Why It's Important To Log Your DNFs (Did Not Finds)

Some people are very reluctant to log a DNF (Did Not Find) when they don't find a geocache.  For some people it's an ego thing - they just don't want any of those "sad faces" in their account - they don't want to suffer the embarrassment of admitting they couldn't find a geocache.  For others, it may be that they tell themselves they'll go again another day and try to find it, and they never get around to finding it and never log the DNF. 
 
Well, embarrassing or not, or whether you plan to try to find the geocache again another day, you should still log your DNF because this is the only way the geocache owner will find out there may be a problem with their geocache!  Sometimes you can't find a geocache because it's not there - sometimes geocaches mysteriously disappear, or sometimes they get "muggled" (non-geocachers find it and trash it or take it).  And other geocachers will continue to waste their time and energy trying to find caches that are not there unless people log their DNFs so that the geocache owner will realize there is a problem and go out and check on their geocache and either come back to the cache page and note that the geocache IS still there and it's just a tough hide, or they can disable the listing if the geocache is missing until they have a chance to replace it.

So please, don't be embarrassed if you don't find a geocache - it's happened to the best of us, believe me (in fact right now there's a geocache we've been to TWICE and still haven't found it - we did confirm though that it IS still there - we just can't seem to find it!).  And hey, it might not even be there to be found, in which case the geocache owner will appreciate knowing there may be a problem and if they see another DNF or two come in, they'll know they need to go out and check on it. 

I hope you never have any DNFs, but if you do, please log it.  As a geocache owner, I thank you!