Still Irregular Pqs

[jep]

Hi,

 

I still have a lot of problems with my scheduled PQs. A lot of them never arrive and it is getting pretty annoying. I can see that others have the same problems but what is being done about it?

 

I logged a call on the Groundspeak Help Page and got a ticket but the link in the mail gives me the following error:

 

“ERROR: You do not have enough permissions to access this page. Please login by entering your Email and Password.”

 

I cannot find anywhere to login, can someone help me?

 

I also tried to reply to the email with the ticket but never got any response.

 

I must admit that I expect more from a service I pay for even though it is not big money.

 

Any ideas on what to do?

 

Jesper

[+Team yGEOh]

Please remember that TPTB deem questions like these as impatient.

 

TPTB have already blessed the work around for their ill conceived PQ prioritzation scheme and they see nothing wrong with it. Their game, their rules accept it and do not question it.

 

The work around for those us that are too impatient to wait is to create a new copy of the query we are trying to get run. Schedule it for today in a few minutes you should get the PQ in your email. Don't forget to delete the copy PQ so it doesn't take away from the 40 total PQ's you can create but not run on any sort of reliable reocurring schedule.

 

As time goes on this work-around will cease to function as well. There will be far too many PQ's for the PQ machine to handle.

[+Jaz666]

The work around for those us that are too impatient to wait is to create a new copy of the query we are trying to get run. Schedule it for today in a few minutes you should get the PQ in your email.

 

I believe the work around is also making the original problem worse, as more and more people are using the workaround, more and more scheduled PQs are getting bumped off the end of the queue.

[+Deliveryguy428]

I cleaned all mine out and re-submit them and got them within a few minutes.

 

Sometimes suggestions are more helping then anything else.

[+pdxmarathonman]

My regulary scheduled Saturday PQ ran today - at 11:24pm (36 minutes before Sunday!!). Kinda sucks to have to be pro-actively monitoring it and to do a bunch of BS to get what I have been paying for since Day One.

[+sbell111]

Please remember that TPTB deem questions like these as impatient.

 

TPTB have already blessed the work around for their ill conceived PQ prioritzation scheme and they see nothing wrong with it. Their game, their rules accept it and do not question it.

 

The work around for those us that are too impatient to wait is to create a new copy of the query we are trying to get run. Schedule it for today in a few minutes you should get the PQ in your email. Don't forget to delete the copy PQ so it doesn't take away from the 40 total PQ's you can create but not run on any sort of reliable reocurring schedule.

 

As time goes on this work-around will cease to function as well. There will be far too many PQ's for the PQ machine to handle.

You impertinence will be punished.

I believe the work around is also making the original problem worse, as more and more people are using the workaround, more and more scheduled PQs are getting bumped off the end of the queue.

That is only true if you don't delete your original query.

 

I think we have to remember two things: First, I rather doubt that most people have their PQs run several times per week. Second, I doubt that most PQ users are using this work-around. I know that if this problem was irritating me, I would stop all my PQs from running and only run them as I needed them. This would result in my getting my PQs fairly quickly and reduce the load on the PQ servers.

 

This actually brings up a really good temporary fix to this problem. TPTB should turn off the ability to preschedule PQs. Make them all run on-the-fly.

[+Lil Devil]

TPTB should turn off the ability to preschedule PQs. Make them all run on-the-fly.

Sounds like an excellent solution to me. I've been running all my PQs this way since the beginning anyways

[+Cheminer Will]

 

I logged a call on the Groundspeak Help Page and got a ticket but the link in the mail gives me the following error:

 

“ERROR: You do not have enough permissions to access this page. Please login by entering your Email and Password.”

 

I cannot find anywhere to login, can someone help me?

 

Jesper

 

This error has existed forever, I think. I had need to submit a ticket a long time ago and again more recently. This error was there both times. I seem to remember someone saying that the ticket submission process is not functional, but I may be remembering incorrectly. However, leaving a voice mail at the Groundspeak phone# got me a return call right away and the problem resolved in a very friendly, fast manner.

[+Cheminer Will]

The idea of scheduling PQ's is very popular with some and seen as unnecessary by others. Like most things there are always two sides and people eager to go to battle for their view.

 

I do PQ's both ways and recently made a change to my scheduled PQ's that seems to help them arrive on schedule. I had some that ran two times per week. The reason for this was to keep my offline db of local caches up to date and including all logs. I just like to be able to read all the logs out on the trail.

 

What I did is change those PQ's from 2X per week to 1X. I sometimes do miss a few logs on very busy caches, but this seems to cover most of them. If TPTB were able to include a tick box in building a PQ that allowed you to get ALL logs for the caches in that PQ, I would have no need at all to schedule PQ's. I could run the PQ's only right before I am planning on going caching and know that I had all the logs included.

[+Shilo]

TPTB should turn off the ability to preschedule PQs. Make them all run on-the-fly.

Sounds like an excellent solution to me. I've been running all my PQs this way since the beginning anyways

I replied to this in the other pq thread.

But anyways, about a year and a few months ago, it was this way because this very same thing was happening. TPTB turned off the prescheduled PQ for about a month and then turned it back on. Maybe its time to do this again?

[+sbell111]

TPTB should turn off the ability to preschedule PQs. Make them all run on-the-fly.

Sounds like an excellent solution to me. I've been running all my PQs this way since the beginning anyways

I replied to this in the other pq thread.

But anyways, about a year and a few months ago, it was this way because this very same thing was happening. TPTB turned off the prescheduled PQ for about a month and then turned it back on. Maybe its time to do this again?

They still let you schedule them. They just temporarily made you click to reschedule it to clear out those PQs that people weren't really using anyway. My 'suggestion' was to simply do away with the option of scheduling them at all.

[+PMaholm]

Irregular? Maybe they need some fiber?

[jep]

Well, I finally got feedback on my Ticket and after suggesting that I maybe was running empty queries all they had to say was "I'm afraid that I don't have a solution for you at this time" along with a suggestion to detail my problem in the forum as the development team keeps a close eye on the forums and are active with responses.

 

I have already posted my problems here in the forum twice and have yet to see a solution or even an answer from someone associated with Grounspeak (I think).

 

At the moment I'm only receiving my queries every third day even though they are scheduled for every day. This is quite annoying as I use them to keep my GSAK updated to have an updated view on my area. So far I have only been running two queries per day which is less than half what I pay for.

 

I know I can do it manually but I find it very annoying and time consuming to have to copy queries, reschedule etc. every day. And if I make a mistake copying, rescheduling etc. I risk using one of my 5 queries on nothing or something wrong.

 

To me it seems like I have bought a car that are supposed to start every day but only does it every third day and that the salesman tells me to jump start it the other days and the mechanics don't have a solution.

 

I'm really hoping for some feedback of any kind from Grounspeak (TPTB, developers etc.)

[+Shilo]

Well, I finally got feedback on my Ticket and after suggesting that I maybe was running empty queries all they had to say was "I'm afraid that I don't have a solution for you at this time" along with a suggestion to detail my problem in the forum as the development team keeps a close eye on the forums and are active with responses.

 

I have already posted my problems here in the forum twice and have yet to see a solution or even an answer from someone associated with Grounspeak (I think).

 

At the moment I'm only receiving my queries every third day even though they are scheduled for every day. This is quite annoying as I use them to keep my GSAK updated to have an updated view on my area. So far I have only been running two queries per day which is less than half what I pay for.

 

I know I can do it manually but I find it very annoying and time consuming to have to copy queries, reschedule etc. every day. And if I make a mistake copying, rescheduling etc. I risk using one of my 5 queries on nothing or something wrong.

 

To me it seems like I have bought a car that are supposed to start every day but only does it every third day and that the salesman tells me to jump start it the other days and the mechanics don't have a solution.

 

I'm really hoping for some feedback of any kind from Grounspeak (TPTB, developers etc.)

 

You could always do what you would do with that car.

BTW... In all these PQ's not running correctly threads, a Groundspeak person acknowledge the problem and said they are working on it. And no I'm not going to go find it. There are only 2 or 3 new threads a day started on this issue.

What do you need 2 PQ's everyday for??? No wonder people who run 1 PQ once or twice a week never gets there's.

[jep]

You could always do what you would do with that car.

I would get my money back or at least a discount. Haven't seen an option for any of these. The problem here is also that Geocaching.com are having a monopoly here, so it is not easy to go elsewhere.

 

BTW... In all these PQ's not running correctly threads, a Groundspeak person acknowledge the problem and said they are working on it. And no I'm not going to go find it. There are only 2 or 3 new threads a day started on this issue.

I know there are other threads, but if you read my previous post then you would see that this was the only suggestion I was given by Groundspeak support. I also recognize that they are working on it but I have yet to see any improvement and even feedback on how they progress. It is quite a while ago that this was first reported. And no I'm not going to go find the first post regarding this.

 

What do you need 2 PQ's everyday for??? No wonder people who run 1 PQ once or twice a week never gets there's.

You are allowed to have 5 queries per day and this is what you are promised when buying a subscription. Why should only using 40% of the allowed cause problems to others? I don't see it?

 

It is really not the point what I'm using my queries for but since you ask, I use them to keep an updated view of my area so that I can go geocaching without having to sit down in front of the computer to check out all the caches I might go after. I want to know if they are disabled or if the last person couldn't find it etc. These things changes every day and having as accurate information as possible reduce the risk of going after caches that no longer are available.

[+Miragee]

Since you can have up to 40 PQs in your list, each returning up to 500 caches, if you must have a PQ for your area every day, why don't you create 14 PQs around the same Center Point, or a slightly different center point.

 

Give them a name like Home -- Monday _1, Home -- Tuesday_1, etc. and Home -- Monday_2, Home -- Tuesday_2, etc. to distinguish them.

 

Now, since you don't want to ask for them "manually," schedule each of them to run once on "their" day of the week.

 

At the end of that week, schedule the next seven PQs for each day of the next week.

 

Since there will be 14 days between any one of them running, they should run promptly.

[+budd-rdc]

TPTB should turn off the ability to preschedule PQs. Make them all run on-the-fly.

Sounds like an excellent solution to me. I've been running all my PQs this way since the beginning anyways

I replied to this in the other pq thread.

But anyways, about a year and a few months ago, it was this way because this very same thing was happening. TPTB turned off the prescheduled PQ for about a month and then turned it back on. Maybe its time to do this again?

They still let you schedule them. They just temporarily made you click to reschedule it to clear out those PQs that people weren't really using anyway. My 'suggestion' was to simply do away with the option of scheduling them at all.

I foresee some unintended consequences from removing the preschedule feature, especially in areas where there's a high concentration of cachers. (Everyone in California will be trying to generate a PQ in a narrow time window) I also would like to see the TPTB flush out the PQ again to see if things will go back to normal.

 

I'm also wondering if the release of Caches Along a Route PQ is related to the increased load lately. Maybe things will get better when the novelty wears off.

[+Markwell]

I'm not having a problem with PQ production. It's just that my additional waypoints are still all empty.

[+dino-irl]

Since you can have up to 40 PQs in your list, each returning up to 500 caches, if you must have a PQ for your area every day, why don't you create 14 PQs around the same Center Point, or a slightly different center point.

 

Give them a name like Home -- Monday _1, Home -- Tuesday_1, etc. and Home -- Monday_2, Home -- Tuesday_2, etc. to distinguish them.

 

Now, since you don't want to ask for them "manually," schedule each of them to run once on "their" day of the week.

 

At the end of that week, schedule the next seven PQs for each day of the next week.

 

Since there will be 14 days between any one of them running, they should run promptly.

This is the best workaround I've seen yet. Thanks for coming up with an obvious solution.

 

However, once again I'd like to point out that I shouldn't have to use a workaround. It's worked up until now and I'd like someone to explain why it's stopped working.

 

Before I implement this workaround can someone confirm that the PQ generator is working properly again. Last I heard it was missing caches and additional waypoints?

[+Markwell]

Still missing additional waypoints, but they're getting generated and I'm not missing caches.

[jep]

It is getting worse and worse. Now my weekly queries don't even get run and queries that are not supposed to run on e.g. friday do it anyway getting in the way of the queries I have actually scheduled for friday. All this means that I have absolutely no control of the data I get and cannot use it for anything.

 

Support just say they don't have a solution and suggest to post here but to what use? No one who has to do with the website replies!!

 

Someone from Groundspeak, please respond. What are the chances for having PQs fixed and within what timeframe?

 

/Jesper

[+Mudfrog]

Pocket queries have been a big help since i discovered them. They have always come when scheduled and arrived even faster when i did them on the fly, until recently! Now i cant seem to get any of the on the fly queries to even show up in my email box. I tried yesterday and today for two seperate queries and it shows that they were generated yesterday at 6:23pm and the other today at 12:24am. I have yet to see either of them arrive.

 

Doing work arounds is no solution. If the site allows me to have 40 queries, 5 queries a day, with 500 waypoints a query, then i ought to be able to do all of this with no questions asked. If these numbers are causing problems with query generation and delivery, then the TPTB need to change this to help the system work properly.

 

And by the way, the question of why someone needs so and so queries shouldn't even come up. It doesn't matter why they want them or what they do with them. This is what we are allowed as a paying members of the site and we should receive them as promised!

[+Hynr]

And by the way, the question of why someone needs so and so queries shouldn't even come up. It doesn't matter why they want them or what they do with them. This is what we are allowed as a paying members of the site and we should receive them as promised!

I agree. Note that it is typically other users who ask that question, not the folks in charge. I suspect that some of the folks who post the question genuinely don't know the answer because they lack the perspective of the "Power Geocacher" (I made that term up; not sure if there is an official term that does not involve the word "obsessed"); But on occasion a knowledgable person "asks" for other reasons.

[+Haffy]

All I know is that I use the pocket queries maybe once or twice a week and only run them the one time when I need them. Heck here in Maine we have less than 1400 caches total for the WHOLE state. I sent out a PQ of All my finds on the 21st and still havent gotten it. So now even though it supposedly was generated and I never received it I have to wait another whole week to generate another one that I might not get. All I want is to update GSAK in my found database. I don't think asking for 700 plus caches is asking too much do you? Help Jeremy!!!! I appreciate all the things that the site provides but I think this pocket query generator isn't working quite the way I was hoping it would. Seems something ought to be done soon.

[+dino-irl]

Since you can have up to 40 PQs in your list, each returning up to 500 caches, if you must have a PQ for your area every day, why don't you create 14 PQs around the same Center Point, or a slightly different center point.

 

Give them a name like Home -- Monday _1, Home -- Tuesday_1, etc. and Home -- Monday_2, Home -- Tuesday_2, etc. to distinguish them.

 

Now, since you don't want to ask for them "manually," schedule each of them to run once on "their" day of the week.

 

At the end of that week, schedule the next seven PQs for each day of the next week.

 

Since there will be 14 days between any one of them running, they should run promptly.

This is the best workaround I've seen yet. Thanks for coming up with an obvious solution.

 

However, once again I'd like to point out that I shouldn't have to use a workaround. It's worked up until now and I'd like someone to explain why it's stopped working.

 

Before I implement this workaround can someone confirm that the PQ generator is working properly again. Last I heard it was missing caches and additional waypoints?

Finally got around to doing this today and it worked. I set up 7 copies of each cache, set to run on one day each week. I'll wait and see what happens next week