deb3day

Some people with TB cars, dip them into every cache they visit to get a map of where they have cached. Map looks cool when you see where you've been! Plus you do get discovers, mostly at events. I love to scan the parking lot at an event and get the TB's to discover. I usally just take pics of them with my phone for easy logging when I get home.

I'm really annoyed about a person who picked up a TB in my TB hotel. They have a picture of it with one of their kids. Kid is about 4 or so. Kid has his own geocaching name. Kid has 5 finds (my hotel was the first). Kid has possession of the TB which obviously he liked as a toy (it was a Disney character). Kid evidently still has the toy because it was never seen again. I even email the Dad who lied to me and said he'd place the TB. Not done. That was nearly 2 years ago. Nice how Dad is teaching kid to keep things that aren't his.

I found one like that in my own TB Hotel. After checking with the person who dropped it, I couldn't find the owner so I activated it myself and sent it on its way. The next person to move it, dropped it into a cache that matched my goal and it was never seen again!!!!! Easy come, easy go...............

I'm wondering if TB's are becoming extinct? Is it worth it to even try anymore? I've activated 12 TB's in 2 years. 2 are personal trackables. 1 is a geocoin that I dip for milage, one is a stuffed animal that I take to events for discovery. Of the remaining 10, 5 have gone missing, some with less than 300 miles logged. Does anyone bother to take care of other people's trackables anymore? Sorry to be a whiner, but I just found out that another went missing and it's bumming me out. I enjoy moving people's trackables and I can't understand why others are so careless with other people's TB's.

The logs for the TB's are not coming out in the same order as the caches. I dipped my coin into three on Saturday and the coin's logs are in the opposite order of the caches the were dipped into. The map matches this backwards order.

so then i could use the popcorn smiley together with the facepalm smiley by themselves, right? yeah, i suppose so. I think they would conflict eachother in a post though. The facepalm smiley has a purpose and there is a message behind it. It communicates a point. The popcorn smiley communicates next to nothing. And when it is alone, it is worthless. I disagree. The popcorn smilie indicates that the person is watching this thread. Maybe it indicates they've been watching this thread for far too long. Maybe it indicates they've been watching this thread and laughing at those of us who have made the effort to provide what we feel is a meaningful post to an otherwise silly thread. Maybe it indicates................ Oh, nevermind PS - I did enjoy the mooning smilie!

I have a personal geocoing that I log to my finds so that I can see my map of my travels. I dipped the coin into 3 finds yesterday. The cache logs show in the proper order on my profile page, but the coins, which I dipped right with the log, are showing on my profile page in the opposite order therefore the TB map, is also showing my path in backwards order. Anyone else have this problem. What's up? I know a few weeks ago the map page was totally backwards. Is this still an offshoot problem from that situation?

A very nice idea to make a trackable for his memory. I agree with MrsB. Getting pictures of the TB with motorcycles will likely get you a lot more responses.

The problem of the TB not being in the cache is likely because the person who took it didn't log it correctly. Logging that you took the TB and giving its number on the CACHE log, doesn't do a thing. You have to log on the TB's page in order for the TB to move from the cache location to the possession of the cacher. This is a common mistake by newbies. I recently had this happen at one of my caches and after several emails attempting to educate the cacher, they still haven't logged the TB properly. They just keep telling me they still have it, haven't placed it. I finally marked it missing from my cache, because folks visiting my cache kept saying it wasn't there. Thing is, when they finally DO place it, I'm not sure how they'll log it then because it's not showing as in their possession. Likely they'll again log on the cache site that they dropped TB number whatever and it will still show as missing.

I agree that there needs to be some kind of reminder of what was in the cache when you logged and that if you took one of these things you need to log that as well. I recently marked two items missing in my TB hotel. After doing so, I did some research thru logs and determined that there were two logs by newbies that indicated that they'd picked up trackables but their profile pages had absolutely no trackables listed. I emailed both of them. I got no response from one and the other said, yes, I have the TB but I haven't dropped it yet. That person even changed their log, on my cache, that they still have the bug and will drop it on a trip to Florida in a future month. I wrote back again, trying to educate this person that they have to log that they have the bug on the TB's page, but to no avail. I did my best to help out a newbie. If they don't listen, I can't do anything else.

Does it have to be 500 logs or 500 attending? There are many logs that indicate that an entire family or group attended.

Yup, you have to prove to Groundspeak that you meet their requirements though Event in questions IS a Groundspeak event!!!!! I'm hoping they change it so I can get credit for attending a MEGA.

Replying to the business of an area being trampled and obviously damaged, when I look for a cache, if I move something and it doesn't reveal the cache, I put it back the way I found it. Overturn a log??? Put it back in the same spot! Move a rock? Put it back! I have one cache that has a few decoys placed nearby. The first several folks to find it were amused with the decoys and wrote about them in their logs. Later finders expressed disappointment that they found no decoys. I went back and sure enough the decoys were strewn about haphazardly. Why wouldn't you replace them so the next finder has the same experience? I even have several mentions of this in the cache description and subsequent user maintenance notes, but I guess no one reads that...... [Gets down off my soapbox]

Will an event originally listed as a regular event be changed to a MEGA if it has sufficient attendance?

The only geocoin I've ever released into the wild lasted all of a month and a half. I released it at the end of June in 2009 and it traveled 300+ miles in one jump, was placed in a cache and was never seen again. The only reason I was able to risk this one is that it had been a FTF prize, so no money was invested. When I find geocoins in caches, I'm am always thrilled because you see them so rarely anymore. I don't blame people for not releasing them and even tho the faux coins are rather lame, I think that's about as close to coins in the wild as we're going to see. Who has the $ to send out coins to share when they know it will disappear very shortly. As for TB's, they don't last long either. I had one taken out of my cache by a family. It was a little Disney toy. The finder was listed as a young child and his dad took a pic of him with the TB. It was never placed anywhere. I even emailed him about it and he sent a quick apology and said he'd place it, but he never did. Likely his kid has that TB stuck in a toybox somewhere. Heck, it was probably a McDonalds giveaway. Why wouldn't you put it back out in the world? If you don't wanna play, then don't!

I had the same thing happen to me. I wanted to list the adult and kid prices at the buffet where I had a breakfast event. I was told not to. So I mentioned that if anyone wanted to know the prices, they could email me. Heh, even the reviewer emailed me for prices the night before. But what I don't understand is that an event I attended recently had prices listed and no one stopped that. I think the way around it is that some folks don't list prices on the original post, but then add it later, hoping no reviewers will see the addition.

I don't have a pic of it, but there is a sign on one of the highschool campus parking lots that says "No Parking in this Lot". Begs the question "Then why the h*&$ did you put a lot here?"

I use GSAK to load my GPS but I load Geosphere from email. I keep any caches with special notes (like answers to puzzles) in a separate file so they don't get overwritten or lost. I highly recommend Geosphere.

The two GC's were given above in a previous post. One of the cache descriptions was modified by the CO mentioning a park which has been debunked by two local cachers as being no where near the given coords. I did remove my comments and NM posts. I figured the comments from some locals that looked and that know the park mentioned hold more weight. I did send a question to CO via email which has not been answered.

In an area where FTF hounds trip over each other to make the find, the fact that these are still unfound is a pretty good clue that there is a problem. I've emailed the CO for some clarification of where the park is that is listed. It's pretty obvious that there is no park in the development shown on the maps, no matter what everyone says, the map is accurate in this area.

So you advocate entering a backyard in a high $ housing development looking for a cache that probably is no where near this site and when the description doesn't even match the area?

I do not agree with the comments that the maps on the geocaching website are faulty. I have found that they are accurate enough to find a cache without GPS. To follow up on my original post, I did send an email to the CO, to which I've received no reply. A few folks have actually tried to find the caches and have posted logs to that effect. Still no comments from CO. As for experiences with other bad coords, I went out late one night on a newly posted cache. The maps showed this off in the woods, but the area has a lot of new shopping centers, so I thought perhaps it might be something not on the current satellite map. When I got there, it was deep dark woods and my GPS showed it was 300 yards off the road. I wasn't about to try that in the dark. The next day, there was a note from the CO that they had messed up the coords. The cache was actually 40 MILES away!!! Now that is a case that checking out the map after setting up their cache would certainly have helped. I just don't understand why people don't use the tools available to them.

I actually posted NM on both caches indicating that the coords are in impossible places and they should be checked. I know the local reviewer and I'm sure if nothing is changed he will contact CO for some action. My biggest concern is that someone will get into trouble by trying these hides. Oh well that is not my problem.

Ok this one gets to me. What about you? New cache is posted and I always look at the map to get an idea of where it is. I like to take a look at the sat map too because sometimes you can see exactly where it is. Well two new caches came up a few days ago. One shows up on the map in the back yard of a big home in a housing development. Not likely these are correct coords since cache description says you have to go thru a dry creek bed and there is no mention it's in someone's backyard. Second cache shows up out in the water of a river. Cache mention thorns and hills but no mention that you'll be taking a swim. Both caches listed by someone with one find. I am glad I looked at the maps before driving out there because these both HAVE to be bad coords. Logs to this effect have gone unanswered from more than one cacher. So don't people look at the map on their own cache page before submitting it for review??

Wow I'm glad I read this thread. I've been using Streets ans Trips but doing it manually because I didn't know about optimize. Thanks!!!