Ad Labs being counted in the Busy Cacher in Badgegen

Question

Am I right in thinking that Ad Lab finds are being counted in the Busy Cacher badge in bagdegen ? and if so why ?
I was under the impression that Ad Labs are not counted in a number of these stats and busy Cacher used to reflect going out and finding proper caches and the 400 in a day for the diamond was there to reward those who go out and do the big power trails.
However sitting in a car park and doing a bunch of multi choice questions to get 1600+ smilies is not the same - but it appears this has been what has happened with this badge

Edit - further thought to this :- if ALs can be included why not have a seperate badge for ALs - "Busy Ad Labber" that way the 'busy cacher 'badge can be left to proper caches and those who want to do mass ALs can get this other AL badge

Answer 1

(if you're a premium member on Project-GC) you can enable in the settings the option "Include lab cache finds where it makes sense", which will then include them in "Most finds in one day", and (I guess) also in the Busy Cacher badge. However, it's also possible to disable counting LAB caches altogether.

In general, we personaly ignore LAB caches — we’re not fans of how they’re scored. If a LAB bonus cache is involved, we will do the LAB, find the bonus cache but then delete the associated LAB cache finds afterward. We only keep one LAB cache find as a single point as we did it as the 15+1 (15+LAB) cache types in one day.

Comments

Hi
Yeah, I was aware of the ability to turn ALs on and off - but I was just very surprised to see that ALs were allowed to be included in a stat like that (Busy cacher) since when the badge was first in place ALs were not around and it just involved the usual caches - where you actually have to go out to a different location for each one - including the ALs now means you can sit in your car and get all 400 for diamond in about and hour
I like ALs - I have done many good ones in a variety of cities on my travels - they are better than the filmpots at the back of a sign. but the geoart issue with ALs means these sort of stats and badge achievements can now be obtained so easily

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Geocaching is purely about fair play and conscience. Some people go for the numbers, some for the difficulty, and others for the quality. I know people who got their Busy Cacher by using three cars (each with a driver and a hunting passenger) and doing a power trail in such a way that only one car stopped at each cache. I would never log that as having been to all of them. But those people consider it a success because it was difficult to plan, and together they found over 400 physical caches.

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Yes I am aware that is how many power trails are done - to be honest 400 is reasonable top number for cachers using one car and just going for it stopping at every one - many of the power trails have the pick up and drop off at the next cache set up too - so though this is done in different ways - it can take a long time and a lot of planning and effort will go into that. That is very different to answering multi choice in your car for an hour !!!

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I think we understand each other. I don’t put any form of power trail caching on the same level as logging a LAB cache in a parking lot or while wandering through a city that’s saturated with LABs. I just think there’s no such thing as right or wrong. There’s only what’s acceptable and meaningful to each individual. For some, the badge holds more value than the experience; for others, it's about the story, the planning, the rush, and the adrenaline. Where one person might say that LABs aren’t okay but doing a power trail with three cars is fine, another might say that if you want the badge, you should sweat for it and manage it on your own, ideally in a single car.

And I think that’s perfectly fine. It’s great that geocaching offers such diversity. That it can be something for a young couple like us, for parents with children, for retirees… And even though being a busy cacher will never feel acceptable to me if it’s achieved through logging LABs, I believe there are people for whom finding 400+ LABs (points) in a single day can be just as admirable an achievement as 400+ traditionals in a power trail is for me.

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I don't dislike ALs we have done many - I just think their stats should be completely separate