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Travel Bug with "Hitchhikers" attached


luvvinbird

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I was curious about a TB I recently grabbed from a cache. I guess I've either not paid too much attention in the past or simply overlooked finer details, but I noticed four, different plastic laminated "cards" threaded on to the chain alongside the TB's tracking number. The cards are from other geocachers who appear to have made the travel bug a vehicle to spread the word of their personal favourite caches or areas visited, etc. Do most TB owners care about this practice or is it pretty much accepted? Is all just part of the TB's journey? The original photo of the owner's TB doesn't show any of these "hitchhikers". In contrast, I've moved other TB's with multi-thousand miles accumulated and no cards were attached. My apologies if this topic's been previously addressed.

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Never add or remove anything from a bug without owner permission. Unfortunately some people think they are doing someone a favor by adding their personal ad touting that they managed to move a bug.

 

In line with this reasoning, if you wish, contact the owner and ask if you should remove it - some do want it removed, some don't.

 

Difference is you asked first.

 

bd

Edited by BlueDeuce
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Never add or remove anything from a bug without owner permission. Unfortunately some people think they are doing someone a favor by adding their personal ad touting that they managed to move a bug.

 

In line with this reasoning, if you wish, contact the owner and ask if you should remove it - some do want it removed, some don't.

 

Difference is you asked first.

 

bd

Thanks BlueDeuce. Thinking about it, I suppose they could be "bumper stickers" providing a record of the TB's travels. And to be clear, the cards affixed to the bug in question, were in no way offensive.

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And to be clear, the cards affixed to the bug in question, were in no way offensive.

 

I don't doubt that at all.

 

Unfortunately it's a common practice among certain ultra movers and then copied by others.

 

edited to add the word: certain

Edited by BlueDeuce
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I just recently saw a twitter account for TravelFleas. They are small tags you attach to the travel bug's chain. The TravelFleas have your member name on it.

At first I was 50/50 on whether this was a good idea or not. But after reading BlueDeuce's post I now agree that you should not modify someone else's travel bug.

Edited by cmhall9
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I am going to start a new TB soon and ist mission will be to collect as many .... as it goes around the world, I wonder how big/many it will attract? I will have to wait and see. My final word is have fun geocaching.

Edited by Eartha
Edited to remove commercial posting.
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I am going to start a new TB soon and ist mission will be to collect as many .... as it goes around the world, I wonder how big/many it will attract? I will have to wait and see. My final word is have fun geocaching and if your feeling itchy talking about all these .... then pick up your own at ....

This topic seems to be an advertisement, so I removed the hitchhikers. :rolleyes:

 

Please simply move a TB properly and log it. That's all I ask for mine, start with that. Just doing that seems enough of a challenge for many cachers, why complicate it? Once my TB is moving well, then later I may decide if additional things can be added to it. My choice. Looks like my TBs need a Mission of NOT collecting any additional stuff. So now I need to add yet another sentence to the long list of "please don't" bad etiquette proscriptions on all my Trackable pages? Super. <_<

 

If a cacher wishes to participate in the fun of my TB, to add their mark or whatever, they can type an online log as fancy as they like, for FREE. Then place my TB into a different cache container unmolested. Once someone decides it's a great idea to [trade out the current hitchhiker / steal Trackables / keep a Trackable and Visit caches forever with it / non-etiquette idea goes here], many people feel the need to begin doing that, and a TB could become a mess pretty quickly if everyone "added something".

 

Asking for your own TB to accumulate an item is very different from unilaterally adding things to someone else's. I send out a TB with planning, hoping it will stay in the game. It's supposed to be something nice that people can find among junk in cache containers. I'd prefer it gets moved and logged, rather than having strangers change it.

Edited by kunarion
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Never, ever, ever, ever, ever add something to someone else's travel bug, without the owner permission.

If people keep adding items to a travel bug, it will not easily fit into the caches as its owner planned. Always ask, wait for an answer, and if you don't get a reply, don't add anything. And don't add advertising. That's just tacky.

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edit: and it's gone.

Wow! That is gone. Just like my mind. :surprise:

 

I might be happy to have a very special item attached (there are highly collectible non-tracked coins that cachers place, for example), where some future cacher could keep said item. But I'd like to be asked first. I'm trying to keep my Trackables in the game, and if something "extra cool" is added, that may make my Trackable gone. Just like my mind.

Edited by kunarion
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Regarding the <Removed by moderator>, even though you are the owner of a TB, once it is released into the community, it is public domain. Just like putting yourself out there on Facebook, you can't whine if someone posts something you don't like! What really annoying is just how many TBs just go missing.

 

Ps. Dropping off some GC's, TB's and of course a few of my <Removed by moderator> in Russia this week!

Edited by Eartha
Remove unauthorized mention of commercial product.
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What really annoying is just how many TBs just go missing./

One way TBs go missing because someone feels the need to mess with the TBs, either because they decide they know better how to "improve" the TB, or they keep or destroy it -- all against the owner's wishes. Log it and place it into a cache. Don't add stuff to the TBs you find. Do whatever you wish to your own.

Edited by kunarion
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Adding a <Removed by moderator>.. is hardly messing around with some ones TB! I think you are missing the point - As written in my last posting: “once a TB is released into the community, it is public domain. Just like putting yourself out there on Facebook, you can't whine if someone posts something you don't like”

 

All but one of my TB´s has gone missing and that was before the <removed by moderator> idea came along! Therefore, I do not think there is any evidence that adding this little creature to a TB reduces the chance of a TB surviving in the public domain. All my <Removed by moderator> are still out there hitching a ride, if some one takes it off, no big deal or perhaps it would be for you! Just take a deep breath an accept that the hitch hikers are out there and there’s nothing you can do about it apart from join in. Perhaps we can agree to disagree and if you feel really strong about the whole think, why not contact the creator (ps. its nothing to do with me, I am just along for the ride, or should I say my <Removed by moderator> are!).

 

How big is the <Removed by moderator> thing anyhow? I have only seen two others in the past 4 weeks. Perhaps no one else is interested in the whole idea and therefore our precious TB´s are safe (or are they, as I wrote above; most of mine went missing long before I ever heard of the <Removed by moderator> idea). If they arent very poplar then I feel quite lucky to have some as I guess the creator wont be around for long.

Edited by Eartha
Remove unauthorized mention of commercialproduct.
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All but one of my TB´s has gone missing and that was before the <Removed by moderator> idea came along! Therefore, I do not think there is any evidence that adding this little creature to a TB reduces the chance of a TB surviving in the public domain.

The problem is that people decide they're justified doing everything they want to do with other people's TBs because "it belongs to everyone" or "to nobody" or whatever. How many people would set their TBs loose if Geocaching.com's policy was "everyone should mess with Trackables in their own way, keep it, discard it, add things, remove things, anything goes!" Because people do justify any and all of that. None of that is what we thought TBs were for: Something besides junk to find in a cache, that gets tracked and moved.

 

A Trackable is not "public domain". It can at any time be returned to me, I own it. You can drop items into a cache. Don't attach things to others' TBs.

Edited by Eartha
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Three years ago I found a geocoin where the code number was almost warn off. I went through three or four combinations before figuring out the correct number so I could log it online as "retrieved it" from the cache.

 

ConundrumCoin

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?guid=7dc7e65c-fa8d-42c0-8afd-93c3d578e958

 

I contacted the coin owner and told them that most of the code number was warn off and asked if they wanted it back. They said yes and I snail mailed it back to them.

I have always considered Geocoins and Travel Bugs property of the person who purchased them.

I have three that are missing. I can only hope that they will turn up some day.

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While passing thru MI I picked up a GC that originated in CA with a goal of travelling the world. In the zip lock bag was a large laminated info card from a cacher in MI. By design, this GC had a hole thru the center, and thru it a chain. Also attached to the chain were 2 small laminated cards each with a hole thru the center. Both cards were from cachers in MI, one of which also authored the large laminated info card. I became confused because for a while I thought the laminated cards were from the GC owner. In fact they were bigger, more colorful, more durable than the original paper info sheet; but I couldn't figure out why there were two. What really caused me to research is when I got to a cache in the Bahamas and found the IDENTICAL laminated card at the bottom of a cache in Nassau. I thought I had stumbled upon a one-in-a-billion situation where the owner of the GC from the US had also been to this very cache in Nassau. What's the chances?! I went to contact the name on the laminated card and began to learn that this cacher had logged 24,100 trackables! - so probably not the incredible coincidence I once thought. That got me checking these forums, and then drop a note to the REAL GC owner to ask if she was OK with the hitch hikers. She asked that I remove the three laminated cards, which I did, documenting with before/after photos what it looked like when I picked it up in MI and what it looked like when I dropped it off in NY.

 

I am in agreement with the moderators that these hitch hikers shouldn't be added without owner permission. For me it added confusion as to who the owner was, what the real goal was, and it changed the physical size of the trackable. Its hard enough to keep TBs aloft without somebody else monkeying with them and possibly impacting their success.

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I am in agreement with the moderators that these hitch hikers shouldn't be added without owner permission. For me it added confusion as to who the owner was, what the real goal was, and it changed the physical size of the trackable. Its hard enough to keep TBs aloft without somebody else monkeying with them and possibly impacting their success.

I'm planning a turtle TB, where the tag is bolted to the plastic turtle. There will be no chain or hole to attach "extra stuff". If that takes care of that, I'll make similar TBs.

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