Für alle, die aufgrund der Sperre für Nicht-PMs das Waymarking-Diskussionsforum noch nicht verfolgen können hier mal der erste offizielle Entwurf eines "Read Me First" - da wird zwar noch heftigst diskutiert, aber es gibt schon Antworten auf einige Fragen aus diesem Forum hier:
Ein Fall für Bumbum, den Translator!Do existing locationless caches go away?
Eventually, yes. Although we do plan, with permission, to transfer the existing locationless caches to the new waymarking site, existing locationless caches that do not transfer will be allowed to remain on the geocaching.com web site until the end of the year. Existing locationless caches that do transfer to waymarking.com will be archived and the listings will be locked. It is up to the locationless cache owner whether to transfer their category.
Any existing logs will be preserved.
Can I transfer an archived locationless cache?
No. Only active locationless caches are eligible for transfer as long as they meet the requirements of a waymark category.
What are the eligibility requirements for transferring a locationless cache?
They must have an individual theme and be at least semi-permanent locations. Listings like the (now archived) yellow Jeep will not be an eligible candidate as a waymark category (for now). As this is a new activity there may be other issues depending on the locationless cache. However we will try and work with the locationless cache owner so they can manage a similar category on waymarking.com.
Keep in mind as the waymark category owner you are also required to be a premium member.
What if a waymark category mirrors an existing locationless but they have different managers?
During the grace period, if the category matches an existing locationless, the category will be transferred to the locationless cache owner.
What if a locationless cache owner decides not to move a listing?
That's perfectly fine. However, keep in mind that once a general grace period is over, someone else will have the opportunity to create a waymark category with the same theme.
If I posted a log for a locationless cache, can I post a waymark for the same waymark category?
Of course! And with waymark variables you will even be able to add additional information for your log entry as a waymark.
Not many virtual caches are being approved. What are you planning to do with virtual caches?
Early on we realized that virtual caches have their place as a way to introduce people to unique locations where a cache couldn't be placed. Since waymark categories are themes for what are essentially virtual caches, a waymark category will be the future location for virtual caches. As a result we will be removing the virtual cache listing from geocaching.com in favor of new waymark categories for these listings. You'll see that by adding virtuals to themes make them easier to seek out and enjoy.
Existing maintained virtuals on geocaching.com will be grandfathered on the web site, but we do not guarantee they will remain listed forever. We'll see how waymarking goes.
Are any other categories being removed from Geocaching.com?
Yes. Most likely web cam caches and Earthcaches will be moved to the waymarking site. As with virtuals, existing maintained listings will remain active on geocaching.com for the near future.
What about Benchmarking? Will it be moved to Waymarking.com?
No. At least not in the near term. There is too much functionality that would be lost by moving over benchmarking to waymarking.com at this time. However there will be some benchmarking categories available to allow the reporting of benchmarks that are not in the official NGS database, such as UK Trigpoints or even benchmarks that were just missed by the NGS but found by waymarkers.
In the long term the technology behind benchmarking, geocaching and waymarking will be more or less the same and these features will be shared. However benchmarking has always been its own section and will remain on geocaching.com for a while - at least until the functionality on waymarking.com warrants it being moved to the new site.
What happens to my stats on Geocaching? Will I lose my find counts?
No. As with any listing now, if any are archived you still retain all of your logs and hides.
There are no waymarks near me! Why?
The waymarking site is brand new, so there are no waymarks in the system. Initially we planned to populate several categories using freely available data, but decided instead to start with a fresh, empty database. We may add filled-in waymark categories in the future, such as the database from the National Register of Historic Places, but for now the fun is in the hunt for new places that fit in waymark categories.
Why is the location filter limited to 10 miles?
While testing the waymarking.com site we populated the site with over 3 million items. The sheer volume required that we limit the overall filtering to 10 miles. However you can still go a level or two deep into a category to do a location based search. The location based search goes out to 100 miles.
Can I download GPX files for individual waymarks?
You will be able to. Unfortunately waymarks are so different to geocaching.com, however, that we will need to create a new xml design for these items so they contain the extra information (called waymark variables). We're still working on this design to accomodate the new site.
How about Pocket Queries?
We will have Pocket Queries for waymarking as well, but it will be more advanced and will have fewer limits due to the semi-permanence of waymarks over geocaches.
Can I create my own waymark category?
Yes. As a premium members you will have this option. However we're doing a slow rollout while we determine how waymark categories will be created. We have another pinned topic to discuss the current thoughts on this subject. Feel free to drop in and provide your own comments.
For the first month we'll be working out the details, testing for bugs we missed, and transferring locationless caches over to waymark categories for the new waymark category managers.
Will non Premium/Charter Members have access to the site?
Yes. For the first month, however, only Premium Members will have access to this forum and the web site. Afterwards all those with geocaching.com accounts will have access to the waymarking site.
Who gets to create waymark categories?
All registered users will be able to create waymarks, but the creation of waymark categories, some filtering and all voting privileges will be available to Premium Members only.
Who gets to create waymarks
All registered users will eventually be able to log waymarks or create them.
What if the waymark category goes AWOL?
We're working on a group management feature for waymark categories, so more than one user can review new waymarks and maintain the category. However for now there is only one waymark category manager per waymark category. Groundspeak will assist categories where the manager has gone AWOL before these other features are in place.
What do you think about taboo categories?
We believe they eventually have the right to exist but not before we have some flags in place to allow people to filter the access to them. Until then the waymarking site will as family friendly as possible. However many categories have unmoderated waymark categories so it is good to be with your child when reviewing the site.
We are continuing to propose ideas for filtering the taboo so feel free to join in on the discussion.
Are waymarking and geocaching memberships interchangable?
Yes. If you purchase a premium membership on either web site it will be usable in both places.
Where are bookmark lists, watch lists, ignore lists, advanced searches, or any other feature currently available on geocaching.com but not here?
Much of the code on Geocaching.com can be used on Waymarking.com and you will begin to see these features added to the waymarking web site. However, we wanted to ensure that the new features here were working well before implementing other features from the Geocaching.com web site. We do plan to implement these features as we move forward with the project.
This post has been edited by Jeremy on Aug 29 2005, 07:36 PM