Bad Feedback for Geocaching.com

[+yawningdogs]

I am a Smartphone user (HTC Desire) running on Android.

 

The Geocaching concept should be simple and straight forward, so why on earth does geocaching.com have to make it so complicated. Every level of the learning, registration, payment and delivery process is complicated and fragmented.

 

OK I can understand that geocaching.com must be evolving from geek origins, but with the explosion of portable "smart" devices, it has to simplify the processes to suit the less technically minded masses. In fact, it's not that technical, it's just time-wasting. I don't have the time to crawl through endless web pages, tutorials, and irrelevant forum searches. All I want is to find the caches near point X, download in GPX, and set off on my travels.

 

But of course that would be too easy, I can only download multiple caches in a .loc file. So I have to try & figure out how to send a Pocket Query. Once I've done this I still don't get my caches, I have to wait for the once-a-day email. Why can't I have the caches now? I've just paid $30, so where is my value for money. There maybe another way, but for pete's sake, make it easy, not a pain in the a**.

 

And on the subject of the $30, why is it that I can make a $30 one-off payment for a year, but not a $10 one-off payment for 3 months. Its a cheap and very obvious trick to hope that those who only want to try out for 3 months may forget to cancel their recurring payment that is their only choice at registration. Why on earth not offer either google checkout and/or Paypal for payment. Why should I risk the security of my credit card details.

 

My "premium" registration confirmation email mentions the other sites, Werigo and Waymarking. I made a search on one of these sites for "Southern Of England", and the result I received was: "There were no results found (yet). Welcome early adopter!"

 

"Early adopter", don't patronise me with MBA speak. Show me that you can produce a product/service that is worthy of $30, or else I can bet that someone else will come along soon (eg Google) and do a far far better job.

 

 

PS: I have no doubt that your experienced users have no problems with your site, but that doesn't make it any easier for new users.

[knowschad]

Not everything worth doing should have to be easy. Some good things require a little effort on your part, and I think that is an important part of the filtering process. If you're not willing to invest a little effort, perhaps you should be doing something else.

 

 

[+mpilchfamily]

So what do you suggest?

 

Growing up i was taught that if you are going to complain about a problem that you better have a solution to go with it.

 

As a newcomer to the game i don't see anything that's to complicated about this. But being a geek myself maybe things are a bit too complicated and i just don't see it.

 

I look at it like this. Geocaching is a sport. Like any sport you need to take some time to learn the rules and see how the game is played. You don't just hand one of us Americans a Cricket bat and throw us into the game. They need to take the time to learn the sport. I for one have sat down and watched a few cricket matches and still can't make head or tails of the game. When i started Geocaching i went out with my Wife's uncles on a couple of runs. I then spent some time online looking into the game and trying to learn the finer points. I knew this was something i wanted to get into so it was worth my time to learn more about it.

 

Now i don't know about the premium membership side of things yet. As a newcomer i wanted to take some time to get to know the game better and see if the additional features and caches available to premium members was going to be worth the money. Sure it would be nice to upload a group of caches to my GPS all at once. Especially if i'm planning a trip with lots of caches. In that cases scheduling and waiting for the download to become available isn't that big of a deal. As i understand it the lag time is needed so there servers don't get overwhelmed with download requests.

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

I look at it like this. Geocaching is a sport.

Heh. He said "sport". Let the 'it's a game!' flames begin!

[+addisonbr]

It's valid feedback. I don't mind hearing from newer users who don't necessarily have solutions in mind... hearing that something was difficult or counter-intuitive to folks who haven't been doing this for years is good food for thought. Appreciate your thoughts, yawningdogs.

[+ArtieD]

You haven't even so much as found one cache and you're already complaining...way to get started!

 

Personally, the site's pretty easy to use if you just take the time to learn a thing or two...but that would be too much work, wouldn't it?

[+tozainamboku]

I am a Smartphone user (HTC Desire) running on Android.

There is a Geocaching.com app for the Adroid. I don't know if there is a free version for those who want to try out geocaching before they pay like there is for the iPhone.

 

Seems like Geocaching.com is pretty with it as far as catering to people who just want to take there smartphone and start geocaching. No need to deal with the confusing and complicated website.

Edited December 23, 2010 by tozainamboku

[+narcissa]

When I run a new PQ, I get it within minutes.

[jholly]

 

The Geocaching concept should be simple and straight forward, so why on earth does geocaching.com have to make it so complicated. blah, blah, blah ...

Did you forget to take your fiber the last couple days?

[+ocklawahaboy]

I am a Smartphone user (HTC Desire) running on Android.

 

The Geocaching concept should be simple and straight forward, so why on earth does geocaching.com have to make it so complicated. Every level of the learning, registration, payment and delivery process is complicated and fragmented.

 

OK I can understand that geocaching.com must be evolving from geek origins, but with the explosion of portable "smart" devices, it has to simplify the processes to suit the less technically minded masses. In fact, it's not that technical, it's just time-wasting. I don't have the time to crawl through endless web pages, tutorials, and irrelevant forum searches. All I want is to find the caches near point X, download in GPX, and set off on my travels.

 

But of course that would be too easy, I can only download multiple caches in a .loc file. So I have to try & figure out how to send a Pocket Query. Once I've done this I still don't get my caches, I have to wait for the once-a-day email. Why can't I have the caches now? I've just paid $30, so where is my value for money. There maybe another way, but for pete's sake, make it easy, not a pain in the a**.

 

And on the subject of the $30, why is it that I can make a $30 one-off payment for a year, but not a $10 one-off payment for 3 months. Its a cheap and very obvious trick to hope that those who only want to try out for 3 months may forget to cancel their recurring payment that is their only choice at registration. Why on earth not offer either google checkout and/or Paypal for payment. Why should I risk the security of my credit card details.

 

My "premium" registration confirmation email mentions the other sites, Werigo and Waymarking. I made a search on one of these sites for "Southern Of England", and the result I received was: "There were no results found (yet). Welcome early adopter!"

 

"Early adopter", don't patronise me with MBA speak. Show me that you can produce a product/service that is worthy of $30, or else I can bet that someone else will come along soon (eg Google) and do a far far better job.

 

 

PS: I have no doubt that your experienced users have no problems with your site, but that doesn't make it any easier for new users.

Ok, I just have to throw my 2 cents in. I've been a premium member for about a year but I only do this as an occasional hobby so I can still identify with newbies. The site does take some getting used to and I don't like to use it at all on my phone. With that said, the $10 for the droid app is more than worth it. You're automatically logged in and the nearest caches to your current location are just a tap away. I've found about half of my 100 or so caches in the month since I got my droid app.

As for geocaching's evolution from geek origins, I wouldn't blame the stated site problems on that. The site can do a whole lot of cool things for you and when you try to build a site that can do that much, some things get complicated. There are so many options for searches etc that some of the options just can't be front and center. There aren't that many front and centers to put them in.

To the OP, I hope that you will stick with geocaching and get past the frustrations. It's a fun hobby/game/sport/addiction/psychosis/whatever. Just like anything that involves this many people, there are going to be some things you don't like about it.

A lot of people of done a lot of work so that late comers like us can come in and have a whole lot of fun.

Enjoy!

[+Sol seaker]

I am far from a geek. I have trouble beyond turning my computer on (and some days that even gives me trouble).

 

When I started I entered the coordinates by hand into my very old GPS and copied down the clues on paper by hand. Then I went out and found the caches. I was caching for at least six months, maybe a year, before I learned how to download pocket quieries. Now when I do them I get the results right away. I rarely wait more than a minute before they show up in my IN box.

 

For at least the first six months (most likely more) all I could do was load coord's by hand into the GPS and find caches. It was enough.

 

Perhaps you are trying to take on too much new technology at once. Like asking my 94 year old grandmother to sit down and learn how to use power point. First she's got to learn how to turn on the computer and move the mouse. You've got to give yourself a learning curve and start with the simple things.

 

If you have some more specific complaints, perhaps they can be addressed. Generalized complaints about things being tough don't really help the improvement process. I'm sure they appreciate the views of everyone. More specificity will get a better response.

 

In the meantime, the word is "baby-steps". Rome was not built in a day, and the Italian language cannot be learned in a day.

 

You don't have to know how to use everything on the website to cache.

 

Get some coords and go find one.

[knowschad]

An estimated 4-5 million geocachers worldwide have managed to figure it out to. I think that says something about this topic.

[+SSO JOAT]

I am a Smartphone user... <blah blah blah>

 

The Geocaching concept should be simple and straight forward... <blah blah blah>

 

This is a sport played with a GPS and it's not supposed to be "easy". Clearly, you're not cut out for it. Recommend you immediately return to playing video games on the couch. Problem solved. G'day.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Someone should ask Santa for a Geomate, Jr. for Christmas.

 

As someone else mentioned, creating a very simple website also means reducing the number of available features. There are some features which have a steeper learning curve, but the effort is often worth it. There are people that have been playing this game for over 10 years, and probably hundreds of thousands of geocachers that have been contributing to the game for 2 or more years that would get pretty ticked off of Groundspeak decided to dumb down the site to accommodate those that are unwilling to spend a little time to understand the technology.

[+mamoreb]

I'm a fairly new user, but rather close to the computer geek division. I did have some confusing encounters with the website, before I could memorize where to find everything.

 

The left menu contains global stuff, I got that pretty quick. But once I enter my account pages, I still don't understand what goes into the right menu, what goes into the top menu, and what goes into sub-pages of the top menu.

 

I love geocaching, and I'm thankful for the rich and flexible services that are provided. I just think that the menu structure could be improved.

 

How about a "basic features" layout for new members, with a few conceptual boxes, i.e. introductions - searching for caches - logging caches - dealing with travelers - basic user history/statistics? And an "advanced features" layout for the rest of us, with the waymarks, benchmarks, PQs, field notes, favourites, souvenirs, watch lists, what-nots?

[knowschad]

I was caching for at least six months, maybe a year, before I learned how to download pocket quieries.

... and almost two years before you learned how to spell them, huh?

 

Just teasing you, SS... nice post.

[+JBnW]

I was caching for at least six months, maybe a year, before I learned how to download pocket quieries.

... and almost two years before you learned how to spell them, huh?

"Now that there's funny right there. I don't care who you are!"

 

Back OT, I'm not sure if there's a name for the generation following "Generation X"; but I would propose "Generation Instant Gratification".

[+edscott]

I was caching for at least six months, maybe a year, before I learned how to download pocket quieries.

... and almost two years before you learned how to spell them, huh?

"Now that there's funny right there. I don't care who you are!"

 

Back OT, I'm not sure if there's a name for the generation following "Generation X"; but I would propose "Generation Instant Gratification".

 

Yes a direct result of NCLB.. blame Bush

[+The Jester]

I was caching for at least six months, maybe a year, before I learned how to download pocket quieries.

... and almost two years before you learned how to spell them, huh?

"Now that there's funny right there. I don't care who you are!"

 

Back OT, I'm not sure if there's a name for the generation following "Generation X"; but I would propose "Generation Instant Gratification".

That name is too long...

[knowschad]

I was caching for at least six months, maybe a year, before I learned how to download pocket quieries.

... and almost two years before you learned how to spell them, huh?

"Now that there's funny right there. I don't care who you are!"

 

Back OT, I'm not sure if there's a name for the generation following "Generation X"; but I would propose "Generation Instant Gratification".

That name is too long...

 

Try "The GIG Gen".

 

Or, better yet, "IGG" (Instant Gratification Generation")

Edited December 24, 2010 by knowschad

[+DaddyO48+MommyO]

What was the topic here again?

[knowschad]

What was the topic here again?

The topic was a new user providing feedback to Groundspeak about the usability of their website. Useful information to Groundspeak, I'm sure, if they chose to listen. It was more the tone, I suspect, that caused this to veer off course so quickly.

[Jeremy]

We appreciate feedback which is why there is a Feedback tab on every page of the website and a link at the top if these forums. Individual suggestions are preferred, since broad complaints are difficult to address. Thanks.

[+geodarts]

And the Getting Started forum is a great place to ask questions. Most of us are glad to help if asked.

[+LukeTrocity]

When I run a new PQ, I get it within minutes.

 

Post site update I have been getting them in seconds.

[+G & C]

I am a Smartphone user... <blah blah blah>

 

The Geocaching concept should be simple and straight forward... <blah blah blah>

 

This is a sport played with a GPS and it's not supposed to be "easy". Clearly, you're not cut out for it. Recommend you immediately return to playing video games on the couch. Problem solved. G'day.

 

Great! Rather than trying to reel a potential geocacher back in after a perceived bad start, we should alienate them further by telling them to go away.

 

Brilliant!

 

It's not a sport, and it should be simple. Finding caches may not be easy, but getting the chance to get to look for them should most definitely be. And if our new users are having a hard time with any part of our fun little game here, we should be listening before we lose them to sitting on the couch. Or worse, to opencaching.com or any other rival geocaching websites.

 

If enough people get frustrated and leave, or we do what you just did and alienate new members to the point that they don't become new members, guess what happens to your ability to go geocaching.

[+Walts Hunting]

Maybe after finding your first cache and your membership passes the first week you will have figured it out. Or are you a troll?

[+TheLoneGrangers]

An estimated 4-5 million geocachers worldwide have managed to figure it out to. I think that says something about this topic.

 

this

[+TheLoneGrangers]

I am a Smartphone user... <blah blah blah>

 

The Geocaching concept should be simple and straight forward... <blah blah blah>

 

This is a sport played with a GPS and it's not supposed to be "easy". Clearly, you're not cut out for it. Recommend you immediately return to playing video games on the couch. Problem solved. G'day.

 

Great! Rather than trying to reel a potential geocacher back in after a perceived bad start, we should alienate them further by telling them to go away.

 

Brilliant!

 

It's not a sport, and it should be simple. Finding caches may not be easy, but getting the chance to get to look for them should most definitely be. And if our new users are having a hard time with any part of our fun little game here, we should be listening before we lose them to sitting on the couch. Or worse, to opencaching.com or any other rival geocaching websites.

 

If enough people get frustrated and leave, or we do what you just did and alienate new members to the point that they don't become new members, guess what happens to your ability to go geocaching.

 

If trying to find a object that requires you to hike miles into the mountains, repel down cliffs and caves and bridges, scuba dive shipwrecks, and doing so increases your find count and smileys on the map is not a sport, I'm not sure what is, billiards is a game, but they call it a sport, its on ESPN, same with texas hold-em, those are games, this is most definitely a sport, unless you just go look for all the 1/1's in shopping center parking lots

[+G & C]

If trying to find a object that requires you to hike miles into the mountains, repel down cliffs and caves and bridges, scuba dive shipwrecks, and doing so increases your find count and smileys on the map is not a sport, I'm not sure what is, billiards is a game, but they call it a sport, its on ESPN, same with texas hold-em, those are games, this is most definitely a sport, unless you just go look for all the 1/1's in shopping center parking lots

 

Hardly the place for this tired argument, but no. Not a sport. No competition. No winner. Among a myriad of other reasons. Not a sport. Simply a hobby, and a great one at that. Of that I'm sure we can agree.

[+geodarts]

I wish we could agree that asking a frustrated new cacher if he is a troll is perhaps not the best way to address the complaints. But that is a time-honored response on these forums and I hope it will not be taken personally.

[+Manville Possum]

I am a Smartphone user... <blah blah blah>

 

The Geocaching concept should be simple and straight forward... <blah blah blah>

 

This is a sport played with a GPS and it's not supposed to be "easy". Clearly, you're not cut out for it. Recommend you immediately return to playing video games on the couch. Problem solved. G'day.

 

Great! Rather than trying to reel a potential geocacher back in after a perceived bad start, we should alienate them further by telling them to go away.

 

Brilliant!

 

It's not a sport, and it should be simple. Finding caches may not be easy, but getting the chance to get to look for them should most definitely be. And if our new users are having a hard time with any part of our fun little game here, we should be listening before we lose them to sitting on the couch. Or worse, to opencaching.com or any other rival geocaching websites.

 

If enough people get frustrated and leave, or we do what you just did and alienate new members to the point that they don't become new members, guess what happens to your ability to go geocaching.

I'm a PM, but I enjoy developing caches of historic interest and similar waymarks to share with new members. I find PMO caches that are PMO just because the CO is a PM detrimental to our hobby, and more and more of the caches seem to be appearing in Parks and other public areas. There are some good reasons that some caches be PMO, but many CO's in our area have all PMO listings just because they can. I'm also a member of OpenCaching.com which is a free listing service, I take time to research and develope historically accurate geocaches. I work with the NPS, and State Parks, and I want my listings kept open for all users. When I started geocaching by becoming a basic member, I disliked the idea of PMO caches because I felt that they were purposely made PMO just to alienate basic members. Now that I have became more experienced, I realize that my first impression was correct. I don't use most of my PM benefits, but I still enjoy some of them. I really like the Waymarking site too, but it is used very little in my area. I can hardly wait for the new virtual caches that are in the planning stage now. EarthCaches a difficult for me to develope, but I think that I can develope good waymarks and virtuals.

[+Manville Possum]

I wish we could agree that asking a frustrated new cacher if he is a troll is perhaps not the best way to address the complaints. But that is a time-honored response on these forums and I hope it will not be taken personally.

If they were a Troll just trying to flame someone they would have already hit the report button, then sit back and laugh knowing that a moderator would send the user a PM. Thats just the norm for Trolls, most of us already know the real ones and their tactics.

[+pklong]

Show me that you can produce a product/service that is worthy of $30, or else I can bet that someone else will come along soon (e.g. Google) and do a far far better job.

 

There are plenty of other Geocaching listing sites out there (opencaching.com) being one for example. Spend a little time using the competition and you will very quickly see how good a job Groundspeak is doing with geocaching.com, frankly the competition is laughably bad by comparison. Yes it's not perfect, but you try doing better.

 

It seems you're just a little peeved that you've had to expend a little effort learning what Geocaching is before heading out into the woods for your first find. This in my mind is a good thing. I don't want someone who can't be bothered spending 5 minutes reading the FAQ and my cache page heading off to find one of my caches. Who knows what they might do. Keep a trackable, take a shovel and start digging up wild flowers. Anything.

 

Philip

[+pppingme]

or else I can bet that someone else will come along soon (eg Google) and do a far far better job.

And thus came Garmin.

[Clan Riffster]

I am a Smartphone user (HTC Desire) running on Android.

I'm really having a tough time taking this whole rant seriously. I am, perhaps, the least technical person on the planet. If you told me to pick out an Android phone out of a pile of similar phones, I could not. If you handed it to me and told me to turn it on, I could not. And forget about me actually using the dang thing, unless it was as a paperweight. I've found, when it comes to technology, I am dumber than a bag of hammers. Yet, even with this record breaking low level of expertise, I somehow managed. I really don't know what to say when faced with someone who can't figure this site out. "take up knitting" comes to mind, but that's a hobby one can't learn in less than 30 seconds.

 

Perhaps the Generation after X could be E, for Entitlement?

[+briansnat]

The Geocaching concept should be simple and straight forward...

 

And it is. Plug the cache coordinates into your GPS, follow the arrow and watch the distance count down. How much more simple and straightforward can you get? It's as simple or as complicated as you want to make it. There are still people out there who print out cache pages and manually enter the coordinates into their GPS and happily find caches. Simple and straight forward. And there are people who use complicated applications, write macros and do other techie stuff. The level of complication is a choice.

 

I don't have the time to crawl through endless web pages, tutorials, and irrelevant forum searches. All I want is to find the caches near point X, download in GPX, and set off on my travels.

 

That's all I ever do. The process is actually quite easy and takes no more than 5 minutes. Of course you have to need to take a few minutes to learn it. If you don't have 3 minutes to view a tutorial, then how do you expect to learn it?

 

But of course that would be too easy, I can only download multiple caches in a .loc file. So I have to try & figure out how to send a Pocket Query. Once I've done this I still don't get my caches, I have to wait for the once-a-day email. Why can't I have the caches now? I've just paid $30, so where is my value for money. There maybe another way, but for pete's sake, make it easy, not a pain in the a**.

 

I get my PQs within minutes, sometimes seconds. Not sure why you have to wait for a once a day e-mail. Perhaps your quarrel is with your e-mail provider.

 

And on the subject of the $30, why is it that I can make a $30 one-off payment for a year, but not a $10 one-off payment for 3 months. Its a cheap and very obvious trick to hope that those who only want to try out for 3 months may forget to cancel their recurring payment that is their only choice at registration. Why on earth not offer either google checkout and/or Paypal for payment. Why should I risk the security of my credit card details.

 

Paypal is an option. It is in the drop down on the payment page.

 

 

Never in my life have I started an worthwhile endeavor without having take the time to learn something about it.

 

When I took up fly fishing I had to learn how to cast, how to tie certain knots, the differences between wet and dry flies, sinking vs. floating line, how to read a stream, matching the hatch and everything else involved. I didn't expect to buy a fly rod and go directly to a stream and immediately catch fish.

 

When I started something as simple and straight forward as hiking I had to learn where the trails were, how to read blazes, how to choose footwear, how to read a trail map, what sort of clothing was appropriate, what I needed to carry and more. It was a process that took time and there was some trial and error.

 

I don't think I've ever visited a website (other than single page ones) where I didn't have to take some time to figure out how to negotiate it. This site is no more difficult to negotiate than most and easier than many. Millions of people have figured it out and not every one of them has a masters degree in computer science.

 

In life you just can't expect everything to be spoon fed. Sometimes you need to take initiative. If you have specific recommendations to make things easier, you have the feedback tab at your disposal. Be warned, you may have to figure out how to use it.

Edited December 24, 2010 by briansnat

[wezill]

Instead of piling on the guy why not just point him over to the getting started section. guess I'm next to be piled on for giving such a simple and easy way to help the guy out. Pick apart my membership too. Merry Christmas..

[+SSO JOAT]

Great! Rather than trying to reel a potential geocacher back in after a perceived bad start, we should alienate them further by telling them to go away.

 

As an expert in profiling people, it is quite clear that the OP hasn't the ability or drive to be a geocacher. I gave him the best advice for his situation.

 

If enough people get frustrated and leave, or we do what you just did and alienate new members to the point that they don't become new members, guess what happens to your ability to go geocaching.

 

My ability to geocache is not affected at all by other people's frustration with using the internet. Further, I'd very much prefer that dumb people do NOT become geocachers. They are the reason for everything from spoiled and missing caches to TB abductions. Only folks with a true interest in excelling at this sport should play.

 

Not a sport. No competition. No winner.

 

I get so tired of this BS anti-sport rebuttal. Open your dictionary. Look up "sport". It's under the "S" section, which is right after "R" and just before "T". Read it. There is NO requirement for a sport to be a competition or have a winner. Now go look up "game". A game requires competition and a winner. You guys keep confusing the two words. Geocaching is NOT a game, but it is a sport. There are games within geocaching, such as FTF and most of the other stuff you'll find on your statistics tab (furthest, fastest, mostest, etc). But the overall activity is an "outdoor sport". Some people do it as a hobby, and some of us are more serious about it than that. Your level of involvement in a particular sport (hiking, biking, jogging, caving, climbing, boating, geocaching, etc) is up to you.

 

p.s. Lighten up a bit. Sarcasm is my preferred window dressing on internet forums.

Edited December 24, 2010 by SSO JOAT

[+dfx]

Now go look up "game". A game requires competition and a winner.

 

solitaire doesn't have that, and neither does super mario

[+SSO JOAT]

Now go look up "game". A game requires competition and a winner.

 

solitaire doesn't have that, and neither does super mario

 

They most certainly do. Both of these games are all about "competition" (against the machine, so to speak) and trying to "win".

[+SSO JOAT]

I can understand that geocaching.com must be evolving from geek origins, but with the explosion of portable "smart" devices, it has to simplify the processes to suit the less technically minded masses.

 

And by the same token, with the increasing interest in the sport of American football, the NFL needs to lower their standards and increase the number of teams to that average people can play, too.

[wezill]

HA! nice analogy SSO joat.

Edited December 24, 2010 by wezill

[+Bear and Ragged]

You say you searched "Southern Of England"

 

Are you in the UK?

UK cachers can be found over in the UK and Ireland side of the forums here link

 

And, yes, Wherigo's are few and far between... Only 39 in the UK.

(Two in 'Southern England' in Berkshire. http://coord.info/GC1DAAA http://coord.info/GC19W7G)

 

Edit to add:

All cache pages have:

 

Find...

* ...other caches hidden or found by this user

* ...nearby caches of this type, that I haven't found

* ...all nearby caches, that I haven't found

* ...all nearby waymarks on Waymarking.com

 

Click on the 'all nearby waymarks on Waymarking.com' link to see the nearest Waymarks.

Edited December 24, 2010 by Bear and Ragged

[+briansnat]

Instead of piling on the guy why not just point him over to the getting started section. guess I'm next to be piled on for giving such a simple and easy way to help the guy out. Pick apart my membership too. Merry Christmas..

 

It's my impression from his post that he isn't interested in that. He didn't want to deal the time it took to view a tutorial, why do you think he'd want to go over to Getting Started and take the time to ask questions and wait for answers? His entire point was that he thought it was too much effort to learn the sport and this website.

 

If he came here with specific questions and asked for help people would have been falling all over themselves to assist. Instead he was here to rant and he accomplished that.

Edited December 24, 2010 by briansnat

[+Sol seaker]

Instead of piling on the guy why not just point him over to the getting started section. guess I'm next to be piled on for giving such a simple and easy way to help the guy out. Pick apart my membership too. Merry Christmas..

 

It's my impression from his post that he isn't interested in that. He didn't want to deal the time it took to view a tutorial, why do you think he'd want to go over to Getting Started and take the time to ask questions and wait for answers? His entire point was that he thought it was too much effort to learn the sport and this website.

 

If he came here with specific questions and asked for help people would have been falling all over themselves to assist. Instead he was here to rant and he accomplished that.

 

Yes, post one rant and never another post. He still hasn't found any caches either.

So whether intended or not, it seems he has effectively "trolled"

[+hukilaulau]

When I started I entered the coordinates by hand into my very old GPS and copied down the clues on paper by hand. Then I went out and found the caches. I was caching for at least six months, maybe a year, before I learned how to download pocket quieries. Now when I do them I get the results right away. I rarely wait more than a minute before they show up in my IN box.

 

For at least the first six months (most likely more) all I could do was load coord's by hand into the GPS and find caches. It was enough.

 

Get some coords and go find one.

I couldn't have said it better. Every step of the process took time and patience. I don't WANT someone to be able to just turn on their phone and find the caches I've taken the trouble to hide. I know, I know, that's the "smart" phone philosophy. No thinking involved. Just pull up the app and do what you're gonna do. Funny thing is, now with the Trimble Geocache Navigator on my Blackberry, I CAN do that. But if it's a little difficult for beginners to figure that out, well, that's a GOOD thing.

Edited December 24, 2010 by hukilaulau

[+G & C]

 

Not a sport. No competition. No winner.

 

I get so tired of this BS anti-sport rebuttal. Open your dictionary. Look up "sport". It's under the "S" section, which is right after "R" and just before "T". Read it. There is NO requirement for a sport to be a competition or have a winner. Now go look up "game". A game requires competition and a winner. You guys keep confusing the two words. Geocaching is NOT a game, but it is a sport. There are games within geocaching, such as FTF and most of the other stuff you'll find on your statistics tab (furthest, fastest, mostest, etc). But the overall activity is an "outdoor sport". Some people do it as a hobby, and some of us are more serious about it than that. Your level of involvement in a particular sport (hiking, biking, jogging, caving, climbing, boating, geocaching, etc) is up to you.

 

p.s. Lighten up a bit. Sarcasm is my preferred window dressing on internet forums.

 

Allowing a dictionary to define sports for me would be the equivalent of me letting ESPN dictate what is and isn't a sport. Because ESPN plays poker, billiards, and dog shows. DOG SHOWS. Seriously guys?

 

Again, this isn't the place for this argument, but since you want to, we can go on. Sports are played by athletes. I know plenty of geocachers. Are you getting my drift here?

 

You can call geocaching a sport all you want to. You can call dog shows a sport for all I care. You'll just be wrong. And you'll be wrong all by yourself eventually if you keep alienating the new users, no matter how stupid you think they are.

 

Sincerely,

 

Also Sarcastic

[+solo63137]

I am a Smartphone user (HTC Desire) running on Android.

 

The Geocaching concept should be simple and straight forward, so why on earth does geocaching.com have to make it so complicated. Every level of the learning, registration, payment and delivery process is complicated and fragmented.

 

OK I can understand that geocaching.com must be evolving from geek origins, but with the explosion of portable "smart" devices, it has to simplify the processes to suit the less technically minded masses. In fact, it's not that technical, it's just time-wasting. I don't have the time to crawl through endless web pages, tutorials, and irrelevant forum searches. All I want is to find the caches near point X, download in GPX, and set off on my travels.

 

But of course that would be too easy, I can only download multiple caches in a .loc file. So I have to try & figure out how to send a Pocket Query. Once I've done this I still don't get my caches, I have to wait for the once-a-day email. Why can't I have the caches now? I've just paid $30, so where is my value for money. There maybe another way, but for pete's sake, make it easy, not a pain in the a**.

 

And on the subject of the $30, why is it that I can make a $30 one-off payment for a year, but not a $10 one-off payment for 3 months. Its a cheap and very obvious trick to hope that those who only want to try out for 3 months may forget to cancel their recurring payment that is their only choice at registration. Why on earth not offer either google checkout and/or Paypal for payment. Why should I risk the security of my credit card details.

 

My "premium" registration confirmation email mentions the other sites, Werigo and Waymarking. I made a search on one of these sites for "Southern Of England", and the result I received was: "There were no results found (yet). Welcome early adopter!"

 

"Early adopter", don't patronise me with MBA speak. Show me that you can produce a product/service that is worthy of $30, or else I can bet that someone else will come along soon (eg Google) and do a far far better job.

 

 

PS: I have no doubt that your experienced users have no problems with your site, but that doesn't make it any easier for new users.

 

 

Welcome to the site and the Hobby/Sport of Geocaching...

 

With a post like that, well Never mind... I'll just say, it takes a bit to learn your way around, but its not that bad and the fun is Great!!!

 

While the site may not cater to you and do everything you want at a push of a button with no thinking or effort on your part, if you are having a problem and you post a specific question, I'm positive that someone (most likely several folks) here will be glad to help you...

 

I consider myself to be low man on the totem pole as far as # of finds, skills with this site and Geocaching itself, but with help from these fine folks, I've managed to find

30+ caches and had tons of fun doing it...

 

You just have to be willing to put a little effort into it...

Edited December 25, 2010 by solo63137

[+Chokecherry]

I have slowly (and I mean slowly) waded into this site and my premium membership. You don't need to learn it all at once to participate in the hobby. If you try that it's completely overwhelming. I started manually entering coordinates from the Iphone application into my unit.

 

Eventually I got a premium membership because I wanted to do a route for a trip I was looking at it. Never got the PQ's in e-mail but had no real intention putting all those in my unit. That was pretty much the only time I ran pq's as I tend to hand pick the caches I'm going to and didn't want to learn how to do them or use GSAK or anything like that.

 

I graduated to sending the coordinates to my unit as it was hooked up to the computer from the cache page instead of manually entering them. And I send a word document of cache pages to my mom so she can print and use them as she likes that.

 

I certainly don't use all the functionality of the site but I still enjoy the hobby.