Etiquette for TB Graveyards?

[+oshawapilot]

Just wondering if there is an etiquette or any specific rules for TB graveyard Geocaches?

 

I've got one particular TB which has been a false start since the beginning. Surprisingly not your typical "newbie picked it up and it disappeared" situation, but a rather seasoned Geocacher who picked it up while visiting an event here in Canada took it to Texas and then promptly dropped off the face of Geocaching.

 

I've politely contacted the cacher several times but have received no response. It's coming up on 12 months since this cacher took the TB, so I'll assume that this one is lost forever. ZERO miles logged.

 

Anyhow, I was going to move this bug to a graveyard cache today but when I went to search for one that was remotely close to me I found a surprisingly limited number of TB Graveyards, most of them being overseas. Some reference a US TB graveyard, but I can't seem to find it.

 

Some of the graveyards I did find show as archived or unavailable with no real explanation why, so I'm wondering if there was a moratorium or something placed on these sorts of caches that I'm not aware of?

 

Or...are there a million of these out there and I'm just not searching for them correctly?

 

Assuming they're still allowed, I was considering creating one...

 

Thoughts?

[Keystone]

Since December 2003, it's been possible to move a trackable off a cache page or out of someone's possession, and into an "unknown location." Cache owners and trackable owners can access the "mark as missing" option from the pulldown menu at the top right of the trackable's page.

 

The introduction of this functionality rendered the old "travel bug graveyard" caches obsolete. A pure graveyard cache would not be published if submitted.

[+oshawapilot]

Since December 2003, it's been possible to move a trackable off a cache page or out of someone's possession, and into an "unknown location." Cache owners and trackable owners can access the "mark as missing" option from the pulldown menu at the top right of the trackable's page.

 

The introduction of this functionality rendered the old "travel bug graveyard" caches obsolete. A pure graveyard cache would not be published if submitted.

 

Well, that explains it.

 

I prefer the graveyard idea since it allows you to at least post a bit of story behind the TB in the form of a log entry with the drop. Simply marking the bug as missing seems to let the offender off scott free.

 

Are existing graveyards allowed to continue to operate, I'll assume? There seems to be a few larger ones that I *did* hunt up which fit the bill I guess.

[Keystone]

I prefer the graveyard idea since it allows you to at least post a bit of story behind the TB in the form of a log entry with the drop. Simply marking the bug as missing seems to let the offender off scott free.

Log a note to the travel bug's page.

Send the "offender" an e-mail.

Post a lamentation in the "Travel Bug Obituary" thread that's pinned at the top of the "Travel Bug" section of the Groundspeak forums.

 

There are lots of ways to memorialize your missing travel bug without artificially inflating its actual mileage by putting it in a virtual graveyard cache.

[+oshawapilot]

There are lots of ways to memorialize your missing travel bug without artificially inflating its actual mileage by putting it in a virtual graveyard cache.

 

Duly noted, thanks - the inflated milage did seem to be the only negative of the TB graveyards so I understand the new methods.

[+Mopar]

Duly noted, thanks - the inflated milage did seem to be the only negative of the TB graveyards so I understand the new methods.

 

New method?

 

Since December 2003, it's been possible to move a trackable off a cache page or out of someone's possession, and into an "unknown location." Cache owners and trackable owners can access the "mark as missing" option from the pulldown menu at the top right of the trackable's page.

 

The introduction of this functionality rendered the old "travel bug graveyard" caches obsolete. A pure graveyard cache would not be published if submitted.

[Keystone]

I received a message (not from anyone who's posted to this thread) asking me for the source of my prior statement.

 

December 2003 Announcement of Travel Bug Section Upgrades.

 

Also, I forgot to tell oshawapilot that I'm sorry his trackable has stopped traveling. That is the last line of the several hundred notes I've left on the pages of travel bugs and geocoins which I've moved to an unknown location. Yes, it's a form letter, but I do mean it.

[+beezerb]

And sometimes they go away, come back, go away....

 

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=493347

[+Mopar]

And sometimes they go away, come back, go away....

 

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=493347

or this one: http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?tracker=TB5C9

[+rixart]

I own a TB graveyard here in Atlanta GA. One may place only their own TBs there, Placing the TBs of others is not allowed. It is a physical cache that must be visited and the logbook signed for a cacher to place a "dead" TB there. Virtual visits are not allowed.

That was the only way Groundspeak would allow me to create a TBgraveyard.

 

I already have had to deal with several jeeps being dropped there by cachers who ignored the rules.

I check the cache regularly to be sure that all is as required.

 

rixart