it DNF, usually noting, “Strike 2”! Three strikes and we PAF!
Why not let the owner know that there tough hide is REALLY tough! 😯

If we need to cut our search short, we post a note with the reason, to alert future cache seekers what to stay on the alert for. Could be a nearby muggle, bees, PI, or maybe just weather.

Logging the DNF, and not noting any special circumstances, doesn’t help the cache owner.

If we see 3 DNF’s in a row on our own caches, we disable the cache, until we can check on it.

Thanks to the cachers that send us e-mails, telling us how to count to 3!

[Mister Greenthumb]

In 2-1/2 years we have logged 156 dnf’s. Some are multiples and almost all have information as to why we couldn’t find the cache. I look at the log on a dnf when we make another attempt. Today I found 4 caches and had 2 dnf’s. I sent the cache owner a detaled e-mail explaining the circunstances of both dnf’s. As the owners of over 100 caches hidden we check all hides if they have 2 dnf’s in a row. We felt a little inadequate getting a dnf when we first started, but now view it as a valuable tool.

[bartrod]

@JimandLinda wrote:

I was hoping to put out a “Sentry” cache in the near future. You can only log a smiley after you have DNF’d 50 caches. Or 1 smiley for every 50 DNF’s you have.

I undoubtedly qualify 😳 By the way, for those of you who don’t know, here’s the link to find out what DNF’s you’ve logged:
http://www.geocaching.com/my/logs.aspx?s=1&lt=3

Oconto...the birthplace of western civilization:)

[JimandLinda]

137 DNF logs, of which 62 were found later. Net 75 DNF’s.

[Mister Greenthumb]

@Mister Greenthumb wrote:

In 2-1/2 years we have logged 156 dnf’s. Some are multiples and almost all have information as to why we couldn’t find the cache. I look at the log on a dnf when we make another attempt. Today I found 4 caches and had 2 dnf’s. I sent the cache owner a detaled e-mail explaining the circunstances of both dnf’s. As the owners of over 100 caches hidden we check all hides if they have 2 dnf’s in a row. We felt a little inadequate getting a dnf when we first started, but now view it as a valuable tool.

I went back and checked and we have cleared 58 of those dnf’s for a net of 98, many of which are now missind and disable or archived.

[Author]

Posts