Category: Opencaching.us

A year of OpenCaching NA analytics

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htimap

We at OpenCaching North America installed Google Analytics on our main website on May 15th, 2013, and the one year anniversary was just a couple weeks ago. We thought it would be fun to look up the statistics for the year ending on May 15, and do a blog post on them. We are “open” after all, why not make them public? Above you see our world wide hit map for the year. We have visits from 126 Countries. How many Countries are there? You’ll be surprised to hear that opinions vary. But according to infoplease.com, there are 195. So we’ll go with that, and we have visits from 64.6% of them. If you’re a stats geek like our blogger, please read on. You want numbers? We have numbers. Despite us listing less than 2,000 active caches, you may be surprised at our stats. Our webmaster, who has been a loyal user from day 1, but the webmaster for only 14 months, certainly was when the numbers started rolling in.

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Hello world!

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Hey, this WordPress thing works! Hello world! is the default first post to any WordPress blog, so let’s roll with it. Please bear with us, as we migrate our blog from the Blogger platform (boo!) to the WordPress platform (yea!). You can still reach our original 14 month old blog at http://opencachingna.blogspot.com. Since this page is obviously live, if you check back here in the next few days to a week, you will see this blog in various stages of template and widget tweaking, and old blog importation.

Webcam Caches; how they work, and a history

OpenCaching North America 2 Comments
OCNA Webcam Cache at Towson University, Md.

The OCNA blogger is going on vacation next week (by the way, there will be a guest post!), and was planning to hit up a Webcam Cache listed on our site near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Collingswood Webcam Cache. So keeping with the recent tradition on this blog of featuring a Locationless and Moving  Cache, along with talking about how these caches work and a history of them, we will do the same this week with Webcam Caches, and also describe the three different types of outdoor public web camera’s that are used for Webcam Caches. As well as plug the fact that we still accept them on our website, as do fellow alternative Gecoaching websites Navicache.com, Terracaching.com and GPSgames.org. You can submit a Webcam cache on any of our sites right now! We list 33 active, 31 in the Untied States, and 2 in Canada, on the OpenCaching.us website. We have published over 40 of them. Approximately 95% of Geocaching.com accounts registered after they stopped accepting these caches in November, 2005, and therefore were never able to have a chance to create one. They are disappearing fast on that website, and very few are left. We have the numbers there, both in the USA, and worldwide, but you’ll have to read on for that.

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OCNA Pathtag winners announced!

OpenCaching North America 1 Comment

We have the winners of our 2nd Pathtag contest, which was billed as “Win some OCNA Pathtags part Deux”. All winners responded within about 3 hours of being notified via email on Monday morning, March 31st. It looks like we forgot to mention when announcing the winners of our last contest that beginning with that contest (The Travel Fleas Holiday Giveaway), we started using the website Random.org to choose the winner(s). We were inspired to do so by The Outdoor Blogger Network, which we are a member of, after noticing one of their very well done contests to win one of 5 pairs of hiking boots to review on your blog (obviously, we didn’t win!). Rebecca from The OBN actually makes videos of her prize drawings, but we’re not that advanced (yet). Watch the video, or above you see a screenshot of the website. You put in a Min. number (and our Google Docs entry forms start at 2), with a Max. of the number of the last entry on the form, and you simply hit “Generate”.

Our Grand Prize winner, of five of our Pathtags was Mark AKA themulcher, a Geocacher from Charlotte, North Carolina.The 2nd prize winner, of three Pathtags, was Ed AKA bmzdaddy, a Geocacher from Chesterfield, Missouri. The 3rd prize winner, of two Pathtags was Andy, whose children (ages 7 and 10) cache as g00fballz. They are from Prince George, British Columbia. Hey, our first international winner! Congratulations to all three of them!! Thanks to all who entered the contest as well.

Sporadically Featured OCNA Cache: The Infiltrator

OpenCaching North America 2 Comments

Our latest Sporadically featured OCNA Cache is a Moving Cache, The Infiltrator, owned by OCNA username Termite Hunter from the Charlotte, North Carolina area. Whom, by the way, is the first person ever to have two of their caches sporadically featured on this blog! As of the date of this Blog post, this is also the most found cache on our website, although it hasn’t always been, and may not always be. We accept moving caches on our website, and always have during our 3 1/2 year existence. So too do all our fellow alternative Geocaching websites. Best we can tell, Geocaching.com stopped accepting them in mid-2003, although there are exceptions, and later ones that “slipped through the cracks”. In this post, we will talk about how Moving Caches work, the history of Moving Caches, and of course we will have some commentary from Termite Hunter on this Moving Cache. We will also tell the amazing story of The Infiltrator being “muggled”, and later returned to it’s hiding spot by that same Muggle, as the OCNA blogger was personally involved in that situation!

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Win some OpenCaching North America Pathtags part Deux!

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Pathtag Blueprint

The OpenCaching North America Pathtag, 1st Edition, is currently sold out, and no longer available for purchase to the general public from TheGeocoinStore.com. We could order an owner refill in the future, but they will most likely be retired, with a total of 500 having been produced.  However, 400 of those were produced for sale to the general public, and the other 100 were in fact an owner refill. That refill order recently arrived at OCNA HQ, and we’re giving away a total of 10 of them, to three different lucky winners in a blog contest now!

One of the actual Pathtags

Many readers may remember we also gave away 10 of our Pathtags via a blog contest in September, 2013.  Not to one person though, we spread them around a little bit. As before, we will have three separate winners. The 1st prize winner will receive 5 of our Pathtags; the 2nd prize winner will receive 3 of our Pathtags; and the 3rd prize winner will receive a paltry 2 of our Pathtags. These tags were designed by our Graphic Artist Patrick Williams, of course with plenty of design input from the OCNA team. They turned out very nicely, in “OCNA Colors”, and have a stock “yours to keep” back in black and yellow, with the tracking number on the back for logging.

To enter the 2nd OCNA Pathtag giveaway, fill out the form below with your name (as it says, “Geonick” is fine), and a valid email address. Note though, that someone entered our last contest as Geonick, and that’s already been done, and was only funny once. (They didn’t win, by the way). We will never use your email address, and the Google Document storing all the entries will be deleted after the contest. There are rules, of course, which appear below, in italicized text above the entry form.

Rules: To enter, provide your name and email address in the form below. One entry per person, and one entry per email address. There are no Geographical restrictions, contest is open to anyone in the world. The contest begins upon publication of this blog post on Thursday, March 20th, 2014, and ends at 7:00 PM Eastern Standard Time on Sunday, March 30th, 2014. Three winners will be chosen at random from the entries received. Winners will be notified via email, notification being sent from the email address opencachingnorthamerica at gmail.com (be sure to check your spam folders!), and must respond within 48 hours, or the prize will be forfeited, and another winner will be chosen. Once the prize is accepted, you must provide a valid mailing address, and the prize will be sent out via the U.S. Postal Service .


(Contest over; entry form removed)