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!

Thank for looking! Bollards similar to the one which was stolen cost anything over £120 ($150)here, and that is far to much to pay for a cache container. The problem with buying from the US is not only the cost of postage to the UK (and this is a bulky, heavy item), but also the import tax can be prohibitive. I agree about the problem with burying a cache but this is a functioning bollard to prevent vehicles from driving over a grass verge. The fact that the top can be lifted off to access a 1 litre Clip-Lock box inside makes no difference to the purpose and function of the bollard. The cache itself is not buried, it is simply concealed in an existing structure.

Email meSorry, Cerberus, Apparently I am only allowed one e-mail per session and another reply arrived before yours. Would you be kind enough to reply again, so that I can reply via e-mail?

I do have a picture, but I cannot work out how to upload an image from my computer to this forum! The 'Image' icon requires a URL.Email me

My Geocaching partner gave me a well-crafted bollard (approx 18cm diameter) with a detachable top to hold a large Clip-Lock cache box, for Christmas. After a year searching for a suitable, legal place to put it, I obtained permission and approval from a householder to place it on a grass verge on his property. I fixed it carefully to his satisfaction and left it at 6.00 p.m. one evening but it had been stolen by 8.30 a.m. the very next day! Obviously I was devastated as my partner had been so excited to win her bid for it on Ebay and it was a very special Christmas present. Does anyone know who makes these brilliant containers? I would very much like to buy a replacement!

Not TOTALLY pointless! Some trackables are in a race for mileage and these visits count. Also when I pick up a trackable I frequently find several caches which are too small to hold a trackable so I log it as 'visited' if the trackable is physically with me at the cache site. This is not only to show that it is moving around, but also in case the owner would like to see where it has been (especially if it has been to a very interesting or unusual place). Then again, the trackable may by heading for somewhere I will be visiting a few weeks ahead, in which case I ask the owner's permission to keep it until I travel to the desired destination. But, of course, I do drop it into a suitable cache as soon as possible!

Very recently two of my TBs lost several years ago (in Australia & USA) have suddenly been 'discovered'! Not the good news one would texpect it to be. It seems that new members are finding TB codes (as many as 400 at a time) on the Internet (including Facebook) and bulk logging them even though they have never even been within 1,000 miles of them! One miscreant who has been a member for just one year has 'found' 2,000 caches & 'discovered' over 8,000 Trackables! 4 TBs in every cache?! Who publishes these codes? How do they obtain them? What do genuine Geocachers think of this practice?

I used to have no difficulty uploading images but now, EVERY time, I get the following message... This program cannot display the webpage Most likely causes: •You are not connected to the Internet. •The website is encountering problems. •There might be a typing error in the address. What you can try: Check your Internet connection. Try visiting another website to make sure you are connected. Retype the address. Go back to the previous page. More information This problem can be caused by a variety of issues, including: Internet connectivity has been lost.The website is temporarily unavailable.The Domain Name Server (DNS) is not reachable.The Domain Name Server (DNS) does not have a listing for the website's domain. Clearly I DO have internet connection and I have tried all other relevant recommended actions to no avail. Can anyone help? Tearing my hair out (and there's not much left)!

Hang on. Some years ago I took a TB to a cache but found that it was too big to fit in it. I asked on a forum if I could log it in and out of the cache, for mileage, even though it had not physically been in the cache. I was advised that this is acceptable. Are you now telling me that this is against the guidelines? What if I take the dog tag that comes with my magnetic travel bug to a cache and dip it into and out of the cache? Can I legitimately log the magnetic travel bug (which is affixed to the back of my car), into and out of the cache(s) I have found?

I note that caches that I have found reappear in the list of "Caches not found" in my account, when they have been adopted by someone after my original find. If I revisit these caches should they be counted by the web site as new finds, or will they be ignored? If I do not wish to revisit them, how can I delete them from my "not found" list in "My Account"? Pigling Bland

Thanks, BlueDuece, I have now solved the problem [thanks to advice given in this thread]. The TB was China Ball, a class project from Minnesota, so I did not want to disappoint the students. Unfortunately they have never registered, so my e-mail to them to ask for the TB number had no reply. Fortunately another cacher, from the U.S.A. found it in a cache [in the U.K.], which lay exposed but the surprise was that this was NOT the cache I had left it in! We have no idea how it got there unless the children who trashed the cache I had left it in [and who scribbled obscenities in the log book], have found the website and left the TB in another cache they have discovered. This might explain why the second cache was out in the open when found by the bona fide cacher later. This gives rise to concern for other local caches but the perpetrators of this destruction are clearly not very bright; they also added their addresses and home telephone numbers under their obscene scribbles in the log book!! I reported this to the owner who has, I understand, dealt with this sad situation. Anyway, I decided to grab China Ball TB from its finder [with his permission], to log it out of the cache I took it from and into the cache in which I had placed it. I then logged it out from there and into the cache in which it was found. Its finder has now grabbed it from there it's on its way to China, Maine! All's well that ends well! Pigling

O.K., we've two actual points here. Yes, I have taken a TB to a cache and found it too small or too full to leave it. Thanks for the advice with that. However, I have helped to create another problem, which I would very much like to put right. When starting to Geocache I took a travel bug, logged that i had done so, dropped it off in another cache and logged that also. I made no note of the reference number because I had not read the instructions properly. This was then pointed out to me and I went back to where I had left it but the cache was trashed and the TB was missing. Panic! Then a kindly passing Geocacher found the bug in another exposed and despoiled cache some distance away. What I wish to do is to place it and retrieve it from the caches it was in [but not recorded in], to put the record straight. I have grabbed it from its present holder, with his permission, and am finding it difficult to place it and remove it from caches it has been in. Pigling [who started this thread].

If I have a TB and I know that a caching friend is about to make a long journey overseas, can I pass the TB to him/her to drop in a far off cache?

Great News! Now, how do I do it? I have been trying to drop a TB into a cache I have already visited but it demands that I write a new log to do this and this seems to be a problem. HELP!

I picked up a TB on 23rd October and I still have it. I realise that this is too long but I do not Geocache daily and I have been unable to place it yet. The problem has been that I have had an unlucky run of caches which have either been very full or have been too small to accommodate this TB. Each time I go to search for a cache I DO take the TB but each time I return home with it still in my pocket! My question is: as these TBs like to accumulate mileage, and their owners like to see where they have visited, if I have taken the TB to a cache which it cannot fit into, can I morally log it into that cache and retrieve it from the same cache in order to record the miles it has actually travelled from cache to cache without being successfully left there? Just a thought! It's not the TBs fault that it cannot be left! Pigling

Thanks everyone. I just didn't want to break any rules or be thought to be cheating! I shall log them! Pigling

My son introduced my wife and me to Geocaching when on holiday together. We went with him to find four caches and joined in the actual hunt and signed the log books with our given names, having no user name at that stage. When we returned home we registered, adopted our own user name and started to log our finds. The burning question is... can we count the finds we made with our son before our own registration? We note that other teams sometimes hunt together so may we now retrospectively add four caches which we took part in finding even though not official, registered cachers at that time. Please?! Pigling