That's the first I've heard about it. I'm an avid benchmarker and think it's a shame. It must not be bringing in any money for the frog to pay their volunteers with.

For me, Benchmarks were the main draw to their site. So I'd love to see benchmark hunting over here. 😀

@2oldfarts

I find it very sad, that the frog wants to delete all benchmark loggs and pictures. The idea of a benchmark cache here at TC I find very good. Had the same idea and when I read here, that others are also interested, I submitted a cache LC3Q87 today. There are already benchmark caches here as well, but no universal ones. Suggestions for improvement I gladly accept. Many greetings Johannis10

I also love finding benchmarks although I only had a small number of logs on GC because the database of Benchmarks that they used (only a subset of NGS benchmarks, even though a few of those are on Canadian soil). Frankly, I'm not shocked that GC is discontinuing the Benchmark "cache" - it was pretty much broken from the start. Why? Because the database of benchmarks that they started out with was too selective (a subset of NGS markers only), but moreso because it was a one-and-done transfer of information. While the original NGS database continued (and continues) to be updated, the GC "snapshot" remained stuck in 2005 (or whatever year they grabbed the data from). The NGS database gets updated based on recovery reports (from professionals as well as hobbyists). But there was no way to couple those updates to the GC database. Of course another issue is that most "vertical control" benchmarks (the predominant type of benchmark in the USA and Canada) do not have accurate coordinates in the NGS database (and same for Canadian federal database) - very precise elevations, but wildly inaccurate coordinates.

So what can we do as benchmark hunters?

If you live in the US, you can download the program DSWorld from the NGS website. You can view and add recovery reports on NGS benchmarks. So far I've only used it to view benchmarks.  The developer continues to make updates and emails users to inform them of updates and issues. Free. https://geodesy.noaa.gov/PC_PROD/PARTNERS/

Of course there's Waymarking (I am an officer in the Canadian Benchmarks category). Problem there is that 90% of the benchmarks you might find are not already listed. If you don't mind creating a new listing, you'd be all set. A little bit of work on your behalf and another Benchmark joins the growing list. That said, with this move to shutter the Benchmarks "geocache" category, I wonder how long until Waymarking gets pulled down (although players have been asking that question for over 10 years already). hMeasurement Standards - A Waymarking.com Category

As an admin on OpenCaching North America, I put in a pitch to have Benchmarks as a dedicated cache category. I had support of the other OCNA admins, but didn't have the support of the develops (volunteers based in parts of Europe). There a move to keep all of the various OpenCaching "nodes" in harmony, makes web development that much easier. To that end, we (sadly) retired a number of "OCNA-only" cache types.

Here's a link to the OCNA discussion on Benchmarks as a cache type. That discussion began in 2010! Benchmarks and continued here in 2016 New Benchmark cache type

With all that said, I would be very happy to see benchmarks as a cache-type on TC. The question is, whether to pre-populate the list of Benchmarks using online databases (what Groundspeak did), or let players add benchmarks (like waymarking). Option 1 may be better for "finders" but would require a lot of coding to make it work (and may also require agreements between the various entities like NOAA, NRCan etc). As for the latter,  as already suggested there's nothing stopping us from using the Virtual cache type for a benchmark (I've done that already on OCNA - for example see Misery Station (Benchmark Cache) and 866-F St Walburg SK (Benckmark), BATH - NB1165, or even the Benchmark Cache type template.

I would suggest that a dedicated cache Type for benchmarks allows for easier filtering. Because really, benchmarks can be ubiquitous. I can add a hundred or more benchmarks just from my city. Compare that to a dozen or less "alt caches" in my area - and you can understand how benchmarks could "drown out" the other caches on a map search. Just something to consider.

1450 Benchmark finds! That's impressive and I am sad for you to know that record will soon be lost. Is there any (easy) way to save that information before it's lost? 

Since the other website has seen fit to terminate Benchmarks, inspite of their popularity, it does not surprise at all that they don't suppor them anymore. TC needs to "take up the gauntlet" and "run with the ball".

Furthermore, they did the same thing with Virtuals as well, but then backed-tracked and appointed certain persons to have them, Is that some kind of reward issue or what?

BTW, greetings and salutations to the "TwoOldFarts"! I am back and I still have and use the camera.

Ray