Subscriber only caches...at first

[The Spindoctors]

Snifter...Heeeeaaaaalllll, Sit, Siiiitttttt.

Stupid's a harsh word, but Snifter is correct. There is Navicache, Confluencing, and even a few pirate (banned cache) lists on personal websites.

Let me present to the jury the following example: http://home.austin.rr.com/lowracer/BANNED_CACHING/

A good list of alt caching sites is at: http://vip.hyperusa.com/~dougs/geocaching/links.htm

Now, Snifter...go fetch the stick.

[Mix]

We must all either be incredibly blind or stupid to think that this is the only place to come and be insulted by the two dogs. There are several other sites that cater for their belligerence.

[SNIFTER]

You are a bit late telling me to go there. We have already placed a letterbox in NSW . We have one of the few remaining moveable caches in Australia which are now considered banned. Next....

[Hounddog]

Settle down guys. I am sure Snifter did not intend any personal insult to anyone. I thinks she's just trying to say that some people are very one eyed when it comes to Geocaching.com.

Under the circumstances who wouldn't be because it's difficult to find a more professional and efficiently run site, even in the business world let alone for hobbyists. We are spoilt indeed.

As great as the site is there are still problems however. Firstly, because the site is predominately U.S based most of the rules imposed have been based on U.S. activity. An example of this would be the 'proximity to another cache' rule. Also many Americans seem to be very "gung ho" in there approach to placing and I can imagine that the sheer numbers have caused the introduction of many other rules. In this, the most sparsely populated country on earth, these rules often seem ridiculous to say the least. Overkill? Or just totaly out of place in this county? This also reflects on the Members Only Cache idea. Ok In Texas. but in lonely Australia it seems quite pointless. This the reason why I would not look at memberonly caches as a such good incentive in any of their forms

I have always thought that it's not entirely healthy for one site to have total world control over any hobby. I think that having alternative sites are a good thing as long as they are not just used as an avenue for wayward cachers to get around the" truly" commonsense rules of geocaching.

I have looked at other sites. None are as well run as Geocaching.com, not by a long shot but they are there and mostly their intentions are good. Why not give them the occaisional go. Who knows, down the track we may HAVE to rely on them.

Geocaching has been evolving for 4 years now and in that time we have come a long way, but I think it would be foolish to expect that Geocaching.com will always be there. Maybe one day we will be visting Geocaching.com.au for ALL our caching needs.

[The Rats]

Sorry to get off the topic again Swampy but seeing how others had mentioned other forms of the game I'll plonk my 2 cents here.

I was ignorant to the fact of how popular other forms of this game were. Yeh I've heard about letterboxing, confluences, geodashing etc etc, anyway back to what I was going to say... I did some investigative work, specifically on the Navicache game to see how popular this form of the game was. To my excitement (NOT) they have a whole 3 caches hidden in Oz including one in NSW by the Silver spoons.

So by all accounts I guess we should be happy that we're playing the game with the right bunch. It would be all pretty boring if we played Navicache

I'll shutup now ......... I've totally lost my train of thought

Oh! by the way, isn't the word 'geocaching' trademarked or pattened to geocaching.com. I was interested to see alot of other sites use that particular word.

Yeh I know - shutup Dave

[swampgecko]

Ok, since we have slipped off topic again, I'll say my piece, I believe that it would be better for the Australian scene (and NSW in particular) to have a LOCAL Governing body, to handle issues as they arise, instead of being tied to the coat-tails of the yanks. There are many reasons for this and if you wish to discuss them with me please do so but off-site. The biggest hurdle facing an aussie site is do we try to affiliate with the secondary site so our caches are cross-listed with them? or do we just list them on both sites individually? next sticking point - is anyone here in Aussieland keen enough to bankroll and support such a venture?

Now back to our regular programming.....

[The Spindoctors]

There are many points here worth discussing. Let's start a new topic.

[leek]

Navicache ... (have)... one in NSW by the Silver Spoons.

Call me crazy but I'm gonna do this... It's as good as any other cache and numbers don't mean anything right... <br><br>

Maybe we should all start cross-posting our caches on Navicache just to reduce the monopoly status of gc.com (unless anyone else has got a better idea (nudge nudge wink wink - you know who I mean)...

[riblit]

Navicache ... (have)... one in NSW by the Silver Spoons.

Call me crazy but I'm gonna do this... It's as good as any other cache and numbers don't mean anything right... <br><br>

Maybe we should all start cross-posting our caches on Navicache just to reduce the monopoly status of gc.com (unless anyone else has got a better idea (nudge nudge wink wink - you know who I mean)...

If you speak kindly to the star giver he might let you count it. Subject to verification of course..

[EcoTeam]

Some of you are either incredibly blind or nieve to think that this is the only place to play this game. There are several other sites that cater for caching.

Appologies for my poor choice of words earlier, I love you all. Really.

Please post some links Snifter, if there is a viable alternative to GC.com I'm sure we'd all like to have a look.
I looked at one alternative site a year or two ago, and it had virtually no Aust caches and a poor interface. Is there anything better out there now?

Not that I want to switch from gc.com, as this is where everyone plays, and where all of my caching friends play...
Geocaching to me is not about the caches, it's about the people we play the sport with. Geocaching is fun to me because when I write a cache log I know that everyone I know is going to see it. When I plant a cache I know who's going to have fun looking for it, who's going to be stumped by this waypoint and that waypoint etc. I like it when everyone knows about "that cache", or "that log", or "that incident". When I hunt a cache I like knowing I have an advantage because I know how Snifter plants her caches...
Who'd want to play the game anywhere else?

EcoDave

[EcoTeam]

Navicache ... (have)... one in NSW by the Silver Spoons.

Call me crazy but I'm gonna do this... It's as good as any other cache and numbers don't mean anything right... <br><br>

Maybe we should all start cross-posting our caches on Navicache just to reduce the monopoly status of gc.com (unless anyone else has got a better idea (nudge nudge wink wink - you know who I mean)...

Hmm, looks like the very first NSW NaviCache would probably be banned on gc.com because a) it encourages walking on government property (the pipes and surrounding land are owned by Sydney Water and it's illegal to touch them), and b) The cache is presumably near a terrorist target (Water pipelines in Aus are an officially listed terrorist target and are regularly patrolled by police)

Just thought I'd point that out!

EcoDave

[leek]

.....

[SNIFTER]

Thanks for placing the links Spindoc.