It’s not just all about Groundspeak Geocaching. There is also NaviCache, Opencaching, TerraCaching and also just recently OpenCaching.com. I thought as I’d already blogged about the new OpenCaching.com site that it’d only be fair to give the other sites a bit of the spotlight
by Garmin Ltd -
NaviCache
http://navicache.com came about early 2001. It offered a less restrictive service to what was available. The site offers nearly any type of geocache and there is no charge for anything on the site.I signed up for an account to give it a test and immediately loved the site due to it’s choice of Captcha word to verify my sign up.
Which is worse: a captcha which asks for a colloquial term for an erection or the gods-awful colloquial term it selected?
Navicache Example
TerraCaching
The goal of terracaching.com is to provide high-quality caches. Membership is managed through a sponsorship system and all submissions are constantly reviewed by other members. There are virtual, locationless and traditional/multi-stage caches in its database. I’ve heard that some users who have published caches on Geocaching.com with links to their caches on Terracaching get warned that unless they remove the link their listing will get disabled.To me TerraCaching sounded like quite a good idea. We went on quite a few caching trips last year and finding quality caches in areas you are totally unfamiliar with was a real nightmare. The recent Geocaching.com favorites feature however is a lot more helpful now for this sort of thing.
So I signed up to TerraCaching, knowing that I might not get anywhere with it, but it’s worth a try. You need to enter your home coords for a chance of getting a sponsor, so I did just that and had one within an hour. I was half way there. To try and get another I posted a message in the forum asking for one. I explained what the purpose of hiding caches means to me, and my goals with the hides. From reading the site a bit more I also found that my genuine beliefs about what makes a good cache hide shared by TerraCaching.com. That evening I got another sponsorship offer so I was able to check out what the site was all about. Getting sponsorship is very easy, so if you fancy checking out the site then do sign up.
I took a look at the world map of Terracaches and it’s clear that the majority are in North America, the UK and Europe (Belgium/Germany area). It doesn’t look like it’s caught on in Australia yet, for example. There aren’t that many around us, but I had a quick lookie at 10 or so of the closest ones. Unfortunately the majority were virtuals and of the few that weren’t they were long multi-caches. I continued my search further afield and found again that the majority were virtuals. There were a couple of standard caches here and there though.
Terracaches worldwide
Terracaches near me
Although it has a slightly better feel than Navicache, the Terracaching site also has a dated feel to it. The cache listings are nowhere near as user-friendly and professional looking as the Geocaching.com ones, although this is no fault of the cache owner, they can only work with what they have got.
A terracaching listing
My Terracaching Conclusion
After having a good snout around the Terracaching website, I don’t think that this is not a website that I will use. I’m not interested in creating a cache that only a couple of finders will bother visiting because quite frankly I do take a lot of time to research and plan my hides already to ensure that they are of top quality and going to all of that effort for just 2 visitors just isn’t worth it. I am also not interested in visiting virtuals or long multi-caches. On first glances it doesn’t look like there is anything special about the caches listed, however I guess the overall look of the site doesn’t really help “sell” the caches that are truely unique and special. I guess Terracaching just isn’t for me. It obviously does appeal to a select few,and there will always be people who don’t want to follow the crowds and, for example, won’t use Microsoft products simply because they are Microsoft products. Unless I’m going to an area where there are quite a few Terracaches that I may pass, I’m unlikely to spend much time even thinking about Terracaches.Opencaching
Opencaching is a completely independent, non-commercial caching site. Each Opencaching site is country-dependent and there is indeed an Opencaching UK site. There was a recent mention of the US Open Caching site on the GC Podcast which encouraged me to join their UK twitter feed. A new webcam opencache was tweeted in London’s Leicester Square the evening before we went to London so I joined up and downloaded the GPX file. We however didn’t venture to that part of London. It was however enough to tempt me.The Opencaching UK site does have quite a slick feel to it, however of course doesn’t match the professional standard of Geocaching.com. The idea of something being “Open” however does mean that there is no financial gain by anyone. This means no adverts and no charge for services such as pocket queries. The site is run by volunteers. This is one of the main “selling points” for Opencaching. Although I am a supporter of open source (I’m a big fan of PHP, MySQL, Firefox, Linux, etc.) when you consider the amount of caches that are on Opencaching vs Geocaching.com the cost to use the more exciting parts of Geocaching.com are in my mind completely justified. To run and maintain server power costs, license costs, and developer wages for a site with over a million caches and as many users as it has is by no means cheap. To me, paying a few quid each year and having to view adverts on some of the pages is completely justified. The adverts are also very well selected, and things that I’m glad they advertised about as I have benefitted from them. Fair enough the big boys are making a profit from the site, but good on them. It was a good idea!
For Opencaching to grow and really stand a chance at being a popular caching site it needs people to start using it, like people started using Geocaching.com. Once there are enough people using it to hide caches, the finders will follow. This is a big leap and can mean the difference between the site failing, or rapidly growing into something big. As I write this Opencaching UK has 439 active caches and 1296 finds, making it a very small fish in comparison to Geocaching.com.
An example of a Opencaching UK listing
Virtual caches – Just like there used to be
Educache – A virtual cache that teaches something, perhaps historical about a site.
Webcam – Like the existing ones on Geocaching
Podcache – An mp3 file. Your coords take the finder to a location and instructions in the file tell them where to go. I guess just like those museum tours where you walk around with a head set!
I do love the idea of a podcache and have a great idea for one that I could hide, but would I go to the effort of creating one to publish on a website that no-one really uses? Erm, well, no… Not yet, not until (if ever) the site gets big. But that’s not really the spirit if I think like that. If everyone has this opinion then nothing will happen, if everyone has the contrasting opinion then the site will flourish. My attitude on most things like this however is that I’m not going to make a difference. If me becoming vegetarian would cause the whole world to become vegetarian and stop animals getting slaughtered then I would do so, however by not eating meat I’m not making much of a difference so I’m going to carry on eating my bacon sarnies!
I have countless fun arguments about this with my vegetarian brother.
Groundspeak definitely haven’t upset me enough to boycott them! On Opencaching UK there are quite a few caches listed in South Devon, and around London. There are 2 close to where I cache, however I have already found them on Geocaching.com. I guess this does show that for it to take off it does only take a couple of people in one area. If it does get quite big and some cachers are listing on OpenCaching and not Geocaching.com would reviewers need to start checking the proximity of opencaches to ensure that Geocaches aren’t too close?
Opencaching UK map
Also see:
http://opencaching.de/ is active if you can sprechen Deutsch
http://www.navicache.com/
http://www.terracaching.com/
OpenCaching North America - Geocaching in North America
www.opencaching.us
www.opencaching.us/articles.php?page=impressum
Opencaching.us is designed to be an effective non-profit alternative to existing geocaching sites. Additionally, Opencaching.us offers users an open platform
Cachedrone the reviewer at Groundspeak Geocaching.com Complaints
ReplyDeleteThis is a family hobby CacheDrone get off your high horse Ontario does not needs no Cache Nazi as a reviewer. Warning CacheShadow is trying to also be the next dictator.
I've had this particular reviewer CacheDrone ( CacheDrone@gmail.com ) actually let me know right up front that he breaks his own interpretation of the "guidelines/rules" for some, including his own hides.... and after denying a cache submission, proceeds to publish caches that should be denied for the same reasons he gave for the denial. The man has no integrity in the game, and arrogantly flaunts his "power" as a reviewer to do as he wishes. Meanwhile hundreds of old caches with deceased/absentee owners live on, hundreds if not thousands of caches break the "rules/guidelines"... and if you try to resolve an issue openly in the forums,,, he WILL take it personal and adjust the guidelines to archive your caches, and make publishing new ones next to impossible. In otherwords, hail the almighty Cachedrone, and bow before him, or he will make the game much less enjoyable for you. He has diminished my enjoyment of the game, and what pisses me of the most, Groundspeak doesn't give a crap that Ontario has it this Cache Nazi as a reviewer.