Lessor Geo Tour or Reward GeoTrail

[+aghudley]

Let me begin by stating that I understand that the term GeoTour is reserved for use by Geocaching.com to describe what I will call a sanctioned/sponsored/registered geocache tour that is identified on GeoTourshttps://www.geocaching.com/play/geotours. My reviewer brought that to my attention. Beyond the sanctioning, sponsoring or organizational funding, a GeoTour is also a collection of geocaches around a common theme, for example geographic, historic, or tourist related. The idea is to bring people to interesting places using geocaches as a medium rather than just a bunch of caches. The idea of a these "official" GeoTours is, in my opinion, absolutely terrific. The fact that they are sanctioned/sponsored/registered implies a level of quality to me that suggests they are a more desirable collection and/or challenge. I have completed three of these GeoTours to date and will seek out others. Enough said about that.

 

What I would like to address are the many "unofficial" geocache tours or trails that share the same basic definition, that are not sanctioned, sponsored or supported with organizational funding, but still have the common theme (i.e., geographic, historic related) and bring people to interesting places, not just a collection of geocaches. I have completed several such trails, many of which had a reward at the end of the rainbow. I have also created two with the cooperation of some low budget, volunteer operated historical museums. I even inquired about making the latest one an official GeoTour, but the minimum budget requirements were far beyond what the museums or this individual could afford. Beyond the "official-ness" of the GeoTour approach, the level of effort that went into my two "tours" was every bit as much and more than what I saw with the three official tours I have completed. With a lack of clear definition at the time, I used the GeoTour attribute for the first tour. I think that attribute must be reserved for "official GeoTours", as I think it was since removed from the caches (by Groundspeak?). I even spent the extra money to put a GeoTour back on the pathtags used for the reward. Did I violate terms of use? Did I waste my money using the GeoTour back?

 

My question (or suggestion): Is there room for attributes such as "Geo Trail (geographic related)", "Historic Trail", "Reward Trail" or even "Power Trail"? The "Tourist" attribute seems to be a bit too general to suggest a trail or reward trail.

 

Thank you for providing this forum. I looked around for this topic but did not find anything definitive, so I am putting it out for discussion.

[+Wet Pancake Touring Club]

Great looking series. As railroad buff myself, I wish I was closer so I could do your series.

 

As for an attribute, as you note, there doesn't appear to be anything appropriate. In another forum (search for power trail attribute), there are a number of requests to add an attribute for power trails. In one of those discussions, the hearsay was that Groundspeak was contemplating having an attribute for 'part of a series'. However, nothing has come from that.

 

I looked at several of the Silent Whistle Series cache descriptions. They appear to be great tourist places, therefore, the 'tourist friendly' attribute would be appropriate. However, there are over 1,000 'tourist friendly' caches within 100 miles of Lansing. So, this attribute will not really help with selecting caches that are part of your series.

 

You did start all of them with the code of 'SWS'. This is probably the best way to tell people to search for them. Plus, you provided bookmark lists. This lets premium members create Pocket Queries for ease of downloading them.

 

As an aside, I might suggest that you convert your Silent Whistle Series graphic to text. Most paperless GPSr units won't download or display images. And, you may want to consider adding a line explicitly stating that this cache is part of a reward trail, and to see the bookmark list for a complete list.

 

Don't forget to let Rock Chalk (Groundspeak Lackey and Forum Moderator) know about your reward trails. He can add them to his public spreadsheet of GeoTours & Reward Trails.

 

I cannot really speak to your use of the word GeoTour. I'm not a representative of Groundspeak, nor am I a trademark lawyer. However, I have found that word in common use outside of geocaching.

[+MissJenn]

With a lack of clear definition at the time, I used the GeoTour attribute for the first tour.

 

Hm. You couldn't have used the "GeoTour" attribute as that can only be accessed by a Geocaching HQ employee. That's true of the attributes listed as "Specials" at the very bottom of this page. As Wet Pancake Touring Club mentioned, you likely used the "Tourist Friendly" attribute.

[+MissJenn]

I even spent the extra money to put a GeoTour back on the pathtags used for the reward. Did I violate terms of use? Did I waste my money using the GeoTour back?

 

I am unsure what you mean here. Geocaching HQ does not create Pathtags or have terms of use for Pathtags designs.

 

What exactly is the design you placed on the back of your Pathtags? What extra money? I assume you paid that to the manufacturer of your Pathtags.

[+aghudley]

I even spent the extra money to put a GeoTour back on the pathtags used for the reward. Did I violate terms of use? Did I waste my money using the GeoTour back?

 

I am unsure what you mean here. Geocaching HQ does not create Pathtags or have terms of use for Pathtags designs.

 

What exactly is the design you placed on the back of your Pathtags? What extra money? I assume you paid that to the manufacturer of your Pathtags.

I was concerned that I may have violated the terms of use of "GeoTour" by using the special "GeoTour" tag back available from the manufacturer for a non-sanctioned reward trail. I'm just trying to be a good boy scout.

After further review, I believe that back was no extra charge from the manufacturer.

 

Regarding your comment about the attribute, I see now that the attribute is not available to me. It has been a year and a half. I probably tried to use it but was not able to.

Thanks for your feedback.

[+aghudley]

 

You did start all of them with the code of 'SWS'. This is probably the best way to tell people to search for them. Plus, you provided bookmark lists. This lets premium members create Pocket Queries for ease of downloading them.

 

You probably looked at several of the SWS caches that are not part of one of my two "Geocache Rail Tours". Each of the geocache names in the most recent tour are named "SWS (RAAS) ...", to differentiate them from non-tour SWS caches. I am considering renaming the caches from the first tour similarly so they all begin with "SWS (ARNC) " instead of simply "SWS ". I was looking for an attribute that would key people in that the cache was not stand alone. Perhaps I am trying to help fellow geocachers a little too much.

 

As an aside, I might suggest that you convert your Silent Whistle Series graphic to text. Most paperless GPSr units won't download or display images. And, you may want to consider adding a line explicitly stating that this cache is part of a reward trail, and to see the bookmark list for a complete list.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. Being aware that most hand-helds and at least some phone apps don't deal with graphics, every SWS caches that is part of a tour begins with text that states: "This cache was hidden as part of the XXXX Geocache Rail Tour ..." and goes on to identify (in a single sentence) the passport (with a link) and what to do with it. Also, each tour cache page has a table with links to of all of the caches in the tour. GC6E6j7 is an example from my latest tour.

 

Thank you for your great feedback.

[+MissJenn]

I was concerned that I may have violated the terms of use of "GeoTour" by using the special "GeoTour" tag back available from the manufacturer for a non-sanctioned reward trail. I'm just trying to be a good boy scout.

It would indeed be inappropriate to refer to a geotrail as a GeoTour when it is not. A GeoTour shows up here:

https://www.geocaching.com/play/geotours