Author Topic: Opencaching.com has shut down  (Read 325 times)

Offline Altra

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Opencaching.com has shut down
« on: June 25, 2015, 05:42:07 pm »
On my trawls of the web I came accross this website opencaching.com
Its run by Garmin (And is independent from opencaching.org.uk)
I think the design is nice and it looks like they have made sure that they have good device support (which I would expect from a GPS company).
Has anyone used the website, or maby found a cache listed on it?

Edit: as of 14/08/15 Opencaching.com (not to be confused with Opencaching.org.uk) has shut down. Scroll down to read our reactions. Name of thread altered.
« Last Edit: August 18, 2015, 01:36:11 pm by Griff Grof »

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Offline Griff Grof

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Re: Opencaching.com
« Reply #1 on: June 25, 2015, 08:37:41 pm »
It is a good site design-wise, and there are a couple of caches close to home  :) It seems very community-orientated too  :)

Does it support non-Garmin devices, @Altra? (you mentioned device support being good so I presume so? :) )

I have always wondered why they also named it Opencaching though? ???

I've never found one on this site; has anyone else?

« Last Edit: June 25, 2015, 08:41:50 pm by Griff Grof »
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Offline walktall

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Re: Opencaching.com
« Reply #2 on: June 25, 2015, 11:22:51 pm »
I've found a few, some local to me, some on the Gower.

Had an issue a while ago getting onto the site, it wouldn't give me the login box :o So not been on it for a while but still get alerts when new ones are publish, had one today :)
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Offline Griff Grof

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Re: Opencaching.com
« Reply #3 on: June 26, 2015, 08:33:45 pm »
I've just spotted the 'Cow and Church' series, OX3BM51 is one of them, around Honeybourne.

This seems to be  the same as the GC.com series of the same name, GC3BM5Z.

I really like how you can group caches on Opencaching.com - it says 'part of series...' on the listing. By clicking on this it takes you to a new page with all the caches in the series listed. I suggested something similar to GC.com five years ago and nothing so far  ::) I think this should be put in place as a possible alternative for Bookmark lists, as in it's something the CO manages, perhaps with the whole series summarised on the page. Opencaching.com seem to already have something similar in place  :)

Just out of interest, for anyone who has found this series on either site, would you consider logging it on the other as well? Or perhaps you've claimed the caches on both sites already?
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Offline Bear and Ragged

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Re: Opencaching.com
« Reply #4 on: June 26, 2015, 10:03:27 pm »
Got the Garmin app on the phone...

Things tend to be, if I get a chance, Groundspeak caches (helps that I have them on the sat-nav), then Munzees.

Do have an app for the OpenCaching.Org site, but they seem 'few and far between' so rarely look at the app.
(Have logged one, that happened to be local...)
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Offline Altra

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Re: Opencaching.com
« Reply #5 on: June 27, 2015, 09:24:58 am »
@GriffGrof It supports non garmin devices, but of course they are include towards to their own units, eg they are/did put some preloaded caches on some of their Units.
The series feature us nice, as is the community voted applications for new caches. They also have a "download all" button to download the cache info for every cache currently being shown on your map.
Look to be about 2000 caches for the uk on there.

Offline Griff Grof

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Re: Opencaching.com
« Reply #6 on: June 29, 2015, 06:49:08 pm »
I found this interesting post on the Opencaching NA blog comparing the two Opencaching's. May be worth a read, it's not too long  :)

It's a shame that a lot of the 2000 caches in the UK on the site are probably cross listed. Hopefully there are several great caches unique to the site though.

One thing I love about these other listing sites - virtuals aren't 'grandfathered'  ;D
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Offline Gackt

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Re: Opencaching.com
« Reply #7 on: June 29, 2015, 08:04:52 pm »
I placed a couple of virtuals on there. It's my least favourite of the listing sites for two reasons, the amount of cross listed caches, and the review process.

The review process worked well for the first time I submitted a cache. The second time I submitted one though I had great troubles. The community members who reviewed my cache all seemed to be acting high and mighty, treating me like I was a complete newbie and making me feel small. "I must do this..", and "I must do that.." before they would vote my cache up so that it would be published. The experience has put me off that site.

Offline Altra

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Re: Opencaching.com
« Reply #8 on: June 29, 2015, 08:40:45 pm »
I liked the community voted idea, but I have never tried to regiter a cache on that site!
I guess its only as good as the people who use it.

Offline Griff Grof

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Re: Opencaching.com has shut down
« Reply #9 on: August 18, 2015, 09:35:34 am »
Garmin Outdoors has announced that Opencaching.com has officially shut down, as of August 14th.  :'(

Their devices will continue to support Geocaching.

I think it's a shame, was just getting ready to add profile fields for Opencaching.com as well  :D
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Offline Bear and Ragged

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Re: Opencaching.com
« Reply #10 on: August 18, 2015, 12:19:59 pm »
Wonder if they will 'make up' with Groundspeak?

And then take a look at WherIGo and getting 'Micro' added to the GPX files for caches, and all the other things GS have 'put on the back burner' over the years?
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Offline Griff Grof

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Re: Opencaching.com has shut down
« Reply #11 on: August 18, 2015, 01:33:41 pm »
That's an interesting point @Bear and Ragged.

I see that if you visit Opencaching.com, it now has a link over to Geocaching.com, so that could possibly be significant?

It would be great if they began to support Wherigo again, in particular. You mention other things being on the back burner, do you have any examples? Can't think of any  :D
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Offline Bear and Ragged

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Re: Opencaching.com has shut down
« Reply #12 on: August 18, 2015, 09:14:17 pm »
That's an interesting point @Bear and Ragged.

It would be great if they began to support Wherigo again, in particular. You mention other things being on the back burner, do you have any examples? Can't think of any  :D

Think, with Ranger Fox's plans for wherIgo, Garmin aren't needed... But it would be nice if Garmin GPSs would lay wherIgos.

GS did have "Nano" as an official size on the back burner, but the new apps seem to rename the sizes anyway.

GS seem/seemed to blame 'Third Party's' for the reason they don't progress things, when requested by the users...
eg "We can do it, but need third party users to agree to the changes, which may require them to change/update their software/hardware to be able to use the changes we make..."
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Offline walktall

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Re: Opencaching.com has shut down
« Reply #13 on: August 19, 2015, 12:01:44 pm »
I was sorry to hear today that Garmin closed down their cache site, having a few finds there myself.


I spoke to Jerry and some of the Lackeys over the last few days and non of the answers were very clear, all non-committal :(
« Last Edit: August 19, 2015, 12:03:59 pm by walktall »
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