Sweeping Out TB Inventory

[+Fawkes2574]

As fun as this game is to many people around the world, let's face it, not everyone commits to it for the rest of their lives. People start it, get into it to a certain point, then just lose interest. This includes travel bugs. Now everyone knows about the issues with travel bugs, keeping them safe, and managing them. They go missing because they and the caches aren't handled properly (using stealth, etc). Muggles find them, not understanding what they are, or simply don't care and take something that they know doesn't belong to them. But eventually, some travel bugs go neglected because their owners lost interest in geocaching. They don't log into their accounts, change or check their status. So travel bugs that are lost, are forever stuck inside a cache's inventory cause their neglectful owners won't update them. I just got done viewing a geocache that has 20 travel bugs inside it's "listed" inventory. TWENTY! Mainly cause it's a travel bug cache, its in the name. (Check out GC3HAY2.) And according to one of the cache owner's, 18 of them are missing. But apparently can't clear them out of the inventory because that's up to the owners. But what if those owners don't check their bugs anymore for any number of reasons? Are these just supposed to stay in limbo until that cache is archived? There should be a feature that should allow cache owners to clear out any travel bugs from their inventory if they can confirm that they are not inside the cache, and are therefore missing. Clearing them out will then automatically update the bug's status as "missing", but allowing to show its last known location. But then you get some geocaches that go neglected cause their owners have stopped playing, and no longer access their accounts. So add another feature so that players can log a travel bug as missing. But as a precaution, don't change the status as missing after one "didn't find it" log by a player. Allow it to where it would take multiple hits, multiple no finds, before auto logging it as missing. This gives active players the ability to log missing bugs from caches, where both the bug's owner, as well as the cache owner are no longer playing.

[+niraD]

8 minutes ago, Fawkes2574 said:

There should be a feature that should allow cache owners to clear out any travel bugs from their inventory if they can confirm that they are not inside the cache, and are therefore missing.

There is. Cache owners are able to mark trackables as missing.

For reference: https://www.geocaching.com/help/index.php?pg=kb.chapter&id=41&pgid=397

[+Fawkes2574]

Just now, niraD said:

There is. Cache owners are able to mark trackables as missing.

For reference: https://www.geocaching.com/help/index.php?pg=kb.chapter&id=41&pgid=397

Does it remove it from the listed inventory?

[+niraD]

11 minutes ago, Fawkes2574 said:

Does it remove it from the listed inventory?

Yes. When someone (either the owner of the trackable or the owner of the cache the trackable is listed as being in) marks the trackable as missing, then it removes it from the cache's trackable inventory.

[+Fawkes2574]

36 minutes ago, niraD said:

Yes. When someone (either the owner of the trackable or the owner of the cache the trackable is listed as being in) marks the trackable as missing, then it removes it from the cache's trackable inventory.

Good to know. Thanks.

[+cerberus1]

The CO probably just didn't know, sorta like folks can't "log another smiley" on a cache  just because it's size has changed.  Since you brought it up, maybe you can show them the link supplied by niraD, as a learning experience.   

Here's the announcement from last March on no longer able to "re-log" a cache Found with the same GC# too.

[+hzoi]

14 hours ago, Fawkes2574 said:

So add another feature so that players can log a travel bug as missing. But as a precaution, don't change the status as missing after one "didn't find it" log by a player. Allow it to where it would take multiple hits, multiple no finds, before auto logging it as missing. This gives active players the ability to log missing bugs from caches, where both the bug's owner, as well as the cache owner are no longer playing.

This has been proposed a few times.  Groundspeak didn't implement that suggestion, but they did create an automatic system to mark trackables as missing.

From the Help Center:

Quote

• A trackable will automatically be moved to an Unknown Location if all three conditions are true:

1. The trackable has been in the same geocache for more than one year.
2. The trackable has not been logged as "Discovered" in more than one year.
3. There have been at least four finds on different days on the geocache in which the trackable is located.

Short of that, if I find a cache that has a listed TB that isn't there, I will mention that fact in my "found it" log on the cache, and I will leave a note on each missing TB's page indicating it wasn't in the cache.

[sp1tf1re]

I was going to say, that I was pretty sure a cache owner could mark one as missing. Like if someone were to drop a trackable onto a micro, where there is no way it could be hidden with the cache. 

Interesting note on no more multiple logging. When I lived in SoCal there were a few cache's that I loved dropping off trackables to get them started. I am guessing I could write a note and then drop the trackable now.

[+Max and 99]

14 hours ago, hzoi said:

 

Short of that, if I find a cache that has a listed TB that isn't there, I will mention that fact in my "found it" log on the cache, and I will leave a note on each missing TB's page indicating it wasn't in the cache.

But if the TB isn't there, how can you leave a note on its page if you don't have the #.  Can you do that?

[+barefootjeff]

1 minute ago, Max and 99 said:

But if the TB isn't there, how can you leave a note on its page if you don't have the #.  Can you do that?

You don't need the tracking code to log a note on the trackable - that's only needed for Retrieved, Grabbed and Discovered logs.

[+Max and 99]

38 minutes ago, barefootjeff said:

You don't need the tracking code to log a note on the trackable - that's only needed for Retrieved, Grabbed and Discovered logs.

That is good to know. Thanks!

[+Bear and Ragged]

8 hours ago, sp1tf1re said:

I was going to say, that I was pretty sure a cache owner could mark one as missing. Like if someone were to drop a trackable onto a micro, where there is no way it could be hidden with the cache. 

Interesting note on no more multiple logging. When I lived in SoCal there were a few cache's that I loved dropping off trackables to get them started.

 

I am guessing I could write a note and then drop the trackable now.

 

Correct! 

[+noncentric]

On 3/31/2018 at 6:56 AM, Bear and Ragged said:

On 3/30/2018 at 10:45 PM, sp1tf1re said:

I am guessing I could write a note and then drop the trackable now.

 

Correct! 

You can also drop TB's into a cache using the official app, without submitting any logs to the cache's page. There was an issue with the TB Log date when submitted via the app, but I dropped a TB several hours ago and noticed that the correct date was attached, so maybe that issue has been fixed.

[+little-leggs]

interesting , I didn't think of looking under Geocaching Topics before , I went straight to the Travel Bug section ,
I too would like to see a greater enforces put on the humble TB .

something needs to be done , to support the players , who like to find , log , and move TB's 

I started a thread in the Travel Bug section , 
 

 

[Keystone]

I moved this thread from the Geocaching Topics forum.