The Current State of Geocaching

Rob Horne
3/24/02

I have been involved with geocaching for exactly one year. Amazingly enough, that almost makes me an old timer in the game.  Most people that play the game are familiar with the specifics of how it works and what is required to participate.  I have, and continue to participate in two organizations that have been instrumental in the development of the activity.  While Geocaching.com is widely recognized as a leader in the sport, Navicache.com has been working in tandem to further the development and purity of the game.

Recently, geocaching.com  expanded the commercial aspect of the game by offering special features to players who subscribe for a small fee of $3 per month or $35 a year.  While  I have contributed to both sites, I'm put off by Geocaching.com's creation of so called "members only" caches. I leave that debate to others and only say that I gravitate towards the egalitarian nature of navicache.com. Sorry Quinn, I couldn't help myself and had to use that word, LOL.

I recently corresponded with Quinn who is one of the driving forces behind Navicache.  He was quick to point out that many others are involved with the Navicahe website. Quinn wrote, "George Chung who came on board some months back has been a huge help in getting our Cache pages and search features where they are today. Brian Gridley (also known as PC_Medic) has been right there just as much with page design's and testing the new features being added. He also has been the main control of the forums and Chat Room set-up's. But besides the three of us doing this and that to the website there are quite a few people behind the scenes that have made a big impact on how things run. Roger (Roadkill) has been great with testing everything that was tossed at him, he made sure that once it was added to the site that it worked to his standards. Not to mention quite a few of the things you see around Navicache were idea's that he thought of."

I don't know where all this will lead. I can say that I'm reassured that both sites are dedicated to preserving the environment and furthering the wholesome spirit of the game.  I expect that both sites will continue to co-exist and the "rank and file" players of the game will only benefit.

Quinn summed it up pretty well when he said. "I think we all agree that Geocaching belongs to the people that like to enjoy the sport, we have our priorities set so that the sport and the care of the environment comes first, and then all the extra's along the way can follow behind.