Choice Placement

[+zazth]

This has been bugging me for awhile now so I figured why not ask other people's opinions? When you pick up a travel bug you take on the responsibility of placing it some where else. How much care or thought is reasonable in making that placement?

 

I try to place travelers in caches that are visited often and still meet the goal of the item. Some times this is not possible, within reason.

 

In the case of items that are in a race I am even more so conscious of where I place the item. I'm not dropping a racer in a cache that requires a 5 mile hike to get it or in a puzzle cache that requires a massive amount of research or deduction to solve. Yet I've noticed that some people do just that!

 

What do you think?

[+The Blorenges]

I think you are a Considerate and Conscientious Mover of Travel Bugs.

 

Well done!

 

I think sometimes those "bad moves" you mentioned are just the result of circumstance, rather than deliberate sabotage...

but on the other hand...

 

MrsB

[+zazth]

Sometimes I wonder how many people take the time to read the page for the travell bug when they log it. If a person picks up a TB and places it on the same day chances are they really do not have all the information on it. But when they have it in their possession for more than a week, I start to wonder.

 

I launched my first TB in January with a goal of visiting caches near different ports. It is a command coin from last duty station with the travel bug dog tag attached. The ship will be in drydock for awhile and the last deployment did not take it many places. That deployment was supposed to be a "world cruise" so the TB will hopefully see more places than the ship did!

 

I started it off in a local coin/TB hotel hoping this would be a good starting point but it did not move! The owner of the cache finally placed it in another cache for me, nowhere near water but a move none the less. It was lost for awhile, then found and held for two months before placment (still in our local area). Finally it was picked up and placed in a cache at least near water. Did I forget to mention the cache is only accessible by water on a small inland waterway and is rarely visited because of the location? My husband rescued it and took it to Maryland. It has traveled to New Hampshire as well but has yet to visit a port cache. I am getting ready to deploy and decided I would take it with me and maybe drop it off in a foreign country. I e-mailed the cacher who had it but got no response. E-mailed again with no response, each time asking them to plese send him home, address included and offering to pay the postage. The cacher instead dropped my TB in a cache not too far from where he had picked it up. By then I had already e-mailed his caching partner and asked for help retrieving the TB. Turns out the caching partner is the father of said cacher. He retrieved the TB and sent it back to me post haste! I was very glad to have it back and am now trying to put together a little package for him as a thank you.

[+team moxiepup]

When we decide to drop a bug, the cache needs to meet the following criteria.

 

The cache must be dry, and in good shape. If there's a crack in the lid, &/or the contents are moldy, no way are we leaving a bug there. Too often, we've had to rescue bugs left in caches that were in bad shape. The log book will actually read.. "Cache is moldy and in need of maintenance, dropped bug".

 

The cache is one that gets at least fairly regular visits. If it has been several months since a cache has been found, we won't strand a bug there.

 

If the cache is placed in a way that it not hidden well, and looks prone to muggling, we won't place a bug. Most caches don't fall into this category, but there have been some we've come across lately, hidden by well meaning newbies, that we don't think will last too long.

 

In short, we try to place bugs in a way that we would like ours to be placed.

[+zazth]

Ditto!

 

If I find a TB in a cache that is in need of assistance, I'm moving it!

[+Belfrypotters]

It does happen a lot, and it's one of my pet peeves, too. I confess that as newbies we were guilty of it a few times, but now we make sure we leave TBs in caches that get visited fairly often, and we often go out of our way to rescue stranded bugs. Someone left two TBs at the end of a 12.5 km hike - a 25 km round trip, plus climb up to the top of the waterfall at the end - in the Rocky Mountains. My knees don't care for long hikes, but one way or another I'm hoping to rescue those bugs if they're still there next summer. I'm looking for someone to rent us horses, but of course then I have to learn to ride. But mostly I'm praying someone beats me to it!

[+Kealia]

I spend a lot of time thinking about where I'm dropping other people's travelers.

 

I too look for caches in good shape, that get hit fairly often, and are not likely to go missing.

 

On occasion I drop one of my own travelers in a hard to get cache, but I really hate it when people take your traveler and use it for bait in a hard cache

 

In short, I treat others travelers as I want them to treat mine. Which causes me to hold them longer than I would like sometimes - but at least they stay safe.

[tomthemagicman]

Lots of the time I put 'em in my own cache... It is a pretty easy cache and it draws traffic to my cache. If the bug has a specific mission I make a effort to bring it closer to its goal. If the bug is like "I'd like to travel to lots of caches" then I most likley would put it in my cache.

[+JimAHS]

I enjoy trying to get TBs on their way towards their goal, but I've inadvertently slowed down a TB on a race by putting it in a cache that was out of the way and rarely visited. It was picked up after four months and has rejoined the race, so I feel better.

 

I was able to bring a TB to its final destination after it traveled across the country and back. Check it out here: GCGC7Z. Vermont Courier TB at Displaced New Englander cache. This was one of my favorite TB moments

 

I'd guess most have had their proud and shameful moments.