A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

geocaching traveler

The geocaching social media experiment: The traveling coin

In May, I set out on a social experiment.

For those of you who know about geocaching, you know there are trackables. Trackables can be moved or discovered. Personal geocoins — that is, ones people own and don’t set out to move around — are often discovered at events or some other place.

Discovery is interesting because people often do it to collect the icons that come with many coins. Basically, if you look at somebody’s profile on geocaching.com, you can see how many coins they’ve discovered and/or moved along. You also see, for coins and select trackables, the icons that go with the item.

A look at some trackables on my profile page.

It’s actually kind of cool.

I still discover trackables and, if I see some in a cache, I grab them and move them. I don’t worry about icons, but I do like to know I’ve moved a lot of trackables. I own many and I like them to be traveling.

Coins are a little trickier than items such as travel bugs. Why? Because they are more collectible. When one sets out the actual coin, they will eventually go missing. The more than likely reason for that is because it’s a coin somebody wants to have and decides to steal it.

Crappy? Yes, of course. But it happens.

I have a lot of personal coins. I don’t let them out because they were way too expensive to just let go and eventually disappear. I’ve seen coins get put out and by the time the cache is found next, they are gone. Such a shame.

That being said, I like to see things travel. Therefore, I’ve been releasing proxy travelers. Basically, it’s taking the trackable number and attaching it to something else to let it move along. Sure, it’s not the actual coin. But at least it’s moving around (hopefully), picking up miles and being seen. I also attempt to attach the proxy to something somewhat cool, thus making it not too bad to move along.

Back to the social media experiment.

It’s usually frowned upon to send a coin out in virtual land. I didn’t know what could happen if I did it, but I wondered what would happen if I put a photo of my coin on a social media site. I opened by putting the front of the coin out on Instagram (and having it also publish to Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr), and followed that up by putting the back side of the coin out there. The back is where the tracking number is.

When I posted the back photo, I kept it simple. This is the tweet, but it’s what went across all platforms as well:

Then it was time to wait and see what happened.

It didn’t take long before things started churning. Discoveries of the coin started coming in, including a lot from Canada. That is something I attribute to caching friend Lloyd, an Ontario-based cacher who shared the post on a few Canadian geocaching Facebook groups.

But Canada wasn’t the only place represented, that’s for sure.

The thing about social media is this — when things start to take off, it can go in several directions. I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know if I’d only get a handful of discoveries or a thousand. Maybe somebody might try to virtually grab it. Maybe people in many countries would discover.

The front of the coin.

Who knew?

But the idea was to let it take a life of its own to see what social media would do.

What I was really hoping for was when people discovered, they would then tell where they found it. Many people kept within the norms of the game and just noted they discovered. A few said they found it online. But many also posted what social media platform it was discovered on, which is what I really wanted to know.

Now that things have seemed to slow down — even with a recent attempt to see what else would happen by sharing the link on a few social media sites again — I’m ready to take a peek at the results and see how it went.

Let’s remember that these numbers aren’t perfect because I did them by hand and such. Nothing is scientific by any means, more about some curiosity I had.

In the end, there were 89 logs on the coin, not including a couple by me — when the coin was grabbed by somebody (likely accidental) and grabbed back by me!

Here are some numbers to chew on a little.

Those who discovered, and where:

  • Not mentioned: 35
  • Facebook: 26
  • Instagram: 23
  • Tumblr: 4
  • Twitter: 1

Of the not-mentioned ones, one seemed to be Facebook and one seemed to be Instagram. However, without it being spelled out, I decided to leave them in the not-mentioned group.

The thing I thought was coolest was the breakdown of countries. If a person didn’t have their home country mentioned in their profile, I went based on where the bulk of their placed geocaches were, or if no placed, I went through several pages of finds to make sure they seemed to be at their home base.

With that in mind, there were 14 countries represented, which is really quite cool. The top country was Canada, to which I attribute that to geocaching friend Lloyd, a Canadian who posted it on several Facebook groups in his country.

The breakdown is as follows:

  • Canada: 31
  • United States: 25
  • Germany: 8
  • Czech Republic: 4*
  • Denmark: 4*
  • Norway: 3
  • Netherlands: 2
  • Sweden: 2
  • Switzerland: 2*
  • Qatar: 1
  • Austria: 1
  • Portugal: 1
  • Italy: 1
  • United Kingdom: 1

Finally, of the numbers, I originally posted it on Instagram and then had it attach to my other social media profiles. From there, I figured it would take on a life of its own, which it somewhat did.

So how many likes did each side of the coin get on Instagram?

  • Front: 13
  • Back: 21

To end this, let’s check in on a couple of comments and see what people were saying.

One of the early people said:

A beautiful Geocoin, and one I have not seen before, wish the NYGO website was still around. Spotted virtually!

Somebody else likes the idea:

Hi, I discovered your coin on a Facebook site. What a neat idea!

Not that there was a test, but thanks for helping with the experiment!

Discovered on Instagram. Did I pass the test? 🙂

I truly do appreciate those who helped with this experiment:

Participating in your experiment. Thanks for sharing!

Keep the secret alive!

My buddy Binrat showed me this one. Where? Secret…

And…

Discovered in a secret place. Thanks for sharing

Hopefully you are reading this now!

Interested in reading about this experiment on your blog.

Finally, one of my favorite logs came with this as a signature, so I wanted to share it:




















That’s pretty neat, right?

Anyway, to sum this all up, I think this was a fun and cool experiment. I’m not sure if I would do it again because I am more about letting people see and discover my coins, but as technology develops and continues to get better, I wanted to see how it went. I ended up being quite happy with the results and thought it was interesting to see comments, whether on the trackable page, through social media or wherever else.

I’d like to thank all who participated in this experiment. Without that help, it would have flopped from the start!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Geocaching 101: Trackables

The Travel Bug is a popular traveler inside the geocaching game. (photo courtesy Martyn Wright via Flickr)

Not too long ago, I did a Geocaching 101 blog post for people who had asked for more information about the game.

I wanted to expand on that post with a few others about the game in hopes of giving new geocachers a place to see everything in the eyes of someone other than Groundspeak.

This edition of the 101 is about trackables, which is basically a game within the game of geocaching.

The basic definition of trackables is an item — either a travel bug, geocoin or other traveler — that has a unique number on it. That number is connected to the geocaching.com website. When a geocacher picks it up, he or she logs that they picked it up and will move it along soon. When that geocacher drops it off, they put it in a geocache and then when they log that cache as found, there’s an option to drop the traveler, too.

The traveler can be one of several things, so let’s go over each.

Travelers

The Travel Bug: The most popular is probably the official Groundspeak travel bug. The travel bug is a basic dog tag, attached to a small chain. That chain and dog tag can be sent out on its own, or it can be attached to something. It can be attached to anything — toy cars, key chains, sporting things, homemade crafts — whatever. Just remember that it needs to fit in a cache. Some items might be difficult to place, unless it’s a bigger cache. So keep all that in mind when sending a travel bug out or moving one along. The bonus about travel bugs is that they come with two tags — one to send out with your item and the other as a backup, just in case your traveler goes missing.

Geocoins are sought after, but come up missing more than most items.

Geocoins: Geocoins are more expensive, but more sought after. Geocoins are made by someone and resemble actual coins. They are metal and can differ in sizes. Most are designed and have a limited number made. Coins can range from $5 to more than $20, depending on the coin, its availability and if it’s even in production anymore. Because of their price, geocoins are often purchased new by collectors and never released into the wild. They are collected and the collector often lets other cachers check them out so they can be discovered instead of being moved.

Other travelers: In recent years, companies have come up with things that are basically in the middle of Travel Bugs and geocoins. They are usually the thinness of the Travel Bugs, but are more custom looking, such as in the shape of animals or something else. However, these come one to a package, so if they come up missing, you don’t have a backup. Some companies have, however, surfaced that offer a low-cost replacement for your missing trackable, should it happen.

How you can participate

First, let me give a little dose of reality when it comes to travelers — they don’t always survive. I placed one on my trip to Ireland last year and it disappeared before it ever left the cache I dropped it in. The reality is that people steal travelers (more likely coins than Travel Bugs) to add to their own personal collection. It’s sad, but true.

However, coins and travel bugs can still be found.

If you find them, don’t worry about what a cache description says (many will say to take a trackable, you need to leave one. Don’t believe it. A cache owner has no say over the travel bug. None whatsoever.) If you can help a traveler on it’s mission, take it and move it to another cache. If you can’t, feel free to discover it, which lets the owner know the trackable is still there and in the wild.

The rule of thumb is you should move it within two weeks. Alas, real life gets in the way. And with more and more micros being hidden, sometimes cache size makes it hard to move trackables. So just try and move it within a reasonable time and all should be OK.

When I grab a traveler, I love looking through the history to see where it’s been and see if anyone has added photos. A traveler can really have a history and can be fun to see what it’s done.

For example, I have one I placed in my father’s memory a few years back. It’s traveled more than 17,000 miles and has visited several states and has even been in Iraq.

A traveler page can really show a lot of things.

How to start one

My first time caching, I picked up a geocoin. I didn’t know much about it, but I did a search and learned about it. I realized I was supposed to move the coin within two weeks or so of picking it up. I found what I thought was the perfect cache and let it go back into the wild. For a while, I “watched” the coin as it moved all over. After a while, I didn’t want to watch it anymore. I wanted to set loose one of my own.

So I did.

And I’ve done it many times since.

It’s easy to set one out. Just buy a traveler (which you can do on the Geocaching.com website or buy from many, many geocaching online stores), attach it to something and place it in a cache. Then wait. Sometimes travelers will take a while before they move. Sometimes it will seem like it will never move.

Sometimes they disappear.

But don’t give up hope. There are stories of travelers that seemingly disappeared years ago and resurface.

My 2010 pathtag.

Other “Travelers”

Though not really travelers, Pathtags often get confused as travelers because of their number on the back. Pathtags, however, are signature items. People can register them on the Pathtags website. Pathtags look like small geocoins and are quite detailed. But in the end, they are normal swag one can trade for and keep. People do, however, place them back in caches for others to eventually find.

People also have signature items, which can range from wood coins, to pencils, to custom-made items to many other things. These, too, are swag items and are not travelers, unless of course they are attached to a travel bug or coin!

Final thoughts

Travelers are a great aspect to the game of geocaching. It gives people the chance to travel through something they have set out into the world. Many of these travelers have goals — to reach a different place, to see something, to get to another geocacher or something else. Others just have the goal of traveling.

When you pick them up, do your best to move them along as soon as you can. People love seeing their travelers move often! And when you send them out, have fun with them and realize these things can — and will — disappear. It’s an unfortunate part of the game. When you release them, you’ll likely never see them again, so try not to attach anything valuable. Have fun and see a different side of the game!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!