Trackable Ettiquette

[+ToonAl]

I am sure this may have been answered in the Forums somewhere else but i) I am looking for the Canadian perspective and ii) I find the Forums Search to be wanting.

 

Anyway my question deals with this scenario. You come upon a cache and it has multiple TB's in it. Do you take all the Tb's or do you just take a couple. The reason for the question is that I did this yesterday but now have been contacted by someone asking if I left any, which has left me feeling bad. The person did not accuse me of anything just asked if there were any left.

 

My personal take is that I feel bad taking only a couple of TB's especially if I know I can scatter 5 or 6 easily. Also winter is fast approaching so I figure TB's are going to start to sit for a while.

 

Anyways just looking to start a discussion.

 

alb

Edited December 20, 2009 by ToonAl

[+Westacular]

Was this a normal cache or a travel bug hotel? I think the etiquette differs when it's a hotel.

 

Also, in general, I think it's important to consider how long they might've sat in the cache. If you're the first person to visit it in six months, I think all of the TB owners will be very thankful you decided to put them back in circulation.

[+BlueDeuce]

Take as many as you can assist towards the goal or mission, it doesn't matter if it is two or twenty.

 

No cache owner, hotel or otherwise has any business saying that you have to leave a bug to be able to take one. Feel free to ignore trade restrictions.

 

but now have been contacted by someone asking if I left any, which has left me feeling bad.

 

Travel bugs are meant to move. If you asked me if you should move my bug or leave it for someone else I'll say move it every time. I'm not aware of any bug owner that would want you to not move their bug. That person who contacted you needs to understand that there are always going to be bugs available and they just need to go out and find one for themselves, not whine because you happen to be able to assist some travelers.

Edited December 20, 2009 by BlueDeuce

[+ToonAl]

It was a hotel.

 

Sorry I should have made it clear that I do not think that it was the owner's intention to make me feel bad. I felt that on being asked if I had left any bugs and wondering if I should have.

 

One other question I have about TB's is how you can know out in the field whether you are going to be able to help a Tb reach its goal. One TB I picked up said the TB "should walk from cache to cache." Well first I didn't read this till I got home and second I will not be near that cache again for many weeks and surely not within walking distance.

[+BlueDeuce]

It was a hotel.

 

Sorry I should have made it clear that I do not think that it was the owner's intention to make me feel bad. I felt that on being asked if I had left any bugs and wondering if I should have.

 

One other question I have about TB's is how you can know out in the field whether you are going to be able to help a Tb reach its goal. One TB I picked up said the TB "should walk from cache to cache." Well first I didn't read this till I got home and second I will not be near that cache again for many weeks and surely not within walking distance.

 

If a bug owner is particular about how their bug is handled it would be best for them to include the instructions with the bug, maybe by using a laminated mission tag. Otherwise do your best to move the bug along. that might mean you don't know the goal until you get home.

 

Moving the bug 10-20 miles is probably not going to do too much damage. If you plan on traveling some 300 miles before logging in, you might want to review the bug page before you pick up it.

[+Chewy_06]

My take on it is much the same as others, TB's and GC's are intended to move. In the absence of mission information attached to them that will help me determine whether I can help them or not, i'll almost always take all & move them along.

 

If there is a mission card or something else there that indicates what the TB wants to do and if it's something I'll only hinder, then i'll leave it. In the absence of that, as far as I'm concerned they're fair game. And, if i happen to do something with one all in the same day of caching that the owner didnt want - I don't lose any sleep over it, if they were REALLY concerned about it, they'd have attached a mission card (or, posted a note on the TB's page asking the next finder to add one for them!).

 

I understand CO's wanting there to be trackables in their hotels for future finders, but, the way I see it, there are good hotels in good places for them & these ones will tend to have TB's coming and going as people from different areas pass through.

 

Then there's the issue of putting trackables in multis and mystery caches. My take on these is that if there's a relatively steady flow of cachers coming through, they should be ok. What isnt ok, is to drop a bunch of trackables in a little used mystery or multi - ask yourself how you'd feel if one of your TB's ended up there and languished for months... I know of one mystery cache that has a stated goal to be a bit of a GC jail - it had something like a dozen GC's in it. I took more out than i put in, but didnt really feel good about it - and had half a mind to go back and clean it out completely. I may yet make a couple stops through to pull a few more out of it. It just doesnt seem right to me.

[+In Need of Cache]

When it comes to a cache named as a hotel we tend to trade one for one or one for two depending how many there are in the cache. If it's a regular cache we will simply take whats there for travellers if we want them.

 

In our mind the best hotels are the ones near the highway that get a lot of traffic moving across the province.

[+BlueDeuce]

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.

[+TrailGators]

There is a good reason they are called "travel" bugs. Just be sure to log them out ASAP when you take them to let others know!