RakeInTheCache

Maybe no one else will say it, and maybe I will get warned/banned/otherwise yelled at for it, but yes, that's EXACTLY what I'm suggesting, because you seem to be one of those people who can't open their mouth without pouring more fuel on a fire. DOZENS of people see this as an utter NON-ISSUE, and fortunately, most of them see that it is YOUR continuous INABILITY to see PAST race and to the sport itself that makes YOU the one with the problem. Good idea. I vote to add an "Ignore racist" button to the forum code ASAP so we don't have to read this crap anymore. You're certainly entitled to your opinion. I still disagree with you.

In the interest of avoiding complacency, I site at least two others - http://www.terracaching.com/ http://www.navicache.com/ Sounds like exclusivity to me ... It is impossible that the photos are randomly uploaded. They must be manually sorted for quality. Interesting suggestion. What does having photos on the home page really add to the sport anyway? Wouldn't we be better off with Geocaching.com spending less of it's time manually sorting photos and more on creating new useful features?

White liberal guilt. It reminds me of when I worked at a university full of PC types. A new theater arts building was capped with an antique weather vane that depicted a Native American. Some of the (white) faculty immediately protested, saying that it was racially insensitive...blah, blah, blah. It became a big issue, and got in the local paper. Some Narragansett indians were on campus one day for completely unrelated reasons, and were shown the weather vane and asked what they thought of it. "Nice weathervane", was the opinion. They had no problem with it. EPILOGUE: The extensive publicity about the valuable antique weathervane resulted in it being stolen. It was eventually recovered from an antique shop. The last time I saw it, it was on display inside the building where it could be protected. I guess the moral of this story is that the group depicted should be asked whether the depiction is offending or not. A desire to see the world through someone elses eyes is not a fault. We have a better word for it, it's called empathy, not guilt.

Are you kidding me? This sport/hobbie seems to me to be completely indepentant of race, religion, what food you like, or what tv programs you watch - that's one of the great things about geocaching. Everyone can play and you will never find a 'whites only' cache on gc.com. The topic is not really about what the sport is, but rather how it can be perceived (or misperceived) by potential newcomers or the general public.

OK, lets say Geocaching.com tries to be "more welcoming" to non whites by putting black faces on the home page photos. Lets go as far as saying that out of the 100 photos (I'm making this number up) that rotate through in a day, they make 99 of them photos of black geocachers. What happens when a non white visits the site at the instant the one photo of whites is swapped in? It would be a conclusion derived over a period of time.

Couple of remarks. The topic is not about many races participating in the sport. It's about the dominance of one race in the sport. My impression is that Geocaching.com would like to thrive, not just survive. In which case the growth of the sport would be necessary. I fail to see the link betweent the topic and "socialist, utopian, crap". Our country was founded on the principle of creating a better world/place for it's people. Wishing to improve the world is an admirable activity. O.K. to clarify. CITO is a concession to help explain/demonstrate to the public who might otherwise be mislead into thinking that the sport was something it wasn't. Posting a diverse racial mix of photos woud also communicate to the public, in a similar manner, that the sport did not promote racial exclusivity. It's a misperception that could be interpreted from the photos. This is not a tangent but has a clear connection to the argument. Are you suggesting I should not be concerned about my hobby? Sorry but I disagree with you.

How many people do you think try geocaching because they stumble on the home page, vs. trying it because they heard about it from someone else? I honestly think the factors that are most likely to cause someone to be attracted to geocaching are: Being already involved in hiking, biking, camping, or other "outdoorsy" sports Being inclined toward high-tech gadgets Being web-savvy Having at least lower-middle class income Not caring too much if your friends think you're a weenie I have no data to support my opinion, but I think that the people that fit this profile are disproportionately white males. By the way--plenty of white males do not match this profile, which is why some of my coworkers snicker when I try to explain geocaching (see bullet #5 above). Well I didn't quite stumble on the page but did hear about the sport from someone who had heard about it in the media. I agree with your profile of the geocacher, however someone who fits the profile might be turned off if they fealt the sport was not inclusive (which could be misunderstood from the lack of diversity in the photos).

Couple of remarks here. If I understand the argument correctly it is that : Forum posters are a representative sample of potential newcomers to Geocaching. Forum posters who are not Caucasian have indicated they do not have a problem with the the photos. Therefore, all non-Caucasian members who might become Geocachers would not have a problem with the photos. This is a fallacy because we have no way to judge whether the forum posters are really representative, and probably are not as we know there are far more Geocachers than forum posters. I think it's more correct to say that some folks who are caucasian have a problem with it. I don't find this remarkable. It only means that some people are able to walk in another's shoes. I believe you're overlooking the fact that some non-Caucasian posters were sensitive to being a minority in an overwhelmingly Caucasian sport.

I'll let you in on a dirty little secret. If I first saw the home page with pictures of only black people (without somehow being influenced by friends or colleagues), I would have made the assumtion that it was a "Black only" activity and browsed on (and I do enjoy Geocaching). If I saw mixed photos, I would not jump to that conclusion. I would wager I'm not too different from most other Caucasian surfers.

Yes I am certain that you are right. I guess my point has more to do with welcoming future potential geocachers to the site. It has to do with the health of the sport as a whole. The more inclusive the sport can be, the larger it can grow and be viewed positively by society as a whole (a bit like the whole CITO thing. I see that also as a way to pursuade the public that Geocaching is not about trashing up the countryside with little plastic boxes, bits of paper, and trinkets)

I'd love to hear the source of the data you used to determine the above statements. Sorry, but as a logician by trade, I find it utterly absurd to draw such a sweeping conclusion based on nothing other than your own interpretation. As a human being in my off-hours...when I go to the GC.com home page, I see people having fun and going to neat places. I don't see white people having fun and going to neat places. It wasn't a statement, neither was it a conclusion. It was an opinion and therefore, not necessarily subject to logical analysis. I am interested to know if others may see it the same way. I'm also interested to know if others don't see it the same way. The point is that discussions of race are a part of our history and are very much a part of our current society. I'm interested in this topic because I work a lot with different cultures, cultures representing all parts of the globe. We know that cultures have different habits. In Europe, it provides a lot of fodder for discussion. I see this more in terms of cultural differences than the color of anyone's skin (although the latter can be a good indication of the former). There's nothing wrong with looking at those differences.

One of the ideas I was trying to get at was whether the photos on the home page are more of an asset or liability to the site. Other competing sites do not use them, either because they choose not to, or haven't figured out how to do it with the resources they have. I do not believe that Geocaching.com ever intended to make a statement by adding that feature. I also do not believe that Geocachining.com either promotes or discourages the participation of particular groups of people. I believe the feature was added to differentiate the site from its competitors. The photos are attractive but in some ways also make apparent the lack of diversity among the general Geocaching population. Working for a corporation that prides itself on cultural diversity, I do feel somewhat embarrassed by those photos. I also understand the actions of a corporation which supports this site yet needs also to demonstrate to the greater society that it promotes diversity. My point is that adding the photos has not come without its price, a price which may be somewhat higher than expected.

Moral of the story - always take a mobile phone with you. I confess I don't always. Did need to be "extracted" out of the forest after a roller-blading accident once. Not fun.

For those interested in this specialized feature, GSAK + CacheMate does handle foreign characters and the "°" sign (as well as TBs). A big improvement over MobiPocket.

They doesn't seem to be a response in keeping with the spirit of the forums. It seems like a very troll like thing to say. But if you choose to leave, we won't have that problem anymore. By the way, has Geocaching.com come out with an official position on Trolls? Is it posted somewhere? Getting a clear definition, and communicating it in the forum rules might help to educate the newbies if this is indeed perceived by the site as a problem.

Do they sometimes issue bogus warnings or do they issue bogus warnings all of the time? I'm trying to understand the logic here. The subset of all Trolls which is the set of Trolls who use self-created authority, (always issue/sometimes issue) bogus warnings.

Yes I agree with you. It was ambiguous. I corrected the post.

What makes you feel that way? Generally higher than accustomed to temperatures, combined with lenghty exposure to the sun. Isn't it obvious? So you feel otherwise when the temperature is more moderate? I'm trying to understand your point of view.

What makes you feel that way?

How is that important to the topic?

Good catch, CR. Catch-22 that is. The individual bumping here is trying hard, but oh well. I guess it comes from having a small ***** and not being able to afford a flashy car. Remember, no personal attacks in forums. That was a personal attack by the way. First warning.

I think you're a troll for posting that reply.

I think you're a troll for asking this question.

Interestingly, it appears that this thread is uniquely contributed to by UK cachers. I'm just curious, why would this be more of a problem in the UK? In the US it doesn't seem to be as much of a problem. I'm interested in these kinds of cultural differences. Oops, sorry I see this is a UK forum. Was just browsing the results of a search and didn't realize where I was going. I think the question is still valid though.

I'm not fitting in very well at all. LOL a left handed minority who'd of thought. I wll be crushed if you guys tell me only guys that rode the long bus cache. I think we need more photos of left handed cachers on the home page.