Taking TBs to visit caches

[+fruit baby]

Can anyone tell me why people take a TB around from one cache to the next and register it each time. Is there any merit in it for them?

 

The reason I am asking: I am fairly new to this, but I have several TBs out there with precise destinations and tasks. Again and again someone will take a TB writing "I shall help it along" but then they proceed to take it round and round in circles for several weeks (just registering the TB at a great many caches, without comment or photo) and then dropping it more or less where they found it. It is quite annoying for us; the children feel we just are not making any progress.

 

So, the question is: why do people do that? Is there anything in it for them, or can they just not be bothered or are unable to read?

[+redwoodkestrel]

It's very often because they're logging caches from their smartphone, which has the option to "visit" all TBs you're holding to every cache you log, automatically. Personally, I unchecked that option, but other folks keep it enabled or might not even know it's enabled.

 

Alternatively, some people just like to show that they haven't forgotten about your TB - the fact that they're visiting it illustrates that, until they drop it into a cache. I prefer to visit a TB to only one or two caches during an excursion until I drop it, since it shows where it's been without cluttering up the TB page with tons of visit notes.

[+dprovan]

Some people feel that the point of a TB is to visit as many caches as possible, so they do that. I'm told there's a way to automatically do that in some apps.

 

I don't care for that approach. I think the point of a TB is to visit areas, so 2 visits in the same area strikes me as redundant. It sounds like you feel the same way.

 

But I recommend not losing any sleep over it. Just put up with the fact that some people have a different opinion about it and live with some logs that aren't interesting. Explaining how you want your TB to behave in the description is a good idea, but as you've discovered, it doesn't always help.

 

I don't like empty TB logs, so that's the standard I use for deciding whether to visit: if there's nothing to say about a TB visiting a cache, then the TB doesn't visit the cache. But that doesn't come up very often because I usually drop the TB in the first cache that's big enough in the next area I visit (unless, of course, I can help it towards its goal by holding on to it until I'm somewhere better).

[+unclerojelio]

The reason I am asking: I am fairly new to this ...

Just be glad it's still moving and not lost yet. I like TBs and watch where mine go but, like lending money to family, once you put them out there, you pretty much have to pretty much consider them gone. The lucky ones last awhile but many don't and you have no say where they go.

[+LightHouseSeekers]

I do visits with TBs to help them accumulate mileage and to show to the owner that are still activate and not lost someplace. Try to drop them somewhere meeting goals as best as possible.

[+dprovan]

Alternatively, some people just like to show that they haven't forgotten about your TB - the fact that they're visiting it illustrates that, until they drop it into a cache.

I'm sure you're right that some people think that's what they're showing, but when I see a string of empty visits, I think the opposite: that they've forgotten the TB entirely and are just robotically (or, as you point out, programatically) posting a visit every single time. Who knows whether they really have any idea where the TB is, or, in fact, whether they've already dropped it and just forgot to log that?

[+fruit baby]

Many thanks to redwoodkestrel and to dprovan for taking the trouble to reply.

The aps on smart phones may explain some of it, and as dprovan points out, some people think differently about all this, even if goals etc are stated clearly.

So, they are not gaining miles or increasing some other count by doing it?

[+fruit baby]

I do visits with TBs to help them accumulate mileage and to show to the owner that are still activate and not lost someplace. Try to drop them somewhere meeting goals as best as possible.

 

Thanks, LightHouseSeekers!

[+SwineFlew]

I dipped a bug in every caches I visited to the east coast and back.

 

You can see the trail I made. You dont see this very often.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/track/map_gm.aspx?ID=3563416

[+fruit baby]

The reason I am asking: I am fairly new to this ...

Just be glad it's still moving and not lost yet. I like TBs and watch where mine go but, like lending money to family, once you put them out there, you pretty much have to pretty much consider them gone. The lucky ones last awhile but many don't and you have no say where they go.

A philosophical reply! I shall try to take it to heart, I am sure you are right, but it gets so annoying when people actually do the very opposite of what is stated so clearly on the goals-site AND around the TB's neck!

[+fruit baby]

I dipped a bug in every caches I visited to the east coast and back.

 

You can see the trail I made. You dont see this very often.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/track/map_gm.aspx?ID=3563416

 

Wow, that is VERY impressive. But this was presumably NOT a bug that was destined to fly to Europe or something like this. So, that's fine!

[+fruit baby]

Alternatively, some people just like to show that they haven't forgotten about your TB - the fact that they're visiting it illustrates that, until they drop it into a cache.

I'm sure you're right that some people think that's what they're showing, but when I see a string of empty visits, I think the opposite: that they've forgotten the TB entirely and are just robotically (or, as you point out, programatically) posting a visit every single time. Who knows whether they really have any idea where the TB is, or, in fact, whether they've already dropped it and just forgot to log that?

Yes, I agree! And a string of empty entries, (i.e. 20 or more with no comment , no photo) which ends up where it started, or ends up in South-Hungary when Paris was the goal, is somehow mindless and puts me off the whole "game".

[+sparklefingers]

There's a discussion on this very subject in the tb forum if you want to have a look see (for more info and what not)

 

As other have said there is an auto visit for tbs on the smart phone apps, (I have this un checked) as it does annoy tb owners if they get hundreds of visit logs and no drops.

 

I do however find it very hard to find caches that fit tbs in as most in my town seem to be nanos and while I don't make mine visit caches I will make others tbs visit the cache as I want to let the owner that I haven't lost it. I normally do this on my phone and then go to edit logs once I am home

 

Tb owners want to know what's going on with their tbs and the visit logs don't give them information. If you do make it visit a cache write a message and let them know about the tb and how it's going.

[+fruit baby]

There's a discussion on this very subject in the tb forum if you want to have a look see (for more info and what not)

 

As other have said there is an auto visit for tbs on the smart phone apps, (I have this un checked) as it does annoy tb owners if they get hundreds of visit logs and no drops.

 

I do however find it very hard to find caches that fit tbs in as most in my town seem to be nanos and while I don't make mine visit caches I will make others tbs visit the cache as I want to let the owner that I haven't lost it. I normally do this on my phone and then go to edit logs once I am home

 

Tb owners want to know what's going on with their tbs and the visit logs don't give them information. If you do make it visit a cache write a message and let them know about the tb and how it's going.

 

Thanks, much obliged!

[+KyotoUK]

Can someone let me know where the option is on the iPhone app? Want to make sure it doesn't visit every cache

[+sparklefingers]

Can someone let me know where the option is on the iPhone app? Want to make sure it doesn't visit every cache

I remember having to turn it off but I've just gone through the settings and can't see it. So I guess it's not there. :S now I'm confused as I remember turning something like that off....

[+Harry Dolphin]

I find it incredibly annoying! My bugs do not want to vist every cache; they want to move from cache to cache. And it clogs up the TB page and map.

When I check TBs at a cache, I find that someone has logged 65 visits, and I cannot find anything.

I find it incredibly annoying!

[+luvvinbird]

Can anyone tell me why people take a TB around from one cache to the next and register it each time. Is there any merit in it for them?

 

The reason I am asking: I am fairly new to this, but I have several TBs out there with precise destinations and tasks. Again and again someone will take a TB writing "I shall help it along" but then they proceed to take it round and round in circles for several weeks (just registering the TB at a great many caches, without comment or photo) and then dropping it more or less where they found it. It is quite annoying for us; the children feel we just are not making any progress.

 

So, the question is: why do people do that? Is there anything in it for them, or can they just not be bothered or are unable to read?

I was very enthusiastic when I dropped off my first (and only, to date) TB. I had visions of it travelling from cache to cache and always being notified of it's progress. How exciting! Sadly, the reality is it may end up in someone's posession never to see the light of day again. I thought I owned the bug, but apparently not. Good luck with yours!

[+fruit baby]

I find it incredibly annoying! My bugs do not want to vist every cache; they want to move from cache to cache. And it clogs up the TB page and map.

When I check TBs at a cache, I find that someone has logged 65 visits, and I cannot find anything.

I find it incredibly annoying!

 

I am glad that I am not the only one being sooo annoyed by this!

But it is quite likely that people do not even know that their smart phones are constantly logging all Tbs in their possession, including all the ones they have lost over the years (unless they registered them missing)!

 

I think the way forward is to make officials of geocaching aware of this deplorable state of affairs.

I just wrote something to this effect on the TB-forum, but I am not sure I published it really in the right place.

[+Manville Possum]

I'm a collector and use the visited feature with my different trackables when I log a find. I have DNF, Found it, EarthCache trackables, quite a few different ones.

[+Bushwalker53]

They do it to help you get more miles but I prefer when it actually spends time in a cache and haves different people moving it. Somebody has been doing that with a single TB for about a year now! And this cacher is holding mine too! They are building up the mileage for you but I don't really think it's the proper way to handle one.

[+fruit baby]

They do it to help you get more miles but I prefer when it actually spends time in a cache and haves different people moving it. Somebody has been doing that with a single TB for about a year now! And this cacher is holding mine too! They are building up the mileage for you but I don't really think it's the proper way to handle one.

I agree with you! And, anyway, WHY should anyone think that my TB wants a lot of mindless mileage? Where is the fun in that? My TB wants comments, pictures, and it wants to achieve the (normally fun)goal that is clearly stated on its register and on a tag around the TB's neck.

[+captnemo]

I do visits with TBs to help them accumulate mileage and to show to the owner that are still activate and not lost someplace. Try to drop them somewhere meeting goals as best as possible.

+1 I am headed to the East Coast and plan to visit the bugs in my care all the way across the country and then drop them as close to there goals as I can on the way back to the West Coast.

 

Sorry if that bugs some owners. I used to write longer logs but got out of the habit, will try and improve on that. I no longer place travel bugs as they all have come up lost in a short period of time, but would have loved to see them moving from cache to cache even without any logs. I guess that why I do it the way I do.

[+lamoracke]

My own personal opinion. I find it mildly annoying for someone to clutter up a TB or coin page with countless visits each and every time they visit a cache. Sure, a drop on an interesting cache or a cache of a day they went somewhere, but every cache?

 

I imagine most of these folks feel they are helping, adding mileage to the TBs, but as for me, an owner of my TBs and coins, I find it clutter.

 

If folks do it to their own coins of course, that is their own choice.

[+fruit baby]

 

Statement: Alternatively, some people just like to show that they haven't forgotten about your TB - the fact that they're visiting it illustrates that, until they drop it into a cache.

 

Reply:If someone wants to say that they still have my TB, what is wrong with a nice little note and a photo of the TB in an interesting setting, rather than a series of 65 "took it to"?

Edited January 18, 2013 by fruit baby

[+fruit baby]

My own personal opinion. I find it mildly annoying for someone to clutter up a TB or coin page with countless visits each and every time they visit a cache. Sure, a drop on an interesting cache or a cache of a day they went somewhere, but every cache?

 

I imagine most of these folks feel they are helping, adding mileage to the TBs, but as for me, an owner of my TBs and coins, I find it clutter.

 

If folks do it to their own coins of course, that is their own choice.

Thank you, lamoracke, nicely put! I fully agree.

[+Don_J]

I dipped a bug in every caches I visited to the east coast and back.

 

You can see the trail I made. You dont see this very often.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/track/map_gm.aspx?ID=3563416

 

The way I see it, that is just plain wrong. If you want to track your travels with a travel bug, go buy one. Don't use someone elses.

 

It's rare now that I release a bug or a coin, but when I do, it's so that I can share it with as many people as possible. When some one gets a hold if it and uses it to track his mileage, they have negated the entire purpose of me releasing the TB/coin. You are supposed to pickup a TB and MOVE it to another cache, not hold onto it and bring it to every cache that you visit.

 

I personally would like to see the "Visited" log restricted to only TBs that you own.

[+fruit baby]

I dipped a bug in every caches I visited to the east coast and back.

 

You can see the trail I made. You dont see this very often.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/track/map_gm.aspx?ID=3563416

 

The way I see it, that is just plain wrong. If you want to track your travels with a travel bug, go buy one. Don't use someone elses.

 

It's rare now that I release a bug or a coin, but when I do, it's so that I can share it with as many people as possible. When some one gets a hold if it and uses it to track his mileage, they have negated the entire purpose of me releasing the TB/coin. You are supposed to pickup a TB and MOVE it to another cache, not hold onto it and bring it to every cache that you visit.

 

I personally would like to see the "Visited" log restricted to only TBs that you own.

[+fruit baby]

I dipped a bug in every caches I visited to the east coast and back.

 

You can see the trail I made. You dont see this very often.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/track/map_gm.aspx?ID=3563416

 

The way I see it, that is just plain wrong. If you want to track your travels with a travel bug, go buy one. Don't use someone elses.

 

It's rare now that I release a bug or a coin, but when I do, it's so that I can share it with as many people as possible. When some one gets a hold if it and uses it to track his mileage, they have negated the entire purpose of me releasing the TB/coin. You are supposed to pickup a TB and MOVE it to another cache, not hold onto it and bring it to every cache that you visit.

 

I personally would like to see the "Visited" log restricted to only TBs that you own.

Now that's a brilliant idea: restrict "took it to" or "visited" to TBs you own yourself! And otherwise use the "write a note" function if you want to leave a remark on someone else's TB record. I often even leave a funny picture featuring the TB.

[Keystone]

Please see this active thread where the same subject is being discussed in the proper forum section. I am closing this duplicate thread.