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Citing page listings, logs and photos


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Hi all,

 

I'm about to embark on a project documenting the history of geocaching in NSW, Australia.

I know that I'll need to correctly reference everything I source from gc.com but my question is how.

If I am referencing a cache listing page, how does that work? The author is the CO, but because we don't use real names, will this make a bibliography any less valid?

If I want to reference a specific log entry or photo, how do I reference the owner of that work (the finder) from within the listing page?

 

How have authors managed this process in the past?

 

All suggestions welcome.

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Check into the Chicago Manual of Style.  There are other style guides, too, such as New York Times.  
 

Since you are in Australia, there may also be a style guide for that region.  Universities often have style guides (for thesis writing) that draw heavily from Chicago and others.  University style guides may be more accessible without a paywall.  

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Similar to Geo Trekker26, US not Australia, but this is an International forum, and I'd prefer I'm not mentioned in your work.

In fact, I have it listed as such in my Profile not to share my cache name, information, or stats with third-party apps...

 

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On 7/1/2024 at 7:42 AM, GeoTrekker26 said:

I suggest you have a discussion with HQ about your plans. There may be copyright, privacy and trademark issues which could be complicated by the international presence of Geocaching. HQ can give you better advice than forum members. 

Thanks for that. I was hoping someone else had real life experience, which is why I asked here. But as it's only a citation, which is only a reference to the work, there shouldn't be any copyright issues. But I will reach out to HQ for further clarification.

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20 hours ago, Joe_L said:

Check into the Chicago Manual of Style.  There are other style guides, too, such as New York Times.  
 

Since you are in Australia, there may also be a style guide for that region.  Universities often have style guides (for thesis writing) that draw heavily from Chicago and others.  University style guides may be more accessible without a paywall.  

We use Harvard (Australia) as our citation format, but none of the style guides I've accessed give a suggestion on how to manage this particular issue.

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17 hours ago, cerberus1 said:

Similar to Geo Trekker26, US not Australia, but this is an International forum, and I'd prefer I'm not mentioned in your work.

In fact, I have it listed as such in my Profile not to share my cache name, information, or stats with third-party apps...

 

Excellent, thanks for that cerberus1. This adds in another level of checking to do to be sure that anyone that is quoted is comfortable with this outside of the geocaching setting. Perfect example of how you have chosen to protect yourself.

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Posted (edited)

Chicago provides guidance for citing both webpages (https://libguides.ucd.ie/chicagostyle/chicagowebsiteorwebsitepages#:~:text=Reference%3A Author Last name%2C First,if no other date available.) and social media posts (https://libguides.ucd.ie/chicagostyle/chicagosocialmedia), which I believe are akin to logs. You would only cite a log if it appears many times in your writing or is crucial to your narrative. When you do cite a log or webpage, you would use the author's real first and last name if available, but using just their caching pseudonym is acceptable in the absence of a name. For logs, you would use the first 160 characters as the title , followed by the log date. 

 

I have absolutely no clue what may or may not be legal in Australia and I am not a lawyer, but in the US, quoting portions of logs is likely to fall under fair use if you are doing so in the context of a documentary. This is assuming you are transforming the original work by providing additional commentary, and that your intent is to educate users about the history of caching rather than to exploit others' work for commercial gain. 

 

Groundspeak's TOS may also play into the discussion. For example, they state: "Most images and text on cache pages are user-generated content. Contact a cache owner to request permission to reuse content". 

Edited by TheLimeCat
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