Drive-in

This is getting out of control. The talk about pay to play, the *****ing and moaning about how evil geocaching is becasue it is so bad for the environment . . . Regarding Pay to play: Why not just make the entire site pay based. Why have any free low class "Public caches" anyway. After all, they are just going to get plundered right? Why would I want to place any "public caches?" I would rather have my caches ALL listed as "MEMBERS ONLY" And by the way, what is going to happen when most all of the new caches placed are "MEMBERS ONLY??" I think Bunkerdave said it best when he remarked: "Personally, I think not placing any caches is a greater violation of caching etiquette than not buying a subscription. By far." Well, you know what? I am willing to bet that there are many people who will not want to place "PUBLIC" caches when they can have them listed as "MEMBERS ONLY" caches. I am also willing to bet that the number of newly placed caches may well start to fall if you have to pay to play. How long before someone else comes along and does it better, or cheaper? How long before those other sites siphon enough users to kill or neuter geocaching.com? Regards, Wesley Horton

Well, I am glad to see everyone is so gungho about paying to play. What amazes me on this and simular threads is the number of people who posted opinions who are people we have never heard of . . .Where are the old regulars? How does "Shel" who has only one post know that $50,000 is or is not enough to purchase and run the site? Stop and think about what is going to start happening people . . .When others see that Geocaching.com is charging $30 a pop to become "Charter members" other sites are going to start poping up. Geocaching will fragment. remember the dot.com problems of not that long ago? How many are not around today? Why would anyone want to post a plain old "public cache" anymore anyway? After all, didn't someone say that a pay service would almost eliminate plundering of caches??. . . Do you really think that in a year, when most new cache placers are listing as "members only" caches and the "public" caches start going down hill, that new people are going to want to throw down $30.00 just to get the information to try geocaching? Sorry, people, I don't see much good coming out of this. I know that there are several of you that think this is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Maybe it is. If I can get a listing of all the people who have looked at my "members only" caches to ensure that they are not being plundered, it might be worth it. Do I think this will stop or slow plundering? Not for a moment.