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Event Cache Feature


Hynr

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Would it be possible to add a feature for Event Caches giving the cache owner (and ONLY the cache owner) the ability to send an e-mail to all those who previously logged a "will attend"?

 

I would suggest that the ideal method would be to provide an option on the "Post a new log" screen that would be something like "Broadcast to attendees". This would also then be displayed as a log entry among the cache logs so that anyone logging after that point can also see it.

 

I have 120 folks heading my way for an event and I need to contact them about some of the circumstances. Only about 15 geocachers have the event on their watchlist.

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Would it be possible to add a feature for Event Caches giving the cache owner (and ONLY the cache owner) the ability to send an e-mail to all those who previously logged a "will attend"?

 

I would suggest that the ideal method would be to provide an option on the "Post a new log" screen that would be something like "Broadcast to attendees". This would also then be displayed as a log entry among the cache logs so that anyone logging after that point can also see it.

 

I have 120 folks heading my way for an event and I need to contact them about some of the circumstances. Only about 15 geocachers have the event on their watchlist.

 

Previously suggested and rejected:

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...1&st=&p=entry

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Hmm, at that post the esteemed Jeremy mused:

In retrospect I think the "will attend" idea was a bad idea. The site wasn't really meant to be an event management service. Instead, I suggest that you use a web site like http://www.evite.com/ as a complement to your Geocaching event. It does look like you need an invite list but you could ask people to email you with their email address. Or there may be other event management sites out there that I don't know about.

 

The log entry is universal and shouldn't contain a whole lot of information except the note, date, and type. Think of it as an action - finding, picking up, dropping off, etc.

I am not asking for event management services and neither was the person who started that thread. I am asking to be able to communicate with other geocachers who have indicated that they are planning to attend a geocaching event which has as it's sole advertisement the Groundspeak-owned website. What I am asking cannot possibly be performed by another service because the e-mail addresses are only known to Groundspeak.

 

And to suggest that I send all attendees an individual e-mail to ask them to send me their e-mail adresses so that I can send them a message related to the event is... well, I think it speaks for itself.

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Say in your cache description for everyone to add the event cache to their watchlist or a bookmark list, because you will communicate updates by posting notes to the cache page.

 

But, as you mentioned in that above mentioned thread:

 

Watchlisting a major event cache is a PITA because of all the travel bug drops and other mundane notes. I'd rather hear from the organizers directly.

 

My guess is that you could put a request with your e-mail on the event page that if people want e-mails send you one and you'll put them on the list. It's a bit time consuming and not the best answer (others privacy concerns) but I'm guessing for now, what you're requesting is a dead issue and won't be happening...

Edited by ODragon
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Say in your cache description for everyone to add the event cache to their watchlist or a bookmark list, because you will communicate updates by posting notes to the cache page.

 

Excellent suggestion. I have never checked, but it would be interesting how many of those that say they will be there, actually do attend. Also how many attend that have not indicated any intentions to attend. Just make a rough guess and hope you don't run out of food. Dick, W7WT

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Say in your cache description for everyone to add the event cache to their watchlist or a bookmark list, because you will communicate updates by posting notes to the cache page.

 

This is what we do. A lot of the old timers still log "notes" rather than "will attend" so they'd never get the emails anyway.

 

:laughing:

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At the first event we hosted, we had about 200 TB/Coin/Jeep drops. I got all the emails. We never had more than 20 people watching the "cache" at any time but we had 83 signatures in the log book. I mostly assume that people didn't want to be bothered with 200+ emails about bug drops.

 

It would have been nice for me to be able to instantly email all those who logged "Will Attend" (and maybe even "Note") if something came up with the event. Frankly, I don't see why this is an issue at all. We don't need a huge envite.com setup, just one email broadcast. (And I write software for a living, so I know the danger of "feature creep")

 

Paul and Jeannette (host of Bread and Roses, Manchester NH)

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At the first event we hosted, we had about 200 TB/Coin/Jeep drops. I got all the emails. We never had more than 20 people watching the "cache" at any time but we had 83 signatures in the log book. I mostly assume that people didn't want to be bothered with 200+ emails about bug drops.

 

It would have been nice for me to be able to instantly email all those who logged "Will Attend" (and maybe even "Note") if something came up with the event. Frankly, I don't see why this is an issue at all. We don't need a huge envite.com setup, just one email broadcast. (And I write software for a living, so I know the danger of "feature creep")

 

Paul and Jeannette (host of Bread and Roses, Manchester NH)

 

I think the broadcast to attendees is a good idea. I *never* watch events because of all the bug/coin drops.

 

Alternatively, the ability to drop bugs and coins into events could be disabled, either entirely, or at least until the event has actually taken place. Thinking of it, logging something into a cache before it is done is logging an intention, not an action. It shouldn't be encouraged (or even made possible) in the first place.

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At the first event we hosted, we had about 200 TB/Coin/Jeep drops. I got all the emails. We never had more than 20 people watching the "cache" at any time but we had 83 signatures in the log book. I mostly assume that people didn't want to be bothered with 200+ emails about bug drops.

 

It would have been nice for me to be able to instantly email all those who logged "Will Attend" (and maybe even "Note") if something came up with the event. Frankly, I don't see why this is an issue at all. We don't need a huge envite.com setup, just one email broadcast. (And I write software for a living, so I know the danger of "feature creep")

 

Paul and Jeannette (host of Bread and Roses, Manchester NH)

 

Like the "Polling" option we used to have on the forums, if it exists, people will abuse it. While the intent is for notifying of last minute changes, people will be sending out annoying "Hey, don't forget about the event" emails, just because they can.

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What was the argument against pointing people to an Evite notice for the event?

 

I think the arguement is that to set up an evite, you have to have the people attendings e-mails. This means either requesting that on the page or sending everyone an individual e-mail. By doing so, both the owner and the attendees are giving up their privacy. (It's sort of backwards since if they show up to an event, they're also giving up that privacy but I think you understand what getting at). This is what I'm getting from what the OP is stating in the 3rd post...

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I think the arguement is that to set up an evite, you have to have the people attendings e-mails.

 

You can make an open evite URL which anyone can go to without having to have their email on the guest list. They will have to sign up with evite in order to get any emails, though.

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I think the arguement is that to set up an evite, you have to have the people attendings e-mails.
You can make an open evite URL which anyone can go to without having to have their email on the guest list. They will have to sign up with evite in order to get any emails, though.

If that's so then I have no idea what the arguement is...
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Obviously people have geocaching-related events, and like tracking them on the site. If the current event cache setup doesn't work well for this, I'd suggest redesigning the site infrastructure to support it better rather than sending people off to fend on their own on other event sites like Evite. Using another site raises a whole host of issues for both the event planner(s) and attendees, especially if different event cache organizers use different sites and everyone has to go sign up for several different sites just to keep getting info about event caches they plan on attending!

 

If the feature proposed in this thread isn't one Groundspeak wants to implement, maybe thinking about how to redesign and reimplement event caches overall to make them a more useful site feature might be in order. This also doesn't preclude the idea of Groundspeak partnering with another company (like say, Evite or Meetup) to host the event cache features integrated (as least loosely) with geocaching.com rather than doing it all in-house!

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I concur with kelly@9's comments 100%.

 

I see a lot of comments above with wishful-thinking that the prospective attendees would take some particular action. I suspect that these suggestions come from persons who have not been in the situation of needing to communicate with 100+ potential attendees because of some unforseen circumstance. The problem is that I, as organizer, need to communicate with them, regardless of whether they have taken some action or not (or wether they “should” have).

 

If Groundspeak were to make an alliance with an event management service so that they could provide the requested communications capability, then that would be fine with me. It seems to me that since Groundspeak has promised us members that they would not provide our e-mail addresses to any commercial entity, that it would be necessary for an event company to use Groundspeak to send messages to the list of potential participants. So unless there is something else to be gained from this for Groundspeak or its clients, I would think that it would be simpler for Groundspeak to just provide the functionality to the event cache owner rather than to have a go-between.

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Since I am a hacker at heart, I have a hack for you.

 

<hack>

Activate a travelbug and call it the RCGDS Will Attend Travelbug. On the event page, post that if you want meeting announcements, watch this bug. Then people can post notes to the travelbug that will send an email to all the watchers (and there will be a thread of posted messages).

</hack>

 

No sharing of emails needed, no registration on other sites. Before the next event, a message can be sent out telling anyone that wasn't attending the next event should remove the bug from their watch list. Then all of the notes can be deleted from the previous event, if desired (but this wouldn't really be needed.)

 

--Marky

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Since I am a hacker at heart, I have a hack for you.

 

<hack>

Activate a travelbug and call it the RCGDS Will Attend Travelbug. On the event page, post that if you want meeting announcements, watch this bug. Then people can post notes to the travelbug that will send an email to all the watchers (and there will be a thread of posted messages).

</hack>

 

No sharing of emails needed, no registration on other sites. Before the next event, a message can be sent out telling anyone that wasn't attending the next event should remove the bug from their watch list. Then all of the notes can be deleted from the previous event, if desired (but this wouldn't really be needed.)

 

--Marky

. . . . which will promptly get locked down, as virtual TBs are not permitted.

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<hack>

Activate a travelbug and call it the RCGDS Will Attend Travelbug. On the event page, post that if you want meeting announcements, watch this bug. Then people can post notes to the travelbug that will send an email to all the watchers (and there will be a thread of posted messages).

</hack>

 

Couldn't they just watch the event listing?

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<hack>

Activate a travelbug and call it the RCGDS Will Attend Travelbug. On the event page, post that if you want meeting announcements, watch this bug. Then people can post notes to the travelbug that will send an email to all the watchers (and there will be a thread of posted messages).

</hack>

 

Couldn't they just watch the event listing?

 

This would be fine if you didn't mind the 50 travelbug drops, and the 130 "will attend" and the 130 "attended" logs. Looking for 1 or 2 announcements in over 200+ watchlist messages isn't my idea of fun.

 

--Marky

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. . . . which will promptly get locked down, as virtual TBs are not permitted.

I didn't say this was a virtual travelbug. This would be a real travelbug that traveled from one RCGDS event to another. Nothing wrong there. I don't think there is anything wrong with watching a real travelbug.

 

--Marky

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Actually, I like Marky's idea... the only problem is that anyone can post a note to a TB without knowing the TB number, so not only could the organizers use 'Post a note' on the bug to give people info, but anyone else could too, knowing that 100+ people watching the bug would get the message...

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I wouldn't want to miss notifications of new event caches in my area. I'd hope moving event caches to the Waymarking site wouldn't do that.

 

I've never visited the Waymarking site and have no plans to do so.

 

Also, geocaching events are events by geocachers for geocachers... not by waymarkers for waymarkers. Let the waymarkers have their own event waymarks over on the Waymarking site.

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This would be fine if you didn't mind the 50 travelbug drops, and the 130 "will attend" and the 130 "attended" logs. Looking for 1 or 2 announcements in over 200+ watchlist messages isn't my idea of fun.

 

Good point. And, it's true. I usually set up a filter on my e-mail client to catch all the bug-drops and will-attend messages for the events I'm watching, so I don't see them anymore. I've done this for quite some time, so I'd forgotten about that annoyance.

Edited by Ferreter5
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Ferreter5, I gather that you are only interested in traditionals, multis, and mysteries (TM&M) since those are the only kinds of caches that can be added to gc.com. If you also like doing any of the other types of caches that do not have a physical cache container or a physical logbook, then you need to visit wm.com where they are now housed.

 

TPTB seem to have decided to split geocaching into two areas, those that fit the TM&M model stay on gc.com, while those that do not move to the new wm.com site. At wm.com they are developing (slowly, V E R Y slowly) a new model for better handling all the non-TM&M type caches.

 

This thread is about possible new features for event caches. Event caches hardly fit the TM&M model now, with any of the new proposed features they would be even harder to shoehorn into the TM&M model. Thus, it makes sense to move event caches to wm.com where a more flexible cache model is hopefully going to be available one of these days.

 

I am not aware of any event cache organizer that has denied a waymarker access to the event. Of course I also am not aware of any pure waymarkers. It seems that all the people that post to the waymark forums are like me, geocachers that also like some of the non TM&M type caches that are now on wm.com.

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Ferreter5, I gather that you are only interested in traditionals, multis, and mysteries (TM&M)

I like geocaching events too.

 

since those are the only kinds of caches that can be added to gc.com.

Geocaching event, CITO event, and letterbox cache listings are also accepted.

 

If you also like doing any of the other types of caches that do not have a physical cache container or a physical logbook, then you need to visit wm.com where they are now housed.

One website is enough for me. I really don't want to have to use two.

 

I am not aware of any event cache organizer that has denied a waymarker access to the event. Of course I also am not aware of any pure waymarkers. It seems that all the people that post to the waymark forums are like me, geocachers that also like some of the non TM&M type caches that are now on wm.com.

Yep. Agree.

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Meanwhile, back on topic....

 

It appears to me that using the evite route solves this 'problem' nicely. If you want to get emails regarding the event, you just sign up for them. This way, you can state your intentions to attend without being hammered with unwanted emails.

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