[Az-Geocaching] Poll

[David Thompsen]

Guy Aldrich <graldrich at gmail.com> wrote:Dave, could you please explain what you mean by"TC.com leaves a bad
taste in my mouth ?

Sure. I guess you're kind of becoming an unofficial spokesman for TC.com, since you and your wife now own more TC's than everyone else in the state combined. 
 
I'll start at the top. From the Terracaching site, here are some of the things they offer that you don't get at other sites.  
 
(the following is from their confusing FAQ)
..."TPS points, MCE/UCR ratings, Locationless caches, and the breathing room to post fun, quality caches that don't always fit within the other site's "guidelines"....
 
1) TPS points & MCE/UCR ratings.  I start to go a little cross-eyed when I look at the formulae they use to try to determine this.  I'd rather do the 1040 long form.  I suppose they're trying to say that they have a competitive scoring system in place. Ok, great.  As far as Arizona's concerned, I've been pleasantly surprised by Noshdoo Tsoh' excellent Arizona Challenge Points page. (http://www.deepsouthwest.com/geocaching/stats/)  I didn't like it at first, but over time it grew on me, and gives an interesting take on the relative difficulty of caches.  I prefer it to the TPS structure for my state.  MCE/UCR ratings?  I suppose these are feedback and participation ratings.  Again, the formulae are enough to make you go nuts.  My favorite part of their FAQ even compares UCR ratings to a pyramid scheme.
 
2)  Locationless caches.  OK, so they have 'em ... GC.com has some, and keeps mentioning some new replacement concept for them in the (indeterminate) future.  If you absolutely positively HAVE to have locationless, I guess this is a tilt in TC.com's favor.  Realistically, I think that LC's are, for the most part, an extremely minor or nonexistent part of most cachers life. I've done my share of locationless.  They're a neat idea, but not the focus of my caching experience at all.
 
3) "breathing room to post fun, quality caches that don't always fit within the other site's "guidelines"....  Here's where the site owner gets a little snarky.  It's no surprise to me that he used to be an avid cacher on "the other site" :) , decided to start TC.com, plagiarized their legalese, got banned, and now goes by the name of "Angry Kid". Hrm.   This is where I start to get the feeling of elitism, of the chip on the shoulder, of "I'm taking my toys somewhere else".  Whatever makes you happy --- but if you take your toys elsewhere, play nicely.  Don't lob spitballs at the old base camp.
 
Other things that confuse me :
 
4)  This is the index to the site. (http://www.terracaching.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=623)
Notice how section 3, "Acceptable Cache Guidelines", has no hyperlink?  Are there any cache guidelines at all?  Or can you post any cache you want as long as you find two sponsors?  Two buddies? If I make two more Terracaching sock puppets, I should theoretically be able to post a cache full of porn, crack vials, Satanist pamphlets, and broken glass next to an active military installation.  I could list every fact about this clearly wrong cache --- but as long as my sponsors are willing co-conspirators, it'll go up live on the site as an approved cache.
 
[Now my hypothetical example might eventually disappear, but the mechanisms of cache archival over there look like they take a looooooooong time.]
 
Sometimes you lose the battle within GC.com's guidelines.  I would argue that having guidelines and designated approvers beats the alternative of the slight anarchy I see over there.  
 
---
 
These are SOME of the reasons that _at_this_time_  I'm not interested in TC.com.  I reserve the right to change my mind if it seems to improve in the future.  No one should feel obligated to belong just one site. No one should feel the need to discuss just one site on the listserv.  If I hear amazing things about caches that they offer that just knock my socks off, maybe I'll change my mind.
 
But I'm not holding my breath.
 
--Dave, The Cow Spots
 

 

		
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
 Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new resources site! 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://listserv.sequoia.net/pipermail/az-geocaching/attachments/20050317/0eb1199a/attachment.htm