Thursday, October 30, 2008

How to submit the cache?


Time for a little advertising. It doesn’t do much good if people don’t know about your cache after you place it. The Geocaching.com Web site currently has the largest database of caches and is where most people go to find information about caches. You need to have a free or premium account at the site to be able to post your cache, so if you don’t have an account yet, go to the site and sign up. (I promise that it’s quick and painless.) After you log on to the site, submitting a cache is just a matter of filling out an online form about your new pride and joy. You enter things like the cache’s name (think of something creative), its coordinates, the date it was placed, and other information similar to what you find when you’re looking at a cache description Web page.
If you’re having trouble trying to determine the terrain and difficulty ratings, head over to geocacher ClayJar’s online terrain and difficulty calculator, at www.clayjar.com/gcrs.
After you enter all the cache information, submit the form. Volunteers will check things like whether all the information needed is present, the coordinates are generally correct, and the cache meets the general submission guidelines. Keep in mind that volunteers don’t physically visit the cache because that would require thousands of people all over the world with a considerable amount of free time on their hands. The approval process can take up to a couple of days but is usually shorter. If you’re approved, your cache is added to the database. If you’re not approved, you’ll be informed why, and you can either address the problem and resubmit or discuss the issue with the staff.
If you’re handy with HTML and your Internet provider supports Web hosting, you can associate a Web site with your cache. The Web site might have digital photos, detailed maps, or anything else that supplements or complements the standard information found in a cache database entry.

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