What Up With Wheregeorge's?

[+mayprod]

During a Thanksgiving conversation with my brother-in-law, Jeff, we discussed leaving WhereGeorge's in caches. We both have. I said I had read in a log that "I know WhereGeorge doesn't get along with Geocaching but I'm leaving one here anyway". I had no idea what that meant. Especially since I have placed several in caches. Jeff said he had left several in caches too but strangely, no one had ever logged on Where'sGeorge that they picked it up. I had noticed in logs that mine were picked up too but no one was logging it on the George site. I did a search on the Forum's for some answers but haven't seen anything. Can anyone fill us in?

[+Corp Of Discovery]

Here is some light reading on the subject:

 

A general search on 'Where's George': 1.

 

These are specific threads: 2. 3. 4. 5.

Enjoy.

[+fly46]

Being too lazy to check links....

 

Basically, the issue is that most cachers aren't familliar with Where's George. WG is supposed to track the natural circulation of money. So, when cachers find them and aren't familliar with WG, they tend to treat the dollars more like travel bugs.

I left a WG dollar once and the next person to the cache left a nice note about how he 'helped me by moving it along to another cache' - nice of him, but not quite the point of WG.

 

Truth be told, WG is a little peeved, if you will, at us cachers anyway, mainly for the reason above. They won't allow GC WG $'s in their most caught/best mileage lists. Once they tried to have a GC top list, but that used up too much on the site, so they took that down, too, also saying that it went against the spirit of WG.

 

If you leave a dollar, it might be nice to leave a pamplet or a note or something saying to treat it like a regular trade item and not a travel bug and instructions on how to log it into the site.

[+mayprod]

OH! That all makes perfect sense. You'd think that if people are interested in geocaching and even more, UNDERSTAND geocaching, that they would be somewhat interested in WheresGeorge too. But that seems to be a huge erroneous assumption on my part. Ah well, I guess it isn't the best trade item. I had felt like it was a find "in a find". I like to leave items that people appreciate, I'm learning to hone my trades. Thanks for the unput!

[+Doggiewoggie]

You know, I've traded a few of them, and logged a few of them... and I've just come to the conclusion that they're a colossal bore. To each his own, I guess--but I've never found them to carry the same emotional weight as a travel bug, you know? I think this is because with WG you never get a true sense of community and cooperation--plus, since dollar bills all have the same dull presentation, they project no sense of the individuality of the originator. I always thought they're the perfect thing to leave if you happen to have no swag with you at the moment--but they feel essentially like an effortless swag cop-out.

Edited November 26, 2004 by prettynwitty

[CoyoteRed]

I think a lot of WGers leave a WG$ to get others interested in the pastime. I know of a local WGer who also likes to leave rare coins. I know many coin collectors like to get others interested in collecting coins and give away "starter kits."

 

Personally, I've never been much into collecting stuff.

 

AFAIK, if you take a WG$ you're supposed to spend it, not move it to another cache.

[+Melrose Plant]

I have a WG account, and have been active on occasion, but I don't mark my bills, and have only ever gotten one hit. And that was on a marked bill I found in a geocache in Missouri. I go there occasionally, put in some bills occasionally. It borders on the boring.

[+Milbank]

I have a WG account, and have been active on occasion, but I don't mark my bills, and have only ever gotten one hit.  And that was on a marked bill I found in a geocache in Missouri.  I go there occasionally, put in some bills occasionally.  It borders on the boring.

I also did it for sometime.

I found a WG bill and checked out the website.

I got all crazy and marked hundreds of bills.

I got one or two hits in a year, boring!

 

If I see a WG bill in a cache I just leave it because I know if I take it I will not log it at the WG site.

 

If I leave it maybe a WG fan will come along, take it and long it.

 

Edited to add: the people on the WG forums also suck. I tried to do some trading for special bills. For example someone would post I have a $5 bill with ser. # XXXXX5555XX if interested send me a $5 and stamp.

About 50% of the time the trades went ok, the other %50 cost me to much money.

Edited November 27, 2004 by Milbank

[+trail hound]

The whole purpose of W.G$ is to track -THE NATURAL MOVEMENT OF A DOLLAR BILL- If it is sitting in a cache or being past from cache to cache....then it is not moving as a dollar bill, would nomally move.... When I find a WG$ ,in a cache, I trade for it and spend it!!!!

[+Boot Group]

We enjoy Wheres George and send some through geocaches, and spend some. We look forward to finding them in geocaches. We have about 30 logged Wheres Georges, and are having a lot of fun.

[+marmetion]

in my younger days, I worked for the federal reserve, in them days if a bill came into a bank with markings on it, ripped , torn or burned, that bill was taken out of circulation. I too, have marked bills and logged them on WG$. only one has ever shown up, and it was within a week of my marking it. I belive that once the marked bills are deposited into a bank account, and counted, the "damaged" bill is removed from circulation

[+briansnat]

The whole purpose of W.G$ is to track -THE NATURAL MOVEMENT OF A DOLLAR BILL- If it is sitting in a cache or being past from cache to cache....then it is not moving as a dollar bill, would nomally move.... When I find a WG$ ,in a cache, I trade for it and spend it!!!!

The very act of marking a bill means its no longer in "natural circulation". Say you you get a marked bill in change from the grocery store, instead of spending it minutes later at the gas station, you separate it from your other bills so you can take it home and log it.

 

Many people leave "unGeorged" bills in caches, so the act of leaving a WG$ in a cache, in and of itself doesn't mean its not natural circulation. It only becomes unnatural when the bill starts moving from cache to cache and is never spent in "the wild".

 

I belive that once the marked bills are deposited into a bank account, and counted, the "damaged" bill is removed from circulation

 

It depends on how marked up it is. A small stamp mark probably won't cause it to be removed. Banks themselves stamp bills. If it's stamped all over then thats a different story.

Edited November 27, 2004 by briansnat

[+IV_Warrior]

The whole purpose of W.G$ is to track -THE NATURAL MOVEMENT OF A DOLLAR BILL

NO, it's to track the site owner's OPINION of the natural circulation of bills.

 

Think about this. I spend a bill I've logged at the local grocery store. Next week, I get that same bill back in change at the local gas station.

 

That's "natural circulation" but WG won't let me log it again.........

[+Ltljon]

I love to find a WG. It plus a few cents buys me something to quinch my thirst after caching & thats usually better than some gadget I've already got or don't need.

 

I don't bother to log them anymore but I do keep 'em in circulation.

[+Cleenjeep & Danger Girl]

Boring. I marked over 50 bills once, and only got hits on two of them. Of those two, one got two "founds" and one only got one before they were both missing, or uncirculated, or never reported again.

 

I have to think it is a colossal waste of time. I found WG before I found geocaching, and GC QUICKLY replaced wheresgeorge. Like, overnight, I decided that wg sucks, and gc is where it is at. Weeks later, placed several caches. They were found quickly, people enjoyed it, and no dollar bills were damaged in the process.

 

I agree with all the above statements about how it doesnt actually track the natural movement of bills as well.

[+wv-yen]

I found out about Geocaching from a link on the WG site and I still do mark some of my bills, and check the site. I agree that it is "their definition" of "natural circulation". There was a recient post with a topic how many marked bills to spend in one transaction. Everyone basically said don't pay with a whole handful of marked ones - this is not natural circulation. I work in a tavern, I get tipped with ones, if I need to stop at the grogery store on the way home for 19 dollars worth of stuff, guess what?........they are going to get 19 ones (marked or otherwise) For me this is natural circulation. If I find a WG in a cache I would trade for it and log it- -unless I needed to spend it between there and home. It's money first and a game second.

[+clearpath]

I logged on the the WG website once and decided it wasn't for me. I barely have time to geocache ... let alone find out who spent my dollar at the gas station.

[+mayprod]

For me, getting a wheresgeorge, it was fun for me to see where it had come from. I never went as "deep" as thinking about "natural circulation", perhaps I'm not as cerebral as I thought! I didn't treat it as a travel bug, never thought to do that either! If I found one in the course of the day, I logged and placed it. If I found one in a geocache, I eagerly looked it up to discover it's travels, logged it and spent it. I've been surprised at the reactions here! I think Jeff (my geocaching brother-in-law in Illinois) and I just are curious people at heart. We aren't going to launch a hundred bills, we just think it's neat to see where is has come from and pass it along. Wow, bad swag? Seeing so many dirty golf balls, used chap stick, and 5 cent plastic spiders... I think that's a little strong!

[+Colorado Cacher]

Hmm I bet these guys at WG are hating me then. I have superglued two of them into containers and use them as TB's as well, they get tracked twice that way and have tons of miles. http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=18927

[Jeremy]

Hmm I bet these guys at WG are hating me then. I have superglued two of them into containers and use them as TB's as well, they get tracked twice that way and have tons of miles. http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=18927

This is one reason. The other reason was that dollar bills logged into WG were constantly showing up on the most traveled bills page, and it was probably a pain in the butt to drop them off the list (since they were being "helped" too much).

 

I can understand the complaint. The goal is to see how bills travel as naturally as possible. Obviously it won't be completely natural but you take what you can get. The owner of the site probably thought the activity was being abusive.

 

I have some empathy of the position they hold.

 

It is an interesting concept but the idea of tracking bills wouldn't hold my attention long.

[+mayprod]

Hmm I bet these guys at WG are hating me then. I have superglued two of them into containers and use them as TB's as well, they get tracked twice that way and have tons of miles.

OK, there are many who obviously don't appreciate that but I do! I think it's a great idea! Double logging! I see WheresGeorge's point but I still think it was a clever idea by Keypersn. I don't feel the need to "rate" or "overthink" WheresGeorge. Just like I really don't care if someone says "Geocaching sounds boring to me". It just is and geez, can't a person just simply enjoy seeing where a bill has been!?!