> As I said, this has gotten me thinking about my involvement 
> in the travel 
> bug game.  Am I doing more harm to the system by not being a 
> responsible 
> player and actually entering logs for bugs and just leaving 
> them in caches 
> when I find them?
> 
> Is the answer to the problems with the travel bug system to 
> make sure that 
> those of us who will log them do?  Does this help to set a 
> good example?

Scott,

I can't imagine how it could be bad to set a good example. 

I've coincidentally come to the conclusion that a big part of the travel
bug "problem" is the way recording their movements has been implemented
on the web site. Other than deleting the entire log, you can't correct
any errors you may make on a TB page. And you only get one chance at
checking that box that says "I retrieved this TB from the such-and-such
cache. If you don't get it right the first time, you're hosed.

If you want a perfect example of how a bug can wind up on the Road to
Perdition, look at "Geoffrey the Ultimate Geocacher" We placed him in
Libby's "A Park with a History". A Neocacher (7 finds) took him, and
wrote in his log that he took him, but never updated the bug's log page.
The next log entries for the TB has someone grabbing the bug from
"Marcos de Niza and Beyond", and bringing it to Tennessee, which was the
TB's goal. And if you read "Big Hank"'s log entries on the bug page and
on the cache page, you come to the conclusion he is a little confused as
well. And Big Hank has 80-something finds!

Presumably, the person who took it from "Park with a History" put it in
"Marcos", but they have yet to log either their find there or the TB
placement. It shouldn't be that hard to record these things, but it is.
And don't get me started about what happens if the sequence of log
entries don't match the chronology of what actually happened, or why you
can't leave a note on a TB without the number.

(And if anyone wants a real TB "Unsolved Mystery", go look at this one:
http://www.geocaching.com/track/track_detail.asp?ID=8085. Now, can you
explain to me how, when I moved that bug from Chandler to Casa Grande,
the system recorded it as moving NORTH?)

I can cite other examples as well, but my guess is that making TB
logging more user-friendly is not exactly at the top of Jeremy's "To Do"
list.

Steve
Team Tierra Buena
"Making Geocaching harder than it ought to be..."