Publicity - good or bad?

[Iwuzere]

Is it considered a good thing for the hobby to be featured on TV? What are the pros and cons? Does it attract new blood or would we rather they stumbled upon us? Does it attract malicious cache disturbances?

 

All views eagerly awaited...

[+Tsegi Mike and Desert Viking]

We found out about geocaching after reading a newspaper article. Unfortunately, our local (yellow journalism) newspaper is heavily biased against geocaching. Our team personally prefers that there be no media coverage of geocaching. Others may feel differently.

 

That moss-covered bucket I hailed as a treasure,

For often at noon, when I returned from the field,

I found it the source of an exquisite pleasure.

 

Samuel Woodworth The Old Oaken Bucket

[+briansnat]

ddp

[+briansnat]

It's both good and bad. For the good, it brings new geocachers into the sport (a newspaper article is how I found out about it). This means more caches for us to find, and more finders for our caches.

 

For the bad, it could also bring cache thieves and unwanted attention from the authorities.

 

Generally, it brings a lot more good than bad. The "professional" cache thieves are few and far between. Media exposure probably brings in thousands of new geocachers, for every one spoilsport. It also somewhat legitimizes the sport, making it easier to sell to land managers.

 

In our area at least, media coverage have been positive, or balanced. Nothing like what's been going on in AZ.

 

"Au pays des aveugles, les borgnes sont rois"

[SE7EN]

More publicity will likely bring it into the mainstream.

 

Advantages: It could be made more accepted, authorities more likely to understand what's going on, new ideas, fresh blood, and more caches.

 

Disadvantages: Fresh blood that has to be taught how to do things all the while risking cache security, more lame-assed caches blocking people who put out good caches, crappy ideas and whinning why their's is not acceptable.

 

One of my biggest worries is malious teens with a GPS. The more mainstream it is, the more likely there will be someone who thinks it cool to steal caches. We already see some of it today. It wouldn't take a band of rouge cachers long to do serious damage to our sport in the way of trampling cache locations, stealing the cache, or ruining the cache by means already seen here in the forums.

 

Hiding caches is like leaving your car unlocked, windows down, and the keys in the ignition. Eventually, as more people see it, the more likely it won't be there in the morning to take you to work.

 

It's my opinion that geocaching is an inherently flawed concept to take into the mainstream--the reason is security. You simply cannot prevent, or even deter, vandalism.

[+sbukosky]

This is interesting. The genie is out of the lamp so a lot of publicity showing happy families with smiling children at a cache site is what we need. The more doing it, the more the acceptance. You know; baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and geocaching.

 

Steve Bukosky N9BGH

Waukesha Wisconsin

[+Team GeoCan]

Yep The Hot Dogs will be $5, the happy family will have paid $125 to get in, and the parking will have valet services.

 

Unfortunately, like our National parks there will be someone who will find a way to use Geocaching to make a profit for themselves, without regard to what it does to the activity.

 

All it takes is a mention on Howard Stern, and soon all the caches will be appearing in the nude for his show.

 

Jerry Springer will be hawking the "Her husband stole my cache" segments, and cacher trash will be lining up to get their five minutes in "Too hot for the Geocache" videos.

 

Meanwhile corporate sponsorships will abound, there will be the Goodyear Tire and Rubber geocache, The Pirelli Geocache, and the Crackerjacks Geocache.

 

Martha Stewart and Tim Allen will be name branding Caching supplies and containers, and the electronics department at K-Mart will have a Blue light cache. Victoria's Secret Cache will be the main draw at the Mall.

 

The grocery outlet stores will fight over trademarking the term "Cache and carry", while the Video/CD marketeers will be quick to call the Cd-wallets "CD-Caches".

 

The hottest hand held games will be the Geocache interactive series, where Laura Croft, Mario and Luigi compete for the most finds and the most travel Bugs. Meanwhile Donkey Kong throws empty caches at them.

 

The internet will abound with cache Cheat sheets, and the population will jump right in with Urban Caching, sponsored by Big Brothers, the Salvation Army, and the Celebrity Hollywood cachers.

 

Homeless entreprenuers will be at street corners and on-ramps with signs that say "Will geocache for food", or signs that say, "Geocacher, I need AAs".

 

Think about it, soon Geocaching can be the new past-time, bypassing the MLB, NBA, NFL, and even WWF. Pro-wrestling will have to work hard to keep their audience share. Especially when the new reality shows debut: "Who wants to be a Geocacher?" and "Surviving Cache Island".

 

Soon when the commercial producers get involved you can say, "Hey I picked up a Travel Bug, and moved it" and the reply will be, "did you get filmed for Candid Cacher?"

 

Now back to my TV, "Real Caching" is coming on... Right after the special COPS episode on Geocaching at high speed...Guest is John Walsh, he is looking for "America's most wanted cache".

 

Bag Boyz, Bag Boyz, watcha gonna do when they cache from you...

 

Jeff Scism, IBSSG http://blacksheep.rootsweb.com/

 

Is it more important to know what you are talking about,

or more important to talk about what you know?

 

the seeking is in the knowing

and not where you've been

Travelling is the going

isn't learning Kee

 

[This message was edited by Flockmaster on June 09, 2003 at 09:28 PM.]

 

[This message was edited by Flockmaster on June 09, 2003 at 09:30 PM.]

[+sept1c_tank]

Good publicity is good...bad is bad.

[+timpaula]

flockmaster... LOL! Love the creativity.

 

As for publicity, now that I'm in the club, I'd just like to keep it between US and leave THEM out of it. Seriously though, this is not a hobby that's built to scale. If it continues to grow like it is, server down-time will be the least of our worries. The occasional cacher through the park is one thing, caching by the hundreds is another.

 

I just went to my first picnic. The two temp caches had dozens of people looking for them, so much so that everything was trampled in a very obvious way. (Gee, I wonder where it could be!) There were several times when the line to sign the logbook was ten deep. While this was a party, and so it was part of the fun, imagine if the whole-freaking-world became a trampled line to a cache. At some point, by placing a cache, we could be effectively circling a place on a map and writing "ruin this beautiful place".

 

Before saying I'm over-reacting, think about how much this game has grown in just the last month. Never mind the previous three years. Just last month. It's only just begun.

 

<timpaula>

[+Team GeoCan]

A GPSr, a Jeep and a wilderness cache are a dangerous combination, don't cache and drive, Buckle up for safety, and ONLY YOU can prevent forest fires.

 

Pack out MORE than you packed in, take your tracks with you.

 

Jeff Scism, IBSSG http://blacksheep.rootsweb.com/

 

Is it more important to know what you are talking about,

or more important to talk about what you know?

 

the seeking is in the knowing

and not where you've been

Travelling is the going

isn't learning Keen?