If you have a geocaching streak, would you continue if asked to self-quarantine?

Question

I suppose I'd end any current streak.  What say you?

Answer 1

I would not continue.  In my humble opinion, no streak is worth catching this bug or spreading it to others.  The question everyone should be asking themselves is what can I do to help stop this bug from spreading?

There are many people who are asymptomatic not knowing they are infected and therein lies the danger of it spreading out of control.  Currently and by choice, I am self-isolating following proper sanitizing procedures as described by WHO and our own CDC. I wish everyone the best of luck to avoid catching this bug and stay well.

Answer 2

If I had symptoms or was otherwise diagnosed with the virus, I'd stay at home and break the streak.

If self-isolating in a low-risk situation, geocaching would be acceptable. I'd probably go for caches which are unlikely to have others visiting them (remote and older) and clean them before/after handling. Or just use gloves.

Answer 3

I have a streak that just passed 500. If a responsible official asked me to self-quarantine due to the covid-19 pandemic, I would be disappointed but I would certainly voluntarily halt the streak. It would feel better to stop it when it the decision is partially up to me. At least that's how I look at it, given the way that this question is framed.

If or when I contract covid-19, that decision will be out of my hands... and of course a streak would be the very least of concerns then.

Having said that, no part of my country has taken the extraordinary step of mandating quarantine for this pandemic. Even a shelter-in-place order allows for going outside, which is what geocaching is all about. Moreover, I am fortunate that in my somewhat rural area it is possible to target many caches that have not been visited in weeks or months or more, and are probably not going to be visited by someone else in the very near future.

Primary concern with covid-19 is person to person transmission. I'm following sanitation guidelines before and after caching but if I keep my distance from people during my outings, according to available info that's the best thing I can do. And that's what I will continue to do.

Be well, everyone.

Answer 4

Is geocaching more important than the health and safety of everyone on this Earth ?
No !
I don't think there is anything more to add

Answer 5

If I was not sick and I had a streak going I would continue. I would go for non urban caches allowing me to get exercise and still be separated.

Answer 6

We discussed this with some other cachers.

All our geocaching event ar archived (deactivated by us) but already archieved by local reviewers.

==> this is OK as we are in a global crisis. French PM aready spoke of a war.

If we would have symtoms we stay at home.

If we are in self quarantine we also stop social contacts. We have to flatten the curve and think about what could happen and that people could die because we went outside.

If I'm in HomeOffice (also for the COVID-1 reason) we also go for a walk (with no contact to others). If there is a cache - great. I would log it (with gloves)

For the next 2 month WE are responsible not only for ourself. We are responsible for a communitiy in your states/countries. And we are responsible to not infect older people.

Touands will loose there jobs, many will die.

At the end - geocaching will be better in (hope june) when everything is over and I DID MY PART not to do things against now needed shutdown/quarantine,

Answer 7

No, it is correct answer. I wish you all good health 

Answer 8

What I see is that some streak will end by itself.

Within my Home Zone and Office Zone there are no caches published in April until now. So within about 100 km there is no new cache. The monthly streak, FTF streak will end.

Think we have no new caches in Germany in April.

Do you see the same in your area/state/country?

Comments

Yes, no new caches have been published in Belgium for weeks. I assume the reviewers have some kind of agreement/obligation(?) not to publish any new caches. Maybe April 2020 should not be counted when calculating the monthly FTF streak?

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Where I live in Texas, there is a lot of open ground ideal for solo caching.  So far, new caches are being published but no guarantees if more will be allowed as time moves on.  I agree there should be regional provisions that allow for exceptions to the rules since this is an unprecedented and extraordinary worldwide catastrophe.

Currently, all events are suspended or cancelled.  Let us hope that restrictions can be lifted since this is the 20th year anniversary of geocaching and a lot of people want to celebrate.

I am very cautious when searching for caches and follow all CDC and WHO protocols to include self-isolating.  One can still find a cache hidden in the woods and not be around people.  Just make sure to wash your hands and don't touch your face.  Let's hope this plague will diminish.  Be safe and stay healthy, everyone.

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As soon as publishing resumes, hiders can set the placed date to April, so for the Jasmer challenge I suppose it won't be a big problem.

A monthly FTF steak might end, though. But since geocaching.com is not suspended as a whole, there shouldn't be any exceptions.

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Also think there should be no special exceptions as there are caches published. Like the caches from 2000 there will be more effort needed to get one of the April 2020 caches.

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I am not concerned about the Jasmer challenge, as once this situation is over there will hopefully be plenty of opportunities to travel to one of the precious April 2020 caches. And there is no time pressure to do so.
However, this does not help when it comes to the FTF months streak. Once April is gone this will inevitably be broken. For obvious reasons you cannot travel to a country where caches are still published. Therefore it’s impossible to continue that streak even if in many countries it’s perfectly allowed and even recommended to go out and do some sports (provided you do it alone and keep your distance, which is not difficult when it comes to geocaching).
Which, given the epic dimensions of this pandemic, of course is a luxury problem and insignificant in comparison to the real catastrophe hitting this planet. But, okay, this is a geocaching related forum ...

Answer 9

The question is about self-quarantining - I would like to think that if anybody was asked to do this they would not consider putting others at risk by going out
I certainly would not
Another issue is with regard to adhering to your government lockdown guidelines (they all vary and some are stricter than others) - but not adhering to them is against Groundspeaks own terms of use Section 6, D, xi and xii

I am aware of many cachers who are continuing their streak and in breach of the above but I suspect they are not required to go into quarantine as that is a very specific request from the health authorities relating to people who have symptoms