TerraCaching
I was curious if there were any other quality geocaching sites out there besides the famous Geocaching.com. I stumbled onto what maybe their #1 competitor which is TerraCaching. TerraCaching seems to be for “serious” cachers — I say this because you need to have two sponsors before you can join.
This is a good way to form an elitist club — not build a community. What if I don’t know two people that can sponsor me? How do I know if being a member is worth it considering I can do nothing if I don’t have a login – except look at their map (which is pretty cool).
December 20th, 2005 at 2:43 pm
I too took a look at Terracaching a few weeks ago. I was hoping that I would find some Terracaches nearby as we have done most of the geocaching.com caches in our area. I was lucky enough to get two sponsors within about 20 minutes by posting to the new member forum, but was disappointed that the nearest Terracache was over 50 miles away. Looks like it is more popular in some areas of the country than others.
Mike and Barb
At Jestcaching
December 20th, 2005 at 4:45 pm
Elitism is something the site is often charged with. Personally, I have no issue with the term, but I suspect many others do.
Anyhow, sponsorship is not to keep you out, it is there to help you. You get to know your sponsors and if they do not perform to your liking, you get to oust them. This is built to directly counter flaws in the system at big green. The community determines what goes on, not the company.
A community has definitely been built at TC.com. It is a sub-set of the larger caching community. It is not really a competitor of GC.com. It serves a niche. Terracaching is not for everyone. In that sense, it is elitist.
In addition to the map, you should be able to read the TCki. Most important, imo, is the main page. On it is the mission of the site. That sets forth what is valued at TC.com. Again, it is not for everyone.
To answer your question: you will most likely receive sponsorship offers, much like jestjuggle did, within minutes. Filling in your location is a good way to ensure that. If all else fails, post to the Applications for Sponsorship forum (yet another thing non-members can do) and request sponsorship.
Terracaching can be a wonderful addition to one’s caching world. Perhaps you’ll become a valuable member of that community.