'Discovered' trackables

[+Pigling]

A number of my trackables have, over the years, gone missing. It's disappointing but unavoidable.

 

However, there seems to be a growing hobby among a few Geocachers to generate trackable identification numbers with a computer programme and to 'Discover' any trackables found by this method. Thus I get an email to say that a trackable, which has been lost for years, has been 'discovered'. At first this raised hopes... now it is just plain annoying! I have known Geocachers, who have only found a handful of actual caches, to log several hundred false 'discoveries' in a single day!

 

Is there any way to prevent this or, is there any way to remove my lost trackable from a computer generated 'discovery' (thus depriving a 'cheat' from including my trackable in his or her collection)? I don't want to delete my long lost trackables (even if I knew how to), because I live in hope that one day one of them might just be physically found, even after 5+ years, and sent on its way again!

[+TriciaG]

(1) You can delete the Discovered logs.

 

(2) You can lock your trackables to any logs, but this will prevent someone from finding them if they do turn up. But if you're suddenly getting a lot of Discovered logs on certain trackables all around the same time (perhaps the code was circulated at an event, for example), you could temporarily lock it and then unlock it after a while.

 

Both of these actions can be done from the trackable's page.

[+Pigling]

(1) You can delete the Discovered logs.

 

(2) You can lock your trackables to any logs, but this will prevent someone from finding them if they do turn up. But if you're suddenly getting a lot of Discovered logs on certain trackables all around the same time (perhaps the code was circulated at an event, for example), you could temporarily lock it and then unlock it after a while.

 

Both of these actions can be done from the trackable's page.

[+cerberus1]

My neighbor had a "long-lost" trackable discovered by a few folks, all within a week.

Someone finally retrieved it.

That "long-lost" trackable must have been held/found by someone, somehow making its way again to a cache.

Imagine their surprise when they found those people really did discover it.

Granted, that may be rare...

 

If virtual, or online is ever mentioned in a discover log, the odds are pretty good only the code was seen.

 

Realize that if a trackable's locked, not everyone will take the time to email you, asking to unlock it so it can be logged, if they ever did find one.

[+Original A1]

Whilst it is lovely to see a post from Pigling, someone whose username I remember above most others in all the years since 2009 when I found his Squirrel Nutkin TB, I'm disappointed to see that that very TB is one which has failed to move for almost exactly 5 years. I remember taking photographs of him (SN) in my flat and enjoyed sending him on his way. Like Pigling, I've found some of my trackables just get "forgotten" (and that's being kind), which is highly disappointing. I've never resorted to making copies, although I suppose that's one way forward, even if for me it would represent second best - the original TB is what I intended to send out for EVERYONE to enjoy, not just those who "forgot" they had it...

 

Funnily enough, I was thinking of Pigling last week when Allieballie and I returned to Cumbria for a day's caching. It was he who gave me useful instructions for driving up Hardknott Pass and I have never forgotten the preliminary words: "Taking courage in both hands...". Those words have echoed a fair bit over the years and we were very very close to Hardknott Pass last week. By coincidence, I picked up a TB which was exactly what he notes above - a copy. It has been moved on.

 

Edited August 4, 2016 by Original A1