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The Good Shepherds

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Posts posted by The Good Shepherds

  1. If nothing shows up on the bbc website (which it probably will in the fullness of time - they seem to archive all the other "inside out" episodes), I'll do a video grab so that other folks can have a look. It'll have to wait 'till we're back from our hols though - too busy getting ready atm!

     

    I thought it was quite a good programme (even though Mr Jackson did insist on filming it on a weekend that we couldn't attend! <g&gticon_wink.gif. The editorial emphasis was on the fact that geocaching takes you to interesting places that you might not otherwise visit, rather than it just being a hunt for a box of treasure ...a good thing, IMHO; painted the hobby in a very respectable light! icon_smile.gif

     

    (and yes, the colour went a bit flickery on our reception too!)

  2. quote:
    After the last couple of days it's unlikely anyone would even bring up the subject of, or agree to become involved in a proposed association.

     

    On the contrary, I'd still be quite happy to be a member of / involved with an association, and I'd guess a lot of other people still would be too ...but we've pretty much reached a stalemate here on the forums with various people adopting entrenched positions.. so it's time for the people who want an association to just wander off and do it, and for the people who don't want an association to sit around and, urm, not do it. Continuing to argue the toss here on the forums is pretty pointless, and in this respect, it is truely time to move on.

  3. quote:
    Originally posted by The Spokes:

    I am in the process of buying a lap top and PDA.

    I know the laptop can be connected but I don’t know too much about PDA’s


     

    You need a cable for connecting your PDA to a regular PC serial port (AKA a serial "synch cable"), which should be available from the PDA manufacturer.

     

    One the end of this cable, you need to attach either:

     

    (a) A standard etrex data cable, using a gender converter, and a null modem adaptor (or a gender-converting null-modem adaptor) from an electronics store.

     

    or

     

    (:D A specially customised etrex data cable

     

    If you're brave, you can butcher a data cable and construct (:D yourself. Alternatively, they can be bought ready-made from many locations (the memory map website is where I got mine, but they're extremely expensive for what they are!).

  4. It's true. Mark and Teasel actually run the GC:UK site from a double decker bus on the moon. Elvis and Hitler look after the webservers in the GC:UK uplink base in Area 51, Nevada, and the whole gc.com merchandising operation just a scam to cover money laundering on international bioweapons deals and UFO research.

     

    Really.

     

    It's all true.

     

    All of it.

  5. quote:
    Originally posted by Fangmonster:

    i am also annoyed at the vitriol which seems to come from nothing more than me having an opinion.


     

    Then perhaps you should question the way you express your opinions, rather than assume the fault in communication is with those who mis-intrepret you.

     

    Not intended as a flame, just an observation. icon_smile.gif

  6. Unfortunately I think the position of the moderators has become somewhat untenable. I fear that by aligning themselves with the formation of the GAGB, they put themselves into the position where they were incapable of actually MODERATING these forums any more, for fear of accusations of bias from those opposed to the GAGB. As such, these forums have run wild. To cite an example, the reception that the HCC representative got here was _apalling_ - things like that can only serve to harm the hobby.

     

    The moderators - every one of them - did a great job in the past, and I only have praise for their achievements - but think I can appreciate the pressures that have caused them to quit icon_frown.gif

  7. quote:
    how could it claim to be a representation of geocachers in the uk?


     

    <SENSE OF PERSPECTIVE>

    Frankly, I just considered the pages that had been thrown up to be a placeholder while the "real" association was formed. I didn't interpret any of the wording on the site to be a final charter... more likely just the wording that their resident web-head came up with to fill the space.

    </SENSE OF PERSPECTIVE>

     

    quote:
    imho, having a far too narrow base of support and not attracting the interest of the vast 'silent majority'.

     

    <SENSE OF PERSPECTIVE>

    The "silent majority" don't come anywhere near these forums. Most UK geocachers won't ever know this argument even happened... except for the slight degradation that they'll see in cache approval over the coming weeks.

    </SENSE OF PERSPECTIVE>

     

    quote:
    there is much anxiety within the group and with me as to who will take the administrative reins.

     

    <SENSE OF PERSPECTIVE>

    To quote the mantra that usually gets rolled out by the admin on these occasions:Geocaching.com is just a listing service. Listings will still appear - they'll just come through a lot slower (like the old days), and more stuff will be rejected (like the old days) because the remaining approvers aren't "natives" and don't understand our strange UK ways. At the end of the day, people will still hide lunchboxes in the countryside, and other people will continue to search for them.

    </SENSE OF PERSPECTIVE>

     

    quote:

    lastly, i am genuinely pleased to see that an open debate has been fostered over the possibility of future associations of geocachers.


     

    <SENSE OF PERSPECTIVE>

    I'm not "genuinely pleased" about anything that's come out of this.

     

    Ultimately, an association is only speaks for it's members. It's only as powerful as it's membership figures, and people will only join an association if they agree with it's charter. I don't really see what the problem is - if an associating is truely "not representative of the people" and your "silent majority is in opposition" theory holds true, then surely they'll only get a couple of dozen members and fizzle out through lack of credibility? Anybody can set up an association. If it's worthy, it'll garner support. If it isn't, it won't. The tenability of an association is completely self-fulfilling; Tears, insults and bloodshed are not necessary.

    </SENSE OF PERSPECTIVE>

  8. quote:
    Originally posted by Rockratgirl:

    How can you explain that many people have already or are currently in negotiations with local landowners/Councils? Why can those of us happy to do this not continue? This is how Geocaching was intended. Not subsidiary groups for this, that and the other.


     

    Because when one person takes it upon themselves to approach a big landowner organisation, and their negotions fails for one reason or another, they have (effectively) blown it for all of us... and whingers like me start asking why the negotiations were conducted behind closed doors without the geocaching community at large being involved... What gives one individual the right to nominate themselves spokesperson of all UK geocachers, and approach big-league landowners on "our" behalf?

     

    Of course, when folks try putting together a framework by which such "community" negotiations *could* be run, whingers from another camp start quibbling over trifling details like the use of the word "The" instead of "A".

     

    I can't believe the amount of damage this level of bickering has done to the group over the last 3 days.

     

    "You're damned if you do, and you're damned if you don't."

     

    John TGS.

  9. quote:
    Just a thought, but maybe we should carry Geocaching insurance when we go on the hunt just incase of a natural or unnatural disaaster.

     

    Actually, a lot of rambling/hill walking societies *do* have special insurance arrangements icon_eek.gif

  10. We're visiting some friends in Leamington this weekend. They're keen to find out more about this geocaching lark that we're always going on about. Can anybody recommend a good cache in the area that shows the game at it's best, and is preferably pushchair-friendly?

     

    Ta,

    TGS.

  11. We're on our hols in the "middle" of June icon_frown.gif, but if it's later than the 21st we should be able to attend icon_smile.gif

     

    [EDIT] ...Mrs Shep has just reminded me that we have something on on the 22nd too... icon_frown.gif

     

    [This message was edited by The Good Shepherds on April 23, 2003 at 01:50 PM.]

  12. My logic on the scoring is as follows:

     

    Over a period of several games, it's inevitable that the same targets will probably come into play more than once.

     

    Certain players might live particularly close to certain targets. It therefore makes sense to introduce a rule stating that a player can only claim a "first find" on a particular target once. After this "first find", they're not allowed to grab the same target in any subsequent games. That'll stop the same targets always being nabbed by the same players.

     

    However, to keep the game balanced (and introduce a major incentive for players who missed the "first find" on a particular site in previous rounds of the game to re-visit the same location), I think there's a need for the first-finder reward to be _significantly_ higher than the reward given to subsequent visitors (in fact, in my first draft of the game, I thought about only giving points to the first finder, and no points to everybody else... but in practice, I fear this might lead to lots of frustrated players who feel angry about making an effort but not getting a reward.. so I introduced the concept of the 24 hour "consolation" period with reduced scoring).

     

    Of course, how this all plays out in practice remains to be seen... but I think an underlying game structure that re-inforces the "race" aspect is fundamental to the concept... otherwise the whole thing just turns into virtual caching with photographs. A big part of this game will be about getting there *first* (by any means necessary! icon_wink.gif)

  13. OK, this is the idea... it's kind of like a cross between virtual caching, geodashing, and "the photographer's cache".

     

    The game will be driven by a website. This website will contain a huge database of interesting locations around the UK. The locations will correspond to typical tourist "curiosities" - the kind of thing that makes good virtual cache fodder... standing stones, blue plaques, Follies, public artworks, tombs + effigies, scenic trig points, interesting landmarks, strange buildings, unusual inscriptions ...stuff like that (the more unusual/obscure, the better!).

     

    The game will be played on a monthly basis. At the start of each round, the website will randomly generate a list of "targets" for the coming month. Each target on the list will be assigned a points value, based on a number of factors e.g. how close it is to the nearest road (less accessible = more points) and it's proximity to the month's other targets (if a cluster of targets appear in the same city, they'd score lower than an isolated target in the outer hebrides would!).

     

    To claim the points, you need to get yourself as close as possible to the target and take a photograph (hence the digital camera pre-requisite!). To prove that it's a new photo, and not something that you took ages ago, you'll need to include a specific object in the shot - e.g. a special "flag" that you download from the website and print out (the design will be rotated so that it's different for each round).

     

    The first person to upload a valid photo of the target scores the points. Anybody who manages to upload a photo of the same target within 24 hours of this "first find" will get a lesser amount of points (e.g. 50%) as a consolation prize.

     

    Points are totalled on a player-by-player basis, and at the end of each round, winners are declared, a new bunch of landmarks are pulled out of the hat, and the whole thing starts over again. Potentially we could run some kind of "team" game in parallel - e.g. you could pool your points with other nominated players, and winning teams could also be identified in the final reckoning.

     

    I think this game would have a very different "feel" to geocaching, but retain many of the aspects that makes geocaching so enjoyable (the whole "finding something interesting that you didn't know existed" and "getting out into the countryside with a GPS" element). Whether it would have the same appeal for younger players is perhaps debatable (since there's no boxes to be found), but conversely, I think there's possibly another audience out there who might find the idea more appealing than "tupperware hunting" (madness, I know... but there's no accounting for taste with some folk!... icon_smile.gif ). Additionally, I guess that at a time when cache trashing seems to be getting more commonplace, it would be nice to have a fall-back game that doesn't rely on the placement of physical boxes icon_frown.gif

     

    Any thoughts?

     

    Obviously, the first hurdle will be building a database of potential targets... (which is really going to depend on submissions from potential players) ...and the game is only going to work where there's more than one active player in the same part of the country (otherwise it will get boring pretty quickly!) - but if people reckon it'll be a worthwhile enterprise, then I'll get my coding trousers on and knock up a website icon_smile.gif

     

    Oh yeah... one other thing... I've been sitting on this idea for a couple of weeks now, and *still* haven't thought of a good name for it. "The Great British Curiosity Hunt" and "Geoquesting" (ugh!) are about the best so far. Any suggestions?

     

    John TGS.

  14. Good things come to those who wait icon_biggrin.gif

     

    (actually, the delay in getting my act together is largely due to the fact that over the weekend I "upgraded" (subjective term!) to windows xp after a hard drive problem - getting my system back on it's feet is taking a lot more time than I ever imagined it would! icon_mad.gif)

  15. quote:
    I remember watching a program that explained that due to the data protection act (I think icon_wink.gif ) We are all entitled to purchase these tapes by law.

     

    It is the data protection act - but unfortunately you're only entitled to copies of footage that you personally appear in.

     

    (and the program you watched was most likely Mark Thomas icon_smile.gif )

  16. I've been mulling over a concept for a new GPS-based game (which doesn't involve caches, so I don't think I'm stepping on any toes by posting here). However, one of the pre-requisite items that you'd need to play this (hypothetical!) game is a digital camera. I'm therefore wondering how many people have one at their disposal...

     

    Cheers,

     

    John TGS.

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