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Etiquette for taking trackables for "visits"


Birdieboy

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Okay, so retrieving trackables and then holding on to them for some time and logging "visits" to other caches seems to have become very popular. I've noticed some trends with concern in this regard and I think it's time for the moderators to present some guidelines. No ways can anyone convince me that said person couldn't find a suitable cache to drop it in, in over a year.

I've noticed non-collectible Geocoins being retrieved and kept by "collectors" for over a year whilst logging "visits" along the way, is this acceptable? I think this deprives other cachers from interacting with these trackables and trust me, nothing as boring as reading through page after page of - "collector took this coin to visit so and so" on that trackable's history.

I've noticed "collectors" at events having huge collections of especially geocoins for others to discover, this is fine in many instances as there are many true collectors of geocoins with their own collectible stashes but there seem to be a growing number of "collectors" travelling to events with large numbers of other people's trackables.

On several occasions now I've noticed trackables that has no log as being retrieved from a cache but yet cachers are seen discovering them at events. Maybe it would be good if discovering a trackable had a compulsory line to indicate in who's hands it was discovered, at least in this way the trackable owner can now see who is holding on to his trackable.

Perhaps it's time to ask cachers to stop "hogging" trackables that don't belong to them personally and has collectible status set to not collectible.

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I kinda agree.

I think this "visiting" is getting crazy, and don't believe many are walking around with a pound (or more) of trackables, visiting them in every cache they've been to.

Maybe if we simply just Place, Grab & Retrieve again, we can return to some sort of normalcy, with a bonus of knowing whether these things are actually still in play, since there's no way of (really) knowing with a year of "took it to".

 

Another is this collectible thing.

Confusing to many, an idea that probably had good intentions, but seems not presented clearly enough to be understood by all.

 

Definitely would like to see a "please don't be a trackable hog" added to the guidelines.

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Yeah, three sentences.

"Use the Golden Rule when you find a Travel Bug.

Most owners would rather see their Travel Bug do a lot of travelling, so try not to hold on to a Travel Bug for too long.

If you plan on holding onto the bug for more than 2 weeks, make sure to send a courtesy email to the owner letting them know."

I'm sure most here would agree that this three-sentence guideline on etiquette and what's actually going on with the "visit" function aren't the same.

- So yeah, maybe a thread would be good on the website forums.

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I'd rather get the notifications of "visits" than none at all. Sure it's irksome when *JoeCacher* keeps a traveller for over a year but keeps me pacified with regular visit notices but what's my option? To yell at him for not following guidelines? Been there, done that and nothing changed. People are gunna do what they wunna do and no amount of kvetching on the forums is going to change that.

This is a volunteer activity. You volunteer to place caches and you volunteer to release geocoins and as a volunteer you get what you get, not what you want. Especially from a bunch of strangers.

And lastly there is no enforcement of the guidelines. The only thing a coin owner can do is delete logs. But if someone with a warped moral compass finds one of the coins you left unattended in a tupperware box in the woods there is little you or anyone can do about what they end up doing with it. You can hope a less deviant person finds it and returns it to proper circulation but aside from prayer and hope you're powerless.

Moral of the story - do not leave valuable items you do not wish to lose in tupperware boxes left unattended in the woods.

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"Most owners would rather see their Travel Bug do a lot of travelling, so try not to hold on to a Travel Bug for too long."

I agree that excessive visits are lame, but I believe that the cachers doing excessive visits don't believe this statement applies to them. In fact, I think most of them consider all the visits they log as a great way to help the bug travel, so they read this statement as encouraging what they're doing.

 

And I can't say they're completely wrong. By most concrete measures, a TB that visits 5 caches every day for a year is doing way more traveling than a TB dropped in a cache twice a month before being picked up 2 weeks later. So perhaps this statement should focus more about being seen and carried by geocachers more than on simply traveling. I value being carried by different people most, then visiting different areas next. I'm not that interested in mileage, and I actually would rather minimize the number of caches visited in any one area.

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Takes all kinds.

 

Some owners love to see their trackable move, even many times a day.

 

Some owners detest discoveries.

 

Some owners pester geocachers who have left their trackable in a cache, which had been quite popular, but is now unvisited for 2 months.

 

Can't please everyone, can you?

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"Most owners would rather see their Travel Bug do a lot of travelling, so try not to hold on to a Travel Bug for too long."

I agree that excessive visits are lame, but I believe that the cachers doing excessive visits don't believe this statement applies to them. In fact, I think most of them consider all the visits they log as a great way to help the bug travel, so they read this statement as encouraging what they're doing.

 

And I can't say they're completely wrong. By most concrete measures, a TB that visits 5 caches every day for a year is doing way more traveling than a TB dropped in a cache twice a month before being picked up 2 weeks later. So perhaps this statement should focus more about being seen and carried by geocachers more than on simply traveling. I value being carried by different people most, then visiting different areas next. I'm not that interested in mileage, and I actually would rather minimize the number of caches visited in any one area.

Just so it's clear (ya never know these days...), that statement you replied to came from the Travel Bug FAQ, not from me. :)

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The overall point that I think needs to be considered is that each person has their own opinion, purpose and desires.

 

If everyone ate food the same way trackables are handled when traveling ... we would need only one restaurant serving one food, prepared exactly the same way everywhere ....

 

Variety appreciation even exists within single collectible folks. My geo-partner has over 150 TB's and coins out traveling. Some have gone missing, while others give us a wealth of travel 'entertainment' and we DO enjoy watching the variety of activity. Some are logging rare travel, some seem to travel country to country regularly, while others have spent months making dozens of visits each week. One has no pics, the other has the cacher posting pics almost daily of it's travels .... go figure ... we love them all !!

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Just so it's clear (ya never know these days...), that statement you replied to came from the Travel Bug FAQ, not from me. :)

Yes, sorry, I understood that, but I could have made it clearer in my note, especially since my main point was that, as much as I don't like it, the Travel Bug FAQ seems to encourage long strings of visits as long as you consider carrying a TB around visiting caches to be different than holding it.

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I posted awhile ago in the new features forum that a "lock" control on coins and TB's be added for the owner. I have had dozens of coins logged at mega events in Europe that have never traveled. Probably a mis-typing on a list but deleting hundreds of logs (ongoing) is crazy! :angry:

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I don't care for the visit thing. It seems pretty pointless, especially when you consider that the trackable probably isn't actually visiting that cache at all, but is just being logged. It's also annoying if the trackable has a mission that sends it somewhere in particular. Holding on to it just stops its progress.

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I don't care for the visit thing. It seems pretty pointless, especially when you consider that the trackable probably isn't actually visiting that cache at all, but is just being logged. It's also annoying if the trackable has a mission that sends it somewhere in particular. Holding on to it just stops its progress.

I distinguish between legitimate visits, which I think are cool and useful, and mindless visits that have the qualities you're talking about. To me, the difference is that a mindless visit has an empty log, but for a legitimate visit, the person having the TB visit the cache has a reason for the visit that is worth editing the visit log to explain.

 

I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater...although I have to admit, there's an awful lot of bathwater, and I'm not sure how else to get rid of it.

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I've noticed "collectors" at events having huge collections of especially geocoins for others to discover, this is fine in many instances as there are many true collectors of geocoins with their own collectible stashes but there seem to be a growing number of "collectors" travelling to events with large numbers of other people's trackables.

When you logged the discovery, did you mention that the coin is in someone's stash? That would be useful info for a coin owner. Assuming the owner doesn't know.

 

On the issue of "visits", if there's a way to distinguish a legitimately "visited" coin from a phone glitch (automatically logging at each cache when the coin was lost long ago), a real visit may be obnoxious, but at least it's a real log.

 

I request on my coin pages that people make factual logs. Even a bahzillion (give or take) "Visits", with many photos and stories on location, may not be too terrible. The logs about the coin are the ones I prefer. The logs that tell me how insane the cacher is, not so much. :ph34r:

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As a new cacher i am glad that someone posted this. I just discovered my first "found" Geocoin while checking on a cache that is located near me for an owner. When i log those visits, i make sure to say "does not count as a log" although it records it as one. I plan on moving this Geocoin out of state when i go on vacation since it wants to travel around the world. Always wanted to find one of these things.

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As some one who has sent off (and I believe all are lost) many GeoCoins and Tags, the only GeoCoin that I have as a 'visit only' is one that I bought and activated myself that I like to keep with me at all times (it is one of the LEGO figures that Groundspeak was selling that I don't want to release). Visiting a few is fine caches with a coin is fine, but it's best to send it on its way asap.

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I dropped my first trackable in a cache and it was a beautiful lighthouse coin in memory of my husband and someone took it and never logged that they took it. I am so disappointed. We spend money on these to travel the world not for someone to just grab to keep.it makes me not want to drop any of the other ones I have bought. If people are not going to track them they should not be taking them ?

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