The Infamous Five

Well the topic certainly generated a great deal of discussion. I thank you all for the insight because one thing I have become convinced of is that I need to pay the $30 and become a premium member so as to put something back into the site for all the effort spent on it to get it to where it is. As far as the rest is concerned, even the oddly inane reply from Cache Rangers, I for one will never plant a members only cache or look for one. It's a free world.

I got a new cache notification just lately that when I try to access it, it turned out to be a "members only" cache. While I accept that if one pays a subscription then new benefits are made available I am at pains to understand the concept of "members only" caches. When you log a cache on a public domain, and it must be as everyone gets notified, you automatically are indicating that the public can go looking for your cache. To then make your cache a "members only" must be some form of elitism as I can't see any other reason why one would do this. More than this though is the whole concept of a "members only" cache. When I plant a cache I hope to get as many hits as possible as the reason I hid it in the first place is so I can attract people to an area I think is beautiful and worthwhile to visit. There is some pride and some sense of achievement at having made someone's day when they find one of your caches through the clues, coordinates and finally the little box of goodies at the end of it. Anyone who wants to curtail this to a specific group should then take it off the public domain surely? Where I come from geocaching activity isn't so great that our caches have heavy traffic making this idea even more ludicrous. What are other's thoughts on this?