The Technicalities of Unloved Finds
What counts as an unloved find? In general these rules are accepted for most challenges and the overall scoring.
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| Urban unloved caches happen more often than you think |
- It's a physical cache
All non physical caches like virtuals, earth-caches, events or similar don't count.
- The cache is available and not archived
At the time of your find the cache is online. It doesn't matter if it had been archived and then unarchived prior to your find. Finding only disabled caches is ok.
- It's a valid find on geocaching.com
These are the obvious things like you can't find your own cache, you've been to the cache and put your name in the logbook, you haven't found it before and other things. Basically you didn't cheat.
- No throw-downs
You can not find a missing cache which you replace. Throw-downs placed by a previous finder do not count either. There's one exception: You ask the owner for permission before you go out and you got that in writing. If you replace a cache without owner's consent, it's called a throw-down - see rule III.
- The last log is 183 days or more before your find
It's either the last found it log or the time the cache has been published. If there's a fake online-log which ruins the unloved streak, that's unfortunate but it still doesn't count. You have to ask the owner to remove the fake online-log in order to claim your find.
- If you find a cache with a mate, only one of you can claim the find
You have to argue it amongst yourselves who claims the find for which challenge. This rule is normally ignored when you just count your unloved finds for your personal list.
Please Explain
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| David and Lex at 37° South 147° East |
That's pretty much it. Now you might wonder where do they come from and why do these rules exist. Easy. First of all most of the rules come from the original challenge but let's run through why they actually make sense:
I. Physical Caches
The archaeological factor is part of the fun. Virtuals on the other hand don't deteriorate. They are either find-able or not. There is no grey zone where you wonder if they're still there.
II. Not Archived Caches
The point is to make unloved caches loved again. These days it's really hard to get an archived cache back online so there isn't much point to it. They also don't show up in most searches so they might be taken out of circulation for a good reason.
III. Valid Finds
I don't need to explain this.
IV. No Throw-Downs
This is about spreading the love and not potentially dumping another piece of rubbish in the bush. It could be a hard to find cache which is still in play, the owner might have left the game so if you put out another box, it won't be maintained or the owner has simply their own plans. It's not your call to make.
V. 183 Days
The normal year has 365 days / 2 ≈ 183. The average year has 365.25 days so this is how unloved years are counted.
VI. Only one Claim per Cache
This is probably the most controversial rule but it still make sense. First of all yes those remote caches are better done in groups than solo but since most adventurers already qualified for the challenges, you can take them along.
There exist a word in German which is "Rudelcachen". It roughly translates to herd-caching or flock-caching. A big bunch of cachers descends onto a cache while the individual effort to find the cache is little to not existent. This rule effectively prevents this and encourages the original intention: Spreading the love among more caches.
I hope this clarifies a couple of things
Cheers 😋
Philipp
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