wwbd

I am getting hammered by messages in the message center right now. It appears others are too because people are replying to them. I turned off the setting to receive email notifications from the message center and logged out of the official app on my phone.

yes. If you're at all worried, the latest version of the script has a configuration button, so you can turn Google Maps off again! No! I just want to make sure we aren't causing Groundspeak any grief. I understand their business decision but clearly there is another way to approach this and Google Maps are superior overall to the other maps.

yes. Thanks! This is a great script and enhancement. It's also very cool to be able to switch thru all the maps pretty easily because each one sometimes gives different details.

So when we use this script is the "hit" coming from our individual machines when we use Google Maps and not coming from the geocaching.com servers? I'm not sure if that is the right way to phrase it but I want to be assured that this is not causing Groundspeak any grief which might affect everyone negatively.

Thanks but I don't think there is any money in this! Also, it is trackable via its copy, which is a picture keychain attached to a travel bug tag.

This is great! Thanks! You don't have to zoom so much to get street names on the Ordinance Survey maps and there is less clutter than the OpenStreet map so it's easier to see the cache icons.

Thanks for the kind words! I like it better too. I thought the compass rose was a nice addition.

I started a new thread for the new version

Hi, I just wanted to show everyone the redo of the guitar I painted with the geocaching.com logo. I call it a Geotar and it is trackable via its copy, which is a picture keychain attached to a travel bug tag. The label inside the sound hole uses the trackable number as the guitar's serial number. I originally paid $4 at a thrift store for this guitar. It was painted pink, had two strings & blue marker scribbled all over it. I made some minor repairs and got the idea of painting it with a geocaching theme. It was my friend and fellow geocacher MWFF that suggested I make the guitar trackable. Some of you may know from this thread that the original design was frowned upon by Groundspeak since I altered the logo too much. I want to make it clear that the folks at Groundspeak were very nice and gracious. There was no nasty cease and desist e-mail or anything like that. I just wanted to be within the rules that I should have followed to begin with and didn't feel right releasing a trackable knowing it violated the Groundspeak copyright. So, I mocked up a new design which was approved and redid the top part. I sent them a link to a photo gallery today and the final verison was given their blessing. Here is the link to the photo gallery with the original guitar and all the various stages including one pic of the unapproved version. The project was done with about $40 of sandpaper, spray paint, primer, masking tape, lacquer and some Sharpies over the course of a couple of months from the beginning to the first version to the completion of the second final version. Oh and the Geotar itself plays pretty well too and makes a nice little conversation piece.

this one will be better anyway. i think I'm going to do a compass rose design around the sound hole. Public domain of course! ;-)

I really wanted to have a trackable based on this so I thought about it some more and submitted a picture mockup modification based on their suggestions and recieved the following approval from Groundspeak: This design would receive full permission to use the logo on this guitar. If you use the design submitted with this email you have permission to use the logo as you described. Thank you for working with us on this. Essentially I can keep the colors as is on the sides and back but the top will need to be re-done to comply with the copyright agreement. I'll repost a picture when completed which will likely be after the holidays.

I'm still considering ways to make it pleasing to the folks at geocaching.com but it's not going to happen over the next couple of weeks or anything. I may just sand off the top, paint that surface a different color (perhaps white, keep the colors on the sides and display their logo in it's entirety on the front on the large area near the bridge. The time consuming process before was all the masking and drying for all the colors. Based on the e-mail I got that would make it acceptable but I'll run a Photoshop version by them first like they asked. I want to emphasize that the denial response was cordial and friendly as could be and offered suggestions. It was nothing like a cease and desist order or anything like that.

No, I will keep the guitar as is at least for the foreseeable future but I will use the trackable number for something else.

I don't want to post the whole e-mail here but aside from it not saying "geocaching.com" and not having the circle R trademark, and moving the flag which are all doable modifications, the biggest reason cited for denial was that I was not using the entire logo. They suggested that I use the entire logo in one part of the guitar and paint the rest something else. That would really mean starting all over. I'm not a performer so it's not like the guitar would be seen by the general public anyway.

ok, so I was just officially denied use of the logo in the way I am using it. They offered suggestions on how to make it acceptable but it would be a lot of work to be honest. I'll use the travel bug number for something else and take the link down to the photo gallery. They didn't ask me to take the link down but I'd rather just do that myself. If a mod wants to remove the picture in my original post they can do that as it looks like I can't edit that post now. As far as the guitar itself, it looks like I'll have a nice little conversation piece.

I certainly don't feel as if I am exploiting the logo which is what the copyright agreement talks about in other parts and I understand their desire to protect altering that design for others use, commercial or non-commercial. You can go a Google search for "geocaching.com logo" and see all sorts of heavy modifications of the logo being used in different ways. That doesn't excuse my slight modification in a "well everyone is doing it so why can't I" kind of way but, I feel my intentions are good and the clause says you CAN get permission to modify it. It's also possible that some of those other modifications were given the official OK. I know I did it backwards but that it was I am waiting to hear back on.

Like I said in my original post, usually i just tell the person the truth if asked. I've even walked over and told someone I thought might be a little concerned about my activities. The closest I've personally ever come to misrepresenting myself is just saying "it's a scavenger hunt". This guy used a poor choice of words to quiz me and it just threw me off so I just clammed up and decided to leave.

Its a darned good thing he didn't also know that you are an evil copyright violator!!! Watch while GC send round a swat team to blow up the geotar! lol, no kidding!

I should have placed after my because at the end of the day, I seriously don't have a thought one way or the other. I regret bringing up you-know-what. I don't blame you. I have a feeling that if I never said I rotated the flag a bit no one would have even noticed. I just want to make sure my trackable keychain is going to be ok as is but if not I have some other ideas. I'd still like to have an official ok if possible no matter what.

Further down in the copyright agreement it states: "The user shall not copy, reverse engineer, translate, port, modify or make derivative works of the Groundspeak Geocaching logos without express written permission from Groundspeak. All Groundspeak Geocaching logos are to be used "as they appear" and are not to be cut up or resized or altered without express written permission of Groundspeak." I feel my use of the logo is at least being used in the words of the copyright agreement, with good intent and not violating the integrity or being detrimental to Geocaching or exploiting the logo, etc. So with that being said and wanting to be a good geocacher citzen, I have an e-mail out to the folks at Groundspeak to get an official response from them and hopefully get that "express written permission" retroactively and if not...well I dunno maybe I could alter the travel bug at least. I don't see how it's possible to make the guitar (which is technically the copy) compliant without some part of the logo being obscured by part of the guitar.

yeah you are probably right about him thinking I was part of a demo crew or something. His demeanor was just so odd and he had such a poor choice of words.

In retrospect I guess I was going with the "do not interact with the suspected crazy person and they will go away" method. I was trying to size him wondering if he was another geocacher messing with me. I just don't think this was the case.

Like many geocachers I have from time to time been approached by a civilian muggle, a security person or police officer who asked what I was doing. Every single time I just tell them about geocaching and they either reply with some interest or say they have heard of it and wish me luck or whatever. Except this time… The other day I stopped at a geocache that was next to a popular chain restaurant. The restaurant is attached to a former movie theatre that has been mostly demolished except for the steel beams etc. There is a construction fence around that part. When I pulled up I was really hoping that the geocache wasn’t in view of any of the windows. It wasn’t, but there was some traffic where the cache was because that part faced the parking lot where a mall is. I paced around the area with my GPS for maybe 2 minutes wondering where the likely location would be before going into any landscaping etc when a car pulls up and this man rolls down the window and said he saw me looking around and asked if I was planning on blowing the building up. Well that startled me a bit and I looked right at him to see if I could determine if he was kidding or if he was security or an employee. As near as I could tell he was just some random older man, not an employee or security, etc. and he did not appear to be kidding. Before I could reply, he repeated his observation and continued to stare at me. I told him that I definitely wasn’t doing anything like that and at that point I kind of looked back at my GPS as if I was not interested in him. Then he starts pulling forward and says “well I’m going to go in and eat my dinner…unless you blow the place up”…all I could manage to reply with was a chuckle and “I wouldn’t worry about that!”. Of course now I am picturing the guy going in and telling the manager about this and then being surrounded by cops or something so I left before that could happen. In hindsight I wish I just managed to tell him about geocaching but his initial accusation just threw me off especially since I practically just got there! Why would someone jump to a bizarre conclusion like this?

If "you know what" might be a reference to copyright on the logo, this is for my own personal use and not for sale so it falls under the non-commercial use clause here but I guess I did modify it ever so slightly. Even better! Well now I am intrigued, is this not the "you know what" you were referring to?

If "you know what" might be a reference to copyright on the logo, this is for my own personal use and not for sale so it falls under the non-commercial use clause here but I guess I did modify it ever so slightly.