Feature Request: Photo upload notification

[+benh57]

I'm sure it's been requested before. But might as well ask again. Owners should be notified when someone uploads a photo to (a log on) one of their caches.

 

I know notifications are currently only triggered via some sort of 'log' action (ie, publish, note, find, archive, etc -- all log types) and uploading a photo is not, so this will require a new 'notification' flow, but it would be a great feature to have.

 

-Ben

Edited October 28, 2008 by benh57

[+whistler & co.]

I have mentioned this several times in the past. I think it would be an awesome feature! The more caches you own, the harder it is to check for spoiler pics. And it would just be nice to see newly-added pictures without having to manually go to each cache's gallery.

[knowschad]

As both a cache owner, and one that uploads a lot of pictures to other's caches, I have to agree.

 

As a workaround for when I add pictures, I've taken to either adding a line to my Found It note that reads something like, "Uploading pictures to the gallery", or if I'm uploading later, add a note to that effect, then delete the note after posting it (that way the owner and any watching the cache see it, but the note doesn't clutter the cache logs)

 

As a cache owner, I've been surprised more than once by checking my cache pages and seeing pictures that I didn't realize were there. Sometimes its good, and occasionally I'll discover a spoiler picture thats been sitting there for some time without my knowledge. So... automatic notification would be a useful feature, I'd think.

[+trainlove]

I've been guilty of logging ALL my finds on ANY caches that have SOME watchers by using the WAP site so that NO emails get delivered to anyone, including the cache owner.

But since I don't think that one can upload a photo using that site, and that one can add a photo at any time to any logs without generating any more emails, I'm totally stealthy. Please don't change the system. But I think it is an impossible programming task to do this request so I don't see it ever happening.

 

I do LOVE the fact that uploading a photo does not add the rediculous wording [This entry was edited by trainlove on Monday, February 31, 2000 at 01:23:45 PM.] My 'record' one word log for a Delorme Challenge still stands unmolested by the servers.

Edited October 28, 2008 by trainlove

[+benh57]

lol @ 'impossible programming task'.

 

Web programming is very easy. They could add an email notification for anything they wanted to on this site.

[+Prime Suspect]

lol @ 'impossible programming task'.

 

Web programming is very easy. They could add an email notification for anything they wanted to on this site.

The issue is the consequences. What about the person who uploads 40 pictures to an event log. Are you going to send out 40 emails? And then there's the guy who still has a film camera, and has to scan in every picture, so he's only uploading one every 10 minutes or so. And what about the event where 30 people are uploading pictures? How many mail bombs are you going to send out? Enough so that the recipient's email provider starts blocking incoming email from GC?

 

You can "lol" all you want, but these are real issues.

[+benh57]

lol @ 'impossible programming task'.

 

Web programming is very easy. They could add an email notification for anything they wanted to on this site.

The issue is the consequences. What about the person who uploads 40 pictures to an event log. Are you going to send out 40 emails? And then there's the guy who still has a film camera, and has to scan in every picture, so he's only uploading one every 10 minutes or so. And what about the event where 30 people are uploading pictures? How many mail bombs are you going to send out? Enough so that the recipient's email provider starts blocking incoming email from GC?

 

You can "lol" all you want, but these are real issues.

 

Those aren't "consequences", they are simple issues to be considered when implementing such a feature, and i don't think those in particular are even difficult at all. If you want to actually discuss that issue in particular rather than being snarky, I would suggest either throttling it (one email an hour should suffice, including a list of each log with a photo) or one a day -- or just make it user configurable.

 

They hardly indicate "impossible programming task". If anyone says any programming task is "impossible", it's worth a lol. Except maybe a computer which can pass the universal turing test 100%. That may be impossible.

 

I continue to be impressed at the ability of people here to naysay even the simplest, most obvious of improvements. It really discourages one from making suggestions. Fortunately, there is a constant influx of newbies, who suggest the obvious things before they get shot down never to return.

[+Parabola]

I can see where it would be nice to know if someone uploaded a photo a couple of days after posting a log. But I don't think I'd want the extra mail to deal with.

 

I have checked out my cache pages a few logs later to see a funny picture or two that I wish I would have caught earlier but they took me off guard when I did. (In a good way). The last one in fact almost had me in tear's I was laughing so hard.

[AZcachemeister]

I just check my cache pages occasionally.

I don't worry so much about 'spoiler photos'.

Who needs a 'spoiler photo' when you can just call the previous finder, and they will tell you exactly where it's hidden?

Considering that (apparently) so few cachers actually read the cache page and logs online, how many will see that 'spoiler photo' anyway...unless they are notified of the upload? (If the owner gets notified, wouldn't the watchers?)

[+tozainamboku]

lol @ 'impossible programming task'.

 

Web programming is very easy. They could add an email notification for anything they wanted to on this site.

The issue is the consequences. What about the person who uploads 40 pictures to an event log. Are you going to send out 40 emails? And then there's the guy who still has a film camera, and has to scan in every picture, so he's only uploading one every 10 minutes or so. And what about the event where 30 people are uploading pictures? How many mail bombs are you going to send out? Enough so that the recipient's email provider starts blocking incoming email from GC?

 

You can "lol" all you want, but these are real issues.

 

Those aren't "consequences", they are simple issues to be considered when implementing such a feature, and i don't think those in particular are even difficult at all. If you want to actually discuss that issue in particular rather than being snarky, I would suggest either throttling it (one email an hour should suffice, including a list of each log with a photo) or one a day -- or just make it user configurable.

 

They hardly indicate "impossible programming task". If anyone says any programming task is "impossible", it's worth a lol. Except maybe a computer which can pass the universal turing test 100%. That may be impossible.

 

I continue to be impressed at the ability of people here to naysay even the simplest, most obvious of improvements. It really discourages one from making suggestions. Fortunately, there is a constant influx of newbies, who suggest the obvious things before they get shot down never to return.

Sorry Ben, I have to agree with Prime Suspect on this. The programming is easy but having the right requirements is hard. The problems are real. Sure there are ways to avoid getting a flood of email but these have their own problems. There is no perfect solution but whatever is implemented ought to be well thought out. This is not a trivial problem especially when you have to scale it to work on a website like geocaching.com where there may be many photos being uploaded to many different caches at the same time.

 

The best solution may be the manual one that has been suggested. If you upload pictures to a log, when you are done, post a note to the cache page stating that you've added pictures in order to force a notification to the owner and other watchers. Then delete the note so it doesn't clutter the cache log. Since this already exists, there is no need to implement a worse solution. I suppose you could have this note generated automatically but I haven't thought of a way to do this that scales well. There isn't a way to know when a person is done uploading all his photos. The manual solution could be made easier by having a button on the page you get after you upload an image that says "when you are finished uploading images for this cache, click to send a notification to the cache owner and anyone watching this cache". Still a manual solution, but it might be something people would do if it's a single click.

 

BTW, I think that TPTB probably do consider this a reasonable request as many people do miss pictures because no notification is generated. This suggestion has gotten a lot of support from forum visitors too. It is not being shot down by all the naysayers. They are only asking how to best deal with the problems a poorly thought out solution will bring. Waving hands and saying it's easy doesn't make it so. We programmers have a saying "the devil is in the details". It is these details that have probably resulted in Groundspeak giving this a low priority.

[+The Leprechauns]

Please don't change the system.

Elsewhere, there's a "feature request" to present uploaded images according to the related log date, not the date on which the image was uploaded. If that were to be implemented, I've observed elsewhere that it would be very helpful to have a notification when an image is uploaded.

 

Today I can check for new images pretty easily by looking through the first page of a gallery until I see a familiar picture. But if the images are sorted by log date, I lose the ability to spot the new images. Right now, I'm only caught up to Labor Day weekend in uploading my photos. For popular caches like the DC virtuals I visited in mid-September, my new photos will be buried on page X once I finally get around to posting them.

 

Changing the image date would be "rediculous" unless we also have image uploade notifications.

[+trainlove]

You know,

Why limit this request to uploading of photos.

Why not email the cache (or travel bug) owner each and every time that a cache (or travel bug) log was edited...

You know how disconcerting it is to read an email, and when actually looking at the log, it's completely different.

[+Prime Suspect]

You know,

Why limit this request to uploading of photos.

Why not email the cache (or travel bug) owner each and every time that a cache (or travel bug) log was edited...

You know how disconcerting it is to read an email, and when actually looking at the log, it's completely different.

You're joking, right? Or do you really want to get emailed every version of someone correcting their typos?

[+trainlove]

You're joking, right?

Trick or treat.