Premium v.s. Basic?

A question was posed over at the GeoCaching Alberta MSN Group last night. Part of the post caught my attention and prompted a reply ;-)

I woul just like to kown if you have 100 plus find why you are not willing to pay for a premium member ship. After 50 to 100 finds I think you would know if you like it or not. So give me reasons not to support geocaching.com. I would like to know..

Well, Testy and I have discussed this in the past, so I was comfortable with our (longer than usual) response. I won't excerpt it all here, but my key point was:

...and I think the premise of the question is flawed. Simply by playing the game, placing caches, participating in discussions like this one, encouraging others at Meetup.com or events, and posting to GeoCaching blogs...participants in GeoCaching *are* supporting GeoCaching.com...by adding value to the GeoCaching community. That value is what makes GeoCaching playable - the quantity and quality of it's participants. And I bet the business model that Groundspeak/GeoCaching.com is using *depends* on a very high level of community involvement - at the basic level.

This should get some discussion going...

Source: GeoCaching-Alberta MSN Group
Technorati Tags: GeoCaching, Alberta, Premium, Basic, Membership, Cost, Fee