Beginner's questions

[+cindypenney]

Firstly what is the ettiquete with travel bugs in your own cache? Someone has left a bug in our second cache, if he is lurking around there for weeks should I go and get him and move him on, or is the rule that they have to stay where they are until someone finds them when they locate the cache?

 

Secondly, I have the geocaching app for the iphone but it doesn't seem to work- the free one was fine. It never seems to be able to look for caches when we are out and about. Do I need to be a full member of the site to access all the features? Should I be adding pocket queries before we set off rather than trying to find the caches once we are on the road? We have also been using an Android free app, which seems to be more reliable, but doesn't have all the features like logging caches, and my husband has a Garmin wrist GPS thingy that he uses for running that we could use instead. Would anyone recommend persevering with the iphone app? Is The full membership good value?

 

I know there are separate forums for some of my questions but I was hoping to speak to people in the same time zone. Hope this is OK.

 

Cindy

[+Lovejoy and Tinker]

Welcome!

 

I can answer your first question I think.

 

The point of travel bugs is to travel, and it's not frowned upon to move coins and TBs from your own caches.

 

Having said that I would do as you suggest and wait until they have been there a little while.

If you dash out and grab every TB or coin that lands in your cache it may stop people visiting your cache as there would never be a TB in there.

(I know that is not what you are suggesting by the way, so I think you are doing it right already).

 

We sometimes swap stuff that's in our caches, especially if they have been there a while. We'll take one out to get it moving again and leave another in its place that we have just picked up.

Nothing wrong with that at all, just helping to keep things moving.

 

We have a TB that's been stuck in someones TB prison hotel for 3 months, and I wish the owner would go and rescue it and move it on (like they say they will on their cache page), but they don't seem keen to do so.

 

As for the iPhone stuff I can't really help - I'm a WinMo user myself. But I am sure someone here will be able to help.

 

Good luck and have fun

[+cindypenney]

Thanks, glad we have the right idea.

 

So exciting and such a relief when the system works and people actually find our caches, didn't want to ruin it with a massive breach of the rules with a TB!

[+Sensei TSKC]

Regarding the iPhone App: i have it and find it extremely good.

 

I can recommend either using it in the field - arriving at your start point and then searching for 'nearby caches' OR pick your area, find a local cache and search on that whilst you have wi-fi or internet access. then choose the caches you want to do and save them as favourites. this way the info is available even if there is no internet access at GZ.

 

Saying this, I do not use the phone as a GPS to locate the cache unless I have to. I much prefer a dedicated unit. Together it's an awesome combination.

 

In the settings of the app, you should insert your GC ID and pwd. this will then identify caches you have done and allow you to log the cache straight away or save as field notes. I recommend Premium Membership IF you use GSAK, take advantage of the other GS utilities and want to run Pocket Queries.

 

It's not a great deal of money - 10 pints for a years membership i think. As I don't drink it's no hardship for me LOL!

[+Lovejoy and Tinker]

It's not a great deal of money - 10 pints for a years membership i think. As I don't drink it's no hardship for me LOL!

Membership is $30

That's £19.43

 

Under two quid a pint?

 

Either you have not had a pint for a very long time OR could you please let me know the name of your local.

 

 

@cindypenney:

It's not so much the rules you want to worry about as etiquette. People forgive beginners breaking the rules a little, but I have heard that if you don't follow etiquette then people point and whisper about you at events

[+Pharisee]

It's not a great deal of money - 10 pints for a years membership i think. As I don't drink it's no hardship for me LOL!

Membership is $30

That's £19.43

 

Under two quid a pint?

 

Either you have not had a pint for a very long time OR could you please let me know the name of your local.

 

 

@cindypenney:

It's not so much the rules you want to worry about as etiquette. People forgive beginners breaking the rules a little, but I have heard that if you don't follow etiquette then people point and whisper about you at events

Any Whetherspoons pub... Their 'cooking bitter' is less than £1.50 a pint and guest ales usually about £1.95.

[+Lovejoy and Tinker]

Any Whetherspoons pub... Their 'cooking bitter' is less than £1.50 a pint and guest ales usually about £1.95.

Strooth, I haven't paid less than £2.75 for a pint of bitter for over a year. Mind you, at £1.50 a pint I would get too drunk.

 

Very sorry OP for going off topic so quickly, i'll stop talking about beer now. Sorry

[+FantasyRaider]

 

Under two quid a pint?

 

Either you have not had a pint for a very long time OR could you please let me know the name of your local.

 

 

BEER lovers have found the world?s cheapest ale – costing an incredible 10p A PINT.

 

But the bad news for boozers is they must travel to war-torn Somalia, troubled Congo, or the remote Pacific islands of Tuvalu to get it.

10p???

[+Bear and Ragged]

 

BEER lovers have found the world?s cheapest ale – costing an incredible 10p A PINT.

 

But the bad news for boozers is they must travel to war-torn Somalia, troubled Congo, or the remote Pacific islands of Tuvalu to get it.

10p???

... And the cost to get out there?

 

[+cindypenney]

Regarding the iPhone App: i have it and find it extremely good.

 

I can recommend either using it in the field - arriving at your start point and then searching for 'nearby caches' OR pick your area, find a local cache and search on that whilst you have wi-fi or internet access. then choose the caches you want to do and save them as favourites. this way the info is available even if there is no internet access at GZ.

 

Saying this, I do not use the phone as a GPS to locate the cache unless I have to. I much prefer a dedicated unit. Together it's an awesome combination.

 

In the settings of the app, you should insert your GC ID and pwd. this will then identify caches you have done and allow you to log the cache straight away or save as field notes. I recommend Premium Membership IF you use GSAK, take advantage of the other GS utilities and want to run Pocket Queries.

 

It's not a great deal of money - 10 pints for a years membership i think. As I don't drink it's no hardship for me LOL!

 

Thanks. I have got my details on there, it just seems really slow to do anything once we are out of the range of wifi, and often, due to weak Internet signal the maps etc. won't load making it useless. I've had a smug husband using his Android phone to find caches while mine gets stuck on the locate nearby caches page. Also, half of the Isle of Wight seems to have no phone signal, which also makes the app useless. I just wonder if I should be doing more before I set out?

 

Everyone on the cheap beer- yuck! I'm a wine drinker Only drink beer if it has a lime in a bottle or in an Indian restaurant with a curry!

[+Delta68]

... and it's not frowned upon to move coins and TBs from your own caches.

 

I'm frowning!

 

I would only move trackables from our caches if the owner requested it

 

 

Mark

[+Lovejoy and Tinker]

I'm frowning!

 

I would only move trackables from our caches if the owner requested it

Mark

Why?

 

Struggling to see who would be upset/annoyed at you moving on a TB that has landed in one of your own caches. Or why.

 

Surely the point of a TB is to keep it passing through people's hands and moving on, toward its goal if it has one. Why shouldn't one of those people be the owner of the cache ?

 

I'm confused (Is that the 'confused' smiley?)

[+Yorkie30]

If a TB is in your cache for a long time, 2 months longer then I would move it on. I have seen some stuck in puzzle caches for over a year waiting for people to move them on.

 

What I don't like is when someone collects a load of TB's caches and then holds on to them before releasing about 5 at once into one of there own caches. Most people will only take one at once meaning yours can be stuck for ages.

[team tisri]

It's not a great deal of money - 10 pints for a years membership i think. As I don't drink it's no hardship for me LOL!

Membership is $30

That's £19.43

 

Under two quid a pint?

 

Either you have not had a pint for a very long time OR could you please let me know the name of your local.

 

 

@cindypenney:

It's not so much the rules you want to worry about as etiquette. People forgive beginners breaking the rules a little, but I have heard that if you don't follow etiquette then people point and whisper about you at events

Any Whetherspoons pub... Their 'cooking bitter' is less than £1.50 a pint and guest ales usually about £1.95.

 

Argh, around our way Wetherspoons might as well be called Chaverchavs.

 

Back to the OP. Personally if I release a TB I don't care who handles it as long as it keeps moving. If I'm approaching a foreign holiday I gather up TBs and carry them long distances, and if I'm caching while away I round up TBs and bring them home. Last year I came home with (I think) 18 TBs - so many it took me nearly two months to move them all on because I didn't want to just dump a load in a single cache, and didn't want to dump so many new icons within a short distance of each other. But that's just me.

 

If someone created new very difficult cache and rounded up a load of TBs to put in it, I'd say that was probably excessive but then that's just me. I figure if you release a TB at all you have to be willing to accept what happens to it - in another thread someone said it was a bit like throwing a £10 note out of the window to see where it landed. I really don't think there's any point anyone getting precious about who handles it.

 

Sometimes if I've already found a cache but notice there's a cool coin in it I'll go out and grab the coin. I'm sure some would frown on that but if I can move the coin on somewhere else I don't see a problem.

[+The Blorenges]

It's fine for any cacher to pick up a TB and move it along, as long as they are able to help it on its journey.

 

There's no reason at all why a cache owner can not collect a TB from one of their own caches to move it on its way.

 

If you go to a cache and there are 2/4/10/57 trackable items in it and you know you are able to move them all along, according to their missions, then you are allowed to do so.

 

Trackable items (that is travel bugs, geocoins or any of the more unusual trackables that are now around) belong to their owners and they're out there to travel. There's no need to 'trade' for trackable items - If you take one from a cache you do not have to leave one in its place, even if that is what it says on the cache description. Cache owner should not put their own versions of "trade restrictions" on other cachers' trackables.

 

MrsB

[+currykev]

Move a TB on at anytime you fancy. Or place one into your own cache if you find yourself stuck for time.

The iPhone app is here to stay and can only become more reliable in time...internal gps also.

Wetherspoon pubs are home to many an old boy. Many workers also frequent this chain of pubs as a pint of beer at a decent price isn't such a bad thing. £2.00 for a pint of water with a few added ingrediants ain't no bargain wherever you reside.

I ain't no chav innit!

[+BlueDeuce]

Visiting or revisiting any cache including your own is perfectly acceptable. My bugs are meant to move, so you do not need to wait and let them sit for a while. Nobody can tell you that you cannot pick up my bugs.

Edited September 12, 2010 by BlueDeuce

[+Delta68]

I'm frowning!

 

I would only move trackables from our caches if the owner requested it

Mark

Why?

 

 

It's probably not so much the case now, but having trackables in caches used to attract visitors

 

On a few occasions we made a conscious effort to visit caches which hadn't been visited for a while and contained stuck TBs (there used to be a bookmark list of caches with stuck TBs)

 

Even now, if we were about to find the last cache of the day and there was a choice between one containing a trackable and one without, (assuming they were the same in all other respects) I'd choose the one with the trackable

 

 

Mark

[+Lovejoy and Tinker]

I'm frowning!

 

I would only move trackables from our caches if the owner requested it

Mark

Why?

 

 

It's probably not so much the case now, but having trackables in caches used to attract visitors

 

On a few occasions we made a conscious effort to visit caches which hadn't been visited for a while and contained stuck TBs (there used to be a bookmark list of caches with stuck TBs)

 

Even now, if we were about to find the last cache of the day and there was a choice between one containing a trackable and one without, (assuming they were the same in all other respects) I'd choose the one with the trackable

 

 

Mark

 

But in my original post I did say:

"Having said that I would do as you suggest and wait until they have been there a little while.

If you dash out and grab every TB or coin that lands in your cache it may stop people visiting your cache as there would never be a TB in there."

 

So I did make that exact point, maybe you just didn't read that far as I do tend to ramble

 

But that still doesn't really explain why you would await the TB owners permission (paraphrasing what you said there, sorry) before moving their TB's out of your caches.

 

Your above argument (a very valid one by the way, we too leave coins in our caches to attract visitors) is based on the effect such an action would have on the cache owner, rather than the TB owner.

So why would you ask the TB owner's permission, or wait for their request, if you think it's time to move a TB out of your cache (or swap it for another).

 

Sorry, I'm rambling again, but I still don't see the logic.