Membership Titles

[+The Coffee's]

Over the years of Caching I have noticed the orginal starters of Geocaching had a profile title of "Charter Member" which I think was awesome, however there has been nothing since.

I put out a virtual cache some time ago and mentioned this in my description as my Virtual is about the memory of cachers past including my other half Shelby. https://coord.info/GC9P4T0

What I want to ask or get discussed is if Groundspeak could look at recognising Geocachers from the early days when it was a milestone to get 5 caches on a weekend using paper maps and printed details.

I think as a thank you for your contribution a title attached to your profile would be great and maybe like those who joined in 2000 that are listed as “Charter” members, maybe one day in the future those who joined around 2001-2005 could be honoured as “Foundation” members and those who joined between 2006-2008 could be listed as “Heritage” members and so on.

 

I would be interested in discussing this and finding out if it is possible to be done by Groundspeak.

 

Thanks for reading at least

 

Ian (MrCoffee)

The Coffee's

 

 

 

[+JL_HSTRE]

Charter Members are specifically got a Premium Membership the first year it was available and have never let that membership lapse. So there are people who are charter geocachers but not charter members.

 

If I were to break early geocaching into categories for recognition I would use two milestones:

 

2005, when Locationless moved to Waymarking and further Virtuals and Webcams were prohibited. 

 

2009, when the first geocaching smartphone app was released.

 

If I were to recognize first year cachers I would make the cutoff the one year anniversary of the first geocache rather than calendar year 2000. However, I think the number of active accounts from the first year (especially still actively caching, not simply logging in occasionally to maintain an old cache listing) is such a small number that first year recognition isn't really worth it. Especially as the hobby was so obscure that even learning of its existence was essentially luck.

[+lee737]

I don't know.... as much as I wish I could have gone back and found geocaching way back (I almost did in 2005), and love old caches and stories of the old days.... I think HQ should be concentrating efforts on getting young/new blood into this sport.

[+cerberus1]

Similar to Lee737, I imagine Groundspeak is pretty busy at just keeping the hobby flowing smoothly.   

Most folks in the area know who the "old timers" are...  and five bucks get you a cuppa coffee today.

Younger, phone cachers think of us as Luddites.     While the other 2/3rds used a phone in 2005 (Blackberry) with the Trimble app.

We know a few "recognized" cachers that are terrible human beings, but have great caches and/or events.  

  -  Caches get Favorite Points, them...not so much...   

There's a reason there are "Charter" members; they took a gamble on Groundspeak and were "honored/thanked" for it. 

 I'd like to leave it at that, thanks...

 

Edited January 19 by cerberus1
erasification...

[+The Coffee's]

Some interesting replies, I remember the early days of testing new geocaching apps, the introduction of maps to GPS units and all the cache types that everyone enjoys today. I will say I think the old timers as they have been described deserve the recognition of being the ones that got the game/hobby and addiction off the ground, and geocachers who enjoy it today should understand if the "old timers" had walked away then it would not be around today, I think the extra label, colour or form of recognition is more important now than its ever been.

[+JL_HSTRE]

7 hours ago, The Coffee's said:

if the "old timers" had walked away then it would not be around today

 

I'm not so sure about that. Given the plethora of geocaching sites during the first decade I think the hobby would have endured as extremely niche even if Groundspeak went out of business.

 

Garmin's failed foray into geocaching suggests Groundspeak was simply too entrenched and they couldn't compete.

 

The many other GPS games that came out after smartphones became popular also suggests that someone would have invented or reinvented geocaching later even if Dave Ulmer hadn't or his idea hadn't caught on in 2000.

 

However, the geocachers of the first decade were mostly a different breed. Geocaching invented in 2010-2012 probably looks very different than the geocaching we have today.

 

The hobby was extremely fortunate to go through its growing pains while still a fairly small hobby, and to grow along with the internet. Building the website, community, Guidelines, and Reviewer system over a decade of slow growth was much better than if had to be done from the ground up through amidst a year of explosive growth. 

[+WRASTRO]

We opened our account very soon after @The Coffee's as our ID is only 180 higher. 183825 vs 183645. In late 2003 there weren't that many new cachers on a daily basis. The idea seems like a fun addition.

 

For those who are now wondering how to find out an ID number, hover on their caching name then hover on their caching name again in the pop-up window. Look at the URL at the bottom (at least on my computer) of the screen. For example, Keystone shows as joining May 16,2003 and his ID is 124791. Less than 60,000 new accounts in 7 months! But The Leprechauns joined June 2, 2002 and their ID is 57636. Less than 130,000 in about 19 months. 

 

There really weren't very many of us in the early days.

[+Harry Dolphin]

Hmm...  I got a GPSr from Marlboro.  I read about Geocaching in the Newark Star Ledger.  Hmm...  Looks interesting!  Joined July 3, 2004, and went looking for a BrianSnat cache in Wawayanda, where I was maintaining a trail.  Almost twenty years later, I'm still geocaching with my GPSr.  My ID number is just under a quarter million.