thought about teams and groups

[+amianda]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that the current way to create a team or group profile on geocaching.com is to simply make a new account with the group name. In the profile section, i have seen people list their members. And the only way to claim past finds for the group is to go back and relog with the new account.

 

I think it would be great if you could create a group profile that wasn't an account, just a page with your team info on it. Members could join the group like the friending process, and once they'd been confirmed as part of the group, their total finds could be calculated together on the page.

 

Duplicate finds would be counted once only to the group total, of course. Each person's individual stats could be reposted on the group page directly from their profile.

 

I think it would make the site cleaner in terms of users, and groups could be disbanded or changed as time went by without too much trouble (just leave the group or add more people).

 

It's a big change, and I know many people are doing it the other way already, but I think it would be a good thing...

 

Thoughts?

[+legacypac]

What exactly would be the point of a group account? Who cares that between 10 friends they have found 70,000 caches? I'm curious what the reason behind the request is?

 

We cache as a family with one account, with myself as the main cacher. Occasionally my partner finds a cache on her own, but we only log under the one account. No sweat

[+amianda]

What exactly would be the point of a group account? Who cares that between 10 friends they have found 70,000 caches? I'm curious what the reason behind the request is?

 

We cache as a family with one account, with myself as the main cacher. Occasionally my partner finds a cache on her own, but we only log under the one account. No sweat

 

Well, my husband and I already have 2 accounts. He started caching long before me (but his numbers were kind of small until recently), and I signed up recently with my own account. We most often search together, but I'm known to seek caches near my work and around our home when he's not with me, and occasionally he does the same.

 

But, in actuality we're a team. I would like to show that by having a team name and such, but don't want to create a wholly new account for us together (not only because I've just signed up for a year paid membership), and I don't want to go back and log all our 'together' finds with such an account if I had to. But I'd still like to have something on the site that says we're a team.

 

I'd be happy with another Tab on the profile, even, that just listed team mates. The stats idea was just a thought. Perhaps the only caches it should count towards the group total are ones all members have logged individually, but only count them once.

 

You have a family account, so you already have the group stats thing going on. I dont. That's all.

 

[+tozainamboku]

What many have asked for in the past is a team logging capability. Assume 10 friends go out for a day of caching together. Instead of writing 10 logs that say essentially the same thing on every cache they find (or DNF) together, they would like to write one team log and they have each of the caches they found show as found by each of their individual accounts. Most of these request are to have the ability to create these teams ad hoc just for the purpose of saving on the logging. This idea usually gets a lot a negative response with people saying that as cache owners they like to see the logs from finders and would rather see 10 logs than one log even if 9 of the 10 logs were simply: "Found with <first person on the team to log online>". I think that there are also some who use the count of the number of found logs as a statistic to judge the quality (or perhaps the popularity) of the cache. An argument made in favor of team logging has to do with the PQ returning only the 5 most recent logs. So if there are ten logs you may not see an older log with some useful information about the cache. By combining ten logs into one you'd have a better chance of having that important log in your PQ or on the print out of the cache page.

 

As far as team statistics, I don't think that is going to happen. While Groundspeak tolerates 3rd party statistic sites, they really want to keep geocaching a friendly non-competitive activity. The Found It log is for keeping track of what caches you have found. The find count is a simple count of how many 'Found It', 'Attended', and 'Photo Taken' logs that an account has. Many people would be much happier if Groundspeak were to not display this count so prominently on each log, but when TPTB tried to remove it in the past, there was a big outcry by the people who think you can tell something about a geocacher from this number alone. Families make a choice how they want to keep track of caches they found. Some go with a team account. They generally cache together so it saves writing lots of logs. They don't see any issue with team members using the account to log cache they found without the entire team. If that team member thinks others in the team might enjoy that cache, the rest of the team is free to look for the cache later. I personally would even allow the rest of the team to log a 'Found It' again, but some puritans get upset if the same account name has multiple 'Found It' logs on one cache. Other families would like to keep the record for each family member separately. They may cache as individuals a significant amount of the time. It may be that each team member wants to keep their own logs. I personally think you should pick one method or the other. You could of course post both your individual logs as well as a log for the team, but some cache owners might feel you are cluttering up their cache page to keep statistics that they think you'd be better off keeping offline. Of course these are the cache owners who get upset when a cacher posts a second log for their dog or their pet rat.

Edited April 17, 2009 by tozainamboku

[+Renegade Knight]

...I think it would be great if you could create a group profile that wasn't an account, just a page with your team info on it. Members could join the group like the friending process, and once they'd been confirmed as part of the group, their total finds could be calculated together on the page....Thoughts?

 

I like this idea. It would also gives some stats tools that could be used for geocaching games.

[+ScoutingWV]

...I think it would be great if you could create a group profile that wasn't an account, just a page with your team info on it. Members could join the group like the friending process, and once they'd been confirmed as part of the group, their total finds could be calculated together on the page....Thoughts?

 

I like this idea. It would also gives some stats tools that could be used for geocaching games.

 

And could be useful to groups that have members that come and go, but still want to continue to play as a group over a longer period of time- like Scouts.

Edited April 17, 2009 by ScoutingWV

[GreyLurk]

I like this idea. It would also gives some stats tools that could be used for geocaching games.

 

And could be useful to groups that have members that come and go, but still want to continue to play as a group over a longer period of time- like Scouts.

 

For the statisticians among us, maybe there could be three or so different kinds of stats:

 

1) Caches that any of the team members have logged finds on

2) Caches that 2 or more of the team members logged on the same day

3) Caches that the whole team together found on the same day.

 

This could also be combined with the team logging, so from the team page, you could type in a GC number, and check which teammates were with you when you found a cache.

[+Cache O'Plenty]

Maybe the idea would be to have an "Account Type" that each account could be assigned (Sorta like attributes). Then each account could be an "Individual" or "Family" or "Team". Then any stats generated could be stratified by the account type. That way you could tell how you are doing against other "Individuals" or Groups.

 

For "Families", the system could roll up the stats of individual members. Of course, duplicate finds might be a programming nightmare!

 

Same could be done for "Teams". Except you might run into problems with team members that come and go. For example, points made by a basketball player only count during the season he's part of that team.

[+amianda]

What many have asked for in the past is a team logging capability. Assume 10 friends go out for a day of caching together. Instead of writing 10 logs that say essentially the same thing on every cache they find (or DNF) together, they would like to write one team log and they have each of the caches they found show as found by each of their individual accounts....

 

As far as team statistics, I don't think that is going to happen. While Groundspeak tolerates 3rd party statistic sites, they really want to keep geocaching a friendly non-competitive activity. The Found It log is for keeping track of what caches you have found. The find count is a simple count of how many 'Found It', 'Attended', and 'Photo Taken' logs that an account has. Many people would be much happier if Groundspeak were to not display this count so prominently on each log, but when TPTB tried to remove it in the past, there was a big outcry by the people who think you can tell something about a geocacher from this number alone....

 

I like having the ability to write my own log. My enjoyment of a cache may not be exactly that of what my husband liked or didn't like about it - though we're similar in taste in many ways, we're obviously not truely one person with one mind. So I like the idea of keeping my personal account separate from his because of that.

 

On the other hand, I do think it's a little foolish to keep up with other people's stats and compare them to yours. Mostly the team stats idea would be for me what the individual stats are - a marker of where I've personally been, where the team's been. I think it would be fun to combine my stats with others that I cache with frequently, to see our group's total, but for group use only. I liked the idea someone else had in another forum about hiding the 'found' stats from external eyes and keeping this for the account holder only. I suppose a team stat page would be even more useful if that were the case on Geocaching.com .

 

As the scouting user said, I think a team page where team members could come and go, perhaps moderated by a Team Captain sort of individual who created and maintains the team page, would be useful and fun for groups that change. Even with my husband/wife example, we have a roommate who will come with us on many caches. I think if he moves out, especially to another town, he will be less inclined to go out of his way to come with us, and our team would change.

 

I suppose it's not a necessity for the website (obviously it's lasted this long without it) but it would be nice to have, IMO.

[+legacypac]

I can see where using a third party tool to sort out caches no one on the team has done would be very useful. I understand GSAK can do that. Maybe other ways too.

 

If the OP already has personal accounts, I would not want to clutter up my life with yet a third account for the "team". Logging takes enough time already.

[Debbzilla]

I was just looking through this forum for an answer to a very similar question, so I am glad I found this thread first. Here is my issue:

 

My daughter and I each have our own basic member account, and we started out logging caches under these names. But we have been searching for caches as a family of 4 more recently. We also wanted a premium membership, to get all of the added benefits. So we got the premium account under a new family account name and have started logging and posting under that. But I'd also like to be able to still use my individual account to log & post finds when I am not with the group, and to post on the message boards, etc.

 

It would be nice to have our 2 individual accounts linked to our overall family account, and be able to have a total family count (including our individual finds). Plus, I would like to be able to access the premium features from this account, and not have to switch over to the family account.

 

I am still pretty new, and so I am definitely no expert on how this website works. Any suggestions, or do I just need to pick one way and go with it?

[Andronicus]

I realy like the idea tozainamboku was talking about. I peronaly get mildly bugged by a team of 5 people each loging the same cache. And it is bothersom to log me and my dauter. A team Find Log that would be flowed down to each meambers stats would be awsom!!