Tb Etiquette

[+djwini]

i'm new at this and need to find out tb ettiquette.

if there is more than one tb in a cache, can you take them all?

if you don't want to take a tb with you, can you still log it?

what exactly is "grabbing" a tb and why and how would you do that?

[+YodaDoe]

Travel Bugs are seperate from the traditional item trading that goes along with geocaching. By that I mean that you don't have to trade for a TB; you can take it and leave nothing, as it doesn't count as "swag." It's almost always a better idea to take a TB instead of leaving it. That way, it will keep moving. And that's the whole point of your average TB. If the bug has a mission which you don't think you can help, you may want to leave it for another person. (Some bugs have the mission printed out with the bug. Others, you'd have to examine on the internet before you'd know.)

 

I don't think there is any rule against taking multiple bugs. As I mentioned before, it's always good to get a bug moving. But a lot of people love finding bugs. I know I do. So if there are a number of them, you should probably leave some "fun" for other finders. But it's really up to you. You'll hear a lot of opinions on this one, but none of them are the right answer, only suggestions. For example, I plan on visiting a TB Hotel Cache near the airport when I fly to Chicago next month. This cache is in place specifically for any TB that wants to take a flight with someone. I will take all of them, if they would be benifited by a trip to Chicago. Any of them that have missions such as "take me to Miami," I will obviously leave there.

 

You should not log a TB unless you actually take it. If you simply notice it but leave it in the cache, you should not log anything except perhaps an additional comment in your log for the cache saying you saw it there.

 

"Grabbing" a bug is simply the act of taking it from another geocacher, though I've seen that term used to describe taking it from a cache as well. As far as the log types on this website go, you can "retrieve" a bug from a cache, "grab" a bug from another person, or "drop" a bug into another cache.

 

YodaDoe

Edited March 2, 2004 by YodaDoe

[+brad.32]

Travel Bugs are seperate from the traditional item trading that goes along with geocaching.

Whether TB trading is separate or not is open to debate, most recently:

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=65368

 

... the funny thing is I had to search for "seperate" instead of separate to find that thread. Scary.

[+YodaDoe]

Whether TB trading is separate or not is open to debate

Yes, but my opinion is the right one. Debate over.

[+Sagefox]

If there is more than one tb in a cache, can you take them all?

It is ALWAYS up to the finder to decide what to do with ANYTHING found in a cache container. There are two NICE things you can do while geocaching:

 

1. Leave equal or better items for the gifts you take. (After you place and maintain several caches you will find that this is the exception and not the rule)

 

2. Help travel bugs toward their intended goal.

 

While you are new to geocaching you might as well take all the tb's you find to get experience with them and just have some fun. After a while you might become more selective. Only trouble I can see with taking multiple bugs is then you have to sort out what their goals are and hopefully help them on their way toward that goal.

 

I am also in the "Travel Bug Is Not A Trade Item" camp. You can't keep it for yourself so you don't need to leave anything for it. That said, mostly I leave something when I find a bug. Notable exceptions are while in TNLN (Took Nothing, Left Nothing) mode and don't have anything with me to leave or my item won't fit in the container. But occasionally I just don't.

 

You can also take a travel bug if you don't intend to or can't directly move it toward its goal. Often times you won't know what the goal is ahead of time because the bug was placed after you did your cache search and there might not be an instruction tag on the bug. It is not the end of the world if the tb goes the wrong way once in a while. The next finder often will get it back on track. Remember though that when people move your tb the wrong direction you might become upset with them.

 

Problems I have with tb finder's actions: new geocachers that quit the game and keep a tb; people placing tb's in caches that are clearly vulnerable to vandalism; trading tb's multiple times within a group of people just to boost tb find counts.

 

In my opinion I believe tb's should be "found" in a cache and then "placed" in a different cache but passing a bug directly into the hands of another cacher to advance the bug's goal is always o.k. Occasionally passing bugs to other cachers because it is a fun bug is o.k. Trading bugs at an event seems to be popular but I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the idea of several people logging a single bug at an event. Logging a tb in and out of a cache without leaving it in that cache, to record its miles traveled, is something I do when I bring home a bug from a long distance and don't intend to leave it in a local cache.

 

This, I'm sure, is way more information than you wanted, but that seems to be how I opperate.

[ju66l3r]

I know this is a bit more conservative than most people's views, but I try to place a TB if I take a TB. If not, then I take/leave one of the fancier items in the swag. BUT this doesn't apply to Bug Hotels (where there's often never swag). There if I"m without TB currently, I"ll take one without trade (one that might need help in mission or upkeep).

 

For example:

 

Driving to Boston from Baltimore, I hit the I-95 N Hotel without a current TB in my posession. One of them was very wet and an electronic toy, so I took it to Boston, dried it out and reprinted its mission statement. But after holding it too long (I try to cycle them quickly) because of not getting out caching, I went to a new cache (sans TB) and traded the TB for a nice looking watch. When I find a TB, I will leave the watch and take the TB.

 

So, I always try to trade worthy of a TB and if I can't I consider a TB to be better than your averge hi-bounce ball, so I will trade accordingly and then use that decent item to retreive another TB in the future.