chrmdome

The noob also likes the Community Liaison idea.

I love the tip-of-the-day idea!!!!

Great constructive addition to the conversation, NeverSummer. Let's talk about this, guys. As community members, we are all responsible for bringing up the new generation of geocachers. How can we offer our help or a re-direction when we see someone trying to figure out how to play this incredibly nuanced game? Was there someone who helped you figure out the proper caching etiquette when you started? We are asking questions like these at HQ, as well. How can we offer guidance and instruction to the new folks who want to come play? How can we support the current community with helping them educate and spread the word? To start with, we are working on more informative blog/FB posts, updating and reorganizing the Help Center, and thinking of fun new ways to inform newbies of the fine tuned, community created, social etiquette mores. In addition, I will let you know that the default log text in the Intro App was just supposed to be an example log and not something that they could use to post a log to any cache. We will be following up on this to make sure that the text is not introducing new cachers to bland/lazy logging techniques. Many of you are already AMAZINGLY helpful to the new cachers who ask questions in the forums. As a fellow community member - I want to say a big THANK YOU for that. Since we are all stewards of the game I ask the same question to the rest of the community: What are some other ways that we can guide and teach the newest players on a local level? Jayme, is there the possibility that there could be a 'helpful tip of the day' added to the intro app? I'm thinking along the lines of what ones sees when GSAK is opened and many other programs, I think even Google Earth. These hints could be short simple tips on some aspect of the game; finding, logging, etc. Karen

Two cents from a noob... I snagged my first cache with c:geo while visiting my relatives in MN. I needed something to do with the 6 kids that we're bouncing off the walls. I spent about two hours researching on line (mostly looking for free apps and large kid friendly finds), packed the kids in a mini van, stopped at five and dime (remember that phrase?), bought a few dozen $.25 items and off we went to a local park. We even found a TB from Australia on our first day! I'm know we made a ton of mistakes, like placing the pencil in the plastic bag, but the kids had a ton of fun. In retrospect, I think I enjoyed it most. We raced home to research the TB coin as we had no idea what to do with it. It took me about an hour to understand I needed to log the coin, then a second hour to determine how to log it! I dropped it off 2,000 miles away a week later (that seemed like the right thing to do, but I was really still guessing). I struggled to find the smaller hides (I did log my DNFs) and surprise, a local cacher, BraillerCD, offered to give me a tour of some more difficult caches. Wow, how great was that!!! I am clearly addicted now and even convinced another friend to start caching with me during lunch and coffee breaks. As a noob, I really liked a number of the ideas above: - e-mail registration is a must - I like the idea of a few more learning videos (the two on the Groundspeak sight seemed to strike a very good balance between too short and too long, so I did listen to both before our first adventure) - I also like the quiz idea, but it would need to be short - I also like the concept of, you can only find 10 caches before you must take the quiz, or your free access gets shut off - I like the idea of offering to help the noobs like me I do like the free apps, I don't really pay for apps in general. But I did sign up for the premium membership! I am trying to decide if it would be more fun and/or more work with a GPS. Of course I want the $600 version, but I probably would never really learn how to use everything (or anything) on it. What has me concerned most about the GPS devices is that it looks like very few allow me to download caches while I am in the field. Every sport, hobby, game, past time, etc. has "users" and "contributors". GeoCaching is no exception. I think many of us came from a generation that was taught to be a contributor in everything we do. Unfortunately, I do not think the the users will be reading anything we write. I will continue to try and learn as many of the rules as possible. I will say, after reading a number of comments over recent weeks, I am becoming reluctant to buy a TB and am more hesitant to create my first cache. The trepidation is probably good on the cache, I really do not want to create something lame. I think I should have a little more experience before creating my first hide. But it's too bad that TBs have become something dreaded my so many players. It sounds like it used to be more fun. But I will keep trying to move them around. FYI, I am now using CacheSense on my blackberry (yes, I know that is inviting a few comments, but I thought I needed to add another comment where I can be lamb-basted). Obviously, some of my commentary is way off point, but I thought it might be helpful in understanding how and why a noob is thinking about this thread. I do have a thick skin, so feel free to throw tomatoes and/or share suggestions. This dog can can learn new tricks.