Groundspeak Portal

Hi, I'm a Brazilian geocacher and I would try to tell here my restrictions about waymarking. First of all, sorry for my english mistakes.
I think the waymarking is a big failure for people that like to visit places, but a huge success to people who like to make waymarks pages.
Almost everyone in this post that’s defending waymarking is saying that they love making waymarks pages.
According to Groundspeak, “In geocaching, it's all about the hunt and the treasure at the end. With waymarking, the location itself is the treasure.”. How could a newsstand be a treasure? There are too many categories that are made for people who like to make pages and don’t care for visitors.
The website is not good, even forum could be better. You can’t find a map with all waymarks, you can’t download them for Google Earth and the search is just awful. I was thinking in use Waymark to find cool places for my geocaches, but that is really hard.
I find kind of stupid the rules for logging a visit. I just don’t want to go to São Paulo subway, take a picture of me with my GPSr, answer few questions about the place and dance with a subway worker, just to log a visit. I would use waymark to make a diary of places that I visit in my life and make plans to my future adventures. Maybe Groundspeak and Waymark players shouldn’t worry about liars and stop making efforts to prevent them.
Now there are some programs like Google Apps and Foursquare, and I think Groundspeak should focus on things that aren’t available in these programs. Waymarking could be like a “Touristic Guide”, where you could see on a map interesting places around you, read reviews from other users, how many people visit this place and gather some historical info.
Probably HC waymarkers wouldn’t agree with me. I was thinking in make a post, to discuss some “rebuilding” ideas that I have for waymark. But it’s hard to think in rebuild waymark, because it’s not consensus that waymark is a failure.

Waymarking will never be a failure as long as we enjoy it for what ever reason we enjoy it

amigosu:

  I just don’t want to go to São Paulo subway, take a picture of me with my GPSr, answer few questions about the place and dance with a subway worker, just to log a visit. .

That's a new one!

max and 99:

amigosu:

  I just don’t want to go to São Paulo subway, take a picture of me with my GPSr, answer few questions about the place and dance with a subway worker, just to log a visit. .

That's a new one!

I'm not sure if you are being ironic or just like my answer, but I'm just giving my opinion why I everyone logs their visit in Geocaching and why there are waymarks that don’t receive any visitors.

I know that taking pictures and doing this stuff is part of the game. But maybe, to get more visitors, waymarking rules could change, and just stop worrying about liars. I don’t see foursquare worrying if you are lying, for example.

But again, that's just my opinion.

amigosu:

max and 99:

amigosu:

  I just don’t want to go to São Paulo subway, take a picture of me with my GPSr, answer few questions about the place and dance with a subway worker, just to log a visit. .

That's a new one!

I'm not sure if you are being ironic or just like my answer

I'm sure 99 with correct me if I am wrong, but I think she enjoyed the hyperbole.

I, however, am not quite sure what your concerns are regarding waymarking. 

Is it the prevalence of safeguards to prevent fake visits?  Is it the lack of visits to existing waymarks?  Your hyperbole is clouding your arguements.  Please do not compare waymarking to other websites.  They are not the same.  What changes do you think would make waymarking better?

Now, I will agree that my personal preference to waymarking is posting a new waymark and specifically a  new waymark in a catgory I have not posted in before. In other words, I am an icon collector.  However, other players around here are volume posters for both new waymarks and visiting.

I just do not go out of my way to find a waymark to visit, but if they are where I am going anyway then I will visit them.

cldisme:

amigosu:

max and 99:

amigosu:

I just don’t want to go to São Paulo subway, take a picture of me with my GPSr, answer few questions about the place and dance with a subway worker, just to log a visit. .

That's a new one!

I'm not sure if you are being ironic or just like my answer

I'm sure 99 with correct me if I am wrong, but I think she enjoyed the hyperbole.

I, however, am not quite sure what your concerns are regarding waymarking.

Is it the prevalence of safeguards to prevent fake visits? Is it the lack of visits to existing waymarks? Your hyperbole is clouding your arguements. Please do not compare waymarking to other websites. They are not the same. What changes do you think would make waymarking better?

Now, I will agree that my personal preference to waymarking is posting a new waymark and specifically a new waymark in a catgory I have not posted in before. In other words, I am an icon collector. However, other players around here are volume posters for both new waymarks and visiting.

I just do not go out of my way to find a waymark to visit, but if they are where I am going anyway then I will visit them.

My concern with waymarking website is, just for example, I could be using the website, I like the initial idea, but I won’t for several reasons, one of them is the prevalence of safeguards to prevent fake visits, other is the lack of maps like geocaching, the search mechanism that’s just bad and there’s no app for iPhone.
I think you have to compare waymarking with other websites, that's the only way to check if waymarking is a failure or not. Even if they are not the same, Groundspeak should think what Waymarking could offer that other websites don't, to make a successful website.
My suggestion is make a waymark more like a “Tourist Guide” website, where you can mark places in Earth you have already visit and you can make plans using the extensive database for your next adventures.

max and 99:

amigosu:

  I just don’t want to go to São Paulo subway, take a picture of me with my GPSr, answer few questions about the place and dance with a subway worker, just to log a visit. .

That's a new one!

Sounds more like one of the new 'Challenges' over on the caching side...

amigosu:

  My concern with waymarking website is, just for example, I could be using the website, I like the initial idea, but I won’t for several reasons, one of them is the prevalence of safeguards to prevent fake visits, other is the lack of maps like geocaching, the search mechanism that’s just bad and there’s no app for iPhone. I think you have to compare waymarking with other websites, that's the only way to check if waymarking is a failure or not. Even if they are not the same, Groundspeak should think what Waymarking could offer that other websites don't, to make a successful website. My suggestion is make a waymark more like a “Tourist Guide” website, where you can mark places in Earth you have already visit and you can make plans using the extensive database for your next adventures.

I'll tackle your points one by one. 

Fake Visit Safeguards: Policing it is up to the individual waymarker who posted the waymark, but it does need to be done.  Most of the armchair visits do not get deleted. I have probably only deleted 3 my entire time here for vulgar language or stealing someone else's photo.  I would say most waymarkers are in the same state of mind. The issue that we get more often than we would like is using a visit to send out junk advertisements.  So, in a practical sense, your concerns are not founded, but are valid in how the rules are stated.

Lack of maps:  Valid concern, but the lack of maps does not bother me since I can create my own.  It is just an extra step you as the user has to do.

No iPhone App: Valid concern, but I use the whole website version on my Blackberry with no problems (as long as I have a phone signal or open wi-fi), so it is not an issue for me.

Other Website Comparison:  Still, no you cannot compare.  Either you use waymarking or not.  That is the judge of its success.  You can still use other websites and waymarking.  There is no "either/or" arguement. 

Tourist Guide database: That I how I think of waymarking and strive really hard to make it that way, but (and it is a big but) the main criteria is and continue to be "unique and interesting."  We are not trying to duplicate a phone directory.

I would like to see Waymarking.com make the waymark object the treasure. I have tried to enjoy finding the objects, but I found I like the Virtual Cache concept better. I do not want to know what I am going to see beforehand. It is the hunting and seeing the waymark at the end of the successful hunt that is the fun. Learning more about the waymark after I have discovered it is the next bonus. I wish Waymarking.com would let players establish hunts like a Virtual Cache, so that it is more two-fold. I tried to create a waymark and was unsuccesful because I did not want to share a picture. I wanted hunters to use the clues and the GPS to discover the waymark, not show a picture of it, and if you wanted go visit, so be it, but what's the point if you have already seen a picture of it?

Sincerely,
FlyFshrGrl

flyfshrgrl:

  I do not want to know what I am going to see beforehand. FlyFshrGrl

I sure do!

neat idea flyfshrgrl but unless they add a mystery category I think I would rather things stay the way they are.

I thought we did have a sort of "mystery" category, titled "Best Kept Secrets".  You have to actually visit the coordinate to find out what the secret is.

max and 99:

I thought we did have a sort of "mystery" category, titled "Best Kept Secrets".  You have to actually visit the coordinate to find out what the secret is.

I guess I had better check that one out again, thanks for that post max or 99 or is it both of you?