+Gillyguppers Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 My travel bug has been discovered online. What does this mean? Quote Link to comment
+The Blorenges Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Oh dear. I just looked at your Mt Kili bug. I see what you mean. It means that somewhere on the www people have been able to find the tracking number of your TB, even if they haven't seen the real TB itself. They are "virtually logging" it... which is not allowed by Groundspeak. It's an "abuse of the system". What can you do? Well, as you're the owner you should really delete the virtual logs - there seems to be quite a lot. How can you stop it happening? It may be necessary for your TB to be locked by Groundspeak. I'm sure Eartha, the Mod on this forum, will give further advice. MrsB Quote Link to comment
+BlueDeuce Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Discovered it in the hands of some geocachers who went to Africa, some years ago, and told the story on internet. If you google your tracking number you can probably find it posted somewhere. We can probably find out who posted it and explain why doing so causes problems. You can post a warning on your bug that virtually logging is not allowed and all logs will be deleted. Or you can have Eartha do it. Quote Link to comment
+BlueDeuce Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 You know, if your bug has been missing or held for over a year you can re-release the it using a copy tag. If you wish you can change the traveler, name, photo, description, mission/goal, just don't delete the logs of the people who previously assisted your bug. Quote Link to comment
+ghettomedic Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 I just googled the Name of your Travel Bug, and the very first result had pictures of 2 Travel bugs complete with clear tracking numbers. I of course will not log them because I don't do that. Quote Link to comment
+BlueDeuce Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Yep, and that's the Africa trip. Quote Link to comment
+kunarion Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 (edited) googled the Name of your Travel Bug, and the very first result had pictures of 2 Travel bugs complete with clear tracking numbers. I've gotten the same results. I don't know why the "virual logs" suddenly began (maybe in a chain letter email), but there are at least two references to your TB# online. One's an actual photo on a hiker/geocacher's web site. They were innocently showing a photo of 2 tags they found in 2004, and may be worth contacting to see if they'd agree to obscure the number. Having that number on display wasn't a problem over the following 5 years, and many people, including the person who posted the photo, don't realize it's an issue. I had my own TB tags posted with numbers showing, when I first started caching. I'd think there could be a secondary layer of miminum security added to logging a Travel Bug (at least in cases like this), but what do I know. Another reference to your number is in google's text cache, and it was once a geocache log where someone typed the number in their found log on Geocaching.com. Once in google, always in google, so that will be tough to remove (but it's also somewhat harder to find than the photo). Edited January 4, 2011 by kunarion Quote Link to comment
+BlueDeuce Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 and may be worth contacting to see if they'd agree to obscure the number. Also from the photo posted on the cache page where they picked it up. Quote Link to comment
+Eartha Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Delete all virtual logs, and smudge the tracking number in any photos you have control over. Quote Link to comment
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