Waymarking Vs. Virtuals

[+Erimikos]

Ok, in the Faq, there was something saying there will be a new "waymark" category on GC.com, that things such as the old virtuals would go into..

 

Anyone know exactly what this will entail?

 

Honestly, I actually loved the virtuals, having them included in with the regular search results. To me, alot of the fun in Geocaching is in the history you can learn about an area through many of the interesting virtual caches.

 

It was very nice to be able to find these with my standard downloads.. it added a little more variety to the mix. Having them moved to a site where they can not be included with the regular searches, or in order to do a search for interesting places like the home Henry Ford built for his wife when they got married (a virtual) I have to go through this other site, and do a search under that specific category...

 

While these are fun.. I am not going to go out of my way be doing seperate searches.. If I do go do the seperate searches, I get to wade through every mcdonalds location in the area (downright stupid) in order to find something remotely interesting...

 

I think I am canceling my premium membership... those added more of a variety of things to find, making it more interesting for me.

 

Any chance of integrating the two databases at some point in the future, so one search could show both interesting points recently added (meaning, things other then grandfathered virtuals), and caches? How about with the ability to not include commercials for Mcdonalds, and any other resturaunts or whatever people decide to put in there?

 

I also geocache when I am looking for something fun to do.. I am not going to go to a Groundspeak site to locate a mcdonalds.. but, things like McDonalds are a little different then things like corn mazes... (which, admittedly, are still commercial.. but those offer a form of entertainment that is not found on every corner of every road on the planet)

Edited January 12, 2006 by Prodotis

[+kph100]

I agree, doing a combination of virtuals and physical caches on Geocaching.com is far better than the crap Waymarking system which appears to contain a lot of duff locations.

 

I agree there should only be limite virtuals say within a certain area but the part of finding the answer is great fun and an enhancement to the cache finding and not to its detriment.

 

Ian.

[+cache_test_dummies]

Ok, in the Faq, there was something saying there will be a new "waymark" category on GC.com, that things such as the old virtuals would go into..

 

Anyone know exactly what this will entail?

I'm not exactly sure what post you are referring to here, or who said this. Could you provide a link?

 

Honestly, I actually loved the virtuals, having them included in with the regular search results. To me, alot of the fun in Geocaching is in the history you can learn about an area through many of the interesting virtual caches.

Waymarking promises to offer the same experience (especially once more categories and waymarks are added to the database), but will provide the ability to search for interesting locations by type, which was never easy with virtuals.

 

It was very nice to be able to find these with my standard downloads.. it added a little more variety to the mix.

I'm confident that at some point in the future, Pocket Queries will be supported on Waymarking.com. Keep in mind that the site is brand new, still in Beta, and all the features haven't been rolled out yet.

 

If I do go do the seperate searches, I get to wade through every mcdonalds location in the area (downright stupid) in order to find something remotely interesting...

Waymarking.com allows premium members to set a 'popularity filter'. If you find that the McDonalds are cluttering up your search results, and want to hide them, simply go the Restaurants category, and in the lower right hand part of the screen, increase the Popularity Filter so that it shows only the top 90% popular Waymarking categories. Poof! No more McDonalds in your listings!

 

I think I am canceling my premium membership... those added more of a variety of things to find, making it more interesting for me.

[+Zzyzx Road]

...I get to wade through every mcdonalds location in the area...

While I agree that EVERY McDonalds would bore me to tears, there were some on the Travel Channel that were interesting.

 

One of them was a seat-yourself, with a full menu at the table (complete with Turkey and Gravy) that you order from the little phone at the table, and it is delivered to your table.

 

Another one was located in such a remote snow-filled place that it has a "Snow-mobile Drive-thru"

 

Some guy was doing a local-menu research, collecting the locally-influenced menu changes.

 

Now that kind of McDonalds list would be cool!

[+tozainamboku]

Not surprisingly, the archiving of locationless caches and to a lesser extent the removal of the option to create new virtual caches has brought out a new slew of people to complain about these changes and make the claim that “Waymarking just doesn’t do it for me”. I think this is just normal resistance to change. Instead of whining, I suggest giving some thought as to how Waymarking can be used to do whatever it was that you loved about the old way. You may find that Waymarking is an improvement and even if it is not, you have the chance now, while Waymarking is still in beta-test, to make suggestions on how to improve it.

 

I'll start it off (since I've got lots of suggestions as someone who likes virtual caches).

 

For hiders of virtual caches, if you submitted an interesting site in your town as a virtual cache the chances were that it would not get approved. The subjective “Wow” factor and the preference for physical caches meant it was nearly impossible to get a virtual approved. With Waymarking, you only need to find a category that your site fits in. This is not always easy, as Waymarking is new and there may not yet be a category for your site. Additionally, you may not want to use an existing category because it “gives away too much” or “ruins the surprise”. I’m hoping that TPTB will allow some new categories that address the needs of these hiders. A lot of waymarks that would never be approved as virtuals are getting approved as waymarks in the meantime.

 

Since virtuals are grandfathered you can continue to hunt virtuals on geocaching.com as you always did. However, in order to seen new waymarks you will have to look on Waymarking.com. You might find one or more of categories that you are interested in. However, if you liked visiting virtuals because they were interesting in and of themselves and not because they were in a particular category there are no tools to let you sort interesting places to visit from mundane ones. I'm hoping that there will something like bookmark lists that will allow people to suggest waymarks they find interesting. Maybe a way for visitors to rate waymarks on "Wowness". Visiting a waymark does not count as a find in your geocaching statistics, but will show up in your Waymarking stats, so you can just add waymarks to caches if it makes you feel better.

 

One of the things I liked about virtuals that had a verification question was that you had to search for the answer once you got to the location. Sometimes finding the right answer was just as difficult as finding a well hidden physical cache. There is nothing in Waymarking that requires a verification question, nor should there be. Many people will want to use Waymarking just to find places they can visit and have no interest in answering a silly question. But there should be an option for a waymark reporter to include a verification question for those who want to "find" something. I think there could be visted logs for people who just visit waymarks and found logs for people who email the answer to a verification question to the waymark owner. Being able to search for waymarks that have verification questions may be a way to find those waymarks that can be used as replacements for virtual caches.

[+vree]

well... i have to say that learning how to navigate Waymarking.com, after being used to geocaching.com, has taken some getting used to. at first glance i was way turned off by Waymarking. i came back to try it out again last week and, after playing around with it a bit, it's started to grow on me a little. i'm still learning my way around.

 

there's no reason to rush to judgment on this and cancel your premium membership. it'll take a little time before it's as solid as gc.com, i think. as more waypoints are entered, more categories are entered, and details are fleshed out i think it'll turn out okay. it's hard to get excited about it when there's little or nothing in your area. check out some of the more popular categories and go submit a couple waymarks.