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Stop Messing With My Bugs!


RocketMan

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Posted

There are some real jokers out there that apparently get a kick out of changing the original object that the owner sends out with the T-Bug tag. Or maybe they just like the original object and decide to keep it, replacing it with some junk they don’t care about. It is bad enough that so many of my bugs are missing. Now I have put up with this crap.

 

This has happened to at least two of my T-Bugs. My Changes in Latitude travel bug was sent out as flip flop. First someone took off the flip flop and replaced it with a necklace. Now someone has taken the necklace and replaced it with a eurocoin. If someone had just added these items to the T-Bug without taking the flip flop, I would be fine with that. Another one of my T-Bugs started out as a trick bike and is now an action figure.

 

What the heck is with the people who do this?

 

RM

Posted

I dont have much room to talk because I like to to tag bugs... however I agree that replacing items that are attached to the bugs is pretty rude. There are a few bugs out there that actually want the trading to go on but don't assume that they all do. I have learned in the past few days that if you are going to change someone elses bug... no matter how innocently and no matter how good your intentions are... please email the owners first. If they like the change then this gives them a chance to thank you. If they don't lkike the change then they have to chance to tell you NO!

 

Save yourselves the trouble of calling me a hippocrite... I just said that I learned this in the past few days and I have already promised that I will email owners BEFORE I bag and tag.

 

Happy Numbers Everyone!

Posted
There are some real jokers out there that apparently get a kick out of changing the original object that the owner sends out with the T-Bug tag.

I'm sorry Rocket Man. One would be tough. Two happening to the same person is actually kind of funny. I hope nothing happens to give you a trifecta.

 

At least with the trick bike one, you have a picture that you could use and alter the goal of the TB.

Posted

Rocket Man I feel your pain man with frustrations over TBs. While I laughed for a solid minute after I read your post (and fell out of my chair). Who would have the nerve to change someone's TB to something else. And the one that used to be a flipflop was traded down!!! :D I worry about some geocachers sometime. Are they 100% present and acoounted for or do they leave a little bit of themself out at every cache?

Posted

I suppose that in any case that it is just too good to be true to think that an activity like this could go on without as many practical jokes and pranks. I'm actually surprised that this doesn't happen more often. I'm even more surprised that caches seem to stay in place.

 

I can imagine the frustration if you place bugs and they always end up violated.

Posted (edited)

Actually pnew, many of us DO leave a little bit of ourselves at every cache. Karma, sweat and tears at most. But quite often even blood and skin at some :D

 

As far as the tag being moved to a different item. I have begun cold welding or epoxying my tags to the item and actually intigrating it as part of th bug itself. This makes it rather difficult to alter the intended bug item. See First Finder Spoon of Happiness And Success, the tag is inset into the back of the spoon, epoxied in place and under 3 layers of varnish. If someones wants to switch THAT they are really going to have to work for it :D

Edited by bazzle
Posted

I frequently will bag a Travel bug if its looking a little worn or its made of something that will fall apart if wet. This seems to be just courtesy.

 

As for tagging, I actually like the idea and have a couple of TB's that I specifically ask to be tagged.

 

Swiping the main item and replacing it is way beyond the pale. The problem with this is that TPTB don't seem interested in expressing a rule that says:

 

"Don't mess with people's stuff!"

 

Given the rules we have for everything else, it would seem a small addition.

Posted

Actually I think that type of rule is silly. It should never be needed, we should have all learned that as children, and it could never be inforced anyway...

Posted

As far as I know, my bugs are all the same as I sent them out, a few with little additions like pins and such. But a few months ago, I traded some bugs out of a TB motel and became confused when I went to log them. I had 1 in my hand but it did not match the picture on the page. So I grabbed the 1 pictured, but decided to go back and enter the number from tag, and that picture was for the other bug. This is why I like to include pictures for my bugs. What happened is someone thought they would be cute and exchange all of the tags around the Hotel cache. Just lucky I grabbed all of the switched bugs and was able to switch them back. I don't like TB Hotels as it is, but thats a different topic. I do ask to insure there is a baggie on my plush TBs and try to include a good baggie when I send others back on their way.

Posted

I'd suggest adding a glob of hot glue (or other glue) in the clasp...if that doesn't communicate that you don't want them to take the TB chain apart, then they were going to do it anyway.

Posted

I guess it depends upon how determined the finder is about switching items or hitchhikers. The hot glue on the clasp/bead chain connector should send a message, so should a short strip of "heat shrink" over the connector, or split ring joint. I am hoping to get out to release 2 new 2004 Geocoins today...I'm almost as excited to see how long they'll last as I am to see where they go :lol:

Regards,

Bill

Posted
:mad: I agree with you. Travelbugs are personal property and should not be altered!!! If you want to make something a hitchhiker to a bug, BUY AND START YOUR OWN BUG!!!!!! I also think maybe in 2004 Groundspeak should maybe adopt a help option to report offenders. Maybe 1st offence 3 month suspension, 2nd offence 1 year suspension, 3rd offence hanging until dead.
Posted (edited)

Excuse me for a second. Can we at LEAST change that furious rant to include "against the owner's wishes"?

 

I've handled two travel bugs that include in the description a desire to be altered and my entry for the race around the US states that the caretaker can alter the bug as necessary.

 

I realize that what people are doing to the bugs is very childish, however I'm not all that impressed by people's reactions to it either. It's a dogtag on a toy that is wandering around at the hands of strangers. It is out of your control. Let it go and enjoy what happens. If you can't laugh at what happens to it, then you probably shouldn't be releasing them at this stage in your life. Something is going to go wrong and if you're lucky it will go wildly horribly wrong.

 

Sure as pigs fly off a catapult, someone is going to mix a little of Uncle Erywn in with someone else's Gatorade as a joke, and I'm willing to bet the person who released Uncle Erywn to the wild will have a good chuckle.

 

And if you can't laugh with them and feel a need to rant here instead, then maybe travel bugs aren't for you.

 

I will say this though. I'm starting to understand TB pirates more and more. It's as if they're reacting to something. And I'm starting to see what that something is.

Edited by bons
Posted
Excuse me for a second. Can we at LEAST change that furious rant to include "against the owner's wishes"?

 

I've handled two travel bugs that include in the description a desire to be altered and my entry for the race around the US states that the caretaker can alter the bug as necessary.

 

I realize that what people are doing to the bugs is very childish, however I'm not all that impressed by people's reactions to it either. It's a dogtag on a toy that is wandering around at the hands of strangers. It is out of your control. Let it go and enjoy what happens. If you can't laugh at what happens to it, then you probably shouldn't be releasing them at this stage in your life. Something is going to go wrong and if you're lucky it will go wildly horribly wrong.

 

Sure as pigs fly off a catapult, someone is going to mix a little of Uncle Erywn in with someone else's Gatorade as a joke, and I'm willing to bet the person who released Uncle Erywn to the wild will have a good chuckle.

 

And if you can't laugh with them and feel a need to rant here instead, then maybe travel bugs aren't for you.

 

I will say this though. I'm starting to understand TB pirates more and more. It's as if they're reacting to something. And I'm starting to see what that something is.

Whatever

 

Go release your two bugs and see what happens to them and then come back and talk about it.

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