Commercial caching

[BK + SB]

We're getting a little tired of cachers using geocaching to link to their personal business interests.

If folks want to make money off the back of geocaching then so be it, but it's making us want to steer away from GC to the more "open" caching alternatives.

Examples which we see regularly are subtle links to web pages selling geoswag in caching logs, subtle links to blogs which are just geo shopfronts, placements of caches in commercial premises, business cards in caches, geo-event exploitation, inappropriate forum signatures etc.

 

What do others think? Are we in favour of this indirect marketing? Shouldn't a cache log be just the log and nothing else. Is it acceptable for the cache owner to delete any logs with indirect advertising?

[+Lovejoy and Tinker]

Edited to remove post.

Edited September 8, 2010 by Lovejoy and Tinker

[+4 and The Dog]

We're getting a little tired of cachers using geocaching to link to their personal business interests.

 

Your profile says youve been caching for 2 years and 9 months, and have 2 finds

 

Now sure how that qualifies as getting ''tired'' - how many caches have you seen these in?? All 2??? We've never seen one promo (yeet!), but it wouldnt bother us if we did - as we'd just ignore it. We're there for the hunt, the find, and signing the log. We don't pay much attention to too much else.

[+Stuey]

We're getting a little tired of cachers using geocaching to link to their personal business interests.

If folks want to make money off the back of geocaching then so be it, but it's making us want to steer away from GC to the more "open" caching alternatives.

Examples which we see regularly are subtle links to web pages selling geoswag in caching logs, subtle links to blogs which are just geo shopfronts, placements of caches in commercial premises, business cards in caches, geo-event exploitation, inappropriate forum signatures etc.

 

What do others think? Are we in favour of this indirect marketing? Shouldn't a cache log be just the log and nothing else. Is it acceptable for the cache owner to delete any logs with indirect advertising?

 

I can't see other caching alternatives being less likely to be the same as geocaching.com. I've never noticed advertising being a problem, but maybe you have a bigger problem where you live. I think there are other things worth worrying about (unmaintained caches etc).

[+Munkeh]

I didn't think socks could read so advertising should not be a problem to them

[+sTeamTraen]

We're getting a little tired of cachers using geocaching to link to their personal business interests.

If folks want to make money off the back of geocaching then so be it, but it's making us want to steer away from GC to the more "open" caching alternatives.

Examples which we see regularly are subtle links to web pages selling geoswag in caching logs, subtle links to blogs which are just geo shopfronts, placements of caches in commercial premises, business cards in caches, geo-event exploitation, inappropriate forum signatures etc.

 

What do others think? Are we in favour of this indirect marketing? Shouldn't a cache log be just the log and nothing else. Is it acceptable for the cache owner to delete any logs with indirect advertising?

Your list of examples contains two things which are related to logs and four which aren't, including three which arguably would be issues regardless of the listing site used for the cache. So I'm not sure why using another site would be helpful, except to the extent that it would be a lot less popular and so have less interest for advertisers, which is a nice idea but not entirely scaleable.

 

Something which perhaps needs to be cleared up right away is that there is no magical document somewhere that says that Geocaching, as a game, has to be free of advertising, in the same way that you couldn't say "Fablon" on Blue Peter and had to say "sticky back plastic". Groundspeak doesn't like people putting commercial content on their cache pages, mainly because they don't want their server space and network bandwidth being used for free advertising. But as a for-profit company, Groundspeak has no problem with advertising - as long as people pay for it.

 

So, for the most part, if something is commercial, it's mostly a potential issue for Groundspeak. Now, of course, a lot of cachers very much appreciate the relative lack of advertising on the site and in the game, but that's secondary.

 

Going down your list:

- subtle links to web pages selling geoswag in caching logs

I doubt if anyone's going to take action on this. Logs only get policed if they are obscene or similar. Not many people read logs, and they scroll off the page pretty quickly anyway.

 

- subtle links to blogs which are just geo shopfronts

Depends where the link is. If it's on the cache page, you could mention it to a reviewer. Does anyone click on links on the cache page?

 

- placements of caches in commercial premises

Generally that shouldn't happen. Occasionally Groundspeak gives permission; more often, the placer "forgets" to mention it to the reviewer. You can report these to a reviewer.

 

- business cards in caches

That's been going on for ever. It doesn't seem to have prevented the recession.

 

- geo-event exploitation

You'd have to give some examples of that. But the listing site can't really control what happens on the day. If you turn up to an event and there are two blokes in sharp suits selling timeshares, about all you can do is resolve not to attend that person's event again.

 

- inappropriate forum signatures

Meh. The moderators have historically given quite a bit of leeway to signatures. With the number of people in the forums, this isn't going to create the next Alan Sugar.