Garmin's Open Caching - my first impressions

My first impressions

Permission

This is my number one frustration with the site. When hiding a cache you must check the box:  "I have permission from the landowner or manager to hide my geocache."

Twice I've asked the question, does Garmin truly expect that each CO contacts a land manager to get explicit permission for each cache listed in their database? How do I know, as a finder that permission was granted?

I asked the question regarding permission in CacheMania's blog and once on the Opencaching forums. So far one person answered via the blog saying:

"why would you place something on someone else’s land without permission? Even if it’s public land, someone has to maintain it, and should know about the container."

And another person via OC's forum said:

"Pretty easy thing to do is go ask the park if it is ok." 

I highly doubt that each cache hide listed in OC has explicit permission. From reading other blogs about recent cache hides, one was placed in a hospital parking lot - no reference in the clues indicating they had asked permission of hospital management to place the cache.  I have my doubts that even 25% of caches listed in OC or GC have explicit permission, nor do I think they need to. It's going to depend on whether the cache is on private property or on public land that explicitly requires a cache permit.

"I have permission from the landowner or manager to hide my geocache" to me means you have contacted and received explicit permission in writing or verbally from a land manager whether it's private land or public land AND that you have the name of a contact person. If questioned by a finder or garmin officials regarding permission you can provide the name and contact information.

Rating system

• It doesn't seem to work. I've rated caches both above and below 3.5 yet the Awesomeness rating stays the same, i.e.3.5 Sweet. 
• The 3.5 is the default rating. I think once one person rates the cache the rating should change to whatever that person rated it as. Then recalculate any time anyone else rates the cache. 
• Once I rate the cache I can't see what rating I gave it and 
• I can't change the rating or remove it - what if I made a mistake and clicked at the wrong time on the scale? 

I do like that it's filterable and I like the sliding scale which is interactive with the map. If only the ratings worked.

I'm used to GCVote where I always know how I rated the cache. I also see how many people have rated a cache. And when I click on  the stars I see a bar graph indicating the ratings given. GCVote is anonymous so I don't know who rated. With each passing day I'm appreciating GCVote more and more.

Language

I find the language to be teen-centric which gives the site an immature feel. "Awesome" "Sweet" "Fierce" are lame words - it feels icky, like when your parents are trying to be cool.

Personally, I think it's a mistake to have teenagers be your target audience. Most are not mature enough for the responsibility of cache ownership. I've seen enough evidence on geocaching.com that teens think messing with people is a "totally awesome" thing to do. "Screw PP [private property" is one of the comments left by a teen CO when finders complained that the cache was missing, on private property and not where the coordinates indicated (in the middle of a apartment building parking lot).

Forums

• I haven't been able to get into the forums with my Lone R account. 3 times I've contacted Garmin and they've told me they fixed the problem but everytime I try to login I get a fatal error message:
  

  Fatal error:

  • The email address you entered is already in use. If you have forgotten your password, please click here.
  • That username is already in use or does not meet the administrator's standards. If you are LONE_R and you have forgotten your password, click here.

  Unable to proceed with save while $errors array is not empty in class vB_DataManager_User in [path]/includes/class_dm.php on line 849

• I started a new account just to get into the forums. I still had to make a couple of attempts before it worked. However, I have to keep logging in anytime I want to post something. The preview button isn't working for me, I get kicked out and have to log in again if I click it. The submit button works. 

Positive impressions

• I like the maps
• I like the sliding rules for D/T, size and cache quality ("awesomeness")
• I like the increments especially in the cache quality scale. I can rate one cache a 3.0 because it's a decent cache experience and has a old somewhat tattered but still sufficient camo'd plastic peanut butter jar as a container and another cache a 3.3 for the same experience but a lock n lock in better shape then the peanut butter jar. 3.5 I might reserve for an ammo can hide with a decent overall cache experience.