Ask Your Reviewer!

[Gaddiel]

I have considered trying to get a list of other states Geocaching Associations like ours and see if I could get someone from each state to send me their GSAK database. What do you think the chances of that are? It would be good if we could get a process setup to get each state association to provide this for other states. Put them all on an FTP server or even just provide via email if nothing else. I would volunteer to do Arkansas. I have pocket queries created that cover the state and gets refreshed every week. It would not be a big deal to make that available to cachers from other states. They could then load it and filter for whatever route they might be traveling in Ark.

Sounds like a neat idea. However, it's my understanding that the PQs have some special rules attached to them. I'm no lawyer, but the license agreement seems to indicate that information contained in PQs are not transferrable. Here's an excerpt (emphasis mine):

Permitted Uses:
· Licensee may install the Data or portions of the Data onto a global positioning system unit [“GPS”] for Licensee's own internal use.
· Licensee may make only one (1) copy of the original Data for archival purposes unless the right to make additional copies is granted to Licensee in writing by GROUNDSPEAK.

Uses Not Permitted:
· Licensee shall not sell, rent, lease, sublicense, lend, assign, time-share, or transfer, in whole or in part, or provide unlicensed third parties access to the Data, Related Materials, any updates, or Licensee's rights under this Agreement.


You can read the full agreement here.

Anybody know more about this?

Wayne

[Team_Pink]

You appear to be correct. I guess the license agreement is typical - here it is, take it or leave it, THE COMPANY doesn't have to satisfy the user, be flexible, etc etc.

It bites that Groundspeak doesn't provide a method and prevents the user from implementing a workaround.

It looks to me like as long as the people involved were paying members it would be ok, but that's me.

[NatureFish]

The above posts are correct, Groundspeak restricts and closely protects its proprietary Pocket Query data... that product is, after all, their profit center and primary benefit to Premium Members.

Pocket Query generation throws a heavy load on servers, and are the primary load on Groundspeak's infrastructure. The listing service is much less processor-intensive.

So, they are at the same time the most expensive to produce and yet the cheapest deal you can find in geocaching!

Please remember, no one is forcing you to hunt members-only geocaches, nor to download Pocket Queries, only buy them if they benefit you!

As far as their being a for-profit business, will you go to work tomorrow if your employer decides to quit paying you? Shouldn't everyone's work product be free? Why not yours?

Ed

There are (at last glance) about 1800 caches in Arkansas and I use a series of five PQ's to blanket the state for my statewide data base.

If a cacher is going on trip I'd think it'd be pretty easy do something simular for your trip. Just set up a series of points along your route of travel about 100 miles apart and use these coordinates to build PQ's of everything within 150 miles. (the overlap is intentional) You'll end up with a sizable database which GSAK can use as a reference while on the road.

[Team_Pink]

How do you do the state in 5 queries? It takes me quite a few, otherwise they go over 500 and they start missing caches.

I set up four PQ's centered on each corner of the state, but also limited by state borders and a fifth one centered on Little Rock.

GSAK combines them and shows several caches as "already up to date" but it ends up with the same number as the total for the state on the GC site.

As new ones get added this method may have to be adjusted to six PQ's or some other variant, but so far it's good.

Right now I'm working on finding a pattern that cover TN completely for a road trip this summer, but they have nearly 6000 caches statewide so it will definately take more than 5 PQ's.

Not sure if this is for the reviewer or if I should be asking someone else as it is about tracking numbers.

What I'm trying to find out is if you can buy just a TB tracking number without the tag. I have several potential TB type items in mind to cast out of aluminum and would rather just stamp the number directly into the body of the item rather than have to attach the tag later.

I know you can get geocoins made in small batches and making them trackable costs $1.50 each, but there doesn't see to be a provision for anything other than coins this way. And then with geocoins you have to pay to have a die manufactured, etc so that even small batches come with a big pricetag.

I've even considered making something simular to a geocoin, but only the size of a quarter so it can be dropped in micro caches, but I don't want to have to make a thousand of them. I don't have the facilities for that or the cash to have a thousand of them minted professionally.

IS my only option to buy TB tags, use the numbers and then toss the tags? Seems wasteful to me, both of $ and of the maunfactured tags.

[NatureFish]

You can buy tracking numbers to be used any way you want (within Groundspeak's Terms of Service) in quantities of 100 for $1.50 each.

I know it seems silly on the face of it to have to pay for numbers, but remember that this is like the perpetual-care cemetary business - you are asking them to track your item forever; there is no lifetime on a Traveler, so they have to invest in databases and servers that may still be tracking your bug in 100 years and have to have its information instantly available!

Send an email to Bryan at contact@groundspeak.com for details.

Have fun,
Ed

Well $150 is still quit a chunk of change to drop all at once, but in the long run would be well worth it, much like buying the TB tags themselves 20 at a time to get the $4.25 price. You know you'll use them eventually....

For that matter I'll still want TB tags some of the time too, only metal castings really lend themselves to having the number stamped into them.

[nonnipoppy]

There seems to be a lot of discussion on Geocaching.com about caches on a route. I am thinking about going to Oregon next summer and would like to plan caches all the way there and back. From the forums, Google Earth seems to be the only way to do this and it is very time cosuming.
.

We struggle with this every time we plan a trip. Generally we look at an overview of the intended route using the map of GC.com. Then we choose strategic areas to center our PQs on. Look up the zip codes and set up the PQ with <100 caches each. You can get 35 a week 5 per day.

This is pretty hit and miss but then using GSAK we combine them all to one file and export to Mapsource. We can move in the mapsource program pretty well and we then set up the arc or polygon filter in GSAK and trim the cache count down. Since our GPs will hold 1000 cache coords we just get all that we can and proceed.

Depending on out time we will cache only close to the route or in clusters along the route. We were recently given MS Streets and Trips and are anxious to try this and see if it is better. If you want to discuss this feel free to call or visit us. Check the clue of our cache Hockeyology for phone number.

BTW I have seen a discussion in the GC.com forum that some state organizations are putting together info about caches along major routes in their states. That info is found here.

Good luck, poppy