D41

Yes - I totally agree that DNF means I looked and did not find. NM is for I found it and it's in sorry shape or I know it should be here and it isn't. I recently searched for a 2.5D for about 30 minutes and it should have been a simple find really, but I was on my hands and knees with gloves ready for use as it said you may need them, and I searched and searched. I marked it as a DNF. The CO was out just a few days later and posted a note that it was indeed gone and had been replaced. I quickly went out to find it haha. I think the DNF was correct here, but it's hard to know sometimes. The ones I drive by and failed to mark as DNF I think are there somewhere, but I was too nervous about muggles so I wasn't looking hard enough or long enough. I put the PMO in simply to encourage thoughtful dropping .. IDK if it'll do any good. I saw it in a trackable and thought it was a good idea. The SUE tag on my trackable has in big letters "DO NOT KEEP" and explains the mission and everything - It's a custom metal luggage tag I ordered on amazon. I likely spent too much money on something that will go missing, but it's the fun in creating it for me so it's already been worth it. I totally agree with the visits being silly now that it's been explained to me. I explained it to my family and they all understood too. We're set on changing our ways I thought of maybe some "bad cacher" examples, but I like what someone on page 1 said - there's likely not "bad cachers" so much as there are inexperienced cachers. In a cache I found recently, someone had left packets of instant coffee and oatmeal from a hotel. I was under the impression food items are a no-no, due to ants and what not, so I ditched those items from the cache. Am I the bad cacher or are they?

Yea... I'm a little worried about a trackable of my own that I've not released to go out on it's own yet... It's got a large keychain on it and I'm not sure if that will keep it safe or make it end up in a garage sale after a kid has snatched and hoarded it... https://coord.info/TB9D6WT

I'm working up to releasing my first two trackables. One of which I've made a proxy out of and attached a couple... hitchhikers? I don't know what you'd call them. The proxied trackable is rather large. The other trackable is a cachekins and has a laminated explanation sheet with it. Both are in ziplock baggies. Survival: I'm cautiously optimistic. However, I am almost certain both will disappear quickly and not meet their missions. Miles: If they meet their missions? I expect they'll travel thousands of miles. Rate: Slow as all get out. I don't know if it's an Oklahoma area thing or what, but it seems there's no where to put trackables. Everything is small/micro/nano, or the visitors to caches are not interested in "dealing with" trackables... I'm just not sure what the deal is honestly. Cachers: I'd be satisfied with just one person taking my trackables wherever they go-a-caching. I don't care about them changing hands a lot.

I've been geocaching for about a month now and I'm learning I'm a bad cacher. I'm starting to wonder if others like me get excited by the hobby and don't have time to sit at our computers or on our phones and learn the etiquette that would make us "good" cachers. A couple of examples - there's a couple of caches here in my town that we looked for and didn't find. I failed to log them as DNF, but drive by them all the time and think I need to do a DNF and then fail to get it done. Another example is how I and my family have been handling TB's. The website makes it extremely easy to log a visit of a trackable in your possession. In fact, I thought this was what we were supposed to be doing - taking the TBs with us and logging that they're moving around. I'm learning they're not supposed to "visit" caches, but be dropped in and retrieved from caches. I don't honestly understand WHY this manner of doing things is so important. If the TB is MOVING to a variety of caches, why does it matter who moves it? I'd think we'd want TBs to be in the hands of someone who is actively caching, as opposed to sitting in a cache waiting for someone to come along who may just keep the thing.... I have a couple of TBs of my own that I've not released yet, because there aren't any good places to put them. I've visited a couple of TBHs in my area. One was completely and totally overrun with fire ants and the other was too small to hold my TBs. Anyway - the expectations for TBs are confusing for me. I'm wondering if there's some shift happening with new-to-caching cachers who don't know any better and use the features of the site/apps thinking they're doing things the right way, but apparently aren't if you were to ask a long-time cacher.