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# User(s) watching this cache

M&M and Daddio

By M&M and Daddio
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trainlove

+trainlove

Posted
Posted

If you post a note and they want to reply then you might be able to know some of who are watching your cache or bug. If you make your cache a Premium Members only cache you can see some of who are watching it (see below).

 

There are other posts on this subject in the forums do a search for watchlist or watches, but I'll tell you that many more people watch caches (but not bugs) even more invisibly by using PQ's that include your cache, or bookmark lists.

 

The audit list of a PM cache will not show those people either.

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TexasGringo

+TexasGringo

Posted
Posted (edited)

***That should explain that....Which Says....

 

"Sorry, for privacy reasons we cannot reveal the names of the watchers of your cache."***

 

I find that hard to believe...since you can click on user profiles and usually get their information, caches they found, caches they placed...etc.

 

Isn't that private too? Heck, why would you want people to see the caches you found or yet...be embarassed by your DNF's?

 

What about the people that found your cache? When you go to do maintenance and find the cache un-hid and the log wet...you have a list of names that were there...

 

Or worse yet...the pictures the geocachers took and are listed in their user profile. Many cachers have pictures of themselves or their kids at various places...now, we know what they look like...and in what city they live...maybe some stalker will hunt out some pretty looking geocacher....who knows....

 

So...to know who is watching your cache seems to be a fairly harmless matter considering everything else that is available to you about a geocacher.

Edited by Drooling_Mongoloid
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Prime Suspect

+Prime Suspect

Posted
Posted

***That should explain that....Which Says....

 

"Sorry, for privacy reasons we cannot reveal the names of the watchers of your cache."***

 

I find that hard to believe...since you can click on user profiles and usually get their information, caches they found, caches they placed...etc.

 

Isn't that private too? Heck, why would you want people to see the caches you found or yet...be embarassed by your DNF's?

 

What about the people that found your cache? When you go to do maintenance and find the cache un-hid and the log wet...you have a list of names that were there...

 

Or worse yet...the pictures the geocachers took and are listed in their user profile. Many cachers have pictures of themselves or their kids at various places...now, we know what they look like...and in what city they live...maybe some stalker will hunt out some pretty looking geocacher....who knows....

 

So...to know who is watching your cache seems to be a fairly harmless matter considering everything else that is available to you about a geocacher.

Just because I can sit outside a bank and write down the license plate numbers of everyone who goes there, doesn't mean the bank has to tell me how much money is in their accounts.

 

As has been said before, there are no good reasons to reveal this information. There is at least one good reason not to. And no, idle curiosity is not a good reason.

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TexasGringo

+TexasGringo

Posted
Posted (edited)

***Just because I can sit outside a bank and write down the license plate numbers of everyone who goes there, doesn't mean the bank has to tell me how much money is in their accounts.***

 

But with that license plate number...you can get to that information and more...without having to ask the bank. It was done on TV several years ago to show people that your identity and personal information is not secure. Here is a starting point:

 

http://www.abika.com/Reports/VehicleDrivingRecords.htm

 

Look at all the information I can get by just using your license plate number...your name, address, mariage records...etc. The right people can use that and continue on with more information gathering...like the credit bureaus...and eventually your bank accounts (Identity Theft).

 

Because of "idle curiosity"... I clicked on your profile. Do you think you should have been warned of that breach of "Privacy"?

 

Anyway...I don't care who is watching my caches and I don't watch any ... except for mine which is automatic. I was just interested in "WHY" people think it should be a secret when everything else in the user profile is available....including pictures.

 

Happy Caching.

Edited by Drooling_Mongoloid
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trainlove

+trainlove

Posted
Posted

As a Cache owner or even fellow geocacher, is it possible to determine if somebody has read the FAQs :blink:

:D Of course not. But one has to assume that everyone who uses geocaching.com has not read the FAQ's and the TOU and the waypoint agreement and the logo agreement and the privacy statement and everything else that is right there in front of you each and every time one in on the geocaching.com web site. :laughing: People blindly click something if it comes up and assume they are right. :laughing:

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Prime Suspect

+Prime Suspect

Posted
Posted (edited)

 

Because of "idle curiosity"... I clicked on your profile. Do you think you should have been warned of that breach of "Privacy"?

 

Sorry, but your analogy doesn't work. That's not a breach of privacy, because I put that information there with the expectation that it would be publicly available. If I didn't want it displayed I would have left it blank, or just put a link to a secured site, that only a few people had the password for.

 

However, if I watch a cache, it do so with the expectation of privacy, because I don't want to be the subject of a witch-hunt, in case the cache is stolen. And that is one of the bad reasons people have put forward for wanting this information disclosed.

 

Still looking for that good reason...

Edited by Prime Suspect
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TexasGringo

+TexasGringo

Posted
Posted (edited)

***because I don't want to be the subject of a witch-hunt, in case the cache is stolen***

 

Did you post that with a straight face? Because I can't read it with a straight face...

 

You seem really afraid of something and Mentioning a "Witch-Hunt" sounds mighty suspicious to me.

 

When I get back down to Dallas this year and place some caches...as soon as I see someone watching my cache...I'll just automatically assume it is you.

 

Now...lets dig a little deeper into your thought patterns.

 

What makes you such a suspicious Geocacher?

Why would you be on a witch-hunt list for watching a cache?

Are you considered a Cache Thief in your area?

Have you been caught doing this stuff before?

Do you watch a cache to see who the first Geocacher is...that reports it missing?

 

For me...A Fellow Geocacher would be the last person to blame for my missing cache. Everyone I have met seemed really nice...do you fit into that group?

 

Good Grief...Surely...you have to have a better reason than that.

 

Oh Oh...Be Warned...that When I get down to Dallas, I see that some of your caches are near my area (Near The University)....and I'll hunt them down....and sign the log...and cover them up again.

 

PS...if people do watch my cache...I feel honored. I assume I have something that others find so interesting that they want to watch it.

Edited by Drooling_Mongoloid
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paleolith

+paleolith

Posted
Posted

Just a couple of days ago someone posted a link to a thread where someone was indeed wanting to use watchlists as evidence of who might be stealing caches.

 

However, I agree that the privacy argument is totally bogus. The valid reason for not implementing it is that no compelling reason to do so has been presented and that it would take resources (progamming and server) away from more important things.

 

Note that the argument that it won't work because of watched bookmarks and PQs is also bogus. It would be possible to show the owner who is watching via a bookmark list. It would be possible to show the owner who has recently hit the cache with a PQ or to notify the owner when the cache is hit by a PQ. It would be possible to show the owner who has looked at the cache page, as is done now for PMO caches. However, it remains that no good case has been presented for the feature, and these aspects would require yet more programming and server resources.

 

Also, if one wanted total privacy, one could abjure the watching features of gc.com, create browser bookmarks to the cache pages of interest, and browse via a safe proxy server (such as publicvpn.com) without signing on. That would still show the information which interests most watchers, without revealing any personal information or even the fact that you are watching.

 

The argument which is unaffected by all of these is that the value is low and the cost is significant.

 

And that the value is even lower than most requesters assume because of the fact that many watchers, especially of older caches, are probably not even receiving gc.com emails.

 

Edward

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Tequila

+Tequila

Posted
Posted

***That should explain that....Which Says....

 

"Sorry, for privacy reasons we cannot reveal the names of the watchers of your cache."***

 

I find that hard to believe...since you can click on user profiles and usually get their information, caches they found, caches they placed...etc.

 

Isn't that private too? Heck, why would you want people to see the caches you found or yet...be embarassed by your DNF's?

 

What about the people that found your cache? When you go to do maintenance and find the cache un-hid and the log wet...you have a list of names that were there...

 

Or worse yet...the pictures the geocachers took and are listed in their user profile. Many cachers have pictures of themselves or their kids at various places...now, we know what they look like...and in what city they live...maybe some stalker will hunt out some pretty looking geocacher....who knows....

 

So...to know who is watching your cache seems to be a fairly harmless matter considering everything else that is available to you about a geocacher.

Just because I can sit outside a bank and write down the license plate numbers of everyone who goes there, doesn't mean the bank has to tell me how much money is in their accounts.

 

As has been said before, there are no good reasons to reveal this information. There is at least one good reason not to. And no, idle curiosity is not a good reason.

 

That is funny. Because, if you make it a members only cache, you can see everyone who looks at the page and the time they looked. That would certainly debunk the privacy baloney.

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tozainamboku

+tozainamboku

Posted
Posted (edited)

It would be possible to show the owner who has recently hit the cache with a PQ or to notify the owner when the cache is hit by a PQ.

You've got to be kidding. Do you really want an email every time one of your caches is hit by PQ? And in order to determine which cachers have a current or recently run pocket query that hits a particular cache you'd have to either run every pocket query (to see if it returned that cache) or create a hidden watchlist for every cache of every pocket query that hit that cache in the last n days (n days being whatever you think is recent). My mind boggles at the resources that would be wasted to answer this query. You could, I supposed ask who has this cache on bookmark list. If the cache is on a public bookmark list this would already show up on your cache page. If is on a private bookmark list - what part of private don't you understand? A person created the private bookmark list for their own private purposes and yes it would be an invasion of their privacy to tell each cache owner who listed their cache on a private bookmark list. That leaves shared (non-public) list. These are meant to be at least semi-private. That is why there is no search on these. The bookmark list owner can share the list just with those he chooses.

 

I don't know why they still have a count of who is watching your cache anyhow. I would rather see the capability to designate one of my bookmark lists a favorites list and have the cache page show how many favorites list it is on.

Edited by tozainamboku
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Kryten

+Kryten

Posted
Posted

The "Users watching" counter made sense a few years ago before the capability of watching via bookmarks was added to the site. It was not updated to reflect that change and now sits there indicating possibly incomplete information and stimulating the same forum question week after week. Time to knock it on the head.

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trainlove

+trainlove

Posted
Posted

I don't know why they still have a count of who is watching your cache anyhow. I would rather see the capability to designate one of my bookmark lists a favorites list and have the cache page show how many favorites list it is on.

 

People 'Watch' caches or travel bugs since they want to get 'Notification' of someone 'logging' it. These people do not have to be 'Premium Members', all of you who are PM's seem to forget that we exist, I actually think that there are many more of us than there of you.

 

I.E. There are many travel bugs that hold secret coordinates to a puzzle cache, if you didn't watch the bug you would have a hard time ever grabbing it. People watch a cache that's had one of these bugs in it for a long time so that they can hope to rescue it or be informed of its rescue. Other people watch a particularily hard puzzle so they can know when some other genius has figured it out, or cheated but I won't go there.

 

My cache http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=gctd2c has actually had a very desirious bug in it for over 2 weeks now, I'm not sure why hundreds of people have not gone to get it and only 1 being successful. That cache also has had many of the special bugs in this area in it in the past.

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paleolith

+paleolith

Posted
Posted
It would be possible to show the owner who has recently hit the cache with a PQ or to notify the owner when the cache is hit by a PQ.
You've got to be kidding. Do you really want an email every time one of your caches is hit by PQ?

I said "it would be possible". I also said "it remains that no good case has been presented for the feature". I'm not sure what wasn't clear about that. It would be possible to notify the owner of all kinds of things about the cache page. The point of making such an exhaustive list was to show that knowing everything isn't always desirable.

 

Edward

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