Ken Akerman wrote:

"It only costs $30 per year."

What are you going to tell some kid that doesn't have any money but wants to get into geocaching? If people start making all of the caches in town "Members Only", how is that kid, who can't drive himself outside of town, going to get into geocaching. I see your point with the potential to limit damage to caches, but it also limits access to caches for people who would only have a chance to enjoy geocaching if the caches around their house were not "Members Only". I thought geocaching was something that was supposed to be fun for EVERYONE. By creating "Members Only" caches, you restrict it to people who have the extra $30/year as well as the money to buy a GPS unit to participate. Some of these people with smaller budgets may not ever spend money on putting gas into a geocaching vehicle, so you cannot argue that point. I know several kids that are into geocaching and they would all be discouraged or quit if "Members Only" caches were to start showing up everywhere around their houses. Like I said before, geocaching is about the caches and they should not be restricted.

Brian of Team LeapLab wrote:

. . .that there should be limitations to the features on Geocaching.com for people that are not members, but Geocaching is about the caches and they should not be restricted to be accessed by a small number of people.

Anyone can be a member. It only costs $30 per year. That's less than a full tank of gas for a typical geocaching vehicle (i.e. SUV, pickup, van, or full-size car). (I know this to be true because on Saturday morning I paid over $35 to put 19 gallons of unleaded gasoline in the gas tank of my Isuzu Rodeo).

I don't want to lose my caches, I don't want to see travel bugs get lost, and I don't want to see anyone write obscenities on log sheets. Making a cache "Members Only" does not guarantee that those things won't happen, but will reduce the chances of bad things happening to caches and travel bugs.