No flaming please. I am simply asking a question and looking for some suggestions and feedback. I am thinking about making my next cache a 'non-members only' cache. Since there are those out there who feel that us 'poor boyz' who cant afford a membership (or for whatever other reason we choose not to have a charter membership; my reasoning has something to do with it being FREE to play this game) should not be able to find their members only caches. SO... I propose making my next cache available only to those who DONT have a charter membership. In other words, if you log a find on this cache and you are a charter member, your log will be deleted. This will be cleary stated in the cache description..... .....Wait a minute....... I am not going to do that. I just cant get myself to do that. I would rather allow EVERYONE that opportunity to go for my caches. Well, ok.. so my caches arent quite drive by caches and may already be limited to those who are able to hike great distances and/or climb steep mountains. Why limit it anymore? I have met some really nice people in the geocaching community. Some who are members and some who are not. I want them all to be able to find my caches. (ok, so I only have one caches hidden, but RTW-2 has been in the planning stages recently and we have been considering hiding it very soon). The way I figure it... making a cache MO is not going to save it from plunder. Hiding it well on a wilderness type cache or being creative with a cache container on an urban cache is what it takes these days to keep your caches safe. And no, you dont need to do no freakin' puzzle crap to keep it safe, just be creative in how you design and hide the container. Most caches that get plundered are accidently stumbled upon. Ok.. so this recent 'cache pirate' situation is not the same. They obviously have been locating these caches on geocaching.com and going after them. My take on charter memberships: It would do nothing for me. I read the charter membership page and found out that I could get a one month membership for a mere $3. I thought I would give it a try. But, after reading all about it, I dont see what I am getting for my hard earned money. A couple of options that I dont really even need. Being a business owner.. I watch very closely where I spend my money and what I get for every dollar spent. As Brian (Team AI) stated, there are other ways to support the site. If ever I should need a new GPS or any accessories, I will most certainly purchase from a geocaching.com vendor. This way, a percentage of my purchase goes to support geocaching.com. Heck, just playing the game supports the site. Quite honestly... the only way I would ever purchase a charter membership was if EVERYONE HAD to have a charter membership in order to even use the services of geoaching.com. I do beleive the caches would be of greater quality and we would have less issues with the land management agencies and the public than we do now. But, I dont think this is realistic. Because, if geocaching.com did that.. another web site would pop up anyways offering their services for free and many would just switch. Team RTW typically logs 30-40 caches or more a month. Last month (April), I only logged 9 finds. I just havent been impressed with the current trends in geocaching. I am getting bored of hiking some great distance on a hot afternoon only to find the cache is not there, has been plundered, had wrong coordinates posted (a new team hiding their first cache with no finds) or any other reason. Offtrail just reported two caches in Cave Creek had been plundered. Caches I have yet to go find. Black Cave was taken. I had really been wanting to do that cache. It has been on my todo list for a long time. Now, I will never get the chance. It is gone. Sounded like a really cool piece of Arizona to explore. I guess I can still go there. But, would rather have a cache to find in the process. A new cache in the San Tan Mountains was plundered as well recently. Although still a very limited issue, this is becoming more and more of a concern to me. The other thing that is really irritating me is the fact that I have lost several caches to my stats because they became members only after I had already found it. I beleive a cache should not be changed over to a MO cache after it was originally available to all. It screws up my numbers (yes, I am into the numbers). I only cache in Arizona, so there should be no 'finds' in my out of state column. I understand this issue is tough to resolve.. but, I dont fault azgeocaching.com for it... I understand their situation with it and why they cant correct this problem. There have been a few other cachers who have mentioned this as well. So, for all those cache owners who choose to change their caches over midlife to a MO cache.. help Brian and Jason out so they dont have to deal with that issue. Leave your old caches the way they were and make your new caches MO if you want to, then I will just not go seek out those new caches. It will also keep the stats orderly and simple. Also.. and most importantly.. the thing that irritates me most about this situation is that I can no longer view my log (my dairy if you will) on a given cache that I found that has since become members only. Most people who know me sometimes joke about my lengthy logs on caches. Well, those logs are basically my diary of my experiences at that cache. That 'experience' is now lost forever as I cant go back and read about it anymore. I like clicking on the old caches that I have visited a year or two ago and reading my log and reading some of the later logs on that cache. Now I cannot do that as the owner has made it a members only cache. I now would have to pay for that privelege if I want to view them. As far as the so called 'cache pirate' goes: ignore him. He will go away. The more you talk about him and the more everyone eggs him on (in terms of threats and such), the more he will plunder. Simply put.. we should be thankful that all he took was the cache contents. The most important items... the container itself and the logbook.. are still there. This will not be the last time someone like this will come along. Geocaching is getting too public now and more and more people are hearing about it (I wish it would have remained more of an 'underground' hobby, but with all the media and such lately buzzing about geocaching...). But, it is not. So, instead of changing your caches to MO... simply be more creative with them and they will last longer. Why is it that some of the oldest geocaches are still around, yet many new caches dont last a week? hhmmm. Anyways, just some thoughts and ramblings from a cacher with 650 finds in 16 months. Will I stop caching? Probably not. Generally speaking, it is alot of fun. I just want to sit back a while and kinda see where the current trends with geocaching goes. I will probably just be more selective in the caches I seek out when I am in the mood to find a cache. Getting #1 in the rankings was a big goal of mine.. but, that has kinda slipped into the background right now. Business has been good this season and that has limited how much I have been caching as well. But, I always have time to spare to find lots of caches. But, I think I will slow down for a while and wait to see where this all goes. Heck, look at how much money in gas I have saved lately!!!!! Scott Team RTW _________________________________________________________________ STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail