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Beyond the Premium Membership?


marc_54140

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I did not look for other postings on this topic, since it's hard to determine what it might be listed under.

 

Is it time for a Platinum Membership?

 

Cost: $50-75 a year.

 

Benefits: Once a month Entire State PQ

1-3 times a month a PQ specifying 1-5 cachers - what each has in common

Standard PQs of a larger size, such as 1000 caches.

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There is already a platinum membership, it is awarded to cachers who are helpful in the forums, place exemplary caches and always trade up and improve the caches that they seek. There is no cost for it other than to maintain your positive contributions to Groundspeak.

 

Rumors are that you get instant PQ's and are allowed to run as many PQ's as needed to find enough caches to find in a day (with the record being under 500 a day I understand that most platinum members only run one PQ a day unless they are traveling, then they will run two) and use of the corporate helicopter once a month. But I wouldn't know from personal experience. ;)

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Sorry, I still don't have a clue................................PQ ????

Can't tell if you're kidding, but in case you're not...

 

1. Platinum membership is a recurring joke in the forums.

 

2. PQ = pocket query. Strange name. Essentially it is an ability to save a query set (e.g. all geocaches small and larger, regular only, 5 miles from specified coordinates). If you google for "geocache pocket query" you can find out more.

 

3. PQ for the entire state? Just move to Rhode Island or Delaware. You can download the entire state in 3 PQs.

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Sorry, I still don't have a clue................................PQ ????

Can't tell if you're kidding, but in case you're not...

 

1. Platinum membership is a recurring joke in the forums.

 

2. PQ = pocket query. Strange name. Essentially it is an ability to save a query set (e.g. all geocaches small and larger, regular only, 5 miles from specified coordinates). If you google for "geocache pocket query" you can find out more.

 

3. PQ for the entire state? Just move to Rhode Island or Delaware. You can download the entire state in 3 PQs.

 

No, I wasn't kidding, and that still doesn't help. Ok, PQ is a Pocket Query ? Sooooooooooo, I still don't know what a PQ is. Maybe I should ask, what is a pocket query.........? As I mentioned in another post, I don't "i" anything. I use a regular old GPS. It takes me to the caches, and that is all that I care about.

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Sorry, I still don't have a clue................................PQ ????

Can't tell if you're kidding, but in case you're not...

1. Platinum membership is a recurring joke in the forums.

2. PQ = pocket query. Strange name. Essentially it is an ability to save a query set (e.g. all geocaches small and larger, regular only, 5 miles from specified coordinates). If you google for "geocache pocket query" you can find out more.

3. PQ for the entire state? Just move to Rhode Island or Delaware. You can download the entire state in 3 PQs.

 

No, I wasn't kidding, and that still doesn't help. Ok, PQ is a Pocket Query ? Sooooooooooo, I still don't know what a PQ is. Maybe I should ask, what is a pocket query.........? As I mentioned in another post, I don't "i" anything. I use a regular old GPS. It takes me to the caches, and that is all that I care about.

This should probably be a separate thread, but since a Platinum membership is probably not going to happen, I guess this is OK.

 

 

A Pocket Query is one of the benefits of Premium Membership. There is a web page where you are given all sorts of criteria that you can use to get a list of caches of types, sizes, distances, etc. You can then schedule these lists to be emailed to you, and then you can use a tool like GSAK to bulk-load them into your GPSr in seconds. Some use their Pocket Queries and GSAK to maintain an offline database of caches, some use them for caches along a route, some just use them to find a cluster of caches to hit for a day of caching.

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No, I wasn't kidding, and that still doesn't help. Ok, PQ is a Pocket Query ? Sooooooooooo, I still don't know what a PQ is. Maybe I should ask, what is a pocket query.........? As I mentioned in another post, I don't "i" anything. I use a regular old GPS. It takes me to the caches, and that is all that I care about.

I thought I answered above, but guess my answer was less than crystal clear, and you don't feel like searching using google today. So here is Groundspeak's definition:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/about/glossary.aspx#pocketquery

 

And here's Markwell's FAQ:

 

http://www.markwell.us/pq.htm

Edited by Chrysalides
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Is it time for a Platinum Membership?

 

The membership would probably welcome it with open arms. It wouldn't hurt the non paying members. The Premium members would still have their same benefits. And a small subset would upgrade. Win-Win it would seem

 

But for some reasons TPTB seem to be resistant.

 

Now if the company was suffering like most others in this economy then it would probably already be a done deal, along with a price increase for Premium Membership. ;)

 

But fortunately (or maybe unfortunately if you would like a Platinum Membership), Groundspeak is doing quite nicely.

 

Never hurts to ask.

 

Deane

AKA: DeRock & the Psychic Cacher - Grattan MI

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I am running across a large number of newbies, who are already premium members. One had not even found a cache yet! This membership is a good deal, considering other prices out there .......

 

So, I think a fairly large number of cachers would upgrade to a Platinum membership. Perhaps over 40%.

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So, I think a fairly large number of cachers would upgrade to a Platinum membership. Perhaps over 40%.

Unless it offers me something extra that would improve my geocaching experience, count me out. I don't need more of the same things. For example, if I want 10 PQ a day, I can always sign up for 2 premium accounts.

 

Edit : for clarity.

Edited by Chrysalides
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OK, for an non comedic response to your question.

 

An upper tier of membership has been suggested many times in the past. The reasons that it isn't going to happen have been stated so I will try to address them.

 

Full state pocket queries.

1. Groundspeak does not encourage the use of or support the maintenance of offsite databases. Although many folks use and have made some compelling arguments for their use the stated position of Groundspeak is that you can download 2500 caches a day which is well beyond the ability of even the best cachers to find in one day.

2. Some states have such large numbers of caches that a pocket query of that state would overwhelm the e-mail servers and in some instances is so large that incoming e-mail servers won't even accept it.

3. You also get into international locals that don't have state boundries so you would have to determine how to segregate those locations.

4. If you allowed full state downloads you would open the door to those who live near a border wanting multi-state downloads.

 

Request #2.

 

There are already tools available to find unfound-by-multiple-users caches. Two of them off the top of my head are http://itsnotaboutthenumbers.com and the GSAK tool. These tools push the server load off of the already overtaxed Groundspeak servers to a users home computer. This helps Groundspeak serve the PQ that it needs to server to its membership.

 

Third question. The pocket queries are set up to fit onto the least common denominator. In this case there are still many GPS units that will only hold 500 caches in use by cachers worldwide. If you created a 1000 cache PQ these users would try to load it into their GPS and either get an error or no caches loaded and would scream and yell at Groundspeak to "fix" the PQ's so they work on their GPS. It is easier to just eliminate that issue by maintaining the lower number.

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OK, for an non comedic response to your question.

 

An upper tier of membership has been suggested many times in the past. The reasons that it isn't going to happen have been stated so I will try to address them.

 

Full state pocket queries.

1. Groundspeak does not encourage the use of or support the maintenance of offsite databases. Although many folks use and have made some compelling arguments for their use the stated position of Groundspeak is that you can download 2500 caches a day which is well beyond the ability of even the best cachers to find in one day.

2. Some states have such large numbers of caches that a pocket query of that state would overwhelm the e-mail servers and in some instances is so large that incoming e-mail servers won't even accept it.

3. You also get into international locals that don't have state boundries so you would have to determine how to segregate those locations.

4. If you allowed full state downloads you would open the door to those who live near a border wanting multi-state downloads.

 

Request #2.

 

There are already tools available to find unfound-by-multiple-users caches. Two of them off the top of my head are http://itsnotaboutthenumbers.com and the GSAK tool. These tools push the server load off of the already overtaxed Groundspeak servers to a users home computer. This helps Groundspeak serve the PQ that it needs to server to its membership.

 

Third question. The pocket queries are set up to fit onto the least common denominator. In this case there are still many GPS units that will only hold 500 caches in use by cachers worldwide. If you created a 1000 cache PQ these users would try to load it into their GPS and either get an error or no caches loaded and would scream and yell at Groundspeak to "fix" the PQ's so they work on their GPS. It is easier to just eliminate that issue by maintaining the lower number.

 

Although some of the features mentioned would save me a lot of time working with GSAK and creative PQs, I can see Groundspeak's point of view. Question 3 doesn't really float though because you can set a limit in the PQ.

 

I maintain a dbase with GSAK for those very very rare occasions that Groundspeak is not accessible.

 

I think sometimes people forget that first and foremost Groundspeak is a world wide information server and at times that load can be a daunting enough task.

 

HiTech MD

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The site has never supported any offline database creation. Pocket Queries were designed to give you more than enough caches to search for in a day. They perfer to BE the database and give you small chunks as needed to have fun.

 

Having said that - some of the others failed to mention the Jelly of the Month Club subscription that comes with the platinum invitation - hmmmmmm stawberry.........

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Another reason that a paid Platinum Membership is unlikely, is that it many Premium Members would consider it a price increase.

New features have always been included in Premium membership as they are developed, and there's never been a price change. Two tiered paid membership would be tough to justify against Groundspeak's statement that those who continuously pay for Premium Membership will never be charged more.

 

 

 

............ invitation only Platinum Membership cannot be discussed in these forums.

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I did not look for other postings on this topic, since it's hard to determine what it might be listed under.

 

Is it time for a Platinum Membership?

 

Cost: $50-75 a year.

 

Benefits: Once a month Entire State PQ

1-3 times a month a PQ specifying 1-5 cachers - what each has in common

Standard PQs of a larger size, such as 1000 caches.

No!!

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...No, I wasn't kidding, and that still doesn't help. Ok, PQ is a Pocket Query ? Sooooooooooo, I still don't know what a PQ is. ...

 

It's a data file of caches with cache information. You can specify what caches are in the PQ. "All non micro's within 200 miles of zip 99701" it will stop at 500 caches so your radius may be smaller in a cache riche area.

 

You put that data on your paperless GPS, or PDA, or Computer and can look at things, sort them, organize them, plan a cache day by using your own maps etc.

 

The same thing you do one cache at a time, without a PQ.

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