Brief explanation as to why the UK has Geocaching Regions, as this has come up else where

Brief explanation as to why the UK has Geocaching Regions, as this has come up else where

Quite a few UK cachers asked for UK Counties, so I posted a request for a definitive list. This created a argument as a consensus could not be reached. Currently we have in the UK.

a: Historic Counties

b: Ceremonial Counties

c: Political Counties

a: These are the original counties and bear no relation to modern counties in any way ie: Manchester is in Lancashire. Parts of what is now modern Wrexham, formed a non contiguous part of Flintshire.

b: Ceremonial are just that, for Ceremonial purposes. So taking Manchester which is now part of Greater Manchester (which is not even officially a county, but a Unitary Area) you have a Lord Lieutenant of Greater Manchester. Very few even accurately Know which Ceremonial County they live in.

c: Now comes the Modern nightmare (well since 1974) In 1974 Counties where reorganised, and this lead to the creation of Unitary Authorities. So you get Greater Manchester, in Wales one example was the Creation of Clwyd (that covered all of North Wales) as examples. Now move forward to 1996 and these Unitary Authorities are disbanded. So whilst Greater Manchester still exists, the local Councils sit together on a Unitary Authority for specifics such as Policing, Rubbish Disposal (actual collection is at a Council level). Clwyd is broken down to County Councils but this leads to the creation of Wrexham CC. So Wales goes from 14 Unitary Authorities to 22 CC's. Now move forward again to 2009/10 and Cheshire CC is split into 2 separate CC's.

Oh and the smallest number of usable Counties we could come up with, was 155. Which would produce a totally unworkable solution.

Ireland

In the early days of Geocaching.com, caches submitted in Northern Ireland where Listed under Ireland. This lead to a group of NI cachers petitioning Jeremy Irish (one of the 3 owners of Groundspeak) to be allowed to list their caches under the UK. So was created a situation, where caches in NI where being listed under either Ireland or UK. This had a knock on affect, on searches not only for cachers in NI & Ireland but also for Scottish cachers. Who got caches in NI listed under the UK.

During the discussion about adding counties to Ireland, Croaghan as the Ireland Reviewer. Decided that a possible solution to this Dual Country issue for NI. Was to go with the Historical Regions for Ireland. So that meant using Ulster which incorporated the 6 NI counties, and 3 RoI counties. This was presented to Groundspeak with 2 options. Ulster being listed as either Ireland or as UK. In what they believed was the best interest of cachers living in both NI and RoI, Groundspeak decided to implement Ulster-Ireland.

So after discussions, then UK/Ireland Reviewers [Eckington, Lactodorum (both resigned April 2008) Croaghan (Ireland Reviewer) and myself) came up with what we believed was workable solutions for both the UK & Ireland (that had it's own issues). Which was the 14 UK, and 5 (Dublin being added as a Region in Ireland) Ireland Geocaching Regions. These where presented to Groundspeak, who implemented them (with some slight Americanisation of the names) on the system.

NA/UC log confusion

Ok for those who don't recognise the abbreviations

NA=Needs Archiving Log

UC=Update Coordinate Log

These two types of log, are the only ones automatically copied over to Reviewers. Both log types are checked and if needed actioned by the recipient Reviewer.

NA Logs. These should be considered to be Final Last Warning to Cache Owners. Failure to action them, will result in the cache being Archived for Non Maintenance. Action looked for

Cache Owner Maintains the Cache
Cache Owner posts a Owner Note to the cache, updating the status of it.
Cache Owner offers the cache for Adoption or Adopts it over to a new owner
Cache Owner Voluntarily Archives the cache.

Just because a NA log is made, this does not mean a immediate response by the Recipient Reviewer. Personally I don't look at NA logs until Seven Days after the log is made. So the Cache Owner has Seven Days in which to take one of the outlined actions above.

UC Logs these are checked just like any new cache submission, to insure the new location is not within proximity to any other waypoint (Cache or Physical Stage of a Multi cache). The Location is not covered by a Land Owner Agreement or is not Designated.

Caches which have been Grandfathered In, which have their coordinates updated. Are considered to have broken the Grandfathered In clause, and as such are subject to current requirements in regards to the location.

Proximity is only applied to a physical item which the Cache Owner has placed ie: a container/tag with coordinates on it. Information gathering is a Virtual Stage and not subject to Proximity issues.

WIFI stages need to have the WIFI Attribute, but are considered to be Virtual stages as far as proximity.