Allow Wherigo Cache Owners to Support Seekers

[+niraD]

The thread Should Wherigo be grandfathered? raises the following issue:

I created our very first Wherigo cache recently and was told that it couldn't be published until I removed all mention of third party builders (Wherigo\\kit) and links to apps in the app store and google play which allow you to actually find these cache types.

There needs to be some way for owners of Wherigo caches to tell potential seekers how to play their Wherigo cartridges. The Help Center articles and the Wherigo.com site itself are inadequate. They make no mention at all of the smartphone apps that most people can use to play Wherigo cartridges.

 

One option would be to update the Help Center articles or the Wherigo.com site.

 

Another would be to allow Wherigo cache owners to link to a neutral site that provides the information, like the Wherigo Foundation, or the Wherigo page on Wikipedia.

 

Another would be to allow Wherigo cache owners to link to various Wherigo players (even if they can't link to third-party Wherigo builders.

[+tozainamboku]

I suspect that in light of other geolocation games like the "Game who must not be named" QR code game, the reveiwers have been told not to publish any cache that references a third party app. I've heard that you can't even tell someone that your "beacon" cache uses Chirp because that's a advertisment for Garmin.

 

It would be nice if Groundspeak could come up with an open source type license for Wherigo apps and builders and work with the Wherigo foundation to identify apps that could then be mentioned.

[+The A-Team]

Is it really necessary to link to specific apps? I suspect there wouldn't be a problem if the owner just stated that there are Wherigo apps available for iPhone and Android, and left it up to the cacher to decide which one they wanted to use. This is how I've seen it done for other caches where an app is required, such as for scanning QR codes.

[+EngPhil]

I've heard that you can't even tell someone that your "beacon" cache uses Chirp because that's a advertisment for Garmin.

Surely not. That would make absolutely no sense.

 

They even have an attribute for the beacon.

 

If we assume there's only one kind of beacon, then the mere presence of this attribute is surely an endorsement of that beacon type (and mention of its name is irrelevant as there's no other alternative.)

 

If we assume there are multiple beacon types, then surely the seeker would need to know which kind of beacon it was to ensure his/her device was capable of reading it.

 

Either way, banning mention of the name would be ridiculous.

[+derektiffany]

I've heard that you can't even tell someone that your "beacon" cache uses Chirp because that's a advertisment for Garmin.

http://support.Groundspeak.com/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=303

Cache descriptions may mention NFC (Near Field Communication) or the "Chirp" (a specific beacon) only if the text is brief and does not have overtones of promotion, marketing or advertising, as per our commercial guidelines. Names of GPS companies and compatible models of GPS units are not appropriate on a geocache page.

So ...

"This cache employs a Chirp" would seem acceptable.

"This cache employs a Garmin Chirp" however ... not so much.

[+geodarts]

The real problem is that the Groundspeak has long ago stopped doing anything with Wherigo. They should work out any IP issues and let the Wherigo Foundation run with it.