MnGCA

[fidian]

I have started a web site that you can use to search for any applicable geocaching guidelines for people interested in hiding caches. I hope that it grows and becomes useful for everyone in the U.S. I grabbed the MnGCA guidelines pages, individual park pages, city guidelines, other organizations, and whatever else I could find. I'm not quite done adding rules to it for other states, but Minnesota is about as done as I can make it.

Instead of listing just places where caching is restricted or not allowed, I intend to also list places where hiding caches is allowed or even encouraged. Such as the Washington County Parks. This started with another post and then some private discussion with Silent Bob and myself. It is my goal that other organizations will add their information to this site and then refer people over to this database.

http://rumkin.com/reference/geocaching/

If others here would check it out and give me their inital impression and maybe kick it around a bit, I would greatly appreciate it. Also, please send a submission if you know of other cities or counties that I do not have listed.

Things yet to do:

Add more information from GeocachingPolicy.info
Contact each county in MN and the cities near me for permission.
Ask other organizations about their thoughts - SLAGA, SoCal, Florida, etc.)
Find a way for other sites to incorporate my listings on their page. Iframe? Theming?

[celticwulf]

Just checked out the website, looks like a great start and a good way to get the information centralized. Some immediate thought's I had looking at it were:

At least when you head to the state level, instead of just showing the overall guidelines and nothing else, it may be more helpfull to show all of the MN policies and the other drop down menus be filtering OUT the info, instead of to filter it in.

Add pictoral representation and clickthrough if possible.

and that's all I came up with in quick glance...brain stopped way to quickly

On another note, the following is something that I would be slightly concerned on:

[fidian]

[Moe the Sleaze]

[celticwulf]

[dmnrec]

The site looks good, but there might be other land-owners that you would want to list as well...such as Minnesota Power owns quite a bit of land on Island Lake and around that area north of Duluth...there are probably other examples as well.

[Moe the Sleaze]

[fidian]

I'd be willing to list all large land owners (3M, any college, etc.) that say yes or no. I'd even be willing to list private people (my dad) if they say yes. They would be listed with the individual city and only shown at the county level if they owned land in several cities.

In my opinion, the more the merrier. There's nothing wrong with it that I can think of.

[Marsha and Silent Bob]

There is no reason to go out to private land owners and ask if they do/do not permit geocaching for your list.

Geocaching should not be considered for most private owned land. The rest (say your "dad") don't belong on a list accessable nationwide. A note on the cache page would be sufficient.
_________________
Sad state of affairs.

[fidian]

I don't plan on asking any private land owners, including my dad. However, if they decide to make a public statement on lands that they own, I'm not against listing it. If the permission is granted to an individual for a single cache, that is a different story. So, if the U of M decides to openly allow geocaches in the arboretum on 5 west of the cities, then I would list it. If they just give KB permission to place one cache or maybe if they just flat-out deny geocaching, it likely wouldn't be listed unless the land feels like a public land -- a 3M playground that is open to the public or an island that people picnic at which is owned by the power company. Either way, I'm probably not going to contact private parties unless I have an area in mind where I might be able to place a cache.

[WindChill]

[fidian]

[Grey Wolf and Wild Rice]

[WindChill]

[fidian]