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Please stop automatic "took it to" logs


charliewhiskey

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Please forgive my unfamiliarity with the forums and geocaching website, but I can't figure out how to make a request for a change to the website.

 

I wish to have the feature removed that allows automatic "dipping" of TBs. I have yet another TB that has 15 PAGES of un-interesting "took it to" logs that dilute the history of the TB: "I Like Violet"

 

If someone really wants to dip the TB into 150 caches, I wish for them to have to do it manually.

 

Tell me, please, how do I make this request?

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Please forgive my unfamiliarity with the forums and geocaching website, but I can't figure out how to make a request for a change to the website.

 

I wish to have the feature removed that allows automatic "dipping" of TBs. I have yet another TB that has 15 PAGES of un-interesting "took it to" logs that dilute the history of the TB: "I Like Violet"

 

If someone really wants to dip the TB into 150 caches, I wish for them to have to do it manually.

 

Tell me, please, how do I make this request?

This may be better for the Bug Report section, but please don't spam the Forums with identical bug reports :anicute:.

 

It's a known bug. It's called a "feature", commonly believed to be a smart phone feature. I don't know why nobody gets notified when these logs occur, but TPTB must have understood it would cause an uproar if they did, so when they enabled T-Spam they shut off the notifications. Therefore, even the current TB holder may not realize it's happening. If you ever find out the purpose of this feature, please let everyone know.

 

One way to address T-Spam is by hiding the logs. Have an option on the Trackable Owner's page to hide the visits, or filter any number of ways.

Edited by kunarion
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Before this feature was developed, what was the old way to dip? I think it was you had to drop and then grab it again? It's been a while so I could be wrong. your idea of making it slightly harder may work. Of course, if you had a persistent cacher, that might make for twice as many entries and in this case 30 pages of logs???

 

May I suspect that your request to keep the TB within 40 miles of Portland encourages dipping? Just a theory.

 

Did you write to the cacher to ask them to lighten up on the dipping? Or post a note in the logs? Or request no dipping in the description/mission? Just some other options if TPTB don't answer your request here. If this thread is the first communication that gets back to that cacher, it might not be that congenial.

 

Personally, I'm not a fan of dipping either. I normally don't do it. I've done it recently only because I brought some TBs to India, tried my best to find homes for them over there (relatively few caches in India) so dipped them all in a small one just because I made the effort. But someone who is dipping in caches ever 500 feet on a power trail might have a different philosophy about things, that's just part of the game.

 

 

 

 

Too bad you haven't gotten any purple pictures yet...

 

 

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that's just part of the game.

Has anyone ever fessed up to intentionally spamming 10 pages of TB logs? That seems more like a cry for help than informing a TB Owner of movement. My suspicion is that most of these logs are huge mistakes, the TB was dropped off/lost/whatever long ago and not logged properly, and now the logs have gone viral, a huge mass of errors. But that's just a hunch.

 

I do sometimes dip TBs into special caches, or for photo ops and fun logs. But those Spam logs are crazy. What's the point? The holder is visiting caches on the pretext of how fun it is to see your TB move, yet not posting any photos, not adding a word of text. They are enthusiastic about moving your TB for you everywhere they go, while at the same time COMPLETELY UNINTERESTED IN IT. That seems fishy to me.

 

It may well be that when some people find a new button on their cache app, they press it. But if a TB that may have been misplaced long ago can then get hundreds of "visits", that would make things much worse, right?

Edited by kunarion
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The impression I get is that there is a feature (on a smart phone maybe?) that automatically dips all TBs in a cacher's inventory each time they visit a cache before dropping off the TB. Some holders of my TBs have gone on cache runs of over 100 caches, generating pages of bland "took it to" logs along the way, before they finally drop the TB in a cache.

 

I replied to a topic in the feedback forums and asked that this automatic feature be stopped. If someone wants to dip my TB into 100 or more caches, I wish for them to have to do it manually.

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I wish for them to have to do it manually.

All I need to know is that my TB is actually in their hand at the cache, and that the log is real. It doesn't bother me if a hundred people log it in a hundred caches, or if only ONE cacher does it. Actually, more than one of those hundred people will mess it up, so the one cacher will be much more accurate in the above scenario.

 

The problem is, I don't believe the logs. Cachers CANNOT be simultaneously attentive and disinterested -- do you believe they go to the effort of packing my TB to every cache yet not take even one photo, not add text to any log? There's something dead wrong about T-Spam, and it's not the fact that they don't do it manually. I get the impression that the TB is long gone. If those hundred people each log it, I can track it. If one person does a bahzillion computer-generated auto-visits, I don't know where it is. My reaction to a previous Auto-Visit problem was not "Cool It's Moving All Over The Place", more like "There's some huge mistake and maybe it's been lost". Can't tell the difference.

 

I've reviewed my own TBs' logs, and only two are currently getting Auto-Visits, maybe a dozen logs each, and seem to be moving with no issue (no reason to assume it's an Auto-Error). Those are fine with me, except that one's in Hawaii, and I didn't even know. So I sent a thank-you note.

Edited by kunarion
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I use an iPhone and I havent found a way of automatically visiting every cache; quite the opposite, it's a bit of a chore to log a visit of each TB at each cache. So I dont :) But on the website when you log a cache it DOES give you the option of 'all visiting' at the bottom of the page before you send the log. Maybe this feature whould be amended?

 

I hate looking through pages of visits when I go to a TB's page, so in oreder to add to the mileage, I only 'dip' them in one cache in each area (eg if doing a circular walk they only go in one cache on that walk). And yes I do have them physically with me, because I am never sure when I go out if there is going to be a good cache to drop one in, or maybe I will meet another cacher who's going somewhere exciting.

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Looks like what is needed is some 'understanding' of the problem.

 

Need to identify which devices are originating the auto visits... some seem to be unable to find any such option.

But then there are not only different devices, but softwares as well (including versions) out there. So which item or combination is doing this?

 

The other side of this is the need to have some control over the TB page display. The option to hide Visits, maybe even Discovers as well would be nice. The option to select from Retrieves (and Grabs), Drops and the visits / discovers would be great. But leave that up to the viewer, since everyone has different needs / tastes at different times.

 

Whatever someone logs within the guidelines should stay as a log. Seeing it all the time is another matter.

 

Doug 7rxc

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The option to hide Visits, maybe even Discovers as well would be nice. The option to select from Retrieves (and Grabs), Drops and the visits / discovers would be great. But leave that up to the viewer, since everyone has different needs / tastes at different times.

How can I tell which of my TBs are developing Robo-Visits? The option to turn ON notifications might be nice. Unlike everyone else in the world, I can't stand these secret surprise Spam logs. GS is way wrong on this whole issue, and hasn't said a peep about it.

 

How do I figure out which TBs had a bunch of Robo-Visits? I've reviewed all of mine, and don't see many pages of the T-Spam. Mine have been mostly manageable, my TBs don't get logged all that often, why can't I get a notification if I want it? I see people traveling to various states and logging my TBs, such as one log in each state. That's pretty cool! I wish I'd known about some of those earlier -- people went to great effort to carry my TB and log it on a long trip, and I got no notification. I have to go check the logs once I see the Drop log, so I can send a special Thank You note.

 

And if one TB develops tons of those logs, there's no way to know of it's a mistake, the switch left on by accident. There could be 10 pages of logs before I even see the problem, and I still don't know if the TB holder knows those logs happened.

Edited by kunarion
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When we went on vacation last month, we discovered that all of the TBs we had (17 of them), were being dipped into every cache we found. We realized that the geocaching program we use on our smartphone allows for dipping of every TB in our possession into every cache that is logged from our phone. Unfortunately we didn't discover this dipping until after doing a power trail of over 100 caches - that all these TBs got dipped into. We found in the program settings, that this feature to "set trackables to visit as default" was checked. We simply unchecked it and no more dipping of TBs (unless we enable this option) when logging from our phone. We felt bad all theseTB owners got 100+ logs on a power trail.

 

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When we went on vacation last month, we discovered that all of the TBs we had (17 of them), were being dipped into every cache we found. We realized that the geocaching program we use on our smartphone allows for dipping of every TB in our possession into every cache that is logged from our phone. Unfortunately we didn't discover this dipping until after doing a power trail of over 100 caches

Would you mind a discussion of this phenomenon here: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=292016

 

I've suspected that the dipping was unintentional (it seems quite wide-spread, too), and would like the chance to pick your brain about it. But I don't want to derail this topic which is maybe a slightly different discussion. But it's OK to talk about here, if you'd prefer.

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This may be better for the Bug Report section, but please don't spam the Forums with identical bug reports :anicute:.

 

It's a known bug. It's called a "feature", commonly believed to be a smart phone feature. I don't know why nobody gets notified when these logs occur, but TPTB must have understood it would cause an uproar if they did, so when they enabled T-Spam they shut off the notifications. Therefore, even the current TB holder may not realize it's happening. If you ever find out the purpose of this feature, please let everyone know.

 

One way to address T-Spam is by hiding the logs. Have an option on the Trackable Owner's page to hide the visits, or filter any number of ways.

 

Be careful what you wish for. ;) Originally, owners were notified of every visit. As I recall, the hamsters went into cardiac arrest from the system overload and mega-trackable owners worked overtime deleting their inboxes. That problem was corrected rather quickly by removing notifications for visits.

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I use an iPhone and I havent found a way of automatically visiting every cache; quite the opposite, it's a bit of a chore to log a visit of each TB at each cache. So I dont :) But on the website when you log a cache it DOES give you the option of 'all visiting' at the bottom of the page before you send the log. Maybe this feature whould be amended?

 

 

This. I can't find this on my iphone either. I'd love to find it as I dip my personal TB in each cache. But yeah, it's a battery eating chore, and I won't do it for just any bug. And when I dip TBs, I add a photo of it to the log...

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This may be better for the Bug Report section, but please don't spam the Forums with identical bug reports :anicute:.

 

It's a known bug. It's called a "feature", commonly believed to be a smart phone feature. I don't know why nobody gets notified when these logs occur, but TPTB must have understood it would cause an uproar if they did, so when they enabled T-Spam they shut off the notifications. Therefore, even the current TB holder may not realize it's happening. If you ever find out the purpose of this feature, please let everyone know.

 

One way to address T-Spam is by hiding the logs. Have an option on the Trackable Owner's page to hide the visits, or filter any number of ways.

 

Be careful what you wish for. ;) Originally, owners were notified of every visit. As I recall, the hamsters went into cardiac arrest from the system overload and mega-trackable owners worked overtime deleting their inboxes. That problem was corrected rather quickly by removing notifications for visits.

So why exactly did TPTB make it easier to overfill TB log pages? Not only do I still need to capture and torture [WAIT... I mean interview] a live T-Spammer about WHY they do it, now I need to capture and [question] one of TPTB about what why THEY did it.

 

AND, why are a bahzillion notifications a problem that MUST be shut off (and it was), but a bahzillion Spam logs are perfectly acceptable?

Edited by kunarion
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This may be better for the Bug Report section, but please don't spam the Forums with identical bug reports :anicute:.

 

It's a known bug. It's called a "feature", commonly believed to be a smart phone feature. I don't know why nobody gets notified when these logs occur, but TPTB must have understood it would cause an uproar if they did, so when they enabled T-Spam they shut off the notifications. Therefore, even the current TB holder may not realize it's happening. If you ever find out the purpose of this feature, please let everyone know.

 

One way to address T-Spam is by hiding the logs. Have an option on the Trackable Owner's page to hide the visits, or filter any number of ways.

 

Be careful what you wish for. ;) Originally, owners were notified of every visit. As I recall, the hamsters went into cardiac arrest from the system overload and mega-trackable owners worked overtime deleting their inboxes. That problem was corrected rather quickly by removing notifications for visits.

So why exactly did TPTB make it easier to overfill TB log pages? Not only do I still need to capture and torture [WAIT... I mean interview] a live T-Spammer about WHY they do it, now I need to capture and [question] one of TPTB about what why THEY did it.

 

AND, why are a bahzillion notifications a problem that MUST be shut off (and it was), but a bahzillion Spam logs are perfectly acceptable?

 

 

On android phones there is an app called c:geo and it seems to have a box under settings that if you aren't careful you may accidentally have selected to "set trackables to "visited"as default" I was looking at my apps to see if my apps were dipping trackables after reading this and discovered that mine was set to visit. I have turned it off. So I may have been doing this for a while and not know. Luckily I usually only have trackables for a couple days. I personally only want to log a trackable if I am doing specific for its mission or taking a cool picture etc.

 

So if I have done this to anyone I apologize! I don't want to clog up others trackables pages.

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On android phones there is an app called c:geo and it seems to have a box under settings that if you aren't careful you may accidentally have selected to "set trackables to "visited"as default" I was looking at my apps to see if my apps were dipping trackables after reading this and discovered that mine was set to visit. I have turned it off. So I may have been doing this for a while and not know. Luckily I usually only have trackables for a couple days. I personally only want to log a trackable if I am doing specific for its mission or taking a cool picture etc.

 

So if I have done this to anyone I apologize! I don't want to clog up others trackables pages.

Cool! Some of us are trying to get the word out, to be sure they aren't "auto-visiting" by accident.

 

The only problem I have with the "feature" is the uncertainty that cachers are actually bringing my TB to every cache (thus the logs are inaccurate), or worse, they don't even have the TB anymore (so the logs are entirely wrong). If you actually have the TB (even, say in your car, when caching), and you cache as usual and drop it as usual in a reasonable time, a bunch of "extra" logs are no issue for me. Most of the "took it to" logs I see on my TBs are from state to state, showing lots of interesting travel, so I have nothing to complain about.

 

But I sure was wondering what was going on with "auto-visits". Most of the replies were "there's no way to accidentally turn those on". Now we all know better. :anicute:

 

Apps get automatically updated. Once we identify which ones are causing problems, bugs can be fixed. That's why this discussion may be useful, identifying the apps.

Edited by kunarion
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So why exactly did TPTB make it easier to overfill TB log pages? Not only do I still need to capture and torture [WAIT... I mean interview] a live T-Spammer about WHY they do it, now I need to capture and [question] one of TPTB about what why THEY did it.

 

AND, why are a bahzillion notifications a problem that MUST be shut off (and it was), but a bahzillion Spam logs are perfectly acceptable?

 

They were responding mainly to a feature request by coiners, I believe. Cachers would take books of their coin collections to events to be discovered. After dropping them into the event's inventory for recording the visit, they would later have to enter the tracking number for each coin to get them recorded back into their possession. Others wanted to be able to easily dip the personal coin they used to record all of their cache find miles. So the request for an easy way to dip was fulfilled.

 

I believe it was intended to be used as a way to easily dip moving coins into occasional geocaches rather than a dip into every one found feature. But movers that wanted to get as many miles as they could onto the coin, or for just simple click all recording, took to dipping the trackables into every new smiley. Smart phone settings automatically dipping was likely a more recent development.

 

As for the AND...? Groundspeak has upgraded things since the system got bogged down with those notifications. Next to the pages of notifications having to be deleted from your e-mail inbox en masse, simply ignoring the trackable page logs seemed relatively insignificant to owners in comparison.

 

For a more accurate account of events, you can try looking up the old threads on the subject. The above is the gist of the story as I remember it only. :)

Edited by aka Momster
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Others wanted to be able to easily dip the personal coin they used to record all of their cache find miles.

That would be acceptable to everybody, I think -- the ability to log your own Trackables automatically in any way you wish.

 

Something is wrong with the system. It auto-logs everything. It seems obvious that's a major bug (in software yet to be determined). If I log my coin collection automatically, I know I did, so I don't need notifications, and all is well. But it must not then log everyone else's TB listed in my inventory, since the site is not set up to deal with that.

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Others wanted to be able to easily dip the personal coin they used to record all of their cache find miles.

That would be acceptable to everybody, I think -- the ability to log your own Trackables automatically in any way you wish.

 

Something is wrong with the system. It auto-logs everything. It seems obvious that's a major bug (in software yet to be determined). If I log my coin collection automatically, I know I did, so I don't need notifications, and all is well. But it must not then log everyone else's TB listed in my inventory, since the site is not set up to deal with that.

 

I'm not disagreeing with you. Personally, my trackable habits were fine with the old drop/retrieve.

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This is good discussion, somewhat of a rarity :) for having gone this far w/o argument or disagreement.

 

I, for one, understand why owners of 'coin collections would have desired this feature (visited log). It only makes sense. It also makes sense for using the visit log instead of the old(er) place and retrieve (dipping) a trackable for mileage or to show it made it to any particular cache.

 

Agreeing with kunarion though, that 'auto-logs' would be best served (IMO) ONLY for that cachers' owned trackables, not every one that they may be carrying. It seems that device or app programming would/should be the solution.

 

I will say that it seems all of our (released) trackables are now missing, even though some are not yet marked as such, so this matter does not have a direct influence upon me (us). If it did have such an influence, I personally would doubt that I would at all like to see pages of 'visit' logs that reveal anywhere from .1 mile to ± 3 miles distances traveled in a seemingly endless stream.

It's almost as if a TB or 'coin is spinning its' wheels trying to travel but never really going much of anywhere.

 

We plan on a number of new releases this spring (we're still snowbound as of this writing), so we may be subjected to some of this ourselves.

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This may be better for the Bug Report section, but please don't spam the Forums with identical bug reports :anicute:.

 

It's a known bug. It's called a "feature", commonly believed to be a smart phone feature. I don't know why nobody gets notified when these logs occur, but TPTB must have understood it would cause an uproar if they did, so when they enabled T-Spam they shut off the notifications. Therefore, even the current TB holder may not realize it's happening. If you ever find out the purpose of this feature, please let everyone know.

 

One way to address T-Spam is by hiding the logs. Have an option on the Trackable Owner's page to hide the visits, or filter any number of ways.

 

Be careful what you wish for. ;) Originally, owners were notified of every visit. As I recall, the hamsters went into cardiac arrest from the system overload and mega-trackable owners worked overtime deleting their inboxes. That problem was corrected rather quickly by removing notifications for visits.

So why exactly did TPTB make it easier to overfill TB log pages? Not only do I still need to capture and torture [WAIT... I mean interview] a live T-Spammer about WHY they do it, now I need to capture and [question] one of TPTB about what why THEY did it.

 

AND, why are a bahzillion notifications a problem that MUST be shut off (and it was), but a bahzillion Spam logs are perfectly acceptable?

 

 

On android phones there is an app called c:geo and it seems to have a box under settings that if you aren't careful you may accidentally have selected to "set trackables to "visited"as default" I was looking at my apps to see if my apps were dipping trackables after reading this and discovered that mine was set to visit. I have turned it off. So I may have been doing this for a while and not know. Luckily I usually only have trackables for a couple days. I personally only want to log a trackable if I am doing specific for its mission or taking a cool picture etc.

 

So if I have done this to anyone I apologize! I don't want to clog up others trackables pages.

 

That's the program I use and that's the setting that was checked (unknownst to me at the time). I have since unchecked it, but I always double check before logging from the field now just in case.

 

In response to an earlier post, as far as TBs still getting auto-visited if not in my possession, once a TB is dropped into a cache (which is easy to do on the c:geo app), it disappears from the inventory. So there won't be any more auto visit logs.

 

Other than that, c:geo is a great program.

Edited by AstroD-Team
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How can I tell which of my TBs are developing Robo-Visits? The option to turn ON notifications might be nice. snip%<

 

How do I figure out which TBs had a bunch of Robo-Visits? I've reviewed all of mine, and don't see many pages of the T-Spam. snip%<

 

And if one TB develops tons of those logs, there's no way to know of it's a mistake, the switch left on by accident. There could be 10 pages of logs before I even see the problem, and I still don't know if the TB holder knows those logs happened.

 

For the first two, I've been thinking that when you view the list of YOUR trackables, that it might be useful if it could display the Delta value between the current and the previous viewing of the number of logs. Sorted from high to low, that might easily show the trackables with the auto log problem, I'm still pondering that. Probably has some flaws but I'm just starting considering the problem amongst some in my life as well, not personal but that's what I do, like solving problems.

 

As for number 3, I guess the only way to determine that part would be that once you Identify a source, that you try emailing them and ask.

 

Since I see that my initial gut feeling about one source (unspoken) seems to be correct, I think that getting the opensource crowd to make a few changes would help fairly quickly. Probably best to tackle the default state, and they could add some sort of control to it... perhaps a 'visit this' list rather than all of them, with a special spot for 'personal' items on it or separate.

And it should include a clear note that selecting this as active will create high volumes of 'visit' logs.

 

Getting it right is part of a problem with communal 'editing' of software, especially with several builds going forth. I just started doing work with the OpenStreetMaps, and was glad to see that they have built in certain checks and balances in that regard.

 

One would hope that this is just an item wanting modification and fine tuning rather than payback for the live maps issue.

 

One thing I've been considering is whether or not it is time to separate the coins from the TBs at the reference number level.

Right now, all trackables on GC have a TBxxxxx reference number. Perhaps it's time to go to something like TC for Trackable, Coin for Geocoins and TB for Trackable, Bug for TB tags. I don't see an immediate need to change the 'secret' numbers as well.

That could allow coin loggers to behave differently from TB loggers. Not many people have large collections of TB's to 'visit' or 'discover'. A 'type' box on the activation screen would do it... TB or Geocoin and you get the right prefix attached. Numbers could stay in the same series, but might change eventually if they run out. Still thinking it over but you likely see the idea.

Nothing complex for now, but I could see allowing older coins to be reprefixed if it was wished, however it isn't all that likely a need right off. Just do it for new ones to start.

 

Getting the 'collectible' thing straightened out would be nice as well. It was stated early on that the intent had nothing to do with collecting or not, but seems to have changed. My reading says it was to allow a cacher to control whether it showed on his drop list (when logging a cache) or not... it would show in his overall inventory held. That part alone would allow cachers to avoid visiting every item they held when logging. If there was something for collections, it would never relate to anyone but the owner of a piece, for items they held in hand. If it is travelling, then no one should be able to add it to a collection, ever without obtaining the piece from the owner in trade etc. It is a bit of a mess in the wordings.

 

Doug 7rxc

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if one TB develops tons of those logs, there's no way to know of it's a mistake, the switch left on by accident. There could be 10 pages of logs before I even see the problem, and I still don't know if the TB holder knows those logs happened.

 

I guess the only way to determine that part would be that once you Identify a source, that you try emailing them and ask.

This is why I made a separate topic to ask how the "auto-visits" happen. If everyone's making a special effort to surprise me with 10 glorious pages of TB logs, they might be shocked if I ask why (or if they'd please stop it). I've only heard from a couple of auto-visiters directly, but they were doing it by accident, and were genuinely interested in shutting off the auto-visit setting (good to know). It's easy to believe that every 10-page list was unintentional, but previous guessers guessed otherwise, so it was good to double-check. Until a few hours ago, I didn't even know it was caused by [a particular App].

 

So now a slightly annoyed TB Owner must simply compose an email nicely asking them to cut it out. :anicute:

Edited by kunarion
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I'll admit it, I'm a dipper.

 

I don't dip into every cache I visit; but I often dip into one every day I cache. My point is to tell you that yes, I still have your bug, and no, it didn't get left at the caches I visited today, probably because it didn't fit.

I do try to get the travelers dropped off in just a few trips though.

 

Another cacher that I know though, he dips lots and lots. He thinks of it as adding to the bug's journey. He gives them lots and lots of miles, but is always afraid to drop them off that the cache might not be safe enough. Eventually he does drop them off, but he might hold them a bit longer than I do.

 

I am trying to make more of an effort to take pictures with the TB's, especially if we go somewhere interesting or help in the mission. I will also rethink my stand on dipping.

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I am trying to make more of an effort to take pictures with the TB's, especially if we go somewhere interesting or help in the mission.

That would work for me. A mass of "auto-visits" with no photos, nothing but "took it to", means that someone has a weird setting turned on, who knows where the TB actually is. But if many of the logs have a photo of the cache and some text, all is well. But if you're still "visiting" it six months later, consider dropping it into a cache.

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The impression I get is that there is a feature (on a smart phone maybe?) that automatically dips all TBs in a cacher's inventory each time they visit a cache before dropping off the TB. Some holders of my TBs have gone on cache runs of over 100 caches, generating pages of bland "took it to" logs along the way, before they finally drop the TB in a cache.

 

I replied to a topic in the feedback forums and asked that this automatic feature be stopped. If someone wants to dip my TB into 100 or more caches, I wish for them to have to do it manually.

 

When logging a find, there should be a list of all the bugs in your posession. There's an option below the list for "all visited". That's probably all they're doing, if I understand what you're saying. Personally, I like when people post the "visited" logs.

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I have a total of eight trackables released, and I actually like seeing them "dipped" in each and every cache the current holder logs as found. I don't mind at all. Because of this, I can use my long periods of not being able to geocache to trace the trackable's journey. There's a lot of really great caches and interesting locations around the world, and I'm more than happy to read about them via the dipping logs. My trackables are my proxy, and I like to know where I've been.

 

That's one datapoint anyway ...

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I have a total of eight trackables released, and I actually like seeing them "dipped" in each and every cache the current holder logs as found. I don't mind at all. Because of this, I can use my long periods of not being able to geocache to trace the trackable's journey. There's a lot of really great caches and interesting locations around the world, and I'm more than happy to read about them via the dipping logs. My trackables are my proxy, and I like to know where I've been.

One thing about the auto-visits that's... interesting... is that the current holder goes to hundreds of caches and keeps the TB for weeks, without dropping it off. People probably did that since TBs began, but now we can watch it happen.

 

That's for the accurate ones. If some App's "Auto-Visit" selection is accidentally switched "on", a cacher could have dropped the TB off (also not logged it correctly), and every Auto-Visit thereafter is not real.

Edited by kunarion
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I have a total of eight trackables released, and I actually like seeing them "dipped" in each and every cache the current holder logs as found. I don't mind at all. Because of this, I can use my long periods of not being able to geocache to trace the trackable's journey. There's a lot of really great caches and interesting locations around the world, and I'm more than happy to read about them via the dipping logs. My trackables are my proxy, and I like to know where I've been.

 

That's one datapoint anyway ...

 

Glad to hear. I used to dip bugs with each cache too. It was truly a chore, so I usually only did it for special bugs. I usually leave a one liner or a pic. Somebody did it for us on our first bug, and I thought it was cool as heck.

 

I was under the impression that other people thought it was cool too. Then I read these boards and stopped doing it. I'll still dip a bug here or there, but it won't be to every cache. Now I'll only do it if it's traveled quite a distance with me and I'll snap a pic too. Or, if the but is particularly attractive, I'll even upload notes with pictures.

 

Don't we all have bugs now and then that we just love?

 

Here's one I really liked. I had it for 6 months, snapped 73 of its 75 pics, and tried to tell a story of its travels with me. It just recently got muggled, which was a total bummer. ..

That being said, my contributions were followed by 14 pages of just visited logs, with no pics, no story, no nothing by another cacher. If you look at the page, all you see are visited logs.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=2515739&page=15

 

I was in frequent contact with the bug owner. Recently I had another cute bug that I could have done the same...shown around, snap a bunch of pics, but when I contacted the owner he asked me to move it along. So, I did.

 

I try to honor the goal of the bug, so if you don't want it visited, then say so on the page...

 

But I agree, it would be nice to hide all visited logs that have no pics or words...

Edited by JesandTodd
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Maybe I'm missing soemthing, but where exactly has anybody been promised "interesting" logs on their TBs? I like the feature (on the website, I don't log on a smartphone). I always dip any TBs that I have with me when I find a cache and I found it to be an incredible pain in the neck to do that before the feature was added.

 

Just be happy your trackable is still out in the wild racking up mileage and hasn't been stolen.

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Maybe I'm missing soemthing, but where exactly has anybody been promised "interesting" logs on their TBs? I like the feature (on the website, I don't log on a smartphone). I always dip any TBs that I have with me when I find a cache and I found it to be an incredible pain in the neck to do that before the feature was added.

 

Just be happy your trackable is still out in the wild racking up mileage and hasn't been stolen.

There are two different scenarios in here. One is cachers who love to "dip" TBs into every cache they find, who have the TB physically in their posession. The other scenario is cachers with [one particular Android App] who somehow clicked "Auto-Visit" by accident, and every Trackable listed in their Inventory gets "visited" in every cache they find without their knowledge. The scenarios are similar, but 10 pages of identical logs over a period of six months are an indication of robo-logs.

 

Scenario One is a cacher going out of their way to make special visits, and even uninteresting logs are great in this case. Scenario Two is automatic logs, via software, by definition an unobservant cacher, so the TB mileage is NOT real, it may very well have been stolen, there's no way to even track it. Scenario Two does not cause happiness.

Edited by kunarion
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I may be inviting the wrath of those that do not appreciate the "visited" logs... But let me offer an explanation of how I take care of TB's...

 

I use an iPhone app called geosphere while out and about. This app allows me to make field notes, which are uploaded to the site, and when i get home I take the time to log all the finds, and in the process make interesting notes about the caches I visited, or the travel bugs that I picked up and dropped off in various locations. I use the button at the bottom of the page that allows me to log them all as "visited"

 

I really enjoy taking good care of travel bugs, and chronicling their journey while they are in my possession. I always log all the travel bugs in my possession at the time as "visited" into each cache that I find. Many of which are not appropriate for travel bugs, such as micros, or power trails etc... I always try to leave travel bugs in locations that i feel they will be safe for the duration, and have the least chance of being muggled. I keep them in my cache bag, which actually goes with me to each cache. So if I happen to have a few busy days of hitting alot of LPC's or guardrails etc... the travel bugs may very well have a chance to visit many, many caches before they get dropped into a cache.

 

I have picked up a few travel bugs that were in a race, that had a specific tag on them, and on their webpage, requesting that they not be dipped... So I did not. I have in fact had several cachers thank me for dipping the travel bugs into the caches i went to, so their travel bug racked up more mileage, and they also could log in online and see that the travel bug was still in play. I have never got an email from any TB owner requesting that I do not dip their bugs, but if they did, I would happily not do so.

 

So I guess it is a personal preference if the TB owner wants it dipped or not... If you do not, i would suggest tagging your TB's page with a note saying so, and although it will not prohibit anyone from doing so, they can make their own decision...

 

I suppose a suggestion that could be made is to give the TB owner the ability to set an option to disallow/disable visits (dipping).

A simple checkbox in the TB's setup page, just like the ckeckbox that is already there, allowing/disallowing the TB's to be collected.

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Maybe I'm missing soemthing, but where exactly has anybody been promised "interesting" logs on their TBs? I like the feature (on the website, I don't log on a smartphone). I always dip any TBs that I have with me when I find a cache and I found it to be an incredible pain in the neck to do that before the feature was added.

 

Just be happy your trackable is still out in the wild racking up mileage and hasn't been stolen.

There are two different scenarios in here. One is cachers who love to "dip" TBs into every cache they find, who have the TB physically in their posession. The other scenario is cachers with [one particular Android App] who somehow clicked "Auto-Visit" by accident, and every Trackable listed in their Inventory gets "visited" in every cache they find without their knowledge. The scenarios are similar, but 10 pages of identical logs over a period of six months are an indication of robo-logs.

 

Scenario One is a cacher going out of their way to make special visits, and even uninteresting logs are great in this case. Scenario Two is automatic logs, via software, by definition an unobservant cacher, so the TB mileage is NOT real, it may very well have been stolen, there's no way to even track it. Scenario Two does not cause happiness.

 

How is the TB mileage not real? The 100+ caches across several states that the TBs got autologged by us, was certainly real. We were at all those caches as were the TBs. Once we dropped a TB into a cache (which is as easy to do with the app as on the computer), the TB is no longer in our inventory and cannot generate any autologs, or any other TB logs for that matter, even if the feature to auto-log is checked.

 

I'm just not getting where you're coming from that auto-logging creates bogus mileage and the TBs may have been stolen?????

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I use the button at the bottom of the page that allows me to log them all as "visited"

 

You won't incur my wrath - it's a mindful act and I think that's great.

 

I suppose a suggestion that could be made is to give the TB owner the ability to set an option to disallow/disable visits (dipping).

A simple checkbox in the TB's setup page, just like the ckeckbox that is already there, allowing/disallowing the TB's to be collected.

 

I'd vote for that.

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Maybe I'm missing soemthing, but where exactly has anybody been promised "interesting" logs on their TBs? I like the feature (on the website, I don't log on a smartphone). I always dip any TBs that I have with me when I find a cache and I found it to be an incredible pain in the neck to do that before the feature was added.

 

Just be happy your trackable is still out in the wild racking up mileage and hasn't been stolen.

There are two different scenarios in here. One is cachers who love to "dip" TBs into every cache they find, who have the TB physically in their posession. The other scenario is cachers with [one particular Android App] who somehow clicked "Auto-Visit" by accident, and every Trackable listed in their Inventory gets "visited" in every cache they find without their knowledge. The scenarios are similar, but 10 pages of identical logs over a period of six months are an indication of robo-logs.

 

Scenario One is a cacher going out of their way to make special visits, and even uninteresting logs are great in this case. Scenario Two is automatic logs, via software, by definition an unobservant cacher, so the TB mileage is NOT real, it may very well have been stolen, there's no way to even track it. Scenario Two does not cause happiness.

 

How is the TB mileage not real? The 100+ caches across several states that the TBs got autologged by us, was certainly real. We were at all those caches as were the TBs. Once we dropped a TB into a cache (which is as easy to do with the app as on the computer), the TB is no longer in our inventory and cannot generate any autologs, or any other TB logs for that matter, even if the feature to auto-log is checked.

 

I'm just not getting where you're coming from that auto-logging creates bogus mileage and the TBs may have been stolen?????

This topic is about TWO different things at once. When it began, people thought it was the same thing (cachers doing an abundance of "took it to" logs on purpose). While there are people doing that deliberately, many (most) are by accident -- they didn't realize the logs were happening.

 

Here's the deal: SOME people are going from cache to cache while holding the TBs, and either manually or automatically logging visits to all the caches, accurately. This is good. I love it. No problem. Go for it. Yay! I am happy. AND this is why I started a separate topic "Why Auto-Visit?", so I could pick peoples' brains about WHY they make only the bahzillion identical logs with no mention of what their plan is. I still can't figure that out, and it becomes impossible to know if it's real or some kind of computer glitch. I like seeing the travels, and there's no reason to refrain from logging as many as you wish, but please understand that there is a Trackable Owning human reading those logs who may be scratching his head wondering why all the apparent movement without any photos, only a mass of robot logs.

 

However, many people have misbehaving Android Apps that mysteriously got the "Auto-Visit" setting turned on without their knowledge (yourself included). All TBs in their inventory get a visit on every cache, regardless if they even have the TB anymore (again, it's GREAT that you did in fact have the TBs in hand, that would be fine with me). The visits number into hundreds, they have not dropped the TBs in weeks or months, and they of course don't add anything to the log, because it's automatic. The TB may have been placed into a cache or even lost months ago, but it's still logging visits in caches (if people misplace a Trackable, you hardly ever get a log saying so). AND when someone finally notifies them there's a problem, they apologize for all the auto-visits, which they did NOT know were happening. When the TB is gone in this scenario, or in the wrong cache, the TO can't know which if any of the logs are correct. That's where I'm coming from.

Edited by kunarion
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[

This topic is about TWO different things at once. When it began, people thought it was the same thing (cachers doing an abundance of "took it to" logs on purpose). While there are people doing that deliberately, many (most) are by accident -- they didn't realize the logs were happening.

 

Here's the deal: SOME people are going from cache to cache while holding the TBs, and either manually or automatically logging visits to all the caches, accurately. This is good. I love it. No problem. Go for it. Yay! I am happy. AND this is why I started a separate topic "Why Auto-Visit?", so I could pick peoples' brains about WHY they make only the bahzillion identical logs with no mention of what their plan is. I still can't figure that out, and it becomes impossible to know if it's real or some kind of computer glitch. I like seeing the travels, and there's no reason to refrain from logging as many as you wish, but please understand that there is a Trackable Owning human reading those logs who may be scratching his head wondering why all the apparent movement without any photos, only a mass of robot logs.

 

However, many people have misbehaving Android Apps that mysteriously got the "Auto-Visit" setting turned on without their knowledge (yourself included). All TBs in their inventory get a visit on every cache, regardless if they even have the TB anymore (again, it's GREAT that you did in fact have the TBs in hand, that would be fine with me). The visits number into hundreds, they have not dropped the TBs in weeks or months, and they of course don't add anything to the log, because it's automatic. The TB may have been placed into a cache or even lost months ago, but it's still logging visits in caches (if people misplace a Trackable, you hardly ever get a log saying so). AND when someone finally notifies them there's a problem, they apologize for all the auto-visits, which they did NOT know were happening. When the TB is gone in this scenario, or in the wrong cache, the TO can't know which if any of the logs are correct. That's where I'm coming from.

 

 

No, that is not entirely correct. I DID NOT have auto visit turned on on my phone app without my knowledge. My husband turned on his auto visit setting on his phone and didn't tell me (and he does most of the phone logging). Not the same thing dear. And my later post explained this. I did not (and do not) have my auto visit setting turned on on my app. When hubby logged from his phone the auto vists were generated. I never generated auto visits on the rare occassion I did log from my phone becaue I DID NOT enable the feature (and hey, IMO phone logs suck as much as pages of auto-visit logs - all cut and paste and no real content if any).

 

The auto visit setting on the c:geo app is not an automatically enabled setting without a person's knowledge. It has to manually be turned on by the app user in the app settings. It's not a default setting when downloaded nor is it a default setting when its updated. I've used this app for several months, had it updated several times, and still the auto visit feature hasn't been enabled. And hubby no longer has his auto-visit setting enabled either after I told him about the auto visit logs.

 

I don't know what program is logging TBs in caches if it's not in a cacher's inventory. THat would be interesting to find out. THe app in question works on the same premise as online logging. You can't visit or drop off TBs if they aren't showing up in your inventory. Now if a cacher dumped a TB into a cache and never recorded it, I can see the issue. But most cachers that I know of, usually are very good at proper logging of TBs and I don't worry about it much. It's my TBs that are picked up by cachers and never heard from again that I have a problem with.

 

I got tired of the "discovered' feature - people would be happy to discover my TBs but never move them. I would be happy with blank auto visit logs that at least show my TB is moving, rather than sitting somewhere. I think TB owners should have the option to enable or disable auto visit logs on their bugs. Maybe this would be a good compromise. Those who don't want pages of blank logs, won't get them and those who do like to take bugs to every cache can do so and not worry about owners getting upset over blank auto visit logs. And perhaps the perception of the app that automatically auto-visits TBs (which it doesn't), won't be of concern.

Edited by AstroD-Team
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I DID NOT have auto visit turned on on my phone app without my knowledge. My husband turned on his auto visit setting on his phone and didn't tell me (and he does most of the phone logging). Not the same thing dear.

If he turned it on, he knew the Auto-Visits were happening (you're right, I had assumed otherwise). It's entirely up to you (OK, your husband) to decide if you wish to Auto-Visit every cache you bring the Trackables. Since you go to all the trouble of carrying them around with you, it's a true record of what you did. I'd ask that you type a human log once in a while (especially a photo of the Trackables at the cache so I know all is well), but again, it's not up to me. I'd allow any real visits to remain, nomatter how many.

 

And I would like to filter the Trackable list, similar to the way we can with caches. Then people could enjoy making bahzillions of Auto-Visits, yet I can still quickly find the other logs if I like.

Edited by kunarion
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Why doesn't the log for the cache transfer to the trackables log? If that happened auto visits wouldn't be blank!

 

I have two bugs in a race. Every cache they visit racks up points; I've been wishing autovisit was turned on with people picking them up.

 

Also if we could load a picture to the trackable page from a smart phone it would end up with pictures loaded. I will take a pretty picture at the cache load it; but it stays with the cache. There is no way for me to get it to the trackable page. By the time I download pics from my camera or smart phone the trackable was dropped off long ago and I have no way to get pictures on trackable page.

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Why doesn't the log for the cache transfer to the trackables log? If that happened auto visits wouldn't be blank!

That would be a great option, particularly for pictures! I'll sometimes take a Group Photo of some TBs at a cache, but it's a "cache photo", so it goes on the cache log. Then I need to remember to add a picture to the TB page, and even with the same photo, it's twice the work. And because I'm like 900 years old, I probably didn't properly upload the photo to one or the other.

Edited by kunarion
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We've been asking for the ability to upload a pic with TB logs FOREVER.

 

As it stands now, it's a royal pain to upload a pic to a TB page. Take pic from my iPhone, email it to my Mac, then find the tb, edit tb, upload pic, etc....for each tb. Multiple pictures, multiple emails, blah blah blah

 

It would be sooooo much easier if I could just upload the pic directly from the field when I pick up/drop off...

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