Is there a reviewer in the house?

[GOJeepers]

I need the help of a reviewer. There is a cache here in Madison, Blackhawk Park (GC11DNR), that has been disabled since the beginning of April. I have posted 2 “Needs to Archive” notes and nothing has happened. Just to make sure, I checked the cache area last night and saw no signs of it…it is definitely gone.

What is the next step? Thanks!

Sara

[GeoPink]

Any “Needs to Archive” logs go directly to a reviewer for their attention.

If you’ve done that twice now, I have to believe that the reviewer has been in contact with the cache owner. Though if this is a cache that has been disabled for a while, our wga2 reviewer, Tie, will probably be sending them the “You’ve got 4 weeks to get this up and running or else…” Reviewer Note.

Also, double check that the logs you left were “Needs to Archive” and not “Needs Maintenance” as the latter only go to the cache owner and not reviewers.

Hope that helps… Good Luck!

[Wis Kid]

Everything Jeff states is correct, but people should understand that we now have a process for reviewing “long disabled” caches. Tie currently handles the “bad guy” role of informing the cache owners that they have a limited time to get their disabled caches back on line. I can tell you that this particular cache hasn’t made it into the list yet. We are currently prioritizing caches that are 2 months disabled (or more). But if it stays disabled much longer, it WILL hit the list.

That said, there is really no reason to put an SBA on a disabled cache, as it is going to get addressed by the standard process. While it might not hurt if the hider is truly out of geocaching, someone who disabled the cache less than 3 months ago is very likely to be active and is also likely to be offended by your SBA logs. My experience has been that it is generally better not to make enemies unnecessarily.

There are several types of circumstances where an SBA log is appropriate (These are real examples)

– Cache is placed in the hider’s front yard, who then moves away without disabling or archiving the cache. (We have a name for people who do this!)

– Cache is accidentally hidden on private property, and law enforcement is called to investigate a finder’s trespassing.

– Cache is placed on a highway bridge that somehow slipped through the review process.

– Cache is placed in violation of the land managers geocaching policy and they are asking for it to be removed.

If you find a situation like this on an active cache, please contact the owner AND post an SBA. These situations require quick action. In less dire circumstances, it is not really necessary to post an SBA. Now if you have tried to contact the owner multiple times with no response, have posted no finds, and needs maintenance logs without response, and generally made lots of efforts to resolve the problem with the owner, you might want to post an SBA on an active cache. Normally, it doesn’t have to go that far.

[GOJeepers]

The reason I placed the SBA is because this cache had been disabled for more than 2 months and the owner had not logged on since the day it had been disabled. Also, the cache owner had exactly one find and one hide. Seeing these things, I figured the cache owner was NOT a serious hider and most likely was never going to take care of the cache. I thought I was doing a proactive service by checking to see if the cache was there and trying to make sure the cache was on SOME ONE’s radar. I guess I was wrong.

Rest assured, I do NOT post SBA notes lightly. This is the second cache I ever posted one on…the first had been disabled for more than 6 months. A quick SBA and the cache was archived within 1 day, voluntarily.

[Buy_The_Tie]

Have a look here: Long Disabled Cache Cleanup Policy

A cache needs to be disabled 3 months before it comes into the cleanup “system”.

The policy is set up to be as flexible and forgiving to the geocache placer as possible. With that being said, I don’t see an SBA on a cache like this accelerating the process any.

[GOJeepers]

I apologize for not following the well documented procedure. The SBA logs have been deleted and I will continue to sit on my hands waiting for some one to take care of the cache. Next time I see a cache that is having problems that I could possibly help with I will simply put it on my ignore list and wait patiently for some one to notice there is an issue.

[SammyClaws]

Is there a process for archiving caches where there are deadbeat owners who refuse to do anything about a cache that is missing? There are some that are sitting out there and wont show up on any reviewer list until the owner disables them, but the caches are just as useless as there isn’t anything to find and log. I would think there should be a process that goes around the owner to disable it, giving them time to repair/replace the cache or get archived.

[Buy_The_Tie]

@SammyClaws wrote:

Is there a process for archiving caches where there are deadbeat owners who refuse to do anything about a cache that is missing? There are some that are sitting out there and wont show up on any reviewer list until the owner disables them, but the caches are just as useless as there isn’t anything to find and log. I would think there should be a process that goes around the owner to disable it, giving them time to repair/replace the cache or get archived.

There isn’t a perfect way to accomplish this. There are, however, two slightly less-than-perfect ways to get this done.

1. Post an SBA (Should Be Archived) note on the cahce page. Each SBA note goes to all of the reviewers in Wisconsin. Often, such a note will spur the cache owner to action in and of itself. If not, and the circumstances warrant it, the reviewer will get involved and (eventually) archive the cache if the owner does not respond. See the posting above that links to the “Long Disabled Cache Cleanup” policy.

2. Contact a Wisconsin reviewer directly. For now, the reviewer WGA2 handles this function.

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