Cleaning Up Trackables

[+gloryglorytoga]

Greetings fellow geocachers!

I'm relatively new to caching, starting at the first of June. Since then, I've been able to log 268 finds in 4 states. I've noticed a trend and wondered what fellow cachers think about the lack of appropriate logging of trackables. Of the caches I have found to date, about 80 listed travel bugs / geocoins in the inventory. Only three have actually had trackables in them. I used an iPhone and often log the trackable on the way back to the car. I personally enjoy this part of the game, but I'm getting frustrated that the online inventory lists aren't accurate. Today was a perfect example...logged 12 finds and those that said there were trackables (one was a travel bug hotel) and none contained a TB or GC. I'm not sure of the appropriate protocol, but find the track record so far disheartening. What do you think? Should there (or is there) a annual week of scrubbing the trackables inventory to see what is accurate? I dropped a TB about three weeks ago and someone picked it up about an hour later (we went back in checked that particular cache) and it wasn't logged until today.

 

Thoughts?

[+Warturtle]

Greetings fellow geocachers!

I'm relatively new to caching, starting at the first of June. Since then, I've been able to log 268 finds in 4 states. I've noticed a trend and wondered what fellow cachers think about the lack of appropriate logging of trackables. Of the caches I have found to date, about 80 listed travel bugs / geocoins in the inventory. Only three have actually had trackables in them. I used an iPhone and often log the trackable on the way back to the car. I personally enjoy this part of the game, but I'm getting frustrated that the online inventory lists aren't accurate. Today was a perfect example...logged 12 finds and those that said there were trackables (one was a travel bug hotel) and none contained a TB or GC. I'm not sure of the appropriate protocol, but find the track record so far disheartening. What do you think? Should there (or is there) a annual week of scrubbing the trackables inventory to see what is accurate? I dropped a TB about three weeks ago and someone picked it up about an hour later (we went back in checked that particular cache) and it wasn't logged until today.

 

Thoughts?

I've began to get frustrated with that too. There are caches around me that have tbs/coins listed, but a note on the trackable page (from 2009!) says it isn't in the cache anymore! I e-mailed the owner of a geocoin that had been missing since 2009, and once I told them it isn't there, they marked it missing. I'll probably start doing that more often.

[+Ambient_Skater]

I've always been surprised that owners of trackables don't keep better track of their trackables. More often than not the bugs listed on the cache page aren't in the cache. I've learned to stop expecting to see trackables in a cache's inventory in the cache anymore. If they're in there that's great, if not, I still found the cache.

[+Team Van Dyk]

This is a Top 10 Request: http://feedback.geocaching.com/forums/75775-geocaching-com/suggestions/1070029-trackables-no-longer-in-caches?ref=title

 

If you haven't already, I would encourage you to vote and add a comment. Hopefully, they address this soon.

[+Dgwphotos]

I've always been surprised that owners of trackables don't keep better track of their trackables. More often than not the bugs listed on the cache page aren't in the cache. I've learned to stop expecting to see trackables in a cache's inventory in the cache anymore. If they're in there that's great, if not, I still found the cache.

 

I suspect that many cache owners do not know that they can mark trackables as missing. I also suspect that many missing trackables get picked up by new cachers who do not yet know how to log trackables, and so they are never logged, and simply disappear from the system.

[+power69]

Greetings fellow geocachers!

I'm relatively new to caching, starting at the first of June. Since then, I've been able to log 268 finds in 4 states. I've noticed a trend and wondered what fellow cachers think about the lack of appropriate logging of trackables. Of the caches I have found to date, about 80 listed travel bugs / geocoins in the inventory. Only three have actually had trackables in them. I used an iPhone and often log the trackable on the way back to the car. I personally enjoy this part of the game, but I'm getting frustrated that the online inventory lists aren't accurate. Today was a perfect example...logged 12 finds and those that said there were trackables (one was a travel bug hotel) and none contained a TB or GC. I'm not sure of the appropriate protocol, but find the track record so far disheartening. What do you think? Should there (or is there) a annual week of scrubbing the trackables inventory to see what is accurate? I dropped a TB about three weeks ago and someone picked it up about an hour later (we went back in checked that particular cache) and it wasn't logged until today.

 

Thoughts?

tbs / geocoins are the most frustrating part of the game.

everything ive put out has been stolen

-

if theres at least one find after a tb drop, you pretty much can count on it not being there.

[+The Blorenges]

Greetings fellow geocachers!

... Today was a perfect example...logged 12 finds and those that said there were trackables (one was a travel bug hotel) and none contained a TB or GC. I'm not sure of the appropriate protocol, but find the track record so far disheartening...

 

Thoughts?

 

It's helpful if you can put a log on each trackable's home page saying, "Not seen in Whatevername cache today".

 

It's even more helpful if you can also mention in your cache log, "The listed trackables, NameA, NameB, NameC, were not in the cache today." Using the names of the items (or, alternatively, their 'public' reference numbers) is better than writing "Didn't see the TB in the cache".

 

As mentioned above, many cache owners don't know that they can mark a trackable as 'Missing', thus removing it from their cache's inventory. Those that do know are sometimes hesitant to do so because they feel (mistakenly) that they would be permanently removing the item from the game.

 

MrsB

Edited July 17, 2011 by The Blorenges

[+Team Geofrog]

I agree, i feel like I'm a trackable inventory manager when I'm logging caches. When I find a cache I write down the trackballs I see. Then I discover them when I log the cache. Usually there are missing ones and I note that on the cache owners page. If it's been months I notify them how to mark it as missing. If I find ones that aren't in the cache, I'll post a note stating thatidiscovered it in "X" cache and then I picket up then place it in "Y" cache to match the inventory with the physical cache. It makes the logging process quite a bit longer. I've also given up on putting TBs out as they go AWOL a lot.

[Keystone]

I am moving this thread from the Geocaching Topics forum to the Travel Bug forum.

[+Walts Hunting]

taThis topic is brought up about once a day on these forums nd never results in a solution. My suggestion would be two mqrtinis and a rare ribeye steqk and not worry about th elittle thin gs. I Iprefer a Zen approach and dont fret over little things.

Edited July 17, 2011 by Walts Hunting

[+terrkan78]

taThis topic is brought up about once a day on these forums nd never results in a solution. My suggestion would be two mqrtinis and a rare ribeye steqk and not worry about th elittle thin gs. I Iprefer a Zen approach and dont fret over little things.

Ahhh, but you see the Zen approach only works *after* the martini. Now I suppose I could always throw martini fixins in the backpack and take a swig before each cache I open, just in case the listed trackables are missing? But how am I gonna even *find* the blasted cache after a couple of martinis? And what if I don't like martinis? Coca cola (which I'm sure you'll agree is the best tasting stuff on the face of the earth) doesn't promote Zen nearly as well. And the thought of a rare ribeye steak getting squashed in my backpack all day...yikes!

 

To the OP: I think a lot of people are pretty casual about this whole game, which includes trackables. This means that if you release trackables, you can count on most of them going missing. And if you seek trackables, you can count on most of them not being where they're listed. I agree that that kinda stinks.

[+Team Van Dyk]

I know there's a general consensus that perhaps feedback isn't acted upon quickly enough, and in this case, that's certainly true, but for those who really want to see some sort of system implemented to address this, I would encourage you to please add your voice (vote and comment) to the chorus here: http://feedback.geocaching.com/forums/75775-geocaching-com/suggestions/1070029-trackables-no-longer-in-caches?ref=title