Geocaching, geolocation & social media

[+The Lemonheads]

Hey -

 

I've been thinking... how can we continue to grow the geocaching community? I work specifically in social media marketing and have a thought specifically related to geo-location social media game:

 

What if a geocache owner - by choice - could link his/her cache to something like Foursquare? Then, geocachers who find "X" amount of caches that are linked to Foursquare could receive a badge for their Foursquare profile. This would require Groundspeak to reach out to Foursquare with the proposal and a badge design. This increases visibility for the game, and adds a component for geocachers.

 

Would love to explore what we can do to increase our presence - not just within the game, but outside. So much good in this community: education, environment and fun!

 

Just a thought - let me know what you think!

 

Chief Lemonhead

[+BlueDeuce]

That sounds like a business proposition that you should take up with gc.com directly.

 

Personally I'm not interested in another badge/reward for caching.

 

 

 

bd

Edited January 9, 2011 by BlueDeuce

[+Chokecherry]

I'd prefer my geocaching to not be integrated with other social media I may use. Never touched the "like" button while it was an option for example. Not going to join other social media because geocaching is affiliated with it either. Prefer to keep my life simple. I have my site here and I have my doo dad over there.

 

There would be implications to have a flood of newer folks without the knowledge of the general idea of this particular game. Think we have a problem with ill placed caches now wait until those flood gates open. Or caches being stolen. Or travel items vanishing....

[+narcissa]

I play this game for fun, and I'd like to limit the amount of corporate exploitation I'm subjected to. Obviously it's not entirely escapable, but I'd really rather not see this game associated with something as insidious and unabashedly commercial as Foursquare.

 

As an aside, how much is Foursquare paying you?

[+pppingme]

Foursquare has got to be one of the most annoying things I've ever seen.

 

Why would anyone want to associate anything they do with Foursquare is beyond me.

[Mr.Yuck]

Well, I'm a Foursquare geek. There are certainly partnerships betwixt Foursquare.com and many businesses. Perhaps something is already in the works, you never know. Foursquare.com is certainly on to something, they went from 500,000 users to 5,000,000 users all in the space of 2010. I suppose TPTB are already on it, the whole souvenir thing is basically a copy of the whole Foursquare.com badge thing.

[GOF and Bacall]

Please let geocaching remain geocaching. There are plenty of social network sites out there.

[+eagsc7]

Interesting idea. I thought of this awhile ago... but of course, a Larger picture. I'm thinking of a overall service that takes the coords from your GC finds, Fours1q checkins, FB Places, etc. and then be able to output to the requested services...

 

The Steaks

[knowschad]

I've been thinking... how can we continue to grow the geocaching community?

Please let me stop you right there, and ask, "WHY should we?" "WE" not being Groundspeak, but actually feet-on-the-ground Geocachers. What benefit is it to me that there be more geocachers? Most of us that have been doing this for a while feel that perhaps there are too many already.

[+narcissa]

I've been thinking... how can we continue to grow the geocaching community?

Please let me stop you right there, and ask, "WHY should we?" "WE" not being Groundspeak, but actually feet-on-the-ground Geocachers. What benefit is it to me that there be more geocachers? Most of us that have been doing this for a while feel that perhaps there are too many already.

 

+1

[Mr.Yuck]

I've been thinking... how can we continue to grow the geocaching community?

Please let me stop you right there, and ask, "WHY should we?" "WE" not being Groundspeak, but actually feet-on-the-ground Geocachers. What benefit is it to me that there be more geocachers? Most of us that have been doing this for a while feel that perhaps there are too many already.

 

Yeah, I'll have to agree with this too. We already have people finding geocaches with their cell phones, and dropping blank logs or TFTC logs on us. As I mentioned in my first post, Foursquare added an amazing 4.5 million users in 2010. that would be crazy, man. Besides, the Indonesian Foursquare users would all cheat.

[+DanOCan]

I like foursquare. I like Geocaching. I like them for different reasons.

 

Of course, I don't think I am the target market for foursquare. I use it to check into places so my friends can find me and I can find my friends when I am out and about. I don't care about badges, souveniers or achievements.

 

I could see it being interesting if a friend of mine checked in at a particularily tough cache hide and I then knew to join them at ground zero to help out with the hunt or something, but earning a badge on foursquare for finding caches rates a big ole "meh" from me.

 

And, as for growing the Geocaching community, I think caching is one area where if the community grows too much it will actually collapse. We've already seen problems grow (both real and imagined) as the barrier to entry drops.

[+The Lemonheads]

I play this game for fun, and I'd like to limit the amount of corporate exploitation I'm subjected to. Obviously it's not entirely escapable, but I'd really rather not see this game associated with something as insidious and unabashedly commercial as Foursquare.

 

As an aside, how much is Foursquare paying you?

 

When I posted this discussion, I wanted to have an intelligent and respectful conversation with people - perhaps you didn't fit into the category, sorry. The fact that you are uninterested in the proposal is absolutely fine. I already gathered that some geocachers would like it while others would not. So it was really just seeing how people felt and having a conversation. I am not a programmer and I do not work for Foursquare and that type of comment is really insulting! It's amazing how people can't seem to have an idea that may differ from someone else's without being accused of having some form of an "agenda".

 

I'm a normal person. No one pays me for geocaching or for sharing my ideas in this type of forum. If ever they do, I am a "full disclosure" kind of person so I'll be sure to share that. In the meantime, I have no issue with you not being interested in an idea but I do have an issue with you accusing me of doing something I'm not. You don't know me, so back off!

 

Thank you!

[+The Lemonheads]

Expected to see a lot of people not agreeing with the idea... just thought I'd check it out.

 

As for "growing the community", I find it sad that you wouldn't want to. We, as geocachers, are exposed to areas we would have never gotten to know if it weren't for geocaching. We have an opportunity to grow our understanding and knowledge of geography, history, technology and so much more. In trying to contain the community, we limit the possible additional learning we can all get and also become exclusive rather than inclusive - which was not the understanding I had when I joined the community. I find it disappointing that we wouldn't want more people to join us; that we wouldn't take an opportunity to help others understand and learn and grow the community and activity with us. In fact, that's how I started - I was invited by someone else who was already in the community and then I learned. I would assume that's how most of us "got in".

 

Certainly, I can accept that the geolocation idea may not be the only way to grow a community, but the comments around NOT growing it are disappointing to me.

[+bladesedge]

Have never used FourSquare nor do I really know what it does.

 

I'll stick to facebook, twitter, linkedin....... the list goes on.

 

Find that if I want to know what others are up to, twitter integration with logs works well.

[+narcissa]

Intelligent discourse about Foursquare? That's a hoot.

[mtbikernate]

Social geolocation services are bad news, IMO. advertising on the internet when you're not at home? bad, bad idea.

[+narcissa]

Social geolocation services are bad news, IMO. advertising on the internet when you're not at home? bad, bad idea.

 

Hey everybody, if you want to break into my house, now is a great time to do it! Oh, and here's where my child goes to school, and here's the exact route I take to work every day! Oh, and right now I'm out in the woods by myself, and here's my exact location!

 

*facepalm*

[+zoltig]

Social geolocation services are bad news, IMO. advertising on the internet when you're not at home? bad, bad idea.

 

Hey everybody, if you want to break into my house, now is a great time to do it! Oh, and here's where my child goes to school, and here's the exact route I take to work every day! Oh, and right now I'm out in the woods by myself, and here's my exact location!

 

*facepalm*

YUP!

Social networking site such as FaceBook are already gleaming personal information. Let's not help them.

I try to keep my info throttled back as much as possible but it seems a tough job for every time they decide to do an upgrade, you have to reset your privacy settings.

I agree with the pooch, let's not invite more.

[+BCandMsKitty]

Geocaching and social media? No thanks!

I lost my interest in social media way back when ICQ got so big and stupid.

I don't tweet, nor facebook, nor do any of the other social media things, and don't want to have to wade through any of that on GC.

I have all the social interaction I need in real life with real friends, thank you.

[+tozainamboku]

Intelligent discourse about Foursquare? That's a hoot.

I just wanted to quote narcissa in my reply. I'm not really responding to her comment. But she may very well feel that it applies to Waymarking as well as Foursquare.

 

I think that Waymarking would be a better fit with Foursquare than Geocaching. Geocachers go to find something and for them the reward is finding the cache not checking in that you were at the coordinates. Even grandfathered virtual cache and EarthCaches, to a degree, provide the geocacher with the reward of finding out the answers or perhaps following instructions to take a specific photo.

 

So far, there has not been as much interest in visiting waymarks as there is in listing them. While many Waymarking categories do require visitors to post a photo, many do not. There is really isn't the same kind of reward if you visit a waymark that you get when you find a geocaches (and I'm not just talking about the geoaching.com smiley). Perhaps using Foursquare to check-in when you are at the waymark could provide feedback for both the visitor and person who listed the waymark. The scavenger hunt feature that Grounspeak recently added to Waymarking could easily be extended to provide Foursquare badges for users who complete a scavenger hunt.

[+Panther&Pine]

I don't really understand what FourSquare and that sort of thing does, other then say "Please go rob my house now. Don't worry about the dogs."

I'd like Geocaching to stick with its core product, data managment. They do that well. Social connections can be maintained by companies that do that well.

[+narcissa]

Intelligent discourse about Foursquare? That's a hoot.

I just wanted to quote narcissa in my reply. I'm not really responding to her comment. But she may very well feel that it applies to Waymarking as well as Foursquare.

 

I think that Waymarking would be a better fit with Foursquare than Geocaching. Geocachers go to find something and for them the reward is finding the cache not checking in that you were at the coordinates. Even grandfathered virtual cache and EarthCaches, to a degree, provide the geocacher with the reward of finding out the answers or perhaps following instructions to take a specific photo.

 

So far, there has not been as much interest in visiting waymarks as there is in listing them. While many Waymarking categories do require visitors to post a photo, many do not. There is really isn't the same kind of reward if you visit a waymark that you get when you find a geocaches (and I'm not just talking about the geoaching.com smiley). Perhaps using Foursquare to check-in when you are at the waymark could provide feedback for both the visitor and person who listed the waymark. The scavenger hunt feature that Grounspeak recently added to Waymarking could easily be extended to provide Foursquare badges for users who complete a scavenger hunt.

 

Are you sure you're not a robot?

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Expected to see a lot of people not agreeing with the idea... just thought I'd check it out.

 

As for "growing the community", I find it sad that you wouldn't want to. We, as geocachers, are exposed to areas we would have never gotten to know if it weren't for geocaching. We have an opportunity to grow our understanding and knowledge of geography, history, technology and so much more. In trying to contain the community, we limit the possible additional learning we can all get and also become exclusive rather than inclusive - which was not the understanding I had when I joined the community.

 

On the other hand, I have participated in a couple of different activities that grew through the commercialization of the activity that resulted in a degradation of the enjoyment of many that participated before it became popular.

 

It used to be that flyfishing was a niche sport with a relatively small community. Then a few people discovered that they could make money off it by selling flyfishing tours, and now anyone with enough money can become an instant flyfisher by going to a flyfishing "camp" and spend hundreds of dollars for a guide, or go to a private flyfishing resort in Montana. The effect overall drove up the cost of flyfishing equipment and limited access and reduced the over quality of streams.

 

Sea kayaking used to be a sport that relatively few participated in then someone discovered they could make inexpensive polyethelene "recreational" sea kayaks, market them through big box sporting goods stores as "beginner sea kayaks" (when in reality there are characteristics with recreational designs that inhibit the development of more advanced kayaking skills) and now anyone can be a sea kayaker. As a result there are now lots of "sea kayakers" that never took the time to paddle efficiently or safely. The number of incidents, especially in the spring when water temperatures are cold enough to kill in a short period of time, as a result of someone without much experience or knowledge of the risks involved in getting into a kayak and heading out into open water is something that I find sad.

 

Growth is not always good, especially when it's motivated by profit.

[+TerraViators]

I've been thinking... how can we continue to grow the geocaching community?

Please let me stop you right there, and ask, "WHY should we?" "WE" not being Groundspeak, but actually feet-on-the-ground Geocachers. What benefit is it to me that there be more geocachers? Most of us that have been doing this for a while feel that perhaps there are too many already.

So which geocachers should not be allowed to participate, anymore? Also, how many is "too many" in your opinion?

[+addisonbr]

Hey everybody, if you want to break into my house, now is a great time to do it!

...

*facepalm*

Yeah. This is one reason why I wouldn't be against profile controls on GC.com.

[+Don_J]

Social geolocation services are bad news, IMO. advertising on the internet when you're not at home? bad, bad idea.

 

Hey everybody, if you want to break into my house, now is a great time to do it! Oh, and here's where my child goes to school, and here's the exact route I take to work every day! Oh, and right now I'm out in the woods by myself, and here's my exact location!

 

*facepalm*

 

And I'm currently four miles up the trail from my gold Saturn Ion, which is parked at the trail head and has my Nuvi in the trunk, so no one steals it.

 

I'm totally amazed at how people will give up their privacy to total strangers. I have a FB account and dismiss about five friend requests a week. I don't know these people. Unless I've looked you in the eye and actually engaged in verbal conversation, you are not my FB friend.

[Mr.Yuck]

Intelligent discourse about Foursquare? That's a hoot.

 

I do believe it's time for a new Narcissa quote for the signature. Thanks for that!!

 

Don't take it so hard, Lemonheads. I would have expected these responses. There's a lot of social media detractors out there. Then to top that off, there are boatloads of people who are "into" social networking on Twitter and Facebook who despise Foursquare updates. For example, I know Narcissa is on Twitter, I follow her.

 

Your idea for a Geocaching badge on Foursquare is not without merit. I personally think your proposal as is won't work though, as tens of thousands of Foursquare cheaters would armchair log geocaches just to get their badge. That wouldn't cause a ruckus here or anything, would it? Anyways, why don't you try proposing the idea for a Geocaching Foursquare badge at the feedback forum?

[knowschad]

I've been thinking... how can we continue to grow the geocaching community?

Please let me stop you right there, and ask, "WHY should we?" "WE" not being Groundspeak, but actually feet-on-the-ground Geocachers. What benefit is it to me that there be more geocachers? Most of us that have been doing this for a while feel that perhaps there are too many already.

So which geocachers should not be allowed to participate, anymore? Also, how many is "too many" in your opinion?

Wait a couple of years... you will have your own answer to that question.

[knowschad]

I play this game for fun, and I'd like to limit the amount of corporate exploitation I'm subjected to. Obviously it's not entirely escapable, but I'd really rather not see this game associated with something as insidious and unabashedly commercial as Foursquare.

 

As an aside, how much is Foursquare paying you?

 

When I posted this discussion, I wanted to have an intelligent and respectful conversation with people

Which is EXACTLY what you have been getting. But... apparently YOU are not getting it. The very things that attracted most of us to this activity are in direct opposition to the things that social media and geolocation are all about. We don't want to be the latest and greatest trend, thank you. Many of us wish in vain that we could put the lid back on geocaching altogether.

[+tozainamboku]

Intelligent discourse about Foursquare? That's a hoot.

 

I do believe it's time for a new Narcissa quote for the signature. Thanks for that!!

I added a narcissa quote to my signature too!

[+DanOCan]

So which geocachers should not be allowed to participate, anymore? Also, how many is "too many" in your opinion?

 

For me the answers are:

 

1) Those who think "so someone can add to their smileys" is a legitimate reason for placing a cache.

 

2) However many members there were right after I joined? 1 + that number = too many

 

[+DanOCan]

So which geocachers should not be allowed to participate, anymore? Also, how many is "too many" in your opinion?

 

For me the answers are:

 

1) Those who think "so someone can add to their smileys" is a legitimate reason for placing a cache.

 

2) However many members there were right after I joined? 1 + that number = too many

 

[+DanOCan]

I always enjoy the concern that rises to the surface whenever anyone brings up social media. "Oh, come rob me."

 

Hate to break it to you, but most people have jobs which take them away from their homes at the SAME TIME EVERYDAY DAY. **gasp** The horror! Why won't employers think of the privacy implications of running set business hours?

 

And, just because I am not a home doesn't mean no one else is.

 

Sorry, I just don't buy into the fear mongering that takes place when the mainstream media gets ahold of isolated incidents.

 

Anyway, back to topic. Still not in favor.

[+johnsingleton1974]

I just wanted to post in this topic, nothing to say really, just needed to get to 1 more post so I could get a badge.

[+narcissa]

I always enjoy the concern that rises to the surface whenever anyone brings up social media. "Oh, come rob me."

 

Hate to break it to you, but most people have jobs which take them away from their homes at the SAME TIME EVERYDAY DAY. **gasp** The horror! Why won't employers think of the privacy implications of running set business hours?

 

And, just because I am not a home doesn't mean no one else is.

 

Sorry, I just don't buy into the fear mongering that takes place when the mainstream media gets ahold of isolated incidents.

 

Anyway, back to topic. Still not in favor.

 

I haven't read any media reports about Foursquare-related incidents. It just strikes me as colossally stupid to publicly broadcast my location all day. There are a lot of precautions I take on a day-to-day basis that have nothing to do with media hysteria. For instance, I would never put my name on my license plate. I tell someone where I'm going and when I expect to come home. I don't keep anything valuable in the bedroom. And I don't blab all about my exact travel plans and dates to complete strangers.

 

Even with precautions, I could still be a victim of crime. If someone is really determined to rob me, they'll figure it out. I know this. It doesn't mean it's pointless to take steps to be more safe.

 

Your hyperbolic example of set workplace hours serves no purpose. Avoiding the public broadcast of my location with Foursquare is simple, and won't prevent me from being functional. Comparing that to activities/precautions that actually interfere with someone's life is just ridiculous.

[+Chokecherry]

I used to work with criminals extensively (and lets face it had my own checkered past). And if these sites were more popular back in the day they would have been all over that like no one's business. It's a pain to try to hit homes during business hours and hope that no one is there. It's easier to go on some friend's facebook page (because lets face it many people friend away like there's no tomorrow) and see that well right now there here then they'll be there. And look at that they're on vacation for a few weeks. I heard stories over and over again how they knew form so and so that this other person was working so they walked into the house and stole bunches of stuff. Doesn't take a lot of information in the wrong hands to be a problem.

 

That being said I do use a social networking site. Put stuff on there that I don't care if it's public knowledge or not. I just prefer to not have my geocaching life and my social networking life mixed up like that. I like to keep different parts of my life separate. Don't like it all mixed up like that.

 

While some people might love all that connectivity I enjoy being a hermit with out everyone knowing everything.

[+BlueDeuce]

Don't we already have Facebook and Twitter as part of geocaching(.com)? As I said before, perhaps you should take it to the company and see what they think.

[mtbikernate]

my comment about advertising when you're not at home is a good one when we're talking about a time when it's so easy to find entirely too many details about people with a few minutes in front of the computer.

 

So many people put EVERYTHING out there on social media websites. And it has come back to bite a few of them. Some people "friend" people they don't know on Facebook. Twitter lets you essentially "follow" anyone. These sites can be used to case someone for a robbery. The fact that it doesn't happen more often surprises me.

 

I may not be able to control some of the data mining that occurs on the internet, but I can control what I put on Facebook or on my blog or whether I choose to submit my location to a geolocation service like Foursquare (or Facebook or other similar service).

 

IF there was a control to time-delay such posts, I'd be a ton more comfortable using them, because while people could see I was at some place, they wouldn't know when, and that's key information.

 

It's the same reason I put lights in my house on a timer when I'm on vacation. It's why I lock my doors. Why I make sure a trusted friend has a key and visits the house on a daily basis when I'm gone for long periods. Why I have motion-sensing security lights on the house. Simple stuff that makes my house more secure. That's in the same vein of limiting what I share online.

[+WhoDis]

This site use to gather the info off of Foursqaure and post when people were not home. To kind of raise the awareness of how bad an idea it was. They caught a lot of flack over it and have since quit doing that.

 

I'm still a newbie, but I can see where drawing too many people into the game would be bad. I had heard about the game a couple years ago, through some of the outdoor activities I did, but never got around to checking it out. Then I seen it in the GPS I purchased last year and gave it a look. The way it was a couple years ago, people who already were into the outdoors and could respect the game would hear about the game through their activities. Now with it being advertised in smart phones and everything else, people who may not particularly care, will be tromping through the woods destroying the landscape and giving the game a bad image. More people who see it as just a game, not the experience that it is. I say leave it alone, those who want to find it, will find it.

[+keehotee]

Hey -

 

I've been thinking... how can we continue to grow the geocaching community?

 

I've been thinking... how can we continue to grow the geocaching community?

Please let me stop you right there, and ask, "WHY should we?" "WE" not being Groundspeak, but actually feet-on-the-ground Geocachers. What benefit is it to me that there be more geocachers? Most of us that have been doing this for a while feel that perhaps there are too many already.

 

+ another 1

[+sbell111]

I've been thinking... how can we continue to grow the geocaching community?

Please let me stop you right there, and ask, "WHY should we?" "WE" not being Groundspeak, but actually feet-on-the-ground Geocachers. What benefit is it to me that there be more geocachers? Most of us that have been doing this for a while feel that perhaps there are too many already.

Having played the game for a while now, I've learned that an increase in players equates to an increase in the number of caches for me to find. This is a good thing.

 

Of course, beyond driving new players, a tie in to established social media sites would be considered 'value added' for many current players. I personally would really like to see an option that allows me to post my geocaching adventures to facebook in a foursquare-like manner.

Social geolocation services are bad news, IMO. advertising on the internet when you're not at home? bad, bad idea.

Hey everybody, if you want to break into my house, now is a great time to do it! Oh, and here's where my child goes to school, and here's the exact route I take to work every day! Oh, and right now I'm out in the woods by myself, and here's my exact location!

 

*facepalm*

Most people know that I work during normal business hours Monday through Friday and that I go to church on Sunday morning. This knowledge hasn't yet led to my home being burglarized. Of course, as someone else mentioned this knowledge alone isn't enough for a burglar to be able to burgle my home sine he would 1) have no idea where I lived, 2) not know whether anyone else was home, 3) not know how to deactivate the alarm, and 4) not know whether I am coming directly home from the cache that I logged. It should also be noted that he's likely not waiting in my driveway for me to log a cache. He presumably has his own prep and travel time to consider, as well as my travel time.

Social geolocation services are bad news, IMO. advertising on the internet when you're not at home? bad, bad idea.

Hey everybody, if you want to break into my house, now is a great time to do it! Oh, and here's where my child goes to school, and here's the exact route I take to work every day! Oh, and right now I'm out in the woods by myself, and here's my exact location!

 

*facepalm*

And I'm currently four miles up the trail from my gold Saturn Ion, which is parked at the trail head and has my Nuvi in the trunk, so no one steals it.

Again, it's not like the thief is sitting in the trailhead parking lot awaiting your log. They would have to see your post and beat you to your car. If you happened to be logging that rare four miles hike cache, simply don't log it to the social media site (or at all) until you have returned to your vehicle.

 

It should be noted that your argument is no different than that of an iphone logger. If they logged the cache from the cache site, someone would know where they are parked and approximately how long they will be away from their vehicle. The simple answer remains for them to not log the cache until a bit later.

[+sbell111]

This site use to gather the info off of Foursqaure and post when people were not home. To kind of raise the awareness of how bad an idea it was. They caught a lot of flack over it and have since quit doing that.

 

I'm still a newbie, but I can see where drawing too many people into the game would be bad. I had heard about the game a couple years ago, through some of the outdoor activities I did, but never got around to checking it out. Then I seen it in the GPS I purchased last year and gave it a look. The way it was a couple years ago, people who already were into the outdoors and could respect the game would hear about the game through their activities. Now with it being advertised in smart phones and everything else, people who may not particularly care, will be tromping through the woods destroying the landscape and giving the game a bad image. More people who see it as just a game, not the experience that it is. I say leave it alone, those who want to find it, will find it.

I learned about the game ten years ago when it was showcased on a national (international?) television show. It has never been held as a secret just for outdoorsman. In fact, it's initial participants were more 'techno geek' than 'Paul Bunyon', I suspect.

 

(Geocaching remains 'just a game'. Those that expect it to be more are setting themselves up for disappointment.)