+warthog Posted March 16, 2005 Share Posted March 16, 2005 I'm am not saying that caches (placement, contents, etc.) are of bad quality, but had the following thought on motivating even better quality caches here in South Africa. The improving of quality may be in any form, i.e. where caches are placed, the content of the cache, the how to find the cache (clues, etc.) My suggestion: Per province, where there are many caches, i.e. WC, KZN and GP or grouping some of the provinces together (where there aren't many caches hidden every month), we get the specific province/area to vote on their best cache for the month. If certain areas do not really have enough caches, they can also maybe be included into other areas, i.e. a northern area (Gauteng, North West, Mpumalanga, etc.) and at a later stage when they are more active, break away again. We then get one "Best cache of the month", per month starting January 2005 until December 2005. These are voted for by the active or not so active cachers from the specific province/area themselves and here every province/area may decide on their own way of doing it. Maybe outside voters are allowed to cast a vote, only if they have visited the actual cache. This may then culminate in a "New Year" event cache per province/area, where the province get to upfront i.e. during first two weeks of January to vote for a 1st, 2nd and 3rd cache out of the twelve monthly "Best caches" and these are then presented with some sort of prize at the event cache, around end of January of the following year. Once the winner from every area was determined, we can maybe go as far as determining the best cache in South Africa from these winners from each province/area, but we can look at this when we get closer to the time. An area may also decide on how long into the next month they are allowed to vote for the "Best cache of the month", to not allow it to become a long drawn out issue. In this way we get two things to happen. 1. We improve / incentivice beteer caches and 2. we have a definate reason for having an Event cache every year. (The event cache may also be a good place to here what other cachers have in store for the coming year or to get new cachers to come and listen/ask questions) What do the cachers think of the idea? Quote Link to comment
+geocacher_coza Posted March 16, 2005 Share Posted March 16, 2005 Warthog Good idea. Maybe have the caches in quarterly draws and not monthly! Like this not to much organization! I need your email address to include on the auto responce email! Quote Link to comment
Azaruk Posted March 16, 2005 Share Posted March 16, 2005 OK in principle, but a great cache to one person could be an absolute bummer to another! Quantifying the quality of a cache will be a difficult thing to do. But I agree that improving the quality of caches is a noble task. Quote Link to comment
+geocacher_coza Posted March 16, 2005 Share Posted March 16, 2005 OK in principle, but a great cache to one person could be an absolute bummer to another! Get one sponsor, we tell him/her what a good cache should look and be like and he/she decided, decision of the sponsor is final! Problem solved. P.S. I think I could get involved in some sort of sponsorship for a year price..... maybe ummmmmmm let me think about it Quote Link to comment
+GlobalRat Posted March 17, 2005 Share Posted March 17, 2005 Mmmm…. Interesting idea. There is a voting system that one can add to your caches which tracks the opinion of cachers, See Reporters Riddle Final for an example. On the one hand I like the incentive, on the other hand it may just make the whole thing too technical and competitive if you know what I mean. I have no objection to a bit of healthy competition. Any way, I’m not entirely convinced yet. Quarterly I don’t think is feasible. The number of visits per cache is too low to get a fair representation. Also, someone may create an exceptional cache which is fiendishly difficult and therefore gets few visitors, and may therefore not get recognised. I also don’t think that prizes and sponsorships are necessary. The recognition should be ample enough. I’ve had a number of people email me congratulating me on an excellent cache, this is reward!! I guess the bonus would be if this were publicly recognised as it may in turn drive more people to visit that particular cache/caches. OK OK OK…… I like the concept but turf the prizes in my opinion. I’ll be happy to host a complete list of South African caches with a rating as rated by cachers…. If Azaruk and Geocacher have no objection. Of greater concern is how we get the community in SA to be more active… look at the posts on these forums…. There’s only about 10 of us contributing!! Quote Link to comment
+warthog Posted March 17, 2005 Author Share Posted March 17, 2005 Quarterly I don’t think is feasible. The number of visits per cache is too low to get a fair representation. What would your recommendation be on the actual voting process and period? If we want to create finalists for a year-end voting poll, I think we would need at least 6 caches per area/province for the year to make such an event feasible. Quote Link to comment
Azaruk Posted March 17, 2005 Share Posted March 17, 2005 ....... I’ve had a number of people email me congratulating me on an excellent cache, this is reward!! I guess the bonus would be if this were publicly recognised as it may in turn drive more people to visit that particular cache/caches. OK OK OK…… I like the concept but turf the prizes in my opinion. I’ll be happy to host a complete list of South African caches with a rating as rated by cachers…. If Azaruk and Geocacher have no objection. Of greater concern is how we get the community in SA to be more active… look at the posts on these forums…. There’s only about 10 of us contributing!! I agree with the statement about log or email comments. I have has some very gratifying comments regarding both the cache and the cache location. Makes me feel good! I certainly have no objections to you posting a rating system. A generous offer and a web-page that should generate a great deal of interest - not to mention comments!!!!! The last statement is the kicker. The Sunday Tribune article was well written, got the excitement of caching across well and was very complimentary to the sport. Out of an estimated readership of over 600 000, I had 4 responses!!!! So ..... HOW do we attract more players? Get on the local radio station? Try and get onto Carte Blanche? Put leaflets under the windsreeen wipers of 4WD vehicles (they at least should be outdoors people!) Buy a mailing list? Stand on top of a tall building and shout a lot? Open to suggestions ........ Quote Link to comment
Azaruk Posted March 17, 2005 Share Posted March 17, 2005 I sometimes surprise myself with my own brilliance! Am phoning East Coast Radio to try and get onto either the morning or late afternoon show. Will advise of result ........ Quote Link to comment
+geocacher_coza Posted March 17, 2005 Share Posted March 17, 2005 OK OK OK…… I like the concept but turf the prizes in my opinion. I’ll be happy to host a complete list of South African caches with a rating as rated by cachers…. If Azaruk and Geocacher have no objection Globalrat No objection---like I said before, you do the statistic side and I do the "other" side. We complement each other websites like that! On the Best cache of the year thing! Maybe it will be a good idea that everyone that have done caches for this year submits one (the one he or she thinks is the best one!) of his caches towards the competition. The sponsor/moderator decides and that’s it! So ..... HOW do we attract more players? I'm going to the "campjeep" weekend in May. I have contacted the organizers and ask if I can be included in their program and have a talk on geocaching. Still waiting for an answer! If no answer I'll be asking for donations to get pamphlets printed (Brian, maybe you can help) and I will just hand it out there and try and "hijack" some time to tell people about the sport. It seems like the 4x4 people are "reluctant to get involved in the sport. I have posted about the sport on the various web forums of the 4x4 community but sadly get no or very little replies and input. I have even tried to name a travelbug after one of the forums (www.4xforum.co.za) but nobody have ever moved it or answered on the thread. The travelbug is stuck in thede wildt cache! I'm even planning to move it myself as I will be going to rust de winter with the 4xforum guys this time I'm off! We should also have CITO day somewhere. The official CITO day is coming up soon. Maybe a good idea to get SASOL or one of the big companies involved. I will try in Vereeniging when I get home to get someone involved Quote Link to comment
+GlobalRat Posted March 17, 2005 Share Posted March 17, 2005 I’ll get “cracking” on it…. Well in my spare minutes. Will need to do some thinking on the voting process. People enjoy caches for different reasons, and I’ll attempt to build in a comment structure so that people don’t just give a score, something like on Amazon. Sjeeeeeeesh what is he promising!!! Fortunately there’s only 4 people reading this thread. Let me find my Database hat. IMHO, Still don’t buy into the competition thingy, I think it is unecessary. Having a list of caches that is rated should be drive enough for a cache owner to create a cache that people will enjoy. The natural progression of the rating system is that cachers will be more interested in caches that are rated highly by fellow cachers than those that have been rated poorly. The nature of the human being is the sheep syndrome, and they are swayed by opinion of fellows. As for you distributor types… Put a Geocaching pamphlet in each one of those GPS boxes that you sell!!! Quote Link to comment
Azaruk Posted March 17, 2005 Share Posted March 17, 2005 As for you distributor types… Put a Geocaching pamphlet in each one of those GPS boxes that you sell!!! It's always the simple ideas that work! Why didn't I think of that! Quote Link to comment
+geocacher_coza Posted March 17, 2005 Share Posted March 17, 2005 IMHO, Still don’t buy into the competition thingy, I think it is unecessary. Don't you feel like having a extra GPS or something??? Quote Link to comment
+GlobalRat Posted March 17, 2005 Share Posted March 17, 2005 IMHO, Still don’t buy into the competition thingy, I think it is unecessary. Don't you feel like having a extra GPS or something??? Are we allowed to vote for our own caches 'course I would Seriously though I think that Geocaching is a community sport and much of it is driven by pride in taking part in the sport and getting a pat on the back from fellow cachers. If we had to go the competition route, then I reckon one needs to go huge to truly get the benefit of getting people involved in the sport…. Then I would want to see the competition promoted in magazines and at schools etc. As we can see, there is a very small community debating on these forums. The impact of holding a competition is small. There was a company that sells GPS’s and 4x4 goodies that ran a GPS 4x4 orienteering competition last year. They had a leg in each province and then a final. There were some really nice prizes up for grabs. Unfortunately I came across it by accident far to late, otherwise I would have taken part and would have had a good chance of walking away with some nice goodies…. They had so few entrants, some provinces only one person pitched !?!?!? Speaking about schools. Again Distributors…. Why not try and promote the sport at schools, a Geocaching Club, sponsor a GPS unit there or something. There was the Scout group in Pretoria that set up two caches as part of their orienteering programming, and then seemed to have disappeared. Anyway, getting kids involved might be easier… it’s the lure of the treasure hunt…. And this in turn may get their parents interested…. Maybe not… just a thought!! How about dropping off some posters/pamphlets at schools, libraries etc. Talking about orienteering. I’m not sure how big the sport is in SA, there are some orienteering peeps amongst us cachers so perhaps they would care to comment, but my impression is that it is once again gaining popularity as it’s concept has ties to the whole adventure racing craze, and is used as training. I’m sure I read an article somewhere on how the sport is improving as there are more overseas competitors coming to SA to take part in these events. Perhaps organise an orienteering type competition using GPS’s, get schools to compete against each other etc. While I think that a large portion of GPS owners in SA are the 4x4 community, as alluded to by Geocacher.co.za (you gonna have to get a friendlier name) there’s little interest from them. Perhaps their GPS’s are like their 4x4’s, used to navigate the speedbumps around Sandton City (Ouch… who hit me ) Hopefully the recent flood of articles will start tickling some interest out there. I’ve just placed a query to see how much it will cost to place a colour ad in Huge Newspaper. Quote Link to comment
+geocacher_coza Posted March 17, 2005 Share Posted March 17, 2005 OK OK No you dont vote for your own, you only sunmit what you think is your best cache and the sponsor decided from there! I’ve just placed a query to see how much it will cost to place a colour ad in Huge Newspaper.Very expensive! Quote Link to comment
+warthog Posted March 17, 2005 Author Share Posted March 17, 2005 Ver y good idea, but maybe a few problems/issues? Schools are good places to start, when included in the standard map reading type courses. This is where the two "THABA Voortrekker" caches originate from. However, not all these kids would have parents that would think like we do about the sport. Alos, arriving at a cache with 10 / 20 kids, who gets to take the prize/gift home? Quote Link to comment
Azaruk Posted March 17, 2005 Share Posted March 17, 2005 Giving a talk to a school group is a great idea. We have a high school just down the road from us, I'll try and get something organised. In the mean time .... I have been giving a lot of thought to the whole competition thing .... I know there's only a few of us here, but ... define a good or great cache. I look forward to seeing the answers, and am sure there will be vastly different views ........ Quote Link to comment
+GlobalRat Posted March 17, 2005 Share Posted March 17, 2005 I look forward to seeing the answers, and am sure there will be vastly different views ........ Exactly It's all down to personal opinion. I view each cache differently. Bottom line for me is whether I enjoyed it or not, regardless of where it is located and has it been well thought out and put together by the owner. I personally think one can sense when a cache owner has placed an amount of effort into a cache and really...and I mean really... thought it through, and when someone has just slapped something down. I've done some caches where owners really think they have thought things through and being right clever......eeeeerrrrr...sorry...failed. Quote Link to comment
Azaruk Posted March 18, 2005 Share Posted March 18, 2005 Bottom line for me is whether I enjoyed it or not, regardless of where it is located and has it been well thought out and put together by the owner. Me too. If I enjoyed the site, enjoyed a well-hidden cache in pleasant suroundings, cool! Getting there is all the fun I need. And if the cache is well hidden, that's a bonus. Quote Link to comment
+geocacher_coza Posted March 18, 2005 Share Posted March 18, 2005 Warthog Get one sponsor, we tell him/her what a good cache should look and be like and he/she decided, decision of the sponsor is final! Problem solved. P.S. I think I could get involved in some sort of sponsorship for a year price..... Maybe ummmmmmm let me think about it I have thought about it. I will sponsor a price for best cache of the year. The price will be at the least a GPS. That is if you would still like to do something like this. I think we make the rules simple. The cachers that have placed caches in this year can enter. I think we should also make it that the cacher must have registered on Globalrat’s site for the 2005 Challange. The cacher can decide what cache he/she would like to enter into the competition. The cacher will also have to register on MY website (see that I’m the sponsor) stating that he intends to enter this competition. The end date of the competition is 31 December for the placing of caches. The entrants have until end of January to submit their “best” cache. The winner will then be announced soon afterwards. The sponsor (that is me decides the winner. The deciding factor will be along the guidelines suggested by the forum members. We can start a thread to find out what the cachers think is the criteria for a good cache. These recommendations will then be used by the sponsor to decide the winner! Well this is my suggestion. As I will be sponsoring the price I would naturally want the competition to feature prominently on my website! You have started the tread so you should decide if you would like to have such a competition. Quote Link to comment
+warthog Posted March 18, 2005 Author Share Posted March 18, 2005 Man, that prize now looks tempting. Now it is off to the long weekend to do caching and, oh yes think about how I can structure this competition so that I win a GPS Quote Link to comment
+GlobalRat Posted March 18, 2005 Share Posted March 18, 2005 Mmmmmm I think this will work Best I get cracking on that voting database!! Quote Link to comment
+geocacher_coza Posted March 19, 2005 Share Posted March 19, 2005 Yes, Yes, Yes !!!!!!!!! At last we have something we can celebrate about!!!!! We all seem to agree on this one....... or was the GPS the final persuasion tool. Remember I'm a poor bloke so it will not be a top of the range model! Maybe one that still works on steam Now lets start getting in the suggestijon on a GOOD cache Quote Link to comment
Stefanoodle Posted March 23, 2005 Share Posted March 23, 2005 Remember I'm a poor bloke so it will not be a top of the range model! Maybe one that still works on steam Hey, now that might be an improvement on my Magellan Trailblazer XT (traditional weapon type), which I'm sure works on paraffin as follows: The pilot light from the paraffin heats up the area under a small treadmill. This motivates the hamster in the treadmill to start running, which then generates enough energy to power up the unit (remember to raise the antenna if you want satellite reception). I have not figured out what the three batteries do, but they don't last much longer than about four hours continuous anyway, and generally die just when I'm about 300 metres from a cache. Quote Link to comment
+Discombob Posted March 25, 2005 Share Posted March 25, 2005 HAHA! I've seen Stefanoodles GPS, and it is funny! I think you should just go ahead and give him the new GPS. He deserves it with putting up with his tank for so long. Quote Link to comment
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