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Travel Bug Hording


Team DuBanger

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When do you have one too many travel bugs in your posession? I think if you have more than 5, you need to let go of some. There are several cachers out there who hord TB's and then forget about them, loose them, or just forget to log them when they drop them off due to the volume of TB's they have.

 

This rant started after one of our bugs remained with a certain party for well over a month. In looking into it more closley I discovered that this person had over 40 travel bugs in their posession at that time. Some they had since last year.

 

This is not fair nor should it be allowed. I think there should be a max number of TB's you can carry at one time. There needs to be a way that moderators can check how many you have and ask you nicely to let some of them go. I know you get a freindly reminder that the bug needs to be dropped off after 14 days but all of us have gotten busy before and not let one go on time. But almost 2 months is rediculous! What I am upset about is that people keep a large number of them "on hand" and it takes the fun out of finding one for people who cache in the same area as the horders. It is also discouraging to new cachers who send out their first TB and it ends up in the hands of a horder. It can be very annoying to seasoned cachers as well. TB's are special items that must be passed along. There is no excuse for a team with over 250 finds to have more than 40 TB's at one time.

 

Am I totally crazy or off base? Am I the only one who thinks this is not fair? Please let me know what you think.

 

:huh: Dee of Team DuBanger

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Its too bad your TB got picked up by someone who did something you didn't like, but adding new rules is probably going to hamper everyone not just the problem people :huh:

Unless they happen to be local enough you can track them down and shot them with a squirt gun, you can't do too much to them.

Politely email the person holding your TB, it might help. But you have to stay somewhat detached from your TBs or you'll go nuts trying to manage them from afar :huh:

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Geo-things to do:

 

1. Memorize this list.

2. Avoid contact with anything on that list.

3. Pick up travel bugs if I can help their goals, and do my best to move them along promptly, subject to life's twists and turns.

4. Write to the bug owner if I see a delay in being able to drop off their bug.

5. Have FUN finding geocaches and moving travel bugs.

6. Remind myself that it's just a game with tupperware, and toys attached to little metal tags.

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Geo-things to do:

 

1. Memorize this list.

2. Avoid contact with anything on that list.

What is that supposed to mean? The list that is linked is to OUR travel bug page and you are telling people to avoid anything on that list? Who do you think you are " Leprechauns"? Why the hostility? My post is simply a rant about travel bugs that stay too long with seasoned cachers or regular cachers who keep too many at once. This is a problem if it leads to bugs being lost. Yes, it is just a game, and yes it is all for fun. But when someone, not just us, spends money on something that people are careless and selfish about it ruins the GAME for EVERYONE.

 

I don't care if you have over 1400 finds to your name. You have just been in this longer than us. I take offence to what you have written. You have only released 3 bugs since you started so obviuosly they are not part of the game to you. We enjoy that aspect of the game and want to release more of them. But we are not so wrapped up in this game as to purposely offend other cachers.

 

The whole point to my rant is that we need to be polite and be courteous. One of the guidelines should be the length of time we keep bugs and how many we have to keep the GAME fair to all cachers. From the 60 year old guy who gets his weekly exersize strolling around looking for caches to the 5 year old girlwho thinks her parents are taking her on a tresure hunt.

Edited by Team DuBanger
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I personally have had upwards of 30 to 40 TBs in my possession at one time and for myself, I'm so anal about how I handle TBs, it's no big deal for me. As a matter of fact, I maintain an excel spreadsheet on every TB bug I've moved to include serial number, date picked up and where, date placed and where, and finally the mileage moved. I guess we have our own pet peeves in caching but as long as you're truly working earnestly to help these bugs move, not a problem. However, I can see where other cachers might have a problem because they're not organized.

 

Recently, we added a bulletin board on our states's Forum to help facilitate moving TBs. Check out it Cacher's Traveling Itinerary Bulletin Board I place 5 TBs with a cacher headed to the midwest because I could see their Travel Plans.

 

I also had 30 TBs dropped in a local cache for me to pickup--I've actually begun looking at myself as a Travel Bug Brokerage House. I sat at the computer that night logging in all the bugs and divided 18 TBs into 2 piles for separate cachers going on a road trip and one flying to Chicago.

 

I've made a couple of trips to Flordia and have hoarded over 20 TBs both times and with some of the bugs had held them for 3 months before traveling. Of course I let the owner know my travel plans and let it up to them whether they wanted me to hold it and place it immediately. In every case, the bug owner wanted me to hold on to it because they knew that I was almost meeting the bugs goal on that one move.

 

So, bottom line--if you're paying attention to what you're doing, there's not a problem with hoarding bugs.

 

AH!

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Geo-things to do:

 

1. Memorize this list.

2. Avoid contact with anything on that list.

What is that supposed to mean? The list that is linked is to OUR travel bug page and you are telling people to avoid anything on that list?

While I'm sure it was a personal "to do" list, after that rant, I think I'll add "memorize that list" and avoid anything on it to my "to do" list........

 

Now, for something sorta helpful:

 

Keep repeating "It's just a game."

 

You have absolutely no control over a travel bug once you release it. If you can't relax and just enjoy when they do move, instead of getting your panties in a knot over things, you should perhaps consider that travel bugs may not be right for you.

 

I don't care if you have over 1400 finds to your name. You have just been in this longer than us. I take offence to what you have written.

For that matter, the forums probably aren't the best place for you, if you're THAT easily offended.....

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Looks like the gang from PA really sticks together. This has been made into a big deal by some of my fellow cachers as they seem to assume since I have written long posts that I am taking this thing way too seriously and am very uptight about the whole thing. I again, am just stating my opinion on something I find bothers me about the sport. If it is ok with my American friends, who seem to think that I am way off base with this whole keeping too many TB's thing, I will make a note to myself never to cache in PA.

Thanks to Aim High, who actually read the post properly and responded with tact. That is the way cachers should organize themselves if they are going to carry a lot of TB's. If you can't stay organized, DON"T CARRY A LOT OF TRAVEL BUGS! You can't handle it. TB's should never be forgotten by seasoned cachers. It is not hard concept.

 

Just as a personal note to my "Warrior" friend. If the forums are just a place for people like you to insult others through a keyboard rather than discuss matters as adults, than maybe the forums are not the right place for YOU. Opinions should never spark some of the comments that appear on the posts above. It would appear that purhaps some of YOU are taking this way to seriously.

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Did someone call? Just another PA cacher here. Who we flogging tonight boys?

 

Seriously...You need to relax. Lep had one gone for over a year being actually held hostage until it was freed by what some people know was a late night covert hamster mission. Just looking at a stats page won't give you the whole story. While you have been tearing it up pretty good for the past 3 months, you need to realize not everyone can move things as quick as you and its only been 3 months. Your bugs are moving way better than mine have in over 6 months. I don't care if someone has my bug and 100 others as long as it gets moved. I had someone forget they had mine. We have since met her and become good friends. It was nothing intentional. Just relax. They make prescriptions for these conditions everyday. attacking everyone from PA on your third post ever in the forums might not always be the best way to get an answer for your fourth post. If you are passing on caching in PA do it for a good reason and not something so stupid as we didn't get upset at your bug being stalled for a mere 30 days. Please don't punish our poor state, we have a Govenor who is doing that well enough by himself, not that he wouldn't mind some help.

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Who do you think you are " Leprechauns"?

Oooh... Let me answer this one...

That's one of the most respected cachers in the game that you're going off on. At least to me.... And I have only a very short list of people whom I'd openly praise in the forums.

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The weekend before last, I had two White Jeeps, a geocoin and five travel bugs in my possession. One Jeep and two bugs have already been dropped. The geocoin and one of the TB's will be in my hands until July, when I'll be traveling in a direction designed for experiences and handoffs that will maximize the travelers' fun and move them towards their goals.

 

When someone starts proposing new "rules" like a maximum of five travel bugs at a time, that interferes with my ability to play the game. I'll want to steer clear of anything that decreases my fun factor.

 

Hmmmm, actually, on second thought I have 185 travel bug tags in my possession, if you want to be technical about it. But I obviously don't care about that part of the game, so I'll shut up now.

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I have a bad memory, and I'm a procrastinator. So I'm sure that I have upset multiple people with how I've handled their bugs. But I try my best, and so far, all the bugs have eventually wound up back into caches. I hope that none of the bug owners have been hurt permanantly over it. :huh: Seriously, life happens, but we all try to do our best. :huh:

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Hmmmm, actually, on second thought I have 185 travel bug tags in my possession, if you want to be technical about it. But I obviously don't care about that part of the game, so I'll shut up now.

I could help you with those.. Send them over here and I'll carry your burden of breaking the OPs five bug rule.

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Looks like the gang from PA really sticks together. This has been made into a big deal by some of my fellow cachers as they seem to assume since I have written long posts that I am taking this thing way too seriously and am very uptight about the whole thing. I again, am just stating my opinion on something I find bothers me about the sport. If it is ok with my American friends, who seem to think that I am way off base with this whole keeping too many TB's thing, I will make a note to myself never to cache in PA.

Thanks to Aim High, who actually read the post properly and responded with tact. That is the way cachers should organize themselves if they are going to carry a lot of TB's. If you can't stay organized, DON"T CARRY A LOT OF TRAVEL BUGS! You can't handle it. TB's should never be forgotten by seasoned cachers.  It is not hard concept.

I'm not in Pennsylvania, and on the other side of the Continental Divide... :huh:

 

I've gone the extra mile in taking care of TBs despite the fact that the small number of TBs I've released haven't had much success except this one (Micro Train #1) which made it to GeoWoodstock III without my help. :huh::huh:

 

I think the keyword is expectations. I've learned not to expect people to do things exactly the way I want, since taking care of TBs is a voluntary good-will thing, and people aren't getting paid for it. I've made numerous trips on short notice recently, and missed helping out numerous TBs on achieving their goals, because I'd let them go just a too early. I've already let go of that misfortune - life's twists and turns, as mentioned earlier.

 

For now, we'll have to rely on Geocaching.com's "2 weeks before the asterisk" rule to remind people not to hoard too many TBs. I don't think it's a good idea to set an explicit limit like 5, since the small minority of "malicious" hoarders can't be regulated anyway. Besides, numbers are never good at enforcing good will.

 

The Leprechauns' curt and sarcastic remark is probably from seeing many of these rants in the past. <shrug>

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Geo-things to do:

 

1. Memorize this list.

2. Avoid contact with anything on that list.

3. Pick up travel bugs if I can help their goals, and do my best to move them along promptly, subject to life's twists and turns.

4. Write to the bug owner if I see a delay in being able to drop off their bug.

5. Have FUN finding geocaches and moving travel bugs.

6. Remind myself that it's just a game with tupperware, and toys attached to little metal tags.

:cry::huh::huh::huh:

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Boy, it sure can get harsh in here.....

 

One thing that everyone needs to remember about geocaching is that there is a WIDE variety of people caching out there and there is a WIDE variety of aspects to the game. What one might like might not be enjoyable to their neighbor.

 

When one releases a TB out into the GeoCaching wild, one takes the risk of it not traveling along it main goal! I saw the list of TB's which were referenced earlier, but I didn't go to the TB individual pages to see their goals. The biggest thing to remember is that it isn't always possible for your bugs to travel an exact path.

 

I have been known to have as many as 12 - 14 bugs at one time, not near as many as I've read some as having, but more than what you propose as a limit! And I kept those bugs for 2 months or better. However, I was nice enough to keep them moving with me and I made sure that I emailed the owners and let them know my intentions. I've got 8 bugs out in the GeoCaching wild and if I haven't heard anything out of them in a while, I just do as suggested earlier, and I "politely" email the cacher holding my bug and ask their intensions!

 

You have to be careful not to tick someone off - as they might do something - or nothing at all - to your bug. I wish it wasn't like this, but people get their feelings hurt too easily in this game! It's supposed to be fun!!!

 

So chill out and find your own way to enjoy the game. You see how travel bugs get handled at times, so if you don't like it, then don't participate in that aspect.

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I know of at least one TB "collector" who is a long-haul trucker. He collects TB's, sorts them into categories, and then when he makes a run into a certain area, drops off a whole scad of them in a TB Hotel. Sure, he holds onto some of them for months, but when he finally does drop them off, they're a lot closer to their goals than they would have been if he'd just plunked them down in the next cache he came to.

 

As my grandmother used to say, "Patience is a virtue."

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Geo-things to do:

 

1. Memorize this list.

2. Avoid contact with anything on that list.

What is that supposed to mean? The list that is linked is to OUR travel bug page and you are telling people to avoid anything on that list? Who do you think you are " Leprechauns"? Why the hostility? My post is simply a rant about travel bugs that stay too long with seasoned cachers or regular cachers who keep too many at once. This is a problem if it leads to bugs being lost. Yes, it is just a game, and yes it is all for fun. But when someone, not just us, spends money on something that people are careless and selfish about it ruins the GAME for EVERYONE.

 

I don't care if you have over 1400 finds to your name. You have just been in this longer than us. I take offence to what you have written. You have only released 3 bugs since you started so obviuosly they are not part of the game to you. We enjoy that aspect of the game and want to release more of them. But we are not so wrapped up in this game as to purposely offend other cachers.

 

The whole point to my rant is that we need to be polite and be courteous. One of the guidelines should be the length of time we keep bugs and how many we have to keep the GAME fair to all cachers. From the 60 year old guy who gets his weekly exersize strolling around looking for caches to the 5 year old girlwho thinks her parents are taking her on a tresure hunt.

is ranting to those that respond a polite thing to do? :laughing:

Edited by welch
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Dang! And just when I was working on a bugnapping expedition, in preparation for a geocaching vacation. California Board is headed to Atlantic City. No Head goes as far as I can move him. And I plan on bringing back as many to recirculate in my local caches. Oh, well, dash that plan. Only five at a time!

In the meantime, someone go rescue my bug from Geritol Rush, near Henrietta, New York. She's been there for several months!

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In reading the wonderful responses to my posts, it seems that the main point of this whole thing is still being misunderstood. All I am saying is that if part of the game is to have a travel bug move and it doesn't , that is ok. If part of the game is letting your bug go and it never makes it's goal, than that is ok too. What I find should not be ok is people who collect travel bugs, don't move them along, and they end up getting lost. HOW CAN YOU ARGUE WITH THAT CONCEPT?

 

I AM NOT UPSET THAT A BUG OF MINE DID NOT MOVE FOR 1 MONTH! I have three bugs and they have only been out for 3 months. I don't care about my own bugs.I was dissapointed that the people who had one of mine also had 40 others at the time and it appeared to me that they weren't helping the bugs along or getting them closer to their journey. THAT IS NOT PART OF THE GAME! I was dissapointed for the owners of the bugs that they had and had not moved for 6 months or more. They shouldn't have picked some of them up if they couldn't move them along.

 

It would seem that some people want to use the forums as a place to beraid the opinions of other cachers that pose an IDEA they don't like. There are ways to say "I dissagree" and ways to say "I have been doing this longer than you, I am a caching god, so shut up and stop using the forum for your meger ideas"

 

I repeat again, maybe putting a limit on the number of TB's you have is not the right answer. But, if you have a bad memory, are not responsible, or can't help a particular bug acheive it's goal, DON"T PICK IT UP! Plain and simple. Just be nice and move one along if you can. If not, leave it for someone who will.

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Snoogans, my friend, you are a CRIMINAL. I saw you at GeoWoodstock with DOZENS of travel bugs. I bet you even held onto some of them for a few extra weeks, out of a selfish desire to move them from Texas to Florida and then to people who could help them toward their goals. You should be BANNED, I say, BANNED!! :)

The Centex and SETx. geocachers loaded me up with TBs at our last event. I brought about 60 to GW3. I took home about a hundred, because no one really wanted all the bugs that were there and folks kept handing me bugs too. I've managed to release about half. Some will go on to Co. for SaxMan's event, and some need to be placed on the west coast.

 

I have 50 bugs in my possession NOW. Someone shoot me PLEASE!

 

BTW - Funny TB story from GW3: That bowling ball TB that I took turned out to belong to a friend of mine here in Houston. I had NO idea. :P

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I used to have the same opinion too. But after speaking with someone who can nab a TB in a nano second (and unfortunately giving them my opinion on it) I came to the conclusion that finding them for that cacher is their forte or their "angle" to the activity so if they find enjoyment in that, so be it.

 

Over time I have noticed that not only are they TB finders, they are TB movers too (they take them but trade them for another TB). They never keep them for that long anyway.

 

Honestly, I feel more comfortable with them finding my TB's then a someone who doesnt geocache that regularly, finds a TB, then stops geocaching. With TB's, patience can be a virtue.

 

If someone holds your TB for over a month, email them. I did that monthly for eight months and then got the circumstances of their situation and a promise the TB would be dropped off this summer. If the cacher still has your TB and they are cache owners, post a note in their cache's online logs.

 

More rules=less fun

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... HOW CAN YOU ARGUE WITH THAT CONCEPT?

 

I AM NOT UPSET THAT A BUG OF MINE DID NOT MOVE FOR 1 MONTH! 

 

It would seem that some people want to use the forums as a place to beraid the opinions of other cachers that pose an IDEA they don't like.

 

Nobody is "beraiding" your "OPINIONS" !!!! If that's the way you came across...unfortunately, that's not the way your "OPIONIONS" were percieved!!!!

 

Everybody has opinions! And that's fine, but you came across as trying to dictate how everyone plays this game and that's something impossible to do with such a wide variety of people playing.

 

The fact that there were some crappy/negative posts to this thread, says that some touchy subjects were hit - but just as there were negative comments there were some other posts which were perceived as a "joke" or statements that lightened the mood a little as you read on. This is my point, everybody has their own ideas of how this game should be played and this is the only game that possesses a few rules to keep it on track, but not too many rules to make it boring, un-fun, disfunctional and undesirable!

 

So lighten up! And back off a little!

 

It was mentioned that someone would rather someone who is a TB mover (regardless how long they hold it) is a more desirable person to pick their TB up, rather than a "green-horn" who doesn't know how to move a TB yet and may later quit caching altogether! ...I agree! (for the record, That's just my opinion, though)

Edited by CKnMiss24
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What I find should not be ok is people who collect travel bugs, don't move them along, and they end up getting lost. HOW CAN YOU ARGUE WITH THAT CONCEPT?

 

I fail to see the connection between those that lose or detain TBs, and those that have multiple TBs at a given time. Yes some piriates have been large scale, but many many others are not.

If you suggest you a rule that affect 99 people for the problem of 1, you're going to get told 'no this is bad idea... do you disagree?

 

"But, if you have a bad memory, are not responsible, or can't help a particular bug acheive it's goal, DON"T PICK IT UP! Plain and simple. Just be nice and move one along if you can. If not, leave it for someone who will."

Exactly :laughing: . If you can help one, do so. If you can help 20 at a time, do so.

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Boy, I saw the title of this thread and thought it was about me. Some 10-find cacher from out in California emailed me this morning calling me a jerk for hoarding White Jeep Travelbugs. I planned to distribute them at our event cache today, but wanted to drop them onto the event page first. Well, it takes some time to log that many travelbugs, so I "grabbed" them last night, then dropped them before I left the house for the event. Not even 24 hours and I'm "hoarding" the box of Jeeps that were shipped directly to my house. Some people. :lol:

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What I find should not be ok is people who collect travel bugs, don't move them along, and they end up getting lost. HOW CAN YOU ARGUE WITH THAT CONCEPT?

 

I AM NOT UPSET THAT A BUG OF MINE DID NOT MOVE FOR 1 MONTH! I have three bugs and they have only been out for 3 months.

THREE BUGS? THREE BUGS?!?!?!?!?!?!?! YOU DO NOT KNOW A THING ABOUT TB'S. I ACCOMPLISH THEIR GOALS. IM GETTING FOUR OF EM SHIPPED TO ME! YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT TRAVELBUGS!

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Taking a travel bug or 2 or 10 from any cache and placing it in any other cache (your own or someone elses, very active or only slightly active, easy or hard to find cache) is OK. It is totally ethical, legal and all part of the fun of the game.

 

Taking travel bugs and holding onto them for more then a few days or a week is just NOT OK.

 

I do not understand how any of you can justify taking someone elses property (a TB they released into the world) and keeping it, indefinately? Travel bugs by their very nature are meant to TRAVEL, many of them have DESTINATIONS....if they are sitting in your drawer, box, floor of your car or where ever, they are not traveling or fulfilling their OWNERS wishes for them.

 

You may not care about your travel bugs traveling but other owners do care and you should respect that, log your find, move the travel bug quickly and send them on thier way, you can still win your little game of finding the most TB's without stealing from others, cause basicly if your keeping them, without owner permission, you are a thief.

 

So I am guessing the guy that has the box of white jeeps didn't log them as being in his possession just took them, or in other words stole them?

 

Could that be the dozens of "unknown" locations for so many of the white jeeps? Is that how the other horders are doing it too, just STEALING travelbugs, wonder if any of those owners would be upset to know you stole their bugs?

 

I swear, I may never be anywhere near where any of these theives caches are but I can garantee you if I am I will not support them by frequenting any of their caches, unless it is for the soul purpose of removing a Tb someone has been ignorant enough to leave behind for you to steal.

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Taking a travel bug or 2 or 10 from any cache and placing it in any other cache (your own or someone elses, very active or only slightly active, easy or hard to find cache) is OK. It is totally ethical, legal and all part of the fun of the game.

 

Taking travel bugs and holding onto them for more then a few days or a week is just NOT OK.

I would agree with the first part of your statement- but if you were to come across a cache with 10 Travel Bugs and took all 10, wouldn't that be a little unfair to the next person that came along hoping to log just one? Especially if they could move the bug toward the goal specifically requested by it's owner?

 

As far as the part about keeping a bug for over a week being not OK- what if you happen to find a Travel Bug who's mission is to travel to say- Zimbabwe. Just so happens that you are flying there in 6 weeks. Does it make more sense to randomly stick it in the nearest cache just to keep it moving, or do you email the owner of the bug and let them know that their bug will be reaching it's goal, but it will be a few weeks?

 

I agree with you after having posted myself regarding this subject and having read more postings on the subject that there are no "rules" regarding grabbing and moving Travel Bugs, and everyone plays the game a little differently- which I don't have a problem with. Someone who grabs 6 at a time and "logs" them would beat someone who takes 1 and doesn't log it anyday.

 

(I think the guy with the box of white jeeps was probably one of the geocachers who received them to distribute by the way)

Edited by TwoFreds
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So I am guessing the guy that has the box of white jeeps didn't log them as being in his possession just took them, or in other words stole them?

 

Could that be the dozens of "unknown" locations for so many of the white jeeps? Is that how the other horders are doing it too, just STEALING travelbugs, wonder if any of those owners would be upset to know you stole their bugs?

 

I swear, I may never be anywhere near where any of these theives caches are but I can garantee you if I am I will not support them by frequenting any of their caches, unless it is for the soul purpose of removing a Tb someone has been ignorant enough to leave behind for you to steal.

I hoarded 182 White Jeep Travel Bugs.

 

Please stay away from my caches.

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You're just lucky anyone logged them at all. I went through my TB watchlist today and found four TBS that had months with no activity and then popped up somewhere completely random states away. Then they disappeared again. If there are too many rules on bugs, people won't have an incentive to help them out. What fun is that?

 

It's life.

 

I like to think that I am a good TB host. If I have one too long, I throw it out the front door for people to find. That's what a good TB host I am.

 

 

(It helps that the Timeshare is a tough cache to miss.)

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THREE BUGS? THREE BUGS?!?!?!?!?!?!?! YOU DO NOT KNOW A THING ABOUT TB'S. I ACCOMPLISH THEIR GOALS. IM GETTING FOUR OF EM SHIPPED TO ME! YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT TRAVELBUGS!

You have four bugs that you ordered and are on their way to your house? Everyone stop what you are doing and give a round of applause to "Globecachers".

Dude, you need help. Welcome to the world of geocaching newbie. You can't tell me I know nothing about bugs because I only have three out there so far. I am selective so I don't waste my money on bugs that disappear. I may only have been playing this game for a short peroid of time but, man, you have no business telling me I know nothing. Find and move more than one travel bug, find a few more caches and then we can compare notes.

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OK< let's lighten up folks! When you all stop and realize that there are things in life that take precedence over a walk in the woods, we'll all get along a lot better.

 

Check this list and see if there isn't something on here you find important enough to take care of before you go caching and making sure a travel bug is logged and moved:

 

Family

Mortgage/Rent

Job

Illness

Funeral

Wedding

Birth of child

Home maintenance

Car repairs

Community

 

Get my drift?

Caching is not a daily endeavor for most of us! A month is not long to have a travel bug. Even two months is pretty normal. The number of bugs you have does not make you the expert on bugs. An expert would know that once you release it you have no control over it. And there aren't enough volunteers in the world to check up on all the cachers to see if they've had a bug "too long" so you can forget that thought. Read the pinned threads up top Lighten up, respect others, and don't make me come up here with the keys.

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I think the number of Travel Bugs a person can handle at a time is a personal thing, and each player should know his/her own limits.

 

For example -- we have one TB that we picked up recently. We're going to try to put him in a local cache this weekend, but most likely none of the ones nearby are going to be big enough for him to fit in. (He's a big TB.) We're going to the beach in early July, and I know of some caches down there that can hold him. (Besides, he seems to like beach locations.)

 

On the way there, we'll hit another cache. There's currently a TB in there that wants to go visit the beach. If it's still there when we get there, we may pick it up and carry it to the beach with us. But I wouldn't feel comfortable having more than just those two at one time. Any more, and I would get confused. (I probably wouldn't even pick up the second one if we weren't heading in that direction, but that's because we're still relatively new and only go caching about once a month or so, so I wouldn't want to take on that responsibility.)

 

Some who have been in the game much longer than me can probably handle multiple TB's and keep track of where each one is going. (See Aim High!'s post, as an example.) Others collect or even order TBs to distribute at events. I think that's fine, too.

 

As others have said, I don't think more regulations would be necessary or effective. Those who are responsible will police themselves, those who aren't probably wouldn't pay attention to a new regulation anyway (unless there was some way and ample manpower to enforce it, which I seriously doubt.)

 

Maybe this thread should just be a reminder for everyone to reevaluate his/her own TB inventory, and evaluate for yourself whether you think you're handling them adequately.

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As others have said, I don't think more regulations would be necessary or effective. Those who are responsible will police themselves, those who aren't probably wouldn't pay attention to a new regulation anyway (unless there was some way and ample manpower to enforce it, which I seriously doubt.)

 

And then there are those who have never even visited the forums to know how others feel about it.

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Might as well contribute my two cents.

 

I think what a lot of people here are getting at is that there are perfectly legitimate reasons to:

 

1. Hold on to a travel bug for a long time

2. Hold on to lots of travel bugs.

 

Very little can really be told from the stats pages. Remember there are huge numbers of people playing this game and lots of different ways that it is played. If you start introducing more regulations, you're going to mess with things that people like as well (and this would probably have a minimal impact on what you don't like).

 

In the first category, reasons to hold on to a bug for a long time:

 

1. You don't cache much, but had intended to move on a bug quickly, only to find at the last minute that your situation somehow changes.

2. The bug has a specific mission that you can help him out with, but not for a little while (like I'm leaving for place x in a month, and bug wants to go to x). Normally in this case, personally I contact the bug owner, but I can understand why some people wouldn't

3. Somewhat along the same lines, you've got the perfect spot to put him, but for whatever reason can't get there just yet. This is the case with the YJTB I've been holding. They are very rare around here (I've only ever seen the one I'm holding and one other), so I want to leave it in a hard to get to location. I've been planning a cache on top of Mt. Indefatigable for a while now and the trails just opened up a week ago.

4. The bug's goal was in fact completed by getting to you (and so you're holding it legitimately)

5. The bug's goal has been completed, and/or you're awaiting further instructions from the bug owner (can be the case if it is no longer possible for the bug to complete its mission)

6. Bug's goal is compatible with being held for extended periods. This is the case with my Moun10Bike coin. The coin is mine, I traded it with him directly. The coin's mission states that it can be kept as long as desired.

 

Reasons for holding lots of travel bugs.

1. Going on a trip, and picking up lots of bugs to bring with you (lots of people either ask for bugs that want to go, or go around looking for bugs that want to go with them).

2. Comming from an event, and taking home bugs that were brought to the event that need somewhere to go.

3. You enjoy rescuing stranded travel bugs (i.e. bugs left in the middle of nowhere in caches that see one visitor a year). In this case you pick up the bug (or bugs) even though you aren't able to move it along right away because its better than the alternative.

4. You're responsible for distributing white jeeps.

 

Given this though, maybe a better idea than 'limiting' the number of bugs you can carry at one time (and if the person really is collecting bugs, this will probably not stop them picking them up, just logging them out of the caches), maybe a little nag notice on your profile page if you pick up more than say 10 bugs... Something along the lines of.

 

"You seem to be holding lots of bugs. Most people what their travel bugs to move quickly. Travel bugs are not for collecting. Are you sure you can handle them all? Have you thought about setting up an event to quickly disperse the bugs?"

 

Just a thought anyways.

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