TB responsiblity?

[+scrapes]

I build a bond with the TB I grab (nutty? maybe). But I like to put them in a cache where they will move instead of rotting, yet who knows, there are obvious variables.

 

What do you guys feel is the responsibility of those moving TBs?

[+Cptnodegard]

I haven't been able to go far to cache yet so I tend to leave them or move them to a more often visited cache if it's in one that hasn't been found in a while. I have TBs myself so I know that looking at "foreign" caches where the TB is is always fun so moving one to just the next cache is always better than just logging as discovered IMO

[+WRASTRO]

When I pick up a travel bug or coin I move it to another cache and hope it continues to travel. I don't drop them in caches that I feel are clearly at risk, but I also don't agonize over the placement. If a particular cache has a poor history for trackables I will not leave any in it. Other than that I retrieve and I drop.

[BCProspectors]

We just try to drop it in the next cache we find. We seldom do any long distance traveling so the farthest we usually move trackables is just to a different part of the city.

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

I go to a lot of events, so I try to find someone there who can further the TB's mission.

 

If I can't get it going on its mission, or if it has no mission but travel, I drop it in the TB Hotel on my front porch.

[+ThePetersTrio]

I go to a lot of events, so I try to find someone there who can further the TB's mission.

 

Thank you for mentioning the traveler's mission! It is amazing to me how many people don't read the bug's page before they return it to a cache!

 

To the OP - please check the traveler's page and see if the owner has expressed a preference for how they'd like their coin or bug to be moved.

 

Asking on this board will likely get you lots of differing answers, none of which may pertain to the bug you have in your hand. When in doubt, email the traveler's owner and ask them.

[+Canids]

Thanks for starting the thread, as it further educates us in the proper way to handle TBs.

[+simpjkee]

There's a large cache that is located on private property (with permission) by my house. When I'm looking to drop TB's, I'll typically drop them there because it is a safe location. Other times I just use common sense and go with my gut.

[+Walts Hunting]

What do you guys feel is the responsibility of those moving TBs?

 

The only responsibility is to put them in a cache. Any thought and consideration above that is nice but not a responsibility.

[+ras_oscar]

seldom seen but usually appreciated is a traveler with a "passport" or short statement of what its objectives are. Allows me to determine weather I can further it on its mission or not.

[+dorqie]

seldom seen but usually appreciated is a traveler with a "passport" or short statement of what its objectives are. Allows me to determine weather I can further it on its mission or not.

I will not pick up a tb unless it has one of these, and all of my gcs have one.

I live on an island, where most of the tbs started here have some sort of a goal to leave, being that I travel to the mainland a fair bit, I try to take some tbs along to drop on the other side.

[+Snoogans]

I build a bond with the TB I grab (nutty? maybe).

 

Not maybe....

 

I'll let the little girl (note the TB in her hands ) from Aliens clue you in: http://www.lukefisher.com/plastic.wav

 

Ripley: "Well, I bet Casey doesn't have scary dreams. Let's take a look. Nope, nothing bad in there. See? Maybe you could just try to be like her, hmm?"

 

Newt: "Ripley, she doesn't have bad dreams because she's just a piece of plastic."

 

But I like to put them in a cache where they will move instead of rotting, yet who knows, there are obvious variables.

 

What do you guys feel is the responsibility of those moving TBs?

 

The only bad thing about TBs are the owners that hang on too tight. The worst thing about TBs are what I call "creepy interested parties." These are people other than the owner who hang on emotionally for some strange reason and tryyy control movement, email subsequent holders, etc.

 

To me: You are responsible for a TB while it is in your possession and ONLY while it is in your possession. Once you put it back in play your responsibility is over. Nevermind what the TB owner thinks your responsibility is.

 

As a TB owner, I'm realistic enough to know that I put my property in public trust. Now.... How much do YOU trust the public?

 

As a TB mover with somewhere near 3k TBs moved, I prefer to make positive hand to hand trades at events. I NEVER drop a coin in a cache unless instructed to do so by the owner. I only move those hand to hand, so if it goes missing, I can, for the most part, say who has it.

 

BTW- I never bond with a TB unless it is covered in gorilla glue and placed in my hand while I'm sleeping. (Disclaimer: I hugged the Mary Proppins tb, but only because "she" was nearly as tall as me and worth over $50k.)

[+redsox_mark]

I give some consideration when deciding where to drop a TB - mainly avoiding caches which have a record of going many months or even years between finds. If I noticed a cache which has a history of frequent muggling I would avoid that too.

 

I don't get "creepy" about it, but I tend to put TBs/coins on my watchlist until the next person picks them up.

[+craigandalyson]

We take great care in where we put TB's and check all the logs to see if it has been stolen in the past.

We also take into consideration how 'safe' we feel the cache is, not just location but the conditions around the cache:-

Is it difficult to get to?

How often is it found?

Is the cache secure and waterproof?

 

We may be going too far but when you look at the distance some of these TB's traveled, we do feel responsible for the onward journey.

 

[+dorqie]

I just wanted to add something about TB's that ask for their picture to be taken.

I have recently picked up a tb that asks to have it's picture taken at golf courses.

I have noticed on it's page that it has been in play for almost a year now, and so far I am the only one who has taken a picture of it.

I know that not ever cacher has a camera, or the time, but isn't the picture taking all part of the fun of tbs? I think it is, and I love to take pictures of the tbs that I move in beautiful spots in town, as I feel I am in some remote way taking the TB owner on a tour.

[hoosier guy]

I make sure I put the TB in an active (i.e. cache that is visited often) spot. Assume the TB owner wants to complete the mission and/or rack up the miles so I try to help out.

[+power69]

I just wanted to add something about TB's that ask for their picture to be taken.

I have recently picked up a tb that asks to have it's picture taken at golf courses.

I have noticed on it's page that it has been in play for almost a year now, and so far I am the only one who has taken a picture of it.

I know that not ever cacher has a camera, or the time, but isn't the picture taking all part of the fun of tbs? I think it is, and I love to take pictures of the tbs that I move in beautiful spots in town, as I feel I am in some remote way taking the TB owner on a tour.

just about every cell these days has a camera[no reason not to]

if a coin / tb has no picture on its page, i take its pic whether or not it wants its pic taken.

most owners write me to thank me for taking their coins / tbs pic.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I just wanted to add something about TB's that ask for their picture to be taken.

I have recently picked up a tb that asks to have it's picture taken at golf courses.

I have noticed on it's page that it has been in play for almost a year now, and so far I am the only one who has taken a picture of it.

I know that not ever cacher has a camera, or the time, but isn't the picture taking all part of the fun of tbs? I think it is, and I love to take pictures of the tbs that I move in beautiful spots in town, as I feel I am in some remote way taking the TB owner on a tour.

just about every cell these days has a camera[no reason not to]

if a coin / tb has no picture on its page, i take its pic whether or not it wants its pic taken.

most owners write me to thank me for taking their coins / tbs pic.

 

I also like taking TBs along when I travel and taking pics of them at interesting places, and dip them into caches when the goal of the cache might conflict with leaving the TB in some remote location. I took four TBs (and brought all of them back home) to the Victoria Falls cache in Zimbabwe so now all of them have an additional 16K miles in there logs and a photograph from a gorgeous location. One of my favorites was finding a cache that was a little plastic lion that wanted to visit spots in the U.S. After contacting the owner and asking if they'd like to have it travel internationally I brought it to Rome with me a couple of years ago and took the following photo:

 

 

You can see from the cache container where the lion visited. I left that TB in another cache in Rome and since then it's done a bit of a European tour (mostly in Germany).

[+NYPaddleCacher]

No thread about Trackable responsibility would be complete without mentioning the efforts of MaxB on the River

 

They're sort of a TB tour guide that has moved over 19,000 trackable items. They had one of my TBs in their care for a a little while and look lots of photos of it. Some of the other stats related to tbs on their profile page are pretty impressive.

[+WRITE SHOP ROBERT]

I go to a lot of events, so I try to find someone there who can further the TB's mission.

 

Thank you for mentioning the traveler's mission! It is amazing to me how many people don't read the bug's page before they return it to a cache!

 

To the OP - please check the traveler's page and see if the owner has expressed a preference for how they'd like their coin or bug to be moved.

 

Asking on this board will likely get you lots of differing answers, none of which may pertain to the bug you have in your hand. When in doubt, email the traveler's owner and ask them.

I agree, it's a little sad to me that so many people discover/grab/drop travelers while depriving themselves the extra fun of learning the mission and trying to do something along the lines of the goal. I think that most owners of trackables have tried to create missions that will be fun for both the owners AND the finders.

 

I try to see if there's a place I can make the drop that's in line with the goal, but I don't get too stressed over it, especially if I've had the bug for a while.

 

For my goals, I usually try to come up with fun goals that can be helped by anyone, no matter where they are or what direction the move it.

[+WRITE SHOP ROBERT]

I just wanted to add something about TB's that ask for their picture to be taken.

I have recently picked up a tb that asks to have it's picture taken at golf courses.

I have noticed on it's page that it has been in play for almost a year now, and so far I am the only one who has taken a picture of it.

I know that not ever cacher has a camera, or the time, but isn't the picture taking all part of the fun of tbs? I think it is, and I love to take pictures of the tbs that I move in beautiful spots in town, as I feel I am in some remote way taking the TB owner on a tour.

I agree, that's one of the biggest disappointments of owning Travelers, I wish more people would post pictures. I think maybe this activity is going right in line with extended logs written in the logbook, a thing of the past mostly. I've always loved trying to add pictures to Bug pages, but sometimes it can get overwhelming, if I have lots of cool ideas but end up getting distracted with other things. I have literally hundreds of pictures that I have taken for travelers but haven't gotten around to sorting and posting them.

[oakenwood]

I like to put TB's in less-found, out-of-the-way caches to give cachers an incentive to find them. Maybe I'm perverse that way.

 

It's probably true that people don't post enough pictures for TB's. There seem to be fewer pics in TB galleries than cache galleries.

 

Come to think of it, I'm holding one TB right now. It's a toy car and I'm following Pole Day coverage. I think I'll post pictures of it with some other cars.

[+ADTCacheur]

I go to a lot of events, so I try to find someone there who can further the TB's mission.

 

Thank you for mentioning the traveler's mission! It is amazing to me how many people don't read the bug's page before they return it to a cache!

 

To the OP - please check the traveler's page and see if the owner has expressed a preference for how they'd like their coin or bug to be moved.

 

Asking on this board will likely get you lots of differing answers, none of which may pertain to the bug you have in your hand. When in doubt, email the traveler's owner and ask them.

 

I NEVER drop a travel bug at a cache until I've read their online bio. I once had one with a nice little tag on it saying what it's mission was. It said to put something reminiscent of where you found it onto the ring, and then try and have it work it's way back when the ring got full. When I went online I found out it was actually trying to visit wrestling matches and get pictures while there. That's why I never believe the "passport" without verifying it online

[+Crafty Turtle]

I find myself rectifying other people's errors in placing TBs. Or at least trying to rectify. The TB belongs to the owner, and their wishes are to be respected.

 

eg I pick up a TB in Ballarat VIC, that the owner wants to stay in the Adelaide hills (SA). It's 350 miles away!

I placed in an easy road-side cache on the road to Adelaide.

 

Another TB I picked up wants to visit desert areas. This one I found high up in the mountains of New Zealand, above the snow line - the highest cache, and closest to Mt Cook (the highest mountain in NZ). NZ doesn't even have deserts, so this TB had no business being here in this country at all!

 

Why do people disrespect the owner like this?

[+Chokecherry]

If they have no tag on them them or information stating where they want to go TB's will likely be put in the next available cache. Most people out caching won't be able to tell where the bug wants to go just by looking at it. And people like me might retrieve them only to bring them home to find they have specific goals after looking them up on a computer. They go into the nearest easy cache by me in that case if I can't help it reach it's goal. Some if they have no instructions just move to the next available cache if I know I won't be out for awhile.

 

I will forever say that if people have specific spots they want their TB they need to include that with the TB for the cacher on the go.

[+SCOUTER51]

I bring all my TB'S home to see where they have been and if there are any special requests from the ownwer. The last one I found was a father sending out a TB in honor of son earning his Eagle badge in Boy Scouts. He asked that the TB go to camps and have its picture taken at the camp fire. Being a Cub Master and Assistant Troop master I was happy to help him.

 

I have been reading these posts about TB's and guys just wanting to move them to another cache and not caring where they are intended to go by the owner and that they just want to move them and that is fine that is your right to do that and please dont think I am bashing you. I have this solution to the problem though.

Why dont they make differant color Travel bugs. Say Silver or green if the person who owns them just wants them to travel around from cache to cache with no specific destination. Then say red for those that have specific places they want them to go. That way you can decide do you want to pick up that TB since it has a specific place to go or directions for it that you should take it home and look it up to see what they are. Just a suggestion. I know you can buy black ones for replacements seems like a good way to help decide about picking up a TB or not.

[+Stripes]

I try to look at the goal of the TB as well as when I am going to be out next. I don't always pick them up as I live in an area where there are not many caches and if I am going to have to keep it longer than a week, I would rather someone else move it along. I picked one up this week and plan to drop it somewhere this weekend.

[+Markwell]

I rarely take TBs to events any more. I have seen so many people drop them and they get physically picked up and then never logged, so they die when the event is archived.

[+DragonsWest]

I've observed caches where trackables tend to go missing, generally urban or easily accessed hides.

 

I prefer to leave them in caches which took more than a short stroll to get to. It seems to work.

 

There was a very short-lived TB hotel near a highway, which went missing within a month of its inception. Sad. Several trackables went with it.

 

As much as Groundspeak and some detractors gnash their teeth over TB Hotels hosted in businesses, they at least offer some oversight on who comes and goes with trackables, rather than leaving a box full of them behind a board for the first idle pair of hands to happen across.