Challenge to place more caches

[Mr.Yuck]

Hello DJ Creek Cachers. Yes, I've noticed your caches in the listings. I will have to agree, I was expecting better than 750 hides, and 1,000 found logs in the first year (just my guess, we have almost 4 weeks left). I was (and still am) very excited about this website, it is awesome. Probably 90% of the features of a Geocaching.com premium membership, and all for nothing!! There have been a couple of unfortunate setbacks, I was really juiced up when Terracaching.com announced they were shutting down; I'll bet that would have brought thousands of users. But they had multiple offers to take it over, and someone did. Additionally, lets face it, Garmin and Opencaching.com was a big blow.

That's nice how you're emailing the people. Do any of them even answer the email? Sorry to hear about the results.

Garmin has advertised Opencaching.com in Outside Magazine at least 3 times. This was established in 1971, and has a monthly circulation of 700,000. I don't think they're getting much of a bang for their buck though. I think that's kind of out of our league, as is a billboard, and USA Today. You gave me an idea though. What about http://www.ftfgeocacher.com? They have published 8 issues, and it looks like their here to stay, and are going to be the first Geocaching print magazine to make it! I'll bet we could pull that one off. I also mentioned, in I think it was a GeoWoodstock thread, that we should investigate the cost of setting up a booth at next years event. If I remember correctly, we even had one volunteer who offered some time to man the booth.

Don't lose hope. When you're logged into the forums here, there is a member list link near the top of the page, and at least a couple people join this website every single day!! It's usually never more than 10, rarely more than 5, but every day they're joining.

[DudleyGrunt]

I also think it is significant that the geocaching playing field is definitely not what it looked like it might be, when we launched. When we launched, Garmin had yet to give any signal that they were going to start their own site. Also, it was not long after that AngryKid announced that he was going to shut down TerraCaching. It was into December, before it was definitively announced that Cash108 had stepped up to acquire the site and move it forward. While, I'm not thrilled with Garmin, I am glad that TerraCaching has survived and is seeing real action taken to move it forward. However, we'd be in a much stronger spot, I think, if Garmin and stayed out of the game and if TC had, indeed, folded. OCUS would have been the only viable option to GC.com in the US.

[Mr.Yuck]

I also think it is significant that the geocaching playing field is definitely not what it looked like it might be, when we launched. When we launched, Garmin had yet to give any signal that they were going to start their own site. Also, it was not long after that AngryKid announced that he was going to shut down TerraCaching. It was into December, before it was definitively announced that Cash108 had stepped up to acquire the site and move it forward. While, I'm not thrilled with Garmin, I am glad that TerraCaching has survived and is seeing real action taken to move it forward. However, we'd be in a much stronger spot, I think, if Garmin and stayed out of the game and if TC had, indeed, folded. OCUS would have been the only viable option to GC.com in the US.

I am of the opinion that AK decided to throw in the towel at Terracaching.com after seeing this website go online, and before any indication of what Garmin had in mind. The European volunteers have done an outstanding job on the Opencaching family of websites. I'm so impressed by this website, it's not even funny, especially when compared to Navicache and Terracaching.

Anyways DG, it might be a sensitive subject, but what do you think, should we advertise it? I'm for it, and kicking in some money. If you feel it's something that shouldn't be discussed publicly in the forums, just let me know. I do know Opencaching.de has a "donate" button on their main page. At least I think they do, I don't speak German.

[DJCreekCachers]

According to the statistics page, 186 users have created 590 active caches. Is there anyway to send out a bulk e-mail to all users asking each member to pledge to place or create one more cache by August 21, 2011? That should be pretty easy considering the numerous cache types that are supported by the site. I'd be willing to do that. That would definately take us over the 1K mark. How many caches would the Very Active members have to place each to bring us up to the 1K mark? I was thinking of placing a cache and putting a $50 bill in the container as a FTF prize. Do you thing anyone would rush out to find it? I do. I know of several geocachers in the Dayton area that are oc.us members.


88 Texas
39 New York
38 Maryland
29 Michigan
26 Wisconsin
25 Virginia
24 North Carolina
23 Florida
22 Utah
21 New Mexico
19 Ohio
18 Washington
17 Mississippi
16 Tennessee
13 Idaho
13 Iowa
11 Colorado
11 California
9 Pennsylvania
9 New Jersey
8 New Hampshire
7 Oregon
7 Georgia
7 Illinois
6 Louisiana
5 Arizona
4 Arkansas
4 Montana
4 Indiana
4 South Carolina
4 Minnesota
4 District of Columbia
3 Alaska
3 Nevada
3 Alabama
3 Massachusetts
3 Nebraska
2 South Dakota
1 ????????????
1 Oklahoma
1 Delaware
1 West Virginia
1 Kentucky
1 Maine
1 Connecticut
1 Missouri

I would prefer to just pay an "Optional" membership fee. Maybe we could have a Opencaching Supporting Member Club like Sonny and Sandy have over at Podcacher.com (Member Appreciation Premium Perk). Maybe the members could get some sort of perks that non-paying member don't receive.

That's my two cents worth

[RVRoadTrip]

I can send out the mass email to all registered users who have opted to receive bulletins. I would rather not ask for donations or have any sort of fee, that's not what we are about, but I do appreciate your ideas.

[Sabrefan7]

I liked the bulletin email. I will be on vacation and have an idea for a guestbook and at least 1 web cam. They will be in Northern NY

[Mr.Yuck]

I can send out the mass email to all registered users who have opted to receive bulletins. I would rather not ask for donations or have any sort of fee, that's not what we are about, but I do appreciate your ideas.

I've got the ad prices for FTFGeocacher Magazine, and they're really quite reasonable. A full page ad is only $300, and runs for 3 issues. The magazine is published 6 times a year. Obviously smaller ads are even cheaper.

I'm going to go ahead and assume this is something you'd be OK with, while not officially endorsing?

[Mr.Yuck]

FYI, I have received a PM from RVRoadTrip on this matter. I will be investigating this further with DudleyGrunt. Whether he's on board, or chooses to make any of this public in another new thread, I guess we'll see.

[NativTxn]

I had placed a couple of stand-alone Munzees around town. I'm going to go back and put them inside micro/small cache containers and add a log. These will be OCUS only caches. I got one replaced this morning already.