Howdy All,

First off, I am VERY disturbed by the article in the AZ Republic. I always 
seemed to be a newspaper dedicated to keeping us Arizonans informed with the 
latest news, etc. I never thought it would become an editorial newpaper. I 
felt like I was reading the National Enquirer when I read that article. We 
have cancelled our subscription to the AZ Republic. We want to read about 
the news, not one persons views and thoughts (on the front page no less).

I think it is disgusting that the paper would even allow such a report be 
written up without more evidence. The article is totally one sided and only 
speaks of a couple of people's views. I don't think I have EVER read an 
article in a newspaper that literally slammed a certain hobby/sport/subject, 
etc like that one did without the facts and evidence to back up such claims.

I will not go into expressing my views and thoughts on the subject anymore 
as it would be very repetitious. I got into and enjoying geocaching for many 
of the same reasons most others do- to get outdoors more and enjoy nature 
and visit new places, meet new people, and the hobby also provides a great 
way for me to 'keep in shape' and provides me plenty of excercise with all 
the hiking I have been doing these days.

Mr. Peters beleives that geocaching is responsible for the damage to the 
archaeological site he watches over. He has come to that conclusion because 
he has seen an increase in activity around the area since a geocache was 
placed there. Therefore, he feels that geocaching is the culprit. It is very 
possible the damage was indeed caused since after the cache was hidden 
there. I do not in any way beleive that geocachers caused that damage. 
However...

A question to ponder: is it possible that a non-geocacher(s) happened upon 
the Geocaching.com web site (there have been articles on geocaching before 
in the newspaper and there are plenty of people outside our hobby that know 
about it) and saw the listing for that cache (and other caches) and 
therefore went out and visited the site? There may have been several new 
visitors to that site by way of the web site. Unfortunately, there are 
people and will always be people who have nothing better to do than spoil 
someone else's fun. Someone will see the geocaching.com web site and find a 
cache listed, go out there and remove it or destroy it... just to make it 
hard on those trying to find it. Don't think there aren't people out there 
like that... there are. (I once had a write up on my business in the Mesa 
Tribune and that day and soon after I had several crank calls from kids just 
screwing around). I personally fear that this kind of thing will begin to 
happen since the article was published. How many caches will suddenly 
dissapear in the coming weeks? I can understand why Libby has suddenly made 
several of her caches 'members only' caches. I am kinda bummed to hear that 
she has done that though, since I am not a dues paying member of 
geocaching.com and I cannot go seek out her members only caches. I have 
always enjoyed Libby's caches. I for one sure do not want to go hiking up to 
the top of some mountain on a 105 degree afternoon only to not be able to 
find a cache because someone took it.

Now, I know there are some who will not agree with me on this: but, the 
reasons above are just another good reason to make the Geocaching.com  web 
site access available to members only. Anyone could bring up the site and 
learn more about geocaching, but, only members would be able to read the 
pages containing information about caches and the logs. I am not saying that 
it should be a 'pay to access' site. I myself am not a dues paying member of 
geocaching.com. What I am saying is that maybe the cache pages should be 
available ONLY to those who have an 'account'. Much like we already have 
now. This may not stop everyone, but, it would be a deterant to those who 
don't want to waste their time setting up an account and for those that fear 
for putting any personal information on the net. This way, only geocachers 
(those active in the hobby) would be viewing details, coordinates, etc about 
each cache. This really would not change a thing to all of us who already 
log into geocaching.com. However, those looking at the web site for the 
first time, would only be able to see the home page and pages that detail 
what the hobby is about and how to get involved, etc. They would need an 
account to be able to view the cache pages. This isnt THE answer, but, it is 
a thought and I think a valid one.

I would be curious to hear other's thoughts on this.

Scott
Team Ropingthewind



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