Muggles that cache

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belken
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Muggles that cache

Post by belken » 28 August 10 10:54 am

tronador wrote:
belken wrote: We seem to have too many Muggles that cache these days.
:shock: :shock:
Huh????
I thought I would split this off from the other thread. As it may cause a derailment.

We have a thread titled "You know your a Geocacher when"

This could be classed as the antonym of that thread.

For example I believe that if when rummaging for a cache and you get caught and your first reaction is to blurt to a muggle that you are geocaching then you are probably not a geocacher. If you are afraid of getting caught and want the cache owner to get explicit permission so you feel safe then you are probably not a geocacher. If your first reaction to you not finding a cache is that it must be missing you are probably not a geocacher. If you think that a DNF log is a blight on your statistics then you are probably not a geocacher. If you think Groundspeak is really the "Official" cache site you are probably not a geocacher. If you think some container holding a wet soggy piece of paper is a "gift" to the finders you're probably not a geocacher.

I could keep going but you get the gist.

Not saying that one of these makes you a non cacher but we seem to be having more and more people that are ticking each box. They have hundreds of cache finds yet I don't think they have gist of geocaching.
Thus they are a non cacher (Muggle) that caches.

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Gowza
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Re: Muggles that cache

Post by Gowza » 28 August 10 1:36 pm

With the ever growing numbers of participants there are bound to be those that do not yet "get the gist" and I do agree with you on the front of average hides - this has been discussed to death elsewhere.... Most learn - some don't...

Notwithstanding I don't believe it is for me to say that because my views on geocaching are not shared by someone else then they must not get the idea... As far as I am concerned if you are participating in geocaching you are a 'geocacher' whether you have found 1 or 1000 - the glory of this for me is that geocaching is an easily accessible, wholesome and for the most part non-competitive activity. I refuse to use the 'play the game your own way line' but it does seem rather applicable here!

No doubt there will be other perspectives and it'll be interesting to follow the discussion!

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Yurt
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Re: Muggles that cache

Post by Yurt » 28 August 10 2:25 pm

One word: downtrading.

(If that is a word).

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Yurt
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Re: Muggles that cache

Post by Yurt » 30 August 10 10:36 am

There was a bit of muggle-like cache placement yesterday in Sydney. A new cache popped up by a cacher with a grand total of one find. The new cache was placed within 500 metres of the sole find they made. It hasn't been found yet but there were a couple of DNFs by experienced cachers and now it's been disabled!

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Gowza
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Re: Muggles that cache

Post by Gowza » 30 August 10 11:14 am

Ok so i'll admit - while I was searching for the aforementioned cache this topic may or may not have crossed my mind.... :stabby

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caughtatwork
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Re: Muggles that cache

Post by caughtatwork » 30 August 10 11:17 am

C'mon, give us stalkers a chance to look and see.
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_de ... wp=GC2E2N8

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Gowza
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Re: Muggles that cache

Post by Gowza » 30 August 10 11:20 am

caughtatwork wrote:C'mon, give us stalkers a chance to look and see.
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_de ... wp=GC2E2N8
Oops - How remiss of me!

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caughtatwork
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Re: Muggles that cache

Post by caughtatwork » 30 August 10 11:26 am

Gowza wrote:
caughtatwork wrote:C'mon, give us stalkers a chance to look and see.
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_de ... wp=GC2E2N8
Oops - How remiss of me!
Nah, that's cool. I'm just a big sticky beak.

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rogerw3
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Re: Muggles that cache

Post by rogerw3 » 30 August 10 11:50 am

Yurt wrote:There was a bit of muggle-like cache placement yesterday in Sydney. A new cache popped up by a cacher with a grand total of one find. The new cache was placed within 500 metres of the sole find they made. It hasn't been found yet but there were a couple of DNFs by experienced cachers and now it's been disabled!
I know this can be annoying but you have to start somewhere, I think I only had a couple finds when I put my first cache out there, some newbies will go on and become Geocachers and others will fall out, and I guess there is a very small minority who will become cache pests!

Still the way I look at it the number of caches damaged of stolen by Muggles are very few compared to the overall number of caches.

A few of my caches do contain Muggle logs, they are not Geocachers but have found the cache and logged it, and that is fine as far as I am concerned anyone can play and as long as they use common sense, the more the merrier.

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Bewilderbeest
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Re: Muggles that cache

Post by Bewilderbeest » 30 August 10 12:09 pm

rogerw3 wrote:I know this can be annoying but you have to start somewhere, I think I only had a couple finds when I put my first cache out there, some newbies will go on and become Geocachers and others will fall out, and I guess there is a very small minority who will become cache pests!
My advice to newbies would be to get a wider experience than that before hiding a cache, so that you have a better understanding of what makes a good (and bad) cache. Then you can reduce the chances of this sort of thing happening.

Im trying to resist the urge to get on my soap box and talk about how many finds I had and how long I'd been caching before I hid my first cache :-#

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caughtatwork
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Re: Muggles that cache

Post by caughtatwork » 30 August 10 12:19 pm

I hid my first cache around 2 weeks after my first find.

First find: http://geocaching.com.au/cache/gcgt17#caughtatwork
First hide: http://geocaching.com.au/cache/gcjjr7 149 finds and going strong http://geocaching.com.au/cache/gcjjr7/graph

Of course, I then became obsessed and hung around, but not all n00bs hide crap :-)

Damo.
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Re: Muggles that cache

Post by Damo. » 30 August 10 2:13 pm

I just checked on my 10th anniversary cache today and found it had been logged twice by some muggles that had the game explained to them by a previous finder. From their log they came back later that night and then checked in again a month later and added a shell to the cache! Bless 'em.
I don't think they have done any more caching since then though.

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Team Wibble
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Re: Muggles that cache

Post by Team Wibble » 30 August 10 2:54 pm

I might have to disagree on a couple of these points:
belken wrote: For example I believe that if when rummaging for a cache and you get caught and your first reaction is to blurt to a muggle that you are geocaching then you are probably not a geocacher. If you are afraid of getting caught and want the cache owner to get explicit permission so you feel safe then you are probably not a geocacher. If your first reaction to you not finding a cache is that it must be missing you are probably not a geocacher. If you think that a DNF log is a blight on your statistics then you are probably not a geocacher. If you think Groundspeak is really the "Official" cache site you are probably not a geocacher. If you think some container holding a wet soggy piece of paper is a "gift" to the finders you're probably not a geocacher.
If I'm caught rummaging sometimes my first reaction is to blurt out that I'm geocaching because in that particular circumstance I believe its the best answer. The most obvious example is if the muggle is a cop. But in other circumstances I've had no other plausible excuse and I think honesty is the best policy. Especially if I've figured that the muggle is likely to be accepting or interested in the concept.

I also think that Groundspeak is really the "Official" cache site and I make no apologies for that. By "official" I don't mean "responsible for inventing geocaching" or "the only site worth paying attention to". But the way I play the game, the groundspeak site is my main point of reference purely because it provides me with the most comprehensive and extensive one stop shop site for caches, wherever I am in the world. I could argue semantics and say that GCA is the "official" site for me in terms of forum communities, alternative cache types (locationless etc) but I don't think you can accuse someone of "probably not a geocacher" if they only use (or are even only aware) of groundspeak.

Now, off my high horse and on to an anecdote of "muggles who cache"
I got a message from my Aunt yesterday telling me she'd "accidentally" found two geocaches while on a bicycle tour through the mid north of SA. She has a basic concept of geocaching from talking to me and recognised a cache that she initially though was a piece of rubbish under a rock, but on closer inspection recognised it for what it was. Later on she was on a peak in an interesting area and thought that surely someone would place a cache here, had a quick look, and seconds later found another cache. So sometimes muggles can be pretty adept at geocaching! My aunt has already developed a geosense and she's never even logged onto any caching website or used a GPS in any way!
(She said she found the experience of finding the caches pretty thrilling so I may have a potential convert [-o< )

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SamWalkers
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Re: Muggles that cache

Post by SamWalkers » 30 August 10 5:43 pm

Not a Muggle but don't get the magic? . . .
I think that is a Squib.

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Yurt
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Re: Muggles that cache

Post by Yurt » 30 August 10 6:08 pm

rogerw3 wrote:
Yurt wrote:There was a bit of muggle-like cache placement yesterday in Sydney. A new cache popped up by a cacher with a grand total of one find. The new cache was placed within 500 metres of the sole find they made. It hasn't been found yet but there were a couple of DNFs by experienced cachers and now it's been disabled!
I know this can be annoying but you have to start somewhere, I think I only had a couple finds when I put my first cache out there, some newbies will go on and become Geocachers and others will fall out, and I guess there is a very small minority who will become cache pests!

Still the way I look at it the number of caches damaged of stolen by Muggles are very few compared to the overall number of caches.

A few of my caches do contain Muggle logs, they are not Geocachers but have found the cache and logged it, and that is fine as far as I am concerned anyone can play and as long as they use common sense, the more the merrier.
I'm still amazed at how many "one-off" cachers have caches that have lasted for years. There's one with the memorable name of "geocaching.com small round tub" placed by a guy with no finds and one hide. It's still there and being found now and again. I always love how people say in their logs "Thanks [cacher name]" when you might as well be thanking the rock it sits in for all the cache owner will respond! His only visit to GC.com was to submit the cache nearly six years ago.

Then there's someone else with a lot more finds and with their broken takeaway food containers...

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