Lime Candy

Good programme! I'm glad bollycat's cache wasn't muggled after all, I love a happy ending.

I have to confess that I am guilty of doing this for the Giant TB that's attached to a car (is it called Gigantaur?) I saw a photo on facebook showing the number and 'discovered' the TB. However, I would have no problem if the TB's owner deleted my log, because I know I am not within the rules!

I never understood that perspective persoanally - do people really want lots of bugs in their caches? I mean what do you get out of it as a cache owner? I know that I am fonder of trackables than most CO's, but I love seeing trackables in my caches. I'm genuinely interested in their missions and histories, sometimes I even make a deliberate trip to 'discover' the particularly fascinating ones. As a cacher I have also deliberately not visited a new cache until it had a good trackable to be picked up. I know it's a bit sad!

I am a puzzle fan, I quickly scrolled down, saw "Birmingham" and thought "What? Where's this unfound puzzle??" Then I realised it's the wrong Birmingham, it's a few thousand miles too far west for me.

What a lovely idea. I saw a similar TB a while ago, it was a little keyring with the baby's name on attached to a TB. The mission was to travel and return to the baby's home town by their next birthday.

And you can't please everyone. In general, the cache owner wants to have the trackables resident in their cache, whereas the trackable owner wants them to move. I'm a huge trackables fan, so I always move all the trackables I find in a cache, even if it's a 'Hotel' or has the 'one in, one out' wish in its description. At the end of the day it's up to the cacher. Leave the trackable and make the CO happy. Or take the trackable and make the TO (trackable owner, is that a genuine abbreviation?) happy.

Now that I know that you can always move your own trackables into your own collection regardless of their trackable setting, having the trackable setting make no sense to me. Why would anyone want their trackable in someone else's collection? I have absolutely no idea! I'd really like to know if there is a valid reason, because at the moment it looks as if resources have been wasted in developing it. Which is a great shame, seeing as there are so many other great ideas yet to be developed on the site.

I didn't know about this one. Would have saved me a bit of time setting my trackables to collectible so I could log them into my collection. That was before I knew about the "Move to collection" link in the Trackables Inventory page. I came at it the other way round, I found the "Move to Collection" link before I saw the Collectible/Non-Collectible status. I successfully moved a trackable to my Collection, then realised it had a Status of Unknown. That made me think - what's the Collectible status for in that case??? As far as I can see, the only point of the Collectible status is to cater for a situation I have never experienced in reality - that of a trackable's owner freely allowing another cacher to move the trackable into their Collection. I've come across unactivated trackables, e.g. FTF prizes, where the cacher who gets FTF 'wins' the trackable and can do with it as they see fit. But I have never heard of a trackable owner wanting other cachers to keep their trackables. Maybe it's just something that doesn't happen here in the UK. Can't see it catching on though

Double post

I think I finally understand this now. I’ve read lots of the information on this subject and there’s plenty of confusion out there. My summary: I can move trackables I own to my Collection, regardless of their Collectible/Non-Collectible Status. I can move trackables I don’t own to my Collection only if their status has been set to Collectible by their owner. If a trackable’s status is Non-Collectible or Unknown, a cacher who is not the owner cannot move it to their Collection. If the above three statements are correct, I see no need for me to set any of my trackables’ statuses. They can all stay at Unknown status – because that means that nobody except me can move them to their Collection. Which is good news, it’s saved me a job. I still don’t like the “owner has not set their collectible preference” message though. If Unknown and Non-Collectible behave in the same way, the default status should be Non-Collectible, and the default message should be “this trackable is travelling between caches and is not collectible”.

If you would be upset if the coin was to be lost/stolen, release a replica/proxy. I recently did this with 2 coins I received as presents, they therefore have sentimental value and I want to keep them. I photographed them on both sides, printed the photos, then laminated them in thick plastic. Each coin has the word "Replica" in its title (I didn't think of using "Proxy"), and the description makes it clear that they are NOT the real coins. But a cacher can still retrieve/discover them to get their icons. This method also has the advantage that if the replica/proxy is ever lost/stolen in the future, I can make another and release it again. Also, a plastic copy isn't going to be mistaken for treasure and picked up as a trophy from the cache, which is what I suspect happens to a lot of coins (especially the ones that don't even look like coins!). I bet there are loads of those little space shuttles/turtles/trucks/penguins/etc hanging on keyrings belonging to cachers with less than 50 finds.

Thanks, now I understand. I guess the same ban applies to "The Small Trail" which in fact seems to have died a natural death after #10 anyway. I don't get many FTF's so it's not been an issue for me

I only know of one Alphabet Series, in West Wales, and it has been slowly building up over some months now, all the caches are single placements. The ones I've found are good hides. There are two series, one A-Z and one Alpha-Omega. Is it this series which has gone, or is there another Alphabet Series I don't know about? (Apologies for not being able to check myself, I can't access geocaching.com because I'm at work and the site is classed as a sport, but for some reason I can access the forums).

I was given the tip to put a sticker with my phone number on inside my GPSr's battery compartment, have the finders checked in there?

Reading that thread suggests the default status would be "non-collectible", not "unknown". My trackables are all now saying "the owner hasn't set their collectible preference". A completely meaningless statement, even to a geocacher! I see the point of having a personal collection of trackables in the My Collection feature. If I own a trackable I can choose to let it travel (by placing it into a cache) or not (by placing it in My Collection). What's the point of Collectible vs Non-Collectible as well????

Every region I've cached in has its own 'accent', especially with regard to container terms and types. Here in the West Midlands I've learned what bison tubes and decon containers are, and we also have Joy Jars - which are special cache containers that were first released at the January Jovialities meet (GC1K0FQ). Search for keyword J. J. Joy Jar to see the original ones. There are lots of them around now.

UK postcodes do not work. Entering my UK postcode into the Postal Code box brings up a window asking me to select the correct location... but my location is not listed. Two UK locations (Jersey and Belfast) are listed, but not Birmingham.

Where's the ability to search trackables I have found by 'last log' date or mileage? They appear in alphabetical order only, there are no other search options. Bring back the search options please!

test

Just to report that the Scoubies are coming along nicely, and so is the hand-knitting. Following this (entirely unsolicited) entry from quickweh after finding my latest cache GC1YJ8J: Found this on the way to "Frankley Appealing" making a nice afternoon stroll. I really like the camoflage on the cache, it deserves to be an exhibit in the October "The Art of Geocaching" event. I'm going to repeat the exercise and knit another for the exhibition. You will recognise it because I know you already have a peach jar cache of your own!

Found our first BPJC cache today (Tavisman's one) and will be following the competition with interest! Great idea. Some of those puzzles are EVIL!

GC1C6C9 has 13 DNF's and only 2 Founds since it was placed in May 2008. It beat us.... but we're not giving up yet!

We do the occasional caching trip by bike, cycling along roads/bridleways only. If there's a footpath we lock the bikes to a fence/tree then walk up the footpath. We do get some strange looks, walking along wearing cycling helmets!

I'm all in favour of total honesty. Say your piece and let other readers make their choice. Interestingly I was researching caches in Macclesfield (have got a day there later this month) and saw gushoneybun's log for Flyover - it was extremely useful in ensuring I crossed that cache straight off my list. Thanks GHB.

Please don't give a hint! I'm planning on spending Boxing Day afternoon trying to solve it!