+The Mars Bars Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 Yet again someone has posted a note in one of our caches stating that they have dropped off a virtual TB. A bit perplexed I emailed the player to ask him to explain this note as I thought I might be missing something...... ...... Apparently I wasn't. This way of moving TB's and coins about is a pointless. It is just a way of generating fake Icons for people who have neither found or even seen the TB or coin in question. On a more practical note it also has the effect of depleting the number of bonefide logs that GSAK and GPX sonar will generate for offline reading, which surely is a bad thing. It's not unheard of to find pages that list a dozen or so virtual drops prior to an event....therefore the two programs mentioned above would generate no useful logs for that cache! What do you think? Would it be out of order to delete these logs from caches that I own? Quote Link to comment
+Happy Humphrey Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 IMO it would be performing a service to others if you deleted the logs. Whether or not you agree with "virtual" logging, it's clearly a hindrance to bona fide cachers in this instance. I think that "notes" are meant for useful observations relevant to a physical visit. HH Quote Link to comment
+Pharisee Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 There have been occasions when I've 'virtually' dropped and retrieved a travel bug. For instance, if I've collected a bug from, say, the Southampton area one weekend and know that I'm going caching in Derbyshire the following weekend, at some point during the intervening week, I'll virtually drop and retrieve the bug into one of my caches that's close to my home. I feel that it more truly represents the travel bugs actual travel route rather than it apparently going straight from Southampton to Derbyshire. I only drop them into my own caches and I subsequently delete the note on the cache page. Deleting the cache page note doesn't affect the note on the travel bugs page. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with that and will continue to do it as and when I feel it's applicable. Quote Link to comment
+Andy & Chez Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 I dont know much about Travel Bugs as it is, i picked my first Travel Bug up a few weeks ago and even took pictures of the bug in numerous places relevant to the tasks the owner had set. I dont know how this could be possible with a virtual bug and from what you have said about them i completly agree with you, dose really seem like a pointless exercise Quote Link to comment
+Cryptik Souls Crew Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 Yet again someone has posted a note in one of our caches stating that they have dropped off a virtual TB. A bit perplexed I emailed the player to ask him to explain this note as I thought I might be missing something...... ...... Apparently I wasn't. This way of moving TB's and coins about is a pointless. It is just a way of generating fake Icons for people who have neither found or even seen the TB or coin in question. On a more practical note it also has the effect of depleting the number of bonefide logs that GSAK and GPX sonar will generate for offline reading, which surely is a bad thing. It's not unheard of to find pages that list a dozen or so virtual drops prior to an event....therefore the two programs mentioned above would generate no useful logs for that cache! What do you think? Would it be out of order to delete these logs from caches that I own? If someone drops a virtual bug into your cache then I would have thought they should be courteous enough to delete their own log. If I were you I would delete it. I don't get why people also do this on event caches, sometimes its good to read through eveyones logs for an event, but having to trawl through all the "dropping back bug" logs makes it a nightmare. Do me a favour people and start deleting your bug drop logs, virtual or real, it doesn't affect the bug movement and makes things so much easier on the eye. Quote Link to comment
Deego Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 There are plans afoot to change this, by having a "seen" it log for TB's that are not moved. this will cut down on log entrys and email notifications. here is the thread There is an emerging trend for geocachers to mark down codes for Travel Bugs and essentially do a swap meet at cache events. None of the Travel Bugs actually move. Instead geocachers just pick them up and drop them off in the same cache to collect a "find" for the Travel Bug. That wasn't the intent but I can imagine people just want to "collect" the Travel Bugs they see, and in the case of geocoins they want to collect the icon on their profile page. However this activity can be extremely annoying for cache owners, travel bug or geocoin owners, and a drain on the web site. I have some ideas. First, picking up and dropping off a travel bug in the same cache will error and effectively delete both your pick up and drop off logs, or simply change the pickup log to a note. I can, however, see someone circumvent this by just picking it up, dropping it into some arbitrary cache and dropping it back in the original cache. Therefore I propose that there be a new log type that counts as a "find." It could be called "tag" or "collect" that would just add a log saying you saw it and logged it but that's pretty much it. No miles will be marked nor will they be used for anything else but collections. Please offer feedback and any alternatives you come up with. Obviously a code will be required to use the log type. Quote Link to comment
+McDeHack Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 OH FOR GOODNES SAKE! Whats happening to this game, hobby, sport. THE OBJECT OF IT IS TO GO AND FIND A ITEM USING YOUR GPS RX. Be it a tupper box, micro container, or a location of interest for a name or numbers of the cache. If this vertual stuff is what it is about, I might as well sit here in front of my computer and build up my numbers by saying I went and vertualy found the cache. To prove it I placed a vertual Mctoy and took a vertual McCoin. What's a McCoin? something I just made up.... Quote Link to comment
Alan White Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 For instance, if I've collected a bug from, say, the Southampton area one weekend and know that I'm going caching in Derbyshire the following weekend, at some point during the intervening week, I'll virtually drop and retrieve the bug into one of my caches that's close to my home. I feel that it more truly represents the travel bugs actual travel route rather than it apparently going straight from Southampton to Derbyshire. Every bug we pick up comes home before being dropped the following week in another cache. Would it make sense to virtually drop off the bug in the cache nearest to our home inbetween? I suggest not. Quote Link to comment
+The Mars Bars Posted December 4, 2005 Author Share Posted December 4, 2005 Now that I have been informed that deleting "virtual coin/bug drops" will not effect that items traceable movemennts I will start deleting such notes from caches that I own. As it's been pointed out above, it would be nice if people would delete their own logs after they have posted them to save the rest of us the effort. Cheers Dave Quote Link to comment
+Birders Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 What a load of old miseries...... We came across a virtual TB recently in a cache somewhere in the Far East. We "grabbed" it and moved it on.. What possible harm has that done to either the bug or the caches involved? It can't be any worse than virtual or locationless caches, bothj of which we enjoy doing. Recently someone took one of our bugs to the other side of the world but could not find a cache big enough to accept it, so that mileage plus the interest has been lost. They could easily have "dropped it" and "retrieved" it from their armchair thereby producing a true picture of where it had been. Another of our bugs has been to many caches in the USA, dropped and retrieved by one person in many cases. We doubt very much if they physically put the bug into each box, but so what? This game is supposed to be fun; for Lordy's sake let's not take it seriously.... OK.. if you want us to be critical about something... how about the loony business of having half a dozen bugs all on the same number. Now that really IS daft!! Quote Link to comment
+Happy Humphrey Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 Birders, What possible harm has that done to either the bug or the caches involved It depends on whether you left a note to that effect: as observed by the OP that DOES have an effect on bona fide cache hunters. If you deleted your note, I agree that little harm was done (I haven't come across a virtual TB yet, by the way, only real TB's with false logs). Another of our bugs has been to many caches in the USA, dropped and retrieved by one person in many cases I don't see anything wrong with that, assuming they actually went to the caches in question. I've done it myself (always ceremoniously placing the bug in the cache, taking a photo, then taking it back out). I don't think that Jeremy's proposal is designed to address this, as it's entirely within the spirit of the game, but more for occasions when you find a cache with a bug in it, note the bug number but leave it in the cache. HH Quote Link to comment
+Pengy&Tigger Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 The only harm it does is to those using pocket queries, where the PQ only gives you the last 5 logs, which means a note could knock out a potentially useful bit of info. Saying that, I have moved a couple of virtual TBs, but I generally delete the note afterwards as a courtesy. T Quote Link to comment
+John Stead Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 The only harm it does is to those using pocket queries, where the PQ only gives you the last 5 logs, which means a note could knock out a potentially useful bit of info. Saying that, I have moved a couple of virtual TBs, but I generally delete the note afterwards as a courtesy. T I agree with that - I see no harm in Pharisee's suggestion either though as Alan White points out it would be a bit of a nonsense to log into your nearest cache every time you come home from a caching expedition. The difference in John's case is that I think he tends to go well afield for his trips. Now to try and remember into which of my caches virtual TBs have been logged so I can delete the logs! Quote Link to comment
+Dorsetgal & GeoDog Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 (edited) Ok I can see the points people are making about it clogging up the logs for PQs and other applications, but until reading this thread, I had no idea that deleting the log on tha cache page didn't also muck up the mileage! Soooo, thanks for that, I'll be able to delete a few virtual drops now myself. I personally don't see any harm in virtuals, it just depends upon how you want to play the game! Live and let live, no point getting hot under the collar, in my case, I simply didn't know the implications and what I could do to help avoid that! Afterthought. If cache owners are particularly keen not to have virtual drops on their cache pages, perhaps they might consider asking people who do so to delete immediately afterwards, that way, word would get around to all people who visit the cache and not just those who come to the forums? Edited to add afterthought. Edited December 4, 2005 by Dorsetgal & GeoDog Quote Link to comment
+MeIsMook Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 One of my bugs just went from London to Edinburgh then to Austria, the guy logged in a cache in edinburgh that he never found and said so in the log?? Now it is in Austria I have deleted the log for Edinburgh. Quote Link to comment
+adambro Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 I see no problem with logging TBs/geocoins that you've actually seen. Surely part of the TBs journey is meeting a number of geocachers at an event or whatever, just because it doesn't move anywhere, it's still part of the items adventure. I don't like the virtual logging of coins or TBs though. What's the point?! I don't see the fun in it and it spoils it for others who may be watching out for TBs. I've moved virtual coins/TBs in the past but have since deleted the logs as I don't feel its something I want to be involved in. I'd rather people be able to see my stats as a true representation of my caching. Quote Link to comment
markandlynn Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 When out and about with GASK and cachemate and my palm i export the last 4 logs Imagine the last logs are 10/10/05 FOund with joe great cache glad we had jims coords 10/10/05 found with joe glad we had jims coord 10/10/05 Joe here took two new buddie out to the best local cache ace time glad we had jims co ords 9/10/05 Bug drop in a great looking cache wish i could get over and visit it 8/10/05 Jim FTF yippee coords are out by 200ft but just perservered for 2 hours hunting the cache. Its at N xxx xx.xxx W xxx xx.xxx The recent shropshire event had 80 odd tb drops and lifts with 50ish attendees glad i could remove it from my watchlist. The new seen log may help this out. Quote Link to comment
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