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Easier to be CO on Earhcaches


Niels-Peter

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Hello

 

As a CO off an Earthcache I get a lot off good answers on the questions in my cache. But I could need some help from geocaching.com.

 

A) Geocachers "forgets" to mail CO with the answers:

It could be nice if geocaching.com had 2 "Comments" fields when geocachers log their visit at an earthcache. One is (like today) the logtext on geocaching.com. The other goes til CO as an mail, and becomes available only for CO to watch on geocaching.com.

 

B) CO sometimes have difficulties having track on with geocachers have sent a mail. It would be nice withe an radio-button/flag at each log, so CO easily can keep track on the answers an no-answers.

 

Kind regards

Niels-Peter

Edited by Niels-Peter
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Unless an event's nearby, where many might log in one day, it doesn't seem that tough to keep track of who's logging correctly and who's faking it.

Sending two emails simultaneously doesn't seem that much different than a Found It log, with the requirement email arriving a few minutes later.

Doubtful that geocaching.com would be willing to share their mail system with COs.

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Think I must be missing something here but...

 

If it's too difficult to keep track of emails relating to answers on your EarThcaches...

 

How is it going to be any easier keeping track on Earthcache answers if they are included in a hidden log file visible only to the CO?

 

Aren't you going to have to keep coming back to the cache page to check?

 

Doesn't sound easier to me at all - unless you want to be able to check, say, once per month and delete finds with no answers?

 

Or will you want to contact the cacher in question to ask them where their answers are? How will they respond? By email presumably...

 

But I'm sure Groundspeak won't mind investing programmer hours reinventing the wheel - if only to save people having to check their own email :ph34r:

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As the owner of a normal cache it's your job to do maintenance. As the owner of an EarthCache the 'maintenance'part of ownership is to keep up with people logging your cache. We keep a simple excel file and we add a name when someone logs and when and if answers were sent or not. Easy. Though to be honest, we would not want to have an EC in the middle of Paris or London, even though we considered it before. :P

 

edit: just had a look at your EarthCache. I guess given it's location it will get more logs while it's still fresh, and maybe a few more around the Mega in two weekends (I'll be there :) ) and otherwise it should not get too many logs compared to those in the middle of the city.

Edited by terratin
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I made a similar suggestion a while back. I still think it would be a good option...and not just for earth caches, but also for maintenance logs, etc., where a separate email is often used to communicate info to the CO.

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=315994&st=0&p=5304360&fromsearch=1entry5304360

I remember that thread.

Sounded like a good idea, but maintenance logs and any other issues I'd like to see stay with the cache page , not automatically hidden away to the CO, so future finders have an idea if it's worth heading out to.

In fact, maintenance issues is one of the deciding factors within the intro app.

Making separate logs easy to do in one step (with one not seen by anyone other than the CO...) I believe wouldn't be an accurate history of the cache at all.

What would someone do if they had an appeal issue? Would HQ be able to look into your hidden messages?

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I made a similar suggestion a while back. I still think it would be a good option...and not just for earth caches, but also for maintenance logs, etc., where a separate email is often used to communicate info to the CO.

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=315994&st=0&p=5304360&fromsearch=1entry5304360

I remember that thread.

Sounded like a good idea, but maintenance logs and any other issues I'd like to see stay with the cache page , not automatically hidden away to the CO, so future finders have an idea if it's worth heading out to.

In fact, maintenance issues is one of the deciding factors within the intro app.

Making separate logs easy to do in one step (with one not seen by anyone other than the CO...) I believe wouldn't be an accurate history of the cache at all.

What would someone do if they had an appeal issue? Would HQ be able to look into your hidden messages?

 

The maintenance log idea, to me, was more about being able to provide the CO with details about the cache that might otherwise spoil the find for others, offering specific info to the CO about the hiding spot or container (e.g., "the branch it was hanging on was broken, so I hid it in a knot hole on the other side of the tree"). It would supplement the PUBLIC 'Needs Maintenance' log.

Edited by J Grouchy
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I made a similar suggestion a while back. I still think it would be a good option...and not just for earth caches, but also for maintenance logs, etc., where a separate email is often used to communicate info to the CO.

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=315994&st=0&p=5304360&fromsearch=1entry5304360

I remember that thread.

Sounded like a good idea, but maintenance logs and any other issues I'd like to see stay with the cache page , not automatically hidden away to the CO, so future finders have an idea if it's worth heading out to.

In fact, maintenance issues is one of the deciding factors within the intro app.

Making separate logs easy to do in one step (with one not seen by anyone other than the CO...) I believe wouldn't be an accurate history of the cache at all.

What would someone do if they had an appeal issue? Would HQ be able to look into your hidden messages?

 

The maintenance log idea, to me, was more about being able to provide the CO with details about the cache that might otherwise spoil the find for others, offering specific info to the CO about the hiding spot or container (e.g., "the branch it was hanging on was broken, so I hid it in a knot hole on the other side of the tree"). It would supplement the PUBLIC 'Needs Maintenance' log.

Sounds nice, but I see it as an easy heads up to friends and such IN PLACE OF the public NM log.

"Mary, your cache is shot. Go out and fix before Cerberus puts a NM on it".

We already have that now, but they have to call, text or mail.

Edited by cerberus1
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It must be difficult keeping track of your one EarthCaches finds info notification. Strange that those with a hundred or more don't seem to mind and work with the system. There is a solution. Give them a week and then delete the log. That will get their attention. No need to create something to address a minuscule problem when enforcement using current methods will take care of it.

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What I'd like to see is an extra confirmation box for finders when logging an Earthcache.

 

Right now, if you log a NM or NA on any cache you get a confirmation question, asking you to confirm that you want to post that log.

 

I'd like an extra confirmation on finding an Earthcache asking the finder to confirm they have *already sent the required answers to the cache owner*. That way, no answers email means the CO can guilt-free delete the log any time rather than having to wait a while or chase up the finder - and by guilt-free I mean that no answers email means the finder lied when they confirmed to the website that they already sent the answers.

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As a CO off an Earthcache I get a lot off good answers on the questions in my cache. But I could need some help from geocaching.com.

 

I mean no offense, Niels-Peter, but you own one earthcache that's been found 33 times. Is it so taxing to keep track?

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Setting aside the 'hard to track' issue, this idea sounds like a feature that would be very useful to finders. It would greatly simplify logging earthcaches if the confirmation information was able to be sent to the cache owner through the find log rather than having to send a separate email through the site.

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Setting aside the 'hard to track' issue, this idea sounds like a feature that would be very useful to finders. It would greatly simplify logging earthcaches if the confirmation information was able to be sent to the cache owner through the find log rather than having to send a separate email through the site.

 

I so agree with this.

 

I could also see the value from an owners standpoint. I'm not an E/C owner, but I imagine it would be easier to look on the cache page rather than cross-referencing emails to verify someone has sent in the correct answers.

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