This may launch a cat among the pigeons

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Fangsoki
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This may launch a cat among the pigeons

Post by Fangsoki » 28 November 14 8:48 pm

I am a big fan of finding archived caches. Trawling cache pages, piecing together what happened many years ago. Working together with your mates - and the joy of actually finding something that has been forgotten for a long time. Quite a few people enjoy doing it (Well in the Brisbane area anyway)

I also enjoy finding archived virtual caches too. If the information is long gone, then of course an archived virtual, should never be logged as "found". Not cheating anyone but yourself doing that. But I fail to see the problem if the answers to the virtual are still there....

Say though - has anyone tried logging an archived virtual cache recently?

http://coord.info/GCGT1G

Oh drat it's locked.

How about this one -:

http://coord.info/GC86AF

Oh bless my ten toes, it's locked as well. What awful luck. Maybe I will just try a random one in WA....

http://coord.info/GCM5Q1

Well goodness me - it's locked as well.

Anyone else noticing some kind of trend? :evil:

Some may not care about the action of locking every Australian archived virtual. That's fine. I do.

Goldenwattle
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Re: This may launch a cat among the pigeons

Post by Goldenwattle » 28 November 14 9:15 pm

I like to log archived caches too, but ones with a physical presence. A cache and log still there. With virtuals, someone is meant to check your answers before it is logged, so if the owner is no longer doing this, how can it be rightly logged?

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Fangsoki
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Re: This may launch a cat among the pigeons

Post by Fangsoki » 28 November 14 9:26 pm

Good point, Goldenwattle.

Actually the first cache I quoted above IS still checked by the cache owner and they reply back. But you are right - in the majority of cases, the Owner may not be active any more.

However, I don't know about you... but I have found my share of active virtuals and received no reply to my answers.

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Re: This may launch a cat among the pigeons

Post by Goldenwattle » 28 November 14 9:35 pm

"However, I don't know about you... but I have found my share of active virtuals and received no reply to my answers."

I recently logged a number in the USA. I send answers for all the virtuals to the owners, but never received a reply back from any of them.

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Re: This may launch a cat among the pigeons

Post by BaldEd » 29 November 14 4:12 am

:shock: I had never before heard of archived caches being "Locked" to prevent logging. :-k As a CO, how does one set this on your old archived caches? There doesn't seem to be a setting in "Edit".

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Re: This may launch a cat among the pigeons

Post by Goldenwattle » 29 November 14 10:25 am

The reviewer can lock a cache.

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gmj3191
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Re: This may launch a cat among the pigeons

Post by gmj3191 » 29 November 14 11:10 am

Since there is no actual cache, a CO would only archive a virtual because :
- the environment has changed i.e. the cache is no longer doable
or
- the CO no longer wants to be bothered with getting the answers and replying to the finder.

In the first case the cache can't be completed, and in the second, the CO does not want it to be completed.

Therefore it makes complete sense to lock the cache, to stop people trying to complete it.

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gmj3191
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Re: This may launch a cat among the pigeons

Post by gmj3191 » 29 November 14 2:24 pm

From that nasty Facebook
===================
Matt Godwin
Geoff Tynan, I must say your anger is directed at the wrong reviewer. The entire Australian team agreed to lock all these archived virtuals. I actually did the locking after a number of issues that we were sick of hearing people complain about as people were abusing long archived virtuals to get a smiley or achieve a challenge.

As you're aware, virtuals are Grandfathered cache types that once archived can not be reinstated. The guidelines are clear that if an owner is not "maintaining" their virtual then it should be archived. I don't go looking for these but if someone (like a person from SA protesting that a SA virtual gets archived) goes and posts NA notes on other virtuals around the country then they get archived. What follows is that the cache should be locked to stop abuse.

Feel free to throw rocks at the reviewers but understand that I don't go an lock listings for no reason. You can complain to Groundspeak if you like but be careful what you wish for. You may only increase the profile of all those old long archived caches that people are still logging.

There is another case I use the lock function and that is when an archived cache is in proximity to another new cache where I can see that an old archived cache may still be in situ.

Feel free to lodge any complaints in person next time we bump into each other. I welcome the debate, though don't do it when I'm with my family trying to relax as you may not like the response.
4 hrs · Like · 3

Jenny Grant
Hi Matt, if the owners are still actively answering logs, doesn't that count as still maintaining the cache? Or am I missing something?
4 hrs · Like · 1

Peter Middo
I'm not convinced that even logging an archived cache - even if it's still in place, with a logbook in situ - is appropriate. And, I'm just sharing a personal opinion. How others wish to run their race is entirely up to them, it just doesn't sit well with me.
3 hrs · Like · 2

Matt Godwin
Peter there are plenty that share your views but as long as people will run statistics on dates placed, time since last find, etc. Finders will keep looking for them.

Jenny, not a problem while the cache is active. Once it's gone, it's too late. It was decided it was easier to lump all archived listings in the one bucket.
3 hrs · Like

Jenny Grant
Thanks Matt. For many of us, statistics (filling in grids) add an extra element of fun and challenge to the game that we enjoy.
3 hrs · Like

Russel Scholl
It appears we have Consistency (at least across Australia). Thanks for the detailed posting Matt
3 hrs · Edited · Like · 2

Russel Scholl
"Star Wars " = GC , I assume.
3 hrs · Like · 1

Russel Scholl
or Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy v Dr Who ?
3 hrs · Like

Peter Floyd
While I am disappointed with the decision, at least if it is considered and consistent (in Australia) then I will be content. There has been a recent history of some randomness so happy the Reviewer team has come together on the matter. Good to know and thankyou Matt for the update.
3 hrs · Like · 3

Matt Godwin
Thanks Peter that was what we are working towards.
I'm more disappointed in the few that have ruined it for the many but that's history now.
1 hr · Like · 1

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andiamo
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Re: This may launch a cat among the pigeons

Post by andiamo » 29 November 14 8:40 pm

I would say I am sick of people complaining about how others play the game ... if you don't like it ignore it, don't go tattling to the reviewers for crying out loud as they have better things to do than listen to your whinging.

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Re: This may launch a cat among the pigeons

Post by Goldenwattle » 30 November 14 10:50 am

Stop whinging, andiamo. :roll:

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Re: This may launch a cat among the pigeons

Post by biggles1024 » 30 November 14 11:35 pm

I enjoy tackling archived caches very much. In one case I found an archived cache oblivious to the fact that it was archived. In a second, I found an archived cache whilst searching for a new cache. Got the FTF on the new one but then had a hell of a time working out which cache the archived cache was. It was a mystery, fwiw so only those who had found it, knew of its location.
The others I deliberately targeted one morning and by a happy coincidence, the morning I went after them, a new series was published in that very park. Three archived caches and five FTF's. \:D/ I went home a happy camper. 8)
One might also consider the possibility that an archived cache might contain one or more trackables. Just because they might not be showing in the cache's inventory, doesn't mean that no trackables are present. Imagine yourself in the trackable owner's shoes. You think your TB is lost and has been for perhaps a number of years and then suddenly, someone makes an effort to find an archived cache and your TB is back in circulation.
I retrieved an archived cache earlier this year, it was a cache that I had found whilst it was active but was retrieving it on the CO's behalf because she couldn't get it and low and behold, inside was a TB. It took less than 12 hours for me to receive an email from Germany. It was from the TB owner and he and his family were overjoyed that their TB was no longer lost. :lol: Gave me a big dose of the 'warm and fuzzies' knowing that I'd helped out a fellow cacher.

Cheers,

b.

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gmj3191
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Re: This may launch a cat among the pigeons

Post by gmj3191 » 01 December 14 1:00 pm

Rescuing marooned TBs puts a whole new complexion on it.
That's not an issue with Virtuals luckily.
I had a great time with BernieH finding a long lost archived cache in the Canyon up at Mt Buller.

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Re: This may launch a cat among the pigeons

Post by Hoojar » 01 December 14 2:43 pm

I just stumbled upon this topic, I only check the forums every week or so these days. I fear that it was my find on an eight year archived virtual cache that was the catalyst for all all archived virtual caches in Australia being locked.

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx ... b5ba1bc330

Very sorry to all my fellow archived-cache-loggers! I should have logged it silently and moved on, instead of boasting online about my achievement of logging a cache (legitimately in my mind) that no one had logged in eight years. It was a virtual cache that could still be logged using the method that the CO original set out.

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gmj3191
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Re: This may launch a cat among the pigeons

Post by gmj3191 » 01 December 14 3:08 pm

Nope you had nothing to do with it Hoojar.
As you can see from the listing the cache was archived by the owner.
Is this post just a boast extension? :D :D :D :D

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Fangsoki
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Re: This may launch a cat among the pigeons

Post by Fangsoki » 02 December 14 6:07 pm

The act of locking that particular archived virtual was nothing to do with the cache owner. It still could have been logged up until the moment it was locked - even if archived.

No apology from you is necessary, Hoojar. You earned boasting rights. I applaud your find upon said Virtual =D> I would have no hesitation in logging in the exact same way you did.

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