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Delete a Trackable


Paledunn

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3 minutes ago, Paledunn said:

I’m not finding a method to delete a trackable.

 

Since each trackable has a unique tracking number associated, we can't delete it (same thing happens to any geocache), but if you are the owner, you can also Mark it Missing... a sort of delete, in a sense.

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1 hour ago, Paledunn said:

I’m not finding a method to delete a trackable. I see that there’s a lock option but no delete. 

 

Depending on what your intention is for "deleting" a Trackable, there are ways to remove a Trackable item from your Inventory.  As mentioned, one way is to mark it Missing, with appropriate logs so anyone who visits the page knows what's going on (especially if it's in fact Missing and later turns up).  If has been traveling cache-to-cache and now has note logs that it's not in its cache, it's a good idea to wait before marking it missing.  These things are not real-time updated excitement.  You need great patience if you place one in a cache with the intent that cachers will move it and log it.  It may get a log without specifics, and then vanish for months or years before getting another log.  Some of mine turn up after a year, before disappearing again.

 

Another way is to place the item into your Collection, so it won't show up in your Inventory list, for a more compact list when making cache logs.  This requires specific steps:  https://www.geocaching.com/help/index.php?pg=kb.chapter&id=41&pgid=250

 

If you have your physical Trackable item, or even just the Tracking Code alone, but don't want it anymore, you can adopt it to another player:  https://www.geocaching.com/help/index.php?pg=kb.chapter&id=41&pgid=249

 

Trackables that you buy are a little more manageable if you never activate them.  Keep them at home stored away just for fun, and don't use them in the game.  If you don't activate them, you don't have to later try to remove them from view in your Profile.

 

 

Edited by kunarion
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1 hour ago, Paledunn said:

I’m not finding a method to delete a trackable. I see that there’s a lock option but no delete. 

 

Curious why you'd want to "delete" one of your trackables.  Thanks.      :)

We have trackables that we don't want to show on inventory anymore (a collection), and moved to our collections. I see kunarion covered that...

You can lock (as you know) if rascals are "Discovering" your trackable by noticing the code online (and at least one did  ;).

I wouldn't mark a trackable "missing" if you're not sure it is quite yet... 

 No one took, or even Discovered a promotion trackable placed in its first cache.  I marked it missing two years later.

 - It was "found" and Retrieved three months later still in that first cache by a new cacher.    Go figure... 

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I keep getting couch logs because I inadvertently posted pictures when activating a few dog tag trackables. I removed the pictures once I realized they automatically post to a public gallery but apparently the pictures were copied and circulated before I deleted the originals. I’ll take it as a learning lesson and just keep them locked and trash them. 

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2 hours ago, Paledunn said:

I keep getting couch logs because I inadvertently posted pictures when activating a few dog tag trackables. I removed the pictures once I realized they automatically post to a public gallery but apparently the pictures were copied and circulated before I deleted the originals. I’ll take it as a learning lesson and just keep them locked and trash them. 


Posted images don’t necessarily get deleted.  They may be removed from the Gallery, but remain on the server.
 

Maybe if a Trackable is locked for a while, it gets removed from the lists.

 

I’ve never been so bored with life that I felt the need to tell the world that I saw a picture of something online. Other people’s mileage may vary.  B)

 

Edited by kunarion
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9 hours ago, Paledunn said:

...just keep them locked and trash them. 

 

Locked? Yes, that's a good idea, stop the fun for those people who couch log.

 

Trash them? That seems like a bit of a waste. You could pop them in the bottom of a drawer, ignore them for six months and then unlock them, see if the couch logs have stopped. I'd offer to take them off  your hands, but I'm in Australia so postage would be killer. Maybe have a hunt on a local FB group and see if anybody is interested in them? I mean, you could move them into your Collection and stick the TB code onto something that can be virtually discoverable, like a stamp or stickers that you can put in logbooks and people can log.

 

Or you can throw them out if you like. I'd take it as an opportunity to be creative.

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I find it annoying that the long gone ones clutter up the list of owned TBs.... I haven't gone as far as to adopt them out to a secondary account, but have considered that.... what I do is rename them - just append a zzz to the beginning of the name, and they gravitate to the bottom of the list. If they return (and a couple have), just rename them back and they rejoin the active 'top-listers'....

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1 hour ago, lee737 said:

I find it annoying that the long gone ones clutter up the list of owned TBs.... I haven't gone as far as to adopt them out to a secondary account, but have considered that.... what I do is rename them - just append a zzz to the beginning of the name, and they gravitate to the bottom of the list. If they return (and a couple have), just rename them back and they rejoin the active 'top-listers'....

 

If you're talking about the "Owned Trackables" list, I just sort by last log, and the long-gone ones sort themselves to the end. 

 

It's tempting to just lock them all, since most of the time any logs they get are bogus ones from people "discovering them on Facebook" - yeah, I know what page you found them on. But now and then, one of our trackables actually manages to get found at the back of a drawer or the bottom of an old caching bag, so I leave 'em unlocked, just in case. Like old submarines, I don't want to think of them as lost, but as "still on patrol."

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16 hours ago, Paledunn said:

I keep getting couch logs because I inadvertently posted pictures when activating a few dog tag trackables.

I removed the pictures once I realized they automatically post to a public gallery but apparently the pictures were copied and circulated before I deleted the originals. I’ll take it as a learning lesson and just keep them locked and trash them. 

 

Like others, I might lock them if they had so-many hits that just deleting was becoming annoying.  But I'd hold onto them a while. 

We have exact copies of all attachments to Travel bugs.  

The other 2.3rds lost out with coins, though she has similar with different codes in her collection.

 - They won't get sent back out, but we'll reuse the codes for something (a patch, etched into a hiking stick, etc...), and  they'll eventually be Discovered at events, or folks we meet on trail.    :)

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17 hours ago, DARKSIDEDAN said:

When you buy an Activated Trackable it would be good if you could bulk delete the history of the trackable to start it fresh again. You can delete single entry but if the trackable has thousands of entries this is a very time consuming task.

I don't see how this would be good. You'd be deleting all those logs by other geocachers. I think if you're going to delete thousands of logs it SHOULD be time consuming, to make you think twice about doing it. 😁

How often does one buy an already activated trackable? Are you talking about eBay? 

Edited by Max and 99
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27 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

I don't see how this would be good. You'd be deleting all those logs by other geocachers. I think if you're going to delete thousands of logs it should be time consuming, to make you think twice about doing it. 😁

How often does one buy an already activated trackable? Are you talking about eBay? 

 

Hi Mate

 

To this point in time I have bought over 300 TBs and/or Geocoins from private sellers. I don't want the whole history of the where the coin was before I had it. 

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1 hour ago, DARKSIDEDAN said:

To this point in time I have bought over 300 TBs and/or Geocoins from private sellers. I don't want the whole history of the where the coin was before I had it. 

Then don't "buy" activated trackables. What you're doing is adopting activated trackables.

 

If you adopted a cache, then would you delete all the past logs to start with a clean history? The point of adopting a cache or a trackable is to take over its ownership, not to obliterate its history.

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4 hours ago, niraD said:

If you adopted a cache, then would you delete all the past logs to start with a clean history? The point of adopting a cache or a trackable is to take over its ownership, not to obliterate its history.

Exactly!

While a lot of current TB logs (thinking of took it and discoveries....) are IMHO disposable :rolleyes: I would be quite pissed if my log on a traveler acompanied with a nice picture of the surounding was deleted and removed from my history just because a new owner of the TB (or even the same owner) want's to start new.

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15 hours ago, DARKSIDEDAN said:

When you buy an Activated Trackable it would be good if you could bulk delete the history of the trackable to start it fresh again. You can delete single entry but if the trackable has thousands of entries this is a very time consuming task.

 

Curious where one buys already-activated trackables.   Thanks.     :huh:        

Ebay and others have activated trackables for sale, we've seen some  where it's questionable whether the real owners even know about it.

If thousands of people (a rarity...) have logged into a trackable , they apparently enjoyed that trackable enough to say a little something.

Maybe it's just me, but I feel it's incredibly rude to erase the history from all those people who shared in its journey...

 

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20 hours ago, DARKSIDEDAN said:

 

Hi Mate

 

To this point in time I have bought over 300 TBs and/or Geocoins from private sellers. I don't want the whole history of the where the coin was before I had it. 

If I had logged the trackable before you bought it, I'd be plenty annoyed to have my logs deleted.  It's as much part of MY history as it is part of the trackable's history.  Just buy new trackables that don't already have a history.

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On 5/31/2021 at 9:22 PM, DARKSIDEDAN said:

 

Hi Mate

 

To this point in time I have bought over 300 TBs and/or Geocoins from private sellers. I don't want the whole history of the where the coin was before I had it. 

 

Out of curiosity, where are you buying all these TBs with histories?

Are you buying bags of TBs on ebay from the people who collect harvest them from our caches and sell them?

 

I can't think of many other ways to get scads of activated bugs.

 

Edited by TeamRabbitRun
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On 6/1/2021 at 1:11 PM, niraD said:

Then don't "buy" activated trackables. What you're doing is adopting activated trackables.

 

If you adopted a cache, then would you delete all the past logs to start with a clean history? The point of adopting a cache or a trackable is to take over its ownership, not to obliterate its history.

 

I buy old Geocoins and then re-sell them. People dont like the history attached to the coin

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21 hours ago, TeamRabbitRun said:

 

Out of curiosity, where are you buying all these TBs with histories?

Are you buying bags of TBs on ebay from the people who collect harvest them from our caches and sell them?

 

I can't think of many other ways to get scads of activated bugs.

 

 

Private Collections. I never buy one off Geocoins 

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On 6/2/2021 at 12:25 PM, TeamRabbitRun said:

Out of curiosity, where are you buying all these TBs with histories?

Are you buying bags of TBs on ebay from the people who collect harvest them from our caches and sell them?

 

I can't think of many other ways to get scads of activated bugs.

It all sounds pretty suss to me.... maybe when selling a TB the TB code (not the tracking code) should be made publicly available, so interested parties could enquire with the TB owner whether they are aware their property is for sale....??

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On 6/3/2021 at 1:35 AM, DARKSIDEDAN said:
On 6/1/2021 at 5:11 AM, niraD said:

Then don't "buy" activated trackables. What you're doing is adopting activated trackables.

 

If you adopted a cache, then would you delete all the past logs to start with a clean history? The point of adopting a cache or a trackable is to take over its ownership, not to obliterate its history.

 

I buy old Geocoins and then re-sell them. People dont like the history attached to the coin

One for the irks-thread.

Thanks for providing a "in a nutshell"-explanation why the traveller system is broken beyond repair :mad:

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On 5/31/2021 at 9:22 PM, DARKSIDEDAN said:

To this point in time I have bought over 300 TBs and/or Geocoins from private sellers. I don't want the whole history of the where the coin was before I had it. 

 

How many of those were actually sold by the owner vs stolen from geocaches???

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1 hour ago, JL_HSTRE said:

 

How many of those were actually sold by the owner vs stolen from geocaches???

 

Now that's not fair; we CANNOT be accusing each other of truly bad stuff. Aside from being against the TOS of the forums (I assume), it's just bad practice. And it's rude. And it speaks badly of us and how we treat each other in these forums, which are unique in how well-behaved we forum-rats are, ALL THE TIME. I'm proud of us.


But generically, on the subject of seeing BAGS of already-activated bugs on eBay with histories of drops, retrieves and visits, and most likely disappointed Trackable Owners missing their property and the kick of watching their stuff travel as intended, I do have an opinion.


Can we not call it what it is? We're all thinking it.

 

If someone actually has a collection of bugs that they've acquired through means other than just keeping what they find in caches, and they want to sell it off, that's fine.

 

But, if someone harvests bugs in the wild and sells them, it's theft.

 

And someone who buys them knowing that they've been stolen from the game and resells them for a profit is a fence.

 

And anyone who buys one from such a resource knowing that without being the TO they can never do any of the things associated with ownership except physically hold it out of the game and look at it is trafficking in stolen goods.

 

Not that I'm talking about anyone in particular, but I'd bet cash money there isn't a player here who isn't thinking the same thing.

 

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7 hours ago, TeamRabbitRun said:

 

Now that's not fair; we CANNOT be accusing each other of truly bad stuff. Aside from being against the TOS of the forums (I assume), it's just bad practice. And it's rude. And it speaks badly of us and how we treat each other in these forums, which are unique in how well-behaved we forum-rats are, ALL THE TIME. I'm proud of us.


But generically, on the subject of seeing BAGS of already-activated bugs on eBay with histories of drops, retrieves and visits, and most likely disappointed Trackable Owners missing their property and the kick of watching their stuff travel as intended, I do have an opinion.


Can we not call it what it is? We're all thinking it.

 

If someone actually has a collection of bugs that they've acquired through means other than just keeping what they find in caches, and they want to sell it off, that's fine.

 

But, if someone harvests bugs in the wild and sells them, it's theft.

 

And someone who buys them knowing that they've been stolen from the game and resells them for a profit is a fence.

 

And anyone who buys one from such a resource knowing that without being the TO they can never do any of the things associated with ownership except physically hold it out of the game and look at it is trafficking in stolen goods.

 

Not that I'm talking about anyone in particular, but I'd bet cash money there isn't a player here who isn't thinking the same thing.

 

 

Well said

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This is all very strange - I mean, how many trackables/geocoins (I presuming this is mostly geocoins, as TB's tend to be basically trash otherwise!) do people release, allow to fill up with logs, and then (somehow?) retrieve them, and then go and sell the thing? 

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9 minutes ago, lee737 said:

This is all very strange - I mean, how many trackables/geocoins (I presuming this is mostly geocoins, as TB's tend to be basically trash otherwise!) do people release, allow to fill up with logs, and then (somehow?) retrieve them, and then go and sell the thing? 


Plus, it might be interesting to know how someone “makes enough money to make it worthwhile” from TBs that have a lot of logs... that therefore have a lot of people who know the tracking code.

 

Because if someone finds my TB and offers to buy it for resale, and let’s say the purchaser does mention the condition that all logs will be deleted, to make it more desirable to a buyer...

Then why can’t the TB Owner make all the money from that TB, without the reseller?

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3 hours ago, lee737 said:

This is all very strange - I mean, how many trackables/geocoins (I presuming this is mostly geocoins, as TB's tend to be basically trash otherwise!) do people release, allow to fill up with logs, and then (somehow?) retrieve them, and then go and sell the thing? 

 

3 hours ago, kunarion said:


Plus, it might be interesting to know how someone “makes enough money to make it worthwhile” from TBs that have a lot of logs... that therefore have a lot of people who know the tracking code.

 

Because if someone finds my TB and offers to buy it for resale, and let’s say the purchaser does mention the condition that all logs will be deleted, to make it more desirable to a buyer...

Then why can’t the TB Owner make all the money from that TB, without the reseller?

 

Who would sell one? If someone sent you a message saying, "I have one of your TBs, and I'll mail you a dollar to transfer ownership to me," would you take it, or would you just laugh?

 

How many of those would you have to buy to make it worth your while? 

 

Don't bust your heads trying to figure it out.

Most likely it is what it appears to be.

 

Let's see some examples of these bugs for sale and see who owns them.

 

Edited by TeamRabbitRun
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On 6/4/2021 at 10:23 PM, FrostedBroccoli said:

I'm not sure I understand what you mean lol. It was just a sticker. If it came with something else that's long gone as well I'd wager.

 

The visible number is yours; you can put it on anything you like.

 

If it was a sticker, you can just put it on another sticker and put it on your new car!

 

There are all sorts of ways to print up a sticker or have one printed for you.

 

If it was one of the vinyl cling things, you get that material an print it yourself on a home printer.

 

Whatever you do, try to get the scarab icon, of course. If you look on the main GS site at the bottom, under "LOGO USAGE GUIDELINES", several icon collections are available, but not for the TB scarab. Contact HQ and they may share it with you.

 

Watch out for fade-ability in the sun; you may end up replacing it every so often.

 

Was the old car taken off the road, or just sold? Watch the logs you get; they may be from the first sticker. And, you can decide whether or not that's OK.

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9 minutes ago, TeamRabbitRun said:

 

The visible number is yours; you can put it on anything you like.

 

If it was a sticker, you can just put it on another sticker and put it on your new car!

 

There are all sorts of ways to print up a sticker or have one printed for you.

 

If it was one of the vinyl cling things, you get that material an print it yourself on a home printer.

 

Whatever you do, try to get the scarab icon, of course. If you look on the main GS site at the bottom, under "LOGO USAGE GUIDELINES", several icon collections are available, but not for the TB scarab. Contact HQ and they may share it with you.

 

Watch out for fade-ability in the sun; you may end up replacing it every so often.

 

Was the old car taken off the road, or just sold? Watch the logs you get; they may be from the first sticker. And, you can decide whether or not that's OK.

I sold it, but I'd bet it was junked anyway. I had put it through the ringer. Do you mean I can just grab the code from my inventory and find another way to display it?

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1 minute ago, FrostedBroccoli said:

I sold it, but I'd bet it was junked anyway. I had put it through the ringer. Do you mean I can just grab the code from my inventory and find another way to display it?

 

Absolutely. As someone up above said, when you buy a dogtag TB, it COMES WITH a replacement tag because of the expectation that it'll disappear. You can either send out the 2nd tag or use the number on it to create something else that's identifiable as long as it has the number and says "Trackable at Geocaching.com."

 

The scarab icon is what attracts attention in traffic or in a parking lot, so it's important in your case. Make it BIG, too!

 

You can take your number and have it put on a t-shirt or a hiking vest! Everybody you encounter will see it.  Hiking stick badges are common, too. Screw it to a stick and wield it until you break the stick, then get another stick.

 

The point is, when you buy one (tag or sticker or badge, etc.) you're buying the number. What you put that number ON doesn't much matter, as long as it meets the minimal requirements.

 

 

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15 minutes ago, TeamRabbitRun said:

 

Absolutely. As someone up above said, when you buy a dogtag TB, it COMES WITH a replacement tag because of the expectation that it'll disappear. You can either send out the 2nd tag or use the number on it to create something else that's identifiable as long as it has the number and says "Trackable at Geocaching.com."

 

The scarab icon is what attracts attention in traffic or in a parking lot, so it's important in your case. Make it BIG, too!

 

You can take your number and have it put on a t-shirt or a hiking vest! Everybody you encounter will see it.  Hiking stick badges are common, too. Screw it to a stick and wield it until you break the stick, then get another stick.

 

The point is, when you buy one (tag or sticker or badge, etc.) you're buying the number. What you put that number ON doesn't much matter, as long as it meets the minimal requirements.

 

 

Thank you. I'll see about getting something printed to stick on my window. I bought a Subaru Outback basically for the express reason for caching so I should deck it out.

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4 minutes ago, FrostedBroccoli said:

Thank you. I'll see about getting something printed to stick on my window. I bought a Subaru Outback basically for the express reason for caching so I should deck it out.


Look up “custom vinyl decal” online.  You can order them in various sizes, and if you include the term “geocaching”, the decal company might have a Barcode Bug (the most recognizable logo), or other Geocaching logo.  The text “Track Me” might help.  Order just the Barcode Bug, and you can use your own lettering if you have some.  That’s basically what I did with an extra “car TB” decal I had.  I cut off the tracking code from the decal, so I could use a particular coin’s code instead.  And I then had an extra “TB” code for another project.

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As much as I'm not a fan of what DARKSIDEDAN is doing, the obvious question to me is how would someone who stole ("collected") a TB then be able to delete the logs?

 

On 6/3/2021 at 9:05 AM, DARKSIDEDAN said:

I buy old Geocoins and then re-sell them. People dont like the history attached to the coin

 

This, to me, implies that the history of some coins that have been bought and sold have had their histories wiped. And the only way to wipe that is to be the owner or adopt the coin. I'm not aware of any way for someone to delete logs from a trackable that wasn't owned by their account.

 

I had a quick look on eBay (Australia) and saw a few pages of TB's and GeoCoins for sale, but all of the ones that I checked where all unactivated.

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27 minutes ago, Unit473L said:

the obvious question to me is how would someone who stole ("collected") a TB then be able to delete the logs?

 

 

This, to me, implies that the history of some coins that have been bought and sold have had their histories wiped. And the only way to wipe that is to be the owner or adopt the coin.

 

I’m pretty sure I don’t even want to know how a circulated coin ends up being sold by an owner to an intermediary who then purges and preps it for resale at a profit.


If the owner has a valuable coin to sell and, why does he even need the middle-man?  

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4 hours ago, kunarion said:

 

I’m pretty sure I don’t even want to know how a circulated coin ends up being sold by an owner to an intermediary who then purges and preps it for resale at a profit.


If the owner has a valuable coin to sell and, why does he even need the middle-man?  

No Idea

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