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Is this a TB prison?


wavector

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I recently responded to a post in the TB forum where a geocacher was asking how to remove a public bookmark indicating that his cache was a TB prison. It did raise the question of what exactly constitutes a prison in the TB parlance.

I did contact a cacher who owns and maintains a TB prison bookmark list and pointed out a couple of caches that were in my estimation TB prisons, I am guessing that the person bookmarking TB prisons is using some elusive criteria that I cannot pin down, maybe you have to be a Maximum Security prison to get bookmarked. :anicute:

This cache is in my opinion a TB prison. Placed by a well respected and well known cacher it states quite clearly that the owner wishes others to trade TB's for TB's, this makes it a prison. The exact phrase used is "Please trade TBs for TBs" so it is a minimum security prison but it is a prison nonetheless. Since it is a cache placed by a well known and well established cacher the other local geocachers simply follow the rules and the results are very clear for the poor trapped TB's, it is a TB prison. This cache hinders TB movements, it does this because the cache owner has imposed a restrictive covenant on the movement of TB's. The cache owner has instructed all visitors that he would like them to trade TB's, a policy that is entirely contrary to whole concept of Travel Bugs. He has further stated that he wants people to do this to "keep the count up", apparently the "count" on "his" cache is more important than the wishes of the TB owners.

I think it is a prison and would be interested in hearing the opinions of others. The prison is currently holding seven prisoners.

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The prison is currently holding seven prisoners.

Correction, I'm seeing 8 in there right now.

 

Although, the cache says specifically "Trade TBs for TBs", which can be taken in an number of ways. Both of the 'tb' references are plural, so you could go completely and totally literal, and leave two new TBs and take the rest. Thar ya go, you just 1/4'd the number of trapped TB's. At that point, it's a nice small number that makes the circulation of a TB through it actually vaguely close to fast. Personally, I don't think any TB "hotel" should ever have more than three TB's in it at any given point in time, but that's just me. Any more, and the odds of some poor guy who's been in there for a year keep getting worse and worse for them leaving.

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Placed by a well respected and well known cacher it states quite clearly that the owner wishes others to trade TB's for TB's, this makes it a prison.

 

While I understand the philosophy that TBs are meant to move therefore any rule which even theoretically limits their movement is a ***BAD THING***, I don't really agree with it in practice.

 

Many cachers could care less about travel bugs. Until very recently I was one of them.

 

Many cachers are really into travel bugs. To each their own.

 

If a cache is set up to be a take one leave one TB hotel I don't think this really results in travel bugs sitting around rather than moving.

 

First of all those into travel bugs more than likely are releasing their own or holding onto one or more they picked up from a regular cache anyway so it isn't like the requirement to leave one is all that burdensome.

 

Second, the very idea of a travel bug hotel all but ensures those seeking it are in fact interested in travel bugs. This is quite a bit different than a regular cache with a bug in it where the seekers may or may not care at all about travel bugs and some finders may even mistake the travel bug for a swag item.

 

As long as the TB hotel isn't a 5/5 cache I doubt that TBs stay in them longer than they do in regular caches and I suspect (but don't know) that they probably are more often picked up by people who know what to do with them than when obtained from regular caches.

 

When I placed my first TB into the wild yesterday I put it in a TB hotel with no 'take one leave one' rule. Well, I dropped my bug off, but didn't take any as there weren't any. I was slightly surprised that there were no TBs to be swapped for since it was a TB hotel.

 

Perhaps the owner of a take one, leave one TB hotel simply wants to provide a haven for TBs to get picked up by those who know what they are AND provide a place for newbies to TBs to be able to pick one up while they drop their first one off?

 

Again, I really doubt any cache which is advertised as a TB hotel results in TBs being imprisoned there for any longer than TBs usually sit in other caches in that geographic area.

Edited by DaveA
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Travel Bugs are NOT trade items, that is very clearly stated all over. Perhaps Groundspeak should start shutting these down (prisons that is), maybe then people would get it. TB's are supposed to move, the only restriction is that, move them!

 

Well, perhaps you could enlist the assistance of the powers that be at Groundspeak to show that on average a TB is sitting longer in a TB hotel than in any other cache in the area and you would have a point worth discussing.

 

Until then it is pure unfounded speculation.

 

TB hotels seem like a good place for TBs to get grabbed and moved rather than a regular cache where folks who never heard of a TB grab them as trade items not knowing any better.

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By calling a cache a TB Hotel, my expectation is that the cache is very easy to get to in dress clothes. Any cache that is easy to get to will by it's nature become a travel bug hotel. If you have to have rules to "keep the count up", then you should probably rethink the placement of the cache.

 

If you are serious about attracting travel bugs, then consider the concept of this cache owner Fall Frolic #0 - Gale's Gallopin' Grounds

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Trade a bug for a bug. Maximum security.

Please trade a bug for a bug. Minimum security.

Please trade a bug for a bug unless you can help the bug on it's goal. Halfway house.

You can trade a bug for a bug or not. Watever. Work Release.

Help the bugs if you can. Free at least, free at last!

 

LOL!!! :unsure:

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Trade a bug for a bug. Maximum security.

Please trade a bug for a bug. Minimum security.

Please trade a bug for a bug unless you can help the bug on it's goal. Halfway house.

You can trade a bug for a bug or not. Watever. Work Release.

Help the bugs if you can. Free at least, free at last!

 

I think I may have to implement this somewhere, that's priceless!

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I believe by their nature Travel Bug Hotels are a distinctive type of cache.

A cache owner has gone to a good deal of effort to establish a place he/she feels will provide a convenient location for cachers to find and to ensure TBs and Geocoins left there have an excellent opportunity to be moved. Many locations are well thought out to help the TBs and Coins achieve there travel missions.

I believe the cache owners in asking cachers to trade are good intentioned. Finding a TB designated cache that is completely empty isn't much fun, and I believe this is the MAJOR motivation for the REQUEST to trade.

As there are normally no cache cops at the TB/GC Hotels or Exchanges the cachers visiting them are actually free to do whatever they want.

As a side note I have taken several TBs out of a local Hotel and placed them in several very convenient urban caches to follow their progress. I would argue that after watching their progress, or lack there of, as well as others that have been retrieved to be moved the TBs dropped at the hotels move MUCH MUCH faster and typically farther.

And, yes I have about ten of my own TBs out and about. TB/GC Hotels are OK

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I believe by their nature Travel Bug Hotels are a distinctive type of cache.

A cache owner has gone to a good deal of effort to establish a place he/she feels will provide a convenient location for cachers to find and to ensure TBs and Geocoins left there have an excellent opportunity to be moved. Many locations are well thought out to help the TBs and Coins achieve there travel missions.

I believe the cache owners in asking cachers to trade are good intentioned. Finding a TB designated cache that is completely empty isn't much fun, and I believe this is the MAJOR motivation for the REQUEST to trade.

As there are normally no cache cops at the TB/GC Hotels or Exchanges the cachers visiting them are actually free to do whatever they want.

As a side note I have taken several TBs out of a local Hotel and placed them in several very convenient urban caches to follow their progress. I would argue that after watching their progress, or lack there of, as well as others that have been retrieved to be moved the TBs dropped at the hotels move MUCH MUCH faster and typically farther.

And, yes I have about ten of my own TBs out and about. TB/GC Hotels are OK

 

"If a travel bug hotel is in a good spot for the quick and easy exchange of travel bugs, then an empty hotel won't stay empty long. People are always looking for a convenient place to drop bugs off. The owner of a well-placed hotel should actually be pleased if the hotel is occasionally empty, since it shows that the hotel is serving its purpose: to get bugs moving quickly. And if a hotel does stay empty for long periods of time without the cache owner continually raiding other caches to re-stock it, then it's not a good place for a travel bug hotel." - The Hermit Crabs, Dec 2 2005

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"If a travel bug hotel is in a good spot for the quick and easy exchange of travel bugs, then an empty hotel won't stay empty long. People are always looking for a convenient place to drop bugs off. The owner of a well-placed hotel should actually be pleased if the hotel is occasionally empty, since it shows that the hotel is serving its purpose: to get bugs moving quickly. And if a hotel does stay empty for long periods of time without the cache owner continually raiding other caches to re-stock it, then it's not a good place for a travel bug hotel." - The Hermit Crabs, Dec 2 2005
Thanks for posting this excellent quote, BlueDeuce! In fact, it is such a good quote it deserves repeating:

 

"If a travel bug hotel is in a good spot for the quick and easy exchange of travel bugs, then an empty hotel won't stay empty long. People are always looking for a convenient place to drop bugs off. The owner of a well-placed hotel should actually be pleased if the hotel is occasionally empty, since it shows that the hotel is serving its purpose: to get bugs moving quickly. And if a hotel does stay empty for long periods of time without the cache owner continually raiding other caches to re-stock it, then it's not a good place for a travel bug hotel." - The Hermit Crabs, Dec 2 2005

 

Pretty insightful for an ol' Hermit Crab...

 

:)

 

(And again, edited for bad spelling... Sigh!)

Edited by Team Snorkasaurus
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