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Premium Member Only Caches


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What is the purpose of the Premium Member Only Option ? I understand that Geocaching.com requires a paid membership for services beyond basic (GPX files ect.) but I don't understand why anyone placing a cache would want to exclude everyone but members. How does this promote the sport.... I placed several caches a few years ago and the remaining one is member only, don't know why. It was not intentional, and I have been unable to find a way to change it.

I am not being sarcastic here.. I really don't understand how this option benefits anyone ?

In my case I put some effort in creating and making my caches. I see some of them get beat up or cachers don't always replace correctly. Making them Premium just reduces the traffic a bit. If I make one virtually indestructible I would not make it Premium but what would that be.

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While never making a PMO cache, I know someone that has. He told me it was only after a few of his caches were being removed/stolen that he decided to do this. I forget if he replaced them or started out with new locations, (the latter seems to make more sense) but he has had success in keeping these caches going.

 

To the comment that more caches may be muggled because of the smart phone geocaching apps coming out, I hope not. If that comes to pass, the geocachers in general are going to pay the price. Let's hide the thieving, cache destroyers in big caches. What will the FTF do with them?

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I've been a regular member for just over 4 years and only have 71 hides finds, so I fall into that area of not having a lot of time to do this hobby. Lately I've been finding that I desire to get out more and do more caching. After realizing the benefits of what a PQ can do for me, I've finally decided to go with the PM thing. I've never been too concerned with the fact that there were caches restricted from my ability to find, but I am certainly going to be happy to finally be able to hunt them moving forward.

 

Have fun!

 

[edited for proper use of English language]

Edited by ubdylan
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When I eventually got a GPSr that did paperless geocaching, the PQ thing really was a big deal. Knowing you are going to a certain city/county and can load geocaches in that area, really makes geocaching much easier. I find geocaches in places I haven't looked before, all because they are already loaded on the GPSr (thanks to the PQ members option). Think of 500 caches nearest to your location, all loaded into your GPSr. It really is a big help.

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I do about half and half with my caches. Half PMO, half regular. Lots of reasons, too. One of those reasons is not the audit log. I didn't find out about the audit log until way after I started hiding caches. I'm just that observant.

 

Any cache that I think might get visits from TBs and geocoins are PMO. I can't count the number of bugs and coins I've seen gone missing in regular caches. Not so many in PMO caches. Not many at all, matter of fact.

 

Some of my hides that are more delicate, and need care taken when finding are PMO.

 

Fact is, I'm just more confident that someone who was willing to pay the $30/year to geocache is going to be a quality cacher. If they don't care, they aren't as likely to pay.

 

I truly hope that GS does not remove the Premium Member only caches to grease the squeaky wheels here on the forums... it would be doing itself a great disservice.

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the thing i hate about PM hides is that,as a non Premium Member hider i will go out find a nice place to hide a cache,i'll build my cache for that area ,hide it then go home and enter the coords only to find out that there's a Premium Member hide withen the 525 feet area that i didnt know was there,so i have to go out and try to find another location and hope it's not near another Premium Member cache,.....i also hate this with mulitable caches

 

 

Simple way to cure this problem is to send the coords to your reviewer before you place the cache and ask if the area is open. I do it all the time, especially when building puzzle caches.

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I completely agree with all of the opinions. I think it is a moneygrab by Groundspeak. My wife and I got into this hobby as a FREE way to get outside with the kids. I really think having to pay to see some caches kinda goes against what caching was started for, in my eyes. I am just a newbie with less than a year in, but we've found over 300 regular caches and are kinda running out in our local area.

 

Maybe if a cache had to be rated and once it reached a certain point, then it could be moved to a Premium. I just don't see a reason to pay $30/year to find more LPCs. From what I've seen, that's what many of them are. There are a couple of TB Hotels in the area that are premiums, but we find enough without it.

 

Anyway, to me, it seems to go against the ideals of geocaching, but it is up to the owners. For me, even if I do pony up the cash to upgrade, I'll never make one of mine Premium, I want as many people as possible to find mine!!

Besides the added benefits of pocket queries and audit logs, etc. I am a PM to help support the game that I enjoy. All my caches except 1 or 2 are PMO's for the reason that I have less piracy that way and I feel if you enjoy the game then help support it . All the equipment and computers are very expensive.

No matter how you look at it geocaching is not free. How about the $2-300 gps , the geo vehicle , the gas , etc ? Whats another $30 to help support the cause.

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PM caches are a small percentage and I don't think are "elitist" at all. If half the caches were PM caches, I might think differently, but that isn't the case. And $30 a year is a BARGAIN considering all the fun I have. I appreciate the existence of the site and I am happy to contribute a small amount to keep it running. :rolleyes:

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I found my first 100 caches or so as a regular member. I didn't even know about PMO cache§ because the BlackBerry App I use (Geocache Navigator, $19.99) showed me ALL caches, including PMO!

 

When this "glitch" was fixed I was already hooked. I'm now a PM and I can't go back.

 

As a hider I have a cache at my house marked for PMO. It just makes me feel safer that not just anyone can get a free account and see it.

 

However I had a situation the other day where a PM and a non-PM were out caching together and found my PMO cache. The PM logged it and the non-PM left a note along with the log stating they didn't have a nice time because they couldn't get credit for the find.

 

I emailed them, took off the PMO attribute for a day and they logged the cache. I don't want to exclude anyone but I will return it to PMO for safety reasons. If a non-PM emails me and asks for the coords or to be able to log it, I will do so for them.

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I emailed them, took off the PMO attribute for a day and they logged the cache. I don't want to exclude anyone but I will return it to PMO for safety reasons. If a non-PM emails me and asks for the coords or to be able to log it, I will do so for them.

There are several ways they can log the cache that does not involve you changing the status.

1. Use geocachingadmin.com. Enter the GC number, hit log and your on the log page.

2. Go to log some random cache and change the URL from ?ID=xxxxxx to ?WP=GCXXXXX and refresh the URL.

3. His buddy could log the cache and send the non-pm the URL and the non-pm can use that to get to the log page.

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I'm not an experienced cacher and started just this spring. I (have been) a very big promoter for geocaching and have convinced several people to start and has been in both papers and radio talking about this excellent hobby. But today the first "PMO"-cache I have ever seen showed up close by. I must say I am almost shocked to realize that to this type of cache exists, and in my eyes it goes radically against what I thought geocaching was all about.

 

Please note that I dont argue against giving special features for premium memberships or am negative to the idea of supporting server costs etc. But *denying* non-paying people from seeing the cache details itself is very very extreme. And ofcourse especially so as this is 100% user generated content. I have hidden 16 caches myself and bought lots of branded goods etc from Groundspeak but would never ever even think the thought to deny explorers the joy of searching for my hides, why else would I go to great lengths and cost to hide them in the first place? To get Groundspeak more Premium members??? It really makes me quite sad and my motivation for hiding more has got a bad beating by this. :P

 

/Robert

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i highly doubt it anyone would make an LPC a PMO cache

 

Might want to rethink that.

 

We need to do everything we can to protect the precious resource that LPCs have become.

 

fine with me, if they want to make an LPC PM cache so be it, they are certainly entitled to do so

 

besides just because a handful of people hate the LPC's it doesn't make them the majority, some actually enjoy them

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