Twitter Exchange with Jeremy on 1 Millionth Cache

[dudleygrunt]

FYI - Jeremy is the head honcho of Groundspeak and goes by locuslingua on Twitter.

locuslingua @NetworkCacher the millionth geocache has been listed for a while now. The current number is the millionth active geocache

dudleygrunt @locuslingua The millionth "Groundspeak" geocache, that is. GS may be the big dog, but not the only #geocaching game in town.

locuslingua @dudleygrunt Who peed in your Wheaties this morning?

locuslingua We hit the millionth active geocache over the weekend! As of midnight Pacific we have 1,001,001 active geocaches. [a public tweet, not specifically at me]

dudleygrunt @locuslingua No one. Guess I'm just a nitpicker. I participate on Groundspeak, TerraCaching and Navicache and each is a geocaching site.

Guess he doesn't like acknowledging they share the playing field.

[KJcachers]

guess he doesn't like you pointing it out to him. I am sure he is aware of the others but why would he want give any credit to his competition?

[dudleygrunt]

I don't necessarily expenct him to promote them, but it's like the NFL saying that they've counted all their games ever played and opening night of the 2010-11 season would be the Nth football game ever played in the world.

Also, he didn't have to bring up contaminated Wheaties. Hey, I think that constituded an endorsement of Wheaties by Groundspeak. Per their theory, isn't any mention of a corporate entity, an endoresement of them?

[Megawheatie]

Hey, I think that constituded an endorsement of Wheaties by Groundspeak.

Groundspeak Rocks!!

[rob3k]

guess he doesn't like you pointing it out to him. I am sure he is aware of the others but why would he want give any credit to his competition?

I'd imagine that response led a lot of his twitter followers to click through to dudley's feed to see what the heck he said to illicit that response. I know I would have.

I was hoping Jeremy might have fingered #1,000,000. Don't know if groundspeak was watching and tracking to identify the lucky cache(s).

[cphug184]

I personally do not use Navicache and Terraches. (That may change if my radius gets pushed out to 15 miles as I project it will by mid-summer)

I am a GC.com fan and I do not need any others. GC.com really got caching off the ground and the others are one offs. This is my opinion only and sane rational friends of mine are fans of the other two, I certainly acknowledge that!

I also have no problem calling it the World Series, btw!

[LostDogsArlington]

I hate to say it buddy but I kinda agree with Jeremy. It's like someone celebrating their 50th birthday, and then an ego-centric uncle stepping up and boasting, "yeah, well, I turned 50 three years ago and I own a porche." Let Groundspeak have their day. It is a massive achievement! And it is a wonderful service. Good for Groundspeak (and good for all the other services too - just not during the groundspeak birthday party, huh)

[Networkcacher]

After having also received a snarky response from Jeremy on a similar question all I have to say on this matter is that what Groundspeak giveth, Groundspeak can take away. While I generally support Groundspeak and Geocaching.com, but there are times when dealing with an oligopoly can be unpleasant.

[zgrav]

Reminds me of the stories about the control Apple has over all apps for the Iphone and Ipod --- including the fonts and font sizes used. One developer had a reference in the description of his application that the version he ported to Android had won an award -- Apple made him remove the "extraneous commentary" from the description before it would approve the app.

[LostDogsArlington]

Yip. This is why people advocate for "open systems." Well, what is Geocaching.com. It is really two things. It is a database, and it is an interface with that database. (that's why you the terms of use agreeing that you will use the database for personal use and not exploit it - because the database is the value).

It would not take a lot to establish an open common protocol for geo - caching databases - letting multiple entities host databases, letting people maintain profile pages that show how many caches they have found - with new and innovative features - including the added feature of how many you have found from which databases. The key is to get different people in a room (like the IETF does) to agree on the protocol for the database.

Once you have an open database, different people (like GPS companies) can develop proprietary interfaces with cool wiz bang features.

The barrier is the network effect of geocaching.com. Since everyone goes there, everyone goes there. The solution to that is an interface that can see all caches from all databases at one time. Then it doesnt matter which database they are from.