How are they doing it?!

[+WJV]

Hello. I got a discoverable tshirt for my birthday. People now keep logging it when they clearly haven't seen me wearing it. How are they doing it? We thought we had solved it by deleting the image I had uploaded not realising it would appear in a gallery. But people are still doing it and it's seems kind of like cheating to me as they haven't really seen it, only a picture. Please can anyone tell me how it's happening and what I did wrong and how to make it just discoverable? Thank you.

[+arisoft]

 

15 minutes ago, WJV said:

How are they doing it?

 

People may share the code as they do with other things too.

 

Keep deleting bogus logs as you have already done. There is nothing else you can do.

[+WJV]

Thank you. I just found another topic thread which shows I'm not the only one this happened to so now I kind of feel better and have learnt that I need to be careful with codes. It seems the app continues to show pictures even when you've deleted on the main site which is really frustrating. But people who already had it can now just share the code. But what's the point of that? I just don't think that's geocaching. The point was to meet other geo cachers with my tshirt and those people are spoiling it.

[+kunarion]

45 minutes ago, WJV said:

Hello. I got a discoverable tshirt for my birthday. People now keep logging it when they clearly haven't seen me wearing it. How are they doing it? We thought we had solved it by deleting the image I had uploaded not realising it would appear in a gallery. But people are still doing it and it's seems kind of like cheating to me as they haven't really seen it, only a picture. Please can anyone tell me how it's happening and what I did wrong and how to make it just discoverable? Thank you.

 

This one? https://coord.info/TB95ZCJ

I don't see anything on that TB page that says not to log from a list or photo.  Like "You must see me in person wearing this shirt to log it.  No "virtual logs' allowed".  Or whatever.

 

As airsoft said, a number or photo once posted online tends to get onto lists.  People sit around on computers all day and log tracking numbers if they see one.  Yay?

 

What is your purpose for wearing that shirt?  If it's to get logs only when someone meets you (interacts, shakes your hand), you may make an additional logging requirement.  You can do that for a TB.  Wear, for example a pin button, and have the ALR of sending you a private message about that pin.  Or carry another item that people won't see in a list or photo, only in person.  Or hide the number in some way.

 

I once made custom shirts with a nice, big tracking number in view.  As soon as I received the expensive shirts, I realized that, yeah, it's a bad idea.  Now I have a super teeny tracking number on a name badge, something that won't show up in any cache Event photo .  People ask if I have a personal tracking number, and I then reveal it.  But logs, valid or not, tend to be like "Catching up on logs, saw your TB somewhere at some time!  Thank you for sharing!", which is just about as delightful to read as a Virtual Log.

 

I have a car TB, and it's "Found" by Garmin Chirp only.  No virtual logs have happened.  Another effect that is important to note:  Hardly any logs at all have happened.

 

 

Edited April 27, 2019 by kunarion

[+cerberus1]

It seems you've already been deleting a bunch.  Adding that you'll delete virtual/fake discovers on the trackable's page  helps too.  

Unfortunately you posted an image of it's code, and now it's on the foreverweb.   

A lot of times it's a finder with a pic that does it...

 

The site doesn't encourage "virtual" trackables (folks discovering codes in searches) , but does say " It is up to the trackable owner to state if they allow this".

There are enough virtual trackable owners that if I saw it listed on your cache page, I'd log it as well.

 - Though the reason I'd log it is to let you know it's code is visible JIC you didn't understand.  Sort of a "found this tee's code on the trackable's gallery, a pic taken on (a date...) ".

If you'd delete my log, you're aware.   

[+WJV]

Thank you, that's really helpful. I can change it so that it says you have to see me in person and say hello or maybe delete the picture (now without code!) and ask people to log what colour the t shirt was. I feel like I made an innocent mistake and people are taking advantage of it. 

[+cerberus1]

2 minutes ago, WJV said:

Thank you, that's really helpful. I can change it so that it says you have to see me in person and say hello or maybe delete the picture (now without code!) and ask people to log what colour the t shirt was. I feel like I made an innocent mistake and people are taking advantage of it. 

 

The good and bad thing about "anyone can play".    Think of it as a hacker learning your password.  What do they do with it ? 

But, as explained earlier, since there are some virtual trackables ,  you need to make it clear that you'll only accept discovers by people you've met when caching, on the trackables page. 

 

I don't feel asking "what color..." when the picture (you started this thread on...) is already floating online will work ... 

[+kunarion]

3 hours ago, WJV said:

Thank you, that's really helpful. I can change it so that it says you have to see me in person and say hello or maybe delete the picture (now without code!) and ask people to log what colour the t shirt was. I feel like I made an innocent mistake and people are taking advantage of it. 

 

Maybe one incentive for the logs is the somewhat unusual coin name (or Trackable designation).  It's a "Discover Me", not a common "Travel Bug".  Out of almost 600 Trackables I've logged, I've only ever logged one "Discover Me Tag", and I'm guessing that "Discover Me" counts as a separate type.

 

If the "Virtual" logs get completely out of control, you can lock the TB page from allowing any logs.  Set it up so that anyone visiting the page can read cool stuff.  They simply can't add a log.

 

Edited April 27, 2019 by kunarion

[+arisoft]

1 hour ago, WJV said:

But what's the point of that? I just don't think that's geocaching. The point was to meet other geo cachers with my tshirt and those people are spoiling it.

 

It is a hobby - like collecting register plate codes or whatever someone could collect. The real idea of discovering a traveller is to discover it on-field. Not from a picture or from a list of TB-codes. I understand that you want a record of geocachers who you have met face to face. Put this in the description. It may have some effect on bogus logs.

[+Hynz]

On 4/27/2019 at 7:48 PM, WJV said:

and have learnt that I need to be careful with codes. 

Regardless how careful a TB owner is, he or she can not control how cacher who receive the code legitimately are dealing further with it.

There are events where lists are circulating and not only personal codes but also codes of brought TBs and coins are put on it. This list might be sent out to all attendees and I even saw it posted as a log on the event listing.

On the other hand In my opinion alone the increased encouragement of TB Owner to discover their personal TBs or to print the code on a T-Shirt or car ;-) has made it difficult to educate newcomers to the proper etiquette.

[+thebruce0]

One tip to avoid possible mistaken grabs for your own items, is to make them collectible, then move them to your own collection, then make them not collectible. That way only Discover logs can be posted.  But you won't be able to make them travel. Any TBs you want to be able to drop or visit yourself you'll have to keep in your inventory.

 

I keep my two personal traveling TBs in my inventory (to 'visit' certain caches I log) and keep all the others I own in the collection. Those can still come to events and be discovered various ways by other people, but no one can 'grab' them from me.  But those generally I don't care if they get discovered or not, I don't get annoyed by log notifications, so it doesn't bother me if someone across the world 'discovers' it.

[+kunarion]

38 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

One tip to avoid possible mistaken grabs for your own items, is to make them collectible, then move them to your own collection, then make them not collectible. That way only Discover logs can be posted.  But you won't be able to make them travel. Any TBs you want to be able to drop or visit yourself you'll have to keep in your inventory.

 

That's a good way to do it, if there is a history of problems.  Trackables in a "Collection" are not in play.  That is, the action logs are not available, just "Discover" and "Note".

 

I have my car TB, my personal TB, and my hiking stick TB* (among others) with all log options available, because I like the options to be available to me.  Others can and do figure out ways to mess with you regardless of a menu option.  I chose to not let that affect my life.  Maybe I'll simply delete a "grab log" and move on.  For mine, the issue has never come up, likely due in part to the fact that the numbers aren't super easy to get (and they're tough to photograph).

 

*They're not necessarily "The Travel Bug" dogtags, but tracking numbers from my other tags or coins I keep at home.  I sometimes use a "Travel Bug" barcode bug logo on my car or whatever anyway, because it's recognizable to cachers.

 

 

Edited April 29, 2019 by kunarion

[+thebruce0]

2 minutes ago, kunarion said:

36 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

One tip to avoid possible mistaken grabs for your own items, is to make them collectible, then move them to your own collection, then make them not collectible. That way only Discover logs can be posted.  But you won't be able to make them travel. Any TBs you want to be able to drop or visit yourself you'll have to keep in your inventory.

 

That's a good way to do it, if there is a history of problems.  Trackables in a "Collection" are not in play.  That is, the action logs are not available, just "Discover" and "Note".

 

Yes, see bolded.

I'm the same you - personal TB and car TB in my inventory, all the rest in Collection. I might take my collection to an event so people can discover, but they can't be grabbed mistakenly. I don't care so much about discoveries on the collection TBs, because they don't travel. My traveling TBs I only care because the Discover logs clog up the log history. But it's a minor annoyance.

 

[+kunarion]

16 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

 

Yes, see bolded.

I'm the same you - personal TB and car TB in my inventory, all the rest in Collection. I might take my collection to an event so people can discover, but they can't be grabbed mistakenly. I don't care so much about discoveries on the collection TBs, because they don't travel. My traveling TBs I only care because the Discover logs clog up the log history. But it's a minor annoyance.

 

 

Yeah.  I have a "Virtual Log" style Trackable item now, which I immediately placed into my Collection as you mentioned above.  A "cache card", one of a set of trackable cards from an Event, with many identical copies.  That's the one with the "Saw this with a bahzillion other cards somewhere sometime thanks" logs.  I have some of those other cards, and have logged none, but if I do, it would not be a robotic log.  I hate that.  So I might post one or two with photos of those and a story sometime.  But I can't do a "Visit" with mine as it is now set "In My Collection".  Discover only.

 

Funny thing is that although a "Note" is pretty much available for any activated coin, I've never seen complaints about mass Note logs.  Go figure. 

 

Edited April 29, 2019 by kunarion

[+thebruce0]

11 minutes ago, kunarion said:

Funny thing is that although a "Note" is pretty much available for any activated coin, I've never seen complaints about mass Note logs.  Go figure. 

 

Most certainly because they're not nearly spammed as much. I'd guess the majority of Note logs on TBs are for picture posting, and on the rare occasion that happens, relatively speaking.