do I have to put a trackable in a geocache?

[laurenb71111]

I'm a new geocacher… well sort of. I used to go with my aunt and cousin a lot before I moved when I was younger, but we never put a tracker in and we never saw any trackers in the geocaches. I'm just making sure that over the 3 years that I've moved the rules haven't changed. please inform me on these rules.

[RuideAlmeida]

11 hours ago, laurenb71111 said:

please inform me on these rules.

 

Guidelines concerning trackables remain the same.

Trackables should travel from cache to cache or taken to Events where they can be Discovered also.

Some trackables have designed missions, so it is good etiquette to try to help them achieve those missions, when possible.

 

Exceptions are you own trackables, collection geocoins etc. Their yours, you decide.

Edited April 20, 2019 by RuideAlmeida

[+kunarion]

11 hours ago, laurenb71111 said:

I'm a new geocacher… well sort of. I used to go with my aunt and cousin a lot before I moved when I was younger, but we never put a tracker in and we never saw any trackers in the geocaches. I'm just making sure that over the 3 years that I've moved the rules haven't changed. please inform me on these rules.

 

That is the basic plan.  Retrieve a trackable item from a Geocache, place it into another one.  There are online logs to make when you do that, plus paper logs in the caches.

 

But also look at the item's mission.  There are many creative missions, especially with trackables that can't fit inside the usual cache container.  Two of mine have permission to be carried around, without actually being placed into a cache, with an express condition:  "For this particular Trackable, Visits or Took It To logs are acceptable on the condition that they include plenty of cool photos and stories of its adventures."

 

And if it's a trackable that you bought and own, there's no requirement to "activate" it at all.  You don't have to put it into play, if you don't intend that it be logged.

 

Edited April 20, 2019 by kunarion

[+cerberus1]

18 hours ago, laurenb71111 said:

I'm a new geocacher… well sort of. I used to go with my aunt and cousin a lot before I moved when I was younger, but we never put a tracker in and we never saw any trackers in the geocaches. I'm just making sure that over the 3 years that I've moved the rules haven't changed. please inform me on these rules.

 

In case you forgot the basics,  everything you wanted to know about Trackables.  

Nope, nothing has changed in three years other than an automated system is  used once-in-a-while to "square away" (remove from play) trackables that haven't been logged correctly for some time.

[+Bandaid06]

Must a trackable be placed inside the cache container or can it be placed in the vicinity of the cache ?

[+VAVAPAM]

44 minutes ago, Bandaid06 said:

Must a trackable be placed inside the cache container or can it be placed in the vicinity of the cache ?

Please be sure to place the trackable IN a cache. Leaving it outside, near a cache leaves it unprotected from weather and non-cachers who won't know what know what it is or what to do with it. It also might draw attention to the cache itself, leaving the cache vulnerable to discovery.

 

If the trackable won't fit, wait until you find another cache that will work. If you don't think you'll find any caches big enough, take it to a local event (which IS a cache, so the trackable can be "dropped" - folks at the event can help you, too).

 

If none of those options are available, contact the trackable owner - click on "Message this owner" at the top of the trackable's page - to see how they'd like you to proceed. (After all, it belongs to them.)

Edited October 5, 2020 by VAVAPAM
How to contact owner

[+cerberus1]

41 minutes ago, Bandaid06 said:

Must a trackable be placed inside the cache container or can it be placed in the vicinity of the cache ?

 

How would someone know it's there if it's not in the container ?     

If I did maintenance and don't see a trackable inside listed to be there, I mark it missing. 

AFAIK that trackable is gone...

[+Goldenwattle]

Recently I found a trackable left next to a cache. (Why though, as it would have easily fitted in the cache?) It had been there months. I suspect the previous finders never found the trackable, or knew it was there. It was in a hollow, so they likely reached in and grabbed the cache. It was only because I got down low and used a mirror to look in the hollow, that I spotted the trackable. If I hadn't used that mirror, there's a good change the trackable would still be there, lost.

Put it in a cache; don't leave it beside a cache.

[+cerberus1]

15 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

Recently I found a trackable left next to a cache. (Why though, as it would have easily fitted in the cache?) It had been there months.

I suspect the previous finders never found the trackable, or knew it was there.

 

We found one dangling on a limb above a cache once.    New folks.    

Emailed explaining how the hobby's played, and got an mail back saying they just wanted to dump it (not knowing how to log),  weren't returning to the hobby, and didn't know if they should open it again. 

I thanked them for at least returning it, rather than what often happens when folks leave the hobby.

After an email to the TO, they were happy it was still in play too.  The other side of that coin.   

 

We found a few others over the years,  folks "dropping" trackables to containers they never would have fit in.  Most on ground, underneath.

[+Harry Dolphin]

18 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

Recently I found a trackable left next to a cache. (Why though, as it would have easily fitted in the cache?) It had been there months. I suspect the previous finders never found the trackable, or knew it was there. It was in a hollow, so they likely reached in and grabbed the cache. It was only because I got down low and used a mirror to look in the hollow, that I spotted the trackable. If I hadn't used that mirror, there's a good change the trackable would still be there, lost.

Put it in a cache; don't leave it beside a cache.

 

I sent my sister a Furby Travel Bug.  It actually made it to Maine.  She decided to send the TB back as a plastic lawn Flamingo.  It made it to an event in a bar in New Hampshire.  I guess it didn't pay its bae bill.  Not all TBs fit in caches.  

[+Goldenwattle]

On 10/6/2020 at 8:42 AM, Harry Dolphin said:

 

I sent my sister a Furby Travel Bug.  It actually made it to Maine.  She decided to send the TB back as a plastic lawn Flamingo.  It made it to an event in a bar in New Hampshire.  I guess it didn't pay its bae bill.  Not all TBs fit in caches.  

But unlike the TB I found outside of a cache (which would have fitted in this cache), your example would be hard to miss.

I once had a largish toy metal grader TB. I had that for sometime before I found a cache that would fit it. I think next time I won't pick up such big TBs.

Edited October 16, 2020 by Goldenwattle

[Darwin473]

Inspired by Steve, Cindy and other cumbersome TB's; I'd had the idea of bolting a TB onto a brick - big enough to be a novelty, small enough that it can actually be moved around (just not by people that are flying!  ) I figured I could give it the goal to only be placed "in" nano caches, since a brick on the ground near a cache wouldn't attract too much attention.

 

Then I realised it was a silly idea and decided not to do it.

[Darwin473]

Speaking of silly ideas, I saw this padlock TB in the GC shop. I'm not a fan of the whole "love lock" idea, I'd consider it a form of littering. But the idea that I did have, was to do the exact same thing except that instead of using a key padlock, putting a TB code on a combination padlock. Then you've got a padlock that can be put "in" micro and nano caches by padlocking it to something nearby the cache.

 

Or the first to unlock would have a funky new padlock they could use for their beer fridge. Not sure how many people would be willing to move around a combination padlock.

 

Not sure why I'm obsessed with releasing some kind of awkward TB to put "in" micro and nano caches... 

[+Max and 99]

4 hours ago, Unit473L said:

I'm not a fan of the whole "love lock" idea, I'd consider it a form of littering.

I assume you mean throwing away the key is the littering? Or just all the locks being on the bridge or structure? If you mean the key is the litter, this is one of the reasons I bought one-time locks for our love lock. Keyless. 

[+dprovan]

On 10/5/2020 at 7:39 PM, Unit473L said:

Inspired by Steve, Cindy and other cumbersome TB's; I'd had the idea of bolting a TB onto a brick - big enough to be a novelty, small enough that it can actually be moved around (just not by people that are flying!  ) I figured I could give it the goal to only be placed "in" nano caches, since a brick on the ground near a cache wouldn't attract too much attention.

 

Then I realised it was a silly idea and decided not to do it.

I don't think that's a silly idea, but I do concede it likely wouldn't work. Still, I wish you'd given it a try just to see what happens. I figure the most likely scenario is that it ends up on the ground, forgotten, at GZ of an archived cache, possibly without ever having been moved.

 

I created a TB that encouraged people to do "external transfers", i.e., leaving it near or on the outside of micros. Then I released it by hanging it on a new nano cache I published. It got lost in the second cache, but that was just a normal, inside-the-cache transfer.

 

Once I found a TB hanging on a chain link fence next to a micro cache. I thought it was reasonably safe, but, as I recall, the person that left it only did that to keep it moving because they didn't cache much and hadn't found a big enough cache that day.

[+cerberus1]

5 hours ago, Unit473L said:

Speaking of silly ideas, I saw this padlock TB in the GC shop. I'm not a fan of the whole "love lock" idea, I'd consider it a form of littering. But the idea that I did have, was to do the exact same thing except that instead of using a key padlock, putting a TB code on a combination padlock.

Then you've got a padlock that can be put "in" micro and nano caches by padlocking it to something nearby the cache.

I agree with the lock n littering idea, and HERE is another reason I feel it's just a dumb thing to do.

I don't see  the large trackable someone drops "near" a cache just to get rid of it, is any different than padlocking one "somewhere nearby".

 

Edited October 15, 2020 by cerberus1

[+cerberus1]

On 10/5/2020 at 10:39 PM, Unit473L said:

Inspired by Steve, Cindy and other cumbersome TB's; I'd had the idea of bolting a TB onto a brick - big enough to be a novelty, small enough that it can actually be moved around (just not by people that are flying!  )

I figured I could give it the goal to only be placed "in" nano caches, since a brick on the ground near a cache wouldn't attract too much attention.

Then I realised it was a silly idea and decided not to do it.

 

We had a core-holed brick with a matchstick holder for part of a series.     A couple townships sharing a rails-to-trails.

It was swiped a few times.  We were thinking ground crew, noticing this "brick" is always around the same spot.

We lived closer then, and biked there a lot.  One day the guys were there,  I asked., and they weren't told about the hobby.

 

Edited October 15, 2020 by cerberus1
aboutabout

[Darwin473]

4 hours ago, Max and 99 said:

Or just all the locks being on the bridge or structure?

 

I don't have an issue with someone putting a lock onto something as a type of memento or keepsake. I saw a photo not too long ago of someone who returned to their home town after two decades, and the locks they and their friends had taken off their lockers and put on an overpass on the last day of school were still there. But when hundreds and hundreds of people keep adding more and more locks onto one bridge / fence / landmark and lead to the city spending money removing locks and modifying structures to prevent locks being placed then it becomes a bigger issue. Maybe littering isn't the right word.

 

I see from your comment that you've done it, so this is something near and dear to you. My comment should have emphasized more that I'm not a fan when hundreds of people do it in the one spot. Having a lock on a fence / bridge / whatever standing as a reminder of that relationship is a really nice symbol. If my significant other and I went somewhere to put up a love lock and there was already so many there that we struggled to find a spot and then afterwards couldn't find ours because there was so many... then I don't see the point.

 

3 hours ago, dprovan said:

...as I recall, the person that left it only did that to keep it moving because they didn't cache much and hadn't found a big enough cache that day.

 

Hmmm... at least they left it at / near a cache rather than just chucking it in the bin or something.

 

3 hours ago, cerberus1 said:

I don't see  the large trackable someone drops "near" a cache just to get rid of it, is any different than padlocking one "somewhere nearby".

 

For me, the "humor" comes from people seeing on the listing that there is a TB in a nano cache - but it only really works if people make the slightly extra effort of noting in their log "the TB is next to the step" or "under the bush". Which, let's be honest - the majority probably wouldn't do. In my mind, the difference is that something dropped near a cache can easily be picked up by a random person, while a lock would probably only be removed by a council worker or possibly a groundskeeper. So it should (theoretically) stand a slightly higher chance of staying in play a bit longer.

 

3 hours ago, dprovan said:

Still, I wish you'd given it a try just to see what happens.

 

At the moment, I have my first four TB's, with two almost ready for launch - and as silly as it is, I'm a bit emotionally attached to them (I know, I know - 50% probability they won't make it to their third cache and 99% probability they'll disappear within six months) but when I buy more at the end of the year (either for Christmas sales or post-Christmas clearance) then I'll be less invested in them individually.

 

Up here in Darwin, TB's don't seem to move much. I've moved a few around, but there are some that have been sitting in caches since I started playing around June (the TB's are actually there, not just ghost listings). I'm not sure if that's just a Covid thing due to there being almost zero tourists, or a Darwin thing due to there only being a small number of players.

[+Max and 99]

7 minutes ago, Unit473L said:

But when hundreds and hundreds of people keep adding more and more locks onto one bridge / fence / landmark and lead to the city spending money removing locks and modifying structures to prevent locks being placed then it becomes a bigger issue.

I totally understand that! 

8 minutes ago, Unit473L said:

I see from your comment that you've done it, so this is something near and dear to you.

Not yet. 

[+kunarion]

28 minutes ago, Unit473L said:

But when hundreds and hundreds of people keep adding more and more locks onto one bridge / fence / landmark and lead to the city spending money removing locks and modifying structures to prevent locks being placed then it becomes a bigger issue.

 

There's a walking bridge in Rome, Georgia that has a bahzillion locks on it.  There's a cache, too (a realtor's key-hiding lock).  I found two "Memorial" locks in a nature area where I live and when I saw each lock had a large unique 3-digit serial number, I even considered those locks as clues for my AL cache.  Except I could see that encouraging the "It's Cool To Put Locks Everywhere" thing.  I'm not as impressed as most people are about that.  But I'm just a party pooper.

 

         

Edited October 15, 2020 by kunarion

[+Goldenwattle]

A walking bridge here in Canberra began to have locks placed on it. When they started to build up, the local authorities cut them off.

[+Max and 99]

Just to clarify: the Lock that I placed today is on a sculpture that is very specifically designed for Love Locks. It's the whole purpose of the sculpture.

And I really like that no keys are thrown into bodies of water. There are two locked boxes where you can leave the keys, and they may be melted to create a new art piece. Maybe. it's an option I read in the article.

I've seen stories of the city having to spend time and money cutting them off the structure once in a while. I understand that issue.