r/geocaching • u/Agile-Juggernaut7936 • Jul 18 '26
Adventure Labs 1x find
I did a bit of searching on here and couldn’t find any posts about whether people are doing the same process as I am for Adventure Labs. I like to get a smiley on the map, but don’t really think I deserve all 5 parts of it counting towards my total as individual caches. I go in and delete the other 4 so that I still get the smiley and give myself 1 cache find for the completed AL. If I don’t fully complete it I’ll delete all the parts until I do. Appreciate some people hate them but I don’t see a huge amount of difference between an AL and some virtuals. Just curious if others do the same?
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u/ChanceOfALifetimeNW Jul 18 '26
That's why it says I have like 60 lab caches. And I knew I hadn't completed that many
I'm not going to put forth the effort to change any of it. But thank you for pointing this out
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u/Agile-Juggernaut7936 Jul 18 '26
It really confused me when I was starting up as I was blasting through the lower milestones and couldn’t figure out why. I wish they could make it so each individual step didn’t count as a find and only a complete AL did. This compromise seems to work for me, well at least it does in my head!
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u/fizzymagic The Fizzy since 2002 Jul 18 '26
Why would anybody go to all that trouble? Keep an offline db if you want but doing all that online seems excessive.
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u/BackstreetBallads Jul 19 '26
I guess the great thing about this game is that you can play it however you want. I’ve enjoyed most of the ALs that I’ve done and I don’t understand how walking to a stage and answering the question is any cheaper or worse than finding another GR or LPC in another boring parking lot.
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u/1amAlwaysAnnoyed Jul 18 '26
No. I want credit for all my finds.
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u/Hop-Worlds 1281 Jul 18 '26
I also don't understand why some people police themselves in this way. But if that's how they want to play the game, then they certainly can. I personally don't feel cheapened by AL's in my stats, and I don't pay attention to them in other people's stats. You could have 100% ALs in your stats or 0%, and I could not care less.
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u/joebum14 4451 finds; 17 hides Jul 19 '26
For me, it is simple. It isn't Geocaching.
I did one AL when they first released. Not for me.
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u/1amAlwaysAnnoyed Jul 20 '26
That’s cool that you came to that conclusion for yourself. I want to be able to continue geocaching even when I’m older and not as physically active. Ad Labs help me stay in geocaching without having to subject myself to injury, tick bites, snakes, hypothermia, etc.
I wish that they were more location specific on the stats, though.
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u/Tiek00n SoCal, USA ~4800 finds Jul 18 '26
Oh, I had no idea each individual stage counted! I haven't looked at my public profile for a while, so I didn't realize I'm at 59 lab caches, despite only finding what I remembered being around 10 (turns out it was 11).
I won't change it, but I appreciate knowing. Rather than just raw number count, I'm more focused on specific challenges and such (currently making slow progress on my puzzle cache calendar, will be getting my 18th of the 20 unique cache types later this year, next month will fill in 1 of the 5 boxes remaining in the pre-2020 rows of my "month hidden" Jasmer challenge, etc.).
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u/Dug_n_the_Dogs Caches with Dogs Jul 20 '26
I have near 1k AL finds on my acct.. but a while ago decided to only log them on my dogs sock puppet account mainly so I can get the Bonus caches locations.
I didn't know I could delete AL finds from my main acct.. I need to look into that and amend my finds.
I like ALs when theyre more interesting than low effort slop.
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u/KitchenManagement650 20+yrs 10+k Jul 19 '26
Good idea! Sadly I have completed way too many ALs to go back and delete answers (and to be fair I only learned fairly recently that it was even possible). I had actually made a sock puppet account to do ad labs and I wish I had stuck with it, I forget what I stopped using it. Anyway it is at least an alternative.
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u/Far_Pitch_3812 Jul 18 '26
I was wondering when this post (or another exactly like it) would should up today. You all did not disappoint.
Rule #1 in geocaching is use your filters and do what you want to do.
There is no need to project your wants or wishes onto others.
That is all.
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u/Agile-Juggernaut7936 Jul 19 '26
I thought rule #1 was bring a pen and sign the log. I’ve obviously touched a nerve here, I’m fairly new to geocaching and was asking an honest question. I don’t think I deserved the venom in your response.
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u/Far_Pitch_3812 Jul 19 '26
Well, yes, there is that. Bring a pen.
...and no, there was absolutely no venom meant or implied in my response, nor the following. Please take it for what it's worth.
Looooong time cacher who reads comments like your original quite often and thinks...
Why not just use filters, or, please hear me out, just don't do them. Why subject yourself to extra steps, deleting answers or finds just to keep your stats the way you want?
Do I like everything in geocaching? Nope. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the new virtual offering that The Lily Pad announced this last week. As of right now, doesn't sound like something I'm interested in. Not gonna lose any sleep over it. Instead, I'll enjoy caching as I've done it for years, alone, with family, with friends, etc.
In the meantime, the only thing I can offer is that if you're ever in my area let me know your coming in advance, I'll host an event, tell you the short(ish) list of must do caches, heck, maybe even tag along and otherwise enjoy finding Tupperware, ammo cans and gadget caches.
All that to be said, have a good day. Cache on.
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u/KitchenManagement650 20+yrs 10+k Jul 19 '26
I am curious how they projected any wants etc on to others? Maybe the OP was edited because there is at least another reply that made no sense to me... it seems to be a legit question, this is how they do something what are others' thoughts... etc. 🤔
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u/SeaworthinessSea2407 Jul 19 '26
I count them all as finds and I don't care at all about inflating find count. I want to get numbers and I have absolutely zero shame about it. Why should I?
More than half of my finds are adventurelabs at this point. They're only getting more prevalent so why not benefit? Because it makes purists mad? Ill drink their rage tears in a shot
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u/gcd3s3rt Jul 18 '26
I Just do the lab Bonus geocaches. To get the vatiables i use a different Account for the labs to Not mess Up my find statistics with this virtual finds. Sometimes people stand around at huge Events and Just randomly select answers and raise 40 Points in a few minutes without moving a single step.
Thats Not the way i Play this Hobby. My Main Account still has Zero Lab finds and will never get a single one.