Geocaching Australia

As many of you know, we hand out a series of pathtags for finding certain cache milestones. We've been doing this since about 2010. We currently hand out 100's, 500's and 1000's and to date we have handed out just under 1,000 tags across the 3 categories. i.e. A round number of about 100 per year.

We are starting to run low on some pathtags and as the moulds have expired we need to make new sets which would also include 5,000 and 10,000 tags for those getting up in their find counts.

Finds Rewards Available
100 GCA Finds = 119
500 GCA Finds = 35
1000 GCA Finds = 11

A set of 100 tags will cost around $200 - $250 AUD depending on the exchange rate making each tag around $2.00 to $2.50. When we add in the cost of shipping, being the envelope, cardboard stiffener, plastic bag, stamp, paper, toner, etc, each pathtag sent costs around $3.50 - $4.00

Geocaching Australia runs a lean cost base with sales covering our costs of around $1,600 per year. 500 new tags (being 100 each of 100's, 500's, 1000's, 5000's and 10000's) when they are finally shipped would take $4,000 from our coffers over may 5-10 years.

My question to the community is whether we should halt the free pathtags once the ones we have run out or whether we should continue to invest in rewarding our small community for the finds that they make on the site?

We would continue to provide them free of charge as the challenge of integrating them into a "pay for postage only" approach is simply too complex and seems a bit "cheap".

I have included a 14 day poll for those who would like to make their feeling known without commenting, however the vote is for an indication only and is not necessary binding. Make your vote known and we'll see what the results are.

I think it’s been very generous of GCA to provide a physical item in recognition of finds considering everything is free on this platform. It would be great to see it continue, and a good idea to create some 5000 & 10000 find tags too. I’m unaware of any other geocaching site that do this - even the ones that like to charge for a ‘premium’ membership.

It’s a helpful way to promote the site too - a free pathtag once you find 100 caches is a good incentive for folks out there to come over to GCA and try us out.

My only reservation is the cost. I imagine the maths could be done to see if the tags would break the bank for regular expenses - but it would be nice to have a few bucks put away for emergencies, like the great SSD crash of 2019. If the server shits itself - would we be able to afford a new one, or the required parts?

I suppose I’m saying that I think the current process of giving away milestone pathtags is fantastic and I’d like to see it continue - but only if the financial costs don’t place too much risk on the GCA coffers being empty if needed in an emergency.

I also would like to these to continue and am more than happy to make a donation to assist with costs. Worse case scenario consider 5 tags at $300 which equates to $1500.00. there are q few of us past the 5,000 and 10,000 finds mark so hoping that if ordered the issue of these would be retrospective. Even if the most addictive players/users of GCA contributed $15.00 each (100x15) We would assist the GCA treasury immensely. Just my thoughts. We the users of GCA benefit from this kind gesture so why not contribute to the reward scheme.

I am an avid supporter of GCA pathtags and buy a few each time a new one is for sale in the shop. It has always been great to receive the "free tag" when a certain number of finds have been reached but it does seem when we struggle to pay the bills, this is a cost that maybe should be gone. I have a collection of thousands of tags so to give up a free one is not an easy choice.
I am not sure of the voting options, yes and no are clear. What are you voting for if you choose "other" and "wombat"?

Yes please.... we appreciate the physical rewards - something our other (much more highly paid) company could learn from.....

oldfella wrote: ↑

18 November 21 6:20 am

I also would like to these to continue and am more than happy to make a donation to assist with costs. Worse case scenario consider 5 tags at $300 which equates to $1500.00. there are q few of us past the 5,000 and 10,000 finds mark so hoping that if ordered the issue of these would be retrospective. Even if the most addictive players/users of GCA contributed $15.00 each (100x15) We would assist the GCA treasury immensely. Just my thoughts. We the users of GCA benefit from this kind gesture so why not contribute to the reward scheme.

Don't forget when buying stuff from the GA shop (which we should do when needed) you can leave donations easily....

I use the shop almost monthly and donate on a regular basis and I think this is in a different league as I believe the shop profits are for the server, But I may be corrected.

That's right. Donations are reserved STRICTLY for the server. Shope items and rewards are funded by income other than donations.

whitewebbs wrote: ↑

19 November 21 9:53 pm

"I am not sure of the voting options, yes and no are clear. What are you voting for if you choose "other" and "wombat"?"

Why the 4 options?

You can simply explain yourself (for other) without committing to a yes or no.
Who doesn't like wombats?

While we enjoy receiving our free pathtags when we reach milestones and agree it is a great way to reward loyal GCA followers we feel the first priority should always be to keep the site going. So if we can only afford to keep the site running then the tags would sadly have to go.

The site is the priority. No site, no pathtags, no nothing. ......but I do appreciate and treasure a pathtag competition prize.

The results are in and it seems overwhelmingly in favour of continuing with the pathtags rewards. Thanks for the feedback. I'll use this information when it comes time to deal with any new or replacement tags.

Thank you. I really appreciate these.

caughtatwork wrote: ↑

26 November 21 12:37 pm

Who doesn't like wombats?

By the looks of things wombats pale in comparison to free pathtags among 'other' things.

Many thanks. Appreciate all the effort and hard work you do.