Groundspeak Portal

I was on the geocaching forum for the first time in a long times. What's with all the animosity towards waymaring?

I don't go on the geocaching forums, but on the MiGo (Michigan Geocaching) just the mention of geocaching turns into a Wal-mart blasting party.

For example:

Tsmola	re: Project Phoenix	12/10/2007 11:50 AM
Decatur, MI Reply	interesting...but I still won't use waymarking unless they totally redesign everything and lose stupid, worthless categories like McDonald's restraunts, Wal-Marts, stuff like that.   Attachment(s):

Of course, I sometimes get the vibe from waymarkers that think every geocache is a Wal-Mart skirt lifter. I don't have a quote here, but one of the comments on the category I tried to create was something like "Who cares about an archived geocache. We would have a million waymarks of Wal-Mart light poles". Of course, its good feedback, which I will factor in when I resubmit. I was thinking of geocaches like my "Lego my Freshman", which was created out of an old Lego container when my son left for college. I have a sentimental attachment to many of my caches.

So, it goes both ways.

To me it sort of just seems to be the thing to do.  Some folks don't like Waymarking, they make a post, link to a McDonald's WM and say it stinks.  Then other folks come along read the thread, look at the McDonald's and think that's all Waymarking is about.  I guess some people just don't really "get" Waymarking, and others don't like it because they can't get a smiley.  They say "bring back virtuals and locationless," but in reality Waymarking is better for these than Geocaching.  I remember reading threads all the time when locationless and virts were still on the GC.com site, where people were complaining that those aren't real caches, and people who posted finds on locationless caches were considered scum by some.

The logic escapes me, and I swear that I've tried.

One person will want anything to pass as a Virtual, but won't try Waymarking.

One person will want only WOW style listing, but won't try Waymarking.

One person will think that a cache in a lamp skirt is great, but won't try Waymarking.

One person will read a lame Waymark or Category, and won't try Waymarking.

One person will say that Waymarking is online scrapbooking, but somehow fails to notice that so are Virtuals, EarthCaches, and their ilk.

 

 

They seem to enjoy complaining.  The sentence should end there, but ...

 

One will complain that micros aren't caches....

One will complain that micros are okay but not at a Wal-mart....

One will complain that .... do I bother?

 

The direct point is "Waymarking is the only option from Groundspeak for the concept of seeing something of interest at a certain spot that can still be created by players."

Not to put too fine a point on it... it's dead for these players and they are but ghosts of a time, represented by a suitable icon.

 

BQ

 

Hey those icons are still available.

Just more of em.

You can please some of the people some of the time,

But you can never please all the people all the time.

A wise old saying my Dad still say's and there was another one and it went something like this     Either **** or get off the pot.

They just do not get it,luckily we do!

From reading some of the more angsty anti-waymarking posts on gc.com, it seems that they see Waymarking as a hindrance to the return of Virtual caches.

scooter bill:

From reading some of the more angsty anti-waymarking posts on gc.com, it seems that they see Waymarking as a hindrance to the return of Virtual caches.

Haha. Well they're right about that!

I did notice that my post all but killed that thread though. I guess my irrefutable logic pwnd.

They are all in a state of shock over this line.

'OpinioNate' said  "It is true that geocaching will become a category on waymarking.com"

Of course the rest of your post should set them at ease......if they see past that sentence that is. When it comes to the subject of virtuals Geocaching seems to have a lot of myopic people that visit the forums .

'OpinioNate' said

"Finally, for those of you worried about geocaching being absorbed by waymarking you can relax. It is true that geocaching will become a category on waymarking.com, but only in the sense of the underlying architecture of the site. Geocaching.com will be "skinned" to appear as its own site just as it appears now (well, the look and feel will be updated). The cool thing about this is that you may be able to skin other categories to appear as their own site as well."

Ok you've got me interested in the last sentence in that topic. "....you may be able to skin other categories to appear as their own site as well".  What might I be able to do with categories I have the ability to edit or would this just be an ability of Groundspeak? Give us a "maybe you can" type explanation of this possible new feature if you can.

Thanks

TheBeanTeam

TheBeanTeam:

Ok you've got me interested in the last sentence in that topic. "....you may be able to skin other categories to appear as their own site as well".  What might I be able to do with categories I have the ability to edit or would this just be an ability of Groundspeak? Give us a "maybe you can" type explanation of this possible new feature if you can.

This will initially be a Groundspeak admin feature, but in the future we plan to allow new community sites like a "kayaking.com" idea. You pick and choose your own interesting taxonomy for your own community site. The new Geocaching.com site will be modeled after the community site and become the guinea pig for this new concept. By picking and choosing new categories on Waymarking.com into your own taxonomy you can do things like add the Geocaching.com Tour Guide category to Geocaching.com with a few setting changes. HTH

I'm assuming that the benchmarking area will have it's own skin and community site separate from the new Geocaching.com site. (?)  That would be logical, I think.

 

It's a bit tedious - the anti waymarking stuff on the forums.  Sometimes you get people on the UK forums who are new to geocaching and may ask "what is waymarking" "what is/was a reverse cache" and so forth - then inevitably two things happen 1) there is a wave of anti waymarking comment - often along the lines of "the user interface is so bad" (huh?)and 2) anyone who tries to explain waymarking is subjected to a barrage of "That's off-topic, that's off-topic, that's off-topic".

To be honest it's always just the same few tiresome individuals.  An empty vessel makes the most noise and all that.  The vast majority are ambivalent, or just not really very interested.

My policy is - remain polite, remain factual.  Respond only to individuals who are interested; ignore those who are hostile. Don't get drawn in.

Just to encourage y'all, I'm trying to learn both geocaching and waymarking, and I can see how they can complement each other. Waymarking is harder to learn, and less intuitive, but it's coming.

Team Sieni:

My policy is - remain polite, remain factual.  Respond only to individuals who are interested; ignore those who are hostile. Don't get drawn in.

An excellent policy on any forum anywhere.

doingitoldschool:

Just to encourage y'all, I'm trying to learn both geocaching and waymarking, and I can see how they can complement each other. Waymarking is harder to learn, and less intuitive, but it's coming.

Welcome!
I do both as well.  Much of the stuff that is griped about over in the GC forums is stuff that I missed or handn't gotten totally used to, so I'm flexible.  I'm not a total Groundspeak convert though.

I don't have a Windows Mobile device of any kind (nor a Garmin Colorado). So whereigo is not something in which I've participated.

If I read into this correctly...Awesome.

I feel the same way as most of you all.

If the shoe don't fit don't wear it.Find a pair that fits and your good to go.

                                                      

Virtuals, waymarks, geocaches, letterboxes, benchmarks, terracaches. I love hunting all of 'em. Just give me the coords or hints an let me at 'em.

The only smiley that really means anything to me is the one on my face.

Don't forget http://www.navicache.com/

I'm there too.