Logging trackable "visits"

[timinfla]

I retrieved a trackable today and when I logged it I looked through the log to see where it had been I saw that of the 6 pages of logs about 5 of them were nothing but one member that had retrieved it and then I guess took it on "visits" to other caches. Is this normal? It seemed strange to me that someone would take the trackable on so many visits and log them like that. Here's the trackable I retrieved today:

 

Trackable Page

[+Harry Dolphin]

Incredibly annoying! And it serves no useful porpoise! Try looking for the trackables on a cache page after the 'visitors' have been there, they visit up to forty TBs to the cache. Don't bother following a trackable where a 'visitor' has visited it to 130 caches. Completely worthless.

[+cerberus1]

Happens often, not sure how normal it is...

I saw a pic just a while ago of a guy with trackables attached all around his neck.

The latest in bling, lotta dolls and kids toys, travelin' with them cache-to-cache.

I'd bet many (really) have none travel with them when caching.

At least yours was a coin.

[+Walts Hunting]

It is annoying. I travel a lot and collect trackables along the way until I get home but I only visit them one time at each stop. I can't imagine what it would have been like for their owners to have to browse through the 459 cache visits I have so far this year.

[+spider16]

Then there are people like me who don't care if people do this and in fact in some cases even prefer it(ex. where my trackable is in a race and the different visits add mileage to the trackable and even a small amount of miles eventually add up). I would rather know that my trackable is active verses being forgotten.

[timinfla]

I'm still new to this stuff and became very interested in the idea behind trackables. I personally find it difficult to look back through the travels of some of them when the logs are filled with pages and pages of "visits". I can see why some would want it as was stated - like in a race to see who's trackable traveled the furthest (although it seems that this could be easily manipulated if someone wanted to do so - was the trackable really with the person at all the visited caches?). I've only retrieved a few of them in my short geocaching career and am interested in watching where they wind up, how long they're in a cache before moving on etc...

Edited March 6, 2014 by timinfla

[+kunarion]

Then there are people like me who don't care if people do this and in fact in some cases even prefer it(ex. where my trackable is in a race and the different visits add mileage to the trackable and even a small amount of miles eventually add up). I would rather know that my trackable is active verses being forgotten.

I see that statement a lot, that some people enjoy a whole lot of "Visits" which positively prove the TB is still alive or that there's a bug in an App and the TB was lost 500 Visits ago (either/or ). But I haven't seen the logs of appreciation to those people. Are there such logs? And how did the Visit People know in advance that you like the practice? And how did you know it was happening, since there's no notification until an eventual drop?

Edited March 6, 2014 by kunarion

[+spider16]

Then there are people like me who don't care if people do this and in fact in some cases even prefer it(ex. where my trackable is in a race and the different visits add mileage to the trackable and even a small amount of miles eventually add up). I would rather know that my trackable is active verses being forgotten.

I see that statement a lot, that some people enjoy a whole lot of "Visits" which positively prove the TB is still alive or that there's a bug in an App and the TB was lost 500 Visits ago (either/or ). But I haven't seen the logs of appreciation to those people. Are there such logs? And how did the Visit People know in advance that you like the practice? And how did you know it was happening, since there's no notification until an eventual drop?

 

I keep an eye on the trackables I have that are currently in a race (at this time I have three) and if I see that somebody has my trackable and is visiting caches and not dipping my trackable I will send them a message asking them to do so. I also have it on those particular pages for those trackables so if anybody were to go read what the mission is they will see that I want to gain as many miles as possible and I want them to dip my trackable in all the caches they visit till they drop it off. I actually had two of my race trackables win second and third place in the local race last year because of doing this (one of the trackables was held by the same person for over half of the race time and since he was a numbers guy my trackable visited a few thousand caches in that time period and the distances added up).

 

I realize that this isn't what a lot of people prefer but seeing the different visits my trackable has made, not just what caches it has been dropped into, adds to my enjoyment of the game.

 

spider16

[+kunarion]

I realize that this isn't what a lot of people prefer but seeing the different visits my trackable has made, not just what caches it has been dropped into, adds to my enjoyment of the game.

This could explain why cachers go all out, to do as many Visits as possible. It doesn't explain why they can't manage to place the TB into any cache, during five hundred finds over a period of months. But in the no-win scenario of carrying Trackables, it's nice to know that your message gets across to cachers -- asking them to start making "Vists" and they comply. Most people come to the forums due to the TB holders ignoring the Owners' requests.

Edited March 7, 2014 by kunarion

[The Peterson Finders]

When I have peoples trackables I show visits to caches, I also take photos of them also at or near the cache a great deal of the time.

[+TheHarleyRebel]

Just the way things are.

[+dprovan]

I'm told some apps allow you to automatically log visits to every cache for all trackables in your inventory and, in fact, for some apps this is the default behavior. That means that the trackable carrier might not even realize he's doing it. In fact, he may have forgotten all about the traveler or lost it or placed it without logging a drop, and the app will still log the visits, fooling the owner and everyone else into thinking those logs are actually saying something about the trackable's location.

 

In addition to making it hard to look through the trackable's log, as you've discovered, it also puts the traveler in each cache's "past trackables" list, so that list is typically less than useful for seeing which trackables have actually been in a cache.

 

As you've already heard, there's a school of thought that says all the visits are a good thing, but personally I never log a visit unless I'm willing to go edit the visit log to talk about the visit. It's only the empty visit logs that annoy me.

 

Finally, the biggest objection I have to all the visits is that, from what I've seen, they make some people think they can carry a TB forever as long as they log visits from time to time.

[+Sagefox]

It seemed strange to me that someone would take the trackable on so many visits and log them like that.

 

I with you on this. I suspect those folks who do the multiple "visits" and the trackable owners who like this done to their travelers don't spend much time searching the travelbug pages.

 

Like others have said, if you want to look back to see if a trackable has met its goal or simply where it has actually been, I mean caches it really visited, it is very difficult to search through 5 to 15 pages of useless visits.

 

And why is it so important for a trackable to visit all 30 to 50 caches on a bike trail anyway?

 

I think I will head over to my trackable page and delete some more "visits".

[+Sagefox]

Finally, the biggest objection I have to all the visits is that, from what I've seen, they make some people think they can carry a TB forever as long as they log visits from time to time.

 

I've seen this too. There were a ton of trackables delivered to Headquarters that had been held by one cacher for one to two years - for reasons other than "visiting". But several of them got picked up by a couple who proceeded to keep them for up to nine months "visiting" them to pages of caches, many less than a mile apart. Those cachers likely had not taken the time to see what the trackables histories were and that they needed to get out of visit mode and start "visiting" other cachers rather than caches.

[+#Tenzin]

I am still waiting for a mass-delete function for those "took it too..." logs.

[timinfla]

Okay - THIS one has me going

 

"Released" in 2012 but never left the owners possession??? Why would you want to do something like this???

 

Click here for Titan trackable link

[+Walts Hunting]

It's his personal tracking log for his caching

[timinfla]

Okay - I don't understand why you'd activate a trackable and then just take it to all of your cache finds and log that the trackable visited the cache too. Not saying it's wrong - just trying to figure this all out. I haven't released or activated any trackables yet but plan to try it soon. The part of it that interests me is to see where it goes and what path it takes. I guess just taking your own trackable on all of your cache visits is one way to be sure it never goes missing

[+ngrrfan]

Okay - I don't understand why you'd activate a trackable and then just take it to all of your cache finds and log that the trackable visited the cache too. Not saying it's wrong - just trying to figure this all out. I haven't released or activated any trackables yet but plan to try it soon. The part of it that interests me is to see where it goes and what path it takes. I guess just taking your own trackable on all of your cache visits is one way to be sure it never goes missing

I have a couple of trackables, that were given to me as gifts, that are on my caching pack. I don't log them as visiting every cache I go to, but when on a caching trip I'll log them through a cache or two. If I meet another cacher then they are more than welcome to discover those trackables.

[timinfla]

I guess I have a lot to learn about TB's and travel coins :-)

 

I figured the only reason for them was to set them out on a journey and track them. Geocaching is a very interesting hobby/sport and I'm trying to learn to do things properly as I learn.

[+Walts Hunting]

I am still waiting for a mass-delete function for those "took it too..." logs.

Since that would negatively affect than stats of the cacher doing the visits I wouldn't hold your breathe.

[+Sagefox]

I am still waiting for a mass-delete function for those "took it too..." logs.

Since that would negatively affect than stats of the cacher doing the visits I wouldn't hold your breathe.

 

Visits don't show up on cacher stats pages.

[+beauxeault]

Okay - I don't understand why you'd activate a trackable and then just take it to all of your cache finds and log that the trackable visited the cache too. Not saying it's wrong - just trying to figure this all out. I haven't released or activated any trackables yet but plan to try it soon. The part of it that interests me is to see where it goes and what path it takes. I guess just taking your own trackable on all of your cache visits is one way to be sure it never goes missing

 

This is actually not an uncommon practice. It has to do with the fact that TB pages have a map function on them and cacher stats pages do not (without the addition of a feed from a third party site). So if you set aside one TB and visit it in every cache you find, you can, via the TB's map, produce a map of your geocaching activity.

[+beauxeault]

I am still waiting for a mass-delete function for those "took it too..." logs.

 

I don't yet have a TB I've released into the wild, so this may seem like a naïve question, but does a TB owner have the ability to delete individual "visited" logs (or other logs, for that matter) posted by other cachers in his TB's log?

[+fuzziebear3]

I am still waiting for a mass-delete function for those "took it too..." logs.

 

I don't yet have a TB I've released into the wild, so this may seem like a naïve question, but does a TB owner have the ability to delete individual "visited" logs (or other logs, for that matter) posted by other cachers in his TB's log?

 

You can ... but it is not really recommended.

 

If you do, the cacher's whose log you deleted will get notfied for each deletion.

If you delete all of the logs from a cacher, the cacher's count of trackables discovered/moved will be reduced.

[+Sagefox]

I am still waiting for a mass-delete function for those "took it too..." logs.

... does a TB owner have the ability to delete individual "visited" logs (or other logs, for that matter) posted by other cachers in his TB's log?

If you do, the cacher's whose log you deleted will get notfied for each deletion.

Yes, this will happen and maybe it will help visit happy cachers know that not all trackable owners want pages of visit logs.

If you delete all of the logs from a cacher, the cacher's count of trackables discovered/moved will be reduced.

Yes, if they delete "discovered" logs which should not be done unless they are virtual (bogus)logs. Not so if they delete "visit" logs.

[+unicornivi]

Okay - THIS one has me going

 

"Released" in 2012 but never left the owners possession??? Why would you want to do something like this???

 

Click here for Titan trackable link

That's his car, he made it a trackable. I guess he just takes it to every cache and whomever finds it can log it as discovered.

[+Twentse Mug]

Something I don't understand is why Groundspeak loves all these worthless pages and pages and pages of took it to logs on the trackables. It would be nice as a TB owner to have an option not to have it, but something that Groundspeak does not provide.

[+theerooflove96]

I, too, am kind of fed up with the over-"visiting". IMHO, I think the introduction of the single-step "visit" is the cause, as opposed to the conscious "drop"-"grab" mechanism, which requires more thought. Anyway, I think the code of etiquette should be geared toward the owner-prescribed goal of the individual trackable in question. If the trackable is in a race that factors in unrestricted mileage, then, by all means, help its journey with accruing every nook and cranny of your geocaching path, but, for others, it is just white noise. As far as my own habits wrt trackables, I only "visit" caches with trackables that have missions related to the location, and I try to capture a photo when logging the visit.

[+NormalGeo]

First forum post... Here goes. Thoughts on TBs making serial cache visits and TBs living unreleased.

 

I started caching less than five months ago in preparation for a trip from the US to Europe. I soon found a TB that would have spent the winter buried in Illinois now. I contacted the owner and asked if I could take it off mission to Europe and was encouraged to do so. Turns out his pre-teen is watching it and hoped to see lots of photos of where it travels. I have a seven year old and we had lots of fun logging visits to many caches with the TB and posting lots of photos. GPS tie to iPad running ground speak app makes this really easy. We wanted to provide some nice vicarious travels and hope we did. I was very worried that the TB would go missing once I released it, particularly since I have not being doing this long enough to know which caches are likely to lose trackables and which are safe.

 

Now we have a TB being watched by a pre-teen from the Netherlands and will release it soon, but have taken it to many caches and logged with photos. Unfortunately while it is easy to make comments and post a photo tied to the cache and it is easy to log the TB as visiting. The Groundspeak app doesn't make it simple to log the same information to the TB's page, and in the app, when logging the TB from the cache page, there is no option to upload a photo to the trackables page. That is why most of my TB visit logs are blank. The information worth reading and photo worth viewing are part of my log of the cache's page, which is linked to the TB visit log, but not directly visible in the TB visit log. (Perhaps I am missing how to use a key feature of the iPad app?)

 

So, my pre-teen got really excited when she found a key chain fob with a 'found it' smiley in a cache. She traded for it and wants to take it to every cache she visits. I support her vision, so I bought a TB tag and she chained it to her fob. We keep one family account. When she is along for a find, we log her fob as visiting. When she isn't along, the fob doesn't visit. So here you see a TB that has not been released and we don't plan to release it, but I would like to think we are using it appropriately.

 

If you are curious about our antics, I think it should be easy to get to my logs and photos since my post discloses my account. I would be happy to receive constructive advice on whether we are doing this geocaching sport the right way, if there is such a thing. Certainly, we are doing it the way we enjoy. I hope we aren't annoying owners of trackables and caches by logging the details we do. (I try to avoid photos and logs that are spoilers unless spoilers are already present for a given cache. I am careful not to post photos of trackables with code visible.).

[+ACCraw ??]

I just took a quick roadtrip from Florida to New Jersey. I had two TBs in my possession that I took with me because I was able to get them close to their goals (one was to visit the Pentagon in DC and the other was to visit Philly). I had the TBs visit the caches I found along the way so the owners could see their journey. I then dropped them close to their goal area and left a note in my log for the next finder to continue their journey. I don't agree with someone visiting TBs (that's not their personal) in multiple caches unless it's helping the goal of the TB in some way but everyone has their own way of playing.

[+ACCraw ??]

The Groundspeak app doesn't make it simple to log the same information to the TB's page, and in the app, when logging the TB from the cache page, there is no option to upload a photo to the trackables page. That is why most of my TB visit logs are blank.

 

This is very true. Once I returned home from my trip I had to log on the computer to edit the visited logs and add pictures. If Groundspeak made this available through the app maybe more people would be willing to add personal notes to the TB logs and multiple visit logs would be a nuisance to some.

[+Harry Dolphin]

I am still waiting for a mass-delete function for those "took it too..." logs.

 

I don't yet have a TB I've released into the wild, so this may seem like a naïve question, but does a TB owner have the ability to delete individual "visited" logs (or other logs, for that matter) posted by other cachers in his TB's log?

 

Yes. It gives me something to do when I'm bored! My Trackables clearly state: Do NOT visit me to caches. Yet they will visit hundreds of caches over a month or two in Belgium, or Germany. Delete!

[+theerooflove96]

Has anyone else encountered users back-logging fake visits for trackables? I released a trackable (TB3WRG0) in July of this year, it was picked up the next day, but about 40 visit logs were retroactively submitted spanning 2 days, 4 states, and about 1600 miles. I initially thought there was a glitch that deleted my "Placed" log, but I checked the log dates to confirm that the "Placed" log was just lost in the noise.

 

I can understand forgetting the order in which a cacher finds caches within a given day and specific area, but when the "Retrieve From" log is correctly logged while superfluously adding visits that happened days before the trackable was retrieved does not make sense to me. The mission of the trackable is not even to accrue mileage nor visit counties/states/countries. Following fuzziebear3's advice, I probably should not start deleting logs.

 

As a social experiment, I am considering sending out "Follow the Instructions" TBs just to see how many cachers actually read the missions of trackables (which I do print out, waterproof and attach to my trackables).

[+Tschakko]

Has anyone else encountered users back-logging fake visits for trackables? I released a trackable (TB3WRG0) in July of this year, it was picked up the next day, but about 40 visit logs were retroactively submitted spanning 2 days, 4 states, and about 1600 miles. I initially thought there was a glitch that deleted my "Placed" log, but I checked the log dates to confirm that the "Placed" log was just lost in the noise.

 

I can understand forgetting the order in which a cacher finds caches within a given day and specific area, but when the "Retrieve From" log is correctly logged while superfluously adding visits that happened days before the trackable was retrieved does not make sense to me. The mission of the trackable is not even to accrue mileage nor visit counties/states/countries. Following fuzziebear3's advice, I probably should not start deleting logs.

 

As a social experiment, I am considering sending out "Follow the Instructions" TBs just to see how many cachers actually read the missions of trackables (which I do print out, waterproof and attach to my trackables).

 

Well, they just do not read instructions.

 

The situation that you described happens every time when a cacher logs the retrieve correctly and goes back to logging all the caches he found afterwards. Usually they automatically dip all the TBs they have in every cache.

 

It's more than annoying and I started deleting those spam logs. But one advice: delete them after the Tb has been picked up by the next cache. In one case one of the catchers went back and stole the Tb from the cache. I never heard of it again, I guess he got mad because they get an email for every log that you delete. In said case it had been like 50.

 

I really hope GS implements the option to disable those types of logs in ones Tbs soon.

[Andronicus]

....I really hope GS implements the option to disable those types of logs in ones Tbs soon.

I am as annoyed by visit logs as the next guy, but I don't think I would like to disable the option. There are times when it is legitimate. Also, I am sure some smart app developer would make a "dip" sub-routine that would drop, then retrieve the trackable. Old apps used to do that before the "visit" option existed. I am sure it wouldn't take long for that sort of functionality to appear again.

[+J Grouchy]

It would be a moot issue if they'd just alter the log to maybe a tabbed "log book" style, with visits occupying a different tab than drops and pick-ups.

[+GeoLog81]

GSAK has the option for the trackable 'Visit All'.

It will 'visit' the trackable in all the caches you log.

This option is persisted between GSAK sessions, so next time you log caches you'll log those trackables too, until you dip the trackable to some cache and this is away from your inventory or you unselect that option.

[+fuzziebear3]

It would be a moot issue if they'd just alter the log to maybe a tabbed "log book" style, with visits occupying a different tab than drops and pick-ups.

 

Or without actually changing the saving of the visits, offer an option on the viewing of the page to suppress Visit logs.

[+Pigling]

Incredibly annoying! And it serves no useful porpoise! Try looking for the trackables on a cache page after the 'visitors' have been there, they visit up to forty TBs to the cache. Don't bother following a trackable where a 'visitor' has visited it to 130 caches. Completely worthless.

Not TOTALLY pointless! Some trackables are in a race for mileage and these visits count. Also when I pick up a trackable I frequently find several caches which are too small to hold a trackable so I log it as 'visited' if the trackable is physically with me at the cache site. This is not only to show that it is moving around, but also in case the owner would like to see where it has been (especially if it has been to a very interesting or unusual place). Then again, the trackable may by heading for somewhere I will be visiting a few weeks ahead, in which case I ask the owner's permission to keep it until I travel to the desired destination. But, of course, I do drop it into a suitable cache as soon as possible!

[+Twentse Mug]

I just delete all the took it to logs on my tb's. They annoy me. But: deleting took it to logs, the mileage of a trackable doesn't change. If you do use the update button in the trackable the mileage doesn't change. So for me the number is unreliable anyway.

Last but not least, took it to logs doesn't say anything about how they travelled. But it tells only about the caches a cacher did while having a tb in his/her possession.

[+TheHarleyRebel]

I only log visit logs if I have taken the TB a considerable distance.

[+AnnaMoritz]

Sometimes I wonder if anybody in my country would move along trackables at all when hearing all these complaints that pop up periodically in the forums. Yes, there are inconsiderate cachers that maltreat TBs, but most cachers simply are trying to do a favor to TB-owners according to their possibilities when moving TBs along and they for sure don't want to annoy them intentionally.

 

I wonder why most TB-owners do not state EXACTLY what they want both on a label attached to the TB and on the page of the TB. Then a finder has a chance before retrieving the TB to know where the TB is to go and whether the TB should collect as many miles or as many caches/counties/countries/cache-types/matrix-fields or as many photos or whatever as possible or wants only a single retrieve and drop-log or wants only this or that and nothing else, so the finder might decide it is better to leave the TB where it is.

 

If you stated 'please no visit-logs' you still can contact a finder that starts visited-logs and ask him/her not to do this. Maybe they are not aware that it might be a problem for you and then stop this behavior. Or maybe they start a drop-retrieve-series.

 

And why not follow the link 'View Map' close to 'Tracking History (xxxx.x km )' in the section above the logs. On the opening page you see the map and below there are ALL logs. There you can skip whatever you don't want to see or search for 'retrieved' and 'dropped'.

 

Many here in Austria don't touch trackables any more because of the troubles that may follow, owner accusing them of various things. Some discover trackables (that adds points for badges and belts), but don't move them. I've retrieved trackables that were stuck for many months although some cachers had visited that cache.

 

I usually don't discover trackables (there are only very few exceptions like the one discover-log showing that I walked all 180km (>110 mi) of a certain hiking-cache) but I take almost every trackable with me while hiking (some caches have very few visitors) or from caches that seem likely to be plundered or are not visited that often. Not always I'm able to drop them in a cache very soon for example because no cache I visit is big enough or because I visit caches where I wouldn't drop my own trackables and therefore don't drop trackables at all. Sometimes I drop a TB accidently where it doesn't want to go, then I may contact the owner or ask someone else to retrieve it. But mostly I do what I would like others to do with my TBs, bringing it nearer to the next destination or at least bring a TB to a more visited and safe cache if it was stuck for months or if the cache looks like it is likely to be lost soon.

 

So I sometimes log a visit (one per caching day or per journey or one per country) for a trackable if I can't drop it to let the owner know where it is. I don't log per app, so I have to click for every visit I want to record. You can be sure the trackables I moved have been to every single cache (and often many more than) I logged a 'visited' for them, also on long hikes, sometimes I already had dropped them physically and decided, no, better take it along to another cache. I for sure would not go for a TB rescue mission as I did today for owners who decide to delete any of my logs arbitrarily without declaration of their wishes visible on TB and TB-page and without contacting me before.

[cezanne]

Sometimes I wonder if anybody in my country would move along trackables at all when hearing all these complaints that pop up periodically in the forums.

 

At least one has not yet given up .

Edited November 9, 2014 by cezanne

[cezanne]

Last but not least, took it to logs doesn't say anything about how they travelled. But it tells only about the caches a cacher did while having a tb in his/her possession.

 

How do you know that in every single case? I picked up a TB today that got ignored by the previous visitors

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?guid=af879b01-240c-49be-9aee-d9c68a4a0c06

and took it to another cache (it was in my knapsack) as the name fits the TB perfectly. I did not want to leave

the TB in such a lonely cache and will drop it off somewhere else at a later time.

Edited November 10, 2014 by cezanne

[+dprovan]

I only log visit logs if I have taken the TB a considerable distance.

I only log visit logs if I have something to say about the TB's visit to a cache. Naturally, the fact that I've taken the TB a considerable distance would give me something to say, but there are other cases, too.

[+kunarion]

Sometimes I wonder if anybody in my country would move along trackables at all when hearing all these complaints that pop up periodically in the forums. Yes, there are inconsiderate cachers that maltreat TBs, but most cachers simply are trying to do a favor to TB-owners according to their possibilities when moving TBs along and they for sure don't want to annoy them intentionally.

There are people in these forums who have stated that if the TB Owner annoys them about holding the TB too long, they will throw it away. It is easy to think that takers who will not contact the TOs are taking and keeping for the purpose of getting a rise out of people.

 

I wonder why most TB-owners do not state EXACTLY what they want both on a label attached to the TB and on the page of the TB.

That would be redundant since the TB is imprinted "Do Not Keep Me". Absolutely never take a TB unless you will make a special effort to place it immediately. Respect the TB Owner, don't create problems for the TO. If there's no info sheet and no info on the TB page, and if you are now carrying the TB around, make a log note on the TB page, and make updates. "I still can't find a cache to place this" (assuming the cache where you found it has evaporated ). The Owners become greatly concerned that the TB is gathering robotic logs, but most concerned that the person producing the robotic logs never types any human text. No info about why it's going cache-to-cache, and no photos, no stories, no replies to PMs, nothing.

 

Many of those logs are automatic, some of those TBs were lost long ago, and the Takers tend to be not particularly responsible about other peoples' property. So the TOs' concerns tend to be justified. One thing I've never seen: Having closure for any of my stolen TBs. Nobody ever posts an explanation on the TB page, and never reply on their own without requiring an email first, and then they still tend to not place it. Nobody says what happened to my "lost" TBs, yet every Taker knows, or their family and friends certainly do. The Takers' plan is that I forget they took it, or that I give up on it, to a huge chorus of other "Geocachers" who now demands I "Mark It Missing", but yet has no interest in the TB, except the rest desire to take it themselves. Infuriating! If thieves covet the toy, why also keep/trash the Do Not Keep Me tag? At least leave the tag. But they don't.

 

If you stated 'please no visit-logs' you still can contact a finder that starts visited-logs and ask him/her not to do this. Maybe they are not aware that it might be a problem for you and then stop this behavior. Or maybe they start a drop-retrieve-series.

The takers who stop one behavior would then start another behavior. On my Tb pages, I have several paragraphs of explanations about TB etiquette, and the text is ever increasing, due to takers pretending to not understand. "Please no visit-logs" becomes distorted to mean "Keep it forever" without even more qualifiers. It's frustrating to have takers demand to be told every little detail of TB etiquette, when they laugh and create a new loophole. "Do Not Keep Me" is clear enough: Before you take the TB, have a plan to place it into another cache, and do so. Or else don't take it.

Edited November 10, 2014 by kunarion

[cezanne]

I wonder why most TB-owners do not state EXACTLY what they want both on a label attached to the TB and on the page of the TB.

That would be redundant since the TB is imprinted "Do Not Keep Me". Absolutely never take a TB unless you will make a special effort to place it immediately. Respect the TB Owner, don't create problems for the TO. If there's no info sheet and no info on the TB page, and if you are now carrying the TB around, make a log note on the TB page, and make updates. "I still can't find a cache to place this" (assuming the cache where you found it has evaporated ).

 

I do not agree with your redundancy claim at all. I'm into geocaching for more than 12 years and I certainly know that trackables are not to be kept and AnnaMoritz is aware of that as well.

There are aspects of trackables however that different owners deal differently. I know many trackable owners who are happy about occasional "visit logs" that fit to the trackable and I also know many trackable owners who are very glad if someone takes along a trackable that stayed in a cache that gets only few visits for months even when it means that the trackable cannot be placed into another cache within 2 weeks of time (which is a rather short amount of time in many circumstances, for example in Winter when many caches that are large enough for trackables are under snow).

 

Summarizing information like "Rather let me stay for years in a cache if you cannot guarantee to move me with 14 days to a new suitable cache" or "Under no means log took to logs for me" should indeed mean part of the description attached to a trackable.

 

When I'm out on a long hike and encounter a trackable that has been placed many months ago, I need to decide within seconds whether to take it along or not without any additional information and without access to the gc.com database. Of course I ultimately could do the same what most of compatriots already do, namely do not take along trackables any longer but I hardly think that this helps cachers like you if your trackables get permanently stuck and if even those cachers who care about the wishes of the trackables owners in the best way possible to them end up demotivated and stop to take along trackables.

 

 

 

Before you take the TB, have a plan to place it into another cache, and do so. Or else don't take it.

 

That's demanding too much in my opinion. I never take a trackable without the intent to place it into a suitable cache as soon as possible, but

typically I do not even know the trackables goal when I take it with me and of course I could not have a plan at that point of time.

Moreover, a plan made on one day, easily could need to be trashed soon. For example, when a trackable wants to visit caches on mountain summits and someone

takes along a trackable from one mountain cache and then the weather does not allow for further mountain tours for a number of weeks or even longer.

 

I typically write in my retrieval logs if I think that it might take longer than 2 weeks to find a suitable place for a trackable and at the point of time when

trackable owners are not satisfied any longer with my best attempts, I too will stop to take along trackables and believe me cachers like AnnaMoritz and myself have become very rare.

We have taken along quite a number of trackables that stayed in caches that do not get visited often for months and where all previous visitors just discovered the trackables.

Do you really think that I better should have left this quite large trackable

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?guid=af879b01-240c-49be-9aee-d9c68a4a0c06

in the cache where it got stuck just because I will not able to find a nice place for it within the next 2 weeks?

 

Do you really think that someone would start out again for a 10 hour hike to place a trackable again into the cache where one has taken it out in the case when it turns out that one cannot bring the trackable to a new suitable cache within 2 weeks.

 

The larger a trackable is and the more special the requirements of the owner are, the more the owner should be ok with longer placement times than 2 weeks.

I typically cache only on weekends and on some weekends I cannot go for a cache at all and sometimes I end up only with micros, unsafe caches or did not finds. 2 weeks is often pretty unrealistic under such circumstances even for myself who caches quite regularly.

Edited November 10, 2014 by cezanne

[+dprovan]

The larger a trackable is and the more special the requirements of the owner are, the more the owner should be ok with longer placement times than 2 weeks.

It makes sense for the owner of a large trackable to expect it to move more slowly, both because people won't be able to find large enough caches and because people will tend not to take it from a cache to begin with. But that doesn't justify someone taking a large trackable with the intention of not placing it for an extended period.

 

I typically cache only on weekends and on some weekends I cannot go for a cache at all and sometimes I end up only with micros, unsafe caches or did not finds. 2 weeks is often pretty unrealistic under such circumstances even for myself who caches quite regularly.

My attitude is that if I have a trackable, then I have a certain responsibility to place it in a reasonable amount of time, even if that means changing my normal caching habits and doing some unusual weekday caching or picking a place to cache the next weekend because I'm likely to find suitable caches even if that's not where I'd otherwise go. If I'm not willing to do that, then I'm not going to pick up the TB.

 

But really your attitude is also fine because you're obviously thinking about the TB and trying to find a good place for it. I don't think anyone could object as long as you post a visit once in a while relating the TB to this weekend's caching trip and discussing why you didn't find a suitable place for it this week but will try again next week.

 

By the way, I actually don't worry much about the TB's goal: if I can help it, I'll go out of my way to, but if I can't help it, I'll likely drop it at random and make up a reason that the drop relates to the goal. That way, there's more chance of someone else picking it up and helping it.

[cezanne]

The larger a trackable is and the more special the requirements of the owner are, the more the owner should be ok with longer placement times than 2 weeks.

It makes sense for the owner of a large trackable to expect it to move more slowly, both because people won't be able to find large enough caches and because people will tend not to take it from a cache to begin with. But that doesn't justify someone taking a large trackable with the intention of not placing it for an extended period.

 

I would not call 3 weeks for example an extended period and moreover, it is not that I know in advance that it will take 3 weeks for example, just that something like that can happen.

 

My attitude is that if I have a trackable, then I have a certain responsibility to place it in a reasonable amount of time, even if that means changing my normal caching habits and doing some unusual weekday caching or picking a place to cache the next weekend because I'm likely to find suitable caches even if that's not where I'd otherwise go. If I'm not willing to do that, then I'm not going to pick up the TB.

 

I do not regard 3 weeks as an unreasonable amount of time (of course if I know in advance that I will not cache for the next 3 weeks I will not take along a trackable). It can mean at least 30km of drive or even more for me to reach the next unvisited and reachable cache and among the ones that I have already visited and are much closer also not too many are really safe, large enough and reasonable frequented places for trackables. That's an issue with living in a city.

 

 

By the way, I actually don't worry much about the TB's goal: if I can help it, I'll go out of my way to, but if I can't help it, I'll likely drop it at random and make up a reason that the drop relates to the goal. That way, there's more chance of someone else picking it up and helping it.

 

There are trackable owners who get annoyed about people who do that, too. Somehow it makes me feel that there is hardly anything one could do with trackables that annoys noone.