Is there any penalty for having a lot of attempts? I presume it's helpful to log attempts, because it tells others that it's not an easy find...or it may be missing?

Is there any penalty for having a lot of attempts?

Not at all :)

I presume it's helpful to log attempts, because it tells others that it's not an easy find...or it may be missing?

Exactly right. An "attempt" means that you think that the box is missing and lets other people know that it may be gone or it may be hard to find.

http://www.atlasquest.com/about/wiki/search.html?gSearch=attempt#q478

I presume it's helpful to log attempts, because it tells others that it's not an easy find...or it may be missing?

I have a few attempts logged. I used to log them anytime I couldn't find a box but made a real effort to look. I box alone so I don't have the privilege of another set of eyes or another way of thinking. Sometimes, my mind just doesn't think the same way as other minds, and I realize this and try to embrace it. With letterboxing it sometimes means I won't find the box.

There was a box that I logged an attempt on and the owner checked on the box and it was still in place so I went to look again. Still couldn't find it and it ended up taking me 3 trips out there to find it. When I finally found it, I logged it as found but left the attempt. The box owner insisted that I remove my attempt so people wouldn't think the box was missing. My argument was that since I had logged it as found, it shouldn't matter but the owner insisted that it looked like the box had been replanted, rather than in place the whole time. Personally, I didn't think it should matter but he was so insistent and I didn't think it was worth arguing over so I removed the attempt. Since this experience, I remove attempts if I end up finding a box after an initial strikeout. I also don't mark attempts at all anymore unless I am 100% sure without a shadow of a doubt that the box is missing and it wasn't just me not understanding clues. If I have any confusion while looking, I don't mark it as an attempt. I will only mark it if I find an empty box or if I happen to be with another boxer that has previously found the box and has told me it's no longer there. I actually have had people mark attempts on my own boxes because they got to the parking lot and it was busy so they left... that's not really an attempt but it doesn't bother me. I think some people put a little too much stock in logged attempts. One of my favorite finds was one that hadn't been found in 3 years and had had attempts listed because an ice storm had completely changed the environment.

I recently found out that you can write a comment that you couldn't find it but click N/A so you're not actually saying that it was missing. That's what I've started doing unless I'm positive it's gone.

I presume it's helpful to log attempts, because it tells others that it's not an easy find...or it may be missing?

That's also what I presumed, and that's what they do in geocaching, but on Atlasquest, you're not supposed to log an attempt unless you are pretty sure the box is missing. I don't have enough confidence in my opinion on that matter due to the many times when I thought it was missing and turned out not to be, so I just stopped logging attempts all together on AQ. I'll sometimes send a note to the planter or just leave a comment on the box and click "NA" for whether I found it.

I like the N/A route.
Sometimes I dig thos comments conversations.
Them: "Looked everywhere its gone :("
Me. "Nu-uh. I just checks & its all gravy baby!"

Or
Them: "Couldnt find it. Looked & looked.''
Me: "Dang it! Looked & its gone!!!!"

Just yesterday, I dug around in the hole under a tree forever and could not find the box. Fortunately I often go LBing with my good persistent friend and she offered to look. She came up with the box! If it had been left up to me alone, I would have logged that box as an "Attempt" and missing. I really was SURE it was not there. Just shows to go you.

AB

I think there should be an Attempts list in the Letterboxers Hall of Fame. Just for fun.

Prince Igor

I planted a box among a cluster of bushes surrounding a lone oak tree in a field. A coupla years later I came back to check on it, and the bushes were gone! Nuthin' but tree. Oh, well. But it occurred to me that whomever did this landscaping job didn't haul those bushes away; they just mulched them right there on the spot. It had been a while, looked pretty much like soil surrounding the tree, and there was a good carpet of grass. Still, I started digging -- and came up with my own box! It wasn't even damaged!

The trick, of course, would be rehiding it. As luck would have it, there was a hole in the tree on the other side. By switching containers, I was able to house that box in a container that would fit in that hole.

Oh, how can I remove an attempt? I do have two that I found upon second try, but didn't know I could remove an attempt. In both cases, I had looked a long time, and really thought they were missing.

It's easy to remove an attempt. Click on "Show Finds" and then find your name. Next to it is a red X. Click on that. It will ask if you really want to delete the attempt and you confirm that.

A couple of times a year, I go back through the letterboxes I've marked as attempts (only those I thought were clearly gone). If someone has found them since I've logged an attempt, I delete my attempt. I do this for two reasons: one, I want to get the letterbox again and need it to show up not as one I believe is gone; two, I don't want to misrepresent the box if it is there.

Once in awhile, I AQ mail the person who found it to make sure it truly was a find and not a box they logged as a find that really wasn't there. That would be if the letterboxer is quite new to the game or if I felt I was spot on for the location. Often I find out the box has been replanted or there has been a mistaken log in.

Anyway, attempts are tricky. I clearly need the attempt log in to help keep my letterboxing organized.

Oh, how can I remove an attempt?

Click on "Show Finds" and then find your name. Next to it is a red X. Click on that.

You can also just look through your logbook and change the "action" to attempts. Next to each find you can click "remove find" just like anywhere else in your logbook. This allows you to do several without needing to look up each listing.

K

I think there should be an Attempts list in the Letterboxers Hall of Fame. Just for fun.

I would be in front I am pretty sure.

::A-636 and counting::

Oh, no. If we're going to count them, they should be done by ratio of attempts to finds. Then I would have a chance at the hall of infamy. (Running about 70% finds to 30% nope.)

Thank you all. I got the attempt off.

Logging attempts can be quite a conundrum. After years of patiently waiting, we finally had an opportunity to go for one of our favorite theoretical boxes. I say "theoretical" because we hadn't found it yet so we didn't know if we would enjoy it or not. But we had done the "leg work" in order to know where to go, etc. and we really liked the planters concept (puzzle).

Unfortunately, we were not able to put our hands on it after 2 hours of searching and the planter seems to have dropped off the face of the Earth. I really want to list it as an attempt because I know we were in the right place. However, with us attempting to be first finders after 6 years, so much could change that we don't know if we missed the six inch spot where it was hidden, or if a critter dragged it off, etc.

Ugh! I wish they would respond to my email so I could tell how close we were!!!

This box looked so inviting... Extreme, mystery, never before found... Oh well, sometimes you win... Sometimes you have to try again!!!

Check it out here:

Out in the Blue

There are 3 options - Found, Missing, N/A. You can log a N/A and leave a message. An online log would at least alert the next finders that the box may not be there. I think this is especially important when the hider is no longer active.

Personally if I felt reasonably sure that I was in the right place I would log an attempt and I always leave an online comment explaining why. I encourage finders of my boxes to log attempts and include a note as to why they couldn't find it. I feel it's valuable information for me (maybe I need to tweak my clues, maybe they're wrong, maybe they're confusing, maybe the box really is gone) and for the next finders. I don't want to frustrate people and I don't want them wasting their time and gas money.

So apparently the N/A feature either doesn't make sense to me or doesn't work. We were pretty active boxers for a while and felt pretty comfortable with the hobby and how AQ worked. Then we took a hiatus for a while (too long). Previously, there was only "found" and "attempted" as options to log. "Missing" has apparently replaced "attempted" but "N/A" doesn't seem to do anything but let you submit a comment. This time I chose to log "N/A" and nothing shows up in my logbook. Not sure I understand the point of "N/A" as I could just email the planter. I guess there may be some value if I chose "public" comments instead of "private", but with the secrecy behind this particular box, I felt it would be bad form to post public comments.

I think I've inadvertently crossed over into "new thread" territory. Sorry, this is kind of distant from the OP.

Not sure I understand the point of "N/A"

The N/A really shines when you look for part of a series. What if you look for the first five boxes of a ten-box series. You find some of them, you don't find some of them, and some of them you don't even look for because it's getting dark and you have to turn around and go back.

So some are finds, some are attempts, and some are N/A. =)

The fact that you can leave comments and not update your find/attempt dates is mostly a bonus.

-- Ryan

Thanks for the great info!

I've started a new post on this since I was off-thread. See this post

Not sure I understand the point of "N/A" as I could just email the planter.

If the planter is no longer playing, there's no point emailing them. But posting a comment helps the next finders. The tagging feature could be used on caches that you post N/A logs on.