You know, I really should know better by now... Putting anything positive on this status page only guarantees one thing: I won't be hearing from Groundspeak for a while.
For example, after my December 9th “there have been no discussions” update (see below), I got an extremely encouraging email from Elias at Groundspeak the very next day. Three more sets of email were exchanged during January which only increased my feeling that some sort of data-exchange deal would be worked out in the very near future. It was looking like 100% up-to-date and blessed-by-Groundspeak data would be back on my maps by mid-February at the latest. Wouldn't that have been cool?
Sadly, I have not heard anything from Elias, or anyone else at Groundspeak for that matter, since January 31st. I don't think we're stuck on any issues, I just haven't heard anything at all from them since that date.
When and if I have any positive news to report on this issue, I will do so here. In the meantime, I will be continuing to add new features and new maps to my web site.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Buxley's Waypoint is not going away! (I'm far too stubborn to let that happen... =)
Thanks for your continued patience.
Cache on!
Ed Hall
Buxley's Waypoint
Not to get anyone's hopes up or anything, but some talks have been taking place between Elias and myself regarding getting up-to-date Groundspeak geocaches displayed on my maps again.
Keep your fingers crossed!
Well, it has been over three months since Groundspeak blocked access from the Brillig.com server to their web site. Time for an update regarding the “discussions” between Groundspeak and myself....
The update is: there have been no discussions whatsoever. None. I have not heard one thing from the folks at Groundspeak in over a month, and even that was merely a quick “sorry for not getting back to you sooner, we've been busy but will talk to you Real Soon Now” note from Elias Alvord, a VP at Groundspeak, Inc.
And now, Groundspeak has even closed the ten page thread in their forums where people were having a useful discussion of this issue.
Needless to say, I'm very disappointed that Groundspeak has decided to not have the discussions they promised.
Interestingly enough, in the one meaningful email I did get from Groundspeak, Elias said “We understand the value of the service you provide the Geocaching community...” That sounds great and was the reason for my cautious optimism way back in September. But that was months ago. I don't care how busy they are, if they were really serious about engaging me “in a conversation regarding restoring access to Geocaching.com from your Geocaching Waypoint website” they would have done so by now.
It seems clear that they have made this decision for their own business reasons. If they didn't want to “restore [my] access to Geocaching.com” or provide me with “more direct access to the data” they should have just said so at the time.
What can you do? At this point, I haven't a clue. I would never suggest that you go ahead and start discussing this issue again on the Groundspeak forums nor would I even consider asking you to email the Groundspeak administrators at admin@groundspeak.com. Oh no, I would never do that.... =)
In the very near future, there will be various improvements and changes to this web site.
Buxley's Waypoint is not going away.
Cache on!
Ed Hall
Buxley's Waypoint
Just to keep you up to date: I received a short note today from one of the Groundspeak admins. Nothing new to report, just that updates to their website have been keeping them busy of late.
Rumors of the demise of Buxley's Geocaching Waypoint have been greatly exaggerated! =)
Thanks to everyone for your continued support and patience as I try to get my web site back to showing all the latest, greatest geocaches from around the world. Although new geocaches hosted by Navicache.com continue to appear on my maps, I realize that people want their Groundspeak caches shown as well. Me too!
I started my website way back in the Spring of 2001 when there were maybe a thousand caches in the world. Why? Well, I really like maps and cartography has always been something of a hobby for me. I thought putting together some maps of cache locations (there weren't any such maps at that time) would be a great way to use my skills to give something back to the geocaching community. I still believe that.
My site started out small: just a map of the San Francisco Bay Area (guess where I live?), then a map of California, then I added Nevada, and... it kind of grew from there. Little did I know that my hobby would grow to be about 1,500 maps from around the world: everywhere from Barrow at the northernmost tip of Alaska to Antarctica and most everywhere in between. It's been a lot of work and has taken several years to create my web site, but it has been very gratifying work as well. Everyone should be so lucky as to have a hobby that people find useful!
Back on September 24th I got a very nice note from one of the administrators at Groundspeak. They seemed to understand my site is a useful tool for helping geocachers get to the cache pages on their website and indicated that our discussions might lead to their providing me with direct access to the geocache location data. (Joy! Always up-to-date information -- how cool would that be?!) I responded that I was very interested in having such a discussion with them and ... well, nothing. I haven't heard from them since.
I continue to hope that, despite this short delay, we can have those discussions and I can get up-to-date data for my map pages again. And maybe even a listing on their “Useful Geocaching Links” web page again -- wouldn't that be something? =)
Cache on!
Ed Hall
Buxley's Geocaching Waypoint
http://www.brillig.com/geocaching/
I know you all are anxious to hear some news. Groundspeak hasn't gotten back to me yet, but I'm hoping they will soon. As soon as I hear, I'll let you know.
A Groundspeak representative contacted me yesterday and we are now talking. I am cautiously optimistic that we will be able to come to some sort of agreement.
-Buxley