Benefits Of Being A Premium Member

[+New England n00b]

In a different (current) topic, someone asked what are the benefits to being a premium member at geocaching.com. I thought I'd break this discussion out so that the community could answer questions and provide specific questions.

 

The first place to look for information on being a premium member is your profile page. When you login from the main geocaching page (not the forums), look at your profile. There should be a link on the left side of the screen saying "Membership Details" or something like that. That will get you started.

 

I'd like to discuss one of those features - the Pocket Queries. Pocket Queries allow you to select a range of selections, such as cache type, size, area to search, etc. You can then have the Pocket Query (PQ) email the results, up to 500 caches, to your inbox! Further, you can have the PQ send you more detailed .GPX files, which include cache descriptions and more, rather than the much sparser .LOC files.

 

Please feel free to tack on more questions regarding premium membership, or if you are a premium member, extol a virtue thereof for the benefit of our non-premie community members!

 

Thanks for reading!

[WH]

HEY....Dont forget the Off Topic Forum .

[+Doc-Dean]

Consider the virtues of a premium membership extolled!

 

I use PQs all the time. I do alot of travelling between work and visiting family and I love to geocache outside my regular area.

 

I'll usually load up the closest 200 caches for where I'm staying. I know I'll never get to that many (frequently if I get to do 10 - I consider that a successful trip) but I have them right at my fingertips right when I need them most.

 

I load the PQs into my handheld (Treo) using GPXSpinner and Plucker. On my laptop, I load the PQ into GSAK.

 

You are not geocaching if you haven't harnessed the power of GSAK!!!

[+Spencersb]

My favorite use of PQs is to find "first to finds." I run a query looking for all caches within "XX" miles of me that "Have Not Been Found." Then I submit it like I've made changes to it, and click on "run this search" on the confirmation page. Presto! Anything close that has not yet had a "Found It" log posted! It's not perfect, but it's close. Frankly, some of the FTFs around here don't last more than a couple of hours, though.

 

The main benefit I see to Premium membership is that if enough of us are doing it, we won't have to worry about logging on one day to see "Sorry! The site isn't supporting itself, so we're shutting it down!"

 

Best $3 a month I spend!

Edited January 11, 2005 by Spencersb

[+The Puzzler]

The main benefit I see to Premium membership is that if enough of us are doing it, we won't have to worry about logging on one day to see "Sorry!  The site isn't supporting itself, so we're shutting it down!"

Ditto!

[+Uno Mas]

I use PQs all the time. I do alot of travelling between work and visiting family and I love to geocache outside my regular area.

 

I'll usually load up the closest 200 caches for where I'm staying. I know I'll never get to that many (frequently if I get to do 10 - I consider that a successful trip) but I have them right at my fingertips right when I need them most.

 

Ditto! I'm actually away from home right now and my IQue is loaded and ready to go for each of our stops along the way. Even made a point to bring the laptop in case we have an unscheduled stop and time is available. I don't have to worry about whether I have the cache sheet printed, the information is right there on my PDA.

 

I also like the extra features on the maps. I zoomed out and followed I-95 North to pick up rest stop caches from Florida to Connecticut. Tedius, but it worked, found 6 caches the first day heading North (it also helps to have a patient husband!).