Web Cam Caches?

[+moparots]

Hello all, Sorry, I haven't been to the forums in a long time. Been caching instead. : )

 

Web Cam Caches? Can we still submit new ones? Or did they go the way of the Do Do Bird and the virtual?

 

Thanks in advance for any input. Moparots / Craig

[+St.Matthew]

Grandfathered. Same as virtuals.

[+T.D.M.22]

Someone's bound to say it, might as well be me-Web-cam along with virtual caches are no longer allowed for new caches, old ones will be grandfathered in, and as I understand it, unless they are very special cannot be adopted.

[+lamoracke]

I cherish any webcam I find, very few and far between, especially the ones that work.

[AZcachemeister]

Hello all, Sorry, I haven't been to the forums in a long time. Been caching instead. : )

 

Web Cam Caches? Can we still submit new ones? Or did they go the way of the Do Do Bird and the virtual?

 

Thanks in advance for any input. Moparots / Craig

 

Deader than the most dead dodo bird conceivable.

 

I am told there are waymark categories for them, and you might create a 'challenge' based on one...I hear these are popular on certain planets.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I've often wondered why GS couldn't create an exception for a temporary web cam cache that's put in place for a mega-event. Existing web cam caches are becoming more rare, and unlike a virtual someplace that may have existed for centuries, once it's turned off it may never come back on and it would have to be archived. Creating a temporary web cam cache would give those that have not yet been able to log one an opportunity to do so and the logs would have a nice photographic record of attendees at the event. I've been caching for over five years and have only had a couple good opportunities to do a web cam cache and both times the camera was down at the time. I'm hoping to log my first one in Zurich this weekend.

[+lamoracke]

I've often wondered why GS couldn't create an exception for a temporary web cam cache that's put in place for a mega-event. Existing web cam caches are becoming more rare, and unlike a virtual someplace that may have existed for centuries, once it's turned off it may never come back on and it would have to be archived. Creating a temporary web cam cache would give those that have not yet been able to log one an opportunity to do so and the logs would have a nice photographic record of attendees at the event. I've been caching for over five years and have only had a couple good opportunities to do a web cam cache and both times the camera was down at the time. I'm hoping to log my first one in Zurich this weekend.

 

I offered the idea of a retro day to get a locationless cache...ala what baseball teams do with retro uniforms, one day a year kind of a thing. Got told pretty much no way. I wish webcams were different, I like the idea of retro days just to spice things up for special occasions, but doubt it would happen. I'd be all over a special webcam that celebrates a Woodstock and the like.

 

If there was a locationless that celebrated a mega in Maine where say you needed to take a picture somewhere with a Maine lobster sign, I'd fly there, but that's me.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I've often wondered why GS couldn't create an exception for a temporary web cam cache that's put in place for a mega-event. Existing web cam caches are becoming more rare, and unlike a virtual someplace that may have existed for centuries, once it's turned off it may never come back on and it would have to be archived. Creating a temporary web cam cache would give those that have not yet been able to log one an opportunity to do so and the logs would have a nice photographic record of attendees at the event. I've been caching for over five years and have only had a couple good opportunities to do a web cam cache and both times the camera was down at the time. I'm hoping to log my first one in Zurich this weekend.

 

I offered the idea of a retro day to get a locationless cache...ala what baseball teams do with retro uniforms, one day a year kind of a thing. Got told pretty much no way. I wish webcams were different, I like the idea of retro days just to spice things up for special occasions, but doubt it would happen. I'd be all over a special webcam that celebrates a Woodstock and the like.

 

If there was a locationless that celebrated a mega in Maine where say you needed to take a picture somewhere with a Maine lobster sign, I'd fly there, but that's me.

 

In that case, may I recommend Waterman's Lobster Pound in South Thomaston. It was actually recommended to my by another cacher when I mentioned that I would going to be staying in nearby Owls Head for a week. It's just a shack with a small parking lot with a boat dock on a inlet off Penobscot bay but it won a James Beard award. Coincidentally, South Thomaston is very close to the location where the last vehicle found for the "if you can find this car it's yours" promotion that Dodge did awhile back. The first one was found by a geocacher.

[Mr.Yuck]

If I'm not mistaken, The nail was put in the coffin for Webcams the exact same day "wow factor" virtuals were no longer accepted, i.e. January 2nd, 2006.

 

As the company line goes, you can make them a Waymark, or incorporate them somehow into a multi-cache. Just about every alternative Geocaching website out there accepts them, and I have two such ones. But I'll doubt you're interested in that angle.

[+cache_test_dummies]

Can we still submit new ones?

Would be nice, but no. Geocaching.com is no longer accepting new listings for caches.

[Pup Patrol]

Hello all, Sorry, I haven't been to the forums in a long time. Been caching instead. : )

 

Web Cam Caches? Can we still submit new ones? Or did they go the way of the Do Do Bird and the virtual?

 

Thanks in advance for any input. Moparots / Craig

 

It would seem that they were no longer being published 3 years before the creation of the account you're posting under:

 

If I'm not mistaken, The nail was put in the coffin for Webcams the exact same day "wow factor" virtuals were no longer accepted, i.e. January 2nd, 2006.

 

As the company line goes, you can make them a Waymark, or incorporate them somehow into a multi-cache. Just about every alternative Geocaching website out there accepts them, and I have two such ones. But I'll doubt you're interested in that angle.

 

 

B.

[+The A-Team]

Deader than the most dead dodo bird conceivable.

Well, they're not exactly dead. It's just that the dodos aren't laying any eggs, so once the existing dodos go the way of the dodo, then they'll be dead.

 

As the company line goes, you can make them a Waymark, or incorporate them somehow into a multi-cache. Just about every alternative Geocaching website out there accepts them, and I have two such ones. But I'll doubt you're interested in that angle.

I'd never thought of this before, and now that you've mentioned it I can't think of how this could be done. Having some required information visible in the webcam's field of view? Has anyone here actually seen webcam use integrated into a puzzle or multi?

[+moparots]

Thanks every body for your input. Mr Yuck you have given me some thing to think about, incorporating it into a multi and/or mystery, or a different website. Good idea.

 

As for cam caches being no longer being published 3 years before the creation of the account I was posting under, I honestly didn't know if they were allowed. I kind of see the rational of banning virtuals when cachers were submitting virts that were silly, but a webcam takes a lot of time, effort, and money to set up and maintain (for the owner of the cam) It just seems a bit more substantial and permanent.

 

I think even the silliest webcam cache has got to be better than a newly published magnetic key holder attached to a smelly dumpster behind your local strip mall. But that's just MY opinion.

[+The A-Team]

...but a webcam takes a lot of time, effort, and money to set up and maintain (for the owner of the cam)

All the webcam caches I've ever seen (whether actually doing them or just seeing them online) have used pre-existing webcams. None of them used webcams set up solely for that purpose.

[+moparots]

...but a webcam takes a lot of time, effort, and money to set up and maintain (for the owner of the cam)

All the webcam caches I've ever seen (whether actually doing them or just seeing them online) have used pre-existing webcams. None of them used webcams set up solely for that purpose.

 

Yes, I understand that, That is why I said "for the owner of the cam". The Cache owner is just using the cam/web site for free. Its not like cams are setup every 528 feet like a power run. Although some DOT networks are pretty close.

 

I asked the question because I was browsing some of the web cams in NYC, many of them are streaming and of really sharp quality. The raging bull cam (Wall St) and the times square cams are nice. The last cache cam I did, the pic was taken from so far away, we were just two specks in a square.

[+Harry Dolphin]

I asked the question because I was browsing some of the web cams in NYC, many of them are streaming and of really sharp quality. The raging bull cam (Wall St) and the times square cams are nice. The last cache cam I did, the pic was taken from so far away, we were just two specks in a square.

 

Well, my webcam cache is still my most popular cache. But it is the most difficult to maintain properly. The requirements are that a photo of you, taken by the webcam, must be posted to log the cache. (These are the requirements for any webcam cache.) Must be about 30% of the loggers do not log the required photo. "My cell phone doesn't work here." "My friend overslept." "No one to take the photo for us." AARGH!

I've done the Times Square Webcam in two incarnations. Once as a webcam. (Unfortunately, that got moved to WhyMarking.) And again as a Mystery/Unknown cache. That one ran afoul of new guidelines, where the CO could not require a photo. Yup. lots of webcams out there. But no new ones are permitted. Thus spake TPTB. And we have to live with that deision. No amount to arguing is going to bring them back. So, enjoy the ones that still exist. And, if you're ever at the top of Mount Washington, remember that a photo of you, taken by the webcam, is required to log the cache.