NatureFish
01-26-2006, 09:05 AM
Webmaster, please pin (sticky) this to the top of the forum!
Permission to hide a cache is becoming a real and dangerous issue in our game... enough so that I want to highlight the requirement here!
The following is a cross-posting where I addressed this with a now-archived cache:
... who gets the permission? Should we be going to every business and shop in the area to ask if it okay for us to look around on the edge of the parking lot near their shop?
No, you shouldn't. Groundspeak Cache Listing Guidelines clearly require that the hider gain permission for the hide.
It is in fact the first line of the Guidelines.
When hiders create a listing page they must click two checkboxes, attesting that they have read both the Cache Listing Guidelines and Terms of Service and will abide by them.
This is what makes our game work - geocachers trust that the hider has done as promised and can assume that permission has been given.
If anything threatens our game it is caches hidden without permission.
What territory we have lost, and the land-use issues we have today, are almost all directly attributable to past hider's failure to live up to this permission commitment.
Or does the placer have that responsibility? I went with the thought that it it was placed there it was OK to look for it, especally on the edge of a public parking lot.
Yes, you should be able to assume that listings have permission... the hider has stated that it does!
As a Reviewer I have to trust that the hider has permission, based on the commitment made by checking those two boxes on the Cache Listing Submission page, and get quite leery about listing an individual's caches once it has been proven that they do not do this!
If I have to archive two caches by a hider due to permission issues I will ask for a permission contact for all future caches.
But I was informed by the owner and the police that there is no such thing as PUBLIC property, that that lot was for parking to go to the shops ONLY to and from the car, anything else was Trespassing
They're right! All property in the continental US is owned by someone.
All property managers set land use rules - be it a State Park, National Forest, cemetary, Wal-Mart or strip mall parking lot or city sidewalk, it's all owned and regulated.
Many people do not understand that there is no such thing as public land - only land designated for Public Use... a big difference! All Public Use lands, just like all private lands, have Land Use Rules... that's why parks have Rangers!
Private lands such as mall parking lots generally allow access only during specific hours for the specific purposes of servicing or doing business with the businesses there located. Private Security and Public Police enforce these policies.
Please, geocachers, file a Should Be Archived note anytime you have knowledge that the hide does not meet the Guideline's permission requirement.
Failure to get permission will only result in more geocachers being hassled and more restrictions on available placement territories.
Ed
Permission to hide a cache is becoming a real and dangerous issue in our game... enough so that I want to highlight the requirement here!
The following is a cross-posting where I addressed this with a now-archived cache:
... who gets the permission? Should we be going to every business and shop in the area to ask if it okay for us to look around on the edge of the parking lot near their shop?
No, you shouldn't. Groundspeak Cache Listing Guidelines clearly require that the hider gain permission for the hide.
It is in fact the first line of the Guidelines.
When hiders create a listing page they must click two checkboxes, attesting that they have read both the Cache Listing Guidelines and Terms of Service and will abide by them.
This is what makes our game work - geocachers trust that the hider has done as promised and can assume that permission has been given.
If anything threatens our game it is caches hidden without permission.
What territory we have lost, and the land-use issues we have today, are almost all directly attributable to past hider's failure to live up to this permission commitment.
Or does the placer have that responsibility? I went with the thought that it it was placed there it was OK to look for it, especally on the edge of a public parking lot.
Yes, you should be able to assume that listings have permission... the hider has stated that it does!
As a Reviewer I have to trust that the hider has permission, based on the commitment made by checking those two boxes on the Cache Listing Submission page, and get quite leery about listing an individual's caches once it has been proven that they do not do this!
If I have to archive two caches by a hider due to permission issues I will ask for a permission contact for all future caches.
But I was informed by the owner and the police that there is no such thing as PUBLIC property, that that lot was for parking to go to the shops ONLY to and from the car, anything else was Trespassing
They're right! All property in the continental US is owned by someone.
All property managers set land use rules - be it a State Park, National Forest, cemetary, Wal-Mart or strip mall parking lot or city sidewalk, it's all owned and regulated.
Many people do not understand that there is no such thing as public land - only land designated for Public Use... a big difference! All Public Use lands, just like all private lands, have Land Use Rules... that's why parks have Rangers!
Private lands such as mall parking lots generally allow access only during specific hours for the specific purposes of servicing or doing business with the businesses there located. Private Security and Public Police enforce these policies.
Please, geocachers, file a Should Be Archived note anytime you have knowledge that the hide does not meet the Guideline's permission requirement.
Failure to get permission will only result in more geocachers being hassled and more restrictions on available placement territories.
Ed