Another round of short logs

This article was originally published on Cache Up NB. It has been mirrored here for archive purposes only.

May 16 by  [Censored] (123 found)

?

May 1 by [Censored] (123 found)

tfth

May 14 by [Censored (123 found)

TFTC

Do you sense a pattern forming here?

Short logs have come up in discussion on here previously, and have even been discussed once or twice in the podcasts. It’s something that seems to be a bit of a volatile subject amongst some of the cache owners. After having received about 20 of these on my Story Teller series recently, I decided to actually do something about it.

I started with a thread on the official geocaching forums about whether or not owners are allowed to delete logs. I am going to expect some serious kickback from users on there since they typically fight about everything. But what I am trying to find out is whether or not an owner has the right to delete a log because they feel it is not within the owner’s guidelines for logging. At first I wanted to delete all of their logs because I was pretty peeved. But as time has passed a bit, I think I’ve mellowed and am just more annoyed than anything.

The reality of the situation is that the “short log” is becoming more and more popular and after having put out a considerable amount of caches, I don’t think it’s overly difficult for someone to at least write a single line of text as their log. Even if it’s copied and pasted 100 times, that’s fine. At least you took the time to write out something. But with so many people just writing TFTC or 🙂 or whatever, to me, that shows a complete and total lack of respect to the cache owners.

Look at something like Hillbilly Bob’s caches on the Dobson. That guy spent a LOT of time hiking out there and hiding caches for people to enjoy. Now we have this awesome trail of caches all the way to Fundy. Does it seem right to post “TFTC” for every one of those caches? How does that show appreciation for all his hard work?

Or how about Tetagoucher’s Catamount Trail series? Or Viking’s Trail of the Gods series? Would you do all of those caches and then just say TFTC as your thanks? The finder would have spent HOURS doing those trails and caches but they can’t find the time to write out a couple of sentences to use to share their experiences? How does that seem right?

In my case, the latest batch of these came from a REALLY new cacher who only started a few weeks ago so I emailed them, welcomed them to the game, and gave them a heads up on the short log issue as they logged all their caches with a single character. I never did receive a reply from them so I will assume that they either ignored the email, or simply read it and chose not to reply.

What I, and some others, tend to believe is that the gaining popularity of this logging pattern has to do with mobile field notes and logging on the fly. Many folks are now using smartphones to geocache and therefore, they end up actually logging their finds on the road. It’s much easier to type “TFTC” on a smartphone than a long, or at least mildly verbose log.

The other interesting fact about this is that the CEO of Groundspeak, Jeremy Irish, has actually said that he now fully endorses the “empty” log. That’s a log on a find that actually has nothing in it. He himself has said that the act of logging a find is enough to say “I found it” and that a comment/real log is not necessary.

To me, I find that that a bit disturbing and completely disrespectful to those of us who spend a lot of time putting out a good chunk of caches to others. I mean, is it that hard to write out even a copy and pasted log?

What’s your take on this popular trend?