Tired of disappearing Travel Bugs?

[+Seth!]

The Washington State Geocaching Association has a new feature that just might help. It's the Travel Bug Information Sheet generator. Using a simple, online form you can create and print an information sheet that can travel with your bug. It is a double-sided mini-doc that explains just how to log YOUR Travel Bug. The design is based on a similar sheet by Markwell. While I can't guarantee it will save your TB or even that it will print out exactly the way you want, I think you'll be pleased.

 

- Seth!

 

 

[Les Gaulois (romary)]

Superb idea. I will translete it in French.

[+Lil Devil]

Just last night I was searching the forums for examples of letters to include with some new Travel Bugs. I had kinda combined them into a letter, but I wasn't quite happy with it. Now I find this! While I would have worded a couple of things differently, it is vastly better than anything I had come up with. I've already printed out two forms for my new TBs, as well as two for other TBs that I have in my possession. (It's too bad one of them didn't already have one because I brought it from Arizona to California when it wanted to go to New York!)

 

Thanks Seth!

 

Lil Devil

[+Seth!]

If you would like to send me suggestions for alternate wording, I'd be open to that. Also, I could set up .asp pages for a French version or other languages as well. Just send me the translations.

 

- Seth!

 

[+Markwell]

I abbreviated my original bug sheet considerably by indicating on the bug tag that the finder could go to www.markwell.us and go to the FAQ. On that page are detailed instructions on how to log a travel bug.

 

Now the tag is about 3" square, much more managable than the 4.25" x 5.5" one that I originally did.

 

Markwell

Chicago Geocaching

[+Glorfindel]

Seth.

 

Thanks for your work on this! What a cool utility. I have made sheets for my bugs (some of which are lonely in hard to reach caches that no one has visited to months). Perhaps some day I can attach them. My new bugs will definately get one!

 

Perhaps this can become a feature Jeremy would like to develop on the GC main site. I know there are tons of cachers not following the forums. I guess this should go in the "features request" forum.

[+CYBret]

Since many have been creating "trading cards" for their caches, I decided to create trading cards for my bug. I'll be putting about 8 to 10 of them in the baggie with it with instructions to take a card and pass the bug along.

 

Not a perminant solution, but a fun one.

 

Bret

 

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.

When a man found it, he hid it again." Mt. 13:44

[+Seth!]

Markwell wrote:

quote:

---

I abbreviated my original bug sheet considerably by indicating on the bug tag that the finder could go to www.markwell.us and go to the FAQ. On that page are detailed instructions on how to log a travel bug. Now the tag is about 3" square, much more managable than the 4.25" x 5.5" one that I originally did.

---

Well, the Travel Bug tags have a URL on them. The problem is that people just don't go to these URLs to see what to do with a Travel Bug. The key to our Sheet is that it gives them the information right then and there.

 

Glorfindel wrote:

quote:

---

Perhaps this can become a feature Jeremy would like to develop on the GC main site.

---

We will probably be seeing a link to our sheet or our site on geocaching.com in the near future.

 

I've been printing out these sheets for other people's Travel Bugs as I move them from geocache to geocache.

 

- Seth!

 

[+Seth!]

The cards have been popular. Seemed like a good time to bump up this thread.

 

[+Alan2]

Very timely. I just took someone's TB yesterday from a cache. I created the special instructions pages and placed them and the TB in a Ziplock labelled Travel Bug Do Not Remove Unless You Intend To Log It On-Line. So now it's ready to pass-on. Hopefuly this will protect his TB.

 

Alan

[+carleenp]

I've used your info sheet (placed in a baggie w/ the bug). Thanks!

 

I think the next one that I release will have the sheet laminated and attached.

[+dthigpen]

Great Job! Thanks for the work you put into this, I'll definately make use of it.

 

Doug

[+ron50eli]

What aggravates me is that the TB's are logged before the last person has been able to log due to vacation or long trips. Then your Bug loses miles. I sent 8 out there in plastic bags with they're goals. Hope they are still in the same order. But I do wish that when someone grabbes one, they would check first to see if it has been logged by must recent cacher. WANT THOSE MILES.

Happy & Safe Caching.......

rocker51

[+Glorfindel]

I have had the same trouble and there is a way to fix it although a little bit of a pain. You can retake possesion of your bug and log your drop on the appropriate date which should fix the miles. Then to put the bug back in the right cache or in the hands of the right owner, you need to have them pick it up or edit their log and redrop the bug.

 

It's a pain but it corrected my bug from 28 miles to 722 miles.

[+jonsom]

This is what I have been doing with the Tbugs that I have picked up. Since I have picked up a couple that I did not know the goal of the TB, now I print a copy of the goal and put it with the TB. This is a little off subject, but somewhat relevant.

jonsom

[+CYBret]

 

Here's a picture, front and back of my new travel bug trading card. I'm putting 15 of these in the bag with SpongeBob and a separate card encouraging each person who moves him along to take one.

 

Hopefully this will be a fun way to keep SpongeBob on target with his goal.

 

Bret

 

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.

When a man found it, he hid it again." Mt. 13:44

[+ron50eli]

quote:

---

Originally posted by carleenp:

I've used your info sheet (placed in a baggie w/ the bug). Thanks!

 

I think the next one that I release will have the sheet laminated and attached.

---

 

I think that is what I'm going to do too with my next set of TB's. Plus, don't forget to put they're goals with em'.

rocker51

[+Ltljon]

I just made one for a bug I haven't replaced yet.

Thanks!

[+konagold]

Lost three in them last month,anything we can do to advise new cachers not to take bugs if they arn't going to follow the procedure has got to be helpful.

[+Seth!]

Just want to make sure that folks see this.

 

[+ShaneN4Girls]

When I try to print up these pages, the top of the second page is printing on page 1. What can I do to stop it?

 

Thanks!!!!

[+Sabaharr]

I only wish I had found this before I put out my last bug yesterday. My wife still has 3 to let out and you can bet one of these sheets will be on each of them.

 

Life is like being on a dog sled team. If you are not the lead dog the view is always the same.

Complacancy is feeding a tiger steaks while waiting for him to become a vegitarian.

[+1pilot]

Thanks SETH! My bugs will have this attached, I seem to have lost both of the bugs I've released, I am still holding some hope, BUT, after looking at this page

 

Travel Bug Gravyard

 

I think I might as well give up on them and move them here.

Bob G. (1pilot)

[+Seth!]

Team Shrek,

 

The pages are designed to print on two pages, as you can tell. Run the first one through then back through your printer to put the backside on. But, that isn't working for you.

 

In order to fix your problem, I'd suggest going to "page setup" and adjust your top and bottom margins. Perhaps you have them set at .5 and need to change them to .75 inches. Experiment with that and look at it in "Print Preview". Adjust the numbers until it looks like it will print okay.

 

RSVP if that works or not!

 

- Seth!

 

[+droosa]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sabaharr:

I only wish I had found this before I put out my last bug yesterday. My wife still has 3 to let out and you can bet one of these sheets will be on each of them.

---

 

If we find your TB we will print the sheet for you. That is what we have done in the past for the two bugs we found. This is a great idea for TBs and all of ours have the sheet with it.

[+Sabaharr]

I liked this idea so much we went out to Wally World and bought a hot laminating maching. They are only $17 and you would be surprized to find out how many uses you can find for one once you have it. I hope the kids don't laminate the dog.

 

Life is like being on a dog sled team. If you are not the lead dog the view is always the same.

Complacancy is feeding a tiger steaks while waiting for him to become a vegitarian.

[+Webfoot]

quote:

---

Well, the Travel Bug tags have a URL on them. The problem is that people just don't go to these URLs to see what to do with a Travel Bug. The key to our Sheet is that it gives them the information right then and there.

---

 

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. I wish I'd had something like this for a couple of my early T-bugs. I just ordered four new ones and I'll utilize this.

[GoatBeard]

As much as I hate to say it I suggest using Internet Explorer when printing the Travel Bug info card.

[+Runaround]

Two of my bugs had similar sheets attached and they both went MIA. One of the bugs was smaller than the attached warning tag so you couldn't possibly miss it.

 

I'm not sure anything really works to protect bugs adequately.

 

Now where did I park my car???????

[+droosa]

quote:

---

I'm not sure anything really works to protect bugs adequately.

---

 

Exactly, it is all in the hands of the players. All of the extra rule and dialog is not going to make any difference.

 

Release the bug and just go for it.

[+Pharmadude]

Moving this thread to top of page 1

[+bthomas]

Glad this thread popped to the top, again. It's a model tag.

 

Seth, can you/WSGA also create a smaller tag template? a) it will fit into more caches; it needs even more brevity to aid finders (eg, bullet point format).

 

Squint when reading the text-- the paragraph text turns into a block of fuzzy grey. That's what the average newbie sees after a sweaty quarter mile hike and 10 minutes of looking under oak logs. The taxed brain glosses over it, like it does for lawyer disclaimer legalese or spam in the e-mail in-box.

 

May I also suggest the head statement say something concise about what should be done... Take only if playing the travel bug game... Take only if you log and place this bug correctly... Take only if you've moved a travel bug before.

 

Re finders not seeing the metal tag's www.geocaching.com URL: it looks like a vendor's advertising link to a newbie. It is not typographical distinct, either. The brain gets habituated to the greyness of text.

 

2 cents from a 300 bug finder who got tired of someone's cool bug going MIA after being moved to the next cache.

[+bthomas]

One more thought. I subscribe to the Information Mapping theory of user docs and manuals. Bullet points and graphics is what most people assimilate the quickest.

 

On the issue of newbies not knowing how to log: it may be useful to have a screen dump of a cache page corner with the bug icon, with an arrow that says click here; this goes on the tag back.

 

In the instruction manual world, in the old paradigm, a protocol for the use of a pen would have a page of thick text describing how to uncap. A modern instruction manual would just have a picture of a hand uncapping the pen.

[+Teach2Learn]

I agree completely with bthomas:

 

I love the travel bug info. templates, but too often they appear as paragraphs, not concise instructions.

 

Bullets or numbered steps are best.

 

A "screen dump" illustrating the travel bug log page catches attention.

 

Additional instructive graphics make it easier and more fun--isn't that one reason we have avatars?

 

Let me hasten to add that I'm just thankful some people are willing to take the time to make the templates and allow others to use them.

[+Markwell]

As I mentioned back in September, the bug cards I was originally sending out were too large - 1/4 of an 8.5x11 sheet. That card made it so that the bugs couldn't go in a whole lot of caches.

 

I've since made the font considerably smaller and shortened the text a little. But I've also followed Seth!'s advice about having the necessary info right on the bug card. Here's the snapshots of the new bug cards I'm sending out.

 

Front:

 

Back:

 

They print off much smaller, and make moving the bugs into smaller caches easier. They still have most of the data from my first version, but use a MUCH smaller font. I've found that this increases the chances of them getting placed into caches quite a bit.

 

Thanks again to Seth! for doing the work and getting a version up online for people to fill out. Really neat stuff.

 

Markwell

Chicago Geocaching

[+MiTuCats]

In addition to the two forms listed here, there are a couple of others floating around.

 

The one we've used the most was provided by Rocket Man and is found at the following URL:

http://www.eckeguides.com/geocaching_stuff/Travel_Bug_Front_and_Back.doc

 

This prints out business card sized labels which are quite nice.

 

Another good idea was found at this URL: http://www.geocaching.com/track/track_detail.asp?ID=32365

 

The neat thing about this one is that it provides a means of removing the outbound goal and leaving only the return goal. That's handy if you want your travel bug to visit a specific place and return home. Once the outbound goal has been removed from the sheet, a finder doesn't have to check to see what direction it is heading. That might help to prevent oscillatory behavior on the part of the TB when in the middle of its travels.

 

These are both found on the thread "labeling travel bugs" which also contains some advice about laminating, etc. from a variety of people. The WSGA sheet is also on that thread. My only experience with that sheet was similar to Markwell's comment, in that it was hard to put into smaller caches when we had a TB using it with us.

 

All of these formats are great aids to the finders in my opinion and I greatly appreciate the effort people have put into them and that they have freely shared them with those of us who are less able to develop these templates on our own. Thanks to everyone who has done so!

 

For some reason, the URL pasting didn't work right today, it ended up putting in the link twice on both of them. When I tried to edit it down, I wasn't sure which characters to remove and leave at the end of the string, so it still isn't quite right. However, it should be possible to make use of it if you really want to by copying it into your address bar in your web access software. Sorry, strange things often happen to me in the forums, but this is the first time I've seen this particular variant. Usually I just have to refresh after every thread change.

 

"Roads? Where we're going we don't need .... roads" --Dr. Emmett L. Brown

 

[This message was edited by MiTuCats on July 21, 2003 at 09:41 AM.]

[+Webfoot]

quote:

---

Originally posted by MiTuCats:

In addition to the two forms listed here, there are a couple of others floating around.

 

The one we've used the most was provided by Rocket Man and is found at the following URL:

http://www.eckeguides.com/geocaching_stuff/Travel_Bug_Front_and_Back.doc

 

I started using this one a couple of bugs ago. I like the size as the one listed at the top was a little on the large size. I used that one for my Cannonball racer. It's size, and that of the bug itself, probably prevented the bug from moving as quickly as it could have, had they both been smaller.

 

_________________________________

 

Webfoot

 

Tromping through the underbrush looking for Ammo cans, Tupperware containers, & little round disks.

[+Pharmadude]

Markwell, my travel bug card looks very much like yours, with one major exception. If I were to find your Lassie in a geocache, I might be reluctant to pick her up, because there is no mention of her mission or destination. In other words, always include a sentence or two describing where the bug wants to go.

We learned this the hard way with this TB - Great Lakes Ducky

He had made it all the way from the west coast to the Great Lakes, only to find himself back on the west coast, because he didn't have a "mission" attached.

 

[This message was edited by Pharmadude on July 21, 2003 at 06:03 PM.]

[+Teach2Learn]

Having an assortment of TB information cards to choose from or adapt is a welcome luxury.

 

I received my TB tag purchase and want to do all I can to improve odds of survival:

 

1. Use the TB information cards with laminated, clear, colorful, concise logging directions and TB missions/goals for the grabber to read.

 

2. Keep TB items in a Ziploc/food-saver bag for protection.

 

3. Find a traditional, fairly high-traffic cache for each TB's release.

 

4. Connect the items that go into each TB bag as permanently as possible--this leads me to a question...

 

Question: The official TB tag is easy to connect to key-ring type items, but what about something like a thin, soft but fairly sturdy four-inch tall finger puppet? I'm not sure that just wrapping it in the TB tag chain would work well or that I would put much faith in twist-ties. There's not much to drill holes into, so is sewing it together a better option? I'm hoping for confirmation or alternative suggestions.

 

Teach2Learn

 

[This message was edited by Teach2Learn on July 23, 2003 at 08:03 PM.]

 

[This message was edited by Teach2Learn on July 23, 2003 at 08:39 PM.]

[+Markwell]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Pharmadude:

always include a sentence or two describing where the bug wants to go.

---

But does it REALLY matter if the bug goes off course?

 

To look at your example, Lassie's mission to look for Timmy will be a transient goal. Lassie won't find Timmy when she gets there, so she'll have to look somewhere else. Since I haven't decided where, I can't very well put it on the card.

 

Another better example of my point though is Geoffrey. Just when I thought he had completed his journey, I find out that a doppelganger had been masquerading as Geoffrey. When the original turned up he was in Finland.

 

Was I disappointed? No! Emphatically No! That simply meant that Geoffrey's journey could continue for a much longer time.

 

Is the goal of a Travel Bug to get to its goal, or to Travel?

 

Markwell

Chicago Geocaching

[+Webfoot]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Markwell:

Is the goal of a Travel Bug to get to its goal, or to Travel?

---

For something like this, I guess it's really a matter of perspective. Some people have a distinct goal in mind and get bothered if their bug goes off track.

 

You and I seem to think the journey is more important. That's what makes the world go round though. If we all thought the same way, it would be a very boring place.

 

_________________________________

 

Webfoot

 

Tromping through the underbrush looking for Ammo cans, Tupperware containers, & little round disks.

[Hearts_of_CG]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sabaharr:

I liked this idea so much we went out to Wally World and bought a hot laminating maching. They are only $17 and you would be surprized to find out how many uses you can find for one once you have it. I hope the kids don't laminate the dog.

 

Life is like being on a dog sled team. If you are not the lead dog the view is always the same.

Complacancy is feeding a tiger steaks while waiting for him to become a vegitarian.

---

 

I am so glad to hear that there is someone else out there who has concerns for their pets life when technology meetsthe hands of children...HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

When I read that I about fell out of my chair laughing and then looked right at my son ...he is sitting next to me ...he was like WHAT????? I was like HELLOOOOO dont get any ideas!!!!!!!!! Then I just got that smile you know the one....when cold shivers travel up and down your spine because you know your child just had a thought...........HEH!!!!!!!!!!!

 

To cache or not to cache...is there a question?

[+Pharmadude]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Pharmadude:

always include a sentence or two describing where the bug wants to go.

---

quote:

---

Markwell's reply: Is the goal of a Travel Bug to get to its goal, or to Travel?

---

 

YES!

 

The answer of course is both. Some travel bugs have a destination as a goal, and for some the goal is simply to travel. So to restate my point, it is helpful to know what that goal before picking up the bug.

 

[This message was edited by Pharmadude on July 25, 2003 at 01:07 PM.]