Favorite point category for trackables?

December 13, 2021

How about a separate favorite point category for trackables? Perhaps earn one favorite point for every five trackables you place in a cache. The favorite point could only be earned/placed when putting a trackable in a cache.

This would improve the geocaching experience and encourage making unique trackable items.

Just food for thought…..

11.2k · December 13, 2021

32 minutes ago, Rathergohiking said:

The favorite point could only be earned/placed when putting a trackable in a cache.

How will it be confirmed that the trackable was placed into the cache? Will the CO need to go check? Or are you referring to the Online drop? That's TOO easy!

No, that will not encourage making unique trackable items.

I think that Geocaching is headed in the wrong direction as they make more and more options to upvote/like things. Not a fan!

13.7k · December 14, 2021

17 hours ago, Rathergohiking said:

How about a separate favorite point category for trackables? Perhaps earn one favorite point for every five trackables you place in a cache. The favorite point could only be earned/pl aced when putting a trackable in a cache.
This would improve the geocaching experience and encourage making unique trackable items.
Just food for thought…..

?

Curious... Is this new "favorite point" for a trackable, or a person? Thanks...

I feel the "favorite" point system is already flawed and adding yet-another "category" will only make things sillier.

If it's given to individuals simply by dropping trackables in a cache, there's still some hoarders out there that will make out like bandits.

If you feel that FPs for caches is a "reward" to the CO and not the cache itself, then I no longer have an opinion...

13.7k · December 14, 2021

Maybe it's just me, but here it seems the trackables that end up "missing" are the ones that are unique.

15.3k · December 14, 2021

12 minutes ago, cerberus1 said:

Maybe it's just me, but here it seems the trackables that end up "missing" are the ones that are unique.

Yes. Even after I've explained the difference between trade items and trackables to newbies, once we find a cache with trackables in it, I still have to point out that the cute toy or shiny medallion is NOT something they can trade for and keep. And these are newbies who have had a real person explain the game to them before they set out to find their first cache.

December 15, 2021

16 hours ago, niraD said:

Yes. Even after I've explained the difference between trade items and trackables to newbies, once we find a cache with trackables in it, I still have to point out that the cute toy or shiny medallion is NOT something they can trade for and keep. And these are newbies who have had a real person explain the game to them before they set out to find their first cache.

Please add - please don't pickup a trackable on your first day caching only to never go out again.

Cute ones for me disappeared within the first couple of jumps, one never moved on poof. Don't do cute.
Kind of cool but generic seem to last the longest for me. Though even a bare dog tag will eventually be forgotten about and fail to move on.

I was a bit surprised that a few coins lasted as long as they did.

Fun to watch but.... I would not spend the time/money doing new ones. Wish they would come with a proxy that could easily be replaced when they go missing. I'd imagine any favorite point trackable would be snapped up pretty quickly.

1.7k · December 15, 2021

I, too don't think a 'favorite' system for trackables is a good idea.

PLEASE STOP making EVERYTHING rate-able in the march toward making the hobby an outgrowth of Social Media!!!!

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6 hours ago, MNTA said:

Cute ones for me disappeared within the first couple of jumps, one never moved on poof. Don't do cute.
Kind of cool but generic seem to last the longest for me. Though even a bare dog tag will eventually be forgotten about and fail to move on.

I was a bit surprised that a few coins lasted as long as they did.

Fun to watch but.... I would not spend the time/money doing new ones. Wish they would come with a proxy that could easily be replaced when they go missing. I'd imagine any favorite point trackable would be snapped up pretty quickly.

Agree here. I used to think that I needed to make the 'traveler' portion cool or interesting, but those are the ones that disappear right away.

Once, as an experiment, I put one out with an object chained to it that NO ONE would want to, um, 'collect': https://coord.info/TB6J2Y7

It was picked up by my friend Birder428, who promptly dropped it in a Rest Stop on the New York State Thruway, from where it was then presumably picked up by Judge Crater (THERE'S a once-popular American historical reference nobody will get!).

Lesson: Coolitude doesn't matter. TBs disappear.

On more recent releases I've securely attached a laminated 4x6 inch card with the rules and such. Doesn't matter. I got a message once from a guy halfway across the country who told me he found one of those cards lying on the ground, nowhere near a cache in the middle of a college campus, with the attachment hole TORN OUT. He recognized it for what it was because he was a cacher. Did I want it back?

Knowing the rules doesn't matter. TBs disappear.

I still dig that part of the hobby, though.

Edited December 15, 2021 by TeamRabbitRun

December 15, 2021

I have a trackable that has gotten a bunch of "I wish I could give this a favorite point!" logs (https://coord.info/TB8NCC4). I turned my Mary Hyde virtual trackable code (remember those?) into a virtual trackable which you can find through the link if you're interested. I've had poor luck with physical trackables, and creating a virtual trackable has been a great experience.

But I don't know if I'd want favorite points to give out for trackables. I'm so far behind on my cache favorite points as it is.