+ooga booga Posted September 26, 2003 Share Posted September 26, 2003 First, let me preface this by saying that I'm really pleased with geocaching.com as a whole - this is a great site run by great people, and I'm happy that this hobby has such competent folks running the show at the web site. That said, what's up with not allowing travel bugs to be logged into virtuals any more? Did I miss the big public outcry about what a travesty it was that TBs were being logged into virtual caches? I think this is a bad idea for three reasons. 1. There are cachers out there who keep 'personal travel bugs' that they log into and out of every cache they visit. I don't do it myself, but I can see why people would: it's a nice way to keep a record of the caches you've visited and the miles you've accumulated in pursuit of this hobby. These people are now SOL as far as being able to keep an accurate log on their personal TBs, and frankly, if I was one of the people who'd been keeping a TB for a year or more I'd be pretty unhappy. 2. There are certain situations where it's just good to be able to log a travel bug into and out of a virtual cache. For instance, when you're handing off a bug to another cacher. 3. There's some places in the world where there ARE no physical caches to log a bug into. This is the reason behind my message, in fact. I got an email tonight from a cacher who visited a virtual cache of mine in Shanghai, a city with only virtual caches. The person wanted to log my cache there with a photo of them and a travel bug they brought, but since it's a virtual they can't. And since there are no physical caches in Shanghai, there's no way for them to ever log that this lucky travel bug went all the way to China and back! It stinks for them to have carried this bug all that way with nothing to show for it now, and it stinks for the TB owner who'll never have the logs to show that his/her bug went halfway around the world and back. I know there were a few TBs out there like Virtual Victor that kind of abused the system, but was it really such a pressing problem that needed such a draconian solution? After all, while it may not be possible to 'place' a bug into a virtual cache, it's certainly possible for them to still 'visit'...too bad there's no way to log that any more. Link to comment
+briansnat Posted September 26, 2003 Share Posted September 26, 2003 I agree. Apparently the Travel Bug Graveyard is no longer working because of this. Also, people have been known to leave TB's at virtuals. It's not a common practice and not always a good idea, but in certain cases, I don't see why not. "You can't make a man by standing a sheep on his hind legs. But by standing a flock of sheep in that position, you can make a crowd of men" - Max Beerbohm Link to comment
Jeremy Posted September 26, 2003 Share Posted September 26, 2003 Eh. Not really a big enough issue not to let them be logged in virtual caches. You can now drop them off in virtual caches. Please don't abuse the feature. Webcam and locationless caches, however, are off limits for dropping of travel bugs. Jeremy Irish Groundspeak - The Language of Location Link to comment
+drat19 Posted September 27, 2003 Share Posted September 27, 2003 When I do a personal handoff with another cacher, I (or the other cacher) will usually do a "grab" on the bug, then a "mileage drop/re-grab" on any local physical cache page to get mileage credit. Works great. -Dave R. Link to comment
BassoonPilot Posted September 27, 2003 Share Posted September 27, 2003 quote:Originally posted by Jeremy:Not really a big enough issue not to let them be logged in virtual caches. You can now drop them off in virtual caches. In "the old days," I picked up and traded quite a few travel bugs that had been left at virtual caches; in most cases, the cache owner had used the TBs as "FTF" prizes. But these days, that type of activity tends to support the preferred "no virtual if it's possible to hide something (anything, no matter how small or how lame) at the location (no matter how suspicious, disruptive or destructive any searching at that location might be)" position. Link to comment
+ooga booga Posted September 27, 2003 Author Share Posted September 27, 2003 quote:Originally posted by Jeremy:Eh. Not really a big enough issue not to let them be logged in virtual caches. You can now drop them off in virtual caches. Please don't abuse the feature. Webcam and locationless caches, however, are off limits for dropping of travel bugs. Wow! Thanks for fixing this, Jeremy! I've had reason in the past to log a couple of bugs through virtual caches, so it's good to see that feature back...and I know there's a couple of geocachers in China who'll be pretty happy, too. I really appreciate that you're willing to listen to feedback like this. Link to comment
The Alethiometrists Posted September 29, 2003 Share Posted September 29, 2003 Yea! I'm happy to see this fixed. I don't usually do virtuals, myself, but I know they're useful for bug hand-offs and getting a bug to a specific destination. Now, I never plan of logging a 'locationless' find, but I do wish the graveyard was working again - I have a bug that may need a proper burial soon. He was an officer of travel bug law: http://www.geocaching.com/track/track_detail.asp?ID=41635 Black arm bands, a brass band - I had it all planned. But now I can't get a burial plot for poor Officer Barbrady. ------------- "Thos' Degrees of Longitude and Latitude in Name, yet in Earthly reality are they Channels mark'd for the transport of some unseen Influence, one carefully assembl'd chain…" – Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon Link to comment
+haggaeus Posted September 29, 2003 Share Posted September 29, 2003 quote:Originally posted by Jeremy:Webcam and locationless caches, however, are off limits for dropping of travel bugs. Why couldn't be webcams used the same way as virtuals? It would be cool to have TB transfer between cachers recorded on a webcam. Czech caching in US. Link to comment
dboggny Posted September 29, 2003 Share Posted September 29, 2003 quote:Originally posted by Jeremy:Eh. Not really a big enough issue not to let them be logged in virtual caches. You can now drop them off in virtual caches. Please don't abuse the feature. Webcam and locationless caches, however, are off limits for dropping of travel bugs. Jeremy Irish Groundspeak - The Language of Location Jeremy, thanks for making the change. We just activated a travel bug for the new baby's account with the intention of using it to keep track of the baby's miles and adventures so it was nice of you to protect our, all be it, small investment in his personal travel bug. Thanks again. becky, danny and harry SR and dboggny. Link to comment
Recommended Posts