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Thread: Geocachingmaine and School

  1. #1
    d’76 Guest

    Default Geocachingmaine and School

    As many of you know I work in a school for kids that cant handle main stream schooling, when you spend your whole day with these kids that struggle through life everyday you look for any reason to get them to look at the plus sides of life and maybe get out from behind the video games and outdoors a bit. I used geocaching.com to introduce them to the game and geocachingmaine.org to show them some of the great photos that this state has to offer. Frequently, you would notice a spark of interest and then they would start asking questions about are there any near their house. Often I could show them on the computer about how far from their house they where. I thought this was very cool. Something other than negitivity and loveless relationships at home, maybe being outside and family adventure.

    It was last week that I noticed that I could no longer show the students these things. The filter system in the school had changed. When I requested that the filter allow gcmaine to be bypassed I was told that the site was not appropriate for students. The message I recieved was as follows:

    Sorry Dave.
    I have seen a lot on the forums that the kids should not see.
    If you truly want to show them something about Geocaching then go to GC.com.

    I can honestly say was somewhat displease. I would be interested in knowing how some of the other members feel.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Brewer, Maine
    Posts
    1,832

    Default

    I know that things got a little heated in the forums, but I think that blew over a year ago...or longer. People have been playing pretty well with others IMO.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Gainesville, Georgia
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    3,893

    Default

    Well if you have ever spent any time at all on the GC forums you would notice that things there are a LOT more heated than any discussions we might have had in here in the past. I surely would like to know what exactly they meant and they certainly haven't been to the GC forums much lately. I would like to see some specifics to go by before I would make that recommendation. JMHO
    Just smile it won't crack your face

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  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Bangor, ME
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    6,343

    Default

    As haffy hinted, it has to be the forums more so than the site. And as he said, compared to the gc.com forums, I think we do pretty well. The most offensive suff they could find here IMO would be the jokes more so then any confrontations that ever came up. There is one topic that has dicussed a little about sex offenders, but I don't see where that went any further than any news story.

    How old are these kids? They'd have to be pretty young to get anything from here that any kid would not find on TV or elsewhere.

    It seems to me if a few kids could get find something like caching or our photo gallery to get excited about or to spark at least some imagination that the benefits far outweigh any faults anyone could find here.
    DNFTT! DNFTT! DNFTT!

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  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    temp
    Posts
    666

    Default

    Keeping kids from GCMaine.org serves little protection considering these kids are exposed to video games, music and television that is far more explicit than this site.

    I think, Dave, that your school has generalized the GCMaine.org forums with those found elsewhere. I've seen many forums that "anything goes" mean the more rude and crude the better it must be.

    I think our site has a great group of folks who are self constraining and very respectful to one another. The hard part for you is to show that to your school administration. Is there anything we can do to help????

    Cache On!!

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Unity, Maine
    Posts
    3,874

    Default

    My first thought was to post some smart alecky remark about the ban being due to me posting all of my ****** ads on line (please note: I am just kidding.)

    Then I thought maybe it was due to the heated discussions or jokes . . . and then it hit me . . . I wonder if it would be due to threads like Hiram and WhereRWe's Beer Thread. Now don't get me wrong, I think those threads are pretty harmless, but an administrator who is concerned with students who are at risk may view a thread such as this one . . . or the one about sexual predators . . . or anyone of a number of other potential threads (I'm trying not to single out any one thread since that's not the point) . . . as condoning some of these activities and that may be due to the ban.

    As mentioned before I guess I would either drop the issue or ask the administrator for a pointed example.

    As TRF mentioned I visit (and moderate one BBS site) and I have to say that this is probably the most enjoyable BBS site with little to no BS -- folks seem to do a pretty good job of behaving themselves without having a moderator step in to put folks in the proverbial time out -- something that can't be said about many other BBS sites.
    "Courage is not the absence of fear, but the realization that there is something more important than fear."

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  7. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Bangor, ME
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    3,968

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by firefighterjake View Post
    Then I thought maybe it was due to the heated discussions or jokes . . . and then it hit me . . . I wonder if it would be due to threads like Hiram and WhereRWe's Beer Thread. Now don't get me wrong, I think those threads are pretty harmless, but an administrator who is concerned with students who are at risk may view a thread such as this one . . . or the one about sexual predators . . .
    I leanin towards agreein with ya on this one jake, although I think that threads like the "beer thread" are fun and ones like the "predator thread" are interesting to see what other people think of the serious situations, I can see where they would be concerned from their prospective. But the question is, what is to be done??? Do we reformat the whole site to be kid friendly? Do we continue with the forums as always? I think we had a discussion about this before, and that's why things like the "member only" threads were made.

    personally I don't think there is any real answer, if we reformat things just to conform to someone elses liking, then it won't be long until something else comes along (someone has a problem with the background being green because its offensive to leprechauns or somethin...) If were constantly changing to make everyone happy, then it won't be long until nobodys happy... (just look at what groups like PITA have done to mcdonalds! )
    Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.

  8. #8
    d’76 Guest

    Default

    I like everyones thoughts on this and can honestly say I dont want anything to change. I just think its a shame that there is no consistancy. I also cant access village soup anymore, cant even order supplies from staples anymore.

  9. #9

    Default

    Ran into the same thing at our school. The new filter will not even let us into the New Brunswick Dept. of Education, Professional Development Division. Appears some what strange for a school don't you think.
    We hate mindless caches placed in the woods without a reason, nothing but the cache in a plastic bag on a tree.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Unity, Maine
    Posts
    3,874

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Hiram357 View Post
    I leanin towards agreein with ya on this one jake, although I think that threads like the "beer thread" are fun and ones like the "predator thread" are interesting to see what other people think of the serious situations, I can see where they would be concerned from their prospective. But the question is, what is to be done??? Do we reformat the whole site to be kid friendly? Do we continue with the forums as always? I think we had a discussion about this before, and that's why things like the "member only" threads were made.

    personally I don't think there is any real answer, if we reformat things just to conform to someone elses liking, then it won't be long until something else comes along (someone has a problem with the background being green because its offensive to leprechauns or somethin...) If were constantly changing to make everyone happy, then it won't be long until nobodys happy... (just look at what groups like PITA have done to mcdonalds! )
    I agree 100%. I think our site is fine as it is and should not be changed -- as you mentioned you'll never be able to make everyone happy with a place like this and I think the members-only forums was the wise thing to do.

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    "Courage is not the absence of fear, but the realization that there is something more important than fear."

    "Death is only one of many ways to die."

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