+eragonSaphira Posted April 9, 2008 Share Posted April 9, 2008 I want to throw an idea out there (rather in here): After talking to some of the US cachers, it became evident that they most of them have a websites dealing with geocaching in their area. One of the novel ideas that they discussed was a "peer review" for caches and I quite liked it. What it boils down to is that there are different categories for caches, like scenic, best urban, best micro, sneakiest, best idea, etc. Cachers will then nominate caches in their area (in SA it makes sense to use provinces) for the "award". Thereafter cachers can vote for their favourite in each of these categories (obviously only if you have done said cache). I'm pretty sure that we would be able to add other novel ideas, besides the "best" cache idea. Please note that I use the term "best cache" very loosely. Quote Link to comment
+Wazat Posted April 9, 2008 Share Posted April 9, 2008 Great Idea.... I was looking at Geocaching SA on facebook and wondering why there was no mention of that. Then I was thinking if Groundspeak was likely to maybe put a rating system in place for finders to rate the caches with their visit while logging the find. That would be great. Although not alway accurate but it might give a general idea of what quality cache you are going for. This also popped up after someone said they would have rated one of my caches as a 12 out of 10 for various criteria regarding the cache. Although I myself wouldn't have expected it to be so highly rated it was a great gesture. I think it would be a great idea to bring a system like that in to play. Quote Link to comment
+eragonSaphira Posted April 9, 2008 Author Share Posted April 9, 2008 (edited) Great Idea.... I was looking at Geocaching SA on facebook and wondering why there was no mention of that. Then I was thinking if Groundspeak was likely to maybe put a rating system in place for finders to rate the caches with their visit while logging the find. That would be great. Although not alway accurate but it might give a general idea of what quality cache you are going for. This also popped up after someone said they would have rated one of my caches as a 12 out of 10 for various criteria regarding the cache. Although I myself wouldn't have expected it to be so highly rated it was a great gesture. I think it would be a great idea to bring a system like that in to play. Obviously there would be a lot of details to be worked out... Will it be voted anually, bi-anually or more frequent? I mention only the two, as currently I think for the amount of caches being planted in SA, that would probably the best frequency. Other than that, what else will we have on the website? Cacher ranking is already done in GCR.com, but maybe we can add an achievement section there as well, just to give a bow to the GC gurus in SA. Some of them refuse (which is not a bad thing) to list themselves on GCR.com (and I say that with respect, as I know most of their reasons and they are very good reasons). I should probably speak with GCR.com first (before doing anything), as I'm not trying a hostile takeover... LOL Edited April 9, 2008 by eragonSaphira Quote Link to comment
+QFC Posted April 9, 2008 Share Posted April 9, 2008 I want to throw an idea out there (rather in here): After talking to some of the US cachers, it became evident that they most of them have a websites dealing with geocaching in their area. One of the novel ideas that they discussed was a "peer review" for caches and I quite liked it. .... The problem that one always runs into is access to data. And unless we gain access to the cache database on GC.com (which is unlikely) one needs to do mass imports from GPX files or manually capture the caches from the one system GC.com to say GC.co.za. The next problem is the cost of hosting and development (not too much R175 pm) and domain registration (R50 per year) Oh and the last problem is that www.geocaching.co.za has been "booked" already by an SA IT company based in Knysna. We wanted to add this to our site (www.geocachingranking.com), but there was not too much interest at the time (2005) and getting access to the Cacher and Cache info posed to great a problem. If you have any ideas drop us a mail of make comment here and we can discuss ideas.... ---- As you said in your later post, some cachers have found the competitive nature fo GCR.com not too their taste and it is for this reason that we added the in the news section and cacher gallery hoping to keep the site available to all cachers. Quote Link to comment
+eragonSaphira Posted April 9, 2008 Author Share Posted April 9, 2008 (edited) Once again the problem seems not to be initiative, but rather getting info from Groundspeak... Maybe we should petition to start a "branch" of Groundspeak in SA (not a new geocaching site), with local servers that ties in to Groundspeak International... Afterall, Google now has local presence. Edited April 9, 2008 by eragonSaphira Quote Link to comment
+Rhino and Hedgehog Posted April 9, 2008 Share Posted April 9, 2008 Firstly we should all get together and spam the *%$$#^% who is hogging geocachingsa till he gives it up to the likes of QFC. Secondly we not the frist to think of cache rating try the following links, the UK site is very good! I am sure someone with QFC's tallent could put something together for us.... http://www.geocacheuk.com/ http://www.handicaching.com/rate.php http://www.podcacher.com/?p=489 http://clayjar.com/gcrs/ Quote Link to comment
+QFC Posted April 10, 2008 Share Posted April 10, 2008 Firstly we should all get together and spam the *%$$#^% who is hogging geocachingsa till he gives it up to the likes of QFC. Secondly we not the frist to think of cache rating try the following links, the UK site is very good! I am sure someone with QFC's tallent could put something together for us.... You make us blush.... We are mere WinForms developers that decided to have some fun on the web and ended up with www.geocaching.za.net and later www.geocachingranking.com Other countries have dedicated sites that run in the same vein as/ with permission of www.geocaching.com. i.e. Geocaching Australia - Free and Open Geocaching Geocaching en France Quote Link to comment
+QFC Posted April 10, 2008 Share Posted April 10, 2008 http://www.geocacheuk.com/ http://www.handicaching.com/rate.php http://www.podcacher.com/?p=489 http://clayjar.com/gcrs/ I looks like http://www.geocacheuk.com/ make use of pocket queries to update their database ( a possibility that we have being playing with ) and http://www.handicaching.com/rate.php don't have access to the cache database since you can enter any fictitious geocache waypoint code and it will be accepted. Hopefully next year the development "team" will be back together and playing with the latest and "greatest" web dev tools to make a new shiney GRC.com (though this has been promised too many times ) F Quote Link to comment
+DamhuisClan Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 If you need some assistance with regards to the making of the web site in either ASP 3 or ASP.net, I am willing to help. Can also help with SQL and XML (aka GPX) queries. Quote Link to comment
+MarcForrest Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 I can lend a hand with some SQL help if need be Quote Link to comment
+geocacher_coza Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 Good idea, I tried to get something similar of the ground but received a lot of negative input from parts of the community! If you are looking for a web address I can let mine one go. It is close enough to geocaching.co.za I am not in South Africa that often anymore and my work is taking up to much of my time. My geoshop is also still up for grabs. I had a lot of interest from people that want to run the shop but nobody has come back to me. I do not want to sell it at any profit, all I need is the money back on the stock that I have. Quote Link to comment
+GlobalRat Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 Perhaps look at getting www.geocaching.za or www.geocaching.com.za Many of the localised sites in geocaching use these, some more:- http://www.geocaching.su/ http://www.geocaching.nl/index/ Quote Link to comment
+QFC Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 Perhaps look at getting www.geocaching.za or www.geocaching.com.za Many of the localised sites in geocaching use these, some more:- http://www.geocaching.su/ http://www.geocaching.nl/index/ I doubt that the www.geocaching.za would be possible since I don't know of any .ZA address being available. http://www.zadna.org.za/ are the people that control the ZA domain, one would have to talk to them. I would think that it would also cost more than a .co.za (R50) or a .za.net (Free). Quote Link to comment
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