Why do I bother?

[+Indiangrass]

My geo-partner and I each have bought trackable numbers for our geo-mobiles. And, at a recent geo-bash event we logged "discovered" logs for several other geo-mobiles. Our geo-mobiles were also logged as "discovered".  This activity neither added to the map nor to the "finds" of anybody. Why do we bother to log these trackable stickers? Is there a better way to log those found stickers? I feel I must be missing something and the folks that logged our stickers are apparently also missing something.

[RuideAlmeida]

10 minutes ago, Indiangrass said:

I feel I must be missing something and the folks that logged our stickers are apparently also missing something.

 

But who bought the codes for use on an object that can't be Retrieved or Dropped was you, IMHO.

[+Indiangrass]

1 hour ago, RuideAlmeida said:

 

But who bought the codes for use on an object that can't be Retrieved or Dropped was you, IMHO.

Are you new to Geocaching? There are litterally thousands of these being sold by Groundspeak and if this is the end result ...it smaks of being a fraudulent sales item.

[RuideAlmeida]

4 minutes ago, Indiangrass said:

Are you new to Geocaching? There are litterally thousands of these being sold by Groundspeak and if this is the end result ...it smaks of being a fraudulent sales item.

 

People use TravelBug codes on t-shirts, on tattoos, on pets and also on vehicles... of course all those are to be Discovered only, and there is nothing fraudulent about it. It's not Geocaching HQ who decides where geocachers apply the codes... while with geocoins by instance, you need to subject the design for prior approval.

Edited May 23, 2023 by RuideAlmeida

[+kunarion]

6 hours ago, Indiangrass said:

My geo-partner and I each have bought trackable numbers for our geo-mobiles. And, at a recent geo-bash event we logged "discovered" logs for several other geo-mobiles. Our geo-mobiles were also logged as "discovered".  This activity neither added to the map nor to the "finds" of anybody. Why do we bother to log these trackable stickers? Is there a better way to log those found stickers? I feel I must be missing something and the folks that logged our stickers are apparently also missing something.

 

I never grab another cacher's car, nor place it into a cache.  All I do is discover, so they don't have the extra work of retrieving it from the cache.  Nobody has complained to me when I do it this way.  It's a good way to log others' car TBs.  Usually I include photos, and info about where I Discovered the tag, but Discover is not mapped.

 

Although I'd expect the same courtesy with Dragonride, I do make my own "Visit" logs with it at caches.  That's when the mapping occurs.  Outside of a cache, a Trackable is "Discoverable", and as it applies to a car TB decal, is most suitable as a way to tell people "I'm A Geocacher".  Because if your plan is to "Visit" caches and map its travels, you don't need the actual decal.

 

Edited May 23, 2023 by kunarion

[+niraD]

5 minutes ago, kunarion said:

Although I'd expect the same courtesy with Dragonride, I do make my own "Visit" logs with it at caches.  That's when the mapping occurs. 

I do wish it was possible to put a personal trackable in my collection, so that others can only discover (not grab) it, but that I would still be able to use it to visit events (or in some cases, actual caches). As it is, these personal trackables are either grabbable by others, or protected so even I can't visit them to events/caches.

[+GeoElmo6000]

7 hours ago, Indiangrass said:

My geo-partner and I each have bought trackable numbers for our geo-mobiles. And, at a recent geo-bash event we logged "discovered" logs for several other geo-mobiles. Our geo-mobiles were also logged as "discovered".  This activity neither added to the map nor to the "finds" of anybody. Why do we bother to log these trackable stickers? Is there a better way to log those found stickers? I feel I must be missing something and the folks that logged our stickers are apparently also missing something.

 

You have two choices with trackables, put them in your collection or keep them out of your collection.

 

If you put them in your collection, then people can only log the trackable as discovered, but you can't log it as having visited a place.  If you keep them out of your collection, then people can discover the trackable and you can also mark them as having visited places.  I suspect you want (and probably have) the latter.

 

Your trackable being out of your collection will let you track where the vehicle has been, and you'll see on the trackable's map where you've visited.  I have one trackable like this, a small geocoin for being FTF somewhere, that I log as having visited the caches I've been to.  So I can see on the map where I've been, crisscrossing the world in search of caches.

 

That only benefits you and that's the way it should be.  No one is going to earn anything by discovering your vehicle's trackable, but you will be able to mark where you've been in the vehicle.

[+thebruce0]

On 5/23/2023 at 2:01 PM, niraD said:

I do wish it was possible to put a personal trackable in my collection, so that others can only discover (not grab) it, but that I would still be able to use it to visit events (or in some cases, actual caches). As it is, these personal trackables are either grabbable by others, or protected so even I can't visit them to events/caches.

I break out my kayak TB for the summer, out of my collection, so it can be discovered and travel. Then I drop it back into Collection where it can only be discovered. I keep my 'phone TB' out all the time and my car TB. I just get used to moving in and out of Collection depending on whether I want it to Visit listings or not. *shrug*

 

But a feature to allow Visits as well as Discovers while never leaving owner hands would be convenient, for sure.

[+Indiangrass]

Thank you, everyone. I guess I'll have to get used to moving vehicle TBs in and out of "my collection"... which seems like something HQ has overlooked and hasn't any incentive to change.