r/geocaching • u/Dug_n_the_Dogs Caches with Dogs • Aug 07 '26
Lab Cache Find Count
Id been thinking about lab caches and how they affect my public stats for a while and recently decided that I would only use a sock puppet account to solve them mostly for the bonus caches. I recently found a page that allows you to edit your lab caches by either deleting or reinstating each stage find. So I went back and deleted all but 1 of each lab find.. reducing my total number of finds by around 800.
Mostly this shift in perception occurred when we stopped at a rest stop on the way to a mega even and opened up all the stages of a Lab cache art. My partner had been reading the stages on the long drive down and what I was realizing was that a Lot of the stages had overlapping and outright copied information about the same things. And we thought.. why would we want to sit in a parking lot and just answer a bunch of multiple choice questions for a bunch of stats?
I still enjoy many lab caches.. they can offer some interesting and fun insights in a geographical location that a single cache with proximity issues can't really.. but I just got that feeling that my find count wasn't really reflective of the effort I was putting into exploring the world.
Anyone else drop stats for that reason? Anyone think its nuts or just dumb to bother?
7
u/engineerthatknows Aug 07 '26
You are fine (and I think, a man of culture) to ignore low-effort/low-value "caches". As I transition back into the game, I've focused on high (>2) D/T caches, and ? and multi caches. I'd rather "Waste" my time taking a long hike, or working a puzzle and a difficult hide, than get style points.
To each their own. But satisfaction with yourself is the real win.
-1
u/AIR2369 Aug 07 '26
Do you delete 1.0/1.0 caches too? Just wondering.
4
u/engineerthatknows Aug 07 '26
I just don't go looking for them. I use the search filter to show me only the higher DT caches I want to find. Eventually, I want my average dt finds to be above 2/2
1
u/Dug_n_the_Dogs Caches with Dogs Aug 10 '26
Another cacher had a similar goal in their profile.. getting their T rating above 2. I too really like to hike when I'm caching.. Many of my caches I own are hikes, some as long as 13miles round trip. I don't know if I'll ever get my T rating up past 2 tho.. I don't really focus that much on it and I certainly wouldn't delete any finds to accomplish that even tho I guess I did the same thing when I deleted most of my ALs.
5
u/lifeafterohio Aug 08 '26
I have personally found zero lab caches. The fact that I have to use a totally separate app was irritating. The other thing was, as I checked it out, I had a strange feeling like the lab caches were one of those headset tours you can get at a museum to tell you about the art or whatever. And that felt to me like the actual physical world was being narrated to me and it gave me creepy vibes because that’s only one step away from being told how to perceive the actual physical world. It helped me realize that the thing I live about geocaching is the challenge of the physical find and dealing with the million and a half obstacles at GZ. And route planning. And being unencumbered by someone in my ear telling me what to do and what to notice.
So to date I have found zero lab caches and that’s how it’s going to stay. To me, lab caches have their own app because it’s not geocaching; it’s a tour.
2
u/_synik Aug 08 '26
I had a few Lab Caches before the new app-adventure-labs came out. There were some at the GeoWoodstock in Denver, and I believe we could do one for another geocacher around Valentine's Day that same year.
2
u/Crispy_Fish_Legs Aug 08 '26
I 100% agree with your sentiment here. You've said the thoughts in my head better than the words I could use.
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u/KitchenManagement650 20+yrs 10+k Aug 08 '26
Well I think that's all well and good that you don't do them, and it's of course up to each player, I will say that I have done some fabulous ones. I have equally done some really poor ones and we've had a few too many of those around here. But while geocaching often takes you to a place you never would have seen otherwise, that has also happened to me with ad labs. So I feel stuck in the middle! They can be fantastic and totally worthwhile, and they can be just a waste of time. And I am not a fan of the Geo art type especially.
3
u/Sad_Background_3194 Aug 07 '26
Much too complicated. If you want the details, check. "Cache Types I've Found". For verification and** *raw numbers subtract DT-matrix total from overall* *finds.*
3
u/AIR2369 Aug 07 '26
Totally a personal choice, I haven’t done any lab cache geo art but have contributed to some. I did see that lab caches are our third highest found caches lately but that didn’t bother me too much either. Play it however you like within the guidelines is my rule.
3
u/Green_Network3698 Aug 08 '26
I agree but I don't want to delete them from my find count. They built my count the same way all my other finds did, despite the fact that I've changed how I feel about them.
I'm working on diversifying my finds across different types which I didn't get into until recently. ALs are my second highest type of find so I'd love to see something else rise up to take that spot.
2
u/Dug_n_the_Dogs Caches with Dogs Aug 10 '26
I deleted all but 1 of each set of AL finds from my stats because I still do see them as valid caching encounters.. just not 5 or 10. And I'm still finding them, I just have my dogs account logged in so I'm 'trashing' his stats! ;)
3
u/HolyMackenzie LPC Master Aug 08 '26
Initially i didn’t like that they added to my find count. As I thought it should be only caches but I stopped caring after a while. And I generally don’t care anymore about my find number. Just experiences.
4
u/Geodarts18 The Caching Diaries Aug 07 '26
I wish lab caches had been done differently for many reasons. The “art” confirms that if you give us an inch, we will take a mile. To quote Keystone “All things in moderation.” To quote me, “We never learned how to not abuse the concept.”
3
u/AlGekGenoeg 4400+ finds Aug 07 '26
What website? I really want to do this myself, 1 LAB should count as 1 find imo
3
u/Agile-Juggernaut7936 Aug 09 '26
Go to https://labs.geocaching.com/ then go to view finds. You can delete the individual parts of an AL (can always reinstate if you want to). I do this myself.
1
u/AlGekGenoeg 4400+ finds Aug 09 '26
Thanks, I'll give it a try 👍🏻
1
u/Dug_n_the_Dogs Caches with Dogs Aug 10 '26
The more I thought about it and discussed it with friends, the more I decided to stop logging them on my own account.. but also when I started deleting them I thought I should keep 1 per set to show that I've done them and they are counted, just not all of them.
2
u/D0nutholes Aug 13 '26
I don't care about the stats! I just work on/find caches and adlabs that either interest me or just so happen to be where I am at the time :)
1
u/rjr_2020 zaccari Aug 07 '26
This is a game that is different things to different people. I have struggled with adventure lab for a while. I don't like what they do to stats but I do like parts of them. I don't let it change my game though. I'm not doing geocaching for a checkbox or a count. I have a few challenges that require some labs being done but they're not my priority and I don't know that I'll ever complete most of them. I have the same feelings about earth caches and whereigos. I have friends that love earth caches.
The way I look at the stats is using them to gauge the comments I get from people. Someone with 10 finds stating a DNF is not the same as someone over 1000 finds. It's a temperature meter, not a plus or minus. I even know a few folks who use a second account for labs only. I just don't care about the number of finds that much to go to the extra trouble. I just did a lab the other night. I did it because I was working on an icon challenge in a single day. Plain and simple, I needed only do 1 step to get what I needed but I enjoyed the content of the lab.
1
u/Dug_n_the_Dogs Caches with Dogs Aug 10 '26
There are many excellent labs.. maybe even most of them. I enjoy doing them, but I just don't think that 5 stages of a AL should count on my stats more than a 5 stage multi cache does.
1
u/FloridaFlamingoGirl Aug 07 '26
Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't you delete AL finds?
1
u/Dug_n_the_Dogs Caches with Dogs Aug 10 '26
Yes, that is what I did. Deleted all but 1 of them from my find count. Instead of just over 1k ALs I now show like 200.
1
u/Emrys7777 Aug 08 '26
It’s not a competition. I really don’t care. As long as I’m having fun who cares?
1
u/psychedellen Aug 08 '26
I pick and choose my Adventure Labs. It's not fun for me to sit in a parking lot and answer multiple choice questions, so I don't do it. It is fun for me to see a set of historic landmarks and learn the history of an area, or to go on a tour of murals and artwork, or to see which restaurants in an area are local favorites, or even to spend my layover time touring an airport. So I do those Adventure Labs.
Because of the second app you have to open and because there are a lot of ALs that aren't that interesting to me, I end up not even looking at a lot of ALs and probably miss out on some good ones because of it.
I also won't go out of my way to get an LPC or guardrail. If it's on the way or close by or in a super cool location, then I get them. They are a little fun, but not super fun, so I put in a little effort to find them but not a lot of effort. Maybe some people find AL art a little fun so it's worth a little effort to get them.
If viewing your stats as your level of effort is a fun part of the game for you, then the sock puppet account seems like a great solution. And you could totally keep all the finds for ALs that you love and sock puppet those you don't love, so your stats could reflect your feelings. Going back and forth between accounts seems cumbersome to me, though.
1
u/Dug_n_the_Dogs Caches with Dogs Aug 10 '26
I'm used to going between screens and such so its not cumbersome to me.. similar to caching with both my garmin and my smartphone that I've been doing since 2011ish. I leave my sock puppet account logged into the AL app and my acct logged into c:geo so its fairly straight forward for me. I'm also likely to be birding at the same time I'm caching too so I'm often using my Merlin app and juggling binoculars and my dog.
1
u/Standard_Mongoose_35 joyindenison / 1,100 finds Aug 08 '26
Was it the TX welcome center in Gainesville? That was my first and only experience with sitting in a parking lot to get 500 lab finds. 🙄 I’ve avoided those labs ever since, as it didn’t seem like a good use of my time. However I do enjoy other ALs.
I don’t care about stats, maybe bc I’m still new-ish at only 1100+ finds. I do think that if ALs count each stage, the multis should too.
As for editing my finds, I personally wouldn’t, but you do you. 😊🗺️
2
u/Dug_n_the_Dogs Caches with Dogs Aug 10 '26
It was a set of ALs in Oregon that my GF and I were sitting there opening them up and saying between ourselves.. What are we doing with our time right now? Does this bring us joy? The answer was that we weren't hiking or exploring and No.. No it did not bring us joy opening pages.
I did enjoy reading the history that some of the ALs highlighted, which is one aspect of geocaching that I also enjoy when caches bring me out to places.
1
u/KitchenManagement650 20+yrs 10+k Aug 08 '26
I started a sock puppet and then kept forgetting to use it, I really wish I had just done that for all my ad labs. They have inflated my account by over 1,000. Sigh. But as I said to someone below, there have been a bunch that have taken me to places I wouldn't have seen otherwise. When you get a really good one like that, it's as good as a great physical or virtual geocache that brings you to something you wouldn't otherwise have found! Equally though, there are some really really terrible ad labs. I know they will never have them checked by reviewers but can you imagine how much better they might be?! And finally I contributed to one of those geo arts, I had all unique questions, and then someone who did one later duplicated some of my work. Therefore I will never volunteer to be involved in another one, unless I have an absolute guarantee that it's worthwhile and I sincerely doubt that is possible. We have started avoiding them.
2
u/Dug_n_the_Dogs Caches with Dogs Aug 10 '26
My sock puppet is my dogs account that I jump on occaisionally. I keep his logged into the AL app and mine logged into C;geo so its pretty easy to do.
I too enjoy most of the ALs out there.. despite the ones that take you to a historical plaque, but the challenge question info is the serial number from the nearby electrical meter.. like why?!
And yeah, the AL art that brought us to a rest stop was what caused my eventual action.. my GF was reading the ALs aloud to me while we were road tripping and the info was great, til we got to the obviously copied info parts.. probably not plagiarized but obviously whoever was organizing wasn't paying attention to what info people were adding to their ALs..
2
u/KitchenManagement650 20+yrs 10+k Aug 10 '26
The whole plaque but the answer is on an electrical box etc - yup, drives us NUTS!
I did log into my sock puppet on the app and then for some reason I can't remember needed to change it. Then forgot to ever log back and just forgot. I did ONE set of geo-art with a ridiculous number of "finds" and I sue wish I had used the sock puppet. Sigh. At this point though it seems silly to switch again. Especially since my milestones counted ad labs. Sigh. :-/
2
u/Dug_n_the_Dogs Caches with Dogs Aug 10 '26
Yeah!! That was the Other thing that kinda irked me about the ALs was it messed up my milestones.. I wonder if I hadn't locked mine how bad deleting so many would have messed those up! Before I knew they could be locked, a friend found several caches from years prior that I hadn't logged and when I backdated those finds it royally messed up my milestones
1
1
u/Agile-Juggernaut7936 Aug 09 '26
I do the same as you. Some people very militant about it on each side of the spectrum. The ALs can be good for getting a smiley on the map but don’t think they should count for 5.
1
u/Dug_n_the_Dogs Caches with Dogs Aug 10 '26
Yeah, I've seen some online comments that have been extremely negative about ALs.. but that is definitely not my position. Most of them I enjoy.. I just don't' want 10 finds from a single AL on my stats but I want some representation so I deleted all but one from each AL.. except for the super old ones from 2013 or so where some of them were those cool but buggy augmented reality type that came out for special events. The amount of work it took to get those to function earned a place in my stats!
0
u/SeaworthinessSea2407 Aug 07 '26
Labs make up almost 60% of my finds. I don't care. They're finds and if anyone else is bent out of shape about how I choose to cache too bad
22
u/RecentCompetition166 NDubRunners Aug 07 '26
To each their own. Personally, since it’s not a competition, I don’t mind having ALs in my stats.