[OSM-talk] OSM not acceptable for geocaching.com

Thomas Wood grand.edgemaster at gmail.com
Wed Nov 26 15:52:28 GMT 2008


I realised after sending the email that Till is/was the owner of the cache.
However, it appears that the cache is once again active. Now that the
logs are visible again, it is clear that the cache was removed due to
the requirement to use an external piece of software/website resource.
As noted, (afaik) they implemented this policy due to the general
unreliability of external services.

2008/11/26 Nick Black <nickblack1 at gmail.com>:
> Did you get anywhere with this?  Have you tried emailing the admins at
> geocaching.com to see why they removed the cache?  I'd love to hear more.
>
> Nick
>
>
> On Sat, Nov 15, 2008 at 2:02 PM, Thomas Wood <grand.edgemaster at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> 2008/11/15 Till Harbaum / Lists <lists at harbaum.org>:
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > i have recently released a geocache which basically required you to look
>> > up a certain node
>> > in the OSM database. The position of that node was then the place where
>> > the geocache was
>> > hidden. Geocaching.com users can perhaps still read the original listing
>> > at:
>> >
>> > http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=80a9308b-6719-485d-a0dc-846798a8cac2
>>
>> Through a bug in their site code, the original listing is visible
>> here:
>> http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cdpf.aspx?guid=80a9308b-6719-485d-a0dc-846798a8cac2
>>
>> > Geocaching.com recently completely deleted that cache antry as they
>> > claim that it forces you to use a certain
>> > software (a web browser!!!) and a certain web service.
>>
>> They have un-published the listing, an event that occurs not very
>> often - usually only if the reviewer who published it realises they
>> made a mistake soon after.
>> The specific guideline reads something like caches that require
>> (unusual) third party software to be installed are not permitted,
>> there's also a similar rule about cache perminance in terms of
>> external resources on the net - eg hosting an mp3 on a personal
>> website will not be acceptable as a part of the 'puzzle' as they have
>> a habit of falling offline.
>>
>> > This is a strange explanation as geocaches requesting you to find a
>> > certain image on google earth
>> > are pretty common. On the other hand Geocaching.com seems to have a
>> > business with google. This
>> > may be the explanation why they don't like to deal with openstreetmap. I
>> > really wonder if
>> > it's google behind this.
>>
>> They have business with Google as far as using their Maps API,
>> publishing KML files, and using AdWords, I don't think they have any
>> further links with them.
>>
>> > This includes quite extreme behaviour on the GC.com side as they are not
>> > using their usual methods
>> > of disabling or archiving caches. Instead they reset their entire
>> > database with respect to this
>> > cache to the state before it was published. It's like they really want
>> > to clean all traces related to
>> > this geocache.
>>
>> "The GC.com" side is usually just a volunteer reviewer rather than one
>> of the company's employees. As noted, caches can be removed completely
>> from the site - 'unpublished' on the event of the reviewer making a
>> mistake.
>>
>> > IMHO a very interesting issue and may mean that google sees a serious
>> > competitor arriving ...
>>
>> Not in my view.
>>
>> > Till
>>
>> I'm asking some contacts I have to see if I can get the full logs for
>> publishing and subsequent removal of it to see if a reason is further
>> given.
>>
>> --
>> Regards,
>> Thomas Wood
>> (Edgemaster)
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> talk mailing list
>> talk at openstreetmap.org
>> http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
>
>
>
> --
> Nick Black
> --------------------------------
> http://www.blacksworld.net
>



-- 
Regards,
Thomas Wood
(Edgemaster)




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