is it just me ?

March 4, 2008

ok,

I have been on the internet a long long long time. I have seen it all, from the best to the worst of websites. I am sorry to report that at this moment geocaching.com stands out as being a bad website, a very bad website.

Why ?

I am located in Almere, the Netherlands. After a day of searching I finally figured out a way to locate any and all caches in my area. Searching is not the easiets thing to do here. Only half of the cache is actually searchable. Turns out there are 2687 within a 100km (mi?) radius. Now I am trying to have a look at these caches. I have to open 135 pages with 20 caches per page. When I am finally done crashing my computer I try to download the caches I like (say: 100 of them to get me started). I am forced to click 100 times on a "loc waypoint file", I have to rename 100 files because they all have the same name, and to top it off, I have to load 100 loose .loc files manually into my gps- software...

Than the website is programmed so bad, my PDA actually crashes on it, so I can not even log found caches or have a peek at hints available, or...

In my opinion that sucks. Deeply.

Now I have to option to go premium and create a favorites list. But 30 dollars a year for a website that costs no more than $1000 to maintain ??!! All the real work is done by the cachers. Not by Groundspeak; all they do is keep the servers running. and they will probarbly hire somebody to do that for them. At $1000 a year. If only 1percent of at least 50000 members is premium member somebody is pocketing $15000. for doing absolutely nothing. Hm.

So my question is simple: are there any user friendly geocaching websites available ? Where they don't try to make a huge profit but are in it just for fun ?

Edited March 4, 2008 by novw

2k · March 4, 2008

I am forced to click 100 times on a "loc waypoint file", I have to rename 100 files because they all have the same name, and to top it off, I have to load 100 loose .loc files manually into my gps- software...

That's what a premium membership is for, so you can get pocket queries. If you are a casual geocacher, then entering a few cache coordinates by hand or downloading them isn't a problem. If you get into it more, then pocket queries are the only way to go.

I recommend using gsak or another tool to download gpx files, and you won't have to deal with manual work. Or you can use the "send to GPS" option if you have a garmin.

Than the website is programmed so bad, my PDA actually crashes on it, so I can not even log found caches or have a peek at hints available, or...

If your PDA crashes, it's hardly the fault of geocaching.com. My ancient PDA never has problems with the data.

Now I have to option to go premium and create a favorites list. But 30 dollars a year for a website that costs no more than $1000 to maintain ??!!

You couldn't be more wrong. What makes you think it costs $1000 to maintain?

So my question is simple: are there any user friendly geocaching websites available ? Where they don't try to make a huge profit but are in it just for fun ?

Go try navicache.com, and then we'll see you back in a few days when you realize how user friendly this site is. I'm at a loss what you feel this way.

38.2k · March 4, 2008

moving to the appropriate forum.

March 4, 2008

Than the website is programmed so bad, my PDA actually crashes on it, so I can not even log found caches or have a peek at hints available, or...

If your PDA crashes, it's hardly the fault of geocaching.com. My ancient PDA never has problems with the data.

Thank you for your answer. I did my first cache a couple of days ago, and was trying to see if there were any others in my area. First couple of dozen searches located only 10 or so, that ticked me of to start with. If "hiders" are not smart enough to put a location NAME in the name of their cache, the owners of the website should make the descriptions searchable. Or (better !) check all published caches for validity and findability.

-+

I am using a PDA with windows mobile6, and both (pocket) internet explorer and (pocket) opera. Neither one of those is willing (or able) to show the geocaching site in a working manner. I have had simular experiences on other websites when I was trying with the PDA, and usually this has to do with "cutting corners" in the HTML department. Most annoying on geocaching.com is that I am unable to SEND a logged cache. (no use of proper HTML ?)

As for $1000: I think it should be less than that. I mean we are talking about a medium sized website with bulks of traffic. A small search learns me that 100Gb of traffic PER MONTH, comes (at a top hoster: xs4all.nl) at less than $30 a month. Lets double all the digits, I can have a LARGE website (2Gb) with 200Gb traffic for less than $700... Even when the owners of this webiste are <self-censored>, and they are paying 10 times that amount, there is still an overhead of an extra website at the same cost... Assuming we are talking 1%. I am guessing it is more tho.

Edited March 4, 2008 by novw

38.2k · March 4, 2008

When I first joined this site I was amazed at how user friendly it was, and it's only become more so over the years.

1.3k · March 4, 2008

Since it's all bad, I'm afraid we're not going to see you that often. See you.

March 4, 2008

If there are 50.000 premium members who are not complaining, I think the site is not so bad as you say... All search possibilities are available in a few clicks: for example locating 100 caches near Almere, Netherlands takes me exactly 5 clicks and 30 seconds, including receiving the pocket query in my mailbox...But you have to set it up.

You are mentioning money too as being an issue: In fact, I think geocaching is a hobby which is very accessible for every budget: For less than $200 for a brand new gps receiver you can start. (even $100 if you search on ebay).

If you like it, you can buy additional features: premium membership, support applications (like gsak), more expensive gps receiver, PDA,... you can go as far as you like.

So don't make yourself interesting by telling you are the Light and breaking stuff before you know it...That is annoying me more comparing with the quality of the site...

Regards,

Hans

March 4, 2008

ok,

I have been on the internet a long long long time. I have seen it all, from the best to the worst of websites. I am sorry to report that at this moment geocaching.com stands out as being a bad website, a very bad website.

Why ?

I am located in Almere, the Netherlands. After a day of searching I finally figured out a way to locate any and all caches in my area. Searching is not the easiets thing to do here. Only half of the cache is actually searchable. Turns out there are 2687 within a 100km (mi?) radius. Now I am trying to have a look at these caches. I have to open 135 pages with 20 caches per page. When I am finally done crashing my computer I try to download the caches I like (say: 100 of them to get me started). I am forced to click 100 times on a "loc waypoint file", I have to rename 100 files because they all have the same name, and to top it off, I have to load 100 loose .loc files manually into my gps- software...

Than the website is programmed so bad, my PDA actually crashes on it, so I can not even log found caches or have a peek at hints available, or...

In my opinion that sucks. Deeply.

Now I have to option to go premium and create a favorites list. But 30 dollars a year for a website that costs no more than $1000 to maintain ??!! All the real work is done by the cachers. Not by Groundspeak; all they do is keep the servers running. and they will probarbly hire somebody to do that for them. At $1000 a year. If only 1percent of at least 50000 members is premium member somebody is pocketing $15000. for doing absolutely nothing. Hm.

So my question is simple: are there any user friendly geocaching websites available ? Where they don't try to make a huge profit but are in it just for fun ?

Geocaching.com is the greatest site there is-the only one as my personal opinion-I haven't got my premium membership yet but will have it very soon and looking forward to it.If you have to go,we'll leave the door unlocked for your return,see ya!

March 4, 2008

If "hiders" are not smart enough to put a location NAME in the name of their cache, the owners of the website should make the descriptions searchable.

You can use the search page of the site, put in your local coordinates, and get a list of geocaches closest to you.

Or (better !) check all published caches for validity and findability.

I think you misunderstand the purpose of the site with regard to the geocaching hobby. It is a site that hosts geocache listings. The owners of the site are not a governing organization for the hobby of geocaching, so have no control over the physical caches. I'm not sure how it would at all be practical to go out and physically check on every single cache that is hidden.

As for $1000: I think it should be less than that.

I think you are only estimating the possible cost of bandwidth. They also have costs associated with software development, quality assurance, marketing, lawyers, accountants, equipment, sales, support contracts, insurance, etc.

2k · March 4, 2008

I am using a PDA with windows mobile6, and both (pocket) internet explorer and (pocket) opera. Neither one of those is willing (or able) to show the geocaching site in a working manner. I have had simular experiences on other websites when I was trying with the PDA, and usually this has to do with "cutting corners" in the HTML department. Most annoying on geocaching.com is that I am unable to SEND a logged cache. (no use of proper HTML ?)

I use Blazer, Opera and Xiino on my Treo. All work flawlessly for searching, displaying, and logging of caches.

For your searching problems, I would concur with the previous poster about using the coordinates to search. That is the BEST way to figure out what caches are near you. Enter your home coordinates into your profile, then you can search from your home coords with a single click.

9.1k · March 4, 2008

There are answers to all the newbie questions raised in your post. Were they phrased respectfully, I'd have been delighted to help walk you through answers like how to download 20 .LOC cache files at once, even without being a premium member.

Instead I will just place my bet that your post "goes viral" in the Groundspeak offices by 10:00 this morning, Frog Time. The "$1000 a year" quote may even get pinned on the bulletin board.

20.7k · March 4, 2008

I don't really understand the problem, I guess.

You've found three caches, one of which you logged twice but that's fodder for a different thread. I assume that these caches are within your normal caching area, so I pulled one of them up. Partway down the page, you will find links to 'find' other caches. If you were to choose 'All nearby caches that I haven't found', it will pull up a list of nearly 2600 hundred caches centered on that cache.

Another way to pull up caches 'in your area' is to simply go to your 'My Account' page. Assuming that you've previously entered your home coordinates in your profile, click on 'Search for nearest caches from your home coordinates (filter out finds)' That will bring up a huge list of caches centered on your home coordinates.

If you want easy to use chunks of caches data emailed to you, become a premium member. Based on your initial post, I wonder if you are not trying to scrape the data, instead, which would be a ToS violation.

March 4, 2008

Original poster.

You joined on Feb. 27'th of this year, and your making a complaint already? I find the site very easy to navigate and get the info I need, which is probably why my FTFs are 13% of my overall finds at the moment. I wouldn't be able to have done that, if I couldn't find anything. Take a bit of time to learn the site, and you'll find it's a lot easier than you think.

18.9k · March 4, 2008

Your estimates on what it takes to run this website are absurdly low. There are about 1.5 million total accounts, about 500,000 cache pages. Millions of logs, millions of photos, A few hundred thousand travel bugs, associated logs with those. Maybe 50,000 accounts wrote logs this last week but many many more did searches, hides, gathered information.

I don't know for sure but I'll bet there are at least 6 rather expensive servers by now, required backup equipment, power requirements. The bandwidth they have available is many times what you suggest. The daily traffic much higher than you suspect. A professional high end database is needed to deliver all that information in a reasonably short period of time. Professional programmers are required to tweak the code for optimal functionality.

The mere $30 per year they charge to deliver high end services and more functional searches is well worth the meager investment.

March 4, 2008

Just because you have no idea what you're doing, doesn't make this site bad.

March 4, 2008

Given the amount of raw data this site shovels out every day, it's astonishingly user-friendly.

5.3k · March 4, 2008

The OP must think that the staff at Groundspeak work for free.

I have seen some real PITA web sites, this is not one of them.

March 4, 2008

Now I have to option to go premium and create a favorites list. But 30 dollars a year for a website that costs no more than $1000 to maintain ??!! All the real work is done by the cachers. Not by Groundspeak; all they do is keep the servers running. and they will probarbly hire somebody to do that for them. At $1000 a year. If only 1percent of at least 50000 members is premium member somebody is pocketing $15000. for doing absolutely nothing. Hm.

As others pointed out to you, what you want to use are Pocket Queries. They are great for large numbers of caches.

As for your estimate of the cost of maintaining this website, you are way off. A website like this most likely costs thousands of dollars per month to maintain. There are salaries to pay, code to write, servers to maintain, etc.

Having said that, I will agree with you slightly that this site could be much more user friendly. It takes a lot to figure out how to do things here, but once you do, it is not so bad.

Cheers

2.2k · March 4, 2008

Now I have to option to go premium and create a favorites list. But 30 dollars a year for a website that costs no more than $1000 to maintain ??!! All the real work is done by the cachers. Not by Groundspeak; all they do is keep the servers running. and they will probarbly hire somebody to do that for them. At $1000 a year. If only 1percent of at least 50000 members is premium member somebody is pocketing $15000. for doing absolutely nothing. Hm.

Hahahahahahahaha! :laughing: $1000/year... That's just precious.. Thanks for making my day I'm sure they're running everything on a single 386 with about 16MB of ram! Ignorance is priceless

Edited March 4, 2008 by ReadyOrNot

March 4, 2008

Just because you have no idea what you're doing, doesn't make this site bad.

But post like that *are* a sign that the site could need some improvements. Especially for novice users it's not always easy. Navigation sometimes at the left, sometimes at the top, sometimes at the right. As an example.

Just my 2 cents...

geo_tom

---------------------------------------------------

Use GoogleEarthTweaker to display GPX files in GoogleEarth

4k · March 4, 2008

I will admit, it is a bit confusing and frustrating at first figuring out the .loc/.gpx files and pocket queries and so forth. After it is understood, it is very easy to navigate.

Welcome to geocaching and take time to figure it out because it is worth it.

I find the geocaching.com site friendly. The Groundspeak forums on the other hand are a different animal altogether and not nearly as friendly as no doubt you have already found out.

Happy caching!

8k · March 4, 2008

Newbies often find the site a bit intimidating at first. Understanding the various search options and taking advantage of them takes a bit of practice. If you had posted questions on how best to find caches and how to get the information on to your PDA and/or GPS unit you would have gotten many helpful responses. Some have suggested that the getting started section of the website provided more of a tutorial on how to do these things. For now you can find some pointers in the links given in Getting Started and in this post.

For some of the things you want to do, you would have undoubtedly been told that a premium membership is the way to go. Again, the website could provide better information on the benefits of a premium membership. You can find more details in some of the links above. Most users find the $30/year quite a reasonable price for an annual membership. They don't feel that they need to guess what the bandwidth and server requirements for Geocaching.com are and compute what they think Groundspeak's income should be. Instead they find what the value of the premium membership is to them and whether or not it is worth paying. Most people find that to take advantage of premium membership they need additional software. There are a number of third party software products that can use the GFX file returned in by a premium membership Pocket Query and display it on your PDA or convert it to a format that can be displayed on your PDA. These products range from freeware to commercial products so I'm sure you could find something in your price range :laughing:

3k · March 4, 2008

If only 1percent of at least 50000 members is premium member somebody is pocketing $15000. for doing absolutely nothing.

The extra $15000 is used to care for the Chinldren.

9.2k · March 4, 2008

After a day of searching I finally figured out a way to locate any and all caches in my area.

Let's see. You log on to the main page. Right there on the left-hand side is an option call HIDE AND SEEK A CACHE. You click it. A quarter of the way down the page, is an option to enter your coordinates.

This took you a day? I'm starting to see where the problem is, and it has nothing to do with the website.

Edited March 4, 2008 by Prime Suspect

24.7k · March 4, 2008

...So my question is simple: are there any user friendly geocaching websites available ? Where they don't try to make a huge profit but are in it just for fun ?

You have two questions.

This is the most friendly geocaching website insofar as being usable. The others are harder to use overall.

There are other sites that are in it for just the fun, and in it to make a living for the one owner. However they are not as easy to use as this one.

That said, suggestions for how to make it simpler or follow standards that run across websites should be discussed in these forums.

1.1k · March 4, 2008

it's just you

:laughing:

2.2k · March 4, 2008

Check this out:

Groundspeak About Us

I show 12 positions on this page. If you look at the current job openings, there's quite a for more... I'm guessing these aren't minimum wage positions, but lets assume programmers make minimum wage (it sometimes feels like it).

Jeremy's probably at the top of the barrel, raking in about $22,000/year, followed by everyone else, pulling in a modest $12,000-$15,000/year.

Just salaries would be $200,000/year... (they'd be living in a cardboard box under a bridge.. But it sounds like that'd be ok with you, so we'll go with that)

At $30/year, just to cover these excessive salaries would require about 7,000 paying members...

1k · March 4, 2008

$1,000?.... good one! That would possibly cover the electric bill to run the servers to handle the accounts and data here 363 2/3 days a year :laughing: (yeah, the occasional /server/ error occurs)

There are always tweaks that can be done to make a website better, but all in all you can't beat GC.com.... except maybe with this site HERE...

2.4k · March 4, 2008

If only 1percent of at least 50000 members is premium member somebody is pocketing $15000. for doing absolutely nothing.

The extra $15000 is used to care for the Chinldren.

it would be, except that Groundspeak doesn't care about the Chinldren, remember?

22k · March 4, 2008

If only 1percent of at least 50000 members is premium member somebody is pocketing $15000. for doing absolutely nothing.

The extra $15000 is used to care for the Chinldren.

it would be, except that Groundspeak doesn't care about the Chinldren, remember?

First thing I thought of too. :laughing:

GEOCACHING DOESN'T CARE ABOUT CHINLDREN

20.7k · March 4, 2008

If only 1percent of at least 50000 members is premium member somebody is pocketing $15000. for doing absolutely nothing.

The extra $15000 is used to care for the Chinldren.

it would be, except that Groundspeak doesn't care about the Chinldren, remember?

First thing I thought of too.

GEOCACHING DOESN'T CARE ABOUT CHINLDREN

I reread that old chestnut a few minutes ago. It wasn't as enjoyable as some. Rather than being amusing, it was just a train wreck from the very start. I guess that's why it's so topical.

Edited March 4, 2008 by sbell111

3.2k · March 4, 2008

I find the site pretty user friendly. I gladly pay my premium membership and consider that I get good value for the money.

If we were to assume for the moment that your figures are correct (yeah, right) and that it only costs $1,000 per year to operate the site and that "somebody" is pocketing $15,000 my answer would be, "So what?" I can't imagine anybody running this site at a loss - surely they are smarter than that. I don't care if "somebody" is pocketing 10 times that amount. I get what I want from the site and consider it to be a bargain for the amount of pleasure I get from geocaching. Having this site available makes my geocaching tremendously easier and more enjoyable.

March 4, 2008

If only 1percent of at least 50000 members is premium member somebody is pocketing $15000. for doing absolutely nothing.

The extra $15000 is used to care for the Chinldren.

it would be, except that Groundspeak doesn't care about the Chinldren, remember?

First thing I thought of too.

GEOCACHING DOESN'T CARE ABOUT CHINLDREN

I reread that old chestnut a few minutes ago. It wasn't as enjoyable as some. Rather than being amusing, it was just a train wreck from the very start. I guess that's why it's so topical.

I was wondering how I had missed that thread, and then I looked at the dates and saw that the last post was 5 years ago! :laughing: I was fooled because the same users were posting in that thread that post in current threads.

March 4, 2008

I must admit when I first joined I felt exactly the same way, but I kept plugging away and before long I got the hang of the site. Now almost a year later it takes me about 5 minutes to gather cache data for a weekend of fun, but there is a learning curve. I concur with the others if you had taken the time to ask some questions or spent a little more time trying to learn the site you likely would not feel this way. Your loss.

3.2k · March 4, 2008

is it just me ?

Yes.

1k · March 4, 2008

GEOCACHING DOESN'T CARE ABOUT CHINLDREN

A 5 year old running joke about a typ-O!!! Gotta love it!!!! :laughing:

I tried to pronounce CHINLDREN to a co-worker geocacher and I think I pulled a muscle! hehehehe

1.5k · March 4, 2008

GEOCACHING DOESN'T CARE ABOUT CHINLDREN
A 5 year old running joke about a typ-O!!! Gotta love it!!!! I tried to pronounce CHINLDREN to a co-worker geocacher and I think I pulled a muscle! hehehehe

Wow, that's a little before my time, but I miss my early days when Jeremy would still frequent the forums and pass along such gems of wisdom as appeared in that thread.

I agree with the others that I haven't found geocaching.com to be all that hard to navigate really...could it be improved? certainly. It doesn't look great on a mobile browser (as 90% of the sites out there don't). You might try wap.geocaching.com for the scaled down, but phone-friendly version.

And finally, to answer the original question, no it's not JUST you...but it's probably mostly you.

March 4, 2008

I'll agree that this web site needs work...but $1,000 a year??? ... perhaps for the hosting--but this website is all custom programmed from scratch! I'm guessing that Nate and probably a couple others get $30-$60K a year each making this thing work.

7.2k · March 4, 2008

The best part about the chinldren topic was that it wasn't just Erik (or Eric, flip a coin) that was working with him on the problem caches. I don't remember who it was, but it certainly wasn't me. There is no way it was me. I can say with no uncertain terms that I was not the problem. I mean, who would believe that I would be a stickler for the guidelines and things like that. No way. Not me. They called me Mr. Frenldrenly back then. Yep, that's me. But it wasn't me working on the caches with Erik/Eric. That part wasn't me. No sir.

:laughing:

Have I mentioned how much I like dogs? Geocaching loves dogs.

Boy, I hope Jeremy makes more than $22,000 a year. If he doesn't, I hereby grant him a raise.

To the original poster, try asking some specific questions in some other topics. People here will rush to help you. It is a great community and with so many people and so much diverse equipment in different peoples hands, someone will probably be able to help you with your issues.

Thanks for the walk down memory lane. I love dogs, by the way. Cats too. I even like llamas.

Edited to add that I like hamsters too. J.C. likes them as a snack.

Edited March 4, 2008 by mtn-man

9.5k · March 4, 2008

4k · March 4, 2008

I'll agree that this web site needs work...but $1,000 a year??? ... perhaps for the hosting--but this website is all custom programmed from scratch! I'm guessing that Nate and probably a couple others get $30-$60K a year each making this thing work.

I am thinking that the hosting and hardware involved is what they were talking about. They could possibly even be correct. If anyone is that curious about Groundspeak as a business and the sales generated they could do some searching on the net. The info is out there.

Regardless of the money involved, geocaching is a better sport because of this site.

3.9k · March 4, 2008

Hallo novw,

Het is misschien ietsje ingewikkelder dan je denkt.

Bij Groundspeak (de tent die achter deze site zit) werken er zo'n 20 mensen, die zich bezig houden met allerlei zaken zoals programmeren, marketing, promoties, support (jawel, er zitten echte mensen achter elk e-mailadres dat je op de site ziet), nieuwe ideeën voor spelletjes bedenken, relaties onderhouden met de mensen die bepalen of je in hun staatspark een cache mag neerzetten, en - o ja - een website met meer dan 500.000 cacherecords en miljoenen foto's in de lucht houden 24 uur per dag.

Nu ben ik het met je eens dat de eerste stappen voor het gebruik van de site niet zo eenvoudig zijn, als dat zou kunnen. Ga eens bij archive.org kijken, je zult zien dat vele dingen sinds een paar jaar heel weinig veranderd zijn. Mede daarom is er een grote herziening van de site aan de gang, die door hele dure consultants, databasedeskundigen, enz. wordt gemaakt. Dat zijn mensen die tarieven hanteren die eerder bij $1000/dag als $1000/jaar liggen.

Het aantal betaalde lidmaatschappen is dus veel hoger dan 1% (en het aantal onbetaalde veel hoger dan 50.000). Maar ik kan je verzekeren dat de leden van Groundspeak geen dure auto's rijden en dat er geen champagneknop op de koffieautomaat staat.

Meer informatie kun je in je moerstaal bij www.geocaching.nl vinden.

Tot straks,

Nick

Edited March 4, 2008 by sTeamTraen

2.2k · March 4, 2008

Hallo novw,

Het is misschien ietsje ingewikkelder dan je denkt.

Bij Groundspeak (de tent die achter deze site zit) werken er zo'n 20 mensen, die zich bezig houden met allerlei zaken zoals programmeren, marketing, promoties, support (jawel, er zitten echte mensen achter elk e-mailadres dat je op de site ziet), nieuew ideeën voor spelletjes bedenken, relaties onderhouden met de mensen die bepalen of je in hun staatspark een cache mag neerzetten, en - o ja - een website met meer dan 500.000 cacherecords en miljoenen foto's in de lucht houden 24 uur per dag.

Nu ben ik met je eens dat de eerste stappen niet zo eenvoudig zijn, als dat zou kunnen. Ga eens bij archive.org kijken, je zult zien dat vele dingen sinds een paar jaar heel weinig veranderd zijn. Mede daarom is er een grote herziening van de site aan de gang, die door hele dure consultants, databasedeskundigen, enz. wordt gemaakt. Dat zij mensen die tarieven hanteren die eerder bij $1000/dag als $1000/jaar liggen.

Het aantal betalende lidmaatschappen is dus veel hoger dan 1% van 50.000. Maar ik kan je verzekerern dat de leden van Groundspeak rijden geen dure auto's en er staat geen champagneknop op de koffieautomaat.

Meer informatie kun je in de moerstaal bij www.geocaching.nl vinden.

Tot straks,

Nick

Translation

Hello novw, It is perhaps ietsje more complicated than you think. At Groundspeak (the tent which sits behind this site) works there about 20 people, which itself occupy with all kinds of matter such as to program, marketing, promotions, support (jawel, there sits real people behind each e mailadres that you on site sees), nieuew ideas for games to consider, relations maintain with people who ascertain whether you can cache put down in their state park, and - o yes - a Internet site with more than 500,000 cacherecords and millions keep photograph in air 24 hours per day. Now are I once with your that the first steps are not this way simple, such as that would be possible. Will look at once at archive.org, you will have seen that a lot of things have very a little changed year since a couple. For this reason there, is a large revision of the site to pace, which is etc. made by complete expensive consultant, database experts. That they people who use tariffs that earlier at $1000/dag as $1000/jaar lie. The number of paying membership pen is therefore much higher than 1% of 50.000. but I can drive you verzekerern that the members of Groundspeak no expensive cars and stand there no champagne bud on the coffee automat. Further information can find you in the moerstaal at www.geocaching.nl. To soon, Nick

March 4, 2008

I find this site very easy to use.

I have written a few websites from the ground up, including coding secure sites capable of automatically processing credit card payments from scratch.

Believe me, some excellent work has gone into coding this site and the way it works.

Anytime you desire a full featured site that has more power and flexibility, there come with it tradeoffs as far as difficulty of use is concerned. Generally, the more features available, the steeper the learning curve will be for a new user.

This is true for both software and hardware. Additional features and flexibility translate into additional menus and setup options in order to manage the additional features.

I think the developers have done a great job balancing the available features with ease of use.

Once you allow yourself to go through the learning curve and figure out what works best for you, you will be glad that all the extra features and capabilities are available.

If you are having difficulties using this site, you must not be very familiar with computers or the internet.

This is one of the easiest sites to use that I frequent regularly.

You should see my bank's online site. Talk about hard to use!!! :laughing:

1.5k · March 4, 2008

Hallo novw,

Het is misschien ietsje ingewikkelder dan je denkt......[snip]...

Translation

Hello novw, It is perhaps ietsje more complicated than you think.....[snip]...

I think I understood it better in Dutch :laughing:

2.2k · March 4, 2008

Hallo novw,

Het is misschien ietsje ingewikkelder dan je denkt......[snip]...

Translation

Hello novw, It is perhaps ietsje more complicated than you think.....[snip]...

I think I understood it better in Dutch

From what I could gather, it seems that all the programmers live in a tent behind the servers. Jeremy gets his own tent, presumably because of the extra $6,000 per year that he makes.

March 4, 2008

I remember that I once said to my son: "You wanna drive my car? Well, that's quiet difficult to do when you're 13. But patience my son, one day it will seem to be the easiest thing you ever did."

My advice? Patience my son, try to find the caches which are available for you (but log them only once) and day by day you will learn the nice things about the site. Almost everybody has to pass that phase.

Edited March 4, 2008 by Belleman

2.1k · March 4, 2008

Check this out:

Groundspeak About Us

Jeez... the pixel people on that page are embarrassingly out of date. The staff has grown to twice that number since. I'm sure when V2 hits you'll be able to see all the newbies. Or check out a 2007 Lackey coin (the obverse shows most of the staff from the About Us page):

PS - We just sold another premium membership! Start making plans for April because geocaching.com will be funded for another month.

Edited March 5, 2008 by OpinioNate

March 4, 2008

Hallo novw,

Het is misschien ietsje ingewikkelder dan je denkt.

Bij Groundspeak (de tent die achter deze site zit) werken er zo'n 20 mensen, die zich bezig houden met allerlei zaken zoals programmeren, marketing, promoties, support (jawel, er zitten echte mensen achter elk e-mailadres dat je op de site ziet), nieuew ideeën voor spelletjes bedenken, relaties onderhouden met de mensen die bepalen of je in hun staatspark een cache mag neerzetten, en - o ja - een website met meer dan 500.000 cacherecords en miljoenen foto's in de lucht houden 24 uur per dag.

Nu ben ik met je eens dat de eerste stappen voor het gebruik van de site niet zo eenvoudig zijn, als dat zou kunnen. Ga eens bij archive.org kijken, je zult zien dat vele dingen sinds een paar jaar heel weinig veranderd zijn. Mede daarom is er een grote herziening van de site aan de gang, die door hele dure consultants, databasedeskundigen, enz. wordt gemaakt. Dat zijn mensen die tarieven hanteren die eerder bij $1000/dag als $1000/jaar liggen.

Het aantal betaalde lidmaatschappen is dus veel hoger dan 1% (en het aantal onbetaalde veel hoger dan 50.000). Maar ik kan je verzekeren dat de leden van Groundspeak geen dure auto's rijden en dat er geen champagneknop op de koffieautomaat staat.

Meer informatie kun je in je moerstaal bij www.geocaching.nl vinden.

Tot straks,

Nick

GEOCACHING GEEN ZORG OVER KILNDEREN ? :laughing:

22k · March 4, 2008

PS - We just sold another premium membership! Start making plans for April because geocaching.com will be funded for another month.

I renew my yearly membership in a few days. You'll be able to have meat in the stew that night.

is it just me ?

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