Ground State

I am really glad you posted this, 'the Herd'. I was thinking EXACTLY the same thing when I read the article but never got around to doing it. I am a bit sad that this thread has not shown any activity, but you never know.

Is there a way I can go about checking with Groundspeak as to whether a cache location is suitable (or whether it violates private property rules according to their mapping software) without actually trying to list a profile for such a cache? I want to place a cache at N 43° 06.616 W 079° 11.952 (check it out on Google Earth) which is an old, abandoned breakwall with various doorways and passages leading in and out. I assume this is part of the St. Lawrence Seaway Authority, but there are all kinds of caches on their property. Will this immediately be denied because the nature of the location isn't, say, in the middle of a forest?

I live in Niagara Falls, Ontario and cannot place a cache inside of one of the rocky caverns in the Niagara Gorge because permission must be granted by the Niagara Parks Commission, and they denied it on grounds that it was unsafe to the geocacher. I believe that many cachers would be excited about the spelunking aspect! If I was to switch to the U.S. side of the gorge, can I place without permission? Or -- is there an equivalent governing body that must grant written permission to Groundspeak first as well?

I want to make a series of 8 geocaches that visit various locations of special interest in a multi-city region. All 8 will have a clue to a 9th BONUS cache, but again in a totally different area of the region. I do not want to register this as a multicache because all 8 are individuals. Nor do I want to list this as a puzzle cache. My question then is; how do I go about registering the 9th bonus cache so that it will be accepted, without actually entering it as a cache on its own (since I don't want the coordinates, position, etc.) to be displayed? Do I enter it as a "hidden waypoint" on all 8 of the other cache pages? If this is normally acceptable, will I not run in to problems with this one because it may be so far away from any of the other caches in the series? My intention is not to make a multicache series that could be done in an afternoon -- I want this one to take many weeks -- perhaps even a whole "geocaching season", where there is a bonus cache waiting for anyone who puts the time and effort into doing all 8. My issue therefore isn't really "how" to do it, but rather, how must it be entered for Groundspeak to accept it?

I've finally resorted to posting a message after not being able to find too much information about the perks of membership. Specifically, I am most interested in the "member only caches" descriptor. Can someone elaborate on this? Are "member only" caches.... better? Most of the caches I have been to in the last few weeks have contained items for small children, and I was wondering if member caches have a more "elite" theme and stricter rules governing what can be traded. Do member-only caches show up on the regular geocaching.com search map once you are registered? Any other information about what makes member-only caches "better" would be appreciated.