Making It Fair

[+Thot]

There are probably many people who have caches they hope to submit to your new locationless/virtual thingy, whatever it is. I have a couple I've been sittiong on for a long time, and I’ve spoken to others who have them too. It doesn’t seem right for insiders and people who happen to be at the right place at the right time to get a jump on other members.

 

I suggest you create and advertise a page where members can go to signup for an email notification when the new cache type is active. The email would have a link to the description and instructions for submitting these caches. You would send a mass emailing to this list just as you activativate the new cache on the website. This way sooners won’t have an unfair advantage over other members.

Edited July 5, 2005 by Thot

[+ChileHead]

Check the web site every day - that makes it fair. I really don't think there is going to be a huge rush to submit locationless/virtual caches. And if there is, do you really think everybody is going to be trying to submit the same virtual/locationless?

[+Cow Spots]

Yeah, I seriously can't see a "Land Rush" by people wanting to get out there and place these newfangled virt/loc types. All things to those who wait.

[Jeremy]

We're going to do a slow rollout, so it won't exactly work that way. You'll know well in advance before you can post a new locationless cache. At that point you'll already know how the process works which may not be as you might expect.

[ju66l3r]

To those who think there won't be a rush of caches submitted (depending entirely on rollout method) and that many of those won't conflict with each other:

 

You're wrong.

 

Even with the limited number of cachers who have decided to use terracaching.com's new locationless system, there were multiple caches that were nearly identical in intent within the first day and continuing in the same manner for several weeks before people would check thoroughly enough to determine that their idea had not already been submitted and accepted.

 

Here, (again, depending on the rollout), there are many many more cachers to jam the works with this same problem.

[+Hemlock]

there are many many more cachers to jam the works with this same problem.

It will not be a problem

[+welch]

We're going to do a slow rollout, so it won't exactly work that way. You'll know well in advance before you can post a new locationless cache. At that point you'll already know how the process works which may not be as you might expect.

is a timeline available?

[Jeremy]

is a timeline available?

Yes.

[Jeremy]

Ok, ok. It is available now in Alpha and we have a small group banging on it. When it is ready for a more thorough beta test we'll be involving Premium/Charter members. From there we will release it to the broader community.

[+Glenn]

We're going to do a slow rollout, so it won't exactly work that way. You'll know well in advance before you can post a new locationless cache. At that point you'll already know how the process works which may not be as you might expect.

I see you're still on target for an end of May release. That's very sneaky of you not to say what year or was that your Alpha release month?

[+welch]

Ok, ok. It is available now in Alpha and we have a small group banging on it. When it is ready for a more thorough beta test we'll be involving Premium/Charter members. From there we will release it to the broader community.

the things I miss when I move to the next forum

Edited July 6, 2005 by welch

[Jeremy]

I see you're still on target for an end of May release. That's very sneaky of you not to say what year or was that your Alpha release month?

We were on for a release in May but we realized a lot of implications with the way the new features were created, so we had to scrap some of the functionality for some others. This involved a lot of database work and coding. Technically the site was ready for May but considering the traffic we get we wanted to make sure the site would be as close to gold as we could.

 

Now we're getting direct feedback and making changes so we don't have a lot of problems from the get-go. Many changes now are due to us being too close to the project. There's no "how to" book on creating these features so it is much more difficult to create a finished product.

[+Glenn]

I see you're still on target for an end of May release. That's very sneaky of you not to say what year or was that your Alpha release month?  

We were on for a release in May but we realized a lot of implications with the way the new features were created, so we had to scrap some of the functionality for some others. This involved a lot of database work and coding. Technically the site was ready for May but considering the traffic we get we wanted to make sure the site would be as close to gold as we could.

 

Now we're getting direct feedback and making changes so we don't have a lot of problems from the get-go. Many changes now are due to us being too close to the project. There's no "how to" book on creating these features so it is much more difficult to create a finished product.

I definitely know how deadlines, especially self made ones, can slip away. I understand you are in uncharted waters. You are on the cutting edge of technology!

 

I'm glad you are taking the time to make sure the project is fininshed before you roll it out. I've seen so many great projects rolled out too early, usually to meet some deadline, only to have an awesome idea and a great project totally flop because something key to the project wasn't tested enought and therefore implimented incorrectly.

[Jeremy]

I definitely know how deadlines, especially self made ones, can slip away. I understand you are in uncharted waters. You are on the cutting edge of technology!

Heh. I love how geocaching ends up being a footnote by the "big guys." The reality is that Geocaching is to GPS as porn was to computers. IMO it has brought mass consumer appeal to the GIS marketplace.

[+the hermit crabs]

The reality is that Geocaching is to GPS as porn was to computers.

I wonder what the court-TVers will make of that analogy

Edited July 6, 2005 by the hermit crabs

[Jeremy]

The reality is that Geocaching is to GPS as porn was to computers.

I wonder what the court-TVers will make of that analogy

I don't know, but I bet that the fact that the crew of Veggie Tales went caching will probably freak them out more.