New Membership... Northern Ireland?

[+Knights-Templar]

Hi,

First of all would just like to introduce myself. I am Gary from Belfast and very new to geocaching.

 

Just started with my 2 kids and they love it also.

 

I have a query and I hope someone can steer me in the right direction.

 

I am trying to upgrade to premium membership but when I look for Northern Ireland in the drop down state/province box it is not there.

 

It has plenty of options for England/Scotland and Wales but I am unable to complete the purchase as where I live doesn't seem to exist

 

Has anyone else come across this?

 

Regards Gary

[Deceangi]

Hi,

First of all would just like to introduce myself. I am Gary from Belfast and very new to geocaching.

 

Just started with my 2 kids and they love it also.

 

I have a query and I hope someone can steer me in the right direction.

 

I am trying to upgrade to premium membership but when I look for Northern Ireland in the drop down state/province box it is not there.

 

It has plenty of options for England/Scotland and Wales but I am unable to complete the purchase as where I live doesn't seem to exist

 

Has anyone else come across this?

 

Regards Gary

 

Northern Island is part of Ulster Ireland. This is solely a site designation to remove complications about caches being either listed as UK or Ireland as happened in the past. This Geocaching Region is the Historic Region of Ulster, not the modern political one, so includes a couple of counties in Southern Ireland. The decision took the politics out of Geocaching.

 

 

Deci

[+Knights-Templar]

Hmmm pretty sure I didn't wake in up Ireland this morning unless my bed moved 50 miles South during the night lol.

 

Thanks for the reply, at least I know how to get the premium membership now

 

Regards Gary

[+MazdaRoy]

Hi Gary, welcome to the werid world of caching in Northern Ireland

 

If your out and about on Sat why not call up to Carnfunnock Country Park in Larne where I am hosting a Caching Event aimed at new/newish cachers. There will be experienced cachers on hand as well.

 

http://coord.info/GC3P8T6

 

Also there are Milkshake(Belfast) and Boutye Hey(Ballymena)events which will help you meet the other madhatters from around this way

 

Happy Hunting

[+Knights-Templar]

Hi Gary, welcome to the werid world of caching in Northern Ireland

 

If your out and about on Sat why not call up to Carnfunnock Country Park in Larne where I am hosting a Caching Event aimed at new/newish cachers. There will be experienced cachers on hand as well.

 

http://coord.info/GC3P8T6

 

Also there are Milkshake(Belfast) and Boutye Hey(Ballymena)events which will help you meet the other madhatters from around this way

 

Happy Hunting

 

Hi Roy,

Thanks for the info about the event. You can count me and my two mini cachers in.

 

Will be good to pick up some tips from more experienced people and am sure kids will enjoy it.

 

Gary

[+MazdaRoy]

Hi Gary, glad your coming along, I have set 6 new caches that will get released on the day and some of the prizes that can be won are Garmin extrex, unregistered travel bug, unregistered car decal, regatta coat. There will be other little things.

 

See on Sat dont forget to say hi.

[Doccardy]

I too have wondered why Northern Ireland was not listed under UK

[+Simply Paul]

This has been covered a few times on the forum (as you can imagine) but here's the short version: You can't please all the people all the time, so Ireland is dealt with as an island (called Ireland) with subdivisions along not-too-touchy lines. It would make more sense for Groundspeak to call the rest of the UK Great Britain or just Britain, as that's the name of the other big island and would then logically exclude NI. For example, the name of this forum - United Kingdom and Ireland - would become "(Great) Britain and Ireland". However, that may not please the Scillonians and Shetlanders, as technically while British and part of the British Isles, they're not 'Great Britain'... IOM and the Channel Islands have their own (non-UK/Irish) listings, so they're happy either way. It's a bit of a mishmash at the moment but we do our best to keep things friendly

[jri]

Of course it's up to Groundspeak to split up caching regions as they see fit. The thing that annoys me is that they don't do it consistently. While some parts of geocaching.com use the arrangements described above, the maps on my stats page show that I've found caches in a place called "United Kingdom", and Northern Ireland is shaded in for me. While I've visited both Éire and Northern Ireland in my pre-caching days, I've never found caches in either.

 

I'm not holding my breath for Groundspeak to fix this... Hopefully at some point I'll be able to make my stats page consistent again by going back and actually finding some Irish caches

 

[+Gushoneybun]

Northern Island is part of Ulster Ireland. This is solely a site designation to remove complications about caches being either listed as UK or Ireland as happened in the past. This Geocaching Region is the Historic Region of Ulster, not the modern political one, so includes a couple of counties in Southern Ireland. The decision took the politics out of Geocaching.

 

 

Deci

 

Slightly off topic but I thought the "region" is called Yorkshire, no mention of the "and Humberside" any more.

[+Amberel]

Slightly off topic but I thought the "region" is called Yorkshire, no mention of the "and Humberside" any more.

The difference with Ireland is that they have moved Northern Ireland to a different country. We are told repeatedly that they are not countries, just regions, but that's simply not true. When I look at my stats it says I have found 19 caches in the country Ireland, not the region Ireland. The Irish flag is shown to the left of the count. These 19 caches are not included in my United Kingdom total. But these caches were not found in the country Ireland, they were found in the United Kingdom.

 

I'm sure I've seen similar things elsewhere on the site. If they really want us to think of them as regions and not countries they need to change the wording and remove the national flags.

 

As long as it continues as it is now it appears to me as putting politics INTO caching.

 

Rgds, Andy

[Deceangi]

As long as it continues as it is now it appears to me as putting politics INTO caching.

 

Rgds, Andy

 

Sorry but the Geocachers in NI from both sides of the Political Spectrum, one side who used to List caches under the UK, and the Other who used to List them under Ireland. Were happy with the set up when it was applied. Given that there is now no confusion about where caches are Listed, and the Local Community are happy, then Politics has been taken out. And they have a Win Win Situation, and that is what counts at the end of the day.

 

The only people who do have a issue, are those who do not Live there, or have just started the Hobby, and are not aware of the past history of confusion (run a PQ in Ireland and get some caches, but not all in NI, alternatively run a PQ in Scotland and get some caches in NI but not all, it was even worse for Visitors who missed out on caches in their PQ run for their visit)

 

The screen Grab was taken from the Original GE Overlay, with the Original Designation of Yorkshire and Humberside. Humberside being dropped as it was causing confusion.

 

Deci

[+Amberel]

The only people who do have a issue, are those who do not Live there

But I do live in the UK, so it is my country, and I consider myself entitled to hold a view on it. I have close (immediate family) connections to Northern Ireland.

 

If they were shown as regions and not countries the problem would be solved.

 

Rgds, Andy

[+Knights-Templar]

I have to agree with Amberel on this one by putting an Ireland flag on caches found in Northern Ireland you are playing with politics and changing peoples sovereignty.

 

This will always be a big issue for those people in Northern Ireland who considered themselve part of the UK, even more so now with the 'flag' issue recently in Belfast.

 

I am pretty sure members from Scotland or Wales would no appreciate having the England flag next to their finds on home soil.

 

Why not make Northern Ireland a seperated entity and use the Northern Ireland flag (not UK) for any finds found there?

[+sgtzara]

When I placed my first cache I made the mistake of looking for Northern Ireland under United Kingdom, didn't take long to find out that my area was listed under Ulster in Ireland. No problems since and understand Groundspeaks logic. No issues with same.

[Staldantes]

I´ve already tried to explain common sense to the powers that be, but no, alas & alac only dismay (http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=288571&st=0).

Edited January 4, 2013 by Staldantes

[+agentmancuso]

I have to agree with Amberel on this one by putting an Ireland flag on caches found in Northern Ireland you are playing with politics and changing peoples sovereignty.

 

This will always be a big issue for those people in Northern Ireland who considered themselve part of the UK, even more so now with the 'flag' issue recently in Belfast.

 

I am pretty sure members from Scotland or Wales would no appreciate having the England flag next to their finds on home soil.

 

Why not make Northern Ireland a seperated entity and use the Northern Ireland flag (not UK) for any finds found there?

 

I'm from Scotland, and I don't appreciate one bit having the Union Flag shown next to my finds. But I don't waste time bleating about it on here, because politics has nothing to do with geocaching.

[+Knights-Templar]

I have to agree with Amberel on this one by putting an Ireland flag on caches found in Northern Ireland you are playing with politics and changing peoples sovereignty.

 

This will always be a big issue for those people in Northern Ireland who considered themselve part of the UK, even more so now with the 'flag' issue recently in Belfast.

 

I am pretty sure members from Scotland or Wales would no appreciate having the England flag next to their finds on home soil.

 

Why not make Northern Ireland a seperated entity and use the Northern Ireland flag (not UK) for any finds found there?

 

I'm from Scotland, and I don't appreciate one bit having the Union Flag shown next to my finds. But I don't waste time bleating about it on here, because politics has nothing to do with geocaching.

 

Well you found time to come bleat anyway didn't you.

 

Politics would soon be in it if they put an England flag next to your finds. It would be a different story then.

[+agentmancuso]

 

I'm from Scotland, and I don't appreciate one bit having the Union Flag shown next to my finds. But I don't waste time bleating about it on here, because politics has nothing to do with geocaching.

 

Well you found time to come bleat anyway didn't you.

 

Politics would soon be in it if they put an England flag next to your finds. It would be a different story then.

 

On the contarary. I merely used my own case as an example - I don't like the flag that appears next to my finds, but I have never mentioned it before in these forums, because it's not relevant. I accept that the country/state/county solutions used by Groundspeak are perfectly coherent and workable, even though they don't suit my particular political opinions. Politics has nothing to do with geocaching.

[+Knights-Templar]

That is your opinion which you are entitled to but it is an issue for other people. I am not talking politics I don't even vote for me it's about nationality.

[+agentmancuso]

That is your opinion which you are entitled to but it is an issue for other people. I am not talking politics I don't even vote for me it's about nationality.

 

'Nationality' is a form of political identity. It's only an 'issue' for people who chose to make it so. I'd suggest they'd (we'd) all be better off if they chose not to instead. Because politics has nothing to do with geocaching.

[+Knights-Templar]

Nationality is about what country you were born in and politics or political parties play no part in it.

 

Groundspeak have chosen to delete the country of my birth from the geocaching world.

[Staldantes]

Nationality is about what country you were born in and politics or political parties play no part in it.

 

Groundspeak have chosen to delete the country of my birth from the geocaching world.

 

I previously suggested that they put Northern Ireland, or even Ulster in the UK menu to remove the politics from the game (leaving Ulster also in the Ireland menu, we´d loose Donegal otherwise), and in response a majority tried to shout me down. Its quite embarrassing really that the controllers/moderators do not want the same thing and support this correction. Agentmanusco, the flag for Scotland at least is incorporated into the Union Jack, but it isn´t the flag of the neighbouring country (see the difference). It would take only a minute on the webpage to sort out the whole thing. Stubbornness is a terrible thing!!

[+agentmancuso]

Nationality is about what country you were born in and politics or political parties play no part in it.

 

Groundspeak have chosen to delete the country of my birth from the geocaching world.

 

Defining what country you were born in is a political act.

 

Groundspeak have settled on an arrangement that by all accounts suits the majority of geocachers in the area, and makes perfect sense in practice. I'd have thought that anyone with the slightest connection to the island of Ireland would be only too well aware of the damage that is done when narrow-minded people insist that their own preferred definitions take precedence over everyone else's.

 

But as the question has been answered above by Deceangi, to no avail, I suggest this thread be kiled off by the moderators.

[+Pieman]

If I remember correctly the decision to classify the island of Ireland as one country is because of the way Groundpseak have set up pocket queries. You can't do a search on Northern Ireland and Eire so Irish cachers near the border were picking up caches from other parts of the UK in their PQs. So the decision was made on practical grounds to regard the island as one territory. If the individual countries of the UK were regarded as regions, a PQ of Northern Ireland and another for Eire would have the same effect, but Groundspeak decided not to go that way.

[+Knights-Templar]

My point exactly, why can't we have a separate regions for Northern Ireland and Repiblic of Ireland.

 

If going to Europe would I search by seperate regions/ countries or Europe as a whole?

 

How can defining what country I was born in be political, it's your heritage you are not born with political views.

[+Amberel]

If I remember correctly the decision to classify the island of Ireland as one country is because of the way Groundpseak have set up pocket queries. You can't do a search on Northern Ireland and Eire so Irish cachers near the border were picking up caches from other parts of the UK in their PQs...

If NI was listed in the correct country it would cause no problems with PQs. You can select multiple regions in the PQ listbox, it you wanted caches from both countries you would just select both. This is why the oft reiterated reason for doing it the way they have just doesn't hold water.

 

Rgds, Andy