What if there were an "un-PMO" selection, where Premium Members may mark their caches "Intro-Friendly"? I've often wondered about new cachers just starting the App today, and how their option is to find some gross pill bottle among trash. Their first impression of Geocaching is an unmaintained throw-down. My first cache was an ammo box in the woods. That was cool!
But if your cache is not deemed suitable for new finders, what went wrong? Is the difficulty too high? Are there too many problems with the hide?
It would be tough to make a great variety of Intro Caches designed to be found by App users, but it would be cool to try. The caches would need to be especially well-maintained, so that they don't get removed from the App. Various things cause that.
I rated the caches as "2" difficulties because they are a little tricky - nanos and micros. But the point is that I wanted to make them findable to all basic (non-paying) cachers, not just the Premium members. Basic membership used to (not sure if it still does) include some more advanced cachers than just newbies.
I want Groundspeak to leave it up to the COs whether they want their caches to be visible to basic, non-paying members. Perhaps the default would be "Premium Members Only", and the CO would have to actively select to make their cache - whatever the difficulty - be for non-Premium members. Or they could say that for every x number of PMO caches, you can make one at any level open to non-Premium cachers.
This whole episode, from the unwanted (for me, at least) clustering "improvement" to the app, to the way Groundspeak is monetizing the hobby, leaves a very bad taste in my mouth.