Earthcache Guidelines Updated

The Geoaware team has been working for a month or more on updates to the new guidelines.  There are not actually many changes on the surface.  If you are making your first Earthcache, and you are diving into things you will not have much to worry about.

This goes over some of the changes, and just to describe them.

Purpose

Ultimately the purpose was to clarify things.  Dealing with complaints from cachers, community, land managers, and the review team.  We have a lot of people repeating the same process, and the same errors.  Sometimes cache after cache.  I will toss a few of the small changes, and go through them here.  In the past things may have been interpreted more liberally, so you may hit some roadblocks.

1. Earthcaches must provide an earth science lesson.

This is the shortest guideline (now).  Yet it is the one that I see the most problems with.  What is your cache about?  Does it teach?  These are the core parts of an Earthcache.

Earthcaches focus on the solid earth and the processes that shape it.

That means that many of the things that are submitted do not fit.  Biology, Botany, Zoology, Ecology, Atmospheric observations, Oceanographic observations, Geodesy, Archeology, History, and Engineering, are normally not accepted.  They fall outside the solid earth.  Many get upset at the reviewers, or point at other caches, but currently we do not.

2. Earthcaches must be educational

I see many submissions that do not teach a lesson.  Taking someone to a pretty view, or showing them a cool site is not enough.  Education is the second most important part of an Earthcache.

I see two common errors. Many caches I received take people to a hillside and ask people to tell me the number of a sign.   There is not educational material on there.   The second would be one that someone writes a lot of information on the plants and animals in the marsh.  When the reviewer lets them know that they need to do more, they then add to the 2000 word document another 1000 words and diagrams.  We now have a massive document.

Hint.  Teach people, but stay on topic.  Oh, and don't write a book on it.

Also, if you are a geologist, or know a lot about the geology, look at it from the level of a 14 year old.  You may have to describe a few more things for that level.

3. Earthcaches must highlight a unique feature.

We see many listings that are something that is not unique.  If a cache is written about the erosion of an area, you may not be able to do one on the same cache 30 minutes away. You may be able to if you are teaching something different. 

That said, there can be a few Earthcaches at the same location.  A cache on the stones, and another on the erosion could be at the same location (depending on how they are written up).

The feature should also be unique.  A river stone is not necessarily unique.  In fact this is why waterfalls, glacial erratics, springs, etc are no longer accepted. They are not unique.

4. Earthcaches must have approval from the Land Manager prior to submission

Some parks, cites, forest, etc have developed policies about containerless caches. If they have that policy online please point to that in a log.  If you think that you do not need permission explain why.  Just because the location is public does not mean you do not need permission.

Note for a National Park, you will need written permission.  It is part of the agreement with the National Park Service in helping with the program.  The email should be sent directly to the reviewer. 

5. An Earthcache can be a single site or multiple sites.

You have to have visited to location.  Do not toss out a site that you have never been to.  You may have problems in the review if you have not.  You need to get the coordinates there, and make sure the area is open to the public.  

Your cache can be at one location, or ask people to visit  4-5 locations.  I do not think this means that you can pick one of a number of locations to actually answer the question.  But I would have to see on a case by case basis.

6. Logging an Earthcache requires visitors to undertake a site-specific task which provides a learning opportunity related to the topic.

You must use information from the cache page, and the location, to perform a task to help the person learn. Those tasks needs to be about the geology of the site.  A word off a sign, couning fence posts or stairs, pillars, etc does not have anything to do with geology and will not be accepted as an Earthcache logging task.

That task is the proof of a visit. Photos are still not allowed, and you have to be able to send your answers to the cache owner through the Geocaching profile.  That also means that auto-responders are not allowed.  Why?  You are not maintaining your cache.  You are creating something to take care of the work for you.  Also auto-responders do not allow you to have good logging tasks.  You want an answer like 7, or green.  Not a logging task that makes someone think, or educate.

Also when you submit your cache, place your answers in a reviewer note. 

7. The Earthcache text and logging tasks must be submitted in the local language.

I think the is obvious.

8. Respect Trademarks and Copyright and only use text, images or logos if you have permission.

We have seen more and more caches where someone is copying entire web pages, logo or diagrams without permission.  Many state agencies, or other organizations would like a reference to the book or website where you got the information.  Just because it is on the internet, does not mean you can copy it entirely. 

9. Earthcache sites adhere to the principles of geocaching and Leave No Trace outdoor ethics.

Don't dig a hole, tear up the ground, paint something, or leave a cache or other materials at the cache site.  Try and stay near trails/roads.  Stay away from fragile ecosystems.

10. Earthcaches are submitted through geocaching.com and must meet these guidelines and adhere to the Geocache Listing Requirements / Guidelines and geocaching.com Site Terms of Use Agreement.

Yep.  Simple.

Conclusion

We had a number of problems, small and repeated.  So some tweaks were made.  Sorry for those that wanted photos back. 

On that note.  I was one of the most vocal at first that the photos were needed. Taking them away was stupid. I think that was the term I used.  I now disagree.  This is not a virtual cache, it is an educational experience.  A photo means the person does not have to actually answer the questions, and the owner does not have to actually see that they learn.

Earthcaches is education about geology and this earth.  Not photography, not numbers.  Take some time, and enjoy the world around you.

The End of Challenges

From this post in the forums:

In our effort to inspire outdoor play through Geocaching, we are often faced with decisions about what to focus on next, and what to focus on less. It is through these decisions that we explore opportunities to grow the global game of geocaching.

Occasionally, during this process, we are faced with the reality that certain ideas don’t catch on as we had hoped. In these situations we owe it to ourselves and to you to make tough decisions about the future of every project and the resources to be applied to each. Sometimes, as a result, cool features must become casualties.

In this spirit, we have decided to retire Geocaching Challenges.

This means that, effective today, we have disabled the ability to create new Challenges. We have also removed the Challenges application from all mobile application stores. In approximately 7 days, we will be removing all traces of the Challenges functionality and related content from Geocaching.com.

On an office wall here at HQ is a sign that reads, “Let’s make better mistakes tomorrow.” By accepting that we will sometimes get it wrong, we can allow ourselves to learn from and imagine new opportunities in the world of Geocaching. Our hope is we can take the lessons from Challenges and create better tools to guide you on your next adventure.

Give Thanks to Others this Thanksgiving

This was a holiday weekend in the United States.  Thanksgiving, a time that we give thanks for all that we have been given.

So now that everyone has thanked those around you, take the time to give thanks to the impressive and awesome caches that you have found over the years. It is a simple way to let other cachers know how you appreciate them.  So often people are so caught up into numbers that they forget to thank others.  As a cache owner I took the time to go back and find the caches that really impressed me, and I wanted to flag as a favorite.

It is also useful to find caches.  When I was traveling this weekend, and I was running out of daylight (at 5:30 sheesh) , I started to pick caches that had 2-3 favorite points. I was doing searches on my phone, then looking for 3 or more favorite points.  I avoided the one favorite point caches.  I have seen best friends give a favorite point because of the cache owner, so I was skipping those as I traveled through the area.

My process of giving out favorite points.

I have given out about 200 of the 300 favorite points that I have.  I keep thinking about others, but at the same time I may be overly picky.

When I sat down I decided that the caches that I was most likely to give favorite points to were the Virtual and Earthcaches. So I just pulled them up when I was looking at them.  then went through them.  After that I gave a look at the multi caches (mostly because I did not have many of them).

Then I pulled up maps.  I looked for caches that I found in the hills and mountains.  Ones that impressed me.  Followed by the caches that others may have favorited.

Like I mentioned, I still have 200.  I never want to give all of them out.  If I come across a great string of 10 caches (rare but possible), I want to have that available to give out. 

Logging interesting logs.

I had not thought of this until I was typing this.  You can not easily go back to your caches and add large long cache logs.   There are a few options.

Log as a note.  On my phone, or gps I put small notes that will help me later.  I can log from my phone, but it is tricky and slow.  So I usually will save them until I get home.  Pull up my field notes and add an interesting log.

Some may have seen this, I posted it on Facebook, but I wanted to share one of my favorite logs, that I received on a letterbox earlier this week.

Oh great and powerful wizard of the gossamer coils spread across the world, and gatekeeper who doth guard the access to the mapping of treasures by us mere mortals, I embarked upon a noble adventure this morn to be the first to uncover your treasured prize in the fabled canyon of precious jewels and eating utensils, on this, the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, being not a date upon which I had successfully completed such a task in years past. A chill was in the air as I climbed aboard my azure chariot and began my adventure, uncertain as to my fate. Upon my arrival at the location of the starting point mentioned in the scrolls I was disheartened to see that two chariots were already on the scene. Had usurpers arrived prior, thus robbing me of the glory I sought? A pair of young lovers unrecognized by me had recently dismounted their chariot and had proceeded up the trail. Were they there seeking treasure? Or perhaps they were there seeking the fabled mineral pools in order to copulate in their mystical warm waters. I immediately proceeded along the path foretold in the magical electronic prophesy. When I saw that the lovers had chosen a different path than I, I breathed a sigh of relief as I realized that I would not have to engage them in combat for the prize that I sought and silently wished them success in their copulatory endeavour.

But what of the other chariot? Might there still be a usurper afoot? A brief examination of the path before me, and the lack of telltale footprints in the glistening frost led me to believe that I alone was on this adventure and that my only enemy would be myself and my good senses. I forged ahead, not knowing what awaited me. I descended into the crevasse, forged across the raging river, and emerged successfully out the other side without incident. I could see the signs that you, oh omnipotent wizard, quite nearly tumbled in the mud on your adventure.

As I ascended out of the crevasse, the landmarks laid before me, just as was foretold in the prophesy and I proceeded without trepidation. At last, I arrived at a green and living stone, and beyond that a large log stretching up and away from the trail. Was this the location of the treasure? Had my adventure finally come to an end! A brief inspection revealed to me that it ultimately did not match the description in the prophesy... my adventure was not yet complete. Curses!! I proceeded onward.

Further up the path, was a foreboding place that seemed to present a bit more of a challenge, which was alluded to in the scrolls. My journey may have finally come to an end. Upon making the transit around the fabled green and living stone, I spotted the log and sticks, and I knew then that I had finally reached my goal. I uncovered the treasure, my heart pounding in my chest. Only one issue remained: would the parchment inside be devoid of writing? My hands trembled as I removed the scroll from its protective sheath, and slowly unfurled it to reveal that it was unblemished by another's hand.

VICTORY WAS MINE!! I shouted a cry of praise to the Spirits of Valhalla and proceeded to make my mark, thus claiming the prize as my own in the fiftieth minute of the ninth hour. I carefully replaced the treasure to its hiding place to await the next adventurer and then proceeded back down the path to my awaiting chariot, to make my way home and to the arms of my impatiently waiting fair maiden, who not surprisingly cared not to hear the tales of my adventure.

But that does not make the victory any less sweet. Long shall I remember this adventure, and my point of favor is awarded to it to mark it as a grand adventure to all for all eternity.

TFTFTF, oh great and mighty wizard. You shall forever hold a place of honor in my eyes.

Thanks to Dr. Jay for the log. 

Remember to share.  Share your experiences.  It is why geocaching is more interesting that some of the other games.  We share our experiences.

Why have good relations with land managers.

Quite often when reviewing I run across a cache in a national park, wilderness area, or when doing Earthcaches it is expanded to state and local parks.  In those instances I always have to ask for permission from the park service.  In some I need to ask for the land owner to actually email me, and let me know that their is permission before the cache gets listed.

Quite often when I tell the cache owner that we need this permission I get some odd responses.

The land is public land so I don't need permission

It is ok, because it is a long ways off the beaten trail

The land manager is stupid, it is a good location publish it.

Who owns parks?

Contrary to what most people seem to believe.  You (as a citizen of the community or the USA) do not own your park.  The government owns the park.  Sometimes the person that manages the park is not too keen on people trampling through some areas without them knowing.

I few years ago I took a course in Leave No Trace for my Boy Scout position.  Something surprised me in that course, something that should not have now that I give thought to it. In the 60's and 70's a number of people camped and participated in the outdoors.  They traveled to national parks, forests, and state parks for their visits.  Due to the ability to safely travel 100-200-300 miles, RV's, ATV's, and other forms of recreation the number of visitors to these resources has increased 10-50x.  Yet everyone is trying to use the same area.

So many parks have began to control usage.  Why? To keep people from destroying the park.  I remember watching a guy with a metal detector in a park across the street from my home.  I had seen many, and they had all carefully dug and removed their finds, then placed the material back where they found it.  This guy brought a shovel, rather than a small tool, dug up clumps of earth, screened it for what he was looking for, then dropped in on the ground.  Leaving a pile of dirt, and a hole. I know the parks discussed a ban on  metal detecting after this one bad experience.

So the land manager is charged with keeping the area nice, and making sure people are safe, and someone places a foolish cache in a sensitive location, and ruins it for everyone.

Early issues

Early on many geocachers did not worry about permission from land managers. This evolved into a rather hostile relationship with some locations, and also with groups like the National Park Service.  Those organizations developed instructions for their people that it was not really appropriate to place caches inside parks.   I know some park managers were annoyed, and complained.

So for many years, a number of parks carry on that thought.  We do not want to deal with them.

Indiana

Lets go to the extreme.  Many years ago the Department of Natural Resources decided that there should be a permit system to make sure that the caches in their managed properties are in appropriate locations.  At some point what was included was expanded.  The IDNR decided that not just the properties that they own, but all properties that they give money to, or are in any way associated with them were under their authority.  That includes many city parks and trails, that receive funding from them.

So a land manager looks, and sees caches being placed without permission, in parks they have jurisdiction over, and gets upset.  Upset to the point of causing issues.   How big of an issue?  Well after months of working with them, and trying to come to an accommodation here is the result. In the next week all the caches that are on state managed land will be archived.  Some containerless caches (Earthcaches and Virtuals) that do not fit the rules they set will be archived as well. People can apply for a permit, and they will be unarchived. 

Some of the clips from their website

• The number of caches that may be placed on an Indiana state park, reservoir, state forest, or off-road riding area is determined by acreage. The maximum number of caches for any property 10,000 acres or more is 50.
• Caches may not be placed more than 25 feet from developed roads or trails.
• Caches may not be placed in nature preserves. 
• Containerless caches do not require licenses, but they must be placed ONLY on an established trail, road or access point. This ensures that sensitive areas are protected and the containerless caches are not unwittingly drawing foot traffic into those areas.
• Properties smaller than 200 acres do not qualify for geocaching (no caches or containerless caches.) This includes public access sites operated by the Division of Fish & Wildlife.
• Multi-caches are permitted if the property manager approves, but they may not have more than five stages.
• Licenses approved after October 1 may be approved for up to the end of the NEXT year. (ie a license granted October 15, 2012 would be good through December, 2013.)

Apparently the state has not worked well with any of the people that has tried and work with them.  As they land manager they don't have to.  They were going to do more before Geowoodstock, but held off to keep from getting a black eye.  I wonder if they follow or will make similar demands on other websites that have a "free for all" attitude about cache placements.

I have read a few posts from people that have said they just will not go to the parks anymore.  Personally I have paid in a few states to go into parks, and find caches.  I assume now that they will not be able to. I wonder how many great caches will go away, locations will never be seen because of this.

Utah

We can think that we are immune to all the crazy people back East.  However over the three years I have reviewed there have been some horrible caches, that land owners have gotten violent about. People walking across their property.

My favorite is when the cache is in a tree between the sidewalk and the street.  That is still the owners property, and if you do not ask cachers will be standing in front of someones home, climbing in trees, and poking around signs.  The cache owners (usually younger) seem shocked when I ask if they have permission.

I was surprised recently by a note pointing out that the BLM in Washington county has a geocaching policy.  You email them for permission to place the cache. It was a surprise to me, in that it was a year old, and had never been mentioned. I can say the same for National Wildlife Refuges, that (I was also informed last week) do not allow caches on their property.

Of course we have vast areas in Utah that are off limits, National Parks, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and Wilderness areas, are just a few.

Parks and Permits

It never ceases to amaze me the number of parks that have banned geocaching in the US.  How many places that we cannot participate because people are acting foolishly.

Or another bad step, having to pay an annual fee for a geocache on their property.  I heard that one land manager exclaim why?

• We know who place it and who should be maintaining it
• In the case of a bomb squad scare we know that it is there
• A permit fee helps pay for the time of the person who approves it and might check on it.
• A clean up of an area can identify that it is there so it will be left.

We all know of horrible caches.  A milk bottle or Pringles can full of a moldy slimy log, sitting on a dirt road corner with trash all around.  Picture a park manager that finds this or a broken Tupperware with trash in it, full of water, then finds out it is part of our game.  Why would he want to allow it?  I saw one in a broken bottle, near a kids playground.  The water green with algae that grew in it.  Caches placed where you have to climb a building, or tear apart a brick wall to find it.   I am sure they would not give a good image to geocaching when the land mangers find out.

Conclusion

A few years ago there was a serious attempt and discussion to close Utah Geocachers Association.  I told them I do not think it is a good idea. One day when someone wants to ban geocaching on their property, it would be good to have someone that might be listened to because they speak for the group. 

Give thought to what you place, try and make it nice, and get permission. No one wants a replay of Indiana in their own home state or town.

Opencaching Nears its 2nd Anniversary

Intro

Well here we are. We are nearly five weeks away from the second anniversary of Opencaching.com.  I ranted and raved, for some time about the site.  There are a number of repercussions of that fateful decision by Garmin to take the step that it did. In the Geocaching website, and in the world of geocaching that we.

Where did it come from?

Really? No one knows the stories abound, and denials.  Some say that Garmin was upset about the Geomate jr. that Groundspeak pushed.  It felt that it was encroaching on them.  Others have mentioned Garmin's shrinking market in the handheld market, and thought this was the way for it to bolster sales.

In all who knows.  The ones making the decision made it.  Opencaching became a reality.  It was developed quietly, and without anyone knowing.  In fact an announcement was made to reviewers that it was in progress only a few months before it was released.  So the small company with a worldwide following was about to go head to head with a multi-billion dollar company. 

View in December of 2010I remember hearing about it and seeing the screen above on the site. I watched it pretty regularly, wondering what would happen. Who knows, the world of caching may be changing while I stood.

Given there were a number of other caching sites.  Opencaching.us (and their sister sites), Navicaching, and Terracaching, just to name a few.  However all were like garage bands.  Formed at home, maintained with love, and a few avid followers, they seem to plug on year after year. As long as their founders kept paying the bills, the site rolled forward.

However none really caught on.   Each site had their niche, and followers, but without the support they kind of moved on.  To be fair Opencaching.us (and their sister sites) were new to the scene at that point. 

The Arrival

The site arrived in December of 2010 and many cachers, and Groundspeak and it volunteers were watching closely.  I was disappointed.  Even though I like Groundspeak, and follow its site, I was saddened in the quality of the site that Garmin put out at first.  Buggy, no reviews by anyone.  It seemed to be "import all your caches, and have fun".  I wonder what they thought the reaction would be.

I remember my contacts early on.  The Opencaching network, that had been around for some time was upset in the use of the name.  Garmin mentioned that they had spoken with them beforehand, however all the websites that I contacted confirmed that they were not contacted, and the use of the anem was in bad taste.

There were no great features that stood it apart from Geocaching.com. Well awesomeness was there.  You could rate the cache on how cool it was. I did not play enough, and no one logged my caches enough to see if ratings changed based on the finders ratings.

Growth

Well the growth was fairly stable. The few surges that appears was when they had promotions.  Actually in the last 14-16 months the only significant growth was when they had a promotion.  Other than that they had very little.  They have away a few mediocre gps units, and Pathtags.

However the growth is kind of stale.  A friend of mine used to track them pretty regularly. Weekly updating me with numbers of caches listed, and caches that were unique to the opencaching sites (not copies of a geocaching.com cache.

The numbers have been about the same since the site started.  Just less than 10% of the caches are unique.  A number of those were caches that were rejected from the geocaching site for one reason or another.  I noticed a few that I rejected pop up.

They did finally add peer review.  It was needed badly or it would have become the refuse pile of caches.  Lots of junk caches were appearing, and with anarchy abounding, horrible caches are still there.

Present Day Issues

There are a number of issues that still exist.  You cannot post photos to your cache page.  Bugs still run rampant, thought they just added a few features. 

I know for some time the community there wailed that it appeared that it had been abandoned.  I personally picture a lone programmer down in a basement trying to keep things going, keep the site up, and get the money for the promotions.

We saw a number of things from them at events, and mega events. Hosting or sponsoring things.  A few of my friends report a guy at an event in an opencaching shirt handing out swag. So they are about.

There has been a move of the banned, annoyed, and grumpy cachers that traveled there to discuss caching.  The first people that jumped on board were cachers that had a history of problems with the geocaching site, and its forums.  They promptly jumped to the site and touted its greatness, and then promptly started to complain about both sites.

Changes in the Caching Community

There are a number of smaller changes that the average person will not notice.  Garmins ads have dissapeared from the website.  The geocaching website. 

This year when i started working on the Mega event our contact specifically states that we could not have Opencaching or Garmin as a sponsor.  Another reviewer put it well when they said "Why should garmin ride the coattails of our event, let them get their own."

So for are event we have to point out to everyone that they cannot "sublease" their vendor space, or tables to Garmin.  Sadly that means money and swag that could have came from Garmin is now not allowed at mega events. 

A number of people have said that they are going to give serious thought at other units. Though i am a Garmin Oregon user and love it, When it is time for me to move on I will seriously look at another unit. I may not choose it, but I will not only look at Garmin.  That is a switch because the horror of my second GPS unit made me swear to never buy another one from that company.  Now I will look at them again. It may not make much of a change, but the phrase was put to me best by another geocacher.  "Why should I support a company that is trying to tear apart a game/company that I love and enjoy."   have heard that a number of times over the last few years.

I had a discussion with a governement land manager this last week.  They have had a number of issues getting caches removed that they do not want.  Caches that they never approved, or that were removed on geocaching.com and they cant seem to get them removed on opencaching.com.  In the telephone discussion he said he discussed it with other government land managers.  Why did this get published? Who oversees publishing? How can we get it removed, how long will it take?  It had left a bad taste in their mouth, it reminded me of the stories when caches were banned from parks. 

Conclusion

Ultimately I wonder if the site is just irrelevant. No one goes there.  People banned from geocaching or want to complain seem to hang out.

Cachers post caches and get their prizes and walk away.  I have archived caches in my area (as a reviewer) that the cacher is long gone.  Yet still they sit on opencaching.com.  Of course no one has looked for them, or one person.  So they have no idea by the record if they are gone or not.

My cache is dual listed.  In two years I have one find on opencaching.  On geocaching those numbers are over a hundred to 150 (I archived it and relisted it when I made it a letterbox).  A few friends archived all or many of them when nothing came of them, and they did not want to maintain two sites.

I don't know why they keep it going.  They seem to put so little work into it, that I guess dumping 30k a year in it is no big deal for a company that size.

For me?  I will stick with geocaching.com.