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Paper short abstract

The autoethnography-based presentation on geocaching focuses on written online-narratives of various lengths (or “logs” as referred to in the game terminology) that can be found on a shared website of geocachers. These also include entries inspired by nature

Paper long abstract

Geocaching is a real-world treasure hunting game, in which participants use navigational techniques to hide and/or seek small containers. The hobbyists themselves create and update the information needed for playing – geocaching webpages are used to store both the locations of the caches and reports from those who have gone to seek them. Various forums are also used for discussing geocaching experiences.

As a result, a common archive or online diary has been formed of the coverage of geocaching over the years (since 2001 in Estonia). By posting entries about their game activities on the geocaching website, participants contribute to keeping the game information up-to-date, ensuring that the game can take place. Therefore, the content on the website reflecting the hobby is multi-authored, collaborative, dialogical, usable and re-readable asynchronously whenever anyone wishes to do so and forms the shared tradition of the geocachers’ community.

In addition to the information vital for the game, geocachers write down their observations of nature in online logs. In forums, even more detailed stories are told about their experiences in nature. These narratives would not exist as such if their authors did not practice geocaching, i.e. a hobby is a context that frames the narratives. In these stories, we find depictions of humans acting in nature, and descriptions of current states and changes of natural places, as well as encounters with representatives of flora and fauna.

The presentation focuses on the specifics of “nature writing” in geocaching and how participants relate to nature.