The Thing about Logproof Pictures

Cheating or inflating your online finds are a very common occurrence. In general it happens with easier and or power-trail caches so it's not worth losing sleep over it. In fact if you lose sleep over anything geocaching related, I'd recommend taking a break. It's just a game.

Anyway. There are a couple of ways how cachers run with it. Keep in mind that not everyone considers all of these things as cheating. In fact the first one is sometimes encouraged by power-trail cache owners since it basically makes it a self-maintaining system. Therefore this is a controversial list:

• Cache Swapping or Moving - is the practice of picking up a cache, replacing it with one that has a log you or your group has signed, and signing the log as you drive to the next cache, where you will repeat the process.
• Leap Frogging / Bunny Hopping - is the practice of having two or more cars working together and alternating caches, for example one car gets all the even numbered caches and the other car gets all of the odd numbered caches.
• Grumpy Bumping - finding a handful of caches in an area and then online log the whole lot.
• Couch Caching - flat out logging of caches from the couch. This works fairly well with random caches in a power-trail or other easy caches with high find numbers.
• Archived Opportunist - when a cache get's archived / disabled because the logbook is gone, you log your find with a prior date. Nobody can prove you wrong.
• Log Swapping - That's a classic for D/T grid junkies: You log for your friend and they log for you on certain caches. Most likely uncommon D/T ratings are used for this one.
• Sissi Caching - Get someone else to put your name into the logbook of a high-terrain cache although you weren't even close to the cache e.g. a tree cache and you were just standing on the ground or a cave cache where you never made it past the entrance.

Why do cachers cheat or bend the rules a bit to get extra cache finds? Why do we congratulate everyone with thousands of finds all the time? Because it's the arbitrary accepted measurement for Geocaching greatness. You're inflating your finds because it is a well accepted goal to have a lot of finds. In general cachers look up to other cachers with four or five digit numbers.
The other motivation is getting X amount of loops in the D/T grid (Finding each and every of the 81 D/T combinations multiple times). 

Kudos to you?

There's no doubt this is a very awkward way of gaining recognition but it still happens ... quite a lot actually. Most cachers - including me - say "playing your own game is ok" or "You're only cheating yourself" which makes sense. Again if you lose sleep over other's cachers numbers, see above. However the fake logs can be a bit of a nuisance because either they give you the false sense that the cache is ok although the cache can't be found or they ruin a good run of unloved days. 

Now what does that have to do with logproof pictures? In the T5 community there is an agreement which is pretty much like modern life on facebook: "Pics or it didn't happen!" Since everyone knows that the numbers shown on your geocaching profile might be tinkered, cachers take a step forward and post so-called logproofs with their log. You're basically showing everyone that you aren't Sissi Caching and you're doing it the right way.

Mark's new virtual caches is taking this concept to the next level - pun intended - because you need to post some specific logproofs to get the smiley.

I do understand that some cachers feel entitled to log a high-T cache for whatever reason. E.g. it's physically impossible for them to reach the cache or they helped solving the upfront puzzle in case there is one. Why not ask the CO if that's ok? He might say yes and then you can just write that in your log instead of being found out afterwards and leaving that shitty smelly taste. 

Are Owners entitled to delete my log without logproof?

No. Absolutely not. They can not ask you to post a picture. Deleting a questionable log normally only causes a shit-fight and leads nowhere. GC HQ tries to avoid logging disputes because there is never coming something good out of them. I recommend just leaving fake logs however if you consider it as a cache owner, read the Guidelines - I know! Crazy! Who does that?!?!? - and then you realise you can read them both ways:

"Caches can be logged online as "Found" after the geocacher has visited the coordinates and signed the logbook."

What speaks against Sissi Caching is "Signed the logbook" which could read you have to sign it yourself. What speaks in favour of Sissi Caching is "has visited the coordinates" which says nothing about actually getting up there. Fortunately for you I went through this debate a couple of times - including cachers with five-digit numbers - so I sought clarification for GC HQ:

Hi Philipp,

Thanks for updating the cache description. Technically, the guidelines don't specify that you must mark the log book yourself.  The guideline states: "Physical geocaches can be logged online as "Found" once the physical log has been signed. " It doesn't specify if the user has to log it themselves.Thus yes, if a group of cachers find a cache and a user signs the names for all, this is allowed.
Your text on the cache descriptions is fine as it is*. This is more on the honour system. Some cachers may be ethically ok with claiming the find if they see the cache and someone else logs their name while in a group caching. Others aren't.
We aren't the logging police so we don't govern behaviour to this extent. It takes some of the fun out of geocaching if the cache owner is deleting logs over this minuscule issue and may not be as much fun for cache owners either.

If it seems the cacher was not at the location and found the cache, it would be your responsibility to determine whether they can claim the find.

I hope this helps clarify. Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Happy caching,
Nicole
Community Support, Groundspeak

*This is the referred description:

So in compliance with the guidelines somebody has to put a mark into the logbook. It can be a sticker, a stamp, a signature or something else. If your buddy and not you puts the mark in the logbook, that's fine as well. However it doesn't count when you are not at the cache, which is up in the tree.

The Moral of the Logs

There you have it. You can delete logs if you have reasonable doubt it's fake. But you can also continue with Sissi Caching. It's just another way of playing the game. However please don't insult the CO's or any one else's intellect and leave a trail of evidence of your cheat. Just recall the Banana's credo: "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." You're already cheating, so why not lie in the log as well and come up with something plausible? You weren't up the tree? "Great views of the city!" You didn't go down that cave? "Man that was chilly down there!"

At the same time remember: Pics or it didn't happen! Don't expect anyone to believe you or even give you kudos. That remains for the cachers who actually found the cache ... and probably post logproofs.

Cheers and clean logging 😋

Philipp

P.S.: Sissi Caching comes from the Empress Elisabeth of Austria also known as Sissi who is the main character of the Sissi Film Trilogy. 

Image credits: Clever Monkey, Team☢aky, ºS and skullracing