OK WE DID'NT INVENT IT BUT.........................

[+fatblokecaver]

This has nothing to do with 'what's going on' elsewhere ish!!!!!!!!?????.

As in a lot of cases (sport wise) we have invented a sport, then everyone has a habit of taking it over and being better at it than us, football (soccer that is), cricket, ROUNDERS ( like baseball only played by girlies ) etc etc. Would it now be the time to have a UK Cache.com so that we can do the lovely game/sport/pastime, call what you like, to our slightly changed rules. This would be a bit like American football - British Caching do you get my point?

Hopefully this post will not get hoofed off into the cyber space ether too quickly.

Just a thought.

 

FBC

[+4 Badgers]

This has nothing to do with 'what's going on' elsewhere ish!!!!!!!!?????.

As in a lot of cases (sport wise) we have invented a sport, then everyone has a habit of taking it over and being better at it than us, football (soccer that is), cricket, ROUNDERS ( like baseball only played by girlies ) etc etc. Would it now be the time to have a UK Cache.com so that we can do the lovely game/sport/pastime, call what you like, to our slightly changed rules. This would be a bit like American football - British Caching do you get my point?

Hopefully this post will not get hoofed off into the cyber space ether too quickly.

Just a thought.

 

FBC

Ah but we do! Try GC UK

[The Cartooners]

This has nothing to do with 'what's going on' elsewhere ish!!!!!!!!?????.

As in a lot of cases (sport wise) we have invented a sport, then everyone has a habit of taking it over and being better at it than us, football (soccer that is), cricket, ROUNDERS ( like baseball only played by girlies ) etc etc. Would it now be the time to have a UK Cache.com so that we can do the lovely game/sport/pastime, call what you like, to our slightly changed rules. This would be a bit like American football - British Caching do you get my point?

Hopefully this post will not get hoofed off into the cyber space ether too quickly.

Just a thought.

 

FBC

Ah but we do! Try GC UK

 

Quote from GC UK home Page

 

All the cache data used by these pages is downloaded from www.geocaching.com, the definitive site for worldwide geocaching.

 

I agree with Fatblokecaver. Perhaps the site could be extended?

Edited April 24, 2008 by The Cartooners

[+[MF]taz]

there are more caching sites that geocaching.com however I dont think I would be wrong in saying that GC has the most caches in the UK and you can just about guaranee that you will find a lot of caches in your area.

 

Unrelated to recent events I took a look to see what else was available, the site I found has caches in the UK but the closest one to me is 98 miles away, I may place one but not sure yet.

 

GC has pretty much the monopoly on caches, not their fault they are good at what they do, but we should all be aware that their are alternatives, or we can make our own alternatives.

 

After all we could set up our own web pages and post the co-ords for our caches on it but we would not get many visitors to it unless we have a central point of contact... that point of contact is the most important link... this is the real value of geocaching.com, caching would be nothing without the cachers.

[+FollowMeChaps]

taz' date='Apr 25 2008, 09:16 AM' post='3444396']

there are more caching sites that geocaching.com however I dont think I would be wrong in saying that GC has the most caches in the UK and you can just about guaranee that you will find a lot of caches in your area.

 

Unrelated to recent events I took a look to see what else was available, the site I found has caches in the UK but the closest one to me is 98 miles away, I may place one but not sure yet.

 

GC has pretty much the monopoly on caches, not their fault they are good at what they do, but we should all be aware that their are alternatives, or we can make our own alternatives.

 

After all we could set up our own web pages and post the co-ords for our caches on it but we would not get many visitors to it unless we have a central point of contact... that point of contact is the most important link... this is the real value of geocaching.com, caching would be nothing without the cachers.

 

Agreed

 

GC.com does have the monopoly but it is generally agreed that monopolies are not good.

 

You are correct there are few UK geocaches on other listings but that would soon change if we all moved our caches en mass to another site such as GCUK if it set up the ability. Groundspeak have been at pains to point out recently that we "own" our caches so we would be perfectly at liberty to archive them and move then. I'm also sure that many of us would even be prepared to pay an annual subscription to support such a move.

 

Food for thought? Whilst I'm stopping short of making this as a hard and fast suggestion at this stage at least it's an argument to get Gropundspeak to listen to the UK community's issues. At the end of the day they are only a commercial organisation and we are free to take our custom elsewhere if we are not receiving a service.....

[+uktim]

 

 

Food for thought? Whilst I'm stopping short of making this as a hard and fast suggestion at this stage at least it's an argument to get Gropundspeak to listen to the UK community's issues. At the end of the day they are only a commercial organisation and we are free to take our custom elsewhere if we are not receiving a service.....

 

I've sat on the sidelines for the last few days, but I find it hard to ignore the bizarre insinuation that we don't receive a service from Groundspeak and geocaching.com.

 

I suspect that the vast majority of the "UK community" have no issues. It's just a fairly vocal minority shouting rather loudly. Unless anyone can highlight some genuime MAJOR issues all the "issues" I've seen mentioned are pretty minor in reality.

 

Let's all get on with enjoying our caching, use geocaching.com as the valuable resource it is and forget about the petty politics. It would take years and some serious funds to build up another similar resource and then we'd still have folks viewing the grafters behind any new site in the same light as certain members of the community now seem to view Groundspeak

 

The two moderators that have resigned managed to do so with great dignity and to avoid the urge to sling mud in public. I really admire them for this and can only wonder if they would be happy to see a major fracture in the global geocaching community develop over this.

 

Lets all pull together instead of trying to pull things apart because we feel that our "community" has been hurt. Community is about so much more than picking sides and poking holes in "the other side".

 

regards

 

Tim Jones

[+Happy Humphrey]

I tend to side with Tim, not least because the chances of getting a viable and satisfactory UK cache listing service running (one that would rival geocaching.com) are about as good as England winning the European Football Championship this year.

 

(For the Americans, that's nil as we didn't qualify!).

[+The J J Noodle Fan Club]

This was seriously looked into about 2 (or maybe 3) years ago. It even got as far as websites being coded up. In the end it was dropped as just not being a feasible alternative to gc.com.

 

Jon.

[+Witches Cat & Timelord]

This has nothing to do with 'what's going on' elsewhere ish!!!!!!!!?????.

As in a lot of cases (sport wise) we have invented a sport, then everyone has a habit of taking it over and being better at it than us, football (soccer that is), cricket, ROUNDERS ( like baseball only played by girlies ) etc etc. Would it now be the time to have a UK Cache.com so that we can do the lovely game/sport/pastime, call what you like, to our slightly changed rules. This would be a bit like American football - British Caching do you get my point?

Hopefully this post will not get hoofed off into the cyber space ether too quickly.

Just a thought.

 

FBC

We have only been into this for just under a year, but it seems pretty much ok as it is. The rules are simple, common sense may not be that abundant these days, but if you use some you won't go far wrong. Great British inventiveness will always enhance what is already available anyway. Of course, if a British site was available, we could get rid of that ugly frog..... maybe have a Squirrel with a Union Jack vest on, or a farmer with a welcome sign... just a thought.....

 

Regards Witches cat & Timelord

[+ClareLouise]

Of course, if a British site was available, we could get rid of that ugly frog.....

 

Awww, I think Signal is cute... but then again, I quite like frogs!!

[+sTeamTraen]

maybe have a Squirrel with a Union Jack vest on

 

If you want an idea of how that would end up, ask Croaghan and Deceangi about reviewing caches in or on the Signal-coloured island off to the left of the picture. Bring a cushion, you'll be sitting listening for a long time.

[+Alibags]

maybe have a Squirrel with a Union Jack vest on, or a farmer with a welcome sign...

 

Would this be a nice honest native red squirrel or a nasty grey import?

 

(and LOL at the description of a 'Signal coloured island' ... I like it!)

[fraggle69]

Of course, if a British site was available, we could get rid of that ugly frog.....

 

Awww, I think Signal is cute... but then again, I quite like frogs!!

 

Gotta have a burning frog as a UK logo then lol

[+Renegade Knight]

This was seriously looked into about 2 (or maybe 3) years ago. It even got as far as websites being coded up. In the end it was dropped as just not being a feasible alternative to gc.com.

 

Jon.

There are two roadblocks to a cache site. The programmers and the managers. Most programmers who have the talent tend to have their own ideas and develope their own sites so as to go their own direction. Then the successful ones become the navicache and terracaching sites. The managers meanwhile who could make something of a site don't have the programming skill to do so. Nevermind the 3rd factor that this site has the caches and you dang well better have something to offer other than an empty database.

 

Gung ho will get you some initial interest. A site has to have survive past that.

 

Talent is hard enough to find. The right combination of people and talent harder still and the odds of them all having the same vision to see a site through to success? Slim. Impossible? No.

Edited April 25, 2008 by Renegade Knight

[+Birdman-of-liskatraz]

My opinion - for what it's worth - is that we'd all be better off being part of a global Geocaching Organisation.

 

Now if that's as part of Groundspeak or as part of some yet to be set up global geocaching data sharing organisation I'm not sure it really matters.

 

As long as I can cache anywhere world wide and my cache finds count back in the UK, if my Geocoins can travel world wide and I can see where they are at any time - then I'm a happy bunny.

 

Talking of cache listing sites, Groundspeak has a huge advantage - It already exists and it already has all the cache data. If the UK "broke away" and set up it' s own site then some way would have to be found to link it with other cache listing sites in other countries.

 

One way would be to head down the Open Source / Creative Commons route where the cache data doesn't belong to anyone, is stored in an agreed common format, and can be freely shared with whoever wants it. With a site in each country using Open Source software as an interface for that Countries cachers.

 

Even easier is for Groundspeak to continue as it is but listening to the caching community, and change, grow and develop to meet the needs of it's users. Yes, I know it's only a small number of cachers who are talking about this, but it's much the same as the small number of actual teachers who voted to strike yesterday - or the low percentage of voters who bother to vote at election time.

 

I fully understand the no commercial argument - I don't however get the no charitable argument. Where's the problem in saying that a Group of cachers raised £100 for the local Hedgehog Rescue society? Is it not showing cachers and geocaching in a good light?

 

Forums on the other hand are relatively easy to setup...and a move to a UK based forum shouldn't be too hard to organise.. that said I'm not a programmer so am open to correction.

 

Anyway - I'm off hunting boxes tomorrow - with some great friends I've met through caching/these forums/the Geocaching Chatroom/Events and that to me is what this hobby is all about.

 

Lets not fall out over it - eh?

[+Renegade Knight]

...One way would be to head down the Open Source / Creative Commons route where the cache data doesn't belong to anyone, is stored in an agreed common format, and can be freely shared with whoever wants it. With a site in each country using Open Source software as an interface for that Countries cachers....

 

That was called OpenCaching. The Germans did get a site up and going. The USA didn't however a lot of the discussion in the opencaching forums would shed a lot of light on the issues here. They may not exist anymore but the wayback machine should have them.

[+Lotho]

On the whole, im happy with www.geocaching.com. I dont think ill move from here, its got a good format and such things that make it easy to use. I just wish that they hadn't made the commercial changes to the guidelines. A local monthly event called "The Cunning Cachers meet(insert month here)" is well known and it is called so because the pub is called the cunning man. So what are we going to call the event now and how are people to know where it is if we cant say?? I hope i dont get banned for mentioning the pub name here?!

[+[MF]taz]

On the whole, im happy with www.geocaching.com. I dont think ill move from here, its got a good format and such things that make it easy to use. I just wish that they hadn't made the commercial changes to the guidelines. A local monthly event called "The Cunning Cachers meet(insert month here)" is well known and it is called so because the pub is called the cunning man. So what are we going to call the event now and how are people to know where it is if we cant say?? I hope i dont get banned for mentioning the pub name here?!

 

AFAIK your ok with mentioning a pub name in an event listing as long as it is not overly repeted.

[+Lotho]

Ok, ours should be fine. Its only mentioned in the title and address i believe.

[+uk89camaro]

This has nothing to do with 'what's going on' elsewhere ish!!!!!!!!?????.

As in a lot of cases (sport wise) we have invented a sport, then everyone has a habit of taking it over and being better at it than us, football (soccer that is), cricket, ROUNDERS ( like baseball only played by girlies ) etc etc. Would it now be the time to have a UK Cache.com so that we can do the lovely game/sport/pastime, call what you like, to our slightly changed rules. This would be a bit like American football - British Caching do you get my point?

Hopefully this post will not get hoofed off into the cyber space ether too quickly.

Just a thought.

 

FBC

 

absolutely not the right idea at all in my opinion. Two moderators resigned with great dignity as has been mentioned, but to attempt to fragment the GC community because of it, is madness.

 

I've seen it happen before with a different group. Was national, had a revolt and formed a relatively successful splinter group, which then broke off into another 2 or 3 groups. Nobody likes each others groups, you get immense troll traffic on the forums, and it's just not good for the community.

 

GCUK is a great site, but we should should stick with GC.com as the main worldwide centre of excellence.

 

Paul

[+FantasticCat]

A fragmentation of geogaching into various sites/groups is a very bad idea I feel. It would probably also be environmentally damaging as it would result in less cache availability so you would have to drive further to cache. You could argue that you may just do less caches and therefore do less driving, but this hardly seems ideal either. I also do not just want to cache in the UK, but I would like my find records etc all in one place. This wouldn't be possible with a UK splinter group.