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Premium Member Only Caches


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Personal preference. Do them if you want, skip them if you want.

 

I can find no information anywhere about Premium Member Only Caches. I know I can now see them and can hide them, but I can find no explanation as to their purpose or why they are needed. What are the criteria for this sort of cache and what is the advantage of defining one?

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I can find no information anywhere about Premium Member Only Caches. I know I can now see them and can hide them, but I can find no explanation as to their purpose or why they are needed. What are the criteria for this sort of cache and what is the advantage of defining one?

Some hiders want to reward paying members and place a cache as Member Only for a limited time. After what they determine to be a sufficient amount of time or number of finds they open it up to all.

 

Other hiders feel an additional level of security is inherent in a Member Only cache. They maintain the premium status for the entire life of the cache, which tends to limit finds to more experienced cachers. They believe trades will be more equitable and Coins and Travel Bugs are more likely to be logged correctly and moved on.

 

There is also a feature ONLY available on Member Only caches called the Audit Log. Some owners mistakenly equate this as a security feature. All it does is record which cachers (and how many times) clicked on the cache listing. Since there are many other ways to gain access to cache page information it is actually a very poor security system, but it is quite interesting to see who has clicked on the page.

 

I know some cache owners that had bad experiences with hides and converted all surviving caches to (and listed all subsequent caches) Member Only.

 

The only real restriction is that some Managers and Policies prohibit placement of caches designated as Member Only on public lands controlled by them.

 

Some areas have quite a few Member Only caches placed, others very few.

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http://www.geocaching.com/my/subscription.aspx

 

"Premium Member Only Caches

Some caches are only available to premium members. This has been a request of many geocachers who want to put more energy into designing a cache for dedicated geocachers. As the cache owner, you can make any of your caches "Premium Member Only," so folks will need a subscription to seek it out. (Note: member only caches may not be any better than public geocaches. Each cache is managed by their cache owner.)"

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Aside from the coords not being visible to basic members*, a PMO cache has an audit log. That log shows who has visited the cache page, and how many times. I think it shows the first and most recent visit date. The person on the audit log most is always me, and then generally the FTF. Plus a miscellany of other users. Most are not going to ever find the cache. This used to interest me more, I don't look at them much now.

 

It's quite possible for someone to find and log your cache without showing up on the audit log.

The cache comes in Pocket query, and they use field notes, or any number of logging techniques to go straight to the logging page.

 

* A basic member who finds the cache can log it, provided someone shows them how.

 

www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?wp=GCCode

 

This might be a friend or family of a Premium Member.

Edited by Isonzo Karst
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