I’ve been watching the growth of listing on opencaching.com quite closely. The ability to upload hides makes it easy to add existing caches into the site. When I looked at the map for Ontario I thought that maybe a lot of local cachers were taking advantage of this feature.
I have written previously that cachers in my area are early adopters of GPS hardware. This appears to be true of geocaching websites. Opencaching.com has an API which would allow someone with more programming talent than me to find out how many caches are in a given area. I don’t have those skills so I had to rely on what skills I do have which includes the ability to ask someone that knows the answer.
I asked Garmin how many caches were in Ontario and how many were in a comparably sized US state. I was told there are 87 caches in Ontario and 23 caches in North Carolina. A sample size of one is not definitive but it would appear that cachers in Ontario are giving opencaching.com a good work out.
teamvoyagr
I have been writing the cachemania blog since 2008. I'm interested in the development of geocaching and the many ways that people play the game.
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Perhaps that also indicates the difference between opencaching.us and opencaching.com – Ontario was not covered under the .us site
It could also have something to do with the fact that you are spurring on involvement in your area… just saying.
@Jenn, as much as I’d like to believe I have that much influence I’m not sure it’s because of what I’ve been writing, maybe. There are a few cachers that have uploaded many caches. This is giving the appearance of popularity. I placed a cache on day one and it has only been found by a friend. There was no FTF rush on this cache.
I was going to upload our cache hides but the “I have permission from the landowner or manager to hide my geocache” checkbox has stopped me. Truth is I do not hide caches where permission is required i.e. parks that have geocaching permits or private property. Is it really expected that each cache owner must locate and communicate with the manager of public land?
P.S. I’d ask this in the opencaching forums but I’m one of unfortunate few who can’t login to the forums (I’ve contacted Garmin about the problem).
@Lone R – why would you place something on someone else’s land without permission? Even if it’s public land,d someone has to maintain it, and should know about the container.
Let’s not get into the whole ‘public lands are our lands’/'frisbee rule’/'every cache should have permission’/'don’t ask don’t tell’ discussion. For that do a google search for: permission and groundspeak forums. What I want to know is: Does OC expect all caches on their database to have official permission from a land manager (park official, city official, etc.)? GC.com’s policy regarding permission is “By submitting a cache listing, you assure us that you have adequate permission to hide your cache in the selected location.” Whereas OC states “I have permission from the landowner or manager to hide my geocache”. This to me is a more limiting policy.
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