I was on the board when these changes were made to the COTM program for exactly the reasons already mentioned. I might be the minority here, but I think putting the effort into any kind of COTM program is not as useful now with favorite points. I know back in the day we’d look at COTM lists when heading somewhere to help decide which caches to seek. Now on those rare times we can go anywhere, we just sort the favorites. Since this website isn’t always as up to date as it once was, that has also been a better way for us to find these caches.
I do like the idea of photos, though. That was another thing we’d use in trying to decide what to visit….photos in the galleries for caches. With social media, far fewer of those are being posted to the cache logs. Scenery is a big part of why we cache, so seeing the scenery helped in that regard.
This is my other thought about anything that might be done. For some strange reason, caching has become a series of odd little competitions. The statistics sites, I believe, helped drive all that competition. Maybe instead of trying to make it a “prize,” just allow photos to be posted with links to the cache involved. People can “like” if they wish, but more importantly, people would have a place to come to see what’s out there to find.
