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WHY CAN'T MISSING TB'S BE DELETED FROM CACHE INVENTORIES?


PawPawGreybeard

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I went on a special "Bug" hunt today. I picked out 4 caches to visit with the express purpose of grabbing a few bugs to move along. The caches I chose all showed at least 5 bugs in their inventories. Unfortunately, NONE of them contained ANY bugs. :laughing:

 

Why doesn't Groundspeak or Geocaching.com allow cachers to mark these items as missing. One of the TB's had been on the inventory of a cache since 2006 even after several cachers noted it their logs that it was missing. In the least maybe there should be someone to audit the inventories after several "missing" logs the same as they audit and archive caches after several no find logs. :huh:

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I understand that the TB and Cache owners can mark them as missing, but that is evidently not working because there seems to be an awful lot of missing bugs that are not listed as such. As I said maybe there should be some kind of way that cachers can let Geocaching.com know that maybe the TB needs to be archived or at least checked into.

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As I said maybe there should be some kind of way that cachers can let Geocaching.com know that maybe the TB needs to be archived or at least checked into.

We the people who buy the TBs own them and not GS. They are nice enough to track them for us. As you already know there is a way to mark a bug 'unknown', but unfortunately not everyone uses this feature.

 

I can't imagine GS ever archiving a trackable because there's always the remote chance one may show up even years later in another cache... plus it's not their property.

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I understand that the TB and Cache owners can mark them as missing, but that is evidently not working because there seems to be an awful lot of missing bugs that are not listed as such. As I said maybe there should be some kind of way that cachers can let Geocaching.com know that maybe the TB needs to be archived or at least checked into.

Post a note on the cache page and on the trackable page stating the bug is missing. Move on. That is really all you can do if you want to retain your sanity.

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The cache owner can mark it missing, the TB owner can mark it missing, the local reviewer can mark it missing (if you tell them about it), and I can mark it missing if you tell me about it, and if you tell the local reviewer or myself, please be sure to include a link to the item, so we can mark the right one missing.

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To the community:

 

Keep in mind there needs to be a bit of research before reporting a bug as missing. The bug may have been dropped off three months ago but it might have been picked up five minutes before you got there.

 

Once you have confirmed a bug is no longer in a cache you need to allow for a grace period for people to log it. At least four weeks.

 

If you can go back through the logs and find a previous report that states that specific bug isn't in the cache then you can apply it to the grace period. For example look for a cache log posted after the bug drop log that says - No bugs found in cache. Replaced muggled cache is another. :D

 

This is why it is important to include in your cache log (if you notice) that the bug listed on the online cache page wasn't in the cache. It doesn't mean it's MIA, it just wasn't in the cache when you were there. This allows the bug and cache owner to determine if they should mark it as missing.

 

Once you have valid confirmation that the bug is missing and needs to be removed from the cache page listing, post a note on the bug page stating this information and provide instructions on how to remove the bug.

 

yadda yadda, this Bug has been verified as not being in the cache. On the bug page is the option "Mark item Missing". yadda yadda.

 

Give it another three or four weeks for the bug owner to respond. If they don't respond contact the cache owner and explain the situation, giving them instructions.

 

If the world turns another 21 times then contact a Groundspeak volunteer.

Edited by BlueDeuce
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The cache owner can mark it missing, the TB owner can mark it missing, the local reviewer can mark it missing (if you tell them about it), and I can mark it missing if you tell me about it, and if you tell the local reviewer or myself, please be sure to include a link to the item, so we can mark the right one missing.

:) Thank you for you comment. Our cach "Old Cromwell Town" was bulldozed with a coin in it. The bulldozer driver helped us look for it but we could not find it so when we set up the cache again it showed the coin as resident. Have just logged it has missing thanks to your comment above. It was easy to do so. Left a note in the coins log to say what had happened.

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I suspect you are encountering owners who may not be on top of the trackables listed as being in the cache. If you have any examples of owners actively ignoring MIA trackables listed as being in the cache for an extended period I would be very interested in knowing about them as I have never been aware of this practice in our shared caching area. :blink:

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It is also possible to look back in the history of a cache & find someone who mentions, "Took the bug", but never logged it as such. If you then look at the history of the bug in question, you can often see exactly when it came up missing & who has it. It takes a bit of detective work & it's not 100% accurate, but I have done it....did it today as a matter of fact.

 

Everyone since early June had reported the certain bug as not being in the cache, although it WAS showing to be. I looked back in log history & saw an entry, "Took bug". That was on June 6th. Looking at the guys history made it simple.....he never showed to have ever even FOUND a bug or moved it. So, if he was telling the truth, he took a bug but never logged it. 99% chance there's the missing bug.

 

The bad thing about this is that there's little you can do but wait, or e-mail the guy a nice letter asking him if he has it & if so to please log it. In this specific case, he had started caching about a year ago, found about 5 caches, then quit a couple days later. So there's little chance of this bug ever being recovered. However, it IS still out there, in the hands of a one-time cacher.

 

I simply made a not of my findings on the cache page & called it good. About all that could be done in this case.

 

Curiously though, even though I KNOW this happens, I don't see a big problem with that around my area.....especially caches which say they have FIVE bugs. I'm just as likely to find a cache that contains a bug that's NOT logged there....did that today also. I fixed it too. Grabbed it from the person who last had it (a few months back), logged it into the cache where I found it, then unlogged it into my possession....ready for another cache. This bug also had 20,000+ miles on it, had been to both U.S. coasts, and started in Florida over 3 years ago. Still looks good too.

 

Unfortunately, his owner has evidently long quit caching, from the looks of it. I find LOTS of those too...Bugs Without A Cause. :blink:

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I went on a special "Bug" hunt today. I picked out 4 caches to visit with the express purpose of grabbing a few bugs to move along. The caches I chose all showed at least 5 bugs in their inventories. Unfortunately, NONE of them contained ANY bugs. :mad:

 

Why doesn't Groundspeak or Geocaching.com allow cachers to mark these items as missing. One of the TB's had been on the inventory of a cache since 2006 even after several cachers noted it their logs that it was missing. In the least maybe there should be someone to audit the inventories after several "missing" logs the same as they audit and archive caches after several no find logs. :blink:

 

You can, mark it as missing, but would be nice if you inform owner as well!

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I went on a special "Bug" hunt today. I picked out 4 caches to visit with the express purpose of grabbing a few bugs to move along. The caches I chose all showed at least 5 bugs in their inventories. Unfortunately, NONE of them contained ANY bugs. :mad:

 

Why doesn't Groundspeak or Geocaching.com allow cachers to mark these items as missing. One of the TB's had been on the inventory of a cache since 2006 even after several cachers noted it their logs that it was missing. In the least maybe there should be someone to audit the inventories after several "missing" logs the same as they audit and archive caches after several no find logs. :blink:

 

You can, mark it as missing, but would be nice if you inform owner as well!

Only the trackable owner or the cache owner can mark it missing. Plus various GS folks.

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It's going to be a while before we put out any more geocoins as they tend to NOT get logged but we love collecting them. We've had some astounding success and bitter disappointment.

 

Disapointment: We left an activated 2008 Compass Rose at an event, I saw the lady that picked it up (didn't meet her) and thought she would put it "out there". She must have added it to her collection, it hasn't moved since she took it on July 27, 2008.

 

Success: At the same event we left an Edgar Allen Poe action figure dog tag with the very specific mission to get to his grave site on the date of his birth. He traveled approximately 1800 miles in 179 days and was mailed back to us (courtesy of the cacher!).

 

At the time of this post we have 29 activated coins and dog tags. Below are some stats (booooooriiiiing!):

4 are DEFINATELY missing: 3 are victims of muggled caches and one is noted above;

2 are probably the victims of missing caches (the owners will not respond to email so I grabbed the bugs);

5 haven't been logged in a while;

3 were logged two months ago;

4 were logged last month;

7 were logged this month;

4 are in our physical possesion;

There are many responsible GCr's out there, the majority that might find your bug in another cache, log it in and back out then carry it on to another cache. There are also those that haven't taken the time to learn how to, these are the people that pi** me off <rant, rant, rant...>.

 

We are missing some bugs that have a special meaning to us. Some are still out there and we enjoy reading others comments about them. So it is fun, cool and sometimes even exciting to watch their movements and worth the trouble to both watch our own and log others. I will keep an eye on ebay for the "missing" :rolleyes:.

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