2 scenarios, what's your opinion?

1. You're on a ghost hunt and another ghost hunting team shows up unexpectedly. They know you're in there...your car(s) arent hidden. Instead of leaving, they break out their stuff and enter the same building/location and start their own investigation.
Are they right or wrong for "crashing your party"?

2. You go to the local haunt on a "slow weekend" for a ghost hunt fix and upon arrival you realize another team is there. Do YOU go in and ask if you can join them, or not ask and start your own hunt or just leave and go to a cemetary or do you just go home.

I ask because option 1 has happened to me more than once while on a ghost hunt. Sometimes the other team asked if they could join us so we combined forces and went at it and at times they just basically ignored us, beyond the nicities, and did their own thing. that kind of pi##ed me off, a little

So...your opinions?

Im still new-ish at actual arranged investigations with groups, but common courtesy says ( or common sense?) that if another set of people come secondarily, they shouldnt 'crash' out of consideration. If anything, they should talk to the first party there and see if they can do a joint invest; if thats not possible, they should go and come back when the area is clear. Im pretty sure they wouldnt like it much if they were 'over-run' or intruded upon.

Yeah, you'd think that they'd have the courtesy. I'm actually surprised at how many times our investigations were "crashed" to be honest. I dont know how many but more than you'd think.

I showed up at a place with a few other investigators for a last minute fix and there was a group there already from the Dallas area. We talked to them a few minutes, looked at their equipment (DVR and other cool stuff) and then left and went somewhere else (cemetary a few miles away) to get our fix. it's just the right thing to do, I think.

Courtesy certainly does go a long way. Unfortunately, as none of us own the places we are investigating, we really don't hae much of a say. Working together seems to be the way forward, but lets be honest, no one wants to share the glory, right? The obvious problem, if the teams continued their investigations separately, would be false positives, as there are uncontrolled conditions because another team are working there independently of your own protocol.

Yes...we dont own the places we usually investigate. We're either there on invite (and in that case there's about 0% chance of getting interrupted by another team) or we find an abandonded place to go. We have always tried to get permission from the land owners when going places and will often NOT go somewhere when permission can not be granted.

If two teams investigate a place and share the information gathered, it could certainly lead to a more credible investigation if there were similar or the same results. of course, it could hurt too if they were different. However, just because ghosts show themselves one night, it doesnt mean they're going to show themselves another necessarily. I'm not worried about "sharing the glory". I would just love to find irrefutible proof that ghosts exist.

But we're kinda off track. I understand what you're saying and courtesy does go a long way. If one group is there and another shows up, wouldnt it be fair to ask them to come back next weekend and then exchange phone numbers and/or email addresses so that the results can be compared rather than having too many people in one place at one time? And should they have to ask to come back another time? wouldnt it be more fair if they acknowledged your presence first and then said they'd come back another time?

I would say all join forces, more equipment = more chance of success and if two different pieces of equipment pick up the same thing you can definatly then say it wasn't a mechanical fault on the part of the equipment.

Problem is if two teams are doing two different invesitgations alot of evidence will have to be thrown out (Like EVPs) because it could just be someone from the other group and you don't recognise the voice, and if you DID find the ultimate evidence but of course there was another team wondering about the more chance people will just throw it out as a prank! which would be increadably annoying.

also you could meet new friends and learn how other people do their investigation and you can get a better idea to see what method works and how maybe to improve each others methods of investigation.

I would at least approach them and have a talk with them and see if they wanted to do some joint effort.

Cheers,

Alasdair

Even though I don't hunt.. I say join forces, if the person that is already there is cool with it.

1. You could definitely learn from each other.

2. There's no 2.. sorry

Since I have my own team, Id like to try answering your questions as well.

1) First of all, where are you investigating where another team just shows up? If it was a public place, I guess there's not really much you can do. I would have asked them to team up together, I suppose. But the idea that they didn't even bother saying hello or anything leads to believe they arent a very courteous lot. If they didn't want to team up, I may have stayed, I may not have. Maybe not, actually, since its kind of tough to do a serious investigation in an environment like that, where another group of people are just doing their own thing.

Now, my group typically does investigations of private residences. If another team just showed up there, that's a totally different story. I would be questioning the client big time. Inviting two teams without informing us is not only rude, but a breach of the client-team relationship. Id ask that they ask the other team to leave. If not, I'd pack my team up and we would leave. The investigation cannot go on under conditions like that, with a dozen or more people doing different things at different times. And it is simply not worth getting into a pissing match with some other team. So, we'd wish them well and leave.

2) Id likely ask the other team if we could join them. If not, and its a public place, I suppose it has to be expected. So, instead we'd just go somewhere else (we have two unoccupied homes we can hunt, literally, at any time) or just hang out a while or head home.

I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head there, Jason, nice one!

sorry for not answering this in forever.
It hasnt happened in private residences. so, they'd be "public" locaitons. You're right, if it's public, anyone is welcome there. Teaming up may be a good idea, may not be. I've done that too and it's sucked on occassion and it's worked out as well. however, the ones that show up and dont ask but just grab their stuff and join in like it's no big deal...to me it is. Maybe it's because I am "polite" and I wouldnt just assume it's ok without asking the other group that was there first if I was the one that showed up second.
most places arent big enough for two teams unless it's some HUGE abandonded hospital or something. but then, you'd just never know if that echo or whatever was from the other group wandering around or not. when workin wiht a team, you know eachother's habits, know where people will be when (hopefully, unless there's little communicaiton on a team which would suck). So..even if the place was huge, any "evidence" wuld have to be discarded, by both groups, if they're respectible in my opinion, as neither can say where the ohters were and contamination has got to be the likely result.
Get two teams in a relatively small area and both teams are totally screwed. too many people is BAD BAD BAD. AT most private residences I've been to, we've had no more than 5 people as houses are just too small, usually.