So the following is posted on Groundspeak's Forum, but is a copy of a Post made to Garmin's Listing Site Forum, and also to other posting locations. The employer of the poster is believed to be Garmin.

  Posted 28 April 2013 - 05:22 AM

The following was posted on the OC.com forums on 4/26/13 but was quickly deleted just a few minutes later.


The truth behind Opencaching.com


Garmin had always had a good relationship with Groundspeak.

After all, I'm willing to argue that most geocachers used

Garmin units. In fact, most cachers probably still do use a

Garmin unit if they aren't using their smartphone. Garmin

always had this grand idea of pre-loading units with

geocaches - similar to the Geomate Jr. But, keep in mind,

that this was well before the Geomate had even been invented.

They had plans for kid friendly units (think neon colored

Etrex) that would have several hundred thousand caches loaded

up and even "adult" versions - the more expensive units -

that would also be pre-loaded with tons of caches.

The powers at Garmin approached the powers at Groundspeak and

they started talking about this idea of pre-loading units.

Groundspeak wanted nothing to do with it and said that they

would never ever open their database to developers or GPS

manufacturers. Just a couple months later, what happened?

Geomate Jr. came along and wanted access to the cache

database so that they could throw some on a small and kid

friendly unit. What did Groundspeak say? "SURE!" (and a few

months after that, the Groundspeak API was introduced).

Naturally, this only made Garmin's people very mad and they

decided to go their own way. Enter Opencaching.com.

Opencaching.com has been billed as a community driven

geocache listing site that is "as free and open as the

outdoors." They want cachers to believe that Garmin is just

trying to improve the activity of geocaching and that

Opencaching.com is driving that change. It's true that

Opencaching has caused Groundspeak to change some aspects of

geocaching.com for the better - but as geocaching.com keeps

getting better Opencaching.com gets further and further

behind. Instead of asking cachers to honestly create caches

on Opencaching.com, the Garmin teams bribes cachers with

units and pathtags. We're about due for another bribing

contest and I can only imagine the unit up for grabs is a new

Oregon.

The whole purpose of Opencaching.com isn't to make

"geocaching free and open to all." It's not to be community

driven or even friendly to use. Ever wonder why the

Opencaching team don't care there are so many cross-listed

caches on the site? It's simply because Garmin wants as many

caches as they can get on Opencaching.com so that they can

throw them on Garmin units when they go out the door. It

doesn't matter if the caches are exclusive to Opencaching.com

or brought over from any other listing site (not just

geocaching.com). Quality also doesn't matter. If you want to

crap in a coffee can, list it as a cache on opencaching.com,

the site, and the muggles that run it, will happily accept it

as a cache - simply because it's one more listing. In fact,

"TrailTech" published several caches for the original

CacheBash that happened last Spring - these caches quickly

became decrepit because they were hidden by folks who had

never been caching: Garmin sales managers, engineers, IT

people. I can't even begin to count how many of these caches

I went after only to find coffee cans filled with rotting and

moldy paper, urine, rusty toys, and trash. I marked many of

them as needing owner maintenance only to be ignored. It was

only when I went back, grabbed these "caches," and emailed

the OC team that these are being thrown away did anyone

actually disable or achive the listings.

Last spring, Garmin held interviews for the Opencaching

Community Coordinator. People who worked at Garmin expected

them to hire from within. After all, there are several

geocachers that work there and would do a great job in the

position. These people were already loyal Garmin users,

understood the Garmin culture, and thoroughly enjoy

geocaching and introducing people to the game. Many Garmin

employees were infuriated when they found out StealthRT was

hired for the job. Sure, he had a couple thousand finds, held

events all the time, and was well-known in the Kansas City

geocaching community. But, he wasn't a Garmin user. He's long

been a Magellan user and had never used a Garmin unit before

getting hired. He only wanted the job because it was a

challenge (and probably so he can get paid to travel to

Groundspeak events).

According to some folks at Garmin, Stealth has said that he

never uses Opencaching.com and will never use the site. Why

not? Because it has nothing to offer him. You see, Stealth is

a numbers hound - which is fine - but Opencaching.com isn't a

place for numbers hounds to up their numbers. Not when so

many other number hounds only count geocaching.com finds in

their statistics. You may be asking yourself why StealthRT

was hired if A) He's not a Garmin user B) has no interest in

using Opencaching.com and C) Doesn't actually do anything

with the community. The truth is, Garmin hired him because

they felt he could get people to cross-list their caches from

Geocaching.com. Remember, Garmin isn't after exclusive cache

listings - they just want volume. This volume can come from

anywhere, just as long as it shows up on Opencaching.com.

Garmin came up with a laughable title of "Opencaching

Ambassador" for the folks who actually care about the site

and want people to create OC exclusive caches - but,

remember, they don't care if the caches are exclusive and

they don't really care about these ambassadors.

We all know that Garmin bribe people with units and pathtags

to lure them into cross-listing caches. But, what about the

people with powertrails? These people don't just hide one or

two or ten caches, they hide thousands. I once contacted the

owners of the ET powertrail about creating a Garmin Adventure

that highlights their trail. This adventure would include

places to eat, get gas, and hotels to stay at. The owners

told me that they would never be interested in listing their

caches anywhere else but Geocaching.com and that all the info

needed for cachers to plan their attack would be on the cache

pages. In other words, they didn't even want me to do

anything with their powertrail as a Garmin Adventure. This

told me that they wanted nothing to do with Garmin. I also

asked them if they would make it easier for people to load

the caches in one shot - as opposed to creating a PQ for the

series. I mentioned that Opencaching.com would make this easy

with the one click downloading of a series. Again, they said

they were already talking about placing a GPX file on their

website that included all the caches of the ET series. A few

months later, the series shows up on Opencaching.com. But,

how? I can only speculate that Stealth either paid them in

units or cash. After all, it had to be a pretty substantial

payment to get the two owners, who were adamantly against

anything but Geocaching.com, to list their caches.

Again, Garmin doesn't care about the community or the quality

of the caches. All they want are caches that they can throw

on units when they're sold. All you people complaining about

the cross-listing of caches, this is EXACTLY what Garmin

wants so don't expect anything to be done about it. All you

who are complaining about StealthRT not doing anything with

the site, that's exactly what Garmin wants. His title is the

Opencaching Community Coordinator but his real title should

be "Garmin's Cross-listing beggar." He gets paid a nice

salary (he drives a Benz convertible, after all) to travel to

Groundspeak hosted events and beg people to put their caches

on Opencaching.com. If you think you're helping the

Geocaching community by placing your caches on

Opencaching.com - think again. You're only helping Garmin

"stick it" to Groundspeak by allowing Garmin to use your

caches on their units. That's the whole "opensource" aspect -

anyone can access their cache database and do what they want

with the data: put it on GPS units, create personal apps,

etc. I wonder what Garmin will say if Magellan or DeLorme

want access to the database. Nah, both of those companies are

too smart to alienate a large percentage of their users.

Instead of everyone complaining about what's not getting

taken care of over here, realize how much better it is

elsewhere. Sure, all sites have their problems, but at least

Geocaching.com doesn't run on unethical principles that hurt

their customers.

I do know that the author has missed out a couple of things, done by Garmin, so making things look one sided. But that is another story. 

Email sent to Countryside Council for Wales, in regards to the GO Outdoors "Geocaching" Promotion.

At the request of UK Geocaching Community Members, I have sent the following email to CCW

Dear Sir or Madam.

                            I am Dave Palmer, Deceangi Volunteer UK Reviewer for Geocaching.com since 2006, but have been a Geocacher since 2002. And in 2004 was the first Wales base Geocacher to make contact with CCW (Mold Office).

I have been asked by members of the UK Geocaching community, to contact you, in regards to a Promotion by GO Outdoors, which describes the promotion as "Geocaching"  http://blog.gooutdoors.co.uk/competitions/.

After having several experiences of Commercial Companies using Geocaching as a Promotion tool, or as a Tourist Promotion Tool, using Commercial PR companies. The results to say the least having been very poor or utterly disastrous. Members of the UK Geocaching Community and I personally. Are now extremely worried about the huge potential negative impact this promotion will have, as the Promotion states

"On the morning of Saturday the 6th of April (Subject to weather) 2013, GO Outdoors will be publishing the rough location of a geocache hidden in Snowdonia."

This given that the Pize for finding the container first, is a High End Garmin GPS receiver, with a value of several hundred pounds. Will lead to a large area being utterly trashed, by those searching for the container. This comes from a collective Geocaching experience of the community as a whole, of hundreds of years equivalent experience (as stated originally, I personally have 11 years experiance as a Geocacher, and 7 years experience as a Volunteer Reviewer, during which I have had a large amount of experience working with both Landowners and the Police, in conection with Geocaching in the whole of the UK). Given the amount of experience, we have no wish to see our concerns come true.

I have posted the following to the Go Outdoors Blog, conected to the Geocache Promotion. At the time of sending, it is still waiting Moderation by them. But I have raised the following concerns with them through it.

"Dave says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.

March 28, 2013 at 8:55 pm

The Geocaching community in Wales have worked hard building up a relationship with CCW, in regards to Geocaches placed in sensitive locations. This relationship goes back to 2004.
Your Blog states “On the morning of Saturday the 6th of April (Subject to weather) 2013, GO Outdoors will be publishing the rough location of a geocache hidden in Snowdonia.” sorry but
a: This is not Geocaching, which at its core, is a container hidden at a set of coordinates, supplied by the Owner
b: you are crating a situation where a unknown number of people, are literally going to tear apart the location, where they believe you have hidden the container, in the hopes of being first to find it. So creating a totally negative situation with the Landowner
c: Do you have Landowner Permission to do this? Have you made the Landowner aware of your plans, and what the potential risk to not only the actual location, but other nearby locations. If your location is within a Designated Nature Reserve, or a Site of Special Scientific Interest, you as well as those Trashing the area, risk a Prosecution under the relevant laws covering such areas.
I have been Geocaching since 2002, and a Volunteer UK Geocache Reviewer since 2006. So have accumulated a huge amount of experience of Geocaching. I have seen several failures of Geocaching Promotions, by very large International Companies, who have either failed to recruit experienced Geocachers, or when they have, have failed to actually follow the advice given by those experienced Geocachers. This creates not only a negative impact within the Geocaching community, towards those companies. The impact can also be negative towards the Geocaching Community, by those outside of the hobby, due to the issues, these companies have created, so increasing the negative impact for the Geocaching community."

On behalf of the UK Geocaching Community, this promotion has nothing to do with the UK Geocaching Community, nor is it a Geocache Promotion. But rather a Company jumping on the Geocaching Theme, but presenting a low tech Pirate Treasure Hunt.

Yours Sincerely

Dave Palmer
Mancunian Pyrocacher (Geocaching.com Member Account since 2002)
Deceangi Volunteer UK Reviewer Geocaching.com (2006-current and on-going)
On behalf of the UK Geocaching Community

I full appreciate that some within the community will disagree with the above email. But given that a large part of Snowdonia, is a Designated SSSI, the fact that GO Outdoors, is calling their Promotion a "Geocache" and Linking to Geocaching.com. Will on their being any issues, create a image, that Geocachers are responsible.

Having been the first person in Wales, to make contact with CCW in regards to Geocaching, way back in 2004. And having to fully explain the whole hobby, and partake in a Site Inspection with one of their Officers. I have seen the working relationship between the Geocaching Community and CCW, build over the years. To a point where they are highly supportive of Geocaching (in fact I am aware of them only ever refusing permission for one cache on Snowdon, due to a rare and protected plant growing at the location), any negative impact caused by this promotion, will affect the UK Geocaching Community, more than Go Outdoors!

Dave

Christmas Wishes for 2012

As my Secretary and General Factotum, and the person who is not only my Boss but the Love of my Life. Has been, and still is so unwell, I have not sent out any Christmas Cards to Friends this year. So instead, I am writing this Christmas Wish to everyone.

I became a Geocacher in 2002, making my First Find St Stephens Day (Boxing Day) 2002, in 2006, I was asked to become a Volunteer UK Reviewer.

Over the Last 10 years, the Special  Friends and Colleagues who are all Special Friends, I have gained, the confidence I have gained, can not be expressed in words, Because it would take the ability of Shakespeare to do justice.

So here is my Christmas Wish to all the Special people I have known, know now, or will know in the future.

May you have a Perfect Christmas, spending it with those you Love. May 2013 bring you all Love,Wealth, Happiness, Good Health. And above all the luck of a Leprechaun in everything you do.

May the God of Plastic Containers, gift you with the ability to find them within seconds.

May you make more special friends

But above all to All, Thank You for being Special Friends!

Dave
Mancunian Pyrocacher
Deceangi Volunteer UK Reviewer

 

Olympic Venues and Geocaching

Olympics

After discussion with The GAGB, ACPO & Groundspeak it's been decided that during the period of the Olympics caches located near any of the Olympic venues will be disabled to avoid any security issues. Owners of such caches will be contacted in advance prior to caches being disabled. The period will be from 11th July 2012 to 10th September 2012 after the paralympics have finished when caches will be enabled again. No new caches will be published after 27th June 2012.  You can view the areas around the Olympic venues where caches will be affected in .Google Maps Olympic Venue Overlay If you have any specific questions about this please email your local Geocaching.com reviewer

Definition of Buried as defined by GC's Guidelines

Definition of Buried as defined by GC's Guidelines.

For those not aware of this, Groundspeak have clarified the No Buried Guideline on the 24-4-2012, which now states

[quote]1.1. Fundamental Placement Guidelines

3:Geocaches are never buried. If one has to dig or break ground to hide or to find the cache, then the cache is not permitted.

4:Geocache placements do not damage, deface or destroy public or private property. Caches are placed so that the surrounding environment, whether natural or human-made, is safe from intentional or unintentional harm. Property must not be damaged or altered to provide a hiding place, clue, or means of logging a find.[/quote]

This means it is prohibited to "break" Ground in any way to hide a container. There currently seems to be a confusion even amongst very experienced cachers, that as long as part of the container is above ground, then it is not buried. Given that the ground will have had to be broken to accommodate the part of the container, bellow ground level. It is classified as buried, and as such is Prohibited by the Guidelines. 

Also Groundspeak have clarified that Breaking Ground applies to anything which penetrates the ground, so the pointed micro container fastened to a bottle top, and the container is pushed into the ground is considered to have "broken Ground".

Deci

Annual UK Mega Event Account, requests for 2013 & 2014

The Request Period for the UK Annual Mega Event Account for 2013 and 2014 is now Open, and will close on the 30th November 2011 at 24:00hrs.

If more than one request is made for the account for either year, a Tender Process will apply

Requests for the Account for 2013 can be made at
http://ukmecsh.forumup.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=5&mforum=ukmecsh&sid33433511a8141dd3dba9b08080d7993b

Requests for the Account for 2014 can be made at
http://ukmecsh.forumup.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=6&mforum=ukmecsh&sid=33433511a8141dd3dba9b08080d7993b

The Tender Format can be found at
http://ukmecsh.forumup.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=41&mforum=ukmecsh

The UK Annual Mega was created by the 2008 Harrogate Mega Committee as a Legacy Account, which would be handed on to a New Committee each year.

The Holder in 2009 was the Weston super mare Committee. In 2010 the Holder was the Perth Committee. In 2011 the Holder was the Swansea Committee.

The 2011 Swansea Committee found themselves in a position of having 2 separate committee's request the account. A one off adhoc Stake Holder Committee comprising of Committee Members from All Holding Committee's was formed, and the 2 Requesting Committee's Chairmen, were requested to submit a Tender Document in a specified format (This Format will be used if more than one Committee requests the account for 2013 or 2014). This one off adhoc Stake Holder Committee, then took a vote after considering the two tender documents.

The Account being awarded to the North West England Mega Committee.

At the same time a permanent Annual UK Mega Event Account Stake Holders Committee was formed. Comprising of the Chairman or their Nominated Person from all Holding Committee's, With the Chairman or their Nominated Person joining the Committee from that years current Holding Committee.

Deceangi
On behalf of Annual UK Mega Event Account Stake Holders Committee

Directions on How to Turn Off your Stats from your Profile

I've had some requests asking about how to turn of Stats Displayed to Your Profile, so here is how to do it

Visit your Profile Page (not your public profile page), In the Navigation Menu's on the Right Hand Side of the page.

(click on image to see larger version)

The Fourth Section "Account Options" select "View Your Account Details"

On the next page, the Third Navigation Box on the Left Hand Side "Statistics" Click on "Change" top right of that box, in small letters.

On the next page, Untick the Box "Display my caching statistics on my public profile" and then Click "Save Changes" which is directly bellow the Navigation Box.

Your Stats are no longer Displaying on your Public Profile