Looks like I

[+MattandLaura]

ticked off the admin. First off let me apologize for my remark made earlier in a post about the Porshe cache on ways to beat the system. I only read about it on another post in the General section and didn't think much about it. Now it seems I have a black mark (via e-mail "The admins are all well aware of your posting in the forums re. the PORCHE cache, so I wanted to give you a friendly warning that admins have their "watch lists" too. ") No names given but again I apologize to the admin and will be careful in the future about what I write.

 

[+bubble_luscious]

Wow...I didn't realize that the admin's kept that close of an eye on what people are saying. But I guess things can be taken out of context also. I do have an opinion on that cache and will be posting it on that forum. Sorry I missed you all at the rendevous. Slinger bragged it up alot. Said that I missed a really good time. Maybe I will catch the next one.

[+explosis]

'sniff', 'sniff'....smells like.... yup, geocaching sure has changed a lot in the last year. you can be the judge of where it has gone....

[+oregone]

I've always felt that the only REAL rule here on geocaching.com is to use common sense.

This website is the first thing i browse toward after checking my email, and i'd like to keep it that way.

Although some of us have made an occassional blunder--myself included--i think we can all appreciate the time and effort jeremy et. al. have put into the administration of this site.

In addition to the burden of approving the dozens of caches that are posted each day, jeremy and his staff have to sift through the hundreds of emails they receive every time they log in.

So yeah, geocaching has changed in the last year--no argument there, explosis. but as nor'westers, i tend to go with the theory that we should give jeremy the least amount of worries as is humanly possible. he gets enough guff from utah, california, and the rest of the east coast.

 

all rights reserved, all wrongs reversed

[+MattandLaura]

it may have been a common sense rule at one time, but not anymore. They now edit and delete caches one puts out and then tell you not to re-edit them. I'm sorry, but now that I paid for a service, that should make me a customer and treated as such. Yes I believe Jeremy is a busy person and I give nothing but praise to him for what he has done, but anyone who doesn't think this is paying out is kidding themself. Geocaching is just part of a bigger corp. Ground Inc. and if the RONA is not there they would not have it. Excuse the rant but after the problems I had with getting IDS VI approved, even though all my others had no problem, it just got to me.

 

 

[This message was edited by MattandLaura on June 05, 2002 at 06:07 PM.]

[+explosis]

I hear ya on that. geocaching started as a sport where people contributed their cache ideas for others to go out and find. the sport was a reflection of the people who played it. now there's an extra level where admins wield absolute power in determining whether a cache is 'good' or 'bad'. so now the sport reflects the judgement and opinions of an 'elite' group. Is it good or bad is a matter of perspective. Is it supposed to protect people? If it is how come that geocacher got fined $2 grand? Is is supposed to weed out caches that don't exist? What about 'Stoller Cache' that wasn't even there? I've had my share of unapproved caches lately ranging from no reason given to partially rejected because of my handle (no offense to the admin who did that, I'm just using it as an example of an action that took place)

 

I'm not saying the admins are bad and this is not and not intended as a shot against them. I think in a lot of cases they do a good job. Admins could be better if they were local to the geocaches they approve and knew the area and 'could' possibly fend off problems.

 

Or better yet, a system for the actual geocachers to rank caches would, in my opinion, be a better way to ward off bad geocaches. It's kind of like today when 5 people can't find a cache, the next person more than likely isn't going to attempt to find it. If when you are searching for caches, you could sort on ranking, it might be better. Survival of the fittest right?

 

No matter what happens, it seems that there are a lot more unapproved caches then approved caches out there lately. And some even get lots of logs like Stickers and Boo-tay. So we might need a 'search archived caches' option right under the 'search locationless caches' option on the search page.

 

I'm offering this as a suggestion/observation to the community. This is just what I've been pondering and it will maybe give others an idea for improving the system.

[+MattandLaura]

I agree 100% with local admins. Like you said, No offense to th admins, and for the most part they do a great job, but they do not know the area. I believe regional admins should be the ones to OK caches.

 

[+slinger91]

might not be a bad idea. A local admin would know what kind of caches are popular in a certain region. And when they make the locals mad, we could drive to there house and...just kidding.

[Syn]

We would need to get someone that is well respected in the local geocaching community and has shown a love for the game.

 

I think maps-r-us would be a good canditate.

[+Gloom]

Local admins seem to be the way to go. However, what do you define as local? Northwest region, like the forums? State-by-state? Geographical regions within a state? Cities?

 

-Gloom

 

----

Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together.

[+Seth!]

Hey, let's p!ss and moan some more. First of all, as the sport has grown there have been a lot of really stupid geocaches submitted. Those approving geocaches have a tough job. Personally, I am happy if a lot aren't getting approved because there is no shortage of geocaches in the NW and we certainly don't need any more that suck.

 

I have to laugh about local admins. Helloooo! If anybody has local admins, it's the Pacific NW! But I really don't see why it should matter. Usually a lame geocache idea is pretty obvious just by reading the page. You don't have to know the area to know that "find an out-house" or whatever is a freaking lame geocache idea.

 

There are other web sites for the terminally disgruntled...

 

Just my two cents.

 

- Seth!

[+MattandLaura]

first off, a lot of the "stupid caches" have not been so "stupid" (ie: a member here had his cache denied just because of his name) and secondly HELLO the person who approves the caches is from Georgia, pray tell how he knows much about our area or the people. While I agree there are a ton of not-so-good caches that should not be approved, alot of them have been turn down for really not that good of reason(see above). You're entitled to your .02 but leave the namecalling and such out. Thanks

 

[Moun10Bike]

quote:

---

Originally posted by MattandLaura:

 

first off, a lot of the "stupid caches" have not been so "stupid" (ie: a member here had his cache denied just because of his name)

---

 

That is incorrect. The primary reason that that cache was rejected initially is that it was near a military installation (an Air Reserve Base), and the page described it as being buried. The admin did exactly the right thing -- he contacted Explosis to discuss his concerns, Explosis addressed them, and the cache is now live. Doesn't that seem like a process that worked as it was supposed to?

 

quote:

---

and secondly HELLO the person who approves the caches is from Georgia, pray tell how he knows much about our area or the people.

---

 

Not exactly. While two of the currently most active admins are from Georgia, there are about a dozen (including me) from all areas of the country. Both Jeremy and I are from the Northwest. Besides, most of the issues that have come up for discussion among the admins involve issues that have nothing to do with whether you are from the PNW or Antarctica. They have to do with what makes a good cache and what makes a bad one. You bring up a good point, though -- maybe admins going through an accepting caches should leave those in a given region for another admin who is from that area to accept or reject?

 

I understand there are some hard feelings going around right now involving caches that got rejected. That's okay, and that's human nature -- we all do that. But let's not forget that we are a community, and any decision made my an admin is reversible. All you have to do is email the admin or Jeremy and ask for discussion. You can even post in the forums to see if the rest of the community will back your idea. Bunkerdave recently did that when his "log a cache in every county in Utah" cache was rejected.

 

One last thing -- before you submit a cache, step back and think about it. Is it really as well constructed as you think? Is it really as problem-free as you think? Is it a first step toward what could be a damaging deluge if allowed to go live? Think of what would happen if commercial caches were permitted -- soon it would be hard to find a traditional cache amongst all of the advertising. That's why anything that smacks of even a little commercialism (usually) gets smacked down by the admins accepting caches. The admins have to think of all of these things and many others when accepting caches. It is not as easy as you might think, and there will be some mistakes made along the way. Let's accept that and work to improve it -- both on the acceptance end as well as on the submittal end.

 

Moun10Bike's Geocaching Pages

[Syn]

What is exactly the criteria to become an admin.

 

Are you approached by Jeremy, Recomended by other Admins, or do you approach Jeremy yourself.

 

In addition...in response to your comment that you are Jeremy are from the PNW, well your from

Seattle area if I understand correctly.

 

Seattle was officialy kicked out of the PNW a couple years ago because they screwed up with their roads. They built a bunch of roads and connected them before they built the infrastructure and then said let the commuter figure it out.

 

Plus the residents dont know how to drive as they rapidly change lanes without notice, and dont use their turn signals.

 

[Syn]

What is exactly the criteria to become an admin.

 

Are you approached by Jeremy, Recomended by other Admins, or do you approach Jeremy yourself.

 

In addition...in response to your comment that you are Jeremy are from the PNW, well your from

Seattle area if I understand correctly.

 

Seattle was officialy kicked out of the PNW a couple years ago because they screwed up with their roads. They built a bunch of roads and connected them before they built the infrastructure and then said let the commuter figure it out.

 

Plus the residents dont know how to drive as they rapidly change lanes without notice, and dont use their turn signals.

 

[Moun10Bike]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Syn Aka Waynepdx:

 

What is exactly the criteria to become an admin.

 

Are you approached by Jeremy, Recomended by other Admins, or do you approach Jeremy yourself.

---

 

Jeremy approached me early on. Admins tend to be people who have been active in the game for a long enough period of time to have a feel for its history and what makes a good or bad cache.

 

quote:

---

Seattle was officialy kicked out of the PNW a couple years ago because they screwed up with their roads. They built a bunch of roads and connected them before they built the infrastructure and then said let the commuter figure it out.

---

 

No argument there!

 

quote:

---

Plus the residents dont know how to drive as they rapidly change lanes without notice, and dont use their turn signals.

---

 

Yes, I know how confusing that must be to Oregon drivers who prefer to camp in the fast lane at a comfortable 25 miles per hour.

 

Moun10Bike's Geocaching Pages

[Moun10Bike]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Syn Aka Waynepdx:

 

What is exactly the criteria to become an admin.

 

Are you approached by Jeremy, Recomended by other Admins, or do you approach Jeremy yourself.

---

 

Jeremy approached me early on. Admins tend to be people who have been active in the game for a long enough period of time to have a feel for its history and what makes a good or bad cache.

 

quote:

---

Seattle was officialy kicked out of the PNW a couple years ago because they screwed up with their roads. They built a bunch of roads and connected them before they built the infrastructure and then said let the commuter figure it out.

---

 

No argument there!

 

quote:

---

Plus the residents dont know how to drive as they rapidly change lanes without notice, and dont use their turn signals.

---

 

Yes, I know how confusing that must be to Oregon drivers who prefer to camp in the fast lane at a comfortable 25 miles per hour.

 

Moun10Bike's Geocaching Pages

[+MattandLaura]

The cache that I got denied was well thought about and was part of a series I have been doing for quite some time. The problem with it was the fact the person did not know the area and thought it would be counting a cache twice. I'm not going to keep beating a dead horse, however as this probably will be my last cache I put out for a while until things get better. Thank you for clearing up who the admins are. For some reason nobody seems to know who is who in geocaching. How would one know who approves what? You guys must work in shifts. Maybe somebody should post who is who and let people putting out the caches know who is going to be approving them.