OverTheRiver

I agree with the points regarding caching on public and private lands WRT a for-profit enterprise. I've been involved with geocaching for over 3 years, and have watched with discomfort the level of commercialization grow. Perhaps it was inevitable, but the disabling of the maps features has pushed me over the edge, and I will be archiving all my gc.com caches, and only listing them on select other sites from here on out. Yes, I'm sure the frequency of access will drop for them, but it has been dropping steadily of late anyway, and I suspect making it harder to locate them on the site (ie, turning off pan/scroll for rank and file users) will lead that trend to continue. By the way, I've been here long enough to recall the old style maps that were used in the days before "Premium" access (and yes, I realize you can still access the old ones from the main page via the "States" function, but few users know this). They worked fine, and I actually preferred them. They allowed panning and scrolling as far back as 2001, probably earlier. I also remember a promise that no features would be taken away from those who did not ante up for Premium membership. If this promise is to be honored, then I agree that the old style maps should be presented to Non-Premium members when they access maps from the primary links they have traditionally been accessed from. (The promise was broken in at least one other area, as well - free members used to see icons showing which caches were theirs, which ones had already been found, etc. on the old-style maps. When the new maps were created, this was disabled.) I'm sure I'll get slammed by all those who feel commercialization of the web is a wonderful thing, and in many cases I agree it is, but in this particular instance I bristle when I see how geocaching has been commandeered by one individual, and the original free-wheeling spirit of the exercise has been lost. I'm taking back my ball and going to play elsewhere... OTR

I posted numerous times years ago, and just resumed tonight (OK, I've been preoccupied), but I guess Jeremy's machines have lost track of that? I didn't know you could be a 2+ year old tadpole . OTR

I have a bug of my son's out there thats goal was to go from NC to AZ and back. Got within spitting distance of AZ several times and each time someone took it hundreds of miles in the wrong direction. Son was 4 when it left, and is almost 7 now, so he may be in college when it's done . It has documentation with it telling where it's headed. I've noticed the culprits are often heavy duty TB loggers - people who move 5 or 10 TB's around at a time. Many do not bother to check on goals. I find the TB 'hotel' caches of dubious value, too. I've had this TB languish in them several times, one of 10 or 15 in the cache, and so not as likely to be picked up and moved on. When I head to a cache, I take a look at the webpage for it before going out, and read up on any TB's in it. If I think I can help, I'll pick one up. I try not to hold them for more than a week or two at most. My daughter has one that's disappeared in South Africa, apparently in the hands of an inactive cacher. It was on its way around the world via Japan, and had gotten to the middle east, at which point someone took it to S. Africa for kicks. It languished there for a year before disappearing into this guy's clutches. Which is why we haven't bothered sending any more out in the last couple of years, even though I've got a couple of tags which I could use. Ah well, such is the dangerous life of a TB on the run... OTR