Why all the premium caches in Smyrna TN

[+The_Joneses]

I am a premium member and just moved back to Smyrna TN after two years in Florida. I found that most of the caches here are premium only. I had my brother start up an account to log his finds with me but he is only a free member so he cant even search for most of them. Why are there so many here like this?

[+wimseyguy]

You would get a better answer from the owners of those caches. It's unlikely that many of them play in this sandbox.

[Mr.Yuck]

You would get a better answer from the owners of those caches. It's unlikely that many of them play in this sandbox.

 

And if even one of them comes here and says "to reward people for supporting the website", I'm going to friggin' scream.

[+Redfist]

You would get a better answer from the owners of those caches. It's unlikely that many of them play in this sandbox.

 

And if even one of them comes here and says "to reward people for supporting the website", I'm going to friggin' scream.

 

I'm going to have to plan a visit to Smyrna!!!

 

FYI - Premium Caches all have Premium Chocolates inside. And freshly minted $100 bills.

[Mr.Yuck]

You would get a better answer from the owners of those caches. It's unlikely that many of them play in this sandbox.

 

And if even one of them comes here and says "to reward people for supporting the website", I'm going to friggin' scream.

 

I'm going to have to plan a visit to Smyrna!!!

 

FYI - Premium Caches all have Premium Chocolates inside. And freshly minted $100 bills.

 

My goodness, Premium caches really are elitist!!

 

In all seriousness, I've found accounts with 71, 66, 54, and 20 hides, each of which has every single one of their hides Premium only. I could look some more, but that's good enough. It really is incredible to see all the MOC's on the map. Why? I don't know, just because they can, and monkey see, monkey do?

 

I'll tell you one thing, I'll bet it cuts down on the Joe Schmuck's and Jane Doe's with 50 finds who have logged "TFTC" for every single cache they've found.

[+Redfist]

You would get a better answer from the owners of those caches. It's unlikely that many of them play in this sandbox.

 

And if even one of them comes here and says "to reward people for supporting the website", I'm going to friggin' scream.

 

I'm going to have to plan a visit to Smyrna!!!

 

FYI - Premium Caches all have Premium Chocolates inside. And freshly minted $100 bills.

 

My goodness, Premium caches really are elitist!!

 

In all seriousness, I've found accounts with 71, 66, 54, and 20 hides, each of which has every single one of their hides Premium only. I could look some more, but that's good enough. It really is incredible to see all the MOC's on the map. Why? I don't know, just because they can, and monkey see, monkey do?

 

I'll tell you one thing, I'll bet it cuts down on the Joe Schmuck's and Jane Doe's with 50 finds who have logged "TFTC" for every single cache they've found.

 

hehe - I bet.

 

I'm willing to bet that the "reason" for Smyrna is the same as any other area. The array of reasons people typically post about "why premium". Less risk of theft, etc. etc. etc.

 

I've read that some areas (if I recall correctly, somewhere in the UK comes to mind) have very active cache thieves who fight against the hobby. They have either been wronged or just have nothing better to do than be a jerk. It's possible that has happened in Smyrna too... who knows. I sure don't.

 

Ask 1 or more of the COs there.

[+dfw_n_mom]

You would get a better answer from the owners of those caches. It's unlikely that many of them play in this sandbox.

 

And if even one of them comes here and says "to reward people for supporting the website", I'm going to friggin' scream.

 

To reward people for supporting the website. (Sorry. You just laid it out there.)

 

As an area cache owner, though mine are just slightly east of Smyrna, I make mine premium because, if I invest the time, energy, gasoline, thought, etc. etc. to hide caches, I don't feel it's unreasonable to make them only available to those who are willing to invest a little something of their own.

 

Sorry if that sounds snobby, but being a responsible cache owner is something many of us work to achieve.

[+RoandJoe]

Maybe they're snobby elitists?

[+Don_J]

You would get a better answer from the owners of those caches. It's unlikely that many of them play in this sandbox.

 

And if even one of them comes here and says "to reward people for supporting the website", I'm going to friggin' scream.

 

To reward people for supporting the website. (Sorry. You just laid it out there.)

 

As an area cache owner, though mine are just slightly east of Smyrna, I make mine premium because, if I invest the time, energy, gasoline, thought, etc. etc. to hide caches, I don't feel it's unreasonable to make them only available to those who are willing to invest a little something of their own.

 

Sorry if that sounds snobby, but being a responsible cache owner is something many of us work to achieve.

 

Seems that I usually end up investing time, energy, gasoline, thought, etc. etc., whenever I go out to find caches. As far a achieving responsible cache owner status, I think I've managed. Out of 167 hides, I've only found it necessary to restrict 3 to PMO.

[+:DK]

The ones of mine - which are not in smyrna- that i have placed as premium, all came with super special ftf prizes. i have been a premium member since before i even started. i joined the site, ordered a gps, and before it got here, i became premium. i figured i have spent more money on other random things, what could it hurt.

there is a way he could log them, if the cache owner deletes them, then ok, but more than likely they wont.

most of the ones around here that are premium is because we have people stealing the ammo cans.

[jholly]

You would get a better answer from the owners of those caches. It's unlikely that many of them play in this sandbox.

 

And if even one of them comes here and says "to reward people for supporting the website", I'm going to friggin' scream.

 

To reward people for supporting the website. (Sorry. You just laid it out there.)

 

As an area cache owner, though mine are just slightly east of Smyrna, I make mine premium because, if I invest the time, energy, gasoline, thought, etc. etc. to hide caches, I don't feel it's unreasonable to make them only available to those who are willing to invest a little something of their own.

 

Sorry if that sounds snobby, but being a responsible cache owner is something many of us work to achieve.

I have a really, really, hard time grasping the concept that only premium members can be responsible cache owners. And of course your going point out that regular members don't invest time, energy, gasoline or diesel, thought etc, to hide their caches? We know they don't invest time, energy, gasoline or diesel and thought to find the elitist PMO caches.

[+:DK]

It is 30$ a year....

It is good family fun...

Taking the family out for lunch once will normally cost more than 30.

With the membership you can find all the cool ELITE caches and have a picinic at them, several times, for less than 30...

Buying the membership actually SAVES you money, makes you snobbishly cool, and it makes your caching life SOOOOOO much easier!!

[+Redfist]

 

*The Sneetches

 

by Dr. Seuss

 

Now, the Star-Belly Sneetches had bellies with stars.

The Plain-Belly Sneetches had none upon thars.

Those stars werent so big. They were really so small.

You might think such a thing wouldnt matter at all.

 

But, because they had stars, all the Star-Belly Sneetches

Would brag, Were the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches.

With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and theyd snort

Well have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!

And, whenever they met some, when they were out walking,

Theyd hike right on past them without even talking.

 

When the Star-Belly children went out to play ball,

Could a Plain Belly get in the game? Not at all.

Edited August 10, 2011 by Redfist

[Mr.Yuck]

You would get a better answer from the owners of those caches. It's unlikely that many of them play in this sandbox.

 

And if even one of them comes here and says "to reward people for supporting the website", I'm going to friggin' scream.

 

To reward people for supporting the website. (Sorry. You just laid it out there.)

 

As an area cache owner, though mine are just slightly east of Smyrna, I make mine premium because, if I invest the time, energy, gasoline, thought, etc. etc. to hide caches, I don't feel it's unreasonable to make them only available to those who are willing to invest a little something of their own.

 

Sorry if that sounds snobby, but being a responsible cache owner is something many of us work to achieve.

 

AAAAAHHHHHH!! There's my scream. I could have used a bigger font and been more dramatic, but to heck with it.

 

You might find this hard to believe, but there have been a couple of "premium member caches are elitist" threads around here. Maybe even very recently. Now I'm not much for that mindset, and every single time one of those threads comes up, someone will come up with a quote like "1.2 percent of the caches in Pennsylvania are PMO", or ".96% of the caches in Virginia are PMO".

 

But what's up with Smyrna? I'd say 80% of the caches within 4 miles of the City Center are PMO. I don't know a single person personally who has made every single one of their caches PMO, and I found 4 in Smyrna in about 5 minutes on the Geocaching Maps who have over 200 hides combined (and I'm sure there are more). If I was someone from Smyrna who just stumbled on Geocaching.com, and was considering trying it out, I'd say screw that!

Edited August 10, 2011 by Mr.Yuck

[+:DK]

If I was someone from Smyrna who just stumbled on Geocaching.com, and was considering trying it out, I'd say screw that!

 

haha... i actually agree with that point... but at the same time, the only time i delt with not being premium, it was a nightmare.. (a few weeks ago when my premium ran out). I mean, it is just 30$. Alot of people spend that in one day on food, smokes, drinks, random off the wall stuff, shirts, dr, and lots of other things.. lol..

[+jeffbouldin]

Smyrna, TN elitist here. OK, so only two of mine are PMO. Never noticed that most are PMO until this thread. I personally know most of the hiders in Smyrna, if not all. Every one of them are great people and upstanding cachers. I have never known of any of them to delete a log because they were not PM, and I have personally instructed many non-PMs how to log PMO caches. I've never asked any why they do it, but I can assure all it is not out of feeling of superiority. My opinion on why there may be so many is because one of the innovators of caching as we know it (JoGPS) use to have about 100 caches hidden along some hourse trails in our area, all of them were PMO cache because he wanted to encourage others to support geocaching.com. When a leader does that, others tend to follow.

[+dfw_n_mom]

You would get a better answer from the owners of those caches. It's unlikely that many of them play in this sandbox.

 

And if even one of them comes here and says "to reward people for supporting the website", I'm going to friggin' scream.

 

To reward people for supporting the website. (Sorry. You just laid it out there.)

 

As an area cache owner, though mine are just slightly east of Smyrna, I make mine premium because, if I invest the time, energy, gasoline, thought, etc. etc. to hide caches, I don't feel it's unreasonable to make them only available to those who are willing to invest a little something of their own.

 

Sorry if that sounds snobby, but being a responsible cache owner is something many of us work to achieve.

I have a really, really, hard time grasping the concept that only premium members can be responsible cache owners. And of course your going point out that regular members don't invest time, energy, gasoline or diesel, thought etc, to hide their caches? We know they don't invest time, energy, gasoline or diesel and thought to find the elitist PMO caches.

 

No. I'm sure there are many, many cache owners who are standard members. I look forward to finding their caches. I'm sure many of them are very responsible owners and invest as much of themselves as those who are premium/charter members. The ones I have found thus far (around 260) have been PMO caches. Being still a relative newby, that's the face of caching I have seen and, therefore, that is what I have hidden.

 

In light of this discussion, I have gone back and reclassified some of my caches. I am willing to learn from you with more experience.

Edited August 10, 2011 by dfw_n_mom

[+dfw_n_mom]

I am a premium member and just moved back to Smyrna TN after two years in Florida. I found that most of the caches here are premium only. I had my brother start up an account to log his finds with me but he is only a free member so he cant even search for most of them. Why are there so many here like this?

 

Might I suggest that you join in with us in the hiding side? With two hidden in a year, I'm sure you've got some great ideas stored up for the rest of us. I'm looking forward to it!

[CheekyBuddha]

As I've been looking at the cache map I too have noticed more and more PMO caches in the surrouning area, though thankfully not my immediate locale. I've also noticed that some of those cache owners seemingly set most or all of their caches in a certain area PMO. I don't really see how that can be excused as anything other than elitist. Sure, I understand why someone might want to set some of their caches premium (good trade items and wanting to reward people who invest in the community), but to make a significant proportion PMO surely goes against the original idea of the first cache, i.e. available to anyone with the means (a GPSr) and inclination to find it?

 

Don't get me wrong, I don't have a downer against premium membership and I fully intend to get one myself when I've got a GPSr that can take pocket queries. It would be nice however if more people would reconsider some of the fallacious arguments i've seen used to justify PMO caches. A case in point is that recently I found a fairly new puzzle cache that someone had obviously spent time, money and effort in placing. The two or three finders in front of me were all premium members and between them had denuded the cache of the nice items, leaving absolutely nothing in return. So much for trading equal or trading up. I suppose the moral of this story is that spending money on something does not make you better than someone who participates for free.

[Mr.Yuck]

Smyrna, TN elitist here. OK, so only two of mine are PMO. Never noticed that most are PMO until this thread. I personally know most of the hiders in Smyrna, if not all. Every one of them are great people and upstanding cachers. I have never known of any of them to delete a log because they were not PM, and I have personally instructed many non-PMs how to log PMO caches. I've never asked any why they do it, but I can assure all it is not out of feeling of superiority. My opinion on why there may be so many is because one of the innovators of caching as we know it (JoGPS) use to have about 100 caches hidden along some hourse trails in our area, all of them were PMO cache because he wanted to encourage others to support geocaching.com. When a leader does that, others tend to follow.

 

Hello Jeff, you elitist. Note I only referred to the many "PMO caches are elitist" threads, I never said any Smyrnaians (if that's what you call yourselves) are. Good explanation, the question has been answered. An early pioneer did it, so many of the locals followed suit. Just a regional thing. The same reason why everyone in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pa. area used to wrap their caches in plastic garbage bags; an early pioneer did it. Hopefully, they've stoppped doing that.

 

I think though, this is out of the norm, that huge concentration of PMO caches. The only place I've seen anything like it was in Portland, Oregon (when someone posted a screen shot for one of those "home area" threads). There's obviously a new Geocacher wanting to "try out" Geocaching frustrated by this, and there probably have been others we'll never hear about.

[+Manville Possum]

Maybe they're snobby elitists?

I would guess this is correct with 95% of PMO listings.

[+The_Joneses]

Thanks for the answers. How do you log PMO's if you are not a PM?

Edited August 11, 2011 by The_Joneses

[+The_Joneses]

I am a premium member and just moved back to Smyrna TN after two years in Florida. I found that most of the caches here are premium only. I had my brother start up an account to log his finds with me but he is only a free member so he cant even search for most of them. Why are there so many here like this?

 

Might I suggest that you join in with us in the hiding side? With two hidden in a year, I'm sure you've got some great ideas stored up for the rest of us. I'm looking forward to it!

 

I will be doing that in the near future. I wish i had more time to hide and find more. Scheduling is a PITA right now.

[+:DK]

Thanks for the answers. How do you log PMO's if you are not a PM?

There is an easier way, but the way i do it for my neice is after i log mine, i have all the pages still open on my computer. i then click the "log this cache" when i get them all to the logging page, i sign myself out on a different page and sign her in, theni go to each page and log them for her. when i press enter it automaticaly makes them on her page. or, if you will not be on the same computer, go to the page where you enter your log, copy the address and paste it to an email. have them sign into their account and then go into their email and click each link. (-: i hope i made sense.. it is much easier to show. (-:

[+dfx]

Thanks for the answers. How do you log PMO's if you are not a PM?

There is an easier way ...

 

Which could be this page: http://www.geocachingadmin.com/

Just punch in the GC code and click the Log button.

[Mr.Yuck]

Thanks for the answers. How do you log PMO's if you are not a PM?

There is an easier way ...

 

Which could be this page: http://www.geocachingadmin.com/

Just punch in the GC code and click the Log button.

 

ffemt's way isn't as hard as it sounds. The premium member logs the cache, logs out, and when you immediately log back in with the non-premium account, you're already right on the add a log entry page for the PMO cache in question.

 

However, nothing is easier than the Geocachingadmin.com method.

[+:DK]

i knew there was an easier way!!!! lol.. now that i know it i will use it!!!

[+jeffbouldin]

Smyrna, TN elitist here. OK, so only two of mine are PMO. Never noticed that most are PMO until this thread. I personally know most of the hiders in Smyrna, if not all. Every one of them are great people and upstanding cachers. I have never known of any of them to delete a log because they were not PM, and I have personally instructed many non-PMs how to log PMO caches. I've never asked any why they do it, but I can assure all it is not out of feeling of superiority. My opinion on why there may be so many is because one of the innovators of caching as we know it (JoGPS) use to have about 100 caches hidden along some hourse trails in our area, all of them were PMO cache because he wanted to encourage others to support geocaching.com. When a leader does that, others tend to follow.

 

Hello Jeff, you elitist. Note I only referred to the many "PMO caches are elitist" threads, I never said any Smyrnaians (if that's what you call yourselves) are. Good explanation, the question has been answered. An early pioneer did it, so many of the locals followed suit. Just a regional thing. The same reason why everyone in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pa. area used to wrap their caches in plastic garbage bags; an early pioneer did it. Hopefully, they've stoppped doing that.

 

I think though, this is out of the norm, that huge concentration of PMO caches. The only place I've seen anything like it was in Portland, Oregon (when someone posted a screen shot for one of those "home area" threads). There's obviously a new Geocacher wanting to "try out" Geocaching frustrated by this, and there probably have been others we'll never hear about.

 

I knew you were not saying that PMOs were elitist. I've also chuckled many times over the continuing angst over this issue. We cachers in Smyrna are elitist. You must fill out 10 forms in triplicate, open your account to our committee for a thorough audit of your past logs, and undergo a thorough Q&A session with our interview committee before being allowed to cache in Smyrna. We actually look down on PMs since they are not elite enough.

[+Manville Possum]

Thanks for the answers. How do you log PMO's if you are not a PM?

There is an easier way ...

 

Which could be this page: http://www.geocachingadmin.com/

Just punch in the GC code and click the Log button.

 

Cool. And give GSAK a try. Most units will store what, about 1000 listings?

[+Castle Mischief]

Smyrna, TN elitist here. OK, so only two of mine are PMO. Never noticed that most are PMO until this thread. I personally know most of the hiders in Smyrna, if not all. Every one of them are great people and upstanding cachers. I have never known of any of them to delete a log because they were not PM, and I have personally instructed many non-PMs how to log PMO caches. I've never asked any why they do it, but I can assure all it is not out of feeling of superiority. My opinion on why there may be so many is because one of the innovators of caching as we know it (JoGPS) use to have about 100 caches hidden along some hourse trails in our area, all of them were PMO cache because he wanted to encourage others to support geocaching.com. When a leader does that, others tend to follow.

 

Hello Jeff, you elitist. Note I only referred to the many "PMO caches are elitist" threads, I never said any Smyrnaians (if that's what you call yourselves) are. Good explanation, the question has been answered. An early pioneer did it, so many of the locals followed suit. Just a regional thing. The same reason why everyone in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pa. area used to wrap their caches in plastic garbage bags; an early pioneer did it. Hopefully, they've stoppped doing that.

 

I think though, this is out of the norm, that huge concentration of PMO caches. The only place I've seen anything like it was in Portland, Oregon (when someone posted a screen shot for one of those "home area" threads). There's obviously a new Geocacher wanting to "try out" Geocaching frustrated by this, and there probably have been others we'll never hear about.

 

I knew you were not saying that PMOs were elitist. I've also chuckled many times over the continuing angst over this issue. We cachers in Smyrna are elitist. You must fill out 10 forms in triplicate, open your account to our committee for a thorough audit of your past logs, and undergo a thorough Q&A session with our interview committee before being allowed to cache in Smyrna. We actually look down on PMs since they are not elite enough.

 

Don't let Jeff fool you, he's really a La Vergne Elitist.

[+AmphibianTrackers]

I don't have any belief that people who pay for premium memberships and hide premium hides are elitists but I do want to say that $30 is a lot to some people. My best caching friend cannot afford a premium membership. While I have considered purchasing it for her, she needs the $30 for other things so I just take her caching along with me and use the logging method mentioned above. I have even helped her come up with her own signature swag, etc. My only point being that I keep hearing its only $30 and while that is true for me, "only" $30 is not true for everyone.

[+jeffbouldin]

Smyrna, TN elitist here. OK, so only two of mine are PMO. Never noticed that most are PMO until this thread. I personally know most of the hiders in Smyrna, if not all. Every one of them are great people and upstanding cachers. I have never known of any of them to delete a log because they were not PM, and I have personally instructed many non-PMs how to log PMO caches. I've never asked any why they do it, but I can assure all it is not out of feeling of superiority. My opinion on why there may be so many is because one of the innovators of caching as we know it (JoGPS) use to have about 100 caches hidden along some hourse trails in our area, all of them were PMO cache because he wanted to encourage others to support geocaching.com. When a leader does that, others tend to follow.

 

Hello Jeff, you elitist. Note I only referred to the many "PMO caches are elitist" threads, I never said any Smyrnaians (if that's what you call yourselves) are. Good explanation, the question has been answered. An early pioneer did it, so many of the locals followed suit. Just a regional thing. The same reason why everyone in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pa. area used to wrap their caches in plastic garbage bags; an early pioneer did it. Hopefully, they've stoppped doing that.

 

I think though, this is out of the norm, that huge concentration of PMO caches. The only place I've seen anything like it was in Portland, Oregon (when someone posted a screen shot for one of those "home area" threads). There's obviously a new Geocacher wanting to "try out" Geocaching frustrated by this, and there probably have been others we'll never hear about.

 

I knew you were not saying that PMOs were elitist. I've also chuckled many times over the continuing angst over this issue. We cachers in Smyrna are elitist. You must fill out 10 forms in triplicate, open your account to our committee for a thorough audit of your past logs, and undergo a thorough Q&A session with our interview committee before being allowed to cache in Smyrna. We actually look down on PMs since they are not elite enough.

 

Don't let Jeff fool you, he's really a La Vergne Elitist.

 

LaVergne kicked me out about 8 years ago. I snuck into Smyrna before they had instituted many of the elitist policies and have been grandfathered in. I'm the crazy old uncle everybody tolerates.

[+sduck]

I actually don't see what all the fuss is about. Smyrna is centrally located within a larger area that has an unusually large number of geocaches per capita. If a certain cache is pmo, you can almost always find a non-pmo one within a few hundred yards.

 

Personally, I'm not concerned about you yokels and your pmo's - there are so many platinum member only ones here that I don't really have time for the plebian finds.

 

Smilies? Platinum members don't need stinking smilies...

Edited August 12, 2011 by sduck