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(Some advice to help you and others … I’m not mad … if I sound mad, I’m not … just trying to fix a problem)
To those of you that are new to geocaching … please understand that it’s important to QUICKLY log a Travel Bug if you take it or if you leave it. If you wait, you’re messing up the move of the Travel Bug for other people. This INCLUDES (especially) those that are into the “odd sport” of “find and release” (ie. you just record the Travel Bug number to log the find and then drop, but don’t actually take it).
Example of the problem: This past Sunday I dropped a Travel Bug in a cache, that I’ve had in my hands for about a week. I went home to log the “drop”, to find that someone just used the TB number that they must have wrote down to electronically grab it away from me, from a “new geocacher training” event where they saw it TWO WHOLE WEEKS EARLIER! The problem is, since I physically placed the TB in a cache, I no longer know what the code number is to grab it back … so now the TB seems to be in one part of the State when it’s really in another. In the last 2 days, this has now happened twice with the same TB, with 2 new geocachers (signed up on the system yesterday), that seem to have attended the same “new cacher” event.
#1 Waiting two weeks to log a Travel Bug entry, is NEVER right. If you’re not going to log it in a day or two, then leave it alone. (If you’re on vacation that might be the only exception, but log it ASAP on your return or find a library computer on your trip).
#2 It’s not really nice to grab a TB when it’s logged in another geocachers hands. If you must, then immediately email them the TB code number. (I’m guilty of doing this once myself, and I will NEVER do it again … at the time I thought it was possible to “put it back” into their hands, but there is no way of doing this, so you’re stuck dropping it in a cache, which messes everything up.)
#3 Think about what that benefit of “find and release” is, because I don’t really see one. It doesn’t count on your “score” of caches found, at it only confuses the log history of the TB’s travel.
[This message has been edited by EnergySaver (edited 05-10-2005).]
I agree with everything EnergySaver said as I have also been on the receiving end of some of these problems. However, one thing I make sure to do now – I write down the 6 digit number of every TB I move, so when stuff like this happens, I can refer to it and remedy the problem.
The catch-and-release thing…it runs up your TB stats and that’s important to some people, others don’t care. Whatever. I just think it’s kinda rude to *grab* a TB you saw at an event from the hands of the person who actually took it. If it’s no longer listed on the event page, then the catch and release should stop. My .02.
Team LightningBugs
* * * * * * * * * *I too have started keeping TB numbers, as of this past weekend.
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