Missing trackables

[+jeff in iznajar]

On my recent holiday to the Uk I decided to search for trackables to bring back to Spain and allow them to log some kilometres, unfortunateley of all the caches that I selected, only one actually had a trackable in it and when I contacted the owner he requested me to hide his trackable in another Welsh cache as he didn't want it to leave Wales. Now I think it would be a good idea for all the owners of caches to check the ones that are showing a trackable just to see if it's actually there, of the fifteen that I have attempted to find fourteen were actually missing but still showing on geocaching.com as in the cache. I have messaged the owners of the ones that I couldn't find in the caches to say that they are missing but checking the geocaching.com site on my return to Spain I see that the trackables are still showing in those caches and in reality they are not there. I have had a trackable go missing and logged it as such, if it one day appears again I will be notified of it's movement, in the mean time it's not showing in a cache where no-one will ever find find it.

I'll be checking all my caches this week to ensure that trackables logged in them are actually there.

[+Walts Hunting]

First of all welcome to this addictive hobby.

 

Second this is a well known, much discussed and solutionless problem that gets brought up several times a week.

[+Kacher82]

Second this is a well known, much discussed and solutionless problem that gets brought up several times a week.

There is a solution that has been suggested and received a fair bit of support, but Groundspeak doesn't seem to be doing anything about it.

 

@Jeff: I appreciate you checking your caches for missing TBs. I wish all COs would do that.

[+kunarion]

Second this is a well known, much discussed and solutionless problem that gets brought up several times a week.

There is a solution that has been suggested and received a fair bit of support, but Groundspeak doesn't seem to be doing anything about it.

 

@Jeff: I appreciate you checking your caches for missing TBs. I wish all COs would do that.

It's beyond Groundspeak's reach. If cachers were responsible enough to inventory and mark Trackables (which is what the "solution" entails), they could have logged the Trackables properly in the first place. The "solution" cannot work, because the logs don't and won't get made.

[+The Blorenges]

Second this is a well known, much discussed and solutionless problem that gets brought up several times a week.

There is a solution that has been suggested and received a fair bit of support, but Groundspeak doesn't seem to be doing anything about it.

 

@Jeff: I appreciate you checking your caches for missing TBs. I wish all COs would do that.

It's beyond Groundspeak's reach. If cachers were responsible enough to inventory and mark Trackables (which is what the "solution" entails), they could have logged the Trackables properly in the first place. The "solution" cannot work, because the logs don't and won't get made.

 

The proper logging of any individual trackable relies on the knowledge/diligence of the individual cacher who picks it up or drops it off.

 

The "solution" (as suggested here) would be actionable not just by one individual cacher but by any cacher who visits a particular cache and spots that the listed trackable isn't there. So if JoeBloggsA can't be bothered to action the "solution" then maybe JoeBloggsB will do it the next day... or JoeBloggsC when he visits two weeks later. It would provide an opportunity for any visitor to the cache to let others know that the trackable has gone, by getting it greyed out (or "ghosted") in that cache's inventory.

 

Alternatively I'll happily act as the UK's Honorary Trackable Ghoster - I'll spend the long dark winter evenings prowling round the UK's cache listings, mopping up the stuff that's been listed in inventories for months/years and trying to sort out the mess thats getting worse year by year. I saw one trackable listed in a cache inventory last week that had been (supposedly) dropped off in 2008. The cache had had many visits since then, several cache logs mentioned that there were no trackables in the cache but still the ghost remained.

 

Just give me the mopping up power!

 

MrsB

[+Walts Hunting]

There's an old saying

 

Give me the strength to change the things I can

The patience to accept what I can't

And the wisdom to know the difference

[+akfireman1422]

I like MrsB 's idea. I have another option that might work. Make it work like flagging on Craigslist. On Craigslist if there an ad that does not meet the guidelines, it can be flagged. It takes multiple flags from multiple user to remove an ad. After the missing TB is "flagged" for not going in a cache it could be marked as missing. My kids love looking for TB's and it is so frustrating driving to a cache and seeing them get excited when a cache says it has 12 TB's only to find out they have been missing for months.

[+kunarion]

The "solution" (as suggested here) would be actionable not just by one individual cacher but by any cacher who visits a particular cache and spots that the listed trackable isn't there. So if JoeBloggsA can't be bothered to action the "solution" then maybe JoeBloggsB will do it the next day... or JoeBloggsC when he visits two weeks later. It would provide an opportunity for any visitor to the cache to let others know that the trackable has gone, by getting it greyed out (or "ghosted") in that cache's inventory.

 

Alternatively I'll happily act as the UK's Honorary Trackable Ghoster - I'll spend the long dark winter evenings prowling round the UK's cache listings, mopping up the stuff that's been listed in inventories for months/years and trying to sort out the mess thats getting worse year by year. I saw one trackable listed in a cache inventory last week that had been (supposedly) dropped off in 2008. The cache had had many visits since then, several cache logs mentioned that there were no trackables in the cache but still the ghost remained.

 

Just give me the mopping up power!

 

MrsB

I do like accuracy, and cleaning up the cache list after someone took the TB, restores accuracy to the list. But if the taker doesn't log it correctly (for whatever reason), them's the logs. So I'm torn.

 

I guess my frustration is, every problem in Geocaching gets the response "If you don't like that, then don't look at that", except for the problem of bad lists due to taken Trackables. That one thing, everyone and his monkey are determined to correct. Making a proper log in the first place? ...not so much.

Edited August 11, 2013 by kunarion

[+Walts Hunting]

You know we might have a solution here. Turn MrsB loose. Nothing gets in the way of a mother doing spring/fall/winter/summer cleaning. I say give her worldwide powers.

[+Walts Hunting]

I have the solution to all the trackable problems. First of all we are looking at the wrong people to solve this. The Cache Owner doesn't have any responsibility for what people put in his cache or take out and trying to blame him for that problem isn't right.

 

Secondly the poor little logger who comes along and signs the log isn't responsible for what other people have put in and taken out of the cache and trying to impose some draconian action on him for his innocent part isn't right.

 

The only person responsible for this whole mess is those Trackable Owners who spew their stuff across the world expecting the rest of us to take care of it. They need to step up so I have two solutions that only affect the originators of the problem.

 

1. Stop selling trackables and over time they will eventually disappear from existence and we can all go back to complaining about the next unimportant issues about this hobby.

 

If that doesn't work how about this

 

2. Set a date, give warning to all people who have sent a trackable out or have one in their inventory that they will be held accountable. On that date when they log in they will have to go to a page where they will be required to check the logs for all trackables they own/possess including the cache logs for the cache it is supposed to be in for the last two years and if they feel the current info is correct they check the box that says "The info is correct" if not they check the box "The info is not correct" and then it will be automatically be marked as missing. This will occur every thirty days. If they do not complete the task they will not be allowed to log onto the site to do anything else.

 

Problem solved.