Bryan: In keeping with Groundspeak’s policy of not permitting charity caches or caches that promote agendas or platforms, effective immediately, the two caches created recently for the purpose of collecting money for Tsunami/Earth quake victims have been archived.
Our hearts go out to the victims of this terrible tragedy. However, although we understand that these caches were created with the best of intentions; the uproar from within the community regarding these caches has reinforced our position.
Questions like, “Why can’t I do a cache for my charity?” or “I don't like this organization, why can’t we create a Tsunami cache for a different organization” make a couple of things clear.
First, we do not want to have to admit/deny caches based upon our perceived merits of the specific agenda, position, organization or charitable cause. Most opinions vary when it comes to issues like these and we have no interest in hosting the battleground or becoming an arbiter.
Second, this web site is about geocaching and we do not wish to see it converted to a platform for issues, whether good, bad or otherwise.
There are plenty of ways to donate to charity and plenty of ways to help out. We encourage you to find them and participate to the extent you believe it is right. We certainly do.
Now, I realize that this post and action will most likely cause another uproar. Personally, I am sorry that we did not enforce this guideline sooner. The blame for this lies solely with Groundspeak and not the volunteers. As far as this web site is concerned, we plan to do our best to keep it related to geocaching and we hope you like it.
Sincerely,
Rothstafari
Groundspeak
www.geocaching.com