Two years ago, I started Cache Up NB as a place for geocaching in NB to thrive. It was meant to be a news and information site that would be driven by the community. Today, it continues to grow in ways I never expected it to. Recently I saw some ramblings from a cacher who just didn’t get it. It made me reflect on what I chose to do with Cache Up NB.
In the world of geocaching, many states/provinces create associations that are made up of local geocachers who share a common interest and live in relatively close proximity. British Columbia Geocaching Association, Ontario Geocaching Association, Georgia Geocacher’s Association, Atlantic Canada Geocaching Association, Maritime Geocaching Association. I think you get the point.
As part of a CUNB side project last year, I had to do a lot of research about Canadian geocaching associations. I learned very quickly that all of the websites were cut from the same cloth. You get to the main site, have some generic information about caching, maybe some news updates, links, and a forum. The forums always had the most activity because people were always “talking” in there about whatever was going on. This “typical” geocaching site is pretty much the standard across the board. Almost every one of these types of sites follows the same set of rules and the site basically becomes dead while the forum is where the activity is.
When I was coming up with the concept of Cache Up NB, the last thing I wanted to do was to simply just become another association with the same sort of typical links and forums that you always see. In fact, I didn’t want it to be an association at all. I wanted it to be different somehow. Anyone who knows me knows that I am very adamant about trying to be original and steer clear of what everyone else does. My first geocaching event wasn’t a potluck, or a breakfast, it was the Race For Cache. I have always been someone who likes to go against the grain because it shows that you aren’t afraid to be different.
In coming up with a concept for CUNB, I actually decided to use Slashdot as a model. This tech site has been around for years and is more or less a blog style site where the news items are posted, and people comment on those items. It’s not a forum but the community itself still exists through the comments. Anyone can submit items/news and the folks who run Slashdot decide what gets posted and what doesn’t. This format seemed to be very different from the typical “forum” sites I had seen so this is the format I went with.
At first, there was a bit of a resistance because people weren’t used to seeing a “geocaching” site laid out like that. But as time went on, people got the jist of how it worked and for the most part, it’s gone over quite well. 3300+ comments thus far proves that the community is interested in what goes on there. We’ve even done polls on the site to see if folks wanted a forum and the response has always been a resounding “NO!”. We even put a forum up for a short period of time and no one used it. Hence, it seems perfectly clear to me that the audience we have isn’t really that interested in a forum.
Recently, a cacher who is not a fan of CUNB chose to go on a long rant about how “awful” our site was because he “can’t even find the forums”. Now, this particular individual was upset about something unrelated to the layout of our site, and is not someone who has spent much time on there. Regardless, them being upset about their inability to find a forum that didn’t exist showed me that even in the smaller realm of geocachers, there are still people who seem to think that because things have traditionally been done one way, they should always be done that way. Why not just be like everyone else so that we all look and act exactly the same and nothing will ever be different and original? Let’s just conform and be the same all the way across so that even people who are educated and should know better won’t have to think at all about what they are looking at. If that were the case, a sport like geocaching would never have been created.
Going against the grain, doing something different, trying to innovate and be unique is what makes the world diverse and interesting. If everyone was the same the world would be a pretty boring place.
So what exactly am I trying to say? I’m saying that I am proud of the fact that I chose to go against the grain in many of the endeavours I’ve taken on. Although I’ve had some misses, by far and large my choices to do something different instead of the same have proven successful. My mother-in-law’s favorite Christmas gifts are the ones I give her because they are always very different. My first geocaching event has turned into a yearly event that saw 150+ people attend last year and it even made the local paper. My wedding proposal to Tamara has put several other women to tears in how “romantic and sweet” it was since it wasn’t just the same old “take her to a restaurant and propose”. I successfully launched a magazine called “Vibrating Anal Jizz” (yes, I kid you not. That was the actual name) which ran for five years and reached as far as Australia in it’s readership. And last but not least, I launched and continue to manage Cache Up NB which has become the main contact for geocaching in the province of NB. Enough that municipal, and provincial governments now work with CUNB to coordinate geocaching projects in the province. All of these have been unconventional in their execution and they’ve thrived.
So those out there who would gripe about things you don’t understand, or throw insults because things aren’t the same as everything else, take a look around you. The world is made up of people who go against the grain. The ones who choose to be like everyone else are the ones who are left behind and forgotten. I’m more than happy to continue to be “different” and “unique” while others gripe about the fact they don’t like something because it’s not the same as everything else.
