A little help please...

[+hughes_jh]

Hi Everyone.

 

Firstly, allow me to say hello, this is my first post on the forum!

 

I am fairly new to geo-caching, I started doing it as I thought it would be something I could do with my son. He is now a year and a half old so just getting into exploring... but now I'm not so sure if it is for us.

 

We found a geo-coin in cache near to us. Now, let me give you the scenario. My wife and I work very long hours (including weekends) so our opportunities to endeavour in hobbies are limited. I used to play lots of team sports but now I can't commit to regular training and games.... so, geo-caching seemed like an ideal hobby. I find I can print a load of pages off the internet, and stick them in my glove box of the car. Then, anytime I get a chance I can find them. No preparation required (well, apart from remembering to put batteries in my GPS!)

 

On one hunt a few months ago me and my son found a geo-coin in cache near to us. This wasn't mentioned on the sheet I printed out several weeks prior so it was a pleasant bonus. We had a holiday in Portugal coming up so I thought that would be brilliant to take the geo-coin to Portugal. When we got there we took some time out of our busy lying-by-the-pool-while-making-sure-our-son-doesn't-fall-into-the-aforementioned-pool schedule and went off and found a cache to drop off the geo-coin (which incidentally was named after major European City).

 

Inagine my surprise when I received this email from the geo-coin owner...

"Hi folks

 

I know you are relatively new to geocaching but am at a loss to understand why you took our Pra*** geocoin to Portugal when its mission is to travel around the UK. Perhaps you could help us by suggesting any other way that we could make this more obvious on the cache page or the attached tag? Fortunately, due to some more observant cachers, the coin is now on its way back home.

 

G****"

 

I've removed the guys name plus the name of the geo-coin. Incidentally there was no attached tag on the coin. Unless I had specifically sat down and reasearched the info on the coin I would never have known about the UK restriction

 

I'm a bit upset to say the least. I didn't realise geo-caching was so militant. I also thought the idea of these geo-coins and travel bugs was to set them off around the world. What if someone on holiday to the UK had found this geo-coin, does that mean they aren't allowed to take part in the fun?

 

Am I completely in the wrong here? Either way, I'm not interested in taking my son geo-caching if he's going to be subjected to this kind of harrassment in what i thought was supposed to be a friendly community

 

Thanks for your time.

John (& Seán - 18 months old)

[+Polarbear2369]

Hi John,

first of all, welcome to the geo-caching community!

 

It´s true that some coins or travelbugs have a goal, and if they do, you should try to move them in a way to help their goal. But if the coin didn´t have a card with the goal attached (not all have), then im my opinion it´s the coin owners risk that not everybody will (or can, or want to..) check the website for the coin description before taking and moving it.

Besides, many coins or bugs have no goal at all (other than to travel as far as possible), or have a goal that doesn´t restrict their area of movement.

 

I would just write the coin owner a friendly mail back to inform him that there was no card attached (maybe the card got lost), so you didn´t know the coins goal and it was simply a misunderstanding. You could also suggest that he might post something on the coins website that the next finder might be so kind and attach a new card, I think that most cachers (who have the equipment to laminate cards) would do that.

 

That would show him not only that you didn´t move his coin against its goal on purpose, but also that you get along easier being polite ;-)

 

Happy hunting,

Andy

Edited October 8, 2009 by Polarbear2369

[+The Blorenges]

Good morning, and welcome to these forums

 

I had a look at your profile and it was easy to see which geocoin you are referring to as you have only moved along 4 trackable items so far. Now, what to say about this whole scenario?

 

First of all, you picked up that geocoin back in April. The guidelines for trackables (geocoins and travel bugs) recommends that they should be moved on into another geocache within a couple of weeks, so in this case it looks as though the owner may have been concerned about their coin being "in your hands" for quite a long time and then was rather "put out" that you placed it somewhere off its mission. If you are unable to move a trackable along within 2 or 3 weeks then it's a good idea to contact the owner just to let them know that their item is safe and tell them when you intend to drop it off into a new cache. (I don't know whether you did that in this case?)

 

Looking at the log from the geocachers who picked up the coin from the Faro cache where you placed it, they have written "Mission tag is still attached" so it seems that they saw something that you may have missed? Sometimes a mission tag is physically attached to a geocoin (the coin being drilled and tag attached in that way) and sometimes it consists of a piece of paper which has the mission on it, which is then placed into a small plastic bag with the coin. You saw nothing like that?

 

Whatever

 

Anyway, all is now well and the geocoin will soon be back in UK and back on track. Generally speaking the moving of trackable items from cache to cache should go smoothly if everyone tries to follow the guidelines to be found here:

 

How to log a travel bug or geocoin.

 

Trackables home page.

 

Don't let this one misunderstanding/error/annoyance put you off geocaching in general. It's an enjoyable pastime, geocachers are a friendly crowd and there's always plenty of info and advice to be found in these forums.

 

MrsB

[+ChannelFadge]

 

"Hi folks

 

I know you are relatively new to geocaching but am at a loss to understand why you took our Pra*** geocoin to Portugal when its mission is to travel around the UK. Perhaps you could help us by suggesting any other way that we could make this more obvious on the cache page or the attached tag? Fortunately, due to some more observant cachers, the coin is now on its way back home.

 

G****"

 

 

That is a bit rude though, the email they sent you. They could have been a bit nicer about it. You should have emailed them back suggesting a better place for them to shove their geocoin (just kidding btw)

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

This sounds to me as though the "bone of contention" is about the attached mission tag.

 

You say there was none, the GC owner says there was, and now the next geocacher that moves the coin says it (the mission tag) is still with it.

 

I do not wish to be or sound rude to anyone, but from what I can see of this matter it does seem like the information was available to you. If not by the mission tag, certainly by the GC's page. If you held the GC as long as you did, why did you not check its' travels, photos, its' mission or the owner's info on the page? Seems to me those actions are part of the joy of moving travelers and helping their mission.

 

We personally bend over backwards to move items, and help them along. It is one of our passions about geocaching (I do understand that this is us, not all). While on vacation a short while ago, we did pick up a TB in Iowa (without attached mission), brought it to our base in SD, only to find out that it's mission was to go to Las Vegas (like you apparently are, we are not paperless cachers and we need to access a computer for logging, etc.)! We promptly researched out a busy cache and dropped the TB there, hoping another cacher would get it going in the proper direction. Luckily, fate was good and that is exactly what happened. During that vacation, we passed on moving a couple of other travelers (with mission attached) that we could not help.

 

Now please don't get me wrong, I am not trying to blame you for anything. It was just a mistake and mistakes happen. Learn from a mistake (best teacher in the world, what?).

 

If you took offense to the received email (I did not see any offensive remarks, myself), I'm sorry. The GC owner pointed out your mistake and asked if you could supply suggestions for anything else to assist him/her to help others keep the traveler on track.

 

That is my point of view on this matter. I wish you luck and lots of fun in your new recreation (our passion). Please, take that email, and this posting merely as help, nothing more and nothing less.

[+burtsbodgers]

Hi

please dont be put off by what i or others say but.........

 

you did hold on to the coin for a long period of time, the time scale should only be a couple of weeks however this is not always possible. but you should try and release any TBs as soon as is reasonably possible.

 

and the description on the TC page did say it wanted to travel around the UK, However in your defence it did not say Only The UK. So the owner is slightly to blame....

 

As an owner of several TB's and coins that have gone missing, or are being held on too for what seems far to long i can understand the owners problems, but that aside they were in my opinion a bit abrupt with you..

 

TB's and Coins can cost quite a lot of money, and it would be nice if they could be tracked forever and a day. But what seems to be happening more and more is that newbies like yourself dont understand from the start, their purpose in the scheme of things. However it will has been said before and will be again... if you cant afford to loose dont put it out.. but the idea is to share.

 

please continue wit your new obsession and enjoy your caching career but take care of tbs and coins please

[+hughes_jh]

Hi All,

Guys, I can't disagree with any of your comments. I just feel a little sore because I thought geo-caching would be something fun. If I want to follow stringent rules and regulations I'm sure there are many other alternative endeavours to pursue (e.g. Bantam Egg Exhibiting!)

 

Just one little thing for Gitchee-Gummee. I'm see you didn't think there was anything offensive in the guys email, but maybe some of our more intelligent cachers will (I'm sorry, I'm only joking.... and making a point!)

 

Anyway, I do enjoy geo-caching.... but as I mentioned before I do work long hours and can't commit to going out on a regular basis. Even if I did I think the novelty might wear off. And besides, I try to make the caches I visit extra exciting (I've visited some in Ireland and Portugal)

 

Thanks for your advice, I will keep geocaching when I have the chance, but I don't think I'll be picking up any more geocoins!!!

 

John

[+Polarbear2369]

I can´t see why geocaching should be less fun because there are rules.. there are rules in every game. Of course I can see that the goals with coins can make it more difficult to move them, and that´s also why my first travelbug that I plan to let loose on the world will have a goal that doesn´t limit the area or way it travels, so cachers won´t have to worry about this.

 

But the good news is that trackables are only a small part of the fun anyway - some cachers love moving tons of them, while others never touch them at all, and both are fully valid approaches on caching. That´s what I really like about the game: the rules don´t keep you from playing it the way you want to.

[+Crafty Turtle]

I have picked up more than one geocoin which was well out of its preferred area.

 

One wanted to stay in a certain city in another state - I put it onto a cache in my town on the main highway that leads to that city. I posted in my log what I did, and I hope it finds its way home.

 

Another wanted to travel in the alpine areas of the world. I found it in a lowland hinterland. The best I could do was place it on the highest mountain around, which by alpine standards would still be considered a minor hill. I did my best.

 

I don't know why people bother taking geocoins if they aren't willing to respect the wishes of the owner.

 

Yes, caching is supposed to be fun, but it has to be fun for the coin owner too.

 

If you do decide to pick one up without first having researched its mission, then look up its mission after you pick it up. Who knows, you might be the one correcting someone else's error.

 

We are all entitled to an "oops" every now and then, but we also need to learn by our mistakes, and try to correct things that have gone awry.