Travel Bug Trade

[cheeseburger]

Lots of people have travel bug hotels. And many of them have "rules" about how if there are less than three don't take one unless you trade. Do YOU think this is fair considering none of the bugs are really theirs? And is it always nessicery to trade a bug 4 a bug in a regular cache?

[+Greymane]

Obviously, if there are rules for a given cache, you should try to follow the rules. No, you don't need to necessarily trade a TB for a TB in a regular cache. The deciding factor should be "can I help this TB accomplish it's goal?".

[ImpalaBob]

It is not necessary to trade a TB for a TB in any cache. Trading refers to SWAG (Trade up - Trade Even - or Don't trade). TBs are made to grab and GO!

 

As far as the TB hotel goes ..... please respect the owners wishes. It is their cache and you should follow the posted rules. Try and grab a TB somewhere close to trade .... or start your own TB on it's journey. I guess it is a 3 guest minimum hotel. Safety in numbers, or something like that. ImpalaBob

[+Sputnik 57]

I'm not sure that the rule for the hotel that there always be at least three bugs is a good one. If the cache isn't visited often, a TB (or three) might get stuck there. As a TB owner, I would not want that. As a hotel owner, I can see not wanting it emptied out.

 

I guess my advice is to respect the cache owner's request. But if I see a bug there and have an opportunity to advance it significantly, I might grab it anyway, with and "IOU 1 TB" in the cache in the short run. Then refill the hotel ASAP.

 

Example: TB in hotel is trying to get to the Alamo. I'm going to San Antonio later this week, but don't have bug to exchange. I might grab the bug, post an "IOU" and try to find a bug (maybe one to bring back from San Antonio) as soon as possible.

 

Just my 20 mils.

[+BlueDeuce]

Travel bugs are not trade items. That includes being required to trade them for other TBs.

 

Feel free to ignore any Hotel rule that restricts you from taking a bug you can assist.

Edited August 1, 2005 by BlueDeuce

[+Bear Paughs]

There has been a lot of discussion of this topic on the other boards. I think most people feel that if anyone's wishes are to be respected, then the TB owner's take precedence over the TB hotel owner. TBs are meant to travel. If you can leave one in it's place in a hotel, then do so, but if you can't many think you should take it anyway to help it on its travels. A good hotel will have regular visitors and a regular influx of new bugs. Taking one (or more) without leaving any its place won't hurt anyone. If however there isn't regular traffic, then a bug can be there a long time. These one's especially need to be freed and moving again, cache rules or no rules. The cache owner does not have any right to these bugs -- they are the property of their owner.

[+EraSeek]

No. It is never right to REQUIRE a trade for a Travel Bug.

Any Travel Bug Hotel that has trade restrictions is doing a dis-service to the Travel Bug Owners!

TB Hotels can be sucessful WITHOUT trade restictions of any kind. I know. I have one.

 

Please refer to this thread: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...T&f=21&t=104359

Edited August 1, 2005 by EraSeek

[+cottonmouth]

I'm not sure that the rule for the hotel that there always be at least three bugs is a good one. If the cache isn't visited often, a TB (or three) might get stuck there. As a TB owner, I would not want that. As a hotel owner, I can see not wanting it emptied out.

I think a rule for a minimum number of TBs in a cache is definitely is not a good one. It may even be blatant lack of respect for the TB owner´s wishes and the purpose of TBs. If I had TBs, I´d prohibit placing them in a cache where they are required to be traded for other TBs.

To the OP: I don´t think it´s fair to make rules that might cause a conflict with the purpose of items placed in the cache.

[+Jester2112]

I'm in total agreement. I recently visited a TB Depot in Fort Lauderdale, FL that hadn't seen a TB in over 6 months. It just so happened that I had just picked one up from a very nearby cache planning to bring it home with me, but decided "what's a TB Depot without a TB?" so I dropped it there. Since then, there have been over 20 folks who have visited it and ended up trading TB for TB. I kind of feel like I brought that hotel back to life all by my little self!

 

If the owner of the cache feels that there should be a minimum of 3 TBs at all times in the cache, then I suggest he/she go to the time and expense to purchase/place 3 TBs in the cache with a rule that they are never to leave the cache. Other than that, TBs are meant to move towards their individual goals as quickly as possible. A fine example are all the recent "Race the other TB in my series TBs" like the Nascar TBs that are all over FL right now. Cache ON!

Edited August 2, 2005 by Jester2112

[+Bear Paughs]

If the owner of the cache feels that there should be a minimum of 3 TBs at all times in the cache, then I suggest he/she go to the time and expense to purchase/place 3 TBs in the cache with a rule that they are never to leave the cache.

I love this idea! It makes me want to plant my own TB hotel and use it. Bolt them in or something so they stay, and the visitors can log their numbers and feel no obligation to trade for the other bugs that are in there that should be moving. I may just steel your idea! Truly brilliant!

[+Shebear & Storminn]

For those of you who feel that it is wrong for T/B Hotel Owners to try and maintain some amount of bugs in the hotel, please answer this question. How many of you would go out of your way to visit a T/B hotel when the there was an even chance that it will be empty when you get there? I have rules for mine that say please trade bug for bug but no one in their right mind would care if someone took one without dropping one if they were going on a trip that would benefit one of the bugs. On the other hand, wouldn't it be a shame if one of the few bad apples in our hobby emptied out a T/B hotel and thereby prevented travelers from having quick and easy access to a bug that needed to go the direction they were going. BTW, I also add bugs to the hotel to supplement those who are picked up when maybe there are none to be dropped off. Thankfully, most folks like to have a well stocked hotel so they can get what they want when the want it. I like to check the visiting bugs to see how I might help them along and make sure they don't languish. That's my .35 worth!

[+Bear Paughs]

For those of you who feel that it is wrong for T/B Hotel Owners to try and maintain some amount of bugs in the hotel, please answer this question. How many of you would go out of your way to visit a T/B hotel when the there was an even chance that it will be empty when you get there?

 

On the other hand, wouldn't it be a shame if one of the few bad apples in our hobby emptied out a T/B hotel and thereby prevented travelers from having quick and easy access to a bug that needed to go the direction they were going.

I would. I'm going to be far more likely to visit a hotel to drop off TBs than to pick them up. The convenience factor on the drop off side definitely outweighs that on the pick up side for me and probably for other people, too.

 

I just don't think you have any right to say any bug that doesn't belong to you shouldn't be removed unless another is put in its place.

 

As far as the "bad apples" comment -- I'm going to assume that the very reason people take without leaving an equal number is because they don't want to see the travel bugs languish and because they can help them towards their goal -- this deems them bad apples? Wrong. Sounds like those people are very much acting within the spirit of the game. I don't think any cacher in their right mind would be upset because someone else also could help a bug toward its goal and did so.

 

Am I missing something? Is there rampant complaining from people who go to TB hotels and aren't able to pick up bugs? The only complaining I've seen after reading thread after thread on the subject and seeing logs on many of these hotels, is from the owners, not from visitors. Really, if your hotel empties out frequently you should see that as a compliment -- it means you've placed a hotel from which bugs do move quickly (the point of it, no?). If I have bugs to drop off, I'd be far more likely to drop them somewhere that I know they'd get taken from quickly. Dropping the rule should actually promote frequent exchange in your hotel.

[+welch]

How many of you would go out of your way to visit a T/B hotel when the there was an even chance that it will be empty when you get there?

I would, and I think most people would still visit. It wouldn't be any different than visiting any other cache and finding the TB has been picked up already.

[+BlueDeuce]

How many of you would go out of your way to visit a T/B hotel when the there was an even chance that it will be empty when you get there?

How many cachers go out of their way just for a Hotel and assume there are bugs they can help along, sight-unseen?

 

Do you see postings like "I went out of my way to reach this cache but I couldn't help any of the bugs."?

 

People choose to visit hotels becuase they are supposed to be 'handy'. Someone may not have a bug but they see one in the they can assist, so they take it. Someone drops off a bug and see there are no bugs they can assist so they leave empty handed.

 

And just like any other cache if they see on-line a bug they can help and by the time they get there it's gone, well that's life. Nobody owed them a bug to find AND that they could assist.

Edited August 2, 2005 by BlueDeuce

[+Bear Paughs]

How many of you would go out of your way to visit a T/B hotel when the there was an even chance that it will be empty when you get there?

I would, and I think most people would still visit. It wouldn't be any different than visiting any other cache and finding the TB has been picked up already.

I agree. I mean, a TB hotel has a logbook just like any other cache. I also think hotels should stand up on their own merits to warrant a visit, whether there are TBs waiting in them to be moved along or not. If it's not interesting enough on it's own, then maybe the cache owner should make it moreso.

[+OzGuff]

If I can help a TB closer to the stated goal I will take the TB no matter what the cache owner's "rules" say; I do not leave TBs in caches that have "rules" about swapping TBs.

[+EraSeek]

I just don't think you have any right to say any bug that doesn't belong to you shouldn't be removed unless another is put in its place.

 

This is the basis of my complaint against trade restriction. The single clearest statement.

[+Thot]

There have been a couple of threads on this recently. I can't say there was a consensus but about half of the people said they would not honor TB hotel trade restrictions. In one of the threads I looked at the profiles of those who thought you should obey the cache owner's rules. All of them were either owners of hotels with restrictions or cachers who owned no TBs or only one TB.

 

I just try to avoid hotels with these restrictions and encourage others to boycott them. My bugs carry this note:

 

I’m not a trade item, you don’t have to leave anything if you take me

 

Please don’t put me in a travel bug "hotel," "depot" or "resort" that requires you leave a bug if you take a bug.  Sometimes they're more like prisons than hotels -- I might have to stay there a long time until someone rescues me.

Edited August 2, 2005 by Thot

[+budd-rdc]

So are TB hotel owners using other people's TBs as bait to get people to visit? It reeks of bad faith regardless of intentions.

 

I visited a non-TB-hotel cache somewhere in Southern CA with a suggestion by the owner to at least keep one inside. I took the two inside to move it along to Northern CA, and naturally, the owner was upset and implied I was inconsiderate, but at least he or she made the effort to place one or two more inside soon after.

 

On the same trip, I visited a TB hotel with trade restrictions. I wasn't in the mood to piss off the owner to prove a point, so I didn't take any or leave any TBs.

 

So what would you do, piss off one TB hotel owner, or disappoint many more TB owners? Why should we have to make that choice?

 

Goes against the spirit of freedom, doesn't it?

 

I visit this TB hotel very often because it has helped so many TBs with their goals, and there are no restrictions. In fact, the owner is so diligent in taking care of TBs that he has a backlog of several hundred finds he hasn't logged yet.

[+Thot]

I visit this TB hotel very often because it has helped so many TBs with their goals, and there are no restrictions.

Hotels without restrictions are great. The one issue with them is they tend to collect larger numbers of bugs than other caches so when one is muggled a lot of bugs are lost.

[+BlueDeuce]

So are TB hotel owners using other people's TBs as bait to get people to visit?

That's what I think.

 

I have seen hotels that were actually useful. People could reach them to drop bugs while traveling and the cache didn't require any restrictions to make it useful.

 

The only reason I've seen so far as to why people place restrictions is so that someone can find a bug when they visit the cache. That's not a hotel that's a vending machine.

 

 

Edit: removed redundancy

Edited August 3, 2005 by BlueDeuce

[+Smukke]

Eek! I just put 2 bugs in a bug hotel that had a restriction... but it's not too far away. If they langish too long, I can just grab them out & move them to a different/better spot. The location of this one is pretty good, though, so I think it should get pretty decent traffic...

 

I'll put two more in an unrestricted (but empty) TB hotel soon. Just having some fun, ya know?