Unknown Location

[+BlueDeuce]

I have found 32 Bugs and own six. (One personal and one not released)

Of the 32 I have found since 2003, TWENTY-THREE are now in an un-known location. (Figure the statistics on your own, ok 9/32)

 

What are we going to do about this? (besides me not picking up anymore bugs)

 

What does it take to educate the masses?

Edited October 1, 2005 by BlueDeuce

[hide & seekers]

Since each TB has its own page, it's easy to miss logging it, in my opinion. I think that if someone logs a cache that has a TB, some sort of alert needs to pop up, DID YOU PICK UP THIS TRAVEL BUG? If so, here's what to do. If not, go on about your day.

 

I know there's forum posts on what to do with a travel bug and I know there's instructions on the geocaching.com website too, but if people have to really LOOK for the info, it's easier to ignore than if it just pops up in their face.

 

BTW: I guess my stats are better. I've found 10 TB, all have been logged within the last month. My own two have just started their journeys so it's too early to tell.

[+Harry Dolphin]

3/125 on Travel Bugs Handled. Though 9 have not moved since the beginning of the year, and another 2 at still at Geowoodstock. 2 of the nine are definitely not in the cache (one was muggled)

On the other fin, I can think of maybe 20 TBs that I have not handled that are definitly not in the caches listed. I guess the bug owners or the cache owners are either absentee, don't care, or don't know how to mark them 'missing'. If there's a bug listed in the cache, read the logs first to see if it's still there.

One of our team's bugs is missing from a cache in northern Minnesota. WE haven't had the heart to mark her missing, yet.

[+cache_test_dummies]

What does it take to educate the masses?

 

Of the 71 regular TBs I've handled, only 4 are now imarked as being in an unknown location. So about 94% of the bugs I've handled are not marked as unknown. If I add in my numbers for Jeeps (16, none marked unknown) and Coins (15, none marked unknown), the number climbs to about 96%.

 

A few of the bugs and coins I've handled personal trackers, and you wouldn't expect those to go missing. And I understand that just because a bug isn't moved to an unknown location, it doesn't mean it hasn't been lost. So the percentages listed above are probably a bit on the high side.

 

But even so, I'm not seeing anything which would seem to indicate an epidemic of lost bugs. I'm not saying it's not a problem, I just think that all things considered, for a system that relies so heavily on basically little more than random acts of kindness by total strangers, the numbers don't look that bad to me.

 

On a side note, it doesn't appear to me that your lost-bugs-per-touch ratio is 23 out of 32 as you indicate in your OP. If I look at your stats, I see that your list contains 66 bugs, and that you have handled 32 of these, and left notes for 34 others. Many of the 34 are the ones marked as unknown. Out of curiosity, did you do a count to see how many of the bugs you've actually handled ended up in an unknown location?

[+BlueDeuce]

Good question. Guess I need to learn how to count.

 

Nevermind!