Geocampers

We are somewhat new to geocaching but I felt I had to comment on this topic. While visiting the forums I recognized the name team TH&G as I had just received notification in my email that they had found my travel bug this past weekend. They came into possession of the bug at some sort of a travel bug swap in Utah over the weekend. I also received notification from a dozen other cachers that they also "held in their hands" the same bug, and they then logged it. They then pass it on to someone else, but the log it just the same. It's not too difficult to get in the 500 club at that rate. Personally, I prefer to find them myself.

As a relatively new cacher (we just started this past May) I guess I wasn't aware of the politics involved with placing a virtual cache. I just spent the past two weeks trying to get a virtual cache approved. My first submission was somehow "lost" so after a week I resubmitted it. I then received a response from the duplicate submission, stating the approver needed more info to approve. I provided reasons why this was a "worthy" virtual, TWICE, and both emails were left unanswered. I then REsubmitted the cache for the second time, with additional information about the uniqueness of the spot, only to be denied. This spot was historic, unique, weird, and something that most people have never seen in their life. I suppose I could accept their decision to deny easier if I had not just done a virtual that was in a city park where we had to walk over a bridge and count the trees that were there! It then occurred to me to check all the virtuals in my area. I checked the first 10 pages that came up with my zip-code match. All but one of the virutals was placed by a premium or charter member. Being somewhat new, we have not joined as premium members yet, but now I'm beginning to wonder if we HAD been premium members when we submitted this virtual cache if it would have been approved. Any ideas on this?