Who we are.

• TerraCaching.com is a community of cachers and a listing of TerraCaches hidden all over the world with a little help from handheld Global Positioning System receivers and available exclusively to TerraCaching.com members. You can learn more about us at the Wiki. To become a member you'll need two existing members to sponsor you. But don't worry, this is just a formality and the system will automatically look for potential sponsors in your area. No experience necessary, just a GPSr and a strong sense of adventure. Read more below about why we use the sponsorship model for this site.
• TerraCaching.com employs a complex, dynamic rating system which learns from members and actively encourages a focus on the quality, not quantity, of caches that members post. TerraCaching.com does not have as many cache listings as other geocaching sites, which is exactly the point. If you'd like to spend more time outdoors on fun, memorable and challenging cache hunts and less time online wading through hundreds of questionable cache listings, you've come to the right place! If you put more thought and effort into your hides and want to post them somewhere where they'll be appreciated by a like minded community rather than lost in a sea of Big Box Store micros, then come on in, the caching is fine.
• There are no written rules or guidelines regarding the types of caches members are allowed to post here. Since the entire community judges the worthiness of each others' caches, members find that it's much easier to post creative caches here that don't necessarily fit into the cookie cutter mold rules of other sites. Yet, the rating system here allows our community to work together to actively weed out illegal caches, as well as those that are simply dull and a waste of time. Quality, as defined and strictly enforced by the community, is the law of the land here.
• TerraCaching.com is the home of the TerraCaching Point System (TPS); the world wide version of the absurdly addictive Skydiver's Geocaching Point System (SGPS). Previously strictly limited to Western Montana and Northern Idaho, SGPS was a side game that awarded points to cachers based on the difficulty of the caches they found. For those interested, TPS is the ultimate in worldwide friendly caching competition.

Mission Statement

The four-fold mission of TerraCaching.com is...

• To create and support a semi-open community (herein referred to as "the community") of serious cachers who can and will behave to police themselves in a responsible manner and to recognize only the memberships of those cachers who support and uphold the mission.
• To provide the community with tools that allow it to actively encourage and reward members for placing high quality, enjoyable caches and to mitigate the proliferation of caches the community feels are unnecessary or of low quality.
• To provide the community with a unique list of caches, not listed elsewhere, that meet the community's high standards of quality.
• To provide an atmosphere of friendly competition amongst community members.

How to become a member.

TerraCaching.com is a worldwide geocaching club. To become a member two other people who are already members must be willing to sponsor you. Your sponsors will then become your cache approvers. Once sponsored, you also become a full member complete with power to sponsor other members. This isn't so much to keep people out, but to delegate much of the responsibility for ensuring high quality, legal and appropriate caches to the community itself.

Now, if you're ready...

• First, register a starter account. Note: Many of the advanced features on this site treat each username as a single individual, so families (teams) that cache under a single username will be unable to make the most of the site. We recommend that families that cache together get a separate username for each caching individual instead of a team/family name.
• You'll need to confirm the email address you registered with before you'll be able to log in. If you don't think you received the confirmation email, check that your email client or ISP didn't filter it to a bulk mail or suspected spam folder (this is especially true is you use yahoo, hotmail, AOL, etc). In cases when new members claim to have not received the confirmation email, 99% of the time they eventually find it in their bulk mail folder. If after 30 minutes, you're still positive you didn't recieve the email, click here to request a new activation email be sent.
• Next, if you know one or two people who are already full TerraCaching members, contact them privately and ask if they'll sponsor you. Even if you only know one member they may be able to help you find another sponsor.
• If you really don't know anyone who's already a member you can post a message pleading your case to the "Applications for Sponsorship" section of the forums. Most new members who post here get sponsors within a few hours; sometimes even within minutes. However, depending on the time of day and the day of the week, it could take a few days for the right person to log in, see your post and offer you their sponsorship. So, don't panic if you don't get sponsored right away.
• Once two full members have sponsored you you'll also be a full member; free to view caches posted, post your own unique caches and sponsor additional members.