melbichon Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 (edited) Hi Many newbies don't read guides, so they don't know rules about Tb or logging for example. Should be great if a small explanation of basic geocaching rules is printed at inscription (website, mail). Edited February 27, 2015 by melbichon Quote Link to comment
+T.D.M.22 Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 (edited) Hi Many newbies don't read guides, so they don't know rules about Tb or logging for example. Should be great if a small explanation of basic geocaching rules is printed at inscription (website, mail). You mean like a link they can go to with different articles ranging from a description of the types of geocaches to the guideline saying that you can't hide a cache less than 161m from another cache? They do. But ultimately it's up to the individual cacher to look at them and understand it. Groundspeak can only make the information available, they can't really hold a gun to your head and force you to memorize it all... Edited February 27, 2015 by T.D.M.22 Quote Link to comment
+EngPhil Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 Groundspeak can only make the information available. They could certainly make it more available. And more obvious. Quote Link to comment
+speakers-corner Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 (edited) It could be included in the welcoming E-Mail that you get. Edited February 27, 2015 by speakers-corner Quote Link to comment
+cerberus1 Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 I agree that more could/should be done to get folks already in a hurry to get out there and play with their new app, to also pay a bit of attention to what they're doing. I thought the intro apps did that. I don't believe (so long, can't remember) the paid apps do the same. Get your bucks and done, with no need to ever enter the site. - But really, how many just zip by nag screens, or read the directions for that Christmas bike anyway? Quote Link to comment
+Gitchee-Gummee Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 As T.D.M.22 eludes to, the problem is deeper-rooted than just an email or an [opening] inscription of the "guidelines". First of all, if somebody is really interested in geocaching... I mean really interested, not just a passing casual interest... they will probably dig to find the "rule" (guidelines, really). Those that have a casual interest probably won't, and there isn't anything you can do to get them to check deeper into it. That being said, probably the most popular method of discovering geocaching today is via "app surfing" and finding a geocaching app on a smart phone. That alone, creates a problem of sorts. A goodly number of those nØØbs, are completely unaware of the fact that geocaching.com is a website. Many think that geocaching IS the app. Well, you and I know better... but that isn't the case regarding many, if not most of these folks that "discover" geocaching in this manner. For example, those geocachers that never bother to respond to that required "verification email" response. If they don't bother responding to that, what makes you think they would ever [bother to] read any guidelines? Add to that -- how many of those folks do you think even realize there are forums where they can ask questions? I just checked both the full app and the Intro-app on my iPhone. Both of those apps allow access to videos that delineate geocaches, geocaching, logging and trackables. Not the full guidelines, but at least they provide a bit of guidelines knowledge. If they don't search through the app features, what makes you think they would ever bother getting to and reading the guidelines? To make things even better, the Intro-app, from what I have found, has no way to properly record/log trackables. I would guess this is because it is "aimed" at raw beginners. Presumably, trackables are not considered to be a "beginner" feature. Would you like to throw up a guess as to how many get picked up but never logged because of this? Now, I'm not saying that phone apps are the root cause either, because they aren't. Lots of folks using dedicated devices (GPSr units) are of similar ilk, and they MUST use the website for obtaining coordinates and/or downloading to their device. The same videos are available for them, as are the printed and complete guidelines. Do you really think they (all) read them? Do you really believe that they read them well enough to understand them? Better yet, do you really think they even bother to look them up? I'm sorry, but I don't believe that the problem lies in the fact that the guidelines may be hard to locate (besides being somewhat difficult to comprehend). The problem dwells more-so with the fact that many just - don't - care! Quote Link to comment
+NanCycle Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 For example, those geocachers that never bother to respond to that required "verification email" response. When I got an Android tablet last fall, I downloaded the free Intro app just to see what it was like. There was not even a suggestion that I should verify the email address that I used--which was totally bogus. I logged a few finds on that account--bogus finds--just to see if I could. Quote Link to comment
melbichon Posted March 16, 2015 Author Share Posted March 16, 2015 What i mean is to print basic geocaching rules (like they must log in logbook and on website, what is a travel bug and what to do when they found one, respect caches and sites, ...) they have to accept before creating account. I know several people who do geocaching without having read the guides, and therefore are unfamiliar with the basic rules. Quote Link to comment
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