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Pocket Queries


kenai16

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I used to get them every day at about the same time. A couple of months ago, they began arriving at different times. The past few weeks, there have been days I never received them. I just dismissed it as "$hit happens".

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I have uploading caches via pocket query for awhile now and all of the sudden I can not get them to be generated to my email. I go thru the usaul steps and set a day and nothing. Any thoughts? :)

 

Pocket queries have been broken for a month or so, only working intermittedley. The only solution so far has been to either copy or rewrite your PQ everytime you need to use it, then run the new PQ. Sometimes they show up within minutes. Others hae still waited hours but get them.

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I did not notice a problem until Friday. I have run new queries and the system says they have been generated but nothing ever shows up in my inbox.

 

Help! <_<

 

Try changing your email address (I'd recommend Gmail). It sounds like your ISP may be throttling or blocking our emails. If they are generated then they have left our mail server. From there you have to rely on your own ISP for getting it into your email box.

 

We send tons of emails every day and occasionally they get erroneously flagged as spam due to the high volume originating from our servers. Yahoo is especially bad at this but it can happen with Hotmail and other free email providers, and those that aren't free like AOL. It will help us alot if you as a customer tell them to stop doing this since it impacts our ability to get you the information you are requesting.

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Well I ran an ALL finds PQ on the 21st and still havent gotten it. And only being able to run it once a week I now have to wait a week to run it again and I have yet to receive the original one. Is there any reason for this? I have been using the same email account for years and no problem til now and I have changed nothing.

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It is real odd that this problem has struck more than a handful of members, myself included.

I've been with GC for 5+ years, and have not had problems getting logs, etc til now.

Something has change sometime around the 19th of this month.

I stopped getting any mail from GC, and after doing some checking, I changed email accounts, now things appear to be normal again.

I'm puzzlled why any ISP would all of a sudden block emails from a certain website?

I would like to switch back to my old email address to see if just changing email accounts has corrected the problem, but I'm afraid to change back and not receive the verification code to complete the transfer.

I have checked the spam folder and blocked address from my ISP and didn't see where GC was blocked.

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I would like to switch back to my old email address to see if just changing email accounts has corrected the problem, but I'm afraid to change back and not receive the verification code to complete the transfer.

 

If you want to try a pocket query, you don't have to switch officially. Just change the "Output to" option from "this account's e-mail address" to "alternate e-mail" then enter your other e-mail address in the box.

 

A user has posted in another thread on the subject that AOL IS blocking gc.com e-mails currently, according to his conversation with their tech support as to why he hasn't been getting his e-mails. If you're using AOL, switch to another e-mail.

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Not sure this is a problem with email adresses. My queries that should have been sent 21july and today have not been sent according to my account information. Think that the geocaching site has a major problem with the way that they are run. Why do the newest queries get to cut to the front of the line?

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Try changing your email address (I'd recommend Gmail). It sounds like your ISP may be throttling or blocking our emails. If they are generated then they have left our mail server. From there you have to rely on your own ISP for getting it into your email box.

 

We send tons of emails every day and occasionally they get erroneously flagged as spam due to the high volume originating from our servers. Yahoo is especially bad at this but it can happen with Hotmail and other free email providers, and those that aren't free like AOL. It will help us alot if you as a customer tell them to stop doing this since it impacts our ability to get you the information you are requesting.

I've copied my PQ's and deleted the old ones, and everything is working fine now.

Conclusion: throttling or blocking emails is not the cause of the problem...

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There are loads of messages in different threads of the forum about PQ's not working any longer.

It is well known by the administrator of this site, I guess the real question is when will there be a real solution and not unsatisfactory workarounds..???

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Some of my PQ's have not been generatged since July 17th. Yes you can get them to run if you copy them to a new PQ. However the existing ones are not running. It is not an email issue as I have Verizon DSL and I am getting emails.

 

There was a post the talked about Ground Speak have PQ Server issues. How the problem been fixed??

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Not sure this is a problem with email adresses. My queries that should have been sent 21july and today have not been sent according to my account information. Think that the geocaching site has a major problem with the way that they are run. Why do the newest queries get to cut to the front of the line?

As of today [ 24 July] my scheduled queries for 21&23 July have not arrived. I tried re-requesting them yesterday and the have not arrived. Not an email problem. They have not been generated yet. I'm still getting my watch list logs and new area cache notifications.

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Not sure this is a problem with email adresses. My queries that should have been sent 21july and today have not been sent according to my account information. Think that the geocaching site has a major problem with the way that they are run. Why do the newest queries get to cut to the front of the line?

As of today [ 24 July] my scheduled queries for 21&23 July have not arrived. I tried re-requesting them yesterday and the have not arrived. Not an email problem. They have not been generated yet. I'm still getting my watch list logs and new area cache notifications.

They just showed up. Not sure which dates they represent but at least they are here.

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There are loads of messages in different threads of the forum about PQ's not working any longer.

It is well known by the administrator of this site, I guess the real question is when will there be a real solution and not unsatisfactory workarounds..???

Geocaching is growing exponentially. I assume that Groundspeak's income is also growing exponentially. I hope that their investment in server hardware is also growing exponentially. In the meantime, please could someone nip down to servers-R-us and throw a couple of new servers at the PQ cluster?! :( I assume it is a cluster by now, and not just the same "dedicated machine" (in the singular!!!) which has been there since the beginning?

 

I'm still waiting for two PQs, scheduled to run daily which were last refreshed on 17th July. That's eight days ago! (No issues with AOL or spam filters here - they simply haven't run yet). Yes, I know all the work arounds and, yes, I know there are those who would criticise me for setting up daily queries, but that's the way I was led to believe it would work, so that's how I've set things up. It's not just me either, I know of at least fifteen other premium members who are still waiting for last week's PQs.

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Please read here...

 

we're aware of the issue with Pocket Query generation. Although throwing servers at a problem is a common and misunderstood way to address something, it isn't a simple problem you can solve by throwing money at it.

 

We are, however, looking into the issue and continuing to tweak the system. We're also adding new features, like caches along a route, that are designed not to impact the Pocket Query generator and hopefully alleviate the continuous queries that people say they have to do in order to get caches along a route the "old way". By creating these specialized queries we hope to steer people to this feature instead of bulk downloads.

Edited by Markwell
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I'm using Gmail.

 

And again my PQs, which haven't been run for a week, aren't arriving. Well, 1 out of the 4 I requested did. The others haven't been sent, so says the PQ page. It's not that I'm not receiving them, it's that they aren't being sent. They may come down the chute later, who knows, but I don't think it's too much to ask that they come to us in under a few hours, no?

 

These PQ problems are growing old. Any eta on getting them fixed?

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The new queries that I create are generating, they're just not being sent to my email address.

Yes, sigh, AOL.

:unsure:

 

My new Queries are generated and sent and I recieve a named file, sometimes they contain something sometimes they don't. I'm not sure what is up with the pocket queries but I do miss them.

 

I also have not been recieving my scheduled queries. I emailed Groundspeak and they kindly responded as below. Not sure how it helps but I've done what they asked; I posted in the forums....LOL. Below is the email I recieved:

 

Hi Steven,

 

We are currently investigating similar issues. If you would, please post your details to our forum.

 

Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

 

Eric

Groundspeak Inc

 

Ticket Details

===================

Ticket ID: NAF-630443

Department: Geocaching

Priority: Low

Status: Closed

 

I'm thinking the intent was that the folks here might be able to help. FYI, my PQ's have worked flawlessly for 17 months and only have had this issue for about 2 maybe 3 weeks. Maybe posting here was all it took to fix the issue.....LOL.

 

Cache On!!!

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I have AOL and noticed that i wasn't recieving any mail from GC.com. Ok, i looked through these threads, contacted AOL, and emailed Groundspeak. Meanwhile, i've started using another email address for the soul purpose of getting my GC mail. It's now coming in, allthough i have no idea if it's all i'm supposed to be getting.

 

However, pocket queries are still sporadic. I only received one of the two regularly scheduled for today, and the one that did come in didn't arrive until later this afternoon which is unusual. There is still a problem with the queries!

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Dropped AOL like a hot potato after 10 years. Switched email accounts to yahoo and gmail and all is well. Now, back to caching...

 

Darn I've got Yahoo and still havent received my All finds Query from the 21st. How do you rate? :laughing: And don't say its in my spam cause it ain't there either.

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Still no PQ's and I am tired of paying for something I am not getting as a Premium member. I do get my notifications, but no PQ's. I just got back from a 4 day business trip which I created a "cache along a route" query and due to this problem did not get the query or any caches...thanx for nothing, that is exactly what we are getting for our premium membership....NOTHING!!!!! :laughing::laughing::laughing:

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Dropped AOL like a hot potato after 10 years. Switched email accounts to yahoo and gmail and all is well. Now, back to caching...

 

Darn I've got Yahoo and still havent received my All finds Query from the 21st. How do you rate? :laughing: And don't say its in my spam cause it ain't there either.

 

I guess you get what you pay for?

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I guess you get what you pay for?

 

Are you sure Jeremy?? I don't think so!

 

When your reports are not run, whether your provider is AOL or anyone else, you won't get the reports..

I think this discussion on AOL is irrelevant and hides the actual problems, the PQ is is just simply inoperative and it seems that it's gonna stay like that for long!

 

From July 17th on, the only use of my susbcribtion has been to support the site. I think it is important but when I registered I was also expecting to geocache 'paperfree'. Can't do anymore!

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Check the forums - there are two separate issues. AOL (and possibly Yahoo) throttling e-mails, and a separate problem with regularly scheduled frequent pocket queries.

 

Jeremy's response seemed to be to those responding to AOL problems. He has already acknowledged in other threads that there is a problem with the PQs and that they are "working on it"

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I guess you get what you pay for?

 

Are you sure Jeremy?? I don't think so!

 

When your reports are not run, whether your provider is AOL or anyone else, you won't get the reports..

I think this discussion on AOL is irrelevant and hides the actual problems, the PQ is is just simply inoperative and it seems that it's gonna stay like that for long!

 

From July 17th on, the only use of my susbcribtion has been to support the site. I think it is important but when I registered I was also expecting to geocache 'paperfree'. Can't do anymore!

BTW - you can still geocache paperfree - I usually get a new PQ request in under 10 minutes. Current secret is to not schedule them to run regularly. Go in and setup a new one and you will get it quickly.

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I guess you get what you pay for?

 

Are you sure Jeremy?? I don't think so!

 

When your reports are not run, whether your provider is AOL or anyone else, you won't get the reports..

I think this discussion on AOL is irrelevant and hides the actual problems, the PQ is is just simply inoperative and it seems that it's gonna stay like that for long!

 

From July 17th on, the only use of my susbcribtion has been to support the site. I think it is important but when I registered I was also expecting to geocache 'paperfree'. Can't do anymore!

BTW - you can still geocache paperfree - I usually get a new PQ request in under 10 minutes. Current secret is to not schedule them to run regularly. Go in and setup a new one and you will get it quickly.

 

Yep, that works every time. I change the dates for the query, check the day of the week to run it (today's day) and make sure the "Uncheck the day of the week after the query runs" button is selected. It does require you to go to the "Build Pocket Queries" page each time, but it will get you the result you want in a timely fashion.

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Shouldn't you be complaining to AOL? It's their service that sucks.

 

I did complain to AOL about this problem and yes, i agree that their "customer support" leaves alot to be desired. But you know what, customer support here at GC.com is not as good as it once was either. Yes i know that one of the reasons is that GC.com gets alot of traffic yet has a small staff to take care of things. Still, problems are taking longer to correct these days. Pocket queries have been screwing up for a while now and this has nothing to do with AOL. I've seen lots of complaints and a few work around answers come through but the problem itself has been slow to be resolved.

 

On the AOL problem, very frustrating to say the least but there had to be something that triggered the blocking of GC.com mail. For you that brag about gmail or some other ISP,,, there's absolutely no reason to think that something similar can't happen with them as well. Problems like this are gonna come up sooner or later no matter what site you use. I'm sorry, but the opinion that AOL sucks is yours and not everyone agrees with that opinion!

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BTW - you can still geocache paperfree - I usually get a new PQ request in under 10 minutes. Current secret is to not schedule them to run regularly. Go in and setup a new one and you will get it quickly.

 

This helps, I tried... but

 

The issue though is that when doing this way, I first have to run the reports and then wait for them, when before I had them waiting for me in my mail. Also and very important, I have to modify all my scripts since the names of the files I get are different from what they used to be.

These scripts convert the PQ files in the appropriate formats required by the different applications I use on my Treo650 (TomTom, Cachemate, plucker, CetusGPS..).

Living at the border of France, Germany, Switzerland, I run country specific reports (TomTom imposes this) which explains my impatience when dealing with this workaround.

 

Anyway.. I understand that it's not likely to be back to the previous state any time soon.. which is very disappointing.

 

Thanks!

Edited by batla
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something seems really wrong with these, which is a big bummer. I have copied 2 of my PQs and will see if they run..selected a different email address (my work email, which will not filter these) and also did one as run once and another as run & uncheck. My others just created show as generated, but nothing in my email (AOL, yes). Although i have gotten the weekly notifications recently and also nothing has been routed to my spam folder, so I am not convinced AOL is blocking them..how much could this volume be vs. real spam..it has to be pretty small in AOL's scheme of things.

 

upcoming trip with the family and we'd really like to do some geocaching. I hope it runs.

 

one would think this is a pretty high priority for Groundspeak. and with everyone kicking in $30 or $36 a year, there should be some $ to try to fix this, and again, I can't see how this wouldn't be a huge priority.

 

:D

 

edit: so my first of 2 PQ's just showed up in my work email...I can't believe it (was run once then delete, we'll see what happens w/ run and uncheck). holy cow. if AOL is blocking emails and anyone from Groundspeak can provide documentation of this, I will go after AOL as well as an end user (although I hope someone at Groundspeak can speak for everyone directly to them if that's the case).

Edited by thefiveofus
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..... so my first of 2 PQ's just showed up in my work email...I can't believe it (was run once then delete, we'll see what happens w/ run and uncheck). holy cow. if AOL is blocking emails and anyone from Groundspeak can provide documentation of this, I will go after AOL as well as an end user (although I hope someone at Groundspeak can speak for everyone directly to them if that's the case).

Actually this thread provides quite a bit of documentation as well as a few others in the forums

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something seems really wrong with these, which is a big bummer. I have copied 2 of my PQs and will see if they run..selected a different email address (my work email, which will not filter these) and also did one as run once and another as run & uncheck. My others just created show as generated, but nothing in my email (AOL, yes). Although i have gotten the weekly notifications recently and also nothing has been routed to my spam folder, so I am not convinced AOL is blocking them..how much could this volume be vs. real spam..it has to be pretty small in AOL's scheme of things.

All 4 of your PQs for this morning ran, 3 of them within minutes of you creating them, and the last one took an hour. The two you sent to your work account were successfully delivered within 10 seconds of being generated. The 2 generated for your AOL account are sitting on our mail server; our server has tried to deliver each of them three times so far, and AOL has refused them each time.

 

one would think this is a pretty high priority for Groundspeak. and with everyone kicking in $30 or $36 a year, there should be some $ to try to fix this, and again, I can't see how this wouldn't be a huge priority.
Honestly, this isn't a huge priority for us. When it was brought to our attention, we followed the steps AOL asked us to take, but after that, there's nothing else for us to do. Groundspeak's top priority is to continue to improve the features of the web site, especially the performance of the PQ generator. But if an ISP, even a large ISP like AOL decides to block our email, we'll certainly do whatever we reasonably can, but at the end of the day, its completely up to them.

 

edit: so my first of 2 PQ's just showed up in my work email...I can't believe it (was run once then delete, we'll see what happens w/ run and uncheck). holy cow. if AOL is blocking emails and anyone from Groundspeak can provide documentation of this, I will go after AOL as well as an end user (although I hope someone at Groundspeak can speak for everyone directly to them if that's the case).
As I mentioned in the No Mails At All From GC thread, we did contact AOL and went through their process to set up a feedback loop and request whitelist status. I was supposed to hear back from them when they processed my request and I have not heard from them yet. I'm more than happy to send you the log entries from today showing AOL blocking our email so you can follow up with them. They'll be sent in a forum PM in just a few minutes.

 

:) Elias

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Quit passing it off as a aol problem. You admitted it as being a geocache problem and said it was being worked out. They say it is not a high priority problem then after I comment about it, surprisingly I get my week old queries and a statement from you saying it had a status of "high". make up my mind.

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