Commercial caches

[+Rustynails]

Some say Commercial caches must be OK. Some ay not. It must be up to each publisher what is OK. We have two standard and one puzzle cache at the MOA. You out of towners know call it the Mall Of America. You don't get more commercial than the MOA. What do you think?

Edited July 16, 2009 by rustynails.

[+Mike & Kate]

Some say Commercial caches must be OK. Some ay not. It must be up to each publisher what is OK. We have one at the MOA. You out of towners know call it the Mall Of America. You don't get more commercial than the MOA. What do you think?

 

I wouldn't say that a cache at the Mall of America is necessarily a commercial cache. You don't have to pay to get into the mall (I know, I've been there), and as long as the cache is hidden with permission of the owner of the mall property, and not in a store, I'd say it's not commercial.

 

Of course, I'm no expert on such things, so you may take my opinion with a grain of salt, if you'd like!

[+J10fly]

I think they consider Commercial caches being more like ones that advertise someones company not necessarily just being at a commercial area.

 

This is the quote from the FAQ on geocaching.com:

 

"Commercial caches will not be published on geocaching.com without prior approval from Groundspeak. A commercial cache is a geocache listing or geocache which is perceived by Groundspeak, Groundspeak's employees, or the Volunteer Geocache Reviewers as having been submitted to geocaching.com with the principal or substantial intent of soliciting customers or generating commercial gain. The geocache is presumed to be commercial if the finder is required to go inside a business, interact with employees, and/or purchase a product or service, or if the cache listing has overtones of advertising, marketing, or promotion.

 

Additionally, links to businesses, commercial advertisers, charities, political or social agendas, or the inclusion of their associated logos are not permitted on cache descriptions without prior permission from Groundspeak."

[+Wintonian]

From the guidelines:

 

Commercial Caches

Commercial caches will not be published on geocaching.com without prior approval from Groundspeak. A commercial cache is a geocache listing or geocache which is perceived by Groundspeak, Groundspeak's employees, or the Volunteer Geocache Reviewers as having been submitted to geocaching.com with the principal or substantial intent of soliciting customers or generating commercial gain. The geocache is presumed to be commercial if the finder is required to go inside a business, interact with employees, and/or purchase a product or service, or if the cache listing has overtones of advertising, marketing, or promotion.

 

Additionally, links to businesses, commercial advertisers, charities, political or social agendas, or the inclusion of their associated logos are not permitted on cache descriptions without prior permission from Groundspeak.

 

 

The most relevant bit to this thread is " The geocache is presumed to be commercial if the finder is required to go inside a business, interact with employees, and/or purchase a product or service, or if the cache listing has overtones of advertising, marketing, or promotion." therefore having a cache inside a supermarket car park isn't necessarily commercial whereas if the cache is hidden inside the confides of an amusement park that charges an entrance fee or in the reception area of a hotel then that would be against the guidelines.

[knowschad]

Some say Commercial caches must be OK. Some ay not. It must be up to each publisher what is OK. We have two standard and one puzzle cache at the MOA. You out of towners know call it the Mall Of America. You don't get more commercial than the MOA. What do you think?

 

Even if it would be determined to be a commercial cache by today's standards, that cache goes back to 2003 (adopted by TecGEOJim in 2005), so the guidelines that were in play back then are what matters.

[+ReadyOrNot]

It depends on where the cache is placed. If it's in a public area, then it's not really commercial. I think the commercial clause in the guidelines relates to putting commercial information in the cache listing. I know in our area, you can put the cache at or nearby a commercial establishment, but you cannot name the establishment.

 

The question for me really comes down to whether the listing is an advertisement for the establishment or an advertisement for the cache. It cannot be the first.

[+Renegade Knight]

Some say Commercial caches must be OK. Some ay not. It must be up to each publisher what is OK. We have two standard and one puzzle cache at the MOA. You out of towners know call it the Mall Of America. You don't get more commercial than the MOA. What do you think?

 

In the common ground of the mall? Non commerical.

Now if the mall charges a cover charge to get in...commercial. Unless the mall is non profit.

[knowschad]

Some say Commercial caches must be OK. Some ay not. It must be up to each publisher what is OK. We have two standard and one puzzle cache at the MOA. You out of towners know call it the Mall Of America. You don't get more commercial than the MOA. What do you think?

 

In the common ground of the mall? Non commerical.

Now if the mall charges a cover charge to get in...commercial. Unless the mall is non profit.

 

You do have to go into a store and ask for the container, however. I haven't yet done the MOA cache (likely never will) but I did do one in a bowling alley where you had to ask for the container to sign.

 

But no... there is no cover charge at the Mall. Even has free parking.