What is lock for on trackables

[+Girlylink74]

Hello all ! I just got a few trackables and am getting them ready to send out and noticed the lock it feature do I lock them? Or will that prevent them from people being able to add info ?

[+kunarion]

Hello all ! I just got a few trackables and am getting them ready to send out and noticed the lock it feature do I lock them? Or will that prevent them from people being able to add info ?

Lock it to prevent any logs from being added. As with the "Collectible" checkbox, most people won't need to use this feature.

[+Girlylink74]

Thank you ! Lots to learn

[+Auld Pharrrt]

Hello all ! I just got a few trackables and am getting them ready to send out and noticed the lock it feature do I lock them? Or will that prevent them from people being able to add info ?

 

As I understand it, the "lock" feature is to help the owner preventing "virtual logs" being made on their TB's. A common mistake is when you take a photograph of your nice, shiny, new TB and upload it to the webpage for your TB ... BUT YOU HAVE TRACKING CODE NUMBER VISIBLE IN THE PICTURE ... There are a number of people who like to log this as a discovery if they see it on the interweb (a popular hobby in Germany I believe.)

 

The general advice is to NEVER show the tracking code of ANY trackables in any photographs you upload to the website, whether you own them or not.

 

P.S. ... When you are ready to release your TB's, don't make them too pretty either, they'll probably go missing sooner rather then later..

Edited February 12, 2016 by Auld Pharrrt

[Pup Patrol]

Hello all ! I just got a few trackables and am getting them ready to send out and noticed the lock it feature do I lock them? Or will that prevent them from people being able to add info ?

Lock it to prevent any logs from being added. As with the "Collectible" checkbox, most people won't need to use this feature.

 

I don't understand why a trackable sent out into the wild would be locked. What's the point?

 

If I mark a trackable as "missing", at least it can be revived. If I mark it as "locked", and it gets found again, what happens if someone finds it and gets it moving again?

 

Colour me confused.

 

B.

[+Auld Pharrrt]

Hello all ! I just got a few trackables and am getting them ready to send out and noticed the lock it feature do I lock them? Or will that prevent them from people being able to add info ?

Lock it to prevent any logs from being added. As with the "Collectible" checkbox, most people won't need to use this feature.

 

I don't understand why a trackable sent out into the wild would be locked. What's the point?

 

If I mark a trackable as "missing", at least it can be revived. If I mark it as "locked", and it gets found again, what happens if someone finds it and gets it moving again?

 

Colour me confused.

 

B.

 

It's unlikely that you would use the lock function if the TB was on the road ... but with so many people using apps which will add a "visited" log everywhere you go unless you change it I'd like to see a lock visited option, but there are many newbies who accidentally showed the tracking code in the photo and all hell breaks loose as people make virtual logs on their, not yet released, TB!

The most recent 2000 photographs uploaded to geocaching show up in a log for TB's (less for caches I think) and anyone can view them.

 

This is the TB's pages - https://www.geocaching.com/track/gallery.aspx

 

Off the top of my head I can't remember where I found the one for caches but if you run a pocket query then click on Gallery for the caches in the query you will see all the photo's for those caches ... I'm positive I came across a "live" page or pages same as the TB's one, but can't remember how or where.

[+Auld Pharrrt]

For instance ... take a look at the logs for this TB

The owner posted a photo on it's page on 7th Feb

Owner dropped it in a cache on 8th Feb

Look at the discovery logs on it BEFORE it was even put in a cache ... then look at all the discoveries and it's never been moved from it's original drop ... I bet not all those cachers have visited the cache, if any!

[+Girlylink74]

That's crazy and sad that people would rune the fun of this game by keeping them or false logging. I found my first TB and was so excited the person wanted it to be put by the library so I made a trip especially for them.

[+Auld Pharrrt]

That's crazy and sad that people would rune the fun of this game by keeping them or false logging. I found my first TB and was so excited the person wanted it to be put by the library so I made a trip especially for them.

 

I agree that it is sad when people remove trackables from the game intentionally, but I accept the fact that accidents happen. The person might have lost it and is too embarrassed to admit it, or, for some reason has never been able to return to the game to drop it off. My very first geocoin was picked up from it's first cache by a woman who logged it as picked up, after months of "visiting" other caches I asked her if she would drop it somewhere and she told me that she had dropped it ages ago but she doesn't like to log where she drops a TB to prevent people from going hunting for them! It has never seen the light of day since.

I have another which was picked up some months ago by a father and daughter team from Germany. They logged it and mentioned they'd take it back to Hamburg to help it on it's way, they've never logged back into geocaching since ... I'd hate to think that something serious happened to them during their visit to Scotland or their return trip home, I prefer to think they forgot about it or lost it ... I'll give it a year and if it doesn't resurface I'll send out a copy.

 

As for people making "false" or virtual logs ... I don't like those logs myself, but when I first joined I did "discover" about 12 on Google, like you I thought finding the real thing, or even a copy, is exciting (I love the TB side of the game) but I deleted every one of my virtual logs about a month later as I didn't feel there was any fun in them, in fact I felt mildly embarrassed by them.

 

Now however, I will delete virtual logs from my own TB's (though not genuine discovery ones) and I accept the fact that there are people who like to play this game in their own way, just because it is NOT my way doesn't make it wrong.

 

Happy caching.