To Member or Not

[+TheIrishRovers]

My family and I are registered with Geo but I have not paid for a membership. I don't mean to be cheap but that was a major draw for this activity, family fun low cost. I have looked at the join page and the only thing that we would use at this stage would be the member only caches. Are they realy that special?? There is plenty of fun to be had with out them but I would like to know. Thanks for the Help. Mtnmanhunter

[+hlq]

My family and I are registered with Geo but I have not paid for a membership. I don't mean to be cheap but that was a major draw for this activity, family fun low cost. I have looked at the join page and the only thing that we would use at this stage would be the member only caches. Are they realy that special?? There is plenty of fun to be had with out them but I would like to know. Thanks for the Help. Mtnmanhunter

 

If you see no value in a paid membership then there is no reason to get one. Some of the member only caches may be more interesting than others but that isn't guaranteed. At some point you may find that pocket queries or some other paid membership feature is useful and want to think about a paid membership again.

[+Stargazer22]

The members only caches (MOCs) aren't what I consider to be the major benefit of being a premium member.

The MOCs vary a lot depending on local area. In some areas, there are very few. In other areas there are more. But from what I have seen of them, they are pretty similar to other caches in my area.

Instead, for me, the big benefit of being a premium member is the pocket queries.

You can use this to query an area with many different filters being applied in different ways.

Very helpful for me to get me the caches I want in an area and a very easy process to load hundreds of caches to my GPSr and PDA easily.

Even at $30 a year, I find that to be a very low cost compared to what I spend on some of my other hobbies. That's only about 58 cents a week for premium member features. Considering what I spend weekly on gas to go caching, that's actually very cheap. (I calculated the amount of gas this would buy me at $3.50 a gallon and with 19 MPG, I pay this much to go every 3.13 miles. UGH!)

You can always try premium membership for a month for $3 to see if you like the additional features.

 

Cache on!

[jholly]

To echo the above comments, the MOC is not the reason I became a member. The PQ's, and especially the caches along a route, was the main reason followed by bookmarks. Like Stargazer22 said the MOC's might disapoint, so try a months subscription and check out the caches. Probably in a month or two you will have gotten the MOC's and then what?

 

Jim

[+TheIrishRovers]

Please forgive my ignorance. But am I to understand that I can search in a certain area or along a route that I plan to travel? Do I need to be a premium member to down load coordinates and details to a GPS? I am waiting for the new Delorme to come out and that would be a great option. Thanks for the info to think about so far. Mtnman

[Dinoprophet]

Anyone can search an area. And anyone can download points to their GPS (whether you can download details depends on your GPS. I don't know about the Delorme).

 

Only Premium Members can search along a route. You can also get pocket queries, which are very advanced searches with results sent to you in a file. And once you have those files, you can use a program called Geocaching Swiss Army Knife to filter the search results even further -- by direction, hider, any shaped area you want to describe, just about any way you can think of.

 

Members Only Caches are hit and miss. In my area there's a series of many dozen that are all nanos attached to one kind of street sign. There are also some that are very unique puzzles and containers.

Edited September 3, 2008 by Dinoprophet

[+sbell111]

Please forgive my ignorance. But am I to understand that I can search in a certain area or along a route that I plan to travel? Do I need to be a premium member to down load coordinates and details to a GPS? I am waiting for the new Delorme to come out and that would be a great option. Thanks for the info to think about so far. Mtnman

Yes. As a premium member, you can build pocket queries that will give you caches in a certain area with the criterion that you would like to find. You can also build these pocket queries to include those sorted caches within a specified distance from a route.

 

These are the best benefits of a premium membership, in my opinion.

[+Dawgies]

I enjoy Geocaching so I help support it by paying. Hopefully by me doing my small part it'll be here tomorrow, or next week, when I decide to find another. You know it wouldn't last very long if it wasn't for the paying members.

[+wilsonc97]

I just recently updated my membership for all reasons above, MOC not being one of those reasons. There are plenty of non-MOC's in my area to find. Eventually I started using GSAK and wanted to use the pocket-queries and route function, coupled with my PDA, to go "paperless."

 

Additionally, I really got into geocaching and after 40 or so finds decided it would be a good idea to contribute my share of $$ to the cause. As stated, $30 for a year isn't too much for how much I use the site. If I were only going to find 1-2 caches a month, I'd probably just continue without paying for the premium membership. However, my wife & I really got into this so paying the annual fee seemed like the right thing to do for us.

 

In the end, it's really up to you. However, there are only a small handful of MOC's in my area, and they weren't really any different than the others.

[+Silfron Mandotheneset]

I'll add the oddball case, then. We've only found one MOC, and it was a PnG Lock n Lock, with very good swag. So, in the swag sense better than average, at least for a PnG.

 

So far though, the most fun hide and the best swag hide have both been free caches.

 

I got my membership for "caches along a route", because we travel to Oklahoma fairly often, and wanted to cache on the way. The MOC was just a bonus, it was actually on the route, so we'd have not even visited it without already being members anyway... if that makes sense.

 

We also used a PQ when we got down there to find only "kid friendly" caches, to take Mandotheneset's little brother and sister along on.

 

EDIT spelling

Edited September 3, 2008 by Silfron Mandotheneset

[+fox-and-the-hound]

Another premium member here for pretty much everything listed above except PMO caches (which I don't think I've ever done anyway due to being so scarce). PQs are the bomb once you learn to use them and I find new uses all the time. Example: I'm going on a trip in a couple weeks to another state for a long weekend. I have a pq ready to go that will download less than 24hours before I leave the latest available caches in a 50 mile radius of where I'll be as well as every along the path between my home and my destination. Not too shabby I'd definitely recommend it for a month or two to see if you like it. I just get it yearly on my birthday now as a present to myself.

[+StarBrand]

The 2 best reasons to become a premium member are:

 

1. Pocket Queries/Caches along a route - the ability to specify caches I want to visit either along a route or in an area and then download a single file with all of them in it (up to 500) - is worth every penny of $2.50 per month ($30 / 12)

 

2. Just to support the site and the developers that make it possible. A huge number of resources go into bringing you all of the capabilities of this website.

[+briansnat]

I would pay even if there were no benefits to being a member. I figure I use the sites services and servers and developers aren't free.

 

But if you are doing it, don't do it for MOCs. There aren't that many of them and there is little difference in general between them and non MOCs.

 

It's features like PQs, caches along a route and instant notification that make more attractive to be a member to me. Once you start using PQs you won't go back.

Edited September 3, 2008 by briansnat

[+sbell111]

That's how they get you.

[+Leaky Spoon]

Ditto on the membership upgrade! We use ours mostly for Pocket Queries so we don't have to download each and every cache; especially when we're going to be somewhere other than home. It makes it so easy and so much less work.

 

Also, the instant notifications of new caches is pretty fun; especially if you happen to be near one when you get the message

[+ThirstyMick]

I became a PM initially to support the site, not really realizing the benefits of membership, but feeling somewhat guilty for the year I spent using up bandwidth and space for free

 

Now that I am a premium member I cannot fathom life without Pocket Queries. I think back to the times when I spent hours writing down all the coordinates to plan my weekend, and can't believe I did all that!

 

Now it's: Choose a park, do 3 minutes of clicking, plug in the GPS & load query, drive to park, turn on GPS

 

Bookmark lists are great too. I just got back from a month long road trip, to plan for it I bookmarked all of the caches in all of the parks we planned on visiting, since they were so spread out, this made it easier than doing multiple PQs. When we were ready to go I made a single Pocket Query of the Bookmark list, downloaded it to the GPS and was off! When we got to a park, or a trailhead or monument or whatever, we turned on the GPS and decided then and there what caches we'd be doing.. rather than picking out specific trails and caches at home, writing them all down, navigating specifically to the cache, etc.

[+Waazdag]

Like several who've stated before me, I went with the upgrade just to support the site/cause... it's not until later... about a month actually... before I bought a Garmin and could even benefit from any of the other premium member benefits... and frankly I really don't have much use for them up where I'm at... and as for Premium Only caches... I don't think there will be any up in my neck of the woods unless I put them out myself... which I don't think would make a huge difference as I think everyone up here has premium membership anyhow!... yeah... the caching community within 75 miles can probably still be counted without running out of fingers...

[+sbell111]

My family and I are registered with Geo but I have not paid for a membership. I don't mean to be cheap but that was a major draw for this activity, family fun low cost. I have looked at the join page and the only thing that we would use at this stage would be the member only caches. Are they realy that special?? There is plenty of fun to be had with out them but I would like to know. Thanks for the Help. Mtnmanhunter

I'm so embarrassed. I only just now realized that the actual topic of the thread is whether or not MOCs are special.

 

In my opinion, from a finders point of view, they are no different from any other cache.

 

I apologize for my previous off-topic posts to this thread.

[+TheIrishRovers]

Thanks for all of the replies and advice. It seems that for a variety of reasons the upgrade is a good choice. Looks like I will be going that way in the future, I will just have to wait till Oct 15 to get the use out of it. Thanks again, Mtnman

[+Guinness70]

try the membership one month or two

 

dont have any members only caches in the area, ahvent even looked if there were any, EVER.

but the pocket queries sure are handy :-)

specially working from the map.

 

when you got all you want on the map

click to create a PQ, then select what you want to select

and it will give you the desired caches in a specified radius around that centerpoint

[dragondrop]

Interesting. As a geocache newbie, I'm naturally looking at the next level. I'm weighing up the pro's (the conns are that it's simply going to cost me a bit of money)

 

The pitch / reason detre from Groundspeak has been OK - nothing too pushy and I to echo a few earlier though I like the idea of supporting the company - long live geocache. More power to your elbow and all that.

 

I'm going to play Devil's advocate here...

 

A thought that I've got is that for something like flickr (where I'm a paid up member) you get hugely increased storage as well as more option on organizing your photos. I'm not hearing a massive "value add" from becoming a premium member - it's almost like there's something missing.. I dunno. With flickr it's a no brainer - the service is waaay better with a pro account you actually think "wow, that's cheap" .. on here I can't see the big advantage (not $30's worth anyway). For us 'members' teetering on the edge of Premiership, It could be the case the the rate is too high or we need a new 'killer app' in the mix to make it worthwhile. I'd be interested in seeing conversion rates (ie members v premium)

 

An observation - One of the other pulls to signing up (either platform) has got to be the kudos thing of "Premium Member" (or "pro" in the case of flickr). It's an ego thing. It makes you look like you know what you're doing more (even if this is not always the case!)

[Motorcycle_Mama]

HUGE added value, IMHO, is to be able to get Pocket Queries. HUGE!

[+Bad_CRC]

going paperless and getting pocket queries is the real benefit.

 

I've just signed up for an instant notify for new caches, which I've never bothered to use before (I was bored and happened across the page, so figured I'd try it.)

 

never cared much for MOC, fortunately there aren't many around here so it's not really an issue.

 

it's cheap. sign up for a month, try a couple pocket queries and see how you like things. If it's not for you, cancel the membership for now, and wait till you get into it enough to make it worth your while.

[+Isonzo Karst]

'killer app'

Caches along a route - trust me on this, before they were available via Premium Membership, various discussions of "how to" dominated these forums.

 

'killer app'

 

POCKET QUERIES!!!!!! simply wonderful, and all by themselves, plenty of value for $30 I generate a query every time I cache. I have no idea how people who can't design queries against the database get out the door....

 

'killer app'

 

Bookmarked lists, especially in the ways you can create and then share them and PQ them. I can create a list, send the URL to a friend, and they can query it. We both have the same caches loaded in our gps, and the same complete cache descriptions in our PDAs.

[+Ambrosia]

Interesting. As a geocache newbie, I'm naturally looking at the next level. I'm weighing up the pro's (the conns are that it's simply going to cost me a bit of money)

 

The pitch / reason detre from Groundspeak has been OK - nothing too pushy and I to echo a few earlier though I like the idea of supporting the company - long live geocache. More power to your elbow and all that.

 

I'm going to play Devil's advocate here...

 

A thought that I've got is that for something like flickr (where I'm a paid up member) you get hugely increased storage as well as more option on organizing your photos. I'm not hearing a massive "value add" from becoming a premium member - it's almost like there's something missing.. I dunno. With flickr it's a no brainer - the service is waaay better with a pro account you actually think "wow, that's cheap" .. on here I can't see the big advantage (not $30's worth anyway). For us 'members' teetering on the edge of Premiership, It could be the case the the rate is too high or we need a new 'killer app' in the mix to make it worthwhile. I'd be interested in seeing conversion rates (ie members v premium)

 

An observation - One of the other pulls to signing up (either platform) has got to be the kudos thing of "Premium Member" (or "pro" in the case of flickr). It's an ego thing. It makes you look like you know what you're doing more (even if this is not always the case!)

 

Well, I think one of the differences that you're seeing is that flickr gives you very little with a free account. If you're going to use it almost at all, you need to get a pro account.

 

That reflects well on gc.com - they give you a lot for a free membership. You can cache to your hearts content forever without upgrading.

 

But the bonus features you get with the premium membership is really actually very huge. I didn't think I needed to upgrade for the longest time, and only started because someone gifted it to me. But once you get it you wonder how you ever lived without it.

[+TotemLake]

Interesting. As a geocache newbie, I'm naturally looking at the next level. I'm weighing up the pro's (the conns are that it's simply going to cost me a bit of money)

 

The pitch / reason detre from Groundspeak has been OK - nothing too pushy and I to echo a few earlier though I like the idea of supporting the company - long live geocache. More power to your elbow and all that.

 

I'm going to play Devil's advocate here...

 

A thought that I've got is that for something like flickr (where I'm a paid up member) you get hugely increased storage as well as more option on organizing your photos. I'm not hearing a massive "value add" from becoming a premium member - it's almost like there's something missing.. I dunno. With flickr it's a no brainer - the service is waaay better with a pro account you actually think "wow, that's cheap" .. on here I can't see the big advantage (not $30's worth anyway). For us 'members' teetering on the edge of Premiership, It could be the case the the rate is too high or we need a new 'killer app' in the mix to make it worthwhile. I'd be interested in seeing conversion rates (ie members v premium)

 

An observation - One of the other pulls to signing up (either platform) has got to be the kudos thing of "Premium Member" (or "pro" in the case of flickr). It's an ego thing. It makes you look like you know what you're doing more (even if this is not always the case!)

 

Well, I think one of the differences that you're seeing is that flickr gives you very little with a free account. If you're going to use it almost at all, you need to get a pro account.

 

That reflects well on gc.com - they give you a lot for a free membership. You can cache to your hearts content forever without upgrading.

 

But the bonus features you get with the premium membership is really actually very huge. I didn't think I needed to upgrade for the longest time, and only started because someone gifted it to me. But once you get it you wonder how you ever lived without it.

Ditto that. I started my PM mainly because I had to start using PQs to plot and plan my hikes. It was way too time consuming any other way.

 

Here's something to ponder though the next time you think about getting a PM. Without teh existing paid membership, the performance would have been horrible. You're too new to know this, but a lot of the older members (not to name names sbell111 ) will tell you just how bad it was. Yes there are issues today, but those are being handled by professional programmers that don't come cheap and they're trying to meld thos changes into an existing hobbyist infrastructure which isn't easy nor fun.

[Clan Riffster]

the only thing that we would use at this stage would be the member only caches.

That being the case, I'd say "No". If your area has bunches of MOC's, you could pick a month to knock them all out and just pay $3 for a temporary premium membership. While you're doing that, you could explore the other benefits of a premium membership and see if it's worth it, (to you), to pay $30 a year.

[dragondrop]

So I'm hearing that the Pocket Queries are the big benefit to becoming a pm.

The ability to go paperless.

 

I have that ability for 'free' though.. A nokia N95 with (the free software) Trimble Geocache Navigator on it.

it allows me to (from the field) "find nearest geocaches" it sends long lat, retrieves geocache positions and info

(using 3g / gprs to transfer data - tiny packets though, negligable on standard "web n walk" type phone contract)

It gives me a list of nearest caches to that location. I read their details then lock on, off I go. (before I set off I'll work out an area, quick glance on the google map to see if it's populated / if there are any particularly interesting looking caches and set off)

 

Surely - this is doing the same thing (if not better as it's from the field) as Pocket Queries?

 

The trimble software seems in direct competition (functionality wise) with pocket queries yet it's free. I'm presuming it's licenced in some way and that Groundspeak are making some coin from it. It's a shame Groundspeak don't own geocache position (I read somewhere that that data was public domain) . B2B revenue would of been great from 'selling' long lat data of geocaches.

 

Anyhoo - I'm still strongly considering going PM - mainly from the "careware" ethic though. I appreciate that there are some good coders, IA guys, etc. doing some good work. I'd say they need to get some commercial heads in there though.. It looks like they've missed a trick with the trimble thing..

[+Isonzo Karst]

I suspect that early in a geocaching career, simply looking at "nearest" caches is fine. after a while, many cachers will lose interests in hunting certain caches, at that point, being able to PQ to narrow the group to those that may be of interest is hugely useful. For a family with young children, for instance, filtering for "stroller" or "wheelchair" may be right.

I used to hunt everything, now I hunt a very limited sub-set of caches. For that I need PQs. I filter OUT anything with the Stealth attribute right in the PQ. I generally filter for terrain 2 and up...and so on.

[AZcachemeister]

 

I have that ability for 'free' though.. A nokia N95 with (the free software) Trimble Geocache Navigator on it.

it allows me to (from the field) "find nearest geocaches" it sends long lat, retrieves geocache positions and info

(using 3g / gprs to transfer data - tiny packets though, negligable on standard "web n walk" type phone contract)

It gives me a list of nearest caches to that location. I read their details then lock on, off I go. (before I set off I'll work out an area, quick glance on the google map to see if it's populated / if there are any particularly interesting looking caches and set off)

 

Surely - this is doing the same thing (if not better as it's from the field) as Pocket Queries?

 

 

As Isonzo Karst points out, 'searching for nearest' will soon become tiresome, and you will want to be a bit more selective about which caches you go after.

In addition, you need a cell signal to do what you are doing! I don't know what the coverage is like in your area, but many of the good places to go caching around here have poor coverage.

 

Anyone who is even thinking about upgrading should just go for a monthly account, $3/month is completely painless, and after four years I'm still not sorry I signed up.

 

To the OP: There is not likely to be any noticeable difference between a MOC and a 'regular' cache. The biggest advantage is for the owner, who can see whom has been looking at their cache page.

[+Star*Hopper]

JFTR - re the several inferences to a "$3/Month" rate.......better take another look.

Revised ZIP centers weren't the only changes made during the last "upgrade".

 

Of (possible) further interest:

1- All quarterly (there is no month-to-month) memberships are AUTO-RENEW.

2- For giggles, try to find someplace on the GS website where it tells you how to cancel the auto-renew. Just try. G'head....try!

 

~*

[+Zop]

My family and I are registered with Geo but I have not paid for a membership. I don't mean to be cheap but that was a major draw for this activity, family fun low cost. I have looked at the join page and the only thing that we would use at this stage would be the member only caches. Are they realy that special?? There is plenty of fun to be had with out them but I would like to know. Thanks for the Help. Mtnmanhunter

 

Yes, some of the MO caches are going to be prety cool but not all that's for sure. I personally am a premium member and would encourage others to become PMs as well if for nothing else, help support the site and the hobby. I do however dislike most PMO caches but only because I have two kids and a girlfriend who cache with me often but they are not PM's and in order for them to log a PM find that they find while out with me requires some effort on my part and theirs.

 

Unfortunately, my kids no longer like to log their finds anymore becase, in part, of their inability to see PMO caches.

 

Sure.. Sort of my fault for not forking out the extra $60/yr for them but they do not have GPSr's nor PDA's so the PM options are not a benefit to them.

[+TotemLake]

So I'm hearing that the Pocket Queries are the big benefit to becoming a pm.

The ability to go paperless.

 

I have that ability for 'free' though.. A nokia N95 with (the free software) Trimble Geocache Navigator on it.

it allows me to (from the field) "find nearest geocaches" it sends long lat, retrieves geocache positions and info

(using 3g / gprs to transfer data - tiny packets though, negligable on standard "web n walk" type phone contract)

It gives me a list of nearest caches to that location. I read their details then lock on, off I go. (before I set off I'll work out an area, quick glance on the google map to see if it's populated / if there are any particularly interesting looking caches and set off)

 

Surely - this is doing the same thing (if not better as it's from the field) as Pocket Queries?

 

The trimble software seems in direct competition (functionality wise) with pocket queries yet it's free. I'm presuming it's licenced in some way and that Groundspeak are making some coin from it. It's a shame Groundspeak don't own geocache position (I read somewhere that that data was public domain) . B2B revenue would of been great from 'selling' long lat data of geocaches.

 

Anyhoo - I'm still strongly considering going PM - mainly from the "careware" ethic though. I appreciate that there are some good coders, IA guys, etc. doing some good work. I'd say they need to get some commercial heads in there though.. It looks like they've missed a trick with the trimble thing..

Out in the field having a cell phone to look up the site is handy, of course, out in the field, there is that possibility of no service. Prior to going, I efficiently plan my route using the PQs, but to each their own on how they play. Catch up with someone someday though to see how PQs can be manipulated to further empower your ability to chase caches.

 

I sponsor a hike of the month and I use the PQ datasets to plot interesting locations for the hikes before I even go out the door.

[+TotemLake]

My family and I are registered with Geo but I have not paid for a membership. I don't mean to be cheap but that was a major draw for this activity, family fun low cost. I have looked at the join page and the only thing that we would use at this stage would be the member only caches. Are they realy that special?? There is plenty of fun to be had with out them but I would like to know. Thanks for the Help. Mtnmanhunter

 

Yes, some of the MO caches are going to be prety cool but not all that's for sure. I personally am a premium member and would encourage others to become PMs as well if for nothing else, help support the site and the hobby. I do however dislike most PMO caches but only because I have two kids and a girlfriend who cache with me often but they are not PM's and in order for them to log a PM find that they find while out with me requires some effort on my part and theirs.

 

Unfortunately, my kids no longer like to log their finds anymore becase, in part, of their inability to see PMO caches.

 

Sure.. Sort of my fault for not forking out the extra $60/yr for them but they do not have GPSr's nor PDA's so the PM options are not a benefit to them.

Actually, there is a backdoor way to log those PMs without being a PM. I don't specifically know the link, but someone in the know can point it out for ya. That being said, some PMs might delete the logs, but that's the chances you take when you roll those dice.

[+Wild Thing 73]

Check my "Profile Page" the info is all there about Premium Membership, etc. etc..................It is the right thing to do if you "think" your serious about playing this fun and challenging game, sport, world wide challenge...Happy trail and good luck on your decision....

[dragondrop]

I've just been having a conversation on this thread : http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...p;#entry3640930

 

To cut a long story short, it's boiled down to a 'killer app' I think should happen! (track your own movements the same way you would a TB)

 

That's value add proposition in my book.. If that were rolled out, the next question would be... Where's my wallet?

[+TotemLake]

I've just been having a conversation on this thread : http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...p;#entry3640930

 

To cut a long story short, it's boiled down to a 'killer app' I think should happen! (track your own movements the same way you would a TB)

 

That's value add proposition in my book.. If that were rolled out, the next question would be... Where's my wallet?

Ummm Use a TB as a personal tracking device.