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What Irks you most?


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1 hour ago, kunarion said:

So maybe the plan is to not fill the lists with tons of "2020 Community Caches" that aren't available.  That makes sense.  It makes it hard for people to plan, but we expect more to pop up in the next couple of months.  I don't think the Reviewers actually forget to ever activate caches.  But they have different schedules.

 

A problem this could create if there are lots of Community Celebration Events sitting in review pending queues is it increases the likelihood of date clashes, especially with another 2020 of them about to be issued. The only way I have of knowing whether a date is free is to look at the list of those already published, which so far for the state of New South Wales, is just two.

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It irks me, that each and every time there is one of those "souvenir" things going on, I have trouble using the geocaching.com website. Timeouts, "Server error 500", "The service is currently unavailable" ... you name it. I couldn't care less for those souvenirs, but whenever I say so, I hear "Then just ignore it, and let the other have their fun". Well, I'd certainly like to ignore it, but I can't because the website breaks right in front of my eyes! :mad:

 

Sorry for the rant, but I just had to let it out ;)

 

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11 minutes ago, baer2006 said:

It irks me, that each and every time there is one of those "souvenir" things going on, I have trouble using the geocaching.com website. Timeouts, "Server error 500", "The service is currently unavailable" ... you name it. I couldn't care less for those souvenirs, but whenever I say so, I hear "Then just ignore it, and let the other have their fun". Well, I'd certainly like to ignore it, but I can't because the website breaks right in front of my eyes! :mad:

 

Sorry for the rant, but I just had to let it out ;)

 

I thought it was just me !   :D  

In fact, even my "last viewed" on my profile is now missing. 

I have to LOG IN just switching from "public" profile to MY profile dashboard too.  Had to log in to get back here...

It worked fine a couple hours ago...

Edited by cerberus1
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14 minutes ago, baer2006 said:

It irks me, that each and every time there is one of those "souvenir" things going on, I have trouble using the geocaching.com website. Timeouts, "Server error 500", "The service is currently unavailable" ... you name it. I couldn't care less for those souvenirs, but whenever I say so, I hear "Then just ignore it, and let the other have their fun". Well, I'd certainly like to ignore it, but I can't because the website breaks right in front of my eyes! :mad:

 

Sorry for the rant, but I just had to let it out ;)

 

 

+1

 

I have a couple of choice PQs run on Wednesday and Friday, so I'm usually good for any weekend cache runs.  But I do then try to use some online things.

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Again, walking on the bike path checking our caches, a woman was smoking as she was walking past us with her young son who had on only a sleeveless t-shirt in 36 degree weather.  A huge ike for me! Seeing children barely dressed in cold weather and a woman smoking while walking ahead of her son who is breathing in that smoke. 

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On 2/2/2020 at 3:50 PM, HunterandSamuel said:

 

I actually got that server error trying to log a find today to get my 02.02.2020 souvenir. So I changed over to google chrome and it worked great. 

 

A server 500 error is a catch all error that the server will return to a browser when "something went wrong" on the server when processing the request.  It typically means that the program that processes a request terminated before it completed the construction of a response, and the reason for the termination wasn't determined.   Server 500 errors are usually temporary so changing over to a different browser may have nothing to do with the issue.  

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1 minute ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

 

A server 500 error is a catch all error that the server will return to a browser when "something went wrong" on the server when processing the request.  It typically means that the program that processes a request terminated before it completed the construction of a response, and the reason for the termination wasn't determined.   Server 500 errors are usually temporary so changing over to a different browser may have nothing to do with the issue.  

 

 

Thanks. As you can tell, I'm not tech savvy. lol

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3 hours ago, HunterandSamuel said:

who had on only a sleeveless t-shirt in 36 degree weather

Sounds like me. This is the kind of weather where I'm often wearing a T-shirt, walking next to my wife who is wearing a coat, a sweater, and multiple layers under that.

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Couple of irks on puzzle caches:

 

(On other people's - some might say I'm guilty too, but most of my cache themes are on my profile page if people just looked): the puzzle that requires telepathy. Oh, so the numbers come from a list of Eurovision Song Contest winners ordered by the lead singers' height. I should have worked that out from the title "Over The Cliff" as Cliff Richard once had a Eurovision song. Silly me.

 

(On my puzzles - or indeed others): logs saying "I really hate that person (the subject of a Famous Local Residents puzzle) or "I have no interest whatsoever in that subject" (usually one of my football caches) - so what??? Just get the numbers out of it and move on.

 

There is a local cacher who's putting negative logs on 2/3 of their finds - anything remotely dirty / too close to a road / too far from a road / wrong size etc etc. Some cachers need to take a break - or just put TFTC if they have nothing nice to say.

 

On the plus side - one of my caches went past 50 FPs last weekend, of which I'm very proud. That too got loads of hostile logs from people who didn't know the rules (it's a multi where the final is in London, the icon in Paris - turns out I was messing up the map for a whole host of Parisians...)

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1 hour ago, niraD said:

Sounds like me. This is the kind of weather where I'm often wearing a T-shirt, walking next to my wife who is wearing a coat, a sweater, and multiple layers under that.

 

We saw a few men and teen boys walking in shorts. I can't help thinking when I see teens dressed like that...they are going to catch a cold! 

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55 minutes ago, HunterandSamuel said:

 

We saw a few men and teen boys walking in shorts. I can't help thinking when I see teens dressed like that...they are going to catch a cold! 

It really depends on the persons metabolism and size (a larger body has less surface area to unit of mass).  I'm a very warm body and wear less clothes then some.  Another Mountaineer Instructor, like me - a warm 'blooded' guy) was teaching at field trip on the glaciers wearing shorts.  One of the other instructors 'complained' to a him about setting a bad example for the students.  His reply was "Why should I get heat exhaustion (over dressing) as an example.  If they try dressing like me, they'll quick learn whether it's a good idea for them."

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3 hours ago, HunterandSamuel said:

 

We saw a few men and teen boys walking in shorts. I can't help thinking when I see teens dressed like that...they are going to catch a cold! 

 

Temperature (or lack of it) doesn't cause colds, rhinoviruses do and they don't care how you're dressed. There's growing evidence that overdressing does more harm than good. This is my usual mid-winter caching attire (this was in late July, our coldest part of the year and usually the best weather for higher-terrain caching):

 

d6d9cc19-7889-4e8e-9df6-9a6ae917ead9_l.j

Edited by barefootjeff
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25 minutes ago, GoodGoblin said:

I try not to let things bother me. Life is crazy short., But it is super frustrating when I dont have a pen to sign a log

You need to get in the habit of carrying a pen. I carry at least two, in case one runs out of ink, or I drop and lose the pen somewhere. Then I have a back up. Also, if I am with my car, I have more pens in the car. My bicycle also has a spare pen in the pannier. But if you do forget your pen, many COs will accept a log if you send them a photograph and/or a good description to prove you found the cache. It's polite to contact the CO with the evidence before logging and wait for their reply with permission. With good proof I will accept the log, and the few times I have forgotten a pen (I can remember about 3 times in over 10,000 finds) I have send evidence I found the cache and my log has been accepted. Only once did a CO not reply after I sent good photographic evidence and then waited for a reply which never came. In that case, the lid of the cache had become so jammed on I couldn't get it off. After waiting for the no-reply over a month, I logged it. A few people here will argue that was wrong, but for a 1.5D getting a jammed lid off shouldn't be part of the find. (Which I did find.)

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What would the point of the trackable be, then? Just a collectible item on your shelf?

 

If you don't want this object whose intended purpose is to be seen by people ('intended' by the creators of the concept) to be seen by people and logged, then either don't ever show it to anyone or put a piece of tape over the code when you take it to Events.

 

If the problem is that the code's out there and people are logging it off of lists, then execute a few mouse clicks and delete any log that comes in. No comment, no email, no explanation; they don't deserve one. There can't be THAT MANY of them that it would more than a minor annoyance.

 

If it's just the IDEA that people are filing BS logs on your bug that gets to you, then I sympathize completely. Nothing you can do about it. People & robots call my phone all the time to try to separate me from my money. Nothing you can do about it, and that's more serious.

 

I acknowledge and grok your 'irk', but it's just one of those things.

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2 hours ago, TeamRabbitRun said:

If you don't want this object whose intended purpose is to be seen by people ('intended' by the creators of the concept) to be seen by people and logged, then either don't ever show it to anyone or put a piece of tape over the code when you take it to Events.

Some people may collect the items for the fun of collecting them and never take them out of the house. They can't be discovered. But there's no way to turn it off.  As you say, they don't ever get shown. Yet they're being discovered. Thus having an option to turn off discovery, at the behest of the TB's owner, would certainly not be a bad idea. (it's a value-add for people who would use it, and of no concern to those who wouldn't)

Edited by thebruce0
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25 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

Some people may collect the items for the fun of collecting them and never take them out of the house. They can't be discovered. But there's no way to turn it off.  As you say, they don't ever get shown. Yet they're being discovered. Thus having an option to turn off discovery, at the behest of the TB's owner, would certainly not be a bad idea. (it's a value-add for people who would use it, and of no concern to those who wouldn't)

 

I don't disagree.

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3 hours ago, Zekester & Simon said:

Trackable disocvery logs by someone who has never physically touched the trackable they are logging.  But even more so, the fact the Groundspeak does not make it possible for trackable owners to disable discoverability on their trackables. 

Be careful what you wish for.

 

Before the Visited log type was created, geocachers would Drop a trackable in a cache, and then Grab the trackable from the cache. Before the Discover log type was created, geocachers would Grab a trackable from a cache, and then Drop the trackable back in the cache.

 

Do you really want twice as many logs posted when this happens?

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6 hours ago, Zekester & Simon said:

Trackable disocvery logs by someone who has never physically touched the trackable they are logging.  But even more so, the fact the Groundspeak does not make it possible for trackable owners to disable discoverability on their trackables. 

 

You can lock the trackable, which will prevent ANY logs. If yours has gotten on a list somewhere, you can lock it temporarily. (If it's out in the wild, it might be an issue if someone wants to legitimately log it. But if it's in your house, you can lock it up until you decide to add logs to it yourself.)

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1 minute ago, TriciaG said:

You can lock the trackable, which will prevent ANY logs. If yours has gotten on a list somewhere, you can lock it temporarily. (If it's out in the wild, it might be an issue if someone wants to legitimately log it. But if it's in your house, you can lock it up until you decide to add logs to it yourself.)

 

If I do that, I might add info on my TB that people can email me and I might unlock it for their spectacular log. :cute:

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6 hours ago, Zekester & Simon said:

Trackable disocvery logs by someone who has never physically touched the trackable they are logging.  But even more so, the fact the Groundspeak does not make it possible for trackable owners to disable discoverability on their trackables. 

 

Agree with TriciaG,  locking your trackable until these freaks lose interest works well.   

I'd rather see that, then see functions (and another "button" for someone to mess trackables up more...) meant to be helpful disabled because of a few scoundrels.

 

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12 minutes ago, TriciaG said:

You can lock the trackable, which will prevent ANY logs. If yours has gotten on a list somewhere, you can lock it temporarily. (If it's out in the wild, it might be an issue if someone wants to legitimately log it.

 

We've logged one like that. After a doing a multi we got to the cache location which happened to be in the CO's front garden. His car was parked in the driveway with the TB pointing away from the street so when walking back to the bike we saw the TB and wanted to log it too. GSAK threw an error and looking at the TB page we saw it was locked so we emailed the owner who then unlocked it so we could log it. Afterwards it was locked again.

It's a nuisance but I don't blame the TB owner, I blame the fake loggers that make owners do this :ph34r:

 

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6 hours ago, TeamRabbitRun said:

If the problem is that the code's out there and people are logging it off of lists, then execute a few mouse clicks and delete any log that comes in. No comment, no email, no explanation; they don't deserve one. There can't be THAT MANY of them that it would more than a minor annoyance.

 

It's not always just a few.  My personal geocoin (I call it my guestbook coin) rides in my wallet, so to discover it you have to meet me.  It got on a list that went to a couple of Europe's Giga events - I spent quite a bit of time deleting logs from people who had never met me, or even had the opportunity.

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5 hours ago, m&m O said:

I do not care for a log that calls for a cache to be archived written by someone with a dozen finds.

:laughing: Or a cacher with only a few finds (particularly thinking of one with a whole five finds) refusing to accept helpful advice. Basically telling you they know better. The cache they wouldn't take advice on was archived (by the reviewer I think).

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10 hours ago, m&m O said:

I do not care for a log that calls for a cache to be archived written by someone with a dozen finds.

 

I don't think the number of finds matters as much as whether the cache actually needs an NA because the CO is not responding to issues. What was the problem with the cache?

 

 

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50 minutes ago, L0ne.R said:

I don't think the number of finds matters as much as whether the cache actually needs an NA because the CO is not responding to issues. What was the problem with the cache?

 

Agreed.   When we took new folks out to learn the hobby, it was rare we'd "check them" first.

I'd like someone that only has five finds add a NA, if they understand prior NMs and lack of  communication by the CO.

 - The long-time cachers aren't doing it...

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1 hour ago, L0ne.R said:

 

I don't think the number of finds matters as much as whether the cache actually needs an NA because the CO is not responding to issues. What was the problem with the cache?

 

Quote

Needs ArchivedNeeds Archived

07/11/2015

Nothing is in the little magnetic box just paper for id and paper is filled with names so there is no room for anymore names

 

This cacher's first find.  He stopped caching after eighteen finds.  There was lots of room left on the log.  Obviously did not know what an NA means.

 

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10 minutes ago, Harry Dolphin said:

 

 

This cacher's first find.  He stopped caching after eighteen finds.  There was lots of room left on the log.  Obviously did not know what an NA means.

 

 

I wonder if that was the case with m&m O's irk that suggests new members with around a dozen finds shouldn't log NAs. 

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OK, what's irking me today is people who indiscriminately move travelers without paying attention to what their goals are or what their owners are trying to achieve.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, I retrieved a travel bug from a cache in rural Ontario where it had apparently been imprisoned for about a month.  I was surprised to see that it's goal was to visit as many of the UNITED STATES as possible.  At the time, it had seen about ten before it got dumped off in, of all places, Canada.  So after taking it to Quebec with me the next day, I brought it back stateside where it wanted to be, and subsequently hauled it to Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee, all in about a month.  I released it in Tennessee hoping it could fill in its map a little more in the south.  I have been following it ever since and saw it make its way to North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida.  Then today I got an email that the Tennessee retriever dropped it off in, of all places, ENGLAND.

Question: When YOU retrieve a TB, do you pay attention to what its owner wants, or do you just figure it wants to "travel" and put it wherever you like?

 

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22 minutes ago, ParrotRobAndCeCe said:

Question: When YOU retrieve a TB, do you pay attention to what its owner wants, or do you just figure it wants to "travel" and put it wherever you like?

 

I use a GPSr for caching so if I retrieve a TB from a cache to move along, I won't know its goal until I get home and enter its tracking code on the website. If it says it only wants to visit caches in Timbuktu during a full moon, well, sorry, by then it's a bit late. All I can do with one of those difficult ones is leave it where someone who might be able to help it on its quest is more likely to come across it. Fortunately most of the TBs I retrieve just want to travel and aren't particularly fussy, because there really aren't a lot of options here for anything that wants to go much beyond the local region.

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39 minutes ago, ParrotRobAndCeCe said:

Question: When YOU retrieve a TB, do you pay attention to what its owner wants, or do you just figure it wants to "travel" and put it wherever you like?

Is the TB's goal on a tag that is attached to the TB?

 

If so, then yes, I pay attention to the TB's goal.

 

If not, then I might take it the wrong direction before I discover the TB's goal.

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19 minutes ago, barefootjeff said:

 

I use a GPSr for caching so if I retrieve a TB from a cache to move along, I won't know its goal until I get home and enter its tracking code on the website. If it says it only wants to visit caches in Timbuktu during a full moon, well, sorry, by then it's a bit late. All I can do with one of those difficult ones is leave it where someone who might be able to help it on its quest is more likely to come across it. Fortunately most of the TBs I retrieve just want to travel and aren't particularly fussy, because there really aren't a lot of options here for anything that wants to go much beyond the local region.

 

The TB was in a baggie.  In the baggie was a nice note saying where it wanted to go.  It also had a checklist where one could check off the fifty states one by one should one want to.  It could not have been ANY clearer what the goal was.

Edited by ParrotRobAndCeCe
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17 minutes ago, ParrotRobAndCeCe said:

Question: When YOU retrieve a TB, do you pay attention to what its owner wants, or do you just figure it wants to "travel" and put it wherever you like?

I do look at the Mission and Goal and yes, I do try to follow them, to the point of leaving a TB in a cache if I'm going where it's already been or if I will not be taking it closer to its goal.  If it doesn't already have a card or note attached with the goal clearly spelled out, I will create a laminated one to attach for when I do drop it off. I cut and paste from the TB page - sometimes with an English translation if it is in another language.

 

637003658_traveltag.thumb.jpg.b819e072bbc89dcb161448462fcdc149.jpg

 

It does irk me to see countless VISIT logs for months with no photos - I'll always try to take photos of the TB especially if I can visit caches in keeping with its goal.

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5 hours ago, ParrotRobAndCeCe said:

OK, what's irking me today is people who indiscriminately move travelers without paying attention to what their goals are or what their owners are trying to achieve.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, I retrieved a travel bug from a cache in rural Ontario where it had apparently been imprisoned for about a month.  I was surprised to see that it's goal was to visit as many of the UNITED STATES as possible.  At the time, it had seen about ten before it got dumped off in, of all places, Canada.  So after taking it to Quebec with me the next day, I brought it back stateside where it wanted to be, and subsequently hauled it to Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee, all in about a month.  I released it in Tennessee hoping it could fill in its map a little more in the south.  I have been following it ever since and saw it make its way to North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida.  Then today I got an email that the Tennessee retriever dropped it off in, of all places, ENGLAND.

Question: When YOU retrieve a TB, do you pay attention to what its owner wants, or do you just figure it wants to "travel" and put it wherever you like?

 

The lucky ones keep moving. A lot of them just disappear into someones personal "Stash", or worse yet, they get "Muggled" by unscrupulous players and even intentional vandals. It's not right, but this happens quite a bit. I'm preparing to set a group of 50 new TB's out there. My wife asked me how many will survive. I had to laugh a bit. There will be one for every State, but I consider anything over 20% success rate pretty darn good, Now she is mad at me for wasting the money on them. I just said it is like paying admission to a social event of sorts. You pay your admission, and see the show they put on the screen or the stage. Some you may enjoy, while others disappoint to some extent. Either way you get to have an "Experience" to enjoy to it's best possible outcome.

Seeker_Knight

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8 hours ago, ParrotRobAndCeCe said:

OK, what's irking me today is people who indiscriminately move travelers without paying attention to what their goals are or what their owners are trying to achieve.

 

I picked up a geocoin that wanted to visit Maine lighthouses.  I took it to a Maine lighthouse!  The next cacher took it to Quebec.  It's been travelling about Quebec for the last three years!  At least it made it to one lighthouse.

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13 hours ago, ParrotRobAndCeCe said:

OK, what's irking me today is people who indiscriminately move travelers without paying attention to what their goals are or what their owners are trying to achieve.

 

Question: When YOU retrieve a TB, do you pay attention to what its owner wants, or do you just figure it wants to "travel" and put it wherever you like?

 

I don't use a phone, so unless there's information along with that trackable,  I won't know what it's "goal" is until I get home.

Started earlier than us, you should remember what that's like...   

The majority of trackables we've found simply say they'd like to move cache-to-cache.

 - I'd like to have seen a bit more info,  like to not stay with the same person for over a year...

Once home, if I can help it along, cool.  If not, I'll at least steer it towards it's direction headed and forgetaboutit.

We're not finicky about things that have nothing to do with us, and  don't put watches on trackables not ours.  

 

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2 hours ago, cerberus1 said:

 

I don't use a phone, so unless there's information along with that trackable,  I won't know what it's "goal" is until I get home.

Started earlier than us, you should remember what that's like...   

The majority of trackables we've found simply say they'd like to move cache-to-cache.

 - I'd like to have seen a bit more info,  like to not stay with the same person for over a year...

Once home, if I can help it along, cool.  If not, I'll at least steer it towards it's direction headed and forgetaboutit.

We're not finicky about things that have nothing to do with us, and  don't put watches on trackables not ours.  

 

 

I see your point, but I guess there are multiple ways of looking at it.  If it has "nothing to do with me" then I wouldn't pick it up in the first place.  The fact that you pick it up and put it in your pocket sort of nullifies the "nothing to do with me" argument ;)

 

As for not knowing what the goal is, I perfectly understand, because as you so eloquently put the fact that I'm getting old (lol), yes I DO remember the days before smartphone caching.  But even then, on the rare occasions I found a trackable, I almost never re-deployed it before I logged it as "retrieved" and read about it.  To each their own, I guess.

 

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34 minutes ago, ParrotRobAndCeCe said:

I see your point, but I guess there are multiple ways of looking at it.  If it has "nothing to do with me" then I wouldn't pick it up in the first place. 

The fact that you pick it up and put it in your pocket sort of nullifies the "nothing to do with me" argument ;)

 

As for not knowing what the goal is, I perfectly understand, because as you so eloquently put the fact that I'm getting old (lol), yes I DO remember the days before smartphone caching.  But even then, on the rare occasions I found a trackable, I almost never re-deployed it before I logged it as "retrieved" and read about it.  To each their own, I guess.

 

The trackable's goal has nothing to do with us.  It's the goal of it's Owner.  We pick up a trackable and try to honor it's goal.  Simple...

We never sent a trackable back out without Retrieving it first, contrary to what you imply...

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2 hours ago, cerberus1 said:

 

The trackable's goal has nothing to do with us.  It's the goal of it's Owner.  We pick up a trackable and try to honor it's goal.  Simple...

We never sent a trackable back out without Retrieving it first, contrary to what you imply...

 

OK so help me understand this then... you mentioned that you play with a GPSr and if there's no mention of the goal on the TB, you don't know it.  But then you said you never release a trackable until after you "retrieve it".  So... if you hold on to it long enough to "retrieve it", then you've got it long enough to read what it's objective is.  The only difference is the phone user knows it in the field and you know it later when you do your retrieve logs.  I'm completely not seeing how your device has anything to do with whether you choose to honor the wishes of the owner or not.

The only difference I can see is if you pull a TB from a cache someplace where it's no longer possible to meet it's goal, and that's unavoidable.  However.... in the (real life) example I used, this bug's goal was CLEARLY to stay in the United States, which is not a really difficult thing to do - especially when the retriever dipped it in several US caches before dragging it overseas.  There's no reason to do that.

It sounds like what you're basically saying is "Go ahead and give it a goal, but don't expect anyone like me to give a rat's a** what it is".  All I'M saying is "Maybe you can't help it on its way to its goal, but the least you can do is not HINDER it deliberately".

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, ParrotRobAndCeCe said:

OK so help me understand this then... you mentioned that you play with a GPSr and if there's no mention of the goal on the TB, you don't know it.  But then you said you never release a trackable until after you "retrieve it".  So... if you hold on to it long enough to "retrieve it", then you've got it long enough to read what it's objective is.  The only difference is the phone user knows it in the field and you know it later when you do your retrieve logs.  I'm completely not seeing how your device has anything to do with whether you choose to honor the wishes of the owner or not.

 

Perhaps I can give my perspective on this. A phone cacher who logs the retrieve while at GZ can immediately see what its goal is and, if they can't comply with it, can immediately drop it back in that cache. Someone who uses a GPSr and logs at home can't do that. For example, a couple of months back I was down in central Sydney for the day and found a trackable in a micro so thought I'd better retrieve it as it was a pretty tight squeeze for it and the log. When I got home and logged it, I found that it had come from overseas with a goal to travel to Sydney where the TO hoped some of his caching friends there might discover it:

 

Quote

We're a group of friends-turned-geocaching buddies in Spokane, WA and we're hoping this trackable will make it to our friends in Sydney, Australia. Feel free to move it anywhere--we're hoping it will have some fun adventures before it makes it to Australia.

 

From the logs it appeared an overseas visitor had dropped it in that cache two days before I found it. Oops. A trip to central Sydney is a couple of hours each way for me so I wasn't about to go back down there just to return it to that micro, the best I could do was drop it in a cache on the northern fringes of Sydney a few days later when I was in that vicinity on other business. Sadly I see that the next person to retrieve it has taken it down to Canberra, so I guess the TO's mates won't be discovering it just yet. Is that my fault? How was I to know any better when I came across it in that micro?

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2 hours ago, ParrotRobAndCeCe said:

 

OK so help me understand this then... you mentioned that you play with a GPSr and if there's no mention of the goal on the TB, you don't know it.  But then you said you never release a trackable until after you "retrieve it".  So... if you hold on to it long enough to "retrieve it", then you've got it long enough to read what it's objective is.  The only difference is the phone user knows it in the field and you know it later when you do your retrieve logs.  I'm completely not seeing how your device has anything to do with whether you choose to honor the wishes of the owner or not.

The only difference I can see is if you pull a TB from a cache someplace where it's no longer possible to meet it's goal, and that's unavoidable.  However.... in the (real life) example I used, this bug's goal was CLEARLY to stay in the United States, which is not a really difficult thing to do - especially when the retriever dipped it in several US caches before dragging it overseas.  There's no reason to do that.

It sounds like what you're basically saying is "Go ahead and give it a goal, but don't expect anyone like me to give a rat's a** what it is".  All I'M saying is "Maybe you can't help it on its way to its goal, but the least you can do is not HINDER it deliberately".

 

I've picked up trackables and when I get home find that I moved in the wrong direction (like on a trip home, pick up a TB in Oregon only to find when I'm home in Washington it wanted to stay in Oregon).  If I'm not planning on returning to Oregon soon (it's 2-3 hours away) all I can do is drop in a cache and hope someone moves the "right" way.

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9 minutes ago, barefootjeff said:

 

Perhaps I can give my perspective on this. A phone cacher who logs the retrieve while at GZ can immediately see what its goal is and, if they can't comply with it, can immediately drop it back in that cache. Someone who uses a GPSr and logs at home can't do that. For example, a couple of months back I was down in central Sydney for the day and found a trackable in a micro so thought I'd better retrieve it as it was a pretty tight squeeze for it and the log. When I got home and logged it, I found that it had come from overseas with a goal to travel to Sydney where the TO hoped some of his caching friends there might discover it:

 

 

From the logs it appeared an overseas visitor had dropped it in that cache two days before I found it. Oops. A trip to central Sydney is a couple of hours each way for me so I wasn't about to go back down there just to return it to that micro, the best I could do was drop it in a cache on the northern fringes of Sydney a few days later when I was in that vicinity on other business. Sadly I see that the next person to retrieve it has taken it down to Canberra, so I guess the TO's mates won't be discovering it just yet. Is that my fault? How was I to know any better when I came across it in that micro?

Unless the TB has a clear note included with its intentions (these sometimes unfortunately go missing), I naturally don't know its intentions either until I get home and go to log it. I use a preloaded GPS, so don't log in the field, as I like to do proper logs on a computer, rather than the common phone log of TFTC.

However it is annoying when you know a TB has a clear note of its intentions and someone still picks it up and moved it the opposite direction.

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On 2/17/2020 at 6:15 AM, Harry Dolphin said:

I picked up a geocoin that wanted to visit Maine lighthouses.  I took it to a Maine lighthouse!  The next cacher took it to Quebec.  It's been travelling about Quebec for the last three years!  At least it made it to one lighthouse.

 

Whereabouts in Quebec? What's the TB#?

 

21 hours ago, ParrotRobAndCeCe said:

I see your point, but I guess there are multiple ways of looking at it.  If it has "nothing to do with me" then I wouldn't pick it up in the first place.  The fact that you pick it up and put it in your pocket sort of nullifies the "nothing to do with me" argument

 

And this is an interesting point... if one doesn't really care about TBs, or cares enough not to have to pick up and move every TB they come across, one could resign to only pick up and move TBs that have their goals attached, so as not to risk doing something with a TB that's counterproductive to its goal. That would be the most considerate, I'd say.  Perhaps with exceptions being if you found a cache that hasn't been found in a year and has a TB or two in it, picking it up to move it to a more active nearby cache could be helpful.

 

But yeah, is it 'safe' to assume that a TB without an a printed attached goal just wants to move around? In many cases probably.  Definitely not all. Why not only pick up TBs that travel with their goal? (or else check online for any others before picking up)

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58 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

 

Why not only pick up TBs that travel with their goal? (or else check online for any others before picking up)

 

Snipping your quote, we generally pick and choose caches to search for using a GPSr (Oregon 600) not smartphone, in our experience checking for TBs in caches prior to trips is pretty pointless due to so many "ghost" trackables, we count ourselves quite fortunate if a listed trackable is still in a cache.

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1 hour ago, thebruce0 said:

And this is an interesting point... if one doesn't really care about TBs, or cares enough not to have to pick up and move every TB they come across, one could resign to only pick up and move TBs that have their goals attached, so as not to risk doing something with a TB that's counterproductive to its goal. That would be the most considerate, I'd say.  Perhaps with exceptions being if you found a cache that hasn't been found in a year and has a TB or two in it, picking it up to move it to a more active nearby cache could be helpful.

 

Curious Do you even know what the point is in regards to that post ? 

I merely responded to :

 

On 2/16/2020 at 9:22 PM, ParrotRobAndCeCe said:

OK, what's irking me today is people who indiscriminately move travelers without paying attention to what their goals are or what their owners are trying to achieve.

Question: When YOU retrieve a TB, do you pay attention to what its owner wants, or do you just figure it wants to "travel" and put it wherever you like?

 

 - With "I have been following it ever since and saw it make its way to North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida.  Then today I got an email that the Tennessee retriever dropped it off in, of all places, ENGLAND." in that post as well.

 

So I said:

"The majority of trackables we've found simply say they'd like to move cache-to-cache.

 - I'd like to have seen a bit more info,  like to not stay with the same person for over a year...

Once home, if I can help it along, cool.  If not, I'll at least steer it towards it's direction headed and forgetaboutit.

We're not finicky about things that have nothing to do with us, and  don't put watches on trackables not ours.  "

 

There's nothing wrong with that statement....     Sheesh... 

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