[Az-Geocaching] Geocaching.com administrator questions whether my museum caches are really "geocaches"

[Loran Wilcox]

One way to please everyone in the future would be to use the coordinates as
a location to an object outside the museum to point to something of
interest. Then you could just add one more question having the person
describe something about the object of interest.

With this it has a part just like most virtuals that require the GPS along
with the benifit of the museum.

Hope you continue to add more museum even if I wont be around to find them.

Loran (Team Sand Dollar)

----- Original Message -----
From: <ken@highpointer.com>
To: <az-geocaching@listserv.snaptek.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2002 1:01 PM
Subject: [Az-Geocaching] Geocaching.com administrator questions whether my
museum caches are really "geocaches"


>
> Hello Geocachers,
>
> While traveling out of the state in the past two weeks, I stopped and
visited two small historical museums, one in southeastern Utah and the other
in northwestern Oklahoma.  I made virtual geocaches from these museums,
similar in style to the six that I have currenlty active in eastern Maricopa
County.
>
> Geocaching administrator erik88l-r approved these two new virtual
geocaches, but upon doing so he sent me this note, which I have pasted
below:
>
> User erik88l-r has contacted you with the following message:
>
> Hi,
>
> I posted your caches, but have to ask before others attack you for it in
the forums - are all these museums really "geocaches"?  Don't get me wrong,
I love museums, but is a GPS required to find them?  I just don't want to
see you going overboard on something that might result in a backlash.
Sometimes too much of a good thing results in that reaction. ;)  My
suggestion would be to hide a physical cache near such places in the
future - that way people will visit the area without questions about whether
something should or should not be a virtual cache.
>
> All the best,
> erik - geocaching.com admin
>
> I replied to Erik that these museum geocaches are very popular among
geocachers in Arizona.  It is great to introduce people to places where they
can learn about local history and bring the entire family for little or no
cost, and they are particularly great to visit on hot summer days because
they are air-conditioned.
>
> It is true that you don't need a GPS to find these museums, but I argue
that one can find many virtual caches without a GPS, because they are
typically large items like statues or historical markers that are out in
plain view in public places.  Also, what is wrong with having some virtual
geocaches where a GPS is not mandatory - not everyone has a GPS, so this
opens up our activity to people who can't afford to own a GPS.
>
> Also, I disagree with his suggestion to place a physical geocache near
these museums.  Most of these museums are located in highly visible areas
where there is no good place to put a physical geocache.
>
> What do Arizona geocachers think about the comments of Erik and myself?
Should I continue to create virtual geocaches at museums?  Remember, these
are not the easiest caches to complete fully - typically I have six or seven
questions that requires one to visit every part of the museum, and as many
of you are aware, some of the answers are not easy to find.
>
> Ken (a.k.a. Highpointer)
>
>
>