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Benefits of Premium membership


greganon

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Forgive me but I don't want to read the entire thread but to sum it up, is it that time of month again where someone is complaining about having to pay for something when they should be entitled to get it free?

 

If that's the case I want a free Lamborghini, hot tub and 6 super models.

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I don't pay. Today I used an old magellan 2000 gps and found 3 caches. I just started caching again 3 or 4 days ago. You can do it for free. I'm retired and don't have allot of dough. I do have a new gps coming tomorrow. My smart phone sucks for finding caches. Anyway the point is you can do for free, and it's fun.

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At the moment (but this is maybe subject to change) I don't have any advantages/bonuses on geoacching.com page when having PM. Caches search and filtering options are totally lame, even with PM. The only bonus is that I use GSAK, and with PM it can quickly load multitudes on caches that I can filter, search and later load into my GPS. Without PM this loading is much slower and time-consuming.

I'm not sure if PM in current shape is really worth 30euro per year ... yes, there is difference in price, depending where you live.

 

How much do you pay for GSAK?

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At the moment (but this is maybe subject to change) I don't have any advantages/bonuses on geoacching.com page when having PM. Caches search and filtering options are totally lame, even with PM. The only bonus is that I use GSAK, and with PM it can quickly load multitudes on caches that I can filter, search and later load into my GPS. Without PM this loading is much slower and time-consuming.

I'm not sure if PM in current shape is really worth 30euro per year ... yes, there is difference in price, depending where you live.

 

How much do you pay for GSAK?

I've paid once 30 USD for lifetime license. But you can use it free (with some limitations). Feel it is better spent that 30 euro / year on PM.

I'll try how GSAK will behave without PM when it will expire.

Edited by lowca
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Geocaching is completely free. Premium membership is completely unnecessary, and so is the $10 app.

 

Seems rather odd that you want the completely unnecessary premium membership right away, and then complain about it.

There are thousands of people who have been geocaching for years without any premium membership, smartphone, or attitude.

+1

Especially the attitude. And I think i'll gag if i hear the phrase "giving money to rich companies" one more time. We *choose* how to spend money, and each time we spend money, we *choose* whether or not the *exchange* - what we're getting in return - is worth it to us.

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Personally, I could not live without my PM after having it and it is well worth the $30 a year I pay for it. The bookmark lists and pocket queries are invaluable and save me so much time, especially when I'm traveling and don't want to have to plan a geocaching excursion on the fly when I'm in an unfamiliar area. They allow me to filter by favorite points so I make my short time in the area worth it, picking out and saving the caches I found beforehand using the lists, and then running a pocket query I can load into my GPS in seconds. Even when I'm in my home area, it's nice to be able to decide I want to only find, say, multi-caches with a difficulty of 3 or higher within 10 miles of my home and just be able to throw together a pocket query and get caching.

 

I guess what is so confusing about this conversation to me is a.) many, many companies offer extra benefits for additional money and I'm unsure why Groundspeak is the specific target and b.) you by no means have to continue engaging with Groundspeak at any level.

 

In almost every industry, the price for the product generally goes up as the number of features goes up. For example, when I fly, I fly coach, which is the cheapest and most basic form of flying. If I want additional perks such as more seat/leg room, early boarding, etc., then I pay for first-class, which you could say is the flying "premium." While airplanes were the first thing to come to mind, I can think of plenty of other business that do the same thing - regular tickets v. VIP tickets for a concert, basic cable v. having the movie channels, a regular bath v. a bath with whirlpool jets, 1 GB of data v. unlimited data, and I could go on. Many of these companies don't even offer their basic packages for free, which is something that Groundspeak does offer to users.

 

When I went to WizardCon in Chicago this past August, regular admission was over $100 and VIP experiences ranged anywhere from $300 to $600. Groundspeak, on the other hand, are the top sponsors of the three Mega events I'm attending over the next year that I will be able to go to completely COST-FREE (save transportation) due to their generosity. This doesn't just get me into the event, but actually gets me event-specific swag as well - sometimes even free things like tshirts and geocoins, which are easily $10 each and make up a third of the cost for my PM. Hey - if I attend a fourth event that gives away some swag, Groundspeak will actually be giving me more money than I'm giving them, haha! To have events I can go to for no cost on Groundspeak's dime is amazing to me and I'm very grateful.

 

Groundspeak models itself on what is arguably the most popular business model in the entire world and one that most of us encounter multiple times a day. If this is a business model you disagree with, you are entirely within your right to choose not to give money to Groundspeak or any other business that uses it. However, Groundspeak is also within its right to both model its business as it sees fit and make a profit as at no point do they claim to be a non-profit company. If they choose to make their profits through Premium Membership and an advanced app while another GPS-related activities chooses to make their profits through tshirts and mugs, that's completely fine. We live in a country that gives both the businesses choices on how to make a profit and consumers choices on which company they want to support.

 

I am sorry that you are not currently well-off financially (if I can summarize some of the posts you've made yourself). By all means, if you find that Groundspeak is not a fit for you, enjoy other companies that are more in sync with your principles and price point and give them your business. However, speak negatively of Groundspeak and those who choose to spend money on this hobby seems unwarranted and harsh as we also have the option to support businesses we approve of and spend our money where we see fit the same as you do.

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Would the OP turn down a free PM?

 

He should if he hates the business model of GS so much.. To me if would only fuel the delusion that everything should be free! I commend your willingness to step up to the plate but I'd save it for the true person who would benefit from it, not a sock puppet forum troll.

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Would the OP turn down a free PM?

 

He should if he hates the business model of GS so much.. To me if would only fuel the delusion that everything should be free! I commend your willingness to step up to the plate but I'd save it for the true person who would benefit from it, not a sock puppet forum troll.

 

Truer words have never been spoken.

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Would the OP turn down a free PM?

 

He should if he hates the business model of GS so much.. To me if would only fuel the delusion that everything should be free! I commend your willingness to step up to the plate but I'd save it for the true person who would benefit from it, not a so

ck puppet forum troll.

 

Truer words have never been spoken.

At this moment I'm not offering, just wondering if they'd actually stick to their philosophy.

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...not a sock puppet forum troll.

Totally uncalled-for. Such comments don't exactly encourage new members to stick around.

 

Hmmm...

 

The OP joined yesterday, has no hides or finds and almost immediately attacks premium membership, those who use it and Groundspeak itself?

Edited by Arthur & Trillian
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...not a sock puppet forum troll.

Totally uncalled-for. Such comments don't exactly encourage new members to stick around.

 

Hmmm...

 

The OP joined yesterday, has no hides or finds and almost immediately attacks premium membership, those who use it and Groundspeak itself?

When I see such a scenario, I assume good faith and will try to address the new member's concerns and help them on their way to changing those zeroes into something else.

 

If you feel this person isn't being genuine, you're free to ignore their discussion.

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I think you missed the part where it was found he was not a new user. I think about 30 or so post back (not sure where just making up a number) they had been called out as a person who is a member with finds and placements under another user name. This name is an assumed user ID and called out by what I assume was someone with the ability to figure this out. I think the OP even admitted to using a fake ID to avoid people knowing who they actually were whe they started their rant on big companies. So yes they are a sock puppet... I do not make up names or hide behind a fake ID because I know I am going to spur and spout hatred. Well, I would not do it even if I was willing to hide behind an fake name.

 

I call a duck a duck... Do not hold back to avoid offending. My point, the user is not new they are simply just trying to hide. They are hiding because they are obviously embarrassed to let people know who they actually are... The OPcould be me, you or anyone else and they want it that way. I will answer questions to a newb to the best of my ability as well respectfully (I hope), but I do not like it when a person is misrepresenting themselves and trying to deceive as to who they actually are. I'm actually surprised it is even allowed by GS and this was not locked long ago. If the OP was in fact a brand new user/ newb I cannot even imagine they would start off their intro to geocaching by attacking its entire meaning and existence.

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I think you missed the part where it was found he was not a new user. I think about 30 or so post back (not sure where just making up a number) they had been called out as a person who is a member with finds and placements under another user name. This name is an assumed user ID and called out by what I assume was someone with the ability to figure this out. I think the OP even admitted to using a fake ID to avoid people knowing who they actually were whe they started their rant on big companies.

Either I'm completely blind, there's a massive amount of editing going on, or you're thinking of a different discussion. I just read through this entire discussion again to make sure, and the only information even remotely related to the above is:

1. The OP stated that they've "gone geocaching with friends" before. This would explain at least a partial knowledge of caching while having no finds attached to their account.

2. The OP admitted that they lied about the date that they listed a hide on a competing site to prevent people from determining their identity over there.

 

As for using fake IDs or having finds and hides under another identity, there's simply no evidence of this. None at all.

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I do not care about having another ID for posting caches and or logging as a group. What I have an issue about is using the ID to hide.

 

Maybe I was wrong about the fake ID, then I will apologies and take back the sock puppet comment, but I am not really interested enough to go back through 117 responses. I won't take back the troll comment because I feel its true. Even just the fact that he reports to have cached with people and to have placed caches before tells me that he is not "new."

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Would the OP turn down a free PM?

 

He should if he hates the business model of GS so much.. To me if would only fuel the delusion that everything should be free! I commend your willingness to step up to the plate but I'd save it for the true person who would benefit from it, not a so

ck puppet forum troll.

 

Truer words have never been spoken.

At this moment I'm not offering, just wondering if they'd actually stick to their philosophy.

Consider this post to be a standing offer to give the OP a 30 day free trial premium membership. The OP can accept this offer by posting to that effect in this thread, and I will follow up promptly by email with the details for activating the free trial.

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Would the OP turn down a free PM?

 

He should if he hates the business model of GS so much.. To me if would only fuel the delusion that everything should be free! I commend your willingness to step up to the plate but I'd save it for the true person who would benefit from it, not a so

ck puppet forum troll.

 

Truer words have never been spoken.

At this moment I'm not offering, just wondering if they'd actually stick to their philosophy.

Consider this post to be a standing offer to give the OP a 30 day free trial premium membership. The OP can accept this offer by posting to that effect in this thread, and I will follow up promptly by email with the details for activating the free trial.

 

Can I have one too and please don't offer me a 30 day ban. :laughing:

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