gumbyatl92

your welcome

We got episode 5 up on the site. This is a realy cool night-only cache. watch the video at: www.gacaching.com

This is exactly the sort of thing that takes the fun out of geocaching for me. Geocaching seems to get turned in to something much larger and more professional than it is. When you break it down to its roots all you get is a scavenger hunt for adults that teeters on the border of legality. I think it needs to stay grassroots and I think reviewers need to handle it in that fashion. I believe the rules should be less concise and left more open-ended. It seems to me that reviewers get bogged down in what follows the specfic set guidelines. If I ran Groundspeak I would have a trusted set of reviewers and a set of guidelines that stated the obvious (don't put it on private property, don't put guns in the cache, etc) and I would let each reviewer publish caches on his/her own common sense. I truly believe that my cache was killed because of a reviewer that was a stickler for the rules and not because he/she really thought my cache was bad or harmful to the community. I actually cancelled my membership and almost stopped geocaching after it, i felt i could go to the DMV if i wanted to deal with that sort of thing. But i realized there was more to geocaching and I continue to cache but I won't be getting a premium membership again until Groundspeak loosens up or I see a change in how cache review is handled. You have to realize that these guidelines weren't developed because someone was sitting in an office dreaming up ways to restrict the sport. They were put in place in response to actual problems, issues and complaints. The restriction on caches near RRs came after the bomb squad was called out and a geocacher was arrested and prosecuted for placing a cache too close to RR tracks. The saturation guideline was effected to prevent people from placing caches right next to each other, which started happening (and if you ask me, .1 mile is still far too close). No knives or multi tools in caches was added after a park system banned geocaching because a park ranger noticed in the logbook that a pocket knife had been in the cache at one time. Others like no explosives, no firearms, no caches on school grounds or on major bridges and tunnels are just plain common sense. You say to just let each reviewer use his own common sense. What do you think will happen if each reviewer is making up his own "common sense" guidelines as he goes along. Its hard enough getting all the reviewers on one page with the current guidelines. It would be chaos if everyone was doing his own thing. You think there are complaints now? You definitely have a point and I'm not sure I expressed what i really meant. Those sorts of things are what I would call common sense and should be in the rules. What I am really looking for is the a looser interpretation of the rules by reviewers. There are plenty of those caches that hit a grey area and I don't think they should be killed because it can interpreted as an infraction if they are not harmful or abusive caches.

This is exactly the sort of thing that takes the fun out of geocaching for me. Geocaching seems to get turned in to something much larger and more professional than it is. When you break it down to its roots all you get is a scavenger hunt for adults that teeters on the border of legality. I think it needs to stay grassroots and I think reviewers need to handle it in that fashion. I believe the rules should be less concise and left more open-ended. It seems to me that reviewers get bogged down in what follows the specfic set guidelines. If I ran Groundspeak I would have a trusted set of reviewers and a set of guidelines that stated the obvious (don't put it on private property, don't put guns in the cache, etc) and I would let each reviewer publish caches on his/her own common sense. I truly believe that my cache was killed because of a reviewer that was a stickler for the rules and not because he/she really thought my cache was bad or harmful to the community. I actually cancelled my membership and almost stopped geocaching after it, i felt i could go to the DMV if i wanted to deal with that sort of thing. But i realized there was more to geocaching and I continue to cache but I won't be getting a premium membership again until Groundspeak loosens up or I see a change in how cache review is handled.

it seems to be allowable and i should have one up in GA shortly.

Why don't you guys run these things up the flagpole instead of leaving it to the cache owner? At least half the cases that get brough up in the forums are communiations problems. If you run it up the flagpole then you as an approver will start getting better insight as to what's good and what's not. Things would get lost in translation otherwise. I'm willing to bet reviewers deal with hundreds of caches every month and have enough work to do without having to do each cache owner's legwork. Should they also be contacting parks for permission? They'll certainly have a better insight as to what the various park rules are. Speaking of communication im confused as what these two posts are actually saying. The response doesnt seem to make any sense to me.

I am confused by your post. I have created hundreds of wesites, both for myself and for friends and clients, over the years, and thus I am rather familiar with the mechanics of reserving domain names, creating HTML pages, and with website hosting. How hard would it have been for you to have removed ALL links to other pages containing ads from your webpage? Sounds like you may have had some agenda here which you have not disclosed. The problem is that I have an incredibly minimal knowledge of web design. I use a template app and an ftp app. I honestly don't know how to set up a stand alone page w/o gettign a new domain and it takes alot of time for me to reformat all the pages, publish to a folder, and then upload them. It's not that I don't have the time, it's that it's hard to find the time to waste reformatting a website just to get one cache posted. As for my hidden agenda, we thought it would be cool if we could make a couple bucks from google adsense, and maybe buy a 6-pack. We put a lot of work into making our podcast episodes and thoguht it would be nice to have a little $ for a celebration after we finish each movie. We grossed about $4.50 a month from the adsense so it isnt much of a celebration and btw we have since bowed down and removed the ads and i will be resubmitting the cache. I'm just a little burned by the whole thing. Feel free to check out www.gacaching.com to see what the site is actually all about. I can see where readers might have some sympathy based upon the situation you narrated. Here is what I see from the cache page. The reviewer left the following note: He did not say that the cache couldn't be published, just that you needed to clear it with Groundspeak. That is what we are instructed to do. Some caches get the thumbs up, some are denied. Did you follow up with Groundspeak, and if so, what did they tell you? All I can see from the cache page is that you archived your own cache two days later. Then you left a reviewer note suggesting some changes. Did you also send an e-mail to your reviewer? His instructions say that e-mail is the preferred form of contact. He may never have known about the changes you were suggesting. I also don't see where you ever specified the coordinates where the cache is located. A cache cannot be published without the actual location being recorded for later reference. I did follow up and asked for a second opinion. The person that contacted me was by e-mail and not the original reviewer and was the second opinion. He was the one that told me that i would have to remove all links to sites with advertisements as well as some issues with the geocaching logo (those were my fault though). This part further irritated me because at first i was told to just remove ads from that page. Then I was told to remove ads from all of my pages and they also seemed to have a problem with me mentioning the use of an ipod and itunes, which is by far the best way to view this podcache because an ipod will allow you to view pictures along with the audio that help guide you to the cache. This is when i gave up because i felt like i was being dragged through hoops. p.s. i believe i posted the final coords as a reviewer not but it may have been via e-mail to the reviewer.

and in response to prime suspect: Personally i draw the line at blatant sales or advertising. If I clicked on a link to a cache and it was just a site selling washing machines then i would have a problem. Or even a site selling geocoins for that matter. Podcacher is a great example. please visit this cache: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...c2&Submit6=Find they have a link to a site that you must visit. The site has both a donation button and a google adsense but does not offend me in any manner or fashion (and was published even though it has the same set-up as mine).

I am confused by your post. I have created hundreds of wesites, both for myself and for friends and clients, over the years, and thus I am rather familiar with the mechanics of reserving domain names, creating HTML pages, and with website hosting. How hard would it have been for you to have removed ALL links to other pages containing ads from your webpage? Sounds like you may have had some agenda here which you have not disclosed. The problem is that I have an incredibly minimal knowledge of web design. I use a template app and an ftp app. I honestly don't know how to set up a stand alone page w/o gettign a new domain and it takes alot of time for me to reformat all the pages, publish to a folder, and then upload them. It's not that I don't have the time, it's that it's hard to find the time to waste reformatting a website just to get one cache posted. As for my hidden agenda, we thought it would be cool if we could make a couple bucks from google adsense, and maybe buy a 6-pack. We put a lot of work into making our podcast episodes and thoguht it would be nice to have a little $ for a celebration after we finish each movie. We grossed about $4.50 a month from the adsense so it isnt much of a celebration and btw we have since bowed down and removed the ads and i will be resubmitting the cache. I'm just a little burned by the whole thing. Feel free to check out www.gacaching.com to see what the site is actually all about.

If I were the arguing type, I would say: Asking for donations isn't selling. The advertisers who appear on their site are the only ones selling anything. Heck, geocaching.com advertises companies on their site, and that doesn't make them evil. The good people who produce and publish Podcacher Podcasts, Icenrye's Geocaching Videozine, (I don't dare post links) etc. only serve to stir up more interest and excitement in this fantastic thing called geocaching. I have heard numerous suggestions in Podcacher Podcasts for geocachers to become paying Premium Members of geocaching.com and to purchase Travel Bugs, so I guess maybe they are selling stuff...for Groundspeak! I think that Groundspeak would to well to encourage, promote and praise these brave volunteers who use their time and resources to share so much fun and adventure with their fellow geocachers. But I don't like to argue with authority figures, so I won't. I'll go geocaching instead. I totally agree wth you pablo. We do a monthly podcast and have a podcache at www.gacaching.com, but we were unable to publish it because it had 2 google adsense ads at the bottom.

To address the issue in this thread of reviewers being too strict with the guidelines (i call them sticklers not nazis) i have my own example of an unpublished cache. Put me in my place if i'm wrong. I tried to publish a podcache which required viewing an external webage of my own. You have to listen to some audio to find the cache. The reviewers killed the cache because my site had 2 google ads at the bottom. I took the ads off but they still refused to publish the cache because there were links on the page that led to other pages which had small advertisements on the bottom. I just gave up, i cant redesign an entire website so that reviewers wont come in contact with inconcspicuously placed google ads. It just seemed like a slightly too literal interpretation of the rules. I'm not trying to sell products through the geocaching website, thepage just happened to have 2 ads at the bottom (which i removed). I can see how you can interpret the guidelines in this way but reviewers are there to judge on the spirit of the rules. This is isnt some awful government bereuacracy and it seems that sometimes we can lose sight of this. I don't think my cache was harmful or offensive to the geocaching community and I think that is what matters

If you havent seen us before we are two cachers that do a monthly video documenting some caching. This month's video is sort of a blooper reel from a trip to Spain that involved a little caching. You can find it at: www.gacaching.com (under the video podcast menu) And please send us some feedback. Did this bore the piss out of you? Were you laughing hysterically? What would you like to see in the next episode?... p.s. if you happen to use iTunes you can click the subscribe button on the video podcast page and it will be sent to your iTunes automatically each month (and no there are no costs for subscription its just the term used to make iTunes look for our show). Enjoy.

Here is the site for our podcast: www.gacaching.com

If you've never heard of GA Geocaching Monthly its a podcast we do. Its just a fun cache video we do every month and really its a good excuse for film students to play with editing software. We've decided to expand into podcaching. Podcaching takes you to a set of coordinates and then an audio track will guide you to the cache. I attemptd publishing one with Groundspeak but there were issues and I have decided it isn't really geocaching anyways its more of a scavenger hunt that you need a gps for. But anyways all of this is up on the website now and we are just trying to get the word out. check out the videos and podcaches at: [LINK REMOVED BY MODERATOR] hope everyone enjoys these and send us some feedback we love to hear from anybody that watches.

We do a similar type of thing each month. Check out and the website and contact me if you think we might be able to get together and work on something www.gacaching.com D&D@gacaching.com

I wanted to ask the community how they felt about this issue. I have recently submitted a podcache. A podcache requires you to download an audio file to find the cache. The cache page itself has no solicitation or advertisements on it. However, there are links at the top which take you to the other pages on my site. These other pages have advertisements using google adsense on them. Please check the guidelines and tell me if you think this is taking them a little too literally

Its official, episode 3 is up and running. Also we have decided to start a podcache as well. We'll keep you updated.

The new episode is done and being uploaded as I speak (type). This episode goes international. Be looking for it in about an hour at www.gacaching.com

For those who don't know what we are. We are a video podcast (sort of a tv show that can be downlaoded to your iTunes or viewed through a web browser) about a couple of young guys based out of Atlanta that love geocaching. Check us out at the link below and feel free to click on our sponsors to help support us www.gacaching.com

David made a little trip to Spain with his fam and he just got back with footage from a little overseas geocaching. We're about to hit the cutting table and we should have an international episode out by the 28th.

thanks so much seeker, i really appreciate it. Are you gonna use the journals for logbooks?

bummer, guess u better break down and get itunes

strange, it should just load up in quicktime within that window. Maybe just give it a little time to load? The files are pretty big.

I've found the perfect bag for caching is a lumbar bag. If you dont know what they are, it's really just a cool fanny pack. you get all different sizes, and they are really comfortable and ride low so they dont get caught on branches like backpakcs. check out mountain hardwear they make some great bags. as far as supplies i only bring: SWAG batteries cache sheet leatherman handy sacks (its a little 2" x 2" bag that holds 10 trash bags, great for CITO, get em at the grocery store by the garbage bags)

so let me know which one everyone liked better. And anyone have any requests for the next episode?