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Family Membership?


lazydog

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I was thinking it would be really nice if Groundspeak could come up with a "family membership" which cost more than a single membership, but less than two. My wife and I geocache together most of the time, but we both have unique finds of our own. I'm a paying member but she is not, so members only caches can't be logged by her.

 

Anyway, just a "it would be nice" thought.

 

Brent aka Lazydog

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My wife and I cache separately and together. I began paying for her membership before we got married, and still do. If we had children that were old enough to manage their own accounts, and they wanted them, I would pay for theirs too.

 

I could support a 'piggyback' account that only had the ability to view and log MO caches, but if you want all the benefits, pay up!

 

HMMM! I wonder if I can get 10 PQs a day if I paid for a second 'sock puppet' account?

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The other option (similar to what Team Neos suggested, is that you can log into the premium account, copy the log link, log out of the premium account and into the "regular" account, and then go to the link you copied earlier...

 

<ramble>

There are more ways to log a MOC than MOCs within a 20 mile radius of my house (well, actually, I can't say that... I'd need to run a PQ for MOCs within 20 miles of my house to figure out how many there are... oh wait, I'm not a premium member (yet!) so I can't run PQ's...)

</ramble>

 

Happy Caching!

Jeff

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I think its a fair request, my boyfriend and i live together and cache both sperately and together so we both pay for membership but many places i have visited such as wildlife reserves where you buy membership for a year or organisations such as the RSPB all offer joint memberships at a slight discount so it shouldnt be too much of a problem

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I think that $ 30 a year / person is cheap. In that sum I don't even get full tank of gas to my car.

 

Or $3/a month? Come On!

I could go into the rant about the time when I was a newly divorce mother of three and even 3 bucks would require some fianacial shuffling etc, but...

 

You are thinking like a single cacher. Three bucks for a single person is reasonable. But if you had a family of five or six...Would it still seem that way? Children, especially young ones, don't need their own PQs, they aren't even likely to care if they can change their forum title or bookmark caches. In other words, they aren't going to be a huge drain on the system resources, other than to create a few additional logs. There are dozens of other ways to spend the money that would help support GC and not be wasted.

 

There has been some talk of a possibility of creating family memberships, where the PQs would be shared. If that were the case, a mere dollar more per person per year would probably more than cover the cost of the additional logs on PM caches and yet still seem very reasonable to families. The family members would get a few additional services, such as the ability to see and log PM caches. Couples might still prefer two full memberships, but growing families would have an additional option. Last time Jeremey spoke, it was on the list to consider, but not a high priority. How to link all the members was the major obstacle mentioned. He suggested something about seeing how Waymarking groups worked out and perhaps using something like that to link everyone to one group.

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The other option (similar to what Team Neos suggested, is that you can log into the premium account, copy the log link, log out of the premium account and into the "regular" account, and then go to the link you copied earlier...

 

<ramble>

There are more ways to log a MOC than MOCs within a 20 mile radius of my house (well, actually, I can't say that... I'd need to run a PQ for MOCs within 20 miles of my house to figure out how many there are... oh wait, I'm not a premium member (yet!) so I can't run PQ's...)

</ramble>

 

Happy Caching!

Jeff

 

Or you could actually PAY for the right to see and log MO caches without, oh I dunno, stealing them. <_<

 

And before you say it, just because there's nothing preventing you from doing it doesn't make it any less stealing. Lots of department stores are set up so registers are nowhere near the entrances - is it ok to just walk out with stuff because nothing's stopping you?

Link to comment

The other option (similar to what Team Neos suggested, is that you can log into the premium account, copy the log link, log out of the premium account and into the "regular" account, and then go to the link you copied earlier...

 

<ramble>

There are more ways to log a MOC than MOCs within a 20 mile radius of my house (well, actually, I can't say that... I'd need to run a PQ for MOCs within 20 miles of my house to figure out how many there are... oh wait, I'm not a premium member (yet!) so I can't run PQ's...)

</ramble>

 

Happy Caching!

Jeff

 

Or you could actually PAY for the right to see and log MO caches without, oh I dunno, stealing them. <_<

 

And before you say it, just because there's nothing preventing you from doing it doesn't make it any less stealing. Lots of department stores are set up so registers are nowhere near the entrances - is it ok to just walk out with stuff because nothing's stopping you?

 

What I'm suggesting is that, say, Dad has a premium membership, Kid doesn't. Dad and Kid both go caching together, and one of the caches they find is a MOC. Dad gets on, logs the cache, and then copies the log link so Kid can also log the cache.

 

If TPTB wanted to stop this practice, they could restrict access to the log page as they do the cache page itself. I fail to see the department store analogy- they may not have registers at the entrances/exits, but they do have anti-theft devices there (and employees that will question you if they go off), so you cannot simply walk out with merchandise without paying for it. Like I said previously, if Groundspeak wants to make it so you *must* be a PM to log MOCs (or otherwise discourage non-PM logging), they can. Until then, I think that those with one PM account in a family will probably continue to proceed as they have been.

 

Also, just so my position is clear- I'm *not* saying that I (or any other non-PM) should go to a PM-buddy and say "Hey, Joe, y'know about such-and-such MOC... yeah, I was wondering if I could get the coords for it, because it's interfering with my cleared radius..." What I'm saying is that if a family goes caching together, they shouldn't have to pay $90+ a year (for a family of 3) to be able to log all of their finds.

 

Just my $0.02...

 

Happy caching!

Jeff

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Or you could actually PAY for the right to see and log MO caches without, oh I dunno, stealing them. <_<

 

And before you say it, just because there's nothing preventing you from doing it doesn't make it any less stealing. Lots of department stores are set up so registers are nowhere near the entrances - is it ok to just walk out with stuff because nothing's stopping you?

 

I would say it is when the manager say it is ok to walk out with stuff. The back door has been acknowledge by Jeremy, so it it's really stealing. Please see the link below.

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Yes, Polar B's have it right. I mentioned in my post above that Jeremy had discussed the idea before, and thought that would at least "hint" that he was aware of the loophole method and OK with the practice, in addition to considering the idea of family plan. I don't know of any premium member only cache owners who don't want family members (and sometimes friends as well) logging the cache. Most just choose to make the cache PM to encourage membership and/or to discourage cache vandalism.

 

I look at it this way. When my children were young, I bought books to read to them. I did not buy one copy for myself and one for each child. I bought one book and read it to them. Now that they are older, they often read books that I have purchased, and previously read. I re-read books that I have already read, and don't feel like I have to purchase a new copy in order to compensate the author for my repeated enjoyment. I rest pretty easy with that decision, and don't feel that I was stealing from the author because we didn't pay for multiple copies. It's understood that people do that with books, hence, we have libraries. Authors are OK with the notion, knowing that it increases their exposure and that when people love a particular book enough, they purchase their own copy.

 

If I go to a hotel with my family, I may have to pay a few dollars more for having several people in the room, but I don't have to get a separate room for each person. The same kind of discount plan works for family memberships to the local pool, YMCA, zoo, and so forth. Sometimes those places even offer "free days" where I can bring a guest, so they can see that they are missing (and potentially choose to join). They encourage family plans because they know that once you develop a habit of attending their kind of entertainment, you will continue it when you become an adult and establish your own identity.

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Yes, Polar B's have it right. I mentioned in my post above that Jeremy had discussed the idea before, and thought that would at least "hint" that he was aware of the loophole method and OK with the practice, in addition to considering the idea of family plan. I don't know of any premium member only cache owners who don't want family members (and sometimes friends as well) logging the cache. Most just choose to make the cache PM to encourage membership and/or to discourage cache vandalism.

 

I look at it this way. When my children were young, I bought books to read to them. I did not buy one copy for myself and one for each child. I bought one book and read it to them. Now that they are older, they often read books that I have purchased, and previously read. I re-read books that I have already read, and don't feel like I have to purchase a new copy in order to compensate the author for my repeated enjoyment. I rest pretty easy with that decision, and don't feel that I was stealing from the author because we didn't pay for multiple copies. It's understood that people do that with books, hence, we have libraries. Authors are OK with the notion, knowing that it increases their exposure and that when people love a particular book enough, they purchase their own copy.

 

If I go to a hotel with my family, I may have to pay a few dollars more for having several people in the room, but I don't have to get a separate room for each person. The same kind of discount plan works for family memberships to the local pool, YMCA, zoo, and so forth. Sometimes those places even offer "free days" where I can bring a guest, so they can see that they are missing (and potentially choose to join). They encourage family plans because they know that once you develop a habit of attending their kind of entertainment, you will continue it when you become an adult and establish your own identity.

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The point of caching is to enjoy it with other people. Share the experience, and if you happen to be a family it is a great family activity. I cache with my son and he is 7. If there wee a Childs PM Say for 12 and under , at a reduced rate of say $12/year. It is frustrating when they cache with you and you cannot log their caches. I am not even going to reduce myself to the shortcuts mentioned earlier. This is a great activity and people that look to circumvent the system are the ones that ruin it for everyone.

 

Let's just be realistic and develop a child's membership, or a Family membership with say 4 PM's available for say $75.

 

This does not seem like a difficult issue so let's stop talking about it and JFDI!!!

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The point of caching is to enjoy it with other people. Share the experience, and if you happen to be a family it is a great family activity. I cache with my son and he is 7. If there wee a Childs PM Say for 12 and under , at a reduced rate of say $12/year. It is frustrating when they cache with you and you cannot log their caches. I am not even going to reduce myself to the shortcuts mentioned earlier. This is a great activity and people that look to circumvent the system are the ones that ruin it for everyone.

 

Let's just be realistic and develop a child's membership, or a Family membership with say 4 PM's available for say $75.

 

This does not seem like a difficult issue so let's stop talking about it and JFDI!!!

 

The problem is, just like you said, the problem is those that circumvent the system ruin it for everyone. I can see people trying to use the family membership to get cheaper memberships for friends/etc. We're talking about $3/month here. Just buy the membership for your son. Unless you can come up with an easy way for Groundspeak to manage the process of ensuring that the person receiving the cheaper membership is truly a family member under the age of 12?

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I think that $ 30 a year / person is cheap. In that sum I don't even get full tank of gas to my car.

 

Or $3/a month? Come On!

I could go into the rant about the time when I was a newly divorce mother of three and even 3 bucks would require some fianacial shuffling etc, but...

 

You are thinking like a single cacher. Three bucks for a single person is reasonable. But if you had a family of five or six...Would it still seem that way? Children, especially young ones, don't need their own PQs, they aren't even likely to care if they can change their forum title or bookmark caches. In other words, they aren't going to be a huge drain on the system resources, other than to create a few additional logs. There are dozens of other ways to spend the money that would help support GC and not be wasted.

 

There has been some talk of a possibility of creating family memberships, where the PQs would be shared. If that were the case, a mere dollar more per person per year would probably more than cover the cost of the additional logs on PM caches and yet still seem very reasonable to families. The family members would get a few additional services, such as the ability to see and log PM caches. Couples might still prefer two full memberships, but growing families would have an additional option. Last time Jeremey spoke, it was on the list to consider, but not a high priority. How to link all the members was the major obstacle mentioned. He suggested something about seeing how Waymarking groups worked out and perhaps using something like that to link everyone to one group.

 

In my first post on this subject, I stated that I could/would agree with a 'piggyback' account. Presumably that type of account would only get the additional benefit of viewing/logging MO caches.

 

I, too, have been in the situation where $3 was food for the week.

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