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Who Should I Call?


jhuoni

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Hello fellow cachers, how many times have you seen a really cool TB or GeoCoin listed at a cache and get there to find nothing, nada, zero, zip, zilch, nothing?

 

Happens way too often, doesn't it?

 

Who is responsible for this "misinformation"?

 

Surely not Geocaching.com, they just list them, they don't maintain them.

 

Next person would be the Cache Owner (aka CO), it's their cache should they be responsible for accuracy of it's contents?

 

What about the TB or Coin owner? They surely can't know the true status of their object if it is supposed to be in a cache in Moose Nose, Montana if they live in Bikini Bottomless, Florida.

 

There is that mystery person who is know as a Reviewer. What roll should they play in this mess? This is the person who is tasked with allowing the cache to be published. He doesn't check the actual cache, but makes sure that the CO has the facts correct before it hits the list.

 

How about you - the Cacher. You are at "The Worlds Biggest Travel Bug Hotel" and it shows a zillion TB's and coins. After walking through a mile of lava beds you find that all that is there is an old sweat sock. You could do something, post a comment in the log: TFTC - No TB's Here. But that does no good. Most of us just check the date last found and the FOUND or DNF listings.

 

Who are you supposed to notify?

 

Yep, that's my question.

 

I've said it before, I can be long winded and I like to paint a good picture.

 

Would someone with some "Authority" pleeeaaassseee help with this issue. It is really driving my OCD into high gear.

 

I have to say that EARTHA has assisted me with this matter in the past. Eartha is but one person, and from what I can tell has much more to do than be the keeper of ALL TB's listed, but not really there.

 

Thanks for your time and attention. If you feel as passionately about this as I do, chime in. I have other pet peeves, but they aren't TB related. Look for them on another Forumn.

 

John

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post a note for the TB itself and the owner of the bug or cache owner can list it as "missing". Cache owners have listed two of mine as "missing" because I'd have had no other way to know that they weren't where they were supposed to be.

 

However, if someone contacted me to say a bug was not where it was supposed to be, I could remove it from the cache it was supposed to be in.

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post a note for the TB itself and the owner of the bug or cache owner can list it as "missing". Cache owners have listed two of mine as "missing" because I'd have had no other way to know that they weren't where they were supposed to be.

 

However, if someone contacted me to say a bug was not where it was supposed to be, I could remove it from the cache it was supposed to be in.

 

Exactly.

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Hello fellow cachers, how many times have you seen a really cool TB or GeoCoin listed at a cache and get there to find nothing, nada, zero, zip, zilch, nothing?

 

Happens way too often, doesn't it?

 

Who is responsible for this "misinformation"?

 

Surely not Geocaching.com, they just list them, they don't maintain them.

 

Next person would be the Cache Owner (aka CO), it's their cache should they be responsible for accuracy of it's contents?

 

What about the TB or Coin owner? They surely can't know the true status of their object if it is supposed to be in a cache in Moose Nose, Montana if they live in Bikini Bottomless, Florida.

 

There is that mystery person who is know as a Reviewer. What roll should they play in this mess? This is the person who is tasked with allowing the cache to be published. He doesn't check the actual cache, but makes sure that the CO has the facts correct before it hits the list.

 

How about you - the Cacher. You are at "The Worlds Biggest Travel Bug Hotel" and it shows a zillion TB's and coins. After walking through a mile of lava beds you find that all that is there is an old sweat sock. You could do something, post a comment in the log: TFTC - No TB's Here. But that does no good. Most of us just check the date last found and the FOUND or DNF listings.

 

Who are you supposed to notify?

 

Yep, that's my question.

 

I've said it before, I can be long winded and I like to paint a good picture.

 

Would someone with some "Authority" pleeeaaassseee help with this issue. It is really driving my OCD into high gear.

 

I have to say that EARTHA has assisted me with this matter in the past. Eartha is but one person, and from what I can tell has much more to do than be the keeper of ALL TB's listed, but not really there.

 

Thanks for your time and attention. If you feel as passionately about this as I do, chime in. I have other pet peeves, but they aren't TB related. Look for them on another Forumn.

 

John

 

Whenever you visit a cache and you do not find a bug that was listed on the cache page, try to mention it in your cache log. This will let the cache and bug owner know that they might need to investigate. Note: Just because you didn't see it doesn't mean that it wasn't picked five minutes before you got there. Documentation and history is very important. How sure are the owners that the cacher did a decent job on digging through the cache contents? Two reports are good. Three even better.

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>> Whenever you visit a cache and you do not find a bug that was listed on the cache page, try to mention it in your cache log.

 

I suspect that many people simply don't realise that there is supposed to be a TB/GC in the cache, because you need to specifically look at the inventory tab and see what are the current trackables. I don't think that my Orengon 450 actually shows that there is trackable (and I means shows load and clear, not hidden behind n menu choices). So when they don't see it, they can't log it as missing either because they don't know it was meant to be there. I guess people who have found 1 or 2 TB's/GC will become more attentive, but many ppl simply haven't.

 

In this respect the Geocaching website could be much better than it is today: if you log a cache which is supposed to contain a trackable, it should LOUD AND CLEAR ask you whether you recovered/grabbed the trackable, saw it, didn't see it. (this last option doesn't exist in the system at all). It should NOT be necessary to log a trackable separately via the trackable's page (although it should remain possible).

 

Responsible for the misinformation are all the geocachers between you and the person who dropped the trackable that did NOT report the item as seen/retrieved/missing - but as I said, there is a fair chance that those people simply didn't know there was supposed to be a trackable in the firstplace.

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I don't mind doing it, when it's done properly. Send only a link to the TB/Trackable that has been verified as missing.

Not the cache name.

Not the TB reference number.

Just a link. Then it's very easy to help out. And really, I only get maybe one or two emails a week, if that many, to mark them missing. I am far from being overwhelmed with requests.

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I don't think that my Orengon 450 actually shows that there is trackable (and I means shows load and clear, not hidden behind n menu choices).

it does, on every cache detail page (description, hint, etc), right under the container size: "trackables: X". and at the very bottom of the description, it even tells you the names. i never bother checking the names, but when it tells me that there should be trackables in there (i find it hard not to see that) and there aren't, i make a note in my field note and will then subsequently mention it in my online log and will also post a note to each of the listed trackables.

 

i agree that in some circumstances the page should make it more clear that there's TBs listed in the cache, especially when logging through field notes, as you can end up never looking at the cache page. it's also been suggested that the page should provide a mechanism for people to properly report TBs as missing, as opposed to just posting a note.

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I really enjoy finding, moving or discovering travel bugs and geocoins. In about 80% of the time when there are trackables listed on a geocaches page, they are not actually in the container. I wish I knew if people were just taking them for themselves or just not logging them. I have had my first travel bug and my first geocoin come up missing. I no longer send out my trackables. I register them and keep them for other geocachers to discover.

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I have been wondering the very same question... Its seems to me that there are more TB missing than not. Not sure what else to do but I do try and post on the cache page and post a note for the TB as well. Did find my first coin last week that wasn't listed and had been off the radar for quite awhile. It was nice to get in back in action and on its way again. Anyways, just won't to complain about all the missing trackable as well :laughing:

Edited by bth8503
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Thats good to know, because I was at a cache in Red Rock Canyon in Nevada and there were lots of TB's that were not there, and had not been there since last year. I checked them out. I sent an email to the owner about marking them as missing but he didnt do it. I also sent an email to the TB owner to mark them as missing and they didnt fix it either. Do they not care or what? It doesnt take that much time.

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I actually had the opposite happen once. I found a GC that wasn't listed in the inventory for that cache. The person who dropped it had written that she'd left it in her cache log, but didn't log the coin itself on the coin's page. I marked a visit for mileage and then logged the drop when I moved it. I wasn't sure if that was the right thing to do or not, since it was the first time I FOUND a trackable that wasn't listed.

 

I also bought a second-hand handheld and in the package was a TB that looked like it had gone missing quite a while before I got it. I was very happy to be able to start it on its way again, but have not heard anything from the owner. I didn't specifically email him, either, but I thought he should have gotten an email when I logged it as dropped.

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If you find a TB in a cache that wasn't listed, it is possible that it was dropped off just before you got there and that person hasn't had a chance to do the logging yet. Try to give them a couple days to do the drop, especially over the weekend.

 

If nothing happens grab the bug away from where ever it's at, post a Note on the cache you found it in and either Drop and Retrieve the bug or log a 'Visit' so the bug gets credit for having been at the cache.

 

The bug owner will get an email whenever the bug is logged.

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In the case of the second one, it was shown as retrieved from a cache in PA over a year before I got it.

 

I just looked at the logs for the coin. The person DID log that she dropped it in the cache I found it in, but posted it in her retrieve log from the cache she took it from...she didn't post a drop log at all. That was over a month before I found it and took it.

 

:)

 

ETA: Scratch that...she posted a retrieve log on the coin's page instead of a drop log.

Edited by madmomma72
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I've actually been wondering this exact question.

 

(Warning: ramble mode ON. Blame that Blarney Stone.)

 

I recently had a trip planned to the east coast and then overseas, and I thought it might be nice to move some travelbugs/trackables. So I went on a bug hunt. (Pesticide free, I'm organic like that. :anitongue: ) And maybe I'm just a relative newbie to geocaching, but I was surprised to find how many trackables were MIA at the caches, some for a looooooong time, without being reported missing despite cachers' reports.

 

Which made me wonder, as more trackables get placed and missing trackables stay logged in, would there be more trackable clutter over time?

 

And that's how I found this thread. Nice to know there's an answer. Why can't life always be that simple?

 

thanks,

tvchick.

 

:D

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