Big Matt and Shell wrote:CraigRat wrote:blossom* wrote:Maybe the GCA action could be restricted just to the states where caching is currently illegal?
That is ALL we are proposing.
Only if it is illegal as in set in legislation/rulings as per NSW, not if it's an 'interpretation' of a littering rule or similar.
As much as I hate moving down the path of dictating to cachers, the point above is the very important one to remember.
It is illegal in NSW to place a cache in a NSW National Park managed area
As much as I don't like it, I feel by people blatantly breaking the law we only cause more harm than good and I'm sure NPWS don't differentiate between GC and GCA they would just see it as Geocachers breaking the rules and would be unlikely to change (or release) their restrictions.
At the moment, if you list a cache at GCA in one of the banned zones it tells you in great big letters. Well, normal sized letters but you can't miss the message.
As the other sites say, we are a listing service. We can not stop you PLACING a cache in a banned zone. We can offer a suggestion that listing the cache is not a clever idea. At the moment we don't STOP you listing the cache. After all it's THERE in the banned zone.
If a cache is listed, then people will seek the cache. That's not a good thing. When you visit a cache page that has a cache in a banned zone you are given another warning. YOU choose to ignore that warning and go find the cache.
So there are two parties involved here. The hider who ignored the warning and the finder who also ignored the warning.
Add to this that GCA does not have perfect shape files for zones. If it's INSIDE a zone it could be outside the true zone. We don't know that nor do we have the infrastructure to support perfection. A few million dollars might let us get better data and faster processing. By the same token if it's OUTSIDE a zone it could in inside the true zone. We just can't be meter perfect.
So let's say the cache is INSIDE the zone, but OUTSIDE the zone co-ordinates. We allow it to be listed. Someone goes to find it and gets fined. Or the person hiding it gets sprung and gets fined. Who do you think they'll yell at? Themselves for being irresponsible and not checing what they should or should not do or GCA because we didn't tell them how to act responsibly.
So at the moment, rather than be the bully boy and say no, we say yes and ask you to be responsible. The vast majority of cachers are of adult age and can make decisions for themselves. We are not the listing police, we are not the metre perfect place to check for legality or illegality, we are not your mummy.
If the choose to hide a cache in a banned area or they choose to find a cache in a banned area, we can do nothing about it. People need to take responsibility for themselves.
Mind you, this is only my opinion. It is not the formal position of the site, the senators or other developers. The discussion will be of great value when we get the new senate in place and the discussions continue with THEM making the final judgement call.