Bryan

Except that it will be archived, and in fact this has happened already. As has been linked to repeatedly in this thread - if someone were to happen to post an needs maintenance on a cache which is just fine, it will be archived if the owner does not respond. Even if the physical cache is fine. Michael did not 'miss' any logs on the cache which was archived. Groundspeak wants all their caches to have active owners, and they will in fact archive them if the owner does not respond to emails. As someone mentioned in the other thread, they feel "a cache without an active owner still needs maintenance - it needs an owner". The archival of the above referenced cache occured prior to the publication of this 'Adoption Policy Update'. Going forward, since the cache maintenance was done, I believe that the outcome would be different. This is a perfect example of an issue that we are trying to address with the policy update.

Thanks for posing the question Mandy. I believe that Deceangi's post here provides a fair and accurate explanation (my quoted double-negative typo notwithstanding). We really appreciate the efforts of Lactodorum and Eckington on behalf of the geocaching community and also appreciate the fact that they did not skewer Groundspeak in their departing posts. We are continuing to move forward in a manner that we feel best serves the global geocaching community and we completely trust and respect the fact that they are doing the same. While it is truly regrettable that we were not able to collectively move past this issue, we are genuinely looking forward to their future contributions to geocaching and the geocaching community. We have now put in place an interim solution for cache reviewing assistance until new reviewers/moderators can be identified. Unfortunately, we do not plan to issue any further comments or explanations regarding this issue.

Is it also going to be Groundspeak's policy to archive caches with no active owner? Generally, if someone reports that a cache needs maintenance and then someone from the community reports that the maintenance has been completed, I believe that it is well within the volunteer reviewer's discretion to remove the needs maintenance attribute. That said, there are a variety of other reasons why the cache owner would need to be involved in active maintenance of the cache (land permit renewals, for example) and if the cache owner is unable to perform those functions, then I believe that it would be proper, and within the discretion of the volunteer reviewer, to archive the cache. Note that this is being written with a view towards providing discretion to the reviewers so that they can best handle the wide variety of cache maintenance related issues. But, it does not stand to say that because a cache needs maintenance and the owner is absent that it 'must' be archived.

In order to be consistent with Groundspeak's geocache ownership policy*, Groundspeak will no longer be supporting non-consensual geocache adoptions. All geocache adoptions must be handled using the adoption tool found here: Adopt a Listing *Individual geocaches are owned by the person(s) who physically placed the geocache and/or submitted the geocache listing to geocaching.com.

As of Feb 26, 2008, Groundspeak changed the guidelines for trackable items. Specifically, we removed design consideration #4 which read "All coins must be predominantly two dimensional. We will allow raised design features and different shapes but, generally speaking, they must be flat." We made the change to allow for unique concepts like GeoJems and some others that have been suggested to us over the past couple of years (coming soonish)... At some point, we plan to have a category for generic trackable items (not limited to geocoins, for which there will remain a category) that will contain non-geocoin trackables (like trackable geopins). For the time being, we're handling generic trackables in the same manner as we do geocoins for design approval, coin codes, icons, etc. They can be tracked on geocaching.com but they'll (for now) appear under the geocoin category.

No doubt. The question was more in general because I have seen more and more of these pop up (stickers and stuff not resellers) so was wondering if Groundspeak had developed a position on this. I have also made one for myself which I have in back of my SUV window. The metal tags I keep in the house so there is no multiple use of the number. I figured this would be ok, but after some of the copyright threads I began to wonder. Ah. The numbers themselves would be okay. Any gc.com logo including the TB image would require permission. Geocaching Logo Usage and Trademark Information BlueDeuce is correct. The Travel Bug logo and the word "Travel Bug" are registered trademarks of Groundspeak and may not be used for commercial purposes without permission from Groundspeak. Generally, for these products, we have a commercial logo license agreement that we send to companies or individuals who wish produce and sell these types of products. One there is an Agreement in place, they are official authorized to produce and sell merchandise bearing the logos and will promote their products as being officially licensed. If you are unsure if a product is officially licensed, ask the vendor or send an email to contact@Groundspeak.com and we'd be happy to help. If the vendor says "yes" and you're not sure, email us and we can confirm. For those who would like to use a purchased Travel Bug tracking number (no logos) and include text like "Trackable at Geocaching.com", it would be ok without a commercial license.

I'll ask Bryan for the official statement, but as long as you aren't claiming that your cartridge was created by Groundspeak and you don't sell the cartridge or assert ownership of the image it should be ok. If the images of Signal and the Wherigo logo are (1) used in unmodified form, and (2) are presented in a positive way, and (3) the cartridge includes proper Trademark attribution (see below) , then Groundspeak will permit their non-commercial use in Wherigo cartridges. The attribution language to use is as follows: "Signal the Frog and the Wherigo logo are Trademarks of Groundspeak Inc. Used with Permission. All Rights Reserved." For commercial use of the Wherigo logo or Signal the Frog images, please contact Groundspeak for permission. You can start by emailing me through my profile. Groundspeak reserves the right to remove any images of Signal the Frog or any other Groundspeak trademark, logo, design, etc., that it deems to be inappropriate, in Groundspeak's sole discretion.

According to the internal Groundspeak geocoin records, there are currently two types of "Red Remembrance Poppies Geocoins". We don't have a record of a 'Canadian Red Poppy Spy Geocoin'. If there is an error with the icons, the geocoin manufacturer(s) generally contact me and I can have the issues fixed.

An Update: After consideration of the feedback received thus far, we've decided to remove the new ads from Premium Member cache pages. Although we may test something similar or different in the future, these ads are gone. Thanks.

Since you are someone who has never in thirty years ever purchased something you've seen in a banner advertisement, I can see why you might take it as condescending. It was not condescending. It was, however, directed towards the large number of our other patrons who do consider purchasing something they've seen in a banner ad if it is relevant and if it is something they are interested in purchasing. I believe we've accomplished that to some degree with the left hand banners. During this test, we will continue to 'try' to increase the relevancy and corresponding benefit of these ads from Yahoo!. It may work, it may not. That is why it is a test and that is why we will continue to listen to feedback posted here and elsewhere in our forums. For everyone, please feel free to continue to not click on the ads if they do not interest you and please feel free to become or remain a Premium Member only if there is value in it for you. Based on this test and associated feedback from everyone, we'll decide what to do next. Keep the feedback coming, thanks.

The current End User License Agreement (EULA) for Wherigo prohibits commercial use of the Wherigo software without permission from Groundspeak. It does not specifically prohibit sharing of cartridges, although it does prohibit sharing of the Wherigo software. While we do reserve the right to change the EULA, we have no plans to prohibit non-commercial sharing of cartridges. O Crew, you are welcome to host your Wherigo cartridges on a website you own so long as you are not charging for the cartridges or otherwise generating revenue from the website. WalruZ, you are welcome to email your Wherigo cartridges to a friend.

Thank you all for the feedback. Please keep it coming, seriously.

Our goal with the new ad program is twofold. We are trying to generate revenue in order to improve and maintain the website on an ongoing basis and we are also trying to increase the relevancy of the ads so that they actually provide a benefit to our members. The amount of ads currently displayed is reduced significantly for Premium Members. Based on this test, we're going to figure out out to proceed from here. Thank you for bearing with us.

O Crew, Due to the evolving nature of the platform, it is not possible to host or sell Wherigo cartridges on your own site. This may change in the future but we have not yet reached a final decision on those points yet.

Happy Holidays, Peace and Love to all !!!

You are most welcome. If there are any future issues with ads, please don't hesitate to contact me via my profile.

Thanks for bringing it to our attention. We do have the power to eliminate specific advertisers. I will have this particular one eliminated from our site. Note that it may take a few hours for the ad ban to take effect.

Groundspeak received the following email. With their permission, here is the re-post. If you are interested, please contact Julia using the info below. Personally, I will be looking forward to the episode.

We are distributing 1,500 of the WDD Geocoins to individuals who signed up using the form. The form doesn't disappear after 1,500 submissions because we have to account for duplicate submissions and incomplete addresses. The 1,500 WDD geocoins have been shipped to the first 1,500 complete (non-duplicate) mailing addresses received.

All fixed. They now say "WDD 2007 Commemorative Geocoin"

We've banned the persona2020's user account.

A clarification. The WDD Geocoins are to be placed in caches to move around the world, not kept or added to collections. We've addressed the text contradiction. Thanks for pointing it out.

Here is the landing page for the promotion: http://unite.geocaching.com/

I submitted this to: Contact Wired http://www.wired.com/services/feedback/general "Dear Wired, I have been reading Wired for many years and recently became a yearly subscriber. I am now writing to tell you that I am extremely disappointed with something that you allowed to be printed in your November issue, page 48, entitled: "Be a GPS Prankster" How dare you encourage anyone to mess with a game that brings enjoyment to millions of people around the world. Ironically, Geocaching is probably one of the most 'wired' style activities out there and shares very much the same audience as your magazine. Have you really not noticed? Families with children, students, retirees and many others play this game for fun. Is it really fun to ruin someone else's adventure? Assuming anyone is dumb enough to follow the asinine suggestions in that article and go out and mess with other peoples fun, your article will only result in people like me and my family, who truly appreciate geocaching, Waymarking, and Wired magazine, being disappointed. I agree with the people in the Groundspeak forums, referenced in the link attached. You should be ashamed. Please cancel my subscription immediately. Sincerely, (My Name and Subscription Address)

According to a log posted today, this cache has now been inspected: It sounds like you discovered something other than the geocache. Since the cache is confirmed to be there, you may want to try again to find it. Good luck. Happy Geocacaching!