MnGCA

georondi · Geocacher Joined: 28 Apr 2012 Posts: 18

How many people are members of opencaching.com? I am asking to see if it is worth my while to import all my finds and hides. If there are a significant number who use this website for downloading published caches, then I will be more than happy to do it. Otherwise, not.

AerosmithPA · Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 6:00 pm Post subject:

I am not. Unless things have changed at opencaching, I decided I liked geocaching.com because of the approval process, where guidelines are in place to help keep the game a positive thing as far as relations to the general public goes.

With only using one site for my caching, I find there is still plenty of caches for me to find.

A-body · Geocacher Joined: 26 Jun 2009 Posts: 119

Never looked at it, probably never will

tonkaMN · MnGCA Board Joined: 10 Jun 2009 Posts: 544

I signed up solely so that someone else couldn't use my name. I've never hidden or found a cache on opencaching

Hunter-Killer · Geocacher Joined: 25 Apr 2009 Posts: 222

georondi · Geocacher Joined: 28 Apr 2012 Posts: 18

Still following all posts. I know that Groundspeak has. by far, the most registered caches. I just sort of came across opencaching and wondered about it. Thanks for all the replies and keep 'em coming!

Captain and Mate · Geocacher Joined: 28 Nov 2010 Posts: 14

JJnTJ · Geocacher Joined: 23 Aug 2010 Posts: 218

IMO, Opencaching.com doesn't really bring anything that GC.com doesn't already have. I've got one hide and several finds on that site. All but one are cross-posted caches where I've copied-and-pasted my GC.com log.

I find OC.com to be visually ugly. Cache pages are boring and plain because they don't allow much customization. The submission and review process is unpleasant.

The most important difference is the review process. GC.com reviewers are familiar with the rules and restrictions of land managers in their area. So "infringing" caches are much less likely to be published, which means better press for our hobby. Apparently OC.com has what I call "cluster reviewing", which requires several volunteers to look over a cache and approve it. It's slow.

As far as I understand it, Opencaching was an organization that created several free-to-use and not-for-profit sites (like opencaching.us) as an alternative to GC.com. Later, Garmin launched opencaching.com, which is still free-to-use but decidedly for-profit. It confused a lot of people who naturally think opencaching.us and opencaching.com are related.

I don't know what sand got into Garmin's nether regions that made them cut ties with GC.com and strike out on their own, but I really don't like the way they did it.

X51hz · Geocacher Joined: 04 Dec 2007 Posts: 218

The review process is very biased also, if someone doesn't care for a type of cache and gets enough to side with them it won't get published even if it is a good hide and goes by there rules.

georondi · Geocacher Joined: 28 Apr 2012 Posts: 18

A few posts got me wondering as to why you would create an account to protect your user name or prevent someone from using it on opencaching.com?

BigChiefS4 · Geocacher Joined: 22 Jun 2011 Posts: 125

There have been instances where someone creates an account that matches your Geocaching.com username and then lists your caches under that name, all without you knowing about it.

bflentje · Geocacher Joined: 29 May 2006 Posts: 3655

There is HUGE demand for bflentje. I just had to protect it.

former hawkeye · Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 2:19 pm Post subject:

I opened an account for 2 reasons.
1. To protect my caching name.
2. After I was contacted by a fellow cacher that wanted someone to find his virtual. I did, so I'm 1/1 in the FTF column Laughing

.
I was able to do some other geocaching caches on my run too.
_________________
Summer is too short

XHawk · Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 4:21 pm Post subject:

I read this the other day, thought about it, and did the same thing. Will I ever use it? Probably not.