need imput!

[+we3jeepers]

Ok long story short.(sorta) We had a friend at the time that we took caching and got her into it. she was with us when we placed some caches. one of them she went back and found it and took a geocoin. Also she was with us one day on a string of FTF's that she got 2 brand new TB's just starting their journey. she had time to log the finds on the cache page but didnt log the trackables. that was months ago and she still hasn't. Her excuse is she doesn't have internet at home. she is online at friends houses all the time. I have gotten into arguments on chat about her needing to log them. She says she will get around to it when she feels like it.

 

I feel responsible for it because I'm the one that got her into caching.....

 

the one that was in our cache I marked as missing..... I'm thinking of sending a message to the owner of the other two trackables. I have no idea if she actually has anymore then the 3.

Edited August 30, 2010 by we3jeepers

[+Jackalgirl]

Ok long story short.(sorta) We had a friend at the time that we took caching and got her into it. she was with us when we placed some caches. one of them she went back and found it and took a geocoin. Also she was with us one day on a string of FTF's that she got 2 brand new TB's just starting their journey. she had time to log the finds on the cache page but didnt log the trackables. that was months ago and she still hasn't. Her excuse is she doesn't have internet at home. she is online at friends houses all the time. I have gotten into arguments on chat about her needing to log them. She says she will get around to it when she feels like it.

 

I feel responsible for it because I'm the one that got her into caching.....

 

the one that was in our cache I marked as missing..... I'm thinking of sending a message to the owner of the other two trackables. I have no idea if she actually has anymore then the 3.

 

What I'd recommend doing is offering to take care of it for her. Let her know that the trackables belong to people who are hoping to see them travel, and in order for them to do so, they have to be logged properly. It's understandable if she doesn't have the time or just isn't interested in getting into the geocaching.com system that deeply, but if so, it would be best if she hands them off to you so that you can get them moving (and so that the owners can see where they are).

[Firefly03]

I would offer to take them from her and log and place them.

[+Eartha]

Yes, do it for her, take them off her hands, and log them yourself, or ask her for her password, and the tracking numbers, and do it for her. Then make sure she gets out caching to place them. She can change her password temporarily, if she is worried about that and change it back when you are done logging them. Is she the type of person to forget where she put stuff? Maybe she doesn't know where she put them, and finding them to get the TB numbers is what's holding her up?

[+Droo]

Yup, you can't force her to do what she doesn't feel like doing especially if she's very young (responsibility/maturity wise). What Jackalgirl said about impressing upon her that these belong to other people and that you'll take care of it since she's not interested is the mindful and thoughtful thing to do, IMO. People get excited at first with geocaching then totally drop out so forcing her to go out again to take care of business that doesn't sound like her cup of tea can just stir up her resentment.

 

You can also go back to the caches pages, find the links to the trackables and post a note to each that the items are in the hands of so-and-so whom you introduced to geocaching and is not quite getting the do's and don'ts of the tracking system. At least that tells the owner that they haven't been stolen but are in the hands of a flakey noob. You don't need the tracking number to post a note.

Edited August 30, 2010 by Droo

[+WRITE SHOP ROBERT]

Maybe she doesn't want to do geocaching stuff at that other friends house? Maybe you could have her over to do the logging at your place?

[+we3jeepers]

 

What I'd recommend doing is offering to take care of it for her. Let her know that the trackables belong to people who are hoping to see them travel, and in order for them to do so, they have to be logged properly. It's understandable if she doesn't have the time or just isn't interested in getting into the geocaching.com system that deeply, but if so, it would be best if she hands them off to you so that you can get them moving (and so that the owners can see where they are).

 

tried that it didn't go over very well......

 

Maybe she doesn't want to do geocaching stuff at that other friends house? Maybe you could have her over to do the logging at your place?

 

tried that also......didn't work out.

 

Yup, you can't force her to do what she doesn't feel like doing especially if she's very young (responsibility/maturity wise). What Jackalgirl said about impressing upon her that these belong to other people and that you'll take care of it since she's not interested is the mindful and thoughtful thing to do, IMO. People get excited at first with geocaching then totally drop out so forcing her to go out again to take care of business that doesn't sound like her cup of tea can just stir up her resentment.

 

You can also go back to the caches pages, find the links to the trackables and post a note to each that the items are in the hands of so-and-so whom you introduced to geocaching and is not quite getting the do's and don'ts of the tracking system. At least that tells the owner that they haven't been stolen but are in the hands of a flakey noob. You don't need the tracking number to post a note.

 

I did do that with the one.... I'll try tha with the rest oh and you are corect on the being immature

Edited August 31, 2010 by we3jeepers

[+Jackalgirl]

 

What I'd recommend doing is offering to take care of it for her. Let her know that the trackables belong to people who are hoping to see them travel, and in order for them to do so, they have to be logged properly. It's understandable if she doesn't have the time or just isn't interested in getting into the geocaching.com system that deeply, but if so, it would be best if she hands them off to you so that you can get them moving (and so that the owners can see where they are).

 

tried that it didn't go over very well......

 

Could you be more specific? When you offered to take care of them for her, what did she say? What is her justification for keeping them - does she believe they're hers to keep?

[+we3jeepers]

 

What I'd recommend doing is offering to take care of it for her. Let her know that the trackables belong to people who are hoping to see them travel, and in order for them to do so, they have to be logged properly. It's understandable if she doesn't have the time or just isn't interested in getting into the geocaching.com system that deeply, but if so, it would be best if she hands them off to you so that you can get them moving (and so that the owners can see where they are).

 

tried that it didn't go over very well......

 

Could you be more specific? When you offered to take care of them for her, what did she say? What is her justification for keeping them - does she believe they're hers to keep?

 

no she doesnt think they are hers to keep..... but I offered for her to drop them off or I could come pic them up so that they could get logged. I know her geocaching password so it would have been easy. That is when she told me that she will take care of them when she feels like it and gets around to it. thats when I told her how inportant it was..... and that if she could log the find then she aught to be able to log the TB!

 

She also doesn't have a GPS to cache with

Edited August 31, 2010 by we3jeepers

[+Fiery Searcher]

no she doesnt think they are hers to keep..... but I offered for her to drop them off or I could come pic them up so that they could get logged. I know her geocaching password so it would have been easy. That is when she told me that she will take care of them when she feels like it and gets around to it. thats when I told her how inportant it was..... and that if she could log the find then she aught to be able to log the TB!

 

She also doesn't have a GPS to cache with

 

If she doesn't have a GPS to cache with, and she doesn't have internet access at home, how does she plan to take care of it when she does feel like it? Maybe a plea of simple logic would be helpful here.

 

Another thought I had: does she understand that she still gets to keep the icons in her profile even if she allows someone to "grab" the trackables from her? This assumes, of course, that she knows enough about the sport to be able to appreciate icons and such. A long shot I think, but still a thought.

 

Finally, have you invited her to go geocaching with you again, just for the sake of spending the time together and NOT for the trackables? Maybe there is some resentment breeding here, and her perception might be that you value the trackables more than "hanging out" and geocaching? Again, a long shot, as you know this situation better than any of us.

 

It's great that you've come to the forums with this, but the immediate responsibility rests with your friend. It is up for debate whether you are responsible at all, but you get credit from me for feeling the way you do. Perhaps the "best" that can come out of this is that it doesn't happen again, and we can all do our part here.

 

When I invite people to go geocaching with me, I simply invite them for the adventure at first, to see if they like it. I have had a couple of trackables get picked up by someone who found the coin on its first day, and then NOTHING. In this situation, when someone who doesn't have the basic technology required for the game, it is probably not prudent to encourage them to make an account, and definitely not a good idea to encourage them to move trackables, in my opinion. It would be different if they had the computer and GPS to make them independent geocachers. Heck, with the iPhone apps these days, I'm not sure the computer is a necessity, and I'm not sure people take the time to read any rules with that, either, but that's another discussion.

 

Anyway, I think being positive and encouraging is the best medicine here. We have no control over people's actions, but we can set a good example for others and extend the geocaching hand of friendship, again and again and again (and again and again...).

[+Jackalgirl]

I think that P&K have some good points. I agree that if she doesn't have a GPSr, that complicates things, though of course it's perfectly possible in many areas to geocache without one (you can do it fairly well with Google maps, provided you live in an area whose map is of a sufficiently small scale).

 

I agree that encouraging is a good idea, though you might want to try something like, "hey, I just got an email from so-and-so who owns xyz TB, who says that the cache logs say the TB is gone and I was one of the last cachers who logged the find before the 'it's not in there' logs started showing up. He/She/They want to know whether I know anything about it." (Of course, make sure that there are such logs. Bonus for talking about a TB that really belongs to someone's highly anxious little kid.)

 

Or, alternately, will you have an opportunity to hang out with her? Write down the tracking numbers when you do, then just go ahead and at least move them into her inventory, since you have her password. A little ninja stealth might do the trick here. ; )

[+Droo]

Without a GPS or computer it's pretty hard to cache if you've never really done it much before. So she's likely not able to move the trackables on BUT you can approach her for the tracking numbers so you can "discover" them, and note in your log that they were in the hands of "username" not in the cache they are tracked to. It would also be an excuse to invite her caching again so she can drop them and you can show her the icon you get to your profile when you log trackables.