?? Future of Geocaching ??

[Bronze]

I was doing a little thinking today
It was very painful indeed, yes I know.
I needed to lie down afterwards and nap
Dam lucky I wasn't driving or mowing lawns I say.


Why this post?
I was about to start organising an evening lecture opportunity at our school so I could invite other community group members who could enjoy the caches we have hidden around Dubbo - E.g. Scouting, Reserves, SES, Rural Fire, Teachers, Families, Bush Walkers and 4WD club members to list a few. Then I started thinking, perhaps it may not be the best thing for the sport to encourage so many people. *Hmmm - was that a selfish thought?* A passing retorical consideration.

I would like to know your thoughts on the big picture of caching in Australia.


(1) What do you consider is the future of Geocaching in Australia?
(2) What would you like to see geocaching become as a sport?
(3) What is caching presently like in your area / region / state?

Will it become huge and you can find a cache by just following the worn path. Rival USA.
Will it stay virtually underground with a select few savvy net / gpsr users.
Will it become household and a comfortable size.
Will the powers that be decide were having too much fun and quash it.
Will the lawyers and insurance gurus make it too dangerious.
Will we all lose interest and a whole new geo-generation will take up behind us.
Will it become ...


Gaze into your crystal ball and share what your thoughts are.

The Bronze.[/code]

[Bronze]

Geocaching is a shared pastime for me. I share it with my love for Volkswagens.

I have become quite sad recently with the VW forum I frequent. I wasn't a member from day dot but have been there since its slow to grow first year. There were only 30 or 40 members and we all became close friends. We knew each other cars and interests, would meet up at events, share stories through the chat and Email jokes and holiday pics. I joined that forum about 4 years ago. In the last year or so this VW forum has become massive. There are well over 1000 members. It recieves over a million hits a month and is now impossible to keep up with and follow even if you read for two to three hours.

As much as I would like Geocaching to become bigger, I would hate for it to become so big I would lose the friends I have made. Become so big the rule mungers squash it in laws and red tape, become so known the kids on holidays raid cache after cache and become so saturated that each cache location was just like the last.

I don't know how much of this would happen but hopefully thats just me doin the "Glass is half empty" thing.

I would not like Geocaching to become huge. I would like to see it become more widely known though. I hope it will be like other outdoor sports like running, walking, biking and canoeing. A sustainable number of participants which don't need over the top controls and regulations to minimise there impact. It could be a reality that to geocache you need a licence. Mabey one to 'hide' caches with the relevant papertrail of checks from councils, forestery, NP, landowner approvals. Don't forget the other licence to 'find' caches where you have to show knowledge of "minimum impact, reporting, tenancy awareness" etc. Lets hope not. Don't forget you need a licence to fish now.

Red Ochre Geocaching is a good size here. There are 4 keen teams and a couple on the edges who are having a go deciding if it's for them. Once each team visits a cache it then lies dormant until someone passes though. Some caches are quite hard an they my never be found again past the local other dedicated local teams. The only regular thing these caches get are a check now and then if someone is close. This seems to me our greatest shame.

What would I like to see:
I would also like to see rural and regional communities enjoy caching as much as the city cachers do. Especially the young and famlies. I'm opposed to a T.V. blairing 5 hours a night and all weekend to fill the void of boredom. I would like to see our young out and enjoying what the outdoors and our beautiful country has to offer. And what better way to introduce them.

Bronze.

[Alby]

You have got it in one BRONZE!. Wendy and I like the sport growing the way it is, this way we do not have the unpleasent taste of what we call cache stalkers (finding and removing contents to keep container, moving to another position). growing slowly as it is without huge advertising allows for people with like minded ideas, and an appreciation for their natural environment to find new places and friends to enjoy the outdoors with.

It is for the best if it remains unregulated by the rule makers!!

The game is slowly growing here in QLD and is concentrated in one area mainly but in time this will grow. We are slowly starting to see more bush caches now and this i feel is a good thing.

[swampgecko]

I have seen this game grow at a rapid rate of knots in the last 2yrs. The first event cache Picnic we attended, there was maybe 30 people. The Last Picnic Event Cache, NOT to confuse them with the other event caches that occur from time to time, there were well over 60 people, might have even gone close to the eighty mark, the time frame between those two picnics was only 6 months. Image what the next picnic would be like if we managed to pick a time and location suitable for ALL geocachers in just NSW to attend? What does the future hold... no idea, as long as I can keep geocaching, that's all I am concerned about for now...

[Papa Bear_Left]

I think there's a definite maximum density beyond which geocaching becomes a different animal to the beast we're used to.

We came into the game at a good time, I think. It was already fairly mature, and there were more caches around than we could realistically hope to do in less than a couple of years. There were maybe a dozen very regular cacher teams and another dozen or so occasionals, and a pretty good range of caches within an hour or so's drive. It was possible to get to know all the 'usual suspects' socially and we'd all fit into a restaurant or picnic grounds.

Here in Christchurch (gc capital of NZ), it's just a little below the optimum, with only one or two new caches being placed in the broader metro area every month (although we're tryign to up the average single-handed!)
Another six or seven regular cachers would make a real difference.

I haven't cached in an area with significantly higher density than Sydney, so I'm not sure what it'd be like, but I think it'd lose some of the 'cosiness' of the current close-knit group.

[SNIFTER]

I organized the first cachers get together here in Sydney and we had about 12 people attend. We all felt that we had a hobby that would lead us into the future at a reasonably slowish rate given that GPS's are not your everyday cheap toy. We were happy with our little group but we did want more participants to make it more fun.
The 2 Dogs have been caching now for almost 3 years and yes it is growing slowly and surely. I don't think that we will have the problems that the USA have, given that this sport/hobby in Australia is still an expensive exercise.
I cannot, however, see children playing this game on their own. Sure the parents may go camping and let the young ones go find a locally stashed cache but I bet they are within earshot of them.
There have been a few people/teams that have come and gone and for one reason or another have decided that this wasn't for them.
I hope that we (The 2 Dogs) will be caching for a long time yet. We will watch people come and go and hopefully watch as this hobby of ours still keeps the intrest of the many friends that we have made.

[tolmh]

I think it'll probably stay an underground game, and probably won't become as popular or as well-known as, say, orienteering. Most people I've tried to explain it to either don't get it, think it's kinda interesting (but not something they'd ever do) or think it's a complete waste of time, and certainly not something you could describe as a 'sport'. I've had one person actually say to me "Jesus - I never realised you were a nerd."

Seems you need an unusual combination of characteristics to "get into it" - geeky enough to have a computer, use the net, and visit the kinds of sites that'll get you to geocaching.com, technical enough to understand the whole GPS thing, but not so geeky/technical that you can log off Slashdot long enough to actually go outdoors occasionally

[The Spindoctors]

I agree with tomhl.

My wife lists Geocaching as another one of my geeky pursuits (along with astronomy, surfing the Net and other things). I think the cost of a GPSr will restrict the number of people taking it up, along with the geek factor.

[Bronze]

I find it strange that people refer to Geocaching as a Geek Activity when in reality the main exercise is outdoors. Only a small proportional amount of time would be attributed to the net unless your here at the Fourm all the time .

I'm a Scout, a 30 year old scout, but one none the less. I have spent a while in the Army but as I never saw activie duty or served home defence other than exercises I draw the line at calling my self a soldier. I love the outdoors and as I'm used to having a destination - geocaching gives me that.

I have been caching for a little over two years I think. As my count of 40, (I'm old) attests I'm not driven by numbers. Steady as she goes is my philosophy. If I don't feel like it I do somthing else.

I have to say I love the social aspect a lot and hiding caches. I like to do caches that other have designed just to admire the clever factor and appreciate the unknown and interesting locations.

Bronze.

[EcoTeam]

(1) What do you consider is the future of Geocaching in Australia?
(2) What would you like to see geocaching become as a sport?
(3) What is caching presently like in your area / region / state?

Will it become huge and you can find a cache by just following the worn path. Rival USA.
Will it stay virtually underground with a select few savvy net / gpsr users.
Will it become household and a comfortable size.
Will the powers that be decide were having too much fun and quash it.
Will the lawyers and insurance gurus make it too dangerious.
Will we all lose interest and a whole new geo-generation will take up behind us.
Will it become ...

1) A lot of us try and guess, but we have absolutely no idea.
GC.com is the glue that binds it all together. It could go bust tomorrow, or completely change direction, and there'd be mass panic until new sites were set up. There has been talk about setting up our own Australian site now to cater for this contingency. But in the end, it's an Internet organised sport, so it will always be in control of one person who owns a domain name. If anything happened to GC.com I think only the die-hards would continue playing. Then again, geocaching is really run by the die-hard and "regular" cachers. Take away all the caches placed by regular teams, all the websites, forums and info, and you probably woudn't have much left but a few unmaintained boxes in the bush.

2) I don't think it will never become a mainstream "sport". Like it or not, it is just too geeky and different for most people. What I would like to see are more regular teams out there "playing the game", and more quality caches (as in interesting locations and themes etc), not so much more caches. Even now I get the feeling that there may be too many caches out there (*shock*), judging by the finds seemingly getting fewer and farther between.

3) Oops, just answered most of that above really! In Sydney, the biggest problem I find is that there seems to be a big void around the north western suburbs where only a few of us live. Even worse on the South Western side. Hence we have to travel much further for even a simple cache, and in the last year I've found we have lost a bit of enthusiam due to this. Half a dozen more regular teams out this way would be would be great.


Will the powers that be kill geocaching? - not a chance. National Parks in NSW have explicitly banned geocaching , but do most of us care?

EcoDave [/quote]

[Mix]

Will the powers that be kill geocaching? - not a chance. National Parks in NSW have explicitly banned geocaching , but do most of us care?

Did they? news to me! i'll just make out I never heard.

[Bronze]

I missed that last but Dave. Between the static and white out all over my screen I couldn't make it out.

Did you say there was a National Parking scheme banning us from not Geocaching. Ok - I can do that!

A good thing about the Red Ochre region I guess is that were in a Geo-vacume some what. There is a portal but only a couple have found it. We scratch each other backs here. We are just starting to get our first Archives. The cache sites arn't super special to us, but finding the caches are great fun because we all know each other we plan a cache the others would enjoy through difficulty and geo-sneekyness.

The Bronze.

[SNIFTER]

Dave..what suburbs do you consider to be in those areas that are lacking caches. Give us an idea and we will see what we can do.
The reason that we have put caches in certain areas is because we know the areas. I lived in the eastern suburbs for 46 years and now in the Hornsby area for 10 years. Peter moved around the Earlwood area for a great deal of his life and he was born in Newcastle. We know a few possies from our chilhood that are still untouched by the National parking police(I like that one). We are not very familiar with the northwest or southwest but I am sure we can learn.
I think you might say that we all like our own comfort zones as we usually know the back streets and oneway streets.
Watch out for a cache comming near you.

[swampgecko]

I am working on my next 6 caches.... geez... give a guy a break... I gotta wait for embi to get home to approve my caches......

[riblit]

Dave wrote:

...In Sydney, the biggest problem I find is that there seems to be a big void around the north western suburbs where only a few of us live...

That's 'cause we are always going over to the Northern Shores where there are more caches..

There are a few caches in the mountains without your marks in their log books..