As a cache owner, do you have when you get a log notice and all it says is “TFTC”? What about those logs that are just “.” or just a space so the log looks bank? It’s disheartening when you put effort into hiding a geocache and get these kind of lazy logs but what can you do about it?
Sources and Related Material
– “Fighting Lazy Loggers In Geocaching” (Podcasher.com)
Related Episodes
– S3E3: Writing Good Logs
Transcript
[00:00:00] There’s a world of geocaches right out your door. Come on now, let’s go explore.
Welcome to Geocache Adventures, the podcast where we explore everything geocaching. I’m your host, ShadowDragon1. I love geocaching. If you’re listening to this, you probably love it too. If you enjoy the podcast, consider sharing it with somebody that you think would love it. You can also follow the podcast on Instagram and Facebook, and there’s a Facebook group as well, so you can join in the fun and share your adventures.
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Hey everybody, welcome to Mini Adventures. For this episode, I thought we’d look at a blog post I found by PodCasher. It’s about fighting lazy loggers and geocaching. So we’re talking about those geocaching logs where people just put FTFC. I’ve gotten logs where people just put a period or just put a space in between.
And because space counts as a character, so the log looks like it’s empty because it’s just a space. So, you know, it’s kind of hard to fight those logs, but they did offer a few suggestions. So here are the tips that they suggested. Provide a path tag or similar small prize to cachers who write quality logs.
Okay. Suggest the finder write their log using a theme. Announce log of the month prizes or similar awards in your local geocaching community or at an event. Practice what you preach, write good logs yourself, and above all, make a fun, quality, height, [00:02:00] interesting. And remember that you can make logging suggestions, but you can’t make it a requirement.
So I thought these were interesting tips. Providing a small price to quality logs, uh, that’s interesting, might be a little hard to keep up with like how often do you do that? I guess you get to decide that. Um, it is an interesting incentive. A lot of people do like path tags. But I, I feel like those who would be incentivized by that are going to be the ones that are already writing decent logs.
It’s the same with the, the uh, theme or the game where each log adds to a story. You know, usually the people that participate in those are the people that are already putting some effort into logs. Now, however, that doesn’t mean it’s not a good idea to [00:03:00] suggest such a thing because, , especially for like, say a park and grab or something, if you suggest writing your log as a limerick, that might be something somebody didn’t think to do before and it’s just a fun little twist that they can add to their log and people will do that and it’s fun for the cash owner to see You know what they came up with, similar to, you know, liar’s caches. You write a fun little crazy adventure story for your log that has, nothing to do with the actual parking grab the cash was.
Usually, in my experience, I’m going to say the people who participate in those kinds of things are the people that like to write good logs to start with. But, they may not think about writing it as a limerick or something like that if you don’t put that idea out there. So it is really fun to put those ideas out there for, you know, your caches to, hey, have some fun, log it as a limerick or, add to the [00:04:00] storyline or something. Those are fun things to, to do. Um, really it’s hard to combat geocaches that don’t want to write logs. And really, you know, some geocaches, it’s hard to write some kind of, long, detailed log for if you’re just getting a parking grab in between running errands, , there’s not a lot to say about a pill bottle under a lamppost, like, but even those, I try to write something.
At least a little bit. Instead of just TFTC, I’ll write, Grab while running errands. I try to put a couple sentences even in for a quick park and grab. Grab this while I was out doing this with so and so. Thanks for the cash. You know, that little bit of effort can go a long way to a cash owner.
Really, I think the best way to combat Lazy logs, or lack of logs, however you want to look at it. One is to, put effort into your own logs. [00:05:00] Put effort to your geocaches, even though, you can have a really amazing creative geocache or gadget cache and still end up with TFTC or found it or a period, you know, just having a really amazing cache doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to get an amazing log.
And I think part of it is we just have to accept that. But I think the best way that we can combat that is when you’re. you know, out there talking to newer cachers, encourage them to write a little more in their logs. You know, if you’re a cache owner and you get a log for some, from somebody, you could reach out to them and say, Hey, this was a really great log, thanks for the effort.
That’ll keep encouraging them to do that. Especially if it’s a newer finder, if you meet a newer cacher in the community, that’s something that you can do. Encourage them to, hey, you know, if you do your logs, it’s really awesome if you [00:06:00] put a little thought and effort, make it a couple sentences or something.
I really think that’s the best way to combat lazy logs. Is to just kind of you know, as you introduce people to the game, kind of try to impress that user. on them. I do that with my son. As we find a geocache, I try to encourage him, you know, he’s writing his own logs now, typing it on his phone or using the voice text.
I encourage him to say a little more in his logs. And really, I think that’s the best way to do it. So what are your thoughts? Do you have ways that you try to combat lazy loggers? Um, you know, have you ever deleted a log for being just absolutely lazy and no effort? I’ve never heard of somebody doing that, but I imagine there’s somebody out there that has, what are your thoughts?
What’s what inspires you to write a great log? I’d love to hear what you have to say about it. So let me know.
[00:07:00] Outro Music
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