Gutch220 Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 I'm very new to Geocaching, and it looks like (on this site anyway) that a user needs to pay the monthly fee to participate in creating a new challenge? This doesn't seem right. You would think creating a new challenge would be free since this would encourage more people to do it. Frankly, it seems more fun to create new ones rather than looking for them. I was going to create a few until I decided I have to pay somebody to do this, and it took the wind right out of my sails. What's the deal? Quote Link to comment
+StarBrand Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 The site costs a lot of money to run. Challenges are a reward for supporting that. Simple. Quote Link to comment
jholly Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 (edited) Running what StarBrand said through babel fish, Challenges are a premium perk. There are a number of premium perks. Not every thing on this website is free. Edited April 6, 2012 by jholly Quote Link to comment
+Team Periwinkle Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 ...a user needs to pay the monthly fee ... Premium Membership is actually an annual fee..if you were looking at the price and thinking it was monthly, you might have been scared...but the annual cost seems pretty reasonable to me. Quote Link to comment
+ChileHead Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 Geocaches are reviewed by volunteer reviewers. Besides taking care of placement issues, it also ensures that the spambots can't automatically create caches. Challenges are not reviewed (at least they weren't - I haven't played with them in a while.) You make a challenge, and it's live. If this were not a premium feature, then the spambots would be able to create hundreds/thousands of challenges automagically. Yes, there are ways for people to mark them as not appropriate, but who wants to sift through hundreds of bogus challenges? Not sure if this was a thought here, but it certainly is a side effect. Quote Link to comment
Gutch220 Posted April 6, 2012 Author Share Posted April 6, 2012 I understand that their should be perks for a premium membership. I'm just saying, that at it's most basic form, you should be able to create challenges with a basic membership. It's like playing "hide & seek", but getting charged for the "hide". How do I even know if I want to pay $30/year if I can't even try it first? Perhaps a quota for basic memberships is an idea worth considering (example: allowed to create one Geocache every six months) ???? Quote Link to comment
+Max and 99 Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 How do I even know if I want to pay $30/year if I can't even try it first? But you CAN try Challenges first before deciding if you want to become a Premium Member and create them! Quote Link to comment
+ChileHead Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 I understand that their should be perks for a premium membership. I'm just saying, that at it's most basic form, you should be able to create challenges with a basic membership. It's like playing "hide & seek", but getting charged for the "hide". How do I even know if I want to pay $30/year if I can't even try it first? Perhaps a quota for basic memberships is an idea worth considering (example: allowed to create one Geocache every six months) ???? You can hide as many geocaches as you want - there is no membership fee needed for geocaches. Only for the new "challenges". Quote Link to comment
ao318 Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 Perhaps a quota for basic memberships is an idea worth considering (example: allowed to create one Geocache every six months) ???? As a basic member, you can create as many "Geocaches" as you want. You will just have to follow the listing guidelines. Challenges are different from Geocaches. Quote Link to comment
+geocat_ Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 How do I even know if I want to pay $30/year if I can't even try it first? You can get a Premium Membership in a monthly basis if you don't want to commit to a year right away. Also, as stated, you can hide as many caches as you want as a basic member. Quote Link to comment
+Ambient_Skater Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 I agree with the OP. The other Premium perks (such as Pocket Queries and map filtering) benefit the member, but Challenges benefit the whole community. Quote Link to comment
jholly Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 I agree with the OP. The other Premium perks (such as Pocket Queries and map filtering) benefit the member, but Challenges benefit the whole community. Insert argument about premium member only caches here. Quote Link to comment
the3gmen Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 I understand that their should be perks for a premium membership. I'm just saying, that at it's most basic form, you should be able to create challenges with a basic membership. It's like playing "hide & seek", but getting charged for the "hide". How do I even know if I want to pay $30/year if I can't even try it first? Perhaps a quota for basic memberships is an idea worth considering (example: allowed to create one Geocache every six months) ???? I never understand people's complaints about having to pay for certain features on Geocaching.com. No one is forcing you to do anything. If you don't want to pay, there are plenty of things here that don't cost anything and there are a couple of other caching sites that are free. If you want to take advantage of all the services that Geocaching.com offers, a fee is involved. Quote Link to comment
Mr.Yuck Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 The site costs a lot of money to run. Challenges are a reward for supporting that. Simple. So does the letterboxing site Atlas Quest, but they don't have 50 full time employees, including a dedicated blogger. Yours is not the first complaint about having to be a premium member to create challenges. It is a perk, as jholly said. He also joked about Premium Member Caches too. That was previously the only "perk" that was ever controversial. But as I said, yours is at least the 2nd thread about not being able to create challenges. The next time someone starts a "I have to pay money to do Pocket Queries?" or "I have to pay money to make a bookmark list?" thread will be the first time. Quote Link to comment
Gutch220 Posted April 7, 2012 Author Share Posted April 7, 2012 How do I even know if I want to pay $30/year if I can't even try it first? You can get a Premium Membership in a monthly basis if you don't want to commit to a year right away. Also, as stated, you can hide as many caches as you want as a basic member. oh. well than what's the difference between a "challenge", and placing a geocache somewhere in the world and following it's existance on this site? If I can do this, than I think it's fair. I was under the impression you had to pay to hide a cache, which seemed bogus. Quote Link to comment
Pup Patrol Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 How do I even know if I want to pay $30/year if I can't even try it first? You can get a Premium Membership in a monthly basis if you don't want to commit to a year right away. Also, as stated, you can hide as many caches as you want as a basic member. oh. well than what's the difference between a "challenge", and placing a geocache somewhere in the world and following it's existance on this site? If I can do this, than I think it's fair. I was under the impression you had to pay to hide a cache, which seemed bogus. It sounds like you need to do some reading. Challenges and geocaches are completely different things. To add to the confusion, there are geocaches that are "challenge caches". 10.2. Geocaching Challenges http://support.Groundspeak.com/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=329 Geocaching http://support.Groundspeak.com/index.php?pg=kb.book&id=1 Getting Started with Geocaching > Geocache Types http://www.geocaching.com/about/cache_types.aspx Geocaching 101 http://www.geocaching.com/guide/default.aspx B. Quote Link to comment
+Ambient_Skater Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 He also joked about Premium Member Caches too. How about Premium Member Challenges? Quote Link to comment
Mr.Yuck Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 He also joked about Premium Member Caches too. How about Premium Member Challenges? Well, you're kidding of course, but if you think about it, they actually already are. But then again, not really, any member can complete them, and the Geocaching challenges App is totally free for Iphone, Droid, and WindowsPhone. It's an excellent, App, by the way. But I digress. The only way to possibly get an official Groundspeak answer on why only premium members can create them would be in the "Feature Discussions and Suggestions" sub-forum. Has anyone ever posed the question there? I don't know, I rarely look there. Quote Link to comment
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