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GEOCACHING MAGAZINE


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I've been thinking about this one since I started playing. Why is there no magazine? There are enough cachers out there, and even though I dont know the exact numbers, I'll bet half of the cachers are P.M.s that would subscribe to this magazine.

 

My thoughts on what would be in it are,

G.P.S.r reviews, A Q&A from experts on different subjects, A rant page from geocachers about problems on anything, Some of the best caches in the world, Nubi talk, A section on benchmarking, A humer section, How to place good caches & how to find them, Photo pages.

 

I was thinking about the top finders and hiders but like I have read in the forums, Its not about who finds the most and what thier scores are but the comodery between all of us. But that would not be my decision, but everyones. So what are are everyones thoughts on what would be in it, and if there should be one?

 

PLEASE NO FIGHTING WITH EACH OTHER. NO ONE IS RIGHT OR WRONG HERE

Edited by genegene
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I've been thinking about this one since I started playing. Why is there no magazine...

There was one. There could be one again.

I'd like to see some folks take on a newsletter on Terracachers.org.

 

There were a number of reasons Todays Cacher blew apart. I'm not privy to them. Just that there was more than one reason.

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I just don't think it would be interesting enough for it to be a whole magazine every month. Look! Another tupperware under a dead tree!

 

Now, perhaps getting a dedicated column to geocaching in an already established magazine. I don't know much about what is out there, but GPS World looks like it could be good. Just my $0.02.

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I wish there were some publicists amongst our ranks who could offer an experienced viewpoint. Till then, all I can do is guess;

Comparing caching to other recreational activities that do support magazines, I'd guess that our numbers are too few to support a viable magazine. Hopefully El D will chime in with his thoughts, and can share with us an estimate of how many subscribers they had.

 

Edit to add: If one came out, I'd sign up...again

Edited by Clan Riffster
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I just don't think it would be interesting enough for it to be a whole magazine every month. Look! Another tupperware under a dead tree!

 

 

Regardless of your opinion based upon your limited experience. It WAS.

 

 

Today's Cacher was an excellent magazine...... Before that it was an excellent e-zine givin its limited perspective to gc.com only and not the entire gamut of geocaching websites and GPS games.

 

 

I miss it. :laughing:

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It's hard to get good contributions. I had a newsletter that most everyone in our association claimed to enjoy, but few would contribute to. After 8 or 9 months it ended up being mostly about me and the events I went to, so I shut it down.

 

I thought Today's Cacher was well on its way until they ventured into print, a serious mistake, in my opinion, when even print publications are going online, and struggling to pay for themselves.

 

I think its a viable e-zine idea if the publishers can stay out of the politics of the game and attract contributions.

 

It is a huge undertaking that would have to be mostly volunteer labor, done for love not money; I don't see subscriptions coming anywhere near paying for the hours of effort, even in a near-no-cost online publication.

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Actually this topic gets brought up enough to keep my attention - so I will make this offer...

 

I will collaborate with whomever volunteers will commit to giving some time each month to the publication of a free online geocaching e-zine and give 60 hours per month of my time to coordinating, editing and publishing it.

 

I can see no reason for expense other than a website to host it.

 

We'll publish it in web format and as a downloadable .pdf for folks that want a printed copy.

 

I would not be interested in making it a business, with for-fee subscriptions, nor would I support the mailing list to be shared or sold, outside of that most anything the volunteer publishing group wants is acceptable.

 

The mailing list need only be a broadcast email to free subscribers reminding them that a new e-zine was posted. Mostly it would be a "publish it and they will come" website.

 

Any takers?

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Regardless of your opinion based upon your limited experience. It WAS.

 

While my experience in caching is only about a month, I also say this from year of experience in publishing. Geocaching is simply too limited a subject for a dedicated magazine, in my opinion. Now, a geocaching column or even section in a broader GPS magazine would be the way to go, if it hasn't been done already.

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Actually this topic gets brought up enough to keep my attention - so I will make this offer...

 

I will collaborate with whomever volunteers will commit to giving some time each month to the publication of a free online geocaching e-zine and give 60 hours per month of my time to coordinating, editing and publishing it.

 

I can see no reason for expense other than a website to host it.

 

We'll publish it in web format and as a downloadable .pdf for folks that want a printed copy.

 

I would not be interested in making it a business, with for-fee subscriptions, nor would I support the mailing list to be shared or sold, outside of that most anything the volunteer publishing group wants is acceptable.

 

The mailing list need only be a broadcast email to free subscribers reminding them that a new e-zine was posted. Mostly it would be a "publish it and they will come" website.

 

Any takers?

 

As the (ex)webmaster for Today's Cacher, I still have a server up and running, and would donate the cost of hosting the domain. So there wouldn't even be the minimal cost of hosting the website.

 

As you pointed out, our biggest, recurring problem at TC was always getting people to contribute articles to the site. With an all volunteer staff you have no whip to crack when everyone says, "I don't have anything this month." Then you end up trying to generate a bunch of content on your own, or nagging people who are really trying to help you. It's hard to be demanding from people whom you aren't paying.

 

Also, volunteers tend to not respect deadlines. What finally caused me to call it quits was yet another 13 hour day doing HTML the day before the issue was supposed to go up on the website, because everyone had waited until the last minute to send their articles in.

 

I agree that if it's attempted again it should not be a for profit enterprise, and everyone should accept that going in.

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I've been thinking about this one since I started playing. Why is there no magazine...

I'd like to see some folks take on a newsletter on Terracachers.org.

 

Would reading that require you to get 2 sponsors to vouch for you, and then stay active on the site or loose sponsorship and access?

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As the (ex)webmaster for Today's Cacher, I still have a server up and running, and would donate the cost of hosting the domain. So there wouldn't even be the minimal cost of hosting the website.

 

As you pointed out, our biggest, recurring problem at TC was always getting people to contribute articles to the site. With an all volunteer staff you have no whip to crack when everyone says, "I don't have anything this month." Then you end up trying to generate a bunch of content on your own, or nagging people who are really trying to help you. It's hard to be demanding from people whom you aren't paying.

 

Also, volunteers tend to not respect deadlines. What finally caused me to call it quits was yet another 13 hour day doing HTML the day before the issue was supposed to go up on the website, because everyone had waited until the last minute to send their articles in.

 

I agree that if it's attempted again it should not be a for profit enterprise, and everyone should accept that going in.

 

Just an idea...why not open it to allow anyone to contribute content and rather than having a staff or subest of people writing articles you have them approving articles that are freely submitted. That way you just basically open up topics and allow people to do write-up's on the topics and get multiple submissions for each one to choose from...maybe publish a few different views.

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I think we would accept contributions on any geocaching subject, since it's about geocaching, not geocache listing sites. Having simple rules like articles must not be rude or confrontational, must be of interest to geocachers, and should present their content fairly would open the 'zine to most all readers and contributors.

 

Edit to add: Posted at the same time. Ditto egami

Edited by TheAlabamaRambler
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First, as I have stated in the past, I feel that Today's Cacher magazine was a noble effort, but was rather doomed from the start by the fact that this is still a relatively small and little-known sport, and thus there was not a large enuf market to ever warrant sales of enuf issues to make it profitable, and, so long as an effort like that remains volunteer, then the publishers really have no control over quality and timing of submitted materials, as other posters have pointed out.

 

Will geocaching ever become big enuf and popular enuf to be able to support one more commercial mags publishing at least six times per year? Possibly. The rock cliimbing community has supported a commercial mag (Climbing) since the 1970s, and now there is a least one other climbing mag (Rock and Ice) as well. And the caving (aka spelunking) world, while it has never been able to offer a newsstand-type glossy magazine which can be found with ease in the USA, has, for a long time, supported several small specialty "commercial" or semi-commercial mags on caving, including Spéléo, an exquisitely-done French-language only magazine, The International Caver, based in the UK, a Polish commercial effort called Jaskinie (the Caves), which has an excellent rep, and another UK venture called Descent, and then there are a very large handful of club-supported mags, including NSS news (which I receive as an NSS member) in the USA, but which is supported entirely by NSS, and of course, NSS also pubslishes the more scholarly Journal of Cave and Karst Studies. And, I must report that the kayaking field also supports several commercial magazines.

 

However, it still remains to be seen whether geocaching will become large enuf and popular enuf -- and also accrue enough of an ancillary fan base -- to support a real commercial effort. At this point, there are not even any ongoing major columns devoted to geocaching of which I am aware in commercial outdoor mags like Outside, and so it looks like the journey may take a while.

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snip...

 

As you pointed out, our biggest, recurring problem at TC was always getting people to contribute articles to the site. With an all volunteer staff you have no whip to crack when everyone says, "I don't have anything this month." Then you end up trying to generate a bunch of content on your own, or nagging people who are really trying to help you. It's hard to be demanding from people whom you aren't paying.

 

snip...

 

Just an idea...why not open it to allow anyone to contribute content and rather than having a staff or subest of people writing articles you have them approving articles that are freely submitted. That way you just basically open up topics and allow people to do write-up's on the topics and get multiple submissions for each one to choose from...maybe publish a few different views.

 

This was pretty much our M.O. for the website the entire time. We were constantly asking for submissions, and we published most everything we got. If it was sparse on detail, we fleshed it out, if it was written as a rough draft, we polished it.

 

Bottom line, people just didn't send stuff in very often. So after a few months you either need a dedicated group of contributors, or some way to inspire the community to contribute.

 

I'm not trying to put the brakes on--I think it's worth pursuing. I just don't want to see people stuck in the same pitfalls.

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Not be the high tech snob or to take down the idea, but there's so many geocaching-related blogs out there with RSS feeds that can easily be added to your Google home page or other news feed aggregator, that for me the idea of a magazine with limited and possibly dated content isn't great. I get all of the lastest geocaching news articles and blog entries in one place.

 

Maybe if it was done as a community blog or in the style of a Wiki? That takes the bottleneck of the web master / programmer out of the equation and allows for a smoother flow of info.

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I think we would accept contributions on any geocaching subject, since it's about geocaching, not geocache listing sites. Having simple rules like articles must not be rude or confrontational, must be of interest to geocachers, and should present their content fairly would open the 'zine to most all readers and contributors.

 

Edit to add: Posted at the same time. Ditto egami

Sounds like the forums, to me...

 

Well, hopefully minus the angst... :grin:

 

I'd sign up, though. :laughing:

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Just an idea...why not open it to allow anyone to contribute content and rather than having a staff or subest of people writing articles you have them approving articles that are freely submitted. That way you just basically open up topics and allow people to do write-up's on the topics and get multiple submissions for each one to choose from...maybe publish a few different views.

 

Keep in mind, someone still has to proofread, correct spelling and grammer, edit for clarity, edit for length (possibly) and the other mundane chores that would be associated with getting numerous submissions into a readable form. And again, if insufficient usuable submissions are received, you have to find something.

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Well it seams to me that so far there are 13 people that sound like there interested in one, and this post is only 5 hrs old. that is a good start if i ever saw one. I know of a few people arround me that might be interested in sharing some of there experiances to. Though my time will be limited soon ( going back to work ASAP ) just waiting on the call. I would be more then happy to put in my time to make something work and see where it goes.

 

I once belonged to a local Fire dept. and it seamed since I was one of the youngest and not born and raised in the area, I was an outsider and what ever I thought was a good idea was shot down, but 1 yr later one of the older members sugested the same thing it was like GOD spoke through them ( not ment to disrespect or allinate any other religins ).

 

The only reason I bring this up is that if we want to see one lets start it, and see what happens if we realy buckel down and try and not worry about weathor or not it will work. LETS TRY

 

I sent a E-Mail to the Todays cacher and let them know I would love to help. I'm not in it for the money ( theres no money I know that ) just in the fun knowing that someone will eithor agree or dissagree with me and to here what other people think.

 

keep your thoughts comming

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Great ideas!

 

Sorry Vinny, you missed my point - I am not proposing anything that's professional-grade or to start a business. It does not have to have a huge audience... ten regular readers profit us as much as ten thousand.

 

More like a blend of what 9Key and Trucker Lee said, take content that's already available (with permission) and that which is contributed, do a bit of editing wizardry to make in purty and comprehensible and publish it.

 

Nothing says it can't combine RSS feeds, blogs, links to interesting personal pages, whatever.

 

I love single-sourcing; if we can form a content aggregator where cachers can come to one place to get the latest articles on geocaching we'll have something worthwhile.

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I've been thinking about this one since I started playing. Why is there no magazine...

I'd like to see some folks take on a newsletter on Terracachers.org.

 

Would reading that require you to get 2 sponsors to vouch for you, and then stay active on the site or loose sponsorship and access?

That's Terracaching.com. Terracachers.org pre-dates the TC.com folks. When they checked the domains they didn't catch that our name was so close or they may have tried for a different moniker.

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Having simple rules like articles must not be rude or confrontational, must be of interest to geocachers, and should present their content fairly would open the 'zine to most all readers and contributors.

Might be a tough job for the editor to decide what constitutes "rude", "confrontational" or "fair". One of my all time favorite TC articles was written by Briansnat regarding containers, and for folks who love film canisters and Gladware, that article might seem confrontational. Another article, (can't remember who wrote it), briefly described the benefits of scenic locations, which might be considered confrontational to folks who love PnG's in Wally World parking lots. Gaia help you if you wrote about hiding an ammo can under a pile of sticks. :laughing:

 

Just sayin'... :grin:

 

Bottom line, people just didn't send stuff in very often.

Something I would suggest would be to eliminate deadlines all together. Rather than look to a calender to determine when the next issue gets published, look to the volume of available content. Once you have 1000 words, 5000 words, 10,000 words, whatever, publish it. Perhaps on the home page you could have some kind of counter displaying how many words you have ready, and what your target goal was, so subscribers can get a feel for how long it will be until the next issue?

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Having simple rules like articles must not be rude or confrontational, must be of interest to geocachers, and should present their content fairly would open the 'zine to most all readers and contributors.

Might be a tough job for the editor to decide what constitutes "rude", "confrontational" or "fair".

Not tough at all - like 'good' art, I know confrontation and rudeness when I see it! :laughing:

 

Bottom line, people just didn't send stuff in very often.

Something I would suggest would be to eliminate deadlines all together. Rather than look to a calender to determine when the next issue gets published, look to the volume of available content. Once you have 1000 words, 5000 words, 10,000 words, whatever, publish it. Perhaps on the home page you could have some kind of counter displaying how many words you have ready, and what your target goal was, so subscribers can get a feel for how long it will be until the next issue?

Or just do away with the concept of dated issues altogether; add content as it comes available and let dated material slide into archives.

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As the (ex)webmaster for Today's Cacher, I still have a server up and running, and would donate the cost of hosting the domain. So there wouldn't even be the minimal cost of hosting the website.

 

As you pointed out, our biggest, recurring problem at TC was always getting people to contribute articles to the site. With an all volunteer staff you have no whip to crack when everyone says, "I don't have anything this month." Then you end up trying to generate a bunch of content on your own, or nagging people who are really trying to help you. It's hard to be demanding from people whom you aren't paying.

 

Also, volunteers tend to not respect deadlines. What finally caused me to call it quits was yet another 13 hour day doing HTML the day before the issue was supposed to go up on the website, because everyone had waited until the last minute to send their articles in.

 

I agree that if it's attempted again it should not be a for profit enterprise, and everyone should accept that going in.

 

Just an idea...why not open it to allow anyone to contribute content and rather than having a staff or subest of people writing articles you have them approving articles that are freely submitted. That way you just basically open up topics and allow people to do write-up's on the topics and get multiple submissions for each one to choose from...maybe publish a few different views.

Hmmmmm. I think they call that a forum. The only difference is it isn't filtered for content first.

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Well, it seams (seems) to me that so far there are 13 people that (who) sound like there (they're) interested in one, and this post is only 5 hrs old. (T) that is a good start if i (I) ever saw one. I know of a few people arround (around) me that (who) might be interested in sharing some of there (their) experiances (experiences) to (too). Though my time will be limited soon ( going back to work ASAP ) just waiting on the call. I would be more then (than) happy to put in my time to make something work and see where it goes.

 

I once belonged to a local Fire dept. and it seamed (seemed) since I was one of the youngest and not born and raised in the area, I was an outsider and what ever (whatever) I thought was a good idea was shot down, but 1 yr later one of the older members sugested (suggested) the same thing it was like GOD spoke through them ( not ment (meant) to disrespect or allinate (alienate) any other religins (religions).

 

The only reason I bring this up is that if we want to see one lets (let's) start it, and see what happens if we realy buckel (buckle) down and try and not worry about weathor (whether) or not it will work. LETS (LET'S) TRY

 

I sent a (an) E-Mail to the Todays (Today's) cacher (Cacher) and let them know I would love to help. I'm not in it for the money ( theres (there's) no money I know that ) just in the fun knowing that someone will eithor (either) agree or dissagree with me and to here (hear) what other people think.

 

keep your thoughts comming (coming)

 

I don't mean to be the "spelling police" or anything of that sort but I can see that it would be a lot of work getting your submissions in shape for publication. I'd be interested in reading the e-zine but it would have to be gone over and corrected by an editor first. I didn't work on sentence construction but I did mark some of your more glaring errors.

 

I only point this out because someone would have to put in a lot of time cleaning up submissions.

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There is a lot of work that goes into publishing a magazine. The best advice I can give is the old K.I.S.S rule...Keep It Simple Stupid. One of our downfalls was always trying to make the next issue bigger and better than the previous one.

 

The only reason we managed to last the 3 years we did from because of the dedication of the regular staff. However we all soon became tired of meeting deadlines and trying to get the next issue up. You'll find many people that say they want to help and may do so for a short period of time, but most don't follow through.

 

It's harder than you might think to decide wether or not to publish an article or to cover a subject. Some will try to use the magazine as a vehicle to carry a personal message or a grudge.

 

One day I might bring back Today's Cacher, and If I do it will be a lot more laid back for the people involved.

 

Also, unless you have deep pockets, stay away from any thoughts of making it profitable.

 

I would be happy to share my knowledge (be it what it is) to anyone wanting my advice.

 

El Diablo

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Not be the high tech snob or to take down the idea, but there's so many geocaching-related blogs out there with RSS feeds that can easily be added to your Google home page or other news feed aggregator, that for me the idea of a magazine with limited and possibly dated content isn't great. I get all of the lastest geocaching news articles and blog entries in one place.

 

Maybe if it was done as a community blog or in the style of a Wiki? That takes the bottleneck of the web master / programmer out of the equation and allows for a smoother flow of info.

 

This sounds like the best idea I've heard

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Not be the high tech snob or to take down the idea, but there's so many geocaching-related blogs out there with RSS feeds that can easily be added to your Google home page or other news feed aggregator, that for me the idea of a magazine with limited and possibly dated content isn't great. I get all of the lastest geocaching news articles and blog entries in one place.

 

Maybe if it was done as a community blog or in the style of a Wiki? That takes the bottleneck of the web master / programmer out of the equation and allows for a smoother flow of info.

 

This sounds like the best idea I've heard

 

A wiki might be a good start:

 

Cacheopedia

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I don't mean to be the "spelling police" or anything of that sort...

Of course you do. You did. At no small effort.

 

Yes, some spelling and grammar might be corrected, but this is for cachers by cachers, not an erudite publication for academia. Most articles will go out as the author wrote them.

 

Actually Ed I think he was making a well made point. Also that was our tag line "By cachers for cachers" However they still have to be edited. Otherwise you get a lot of articles that are so misspelled and grammer incorrect that it turns off the readers.

 

That's why we had April, Kylee, and Carleen. Believe me every time I wrote something, they groaned.

 

El Diablo

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I should've added to my other post for this thread that I would also like to see the return of the mag.As for volunteering,well,I'm not sure if I would or would not have the time to devote to writing.I'd like to say yes,but as El D said,everyone starts out with good intentions.

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I should've added to my other post for this thread that I would also like to see the return of the mag.As for volunteering,well,I'm not sure if I would or would not have the time to devote to writing.I'd like to say yes,but as El D said,everyone starts out with good intentions.

I think folks who write, enjoy writing, who can write interesting stories, are going to write no matter what.

 

I think it's something you do to express yourself, not something you do because some magazine asked you to.

 

If we open our submissions to anyone who wants to write something geocaching related and treat their writing with respect I believe that we'll have plenty of material to work with.

 

If you have time, want to contribute, great, if not I hope that you will enjoy reading it!

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Bottom line, people just didn't send stuff in very often. So after a few months you either need a dedicated group of contributors, or some way to inspire the community to contribute.

 

A couple great posts from an editorial standpoint GW.

 

Not many know this, but I was part of the first brainstorming sessions for TC in a private forum on Woodster's old website. Pretty much everyone in those sessions including myself were cut from the team. :o :o

 

When TC emerged as an e-zine, I was highly nagged urged to submit articles basically by the entire staff starting with you GW. I hemmed and hawed for awhile and then finally got on the stick.

 

I delivered on 3 of 4 promised projects and 1 was published. I still feel bad about letting Pye down on the one for Halloween hunts that I didn't turn in. :o

 

The first article I delivered was for GW3. At the time I was told that my article would be for the first printed issue. I was asked to write about my trip, because of a remarkable coincidence that occurred involving my niece, Tonya aka Jazzymama, living basically across the street from the park where GW3 was held. She was a big hit at GW3.

 

Well, I turned in my article and lo and behold I get absolutely NO editorial feedback. No feedback what-so-ever. Not even a thank you.

 

Well, the first issue of TC comes out and there are pictures of me all over it doing various GW3 activities and even a direct quote about Clan Barron's awesome GWIII4WD tour through the swamp, but no by line for my article. Oh well..... I was tickled none the less.

 

Now let me be clear that there are NO hard feelings for what I say next:

 

As I read through the mag I see a similar article and the by line is by none other than the person I turned my article over to. :o

 

Again, not angry. The person in question is a friend. My point being that I at least deserved a response that my article was not going to be used. That's all.

 

My second article on how I play My Game (based on my thread) was printed in the e-zine. I believe the person I turned it in to said thanks in advance, yet once again, after the article left my hands, NO FEEDBACK. A couple local people emailed me to tell me I wrote a good article. I had NO IDEA it had even been published. No one from the magazine even bothered to tell me and certainly no thanks for delivering an article fit to print.

 

The third article went poof I'm sure because it was on Terracaching and even though I had been asked to write it, the narrow focus of the magazine caused it to die. By this time I didn't even expect to hear anything back. The narrow focus of TC on all that is GC.com was a major sore spot in the forums that week and at that point I pretty much knew the end was nigh. It lingered for a few more months though.

 

SO, in my case, as a 3 time contributor, this statement:

Bottom line, people just didn't send stuff in very often.
Is true in part because I'm a procrastinator of the first order, but mainly because there was no "process" in the editorial process that Today's Cacher employed that could capture my loyalty as a contributor.

Food for thought. :o

 

 

As my good friend Marty aka FiveSecretHunters always says, "I am sooo clearly just sayin'."

Edited by Snoogans
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I should've added to my other post for this thread that I would also like to see the return of the mag.As for volunteering,well,I'm not sure if I would or would not have the time to devote to writing.I'd like to say yes,but as El D said,everyone starts out with good intentions.

I think folks who write, enjoy writing, who can write interesting stories, are going to write no matter what.

 

I think it's something you do to express yourself, not something you do because some magazine asked you to.

 

If we open our submissions to anyone who wants to write something geocaching related and treat their writing with respect I believe that we'll have plenty of material to work with.

 

If you have time, want to contribute, great, if not I hope that you will enjoy reading it!

 

Very true...There's way more members now than when TC was last published.I haven't really looked in depth in TC but if there was a regional section,I'd probably like to be a regional contributor rather than general.

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Snoogans, you are one classy guy.

 

Not everyone could say what you did with as much tact and restraint.

 

I was less involved with interfacing with the contributors than others, so I claim ignorance as to how your submssions were treated so poorly. However, we obviously dropped the ball with you, and for that I apologize in a very belated fashion. It's largely irrelevant now, but none the less sincere.

 

I don't want to derail the topic by rehashing the woes of TC, but I felt that your post merited a reply.

 

Certainly there is room for improvement in the submission process, and I agree with El D and the others that you still need to edit things for clarity and accuracy.

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My second article on how I play My Game (based on my thread) was printed in the e-zine. I believe the person I turned it in to said thanks in advance, yet once again, after the article left my hands, NO FEEDBACK. A couple local people emailed me to tell me I wrote a good article. I had NO IDEA it had even been published. No one from the magazine even bothered to tell me and certainly no thanks for delivering an article fit to print.

 

That was me and I can't imagine not saying thanks when I received it. If I didn't it was a major oversight on my part. Beyond that I didn't think any feedback was necessary. It's mere appearance in the magazine I figured was evidence that it was a quality piece.

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I don't mean to be the "spelling police" or anything of that sort...

Of course you do. You did. At no small effort.

 

Yes, some spelling and grammar might be corrected, but this is for cachers by cachers, not an erudite publication for academia. Most articles will go out as the author wrote them.

 

Actually Ed I think he was making a well made point. Also that was our tag line "By cachers for cachers" However they still have to be edited. Otherwise you get a lot of articles that are so misspelled and grammer incorrect that it turns off the readers.

 

That's why we had April, Kylee, and Carleen. Believe me every time I wrote something, they groaned.

 

El Diablo

I'm practicing exemplary editorial control and restraint. It ain't easy. :o

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I don't mean to be the "spelling police" or anything of that sort...

Of course you do. You did. At no small effort.

 

Yes, some spelling and grammar might be corrected, but this is for cachers by cachers, not an erudite publication for academia. Most articles will go out as the author wrote them.

 

taking the time to spell simple words correctly is not the mark of erudition. it is the mark of basic literacy.

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Thanks THRAK, I know im a bad speller, and well allways have been one but thats why I have WordPerfect by microsoft for the times that I need to wright something and not have any mistakes (spelling). If it was something that might be published I would deffinatly use it.

 

Snoogans, I can understand you on how you feel and applaud you for your restraint on any negitive words. Im fortunate enough that in my neck of the wood that I have a N.P.R. station that brodcasts a segment that has the editor and chief of the Albany Times Union as one of its speakers. One day ( almost once a week ) they bring up the topic about what is and what is not published. And every week its the same thing space, topic, what is worth telling. Since I would not be the editor nor would want to be, I would go with the flow, just like you did and hope that one day something I wrote would get published and I would get reconized for my contribution.

 

Thank you everyone for your advice. keep them comming

If you are willing to help to get the T.C. up and running agen E-mail them like I did and show your suport. genegene

 

P.S. I don't need any one to tell me im a bad speller. I allready know :o

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There is some rehashing of TC, so let me make this clear - I liked TC and hope it regains its footing.

 

I have NO desire to recreate TC, except that I do believe that there is a hunger for a publication by and for geocachers!

 

TC was in many ways a great success and I want us to learn from what they did right as well as what went wrong; let us therefore keep any comparison of this effort to TC in that vein just as we learn from the successes and mistakes of any online publication.

 

I hope that any and all of those involved in TC will contribute to this effort until such time as they want to re-launch that magazine. I have no desire to get into a competitive position with them or any other publication.

 

I have had quite a number of folks express interest in helping, and as seen in this thread, others who support the idea.

 

I am retired. I do not want a job. Most of the volunteers have a life and a job, they don't need a job either. This will therefore be a labor of love and fun, not a business.

 

The idea of paying contributers in coin is appreciated, but misses the point - if geocachers want to contribute they will, with our appreciation and thanks as their only return.

 

I can't say that every submission will be published, but can assure the community that if it is appropriate it will be published, the contributer publicly acknowledged and appreciated.

 

At the moment I will decide what content is appropriate - as our volunteer base coalesces we will form a committee to determine such things.

 

Keep the ideas rolling in!

 

EDIT TO ADD: Solicitation of content is active, let's get this ball rolling! Original content is always welcome, but if you know of a news article or even something on your local geocaching website that is in your opinion worthy of international attention submit it. We will get permission to reprint articles where possible, if we can't we'll just link the reader to them.

 

Please submit all content, ideas, constructive criticism and happy thoughts to TheAlabamaRambler@gmail.com. Send all negativity to Snoogans, he's a nicer guy than I am! :o

 

Ed

Edited by TheAlabamaRambler
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I love the idea of a geocaching magazine. I'll be one of the first people to admit that I "wanted" to write for today's cacher but never actually submitted a thing... I'm lazy and I'll admit it. I also have a full time job, and while I am wasting company time to write this an article is a different story. Most anyone who reads my blog knows I'm not a good writer anyway.

 

Geocachers already have access to a lot of content... forums like this one and the many local sites that exist... blogs... podcachers... even youtube videos. When I read about geocaching I don't want to read politics or how micros are evil or who has the most finds... I want to read about geocaching. I think a magazine or newsletter should focus on specific experiences and caches... maybe mix in articles about interesting containers, geocoins, travel bugs, swag... but keep the geocaches as the main content.

 

To keep the content high without offering any insentive you'll have to do some homework and solicit articles. Research those great caches and then ask whoever wrote the best log to write an article. Keep up with the forums and when you see something interesting remark "if you could expand on that it would make a great article"

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