New caches on Opencaching.us

[CodeJunkie]

I agree with BakRdz (almost). My opinion is more about “Differentiation” than pain / gain. That’s a gray area because the differentiation is normally a result of pain / gain. But yes I agree it mostly GC.com reinvented. A few additions (I like the inline HTML editor), a few things missing, but basically McDonalds vs. Burger King or Coke vs. Pepsi from my perspective.

Virtuals? Well that’s easy – Waymarking.com (a Groundspeak project) is the replacement for virtuals, so I think this avenue is covered also.

I did give it a whirl only because I was curious to see if it had anything compelling for me. I’m planning to stick with GC.com but will certainly keep an eye on this to see how it develops. It appears well established oversees, so maybe there’s something we’re just not seeing yet.

[BakRdz]

Oh yeah, I forgot about Waymarking. Been meaning to look more into more, but that’s a good example of here is a site that offers a service I’m interested in and yet I still haven’t made a change to my habits.

[RVRoadTrip]

On Opencaching.us, there are guidelines for placing caches… it is contained in the Wiki. It states where you should or should not place caches, what should and should not be in them, etc, etc. But as with rules on most other places… who reads them, right? 🙂

One bonus on Opencaching.us is that YOU have the option to rate the cache, comment on the cache and to report the cache if it violates a “rule”. I would much rather have the geocaching community judge the cache rather than a paid employee who may or may not even geocache. Anyone can say anything when submitting a cache but peer review is very hard to get around when someone has actually been to the cache. A poorly placed cache will get flagged and action taken as necessary. I was geocaching yesterday and saw several on GC.com that no longer existed in real life AND had been clearly stated on GC.com yet they still showed up in queries months later.

This site is part of the Opencaching Open Source Project. A lot of people wrote the code and maintain the code and the various Opencaching.xx sites around the world. It’s not really just 2 people when you look at the big picture, just 2 “visible” people at the US site. The data (just like the data on GC.com) came from YOU and we feel it belongs to you. Should you have to pay for what is already yours? We don’t think so.

My objective in starting the site is simply to provide a free alternative to GC.com. To have a free site with the features geocachers have asked for and using generally accepted principles. Is it perfect? Certainly not but I want to do the very best I can. Will it please everyone? Not a chance, but I knew that going in. 😉

Hope that addressed most of the issue brought up thus far. Have fun geocaching!

Jerry (RVRoadTrip)
OC US Admin

[Team Black-Cat]

@RVRoadTrip wrote:

I would much rather have the geocaching community judge the cache rather than a paid employee who may or may not even geocache.

You are aware that Groundspeaks volunteer reviewers are volunteers, right? The Wisconsin reviewers are both active cachers. I may be wrong, but I would guess thay both know more about geocaching than the average cacher…

I agree with Captain and Mate’s comment. Not having a listing reviewed BEFORE it is posted can cause some serious problems for geocaching in general and not just your site and users.

@RVRoadTrip wrote:

But as with rules on most other places… who reads them, right?

I have absolutly no comment…

The views expressed in any post by me are mine and mine alone, and may or may not reflect the views of the WGA board of directors.

[CodeJunkie]

@RVRoadTrip wrote:

But as with rules on most other places… who reads them, right? 🙂

I generally read them, unless they’re similar to what Apple gave me for the iTunes store today which was 55 screens worth of legal crap. I didn’t read it but clicked “Accept” blindly.

[Author]

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