[Suggestion] Turn Waymarking into a Mobile game

[+JJnTJ]

One interpretation of Groundspeak's recent Geocaching website changes is that they are trying to make Geocaching friendlier to mobile users. They have even made it easy for users to hide caches entirely with a mobile browser. In the process, the game is now more appealing to people with less commitment to quality hides, and encourages low-quality logs.

 

Instead of breaking Geocaching, why not mobile-ize Waymarking? It's already well-suited for mobile use for many reasons.

 

1) Geocaches are often located in areas with poor or non-existant cell coverage. Most Waymarks are located in populated areas with better coverage

2) There is no need for stealth at Waymark locations, and nothing to be "muggled"

3) Instead of placing a micro in a planter at an interesting place, why not make it a Waymark?

4) It makes sense for a mobile user to be able to create a new Waymark on the spot.

 

As a radical move, Labcaches, Events and Earthcaches should be moved to Waymarking. All Geocachers have Waymarking accounts already (and vice-versa), so there's nothing more to pay and nobody is left out. You can allow Geocaching users to continue to keep these types with their GC stats if they so choose.

 

Geocaches: Hidden containers with a log book. Log finds on www.geocaching.com

Waymarks: Interesting places and events. Log finds on www.Waymarking.com

[+palmetto]

As a radical move, Labcaches, Events and Earthcaches should be moved to Waymarking.

 

Labcaches are intended as a laboratory for developing new cache types, it makes better sense to leave them Geocaching.com.

 

I'd like to see Earthcaches move back to Waymarking, where they were for a couple of years. That said, I suspect the review requirements would make that tough, the reviewer resources have all been developed on Geocaching.com since they moved back.

 

Events need to be reviewed, and I think that means they stay on Geocaching.com, again, as a matter of the technical difficulty in shifting reviewer resources to the Waymarking site. Although, if that need can be met, I'd be okay with events and earchcaches on Waymarking.

[+cerberus1]

Fish and chips restaurants and boat rentals isn't my idea of great locations or interesting places.

Fit with locationless, but reminds me of the silliness that eventually happened to Virtuals.

 

Our Nuvi tells us when we're near many of those without resorting to Waymarking.com.

- But I agree, those who don't already have any of the numerous location-based apps for those places may find Waymarking.com worthwhile.

 

In regards to your "radical move", I'd prefer that Events and Earthcaches stay with geocaching.com thanks.

[+GeoawareGBL]

 

In regards to your "radical move", I'd prefer that Events and Earthcaches stay with geocaching.com thanks.

 

Me too!

Besides, nobody would want to peer review the masses of non-Earthscience-y submissions we're getting

 

1/2 of GeoawareGBL - Rockhound.

[+tozainamboku]

One interpretation of Groundspeak's recent Geocaching website changes is that they are trying to make Geocaching friendlier to mobile users.

One interpretation is that the OP doesn't really care about Waymarking. Rather than a pitch to breath some life into the moribund Waymarking site by adding features to promote Waymarking as an mobile activity. the OP seems to fear that more mobile features will "break" the kind of geocaching they like, and they see Waymarking as a vast wasteland that they couldn't care less about.

 

Groundspeak is a business and while they have made some attempts to expand the geolocation games and activities they support with Waymarking and Wherigo, they quickly found that creating entirely new websites for these activities is difficult. Instead their strategy now is to use the very successful Geocaching.com platform to grow their business by attracting new players.

 

It should be obvious to everyone that mobile apps are where the the biggest opportunities to grow geocaching come from. So they have spent effort over the last few years developing the API and adding hokey things like souvenirs and labcaches that might appeal to app users.

 

I don't fear that they are will go so far as to 'break' geocaching. In the simplicity of the idea of players hiding caches for other players to find, they have a game that has broad appeal and frankly is addicting enough to keep many people playing it.

 

Sure, with apps you might grow the player base to where the product becomes the players and hitting them with ads or selling their geolocation information might become Groundspeak's business. So long as Groundspeak remains privately held by the founders, I doubt this will happen. These people are geocachers who remember just how this sport started and I believe they will stick to promises they have made to always allow the pure game to continue as the basis of what ever else they do.

 

That said, I think the idea of "mobilizing" Waymarking is a good one. There is already competition from apps that let you search for place of interests (POIs) from your smartphone. Taking a trip? Forget the guidebooks, just click and see if there are any interesting places to visit nearby. The current organization and many of the categories in Waymarking don't lend themselves to such an app. But with a little work, some existing categories and some new categories could be reworked in to things someone might use a smartphone app to search for. The idea that the listing are contributed by users and then reviewed by the category managers makes it interesting in that you don't rely on experts, yet there is some review to keep people from listing junk.

[+JJnTJ]

Thanks for putting all those words in my mouth, Toz! I was able to skip dinner.

[+lumbricus]

ChileHead created a mobile version of Waymarking: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=307723&view=findpost&p=5209776

[+geodarts]

At one time Groundspeak tried to market an iphone app using the Waymarking historical database. I don't know anything more about it, because I never used it, but it seems to have gone the way of things that were removed pending better mistakes in the future.

 

I agree that Waymarking is better suited to mobile devices than stand-alone gpsrs, but these days almost every app offers the ability to check in, so would a Waymarking app be just another Foursquare?

 

Until it was absorbed and killed by Facebook, Gowalla combined the ability to create and/or visit check in points in a number of categories with collecting, trading, and moving virtual items. It was cute, and I know a few people who enjoyed tracking down these items to add them to their collection or move them different places. I thought at the time that it was too bad Groundspeak had not come up with that kind of idea for Waymarking, since it could combine some sort of cache-like trading experience with the process of finding new waymarks or checking in at the existing ones.

 

There have been several location-based apps that have not succeeded, but Groundspeak has the advantage of an existing database so some of the initial start up problems - developing a mass base - might be alleviated. I would think, however, that categories would have to be focused and duplicate points (one object listed under several Waymarking categories) avoided, and something developed to separate it from other check-in experiences. Otherwise it would be a late arrival on the scene.-- those who currently waymark might use it, but it would not be enough to pull people like me into that particular game. I already have enough location-based games to do and there are other apps that take me to unique and interesting places. In any event, the "radical move" proposed would not be something that I would want to see in any shape or form.

Edited October 15, 2014 by geodarts

[team tisri]

One interpretation of Groundspeak's recent Geocaching website changes is that they are trying to make Geocaching friendlier to mobile users. They have even made it easy for users to hide caches entirely with a mobile browser. In the process, the game is now more appealing to people with less commitment to quality hides, and encourages low-quality logs.

 

Instead of breaking Geocaching, why not mobile-ize Waymarking? It's already well-suited for mobile use for many reasons.

 

1) Geocaches are often located in areas with poor or non-existant cell coverage. Most Waymarks are located in populated areas with better coverage

2) There is no need for stealth at Waymark locations, and nothing to be "muggled"

3) Instead of placing a micro in a planter at an interesting place, why not make it a Waymark?

4) It makes sense for a mobile user to be able to create a new Waymark on the spot.

 

As a radical move, Labcaches, Events and Earthcaches should be moved to Waymarking. All Geocachers have Waymarking accounts already (and vice-versa), so there's nothing more to pay and nobody is left out. You can allow Geocaching users to continue to keep these types with their GC stats if they so choose.

 

Geocaches: Hidden containers with a log book. Log finds on www.geocaching.com

Waymarks: Interesting places and events. Log finds on www.Waymarking.com

 

Great idea.

 

Only there could be some confusion as to whether you've done just what was required to claim the waymark, so perhaps it could have some kind of marker so seekers will know they found just what they wanted to find. Maybe a small sticker with a QR code on it that people could scan, and a special app could verify the find based on the QR code and their location. Then it could let them know they found it so they could tick it off and move on. It would even save them the trouble of typing "tftc" on their phone as everything would be automated.

 

You could be on to something there.