A GPS caching game, usually referred to as "geocaching", is a favorite hobby of mine (Scott). A few months ago, our friend Jon decided to launch a site that put a different edge on the game. He had been working on the skydiver's Geocaching Point System for a couple years. It was becoming difficult for him to reliably get the data he needed, because Groundspeak (Geocaching.com) didn't want "outside" developers doing what he was doing. Rather than continue to beat his head against a big green wall, Jon decided to apply his efforts to a cache listing site of his own, based on the sGPS. That was the start of TerraCaching.com.

At the end of December, it was suggested that an article on terracaching should appear in Today's Cacher, an online magazine for geocachers. At Jon's request, I volunteered to write the article. This came about the same time we were moving, so it took me a while to get the article done. Once it was done, I submitted it. It was rejected by the publisher (El_Diablo) right away, because the article read as too much like an infomercial. El_Diablo did not contact me directly, but posted to the forums. The only contact I have had directly regarding this article is from richard_niles, who emailed me this:

Hi Scott.

It was my opinion that the article read as an infomercial, not Jerry's. The article is very well written, it just seemd to use the terrecaching website too many times (11 in the original version), and the subheads made it look "ad-ish," too.

I have taken the liberty to make a few changes and have included my revision for your approval. Basically, I just made grammatical and spelling changes. (Neither geocacher or terracacher is a proper noun, so we only use capitalization in headlines and for the first word of a sentence.)

Also, in a few places, I used words like "website" or "concept" in place of the url address. The address still appears at least 5 times in the article.

Basically, the article is the same, but I believe it appears more credible this way.

Please read my revision and shoot me your thoughts.

Also, in the byline, we like to use real names as well as screen names. I would assume, from your email addy, your name is Scott Oconell, aka Scott O. Please advise as to the proper spelling and a link to the profile you wish to use.

One other thing. I would like to add a short editor's note at the beginning explaining what is your capacity @ TerraCacher.com, something to provide credentials for your article.

Good article, Scott, you haven't lost your skills. As a matter of fact, you would be a natural for advertising copy writing. Let me know.

Thanks, Richard.

I reviewed his article, and replied that I had no objections to it. Again, El_Diablo posted only to the forums that the article would not appear in the issue. I would welcome any specific editorial comments El_Diablo has, and have mentioned that in the forums. In the meantime, I will post the article here. This is the version that has Richard Niles' edits.

If you have any feedback on the article, feel free to email me.

Thanks for visiting!