Webcams, Inconsistency & Groundspeak

2 November 2005 @ 21:14 | Posted in » GPS Games, Geocaching

Groundspeak has once again been inconsistent. The ~~rules~~ guidelines for placing a webcam cache state:

The camera must provide a photo detailed enough to identify the cacher. The cameras must update at reliable intervals so geocachers can log their visit.

This has been the subject of many threads at GC.com and elsewhere.

Groundspeak’s checks and balances do not work. How else does one explain this cache, listed on 23 October? What’s the big deal? you ask. Consistency. It’s not as if the cacher you listed this wasn’t aware of the issue:

the camera doesn’t zoom, so you can’t really see how good looking I am from the photo.

The cacher has been registered since 20 April 2001, so being a newbie doesn’t apply. His example photograph clearly demonstrates no one can identify the subject of the image. What was WestCoastAdmin thinking?

Then there’s rippietoe’s log that adds even more problems for this cache:

Changing my note to a find with owners permission and posting my own photo taken at the site. Picture taken from a different angle of the camera due to where I got tourist to take photo but GPS was at 10 feet. I tried this one when I first arrived in the area last week and called a friend who is a website designer and a cacher and knows how these things work. The camera hadn’t updated since about 6 hours earlier and it wouldn’t refresh for her. I tried another friend /cacher and it wouldn’t do anything for them either. This morning I just checked the camera because I want to try it again before I have to fly home tomorrow and it hasn’t updated since yesterday at 4:50PM. I did get some tourist to take my picture at the spot of the coords and it’s a much clearer photo then the webcam. Is there certain times this one can be visited?

One has to applaud the Irish boys for this one. Experienced cachers not knowing the guidelines. Reviewers not applying the guidelines. No oversight when things are missed. Is it any wonder so many have no respect for those running the show? If you permit logs on your archived caches, what kind of example have you set?