+laxxe Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 I use linefeeds for the email which we used in the old version. You didn't have the same problem with the old emailer? I'm having the same problems with the new email - all was fine before (I'm using Eudora 7). Link to comment
+csmkersh Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 (edited) I sure wish you could put the wheels back on the old Bot. Caches arrived sorted closest to furthest, which, with the way gas has been the last year, meant a lot to me. The first cache in today's list is just short of 200 miles away Never mind. I figured out that events came first, then the caches listed nearest first. Sam aka csmkersh Edited November 2, 2006 by csmkersh Link to comment
+WascoZooKeeper Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 I sure wish you could put the wheels back on the old Bot. Caches arrived sorted closest to furthest, which, with the way gas has been the last year, meant a lot to me. The first cache in today's list is just short of 200 miles away Sam aka csmkersh Mine are in order by distance. However, EVENTS are now listed separately, and ordered by DATE instead of distance. Is that perhaps what you're seeing? Link to comment
+huggy_d1 Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 Enjoyed reading this thread after getting the new weekly mail. I like all the data, the links, the GC #'s, etc. What would be sweet would be to click a link to get a PQ of the "mega events in this email", "events in this email", "caches in this email" that would be system generated PQs and only available for a week at which time the system would replace what would be returned with the NEW weekly announced data. Like LoBot. Link to comment
+carleenp Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 My notification suddenly thinks I live in Ontario, Canada. Link to comment
+New England n00b Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 I think caches that have been archived should be included. Caches that are disabled/re-enabled would be cool too. I get a message about these when I dump my PQs into GSAK, but it'd be nice to have the e-mail message to refer to. Ditto! Link to comment
+Stunod Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 My notification suddenly thinks I live in Ontario, Canada. Bring back some of that Canadian beer, will ya? And maybe some poutine. Link to comment
PHerison Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 I use linefeeds for the email which we used in the old version. You didn't have the same problem with the old emailer? No. Link to comment
Jeremy Posted November 2, 2006 Author Share Posted November 2, 2006 I stopped the mailer, adjusted the spacing, and sent them again. Any of the 50k first emailed people will have the problem. After that you shouldn't. I guess the bot is still oily behind the ears. Carleen - check your home coordinates. Link to comment
+OHMIKY Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 I use linefeeds for the email which we used in the old version. You didn't have the same problem with the old emailer? I hae the same formatting problem - the old notifications were correctly formatted but the one I received today is decidedly short on LF ... What I got looks like this: In this email (from 10/26/2006 to 11/2/2006) ----------------------------- 1. Email Bot Maintenance 2. Instanotify Service Out of Beta! 3. Upcoming Events (21 total) 4. Recently Published Geocaches (34 total) Email Bot Maintenance ----------------------------- The gears on our old email bot finally seized up last week so we had to scramble to develop a new bot to keep you updated about new caches and events in your area. LoBot - short for Location Bot, is our new mail robot. He's still a little oily behind the ears but we'll be updating him over the next few weeks. If you have any comments or ideas feel free to post it in the forums. http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=147765 Instanotify Service Out of Beta! ----------------------------- A Premium Member feature, the Instanotify service (almost) immediately sends an email when a cache has been logged. For each notification you choose a cache type, log type and radius to monitor. One popular log type is "published" which will notify you when new caches have been published near you. This can give you a (un)fair advantage over other "first to find" hounds. This week we decided it has been working well for long enough to remove the "beta" tag. Additionally we raised the limit on the number of notifications from 20 to 40, and added the log types "found" and "not found." Depending on the popularity of geocaching in your area we would recommend keeping your number of notifications low. http://www.geocaching.com/notify Upcoming Events (21 total) ----------------------------- 1. (GCYXTK) Geocky Adopt a Highway Trash Pickup 2006 #2 (Cache In Trash Out Event) Location: Kentucky, United States Date: 11/5/2006 Posted by: GEOCKY http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...ed-221eac4b615f 91.9mi SW (148km SW) 2. (GCYNGW) November 7th, "Maumee Style - NWOGEO <snip> Hope you can fix this as I am unlikely to struggle through this very often Link to comment
Jeremy Posted November 2, 2006 Author Share Posted November 2, 2006 I did fix the linefeeds. You were probably typing while I was posting. Link to comment
+New England n00b Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 Still waiting for mine so I can comment without (unintentionally) putting my foot in my mouth. Link to comment
+carleenp Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 (edited) I have mine set by postal zip code, which is set correctly. I also correctly got notified of caches in Illinois before. The zip code changed here awhile back, would that mess things up with the changes on your end for some reason? I know that many online places don't seem to recognize my new zip code (including my own area voting guide!). I could try changing it back to the old zip code, which is for the town next to me. Edited November 2, 2006 by carleenp Link to comment
+TotemLake Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 Also, just a minor hijaack of the OP... are you guys scanning the e-mail for viruses before sending them with Symantec? I've got a flame ready to go to my ISP for blocking the message because it couldn't be scanned and want to be sure I slap the right nose... I mean inform the right department. It's just a text message. I can't see how a virus could be included in the emailer. I know. I'm just getting my ducks in order. Link to comment
+spyder8 Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 I use linefeeds for the email which we used in the old version. You didn't have the same problem with the old emailer? it's different - my normal email program - Eudora - just runs it all together. I opened the file with my hex editor and looked at the hex... yup - just the "0A" - which is a unix type line delimter, but the PC/DOS world really likes to see the CR/LF combo - "0D/0A" --- -------- Link to comment
+MissJenn Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 I would also like to suggest adding a "Site Tip of the Week" paragraph to the weekly mailer... Nice! That sounds like an idea that would benefit a whole lot of cachers! Link to comment
+MissJenn Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 How about a link to a Monthly survey/results? It would be interesting to see what the geocaching community thinks about a variety of issues. It would also provide some useful voice of the customer feedback back to Groundspeak. We are indeed a crowd that tends to like to answer such things as online surveys. While it may seem a good idea, especially from a marketing angle, I personally shudder at the labor hours involved in gathering, organizing, and analyzing that sort of constantly-flowing data. Instead, Jeremy as the benevolent dictator works well enough for me. Link to comment
+MissJenn Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 Also, just a minor hijaack of the OP... are you guys scanning the e-mail for viruses before sending them with Symantec? I've got a flame ready to go to my ISP for blocking the message because it couldn't be scanned and want to be sure I slap the right nose... I mean inform the right department. It's just a text message. I can't see how a virus could be included in the emailer. Mine arrived with the following text at the very top:This message has been processed by Symantec's AntiVirus Technology. Unknown00000000.data was not scanned for viruses because too many nested levels of files were found. For more information on antivirus tips and technology, visit http://ses.symantec.com/ From: "Groundspeak LoBot Mailer" <noreply@geocaching.com> Date: November 2, 2006 12:19:51 PM PST To: BLAHBLAHBLAH@comcast dot net Subject: [GSP] Groundspeak Weekly Notification Link to comment
+Blue Bomb Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 Got the new weekly mail today. I definately like the new format better than the old. Keep up the good work! Link to comment
+baloo&bd Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 Mine arrived with the following text at the very top: This message has been processed by Symantec's AntiVirus Technology. Unknown00000000.data was not scanned for viruses because too many nested levels of files were found. For more information on antivirus tips and technology, visit http://ses.symantec.com/ From: "Groundspeak LoBot Mailer" <noreply@geocaching.com> Date: November 2, 2006 12:19:51 PM PST To: BLAHBLAHBLAH@comcast dot net Subject: [GSP] Groundspeak Weekly Notification I go t the same thing but that is all I got, nothing else. Link to comment
+geoduck.5 Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 Love the new format! And easier to read. Mine worked just find on Gmail, Outlook, and Thunderbird. Link to comment
+TotemLake Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 Also, just a minor hijaack of the OP... are you guys scanning the e-mail for viruses before sending them with Symantec? I've got a flame ready to go to my ISP for blocking the message because it couldn't be scanned and want to be sure I slap the right nose... I mean inform the right department. It's just a text message. I can't see how a virus could be included in the emailer. Mine arrived with the following text at the very top:This message has been processed by Symantec's AntiVirus Technology. Unknown00000000.data was not scanned for viruses because too many nested levels of files were found. For more information on antivirus tips and technology, visit http://ses.symantec.com/ From: "Groundspeak LoBot Mailer" <noreply@geocaching.com> Date: November 2, 2006 12:19:51 PM PST To: BLAHBLAHBLAH@comcast dot net Subject: [GSP] Groundspeak Weekly Notification That's exactly what I got. I fired off a message to Comcast (my ISP) and they use McAfee with no affiliation to Symantec. I use AVG and they don't use a Symantec engine. This started when the new server was started. The trail leads back to here. Link to comment
+csmkersh Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 I sure wish you could put the wheels back on the old Bot. Caches arrived sorted closest to furthest, which, with the way gas has been the last year, meant a lot to me. The first cache in today's list is just short of 200 miles away Never mind. I figured out that events came first, then the caches listed nearest first. Sam aka csmkersh That thumping sound is my head banging against my desk. Link to comment
+TrailGators Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 How about a link to a Monthly survey/results? It would be interesting to see what the geocaching community thinks about a variety of issues. It would also provide some useful voice of the customer feedback back to Groundspeak. We are indeed a crowd that tends to like to answer such things as online surveys. While it may seem a good idea, especially from a marketing angle, I personally shudder at the labor hours involved in gathering, organizing, and analyzing that sort of constantly-flowing data. Actually, it's a snap to anybody that is web savvy! Link to comment
+Super_Nate Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 Just got time to look it over, and I agree that it is very well done. One thing, am I the only one or would it be easier to see the events by order of distance rather than date? Maybe I should just adjust..... Link to comment
+The Cheeseheads Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 I don't think the 100 mile radius for events cuts it anymore. People regularly travel far longer than that to attend events. Only one of the last four events I've attended was within 100 miles of my home coordinates! I would say to list all the events in a state, but that doesn't work well, either. From my home in Pittsburgh, I could attend events in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland, all within 150 miles, but a Philadelphia area event would be outside my normal event range. Maybe a 200 mile radius for regular events? That would likely work around here. In Texas they'd call 200 miles "local." And I'm just the opposite. There's a rather large body of water to my east, and half my event notifications are from Michigan, which, while are within a 200 mile radius, are probably about a 400 mile drive away. I'd love a way to tailor the notices a bit, such as selecting a radius and a state (or states). Link to comment
+TrailGators Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 I don't think the 100 mile radius for events cuts it anymore. People regularly travel far longer than that to attend events. Only one of the last four events I've attended was within 100 miles of my home coordinates! I would say to list all the events in a state, but that doesn't work well, either. From my home in Pittsburgh, I could attend events in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland, all within 150 miles, but a Philadelphia area event would be outside my normal event range. Maybe a 200 mile radius for regular events? That would likely work around here. In Texas they'd call 200 miles "local." And I'm just the opposite. There's a rather large body of water to my east, and half my event notifications are from Michigan, which, while are within a 200 mile radius, are probably about a 400 mile drive away. I'd love a way to tailor the notices a bit, such as selecting a radius and a state (or states). I agree. It is easy to run a PQ to find out all the events within 200 miles of you. I would think that the point of the weekly notice would be to remind people about "local" events. 200 miles is not local. It would be interesting to see a survey that shows what percentage of cachers "typically" travel 200 miles to attend an event. Link to comment
+Pharmadude Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 I just got my message - it's almost impossible to read as there are very few new lines in the entire document for some reason. I'm using Eudora 7 to (attempt to) read the email. Same here, except Eudora 6.1 Also, the header reads "[WARNING - VIRUS SCANNED] [GSP] Groundspeak Weekly Notification" Link to comment
+MtnGoat50 Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 Well, for what it's worth, mine came through just fine. The only virus message I got was the little note AVG adds, way at the bottom. I think it looks exactly as intended and is perfectly readable. I'm a little embarassed to say because I know it's not cool but I'm using Outlook Express. Link to comment
+jon & miki Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 We got today's weekly notification OK, although the formatting in the Eudora mail client is kinda weird. Lots of square boxes etc. It's readable, just not very pretty. Although Eudora's HTML renderer is, shall we say, sort of "imperfect", I guess I'd like to see a user option for HTML-formattted email with the expectation that it would be a minimalist kind of html, not so much fancy formatting as to confuse Eudora, just enough to make it readable. Link to comment
+mini cacher Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 Am I the only one that doesn't really see a difference? I think it looks pretty much the same as it was. Not that this is a bad thing as I had no complaints about how it looked before. However, if it runs faster then that's all the improvement you need to make it time well spent. The only real difference I see is that I have to scroll past more stuff to get to the actual cache listings. If the email starts shifting the focus from "new caches" to "any new stuff that somebody might be interested in" then maybe it should just be called the Weekly Newsletter instead of the Weekly Cache Notification. I would just hate to see the original intent of the email get pushed further and further down the list. I would rather get two emails... one with just new caches and then one as just the other stuff. Then I can read the newsletter when I get around to it as that info might not get "outdated" as quickly as the new cache list. But that is just me. I'll put my helmet back on and wipe the drool from my chin. Link to comment
+New England n00b Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 Mine still hasn't shown up, but given Elias's announcement thread about Yahoo Mail greylisting stuff, I guess I will ust have to wait and see what happens. Link to comment
+Kid Dylan Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 good morning, i don't know if any of these apply, but here goes. i would like to be able to segregate not only by miles, but also by state. if you live on the border of two states it becomes some what of a hassle to go by miles only.. this probably doesn't apply, but i have to try. can someone please change the rating system from 5 stars to a 1 to 100 scale. it would be so much more accurate and easy to caculate. add points for each item and come with a rating of 66 vs 2.5 stars. thanks kiddylan Link to comment
Dinoprophet Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 Until you can customize you mailing, I'd like to see regular caches come before events. I have to believe regular caches are the higher priority for most cachers. If you do implement customization, can order of subjects be part of that as well? A clearer separation between sections would also be nice (I'm not sure what it should look like exactly). Thanks! Link to comment
+The Blue Quasar Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 Keeping Geocaching and Waymarking separate is a good idea to me. I love both of the activities, but I would rather see a Geocaching Weekly Email and a Waymarking Weekly Email. Treat each site as separate sections that fall under the Groundspeak flagship. Adding the options of what to include and what to leave out would be nice too. The Blue Quasar p.s. CarleenP... welcome to Ontario, my standing offer of buying a beer applies to you as well! Okay... off to buy some Poutine as Stunod made me hungry! Link to comment
+KINGANDI Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 When you run your new system can you put the city on the cache page along with the state? Link to comment
+Delivery Man Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 Well, after 4+ years running we decided to turn off the old code we were using for the Weekly Cache Notification emailer. It was unfortunately so old that the code behind it was bogging down the database and ultimately causing site brownouts. So, I'm back to square one. We currently use the mailer for two things: 1. Notification of new caches in your area, and 2. Letting you know all sorts of things, from announcements about new features to ads from our sponsors. It's still going to do both of these, but I'm looking for some other ideas. For example, I'm already planning to separate out the events from the cache types since it makes sense to make them separate. Also, events like Mega-Event Caches will be shown if you are within 1,000 miles instead of the usual 100. We're also planning to add a list of the most recent categories added to Waymarking.com - as we move forward with that web site we'll be adding some more features to integrate some of the info from that site with Geocaching.com. And lastly, we'll be working on more announcements to keep you up to date on the new features and changes of the site. So let me know what else you'd like to know! And if you don't bother reading those emails, what would make you want to read them again? Link to comment
+Delivery Man Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 The new mailer sent me notifications for an area thata I have not requested and none from my requested area. Link to comment
+carleenp Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 p.s. CarleenP... welcome to Ontario, my standing offer of buying a beer applies to you as well! Okay... off to buy some Poutine as Stunod made me hungry! I'll remember that. Some of those Ontario events looked fun! I'm pretty sure my issue is with the zip code change, it isn't in databases yet. Although why it gave the right area before and not now, and why it suddenly decided on Ontario, who knows? I'm going to set it back to the old zip code and see what happens next week. Regardless, I like the idea of having events separated from the caches. Link to comment
+ODragon Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 I'm pretty sure my issue is with the zip code change, it isn't in databases yet. Although why it gave the right area before and not now, and why it suddenly decided on Ontario, who knows? For some reason, I think Ontario is the default... The PA Reviewers account doesn't have a default set and the weekly notification was from that area of Canada. Link to comment
+Eclectic Penguin Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 I use linefeeds for the email which we used in the old version. You didn't have the same problem with the old emailer? All I can say is that's what I'm seeing too. Link to comment
+The Fat Cats Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 Got the new weekly mail today. I definately like the new format better than the old. Keep up the good work! We agree. Sure, we could nitpick the details, but overall it's a great improvement and much appreciated. Thank you. Link to comment
+jon & miki Posted November 3, 2006 Share Posted November 3, 2006 I use linefeeds for the email which we used in the old version. You didn't have the same problem with the old emailer? All I can say is that's what I'm seeing too. The boxes did not occur with the old email-bot, they do now. The boxes are always associated with new lines in my case, so perhaps there's an extra character involved (lf and cr maybe instead of just a cr)? Link to comment
Jeremy Posted November 3, 2006 Author Share Posted November 3, 2006 It bears repeating that if you were one of the first to receive the emails you would experience this issue. Otherwise you shouldn't. The first 50,000 emails or so had the issue with spacing but the new ones shouldn't. Link to comment
+tobysowners Posted November 4, 2006 Share Posted November 4, 2006 Where do we report problems with the new Groundspeak LoBot Mailer? We just received our first weekly update with the new mailer and see two problems: It's sending us updates for California even though we live in North Carolina. The old mailer send us updates for North Carolina just fine. The forum link "http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=147765" included in the mail doesn't work. Thanks, tobysowners Link to comment
+Lil Devil Posted November 4, 2006 Share Posted November 4, 2006 (edited) 2. The forum link "http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=147765" included in the mail doesn't work. Since I just copied that link into my address bar and it worked fine, I'm guessing you mean it wasn't a "clickable" link. Since it is a plain text email, making the link clickable is a function of your email client, and not anything that the sender has any control over. Edited November 4, 2006 by Lil Devil Link to comment
+welch Posted November 4, 2006 Share Posted November 4, 2006 ... It's sending us updates for California even though we live in North Carolina. The old mailer send us updates for North Carolina just fine. Its important to remember the site is always a work in progress . Having said that, from this thread it seems like a number of people got the 'wrong' location, for example mine was for Oregon... I thought maybe it was something I had somehow done to screw it up, but other people seem to have had the same problem so maybe it wasn't me . Link to comment
+Cache Masters93 Posted November 4, 2006 Share Posted November 4, 2006 Speaking of notifying me of caches in my area...I just received an e-mail notification with interesting events in Maine and New Hampshire. Problem is - - I live in Alaska. I couldn't find a place to report the mix up so I thought I'd post a note here. Link to comment
+WindChill Posted November 4, 2006 Share Posted November 4, 2006 With the number of folks that got information for a wrong location, it might be nice to list the location being used. At the bottom where it says "This email is being sent to username X" you could add a "for zipcode Y" or "for coordinates Z". Link to comment
+HaLiJuSaPa Posted November 4, 2006 Share Posted November 4, 2006 (edited) A little late to putting in our comments on this, but a couple of thoughts: 1) Actually, we would love to see Waymarking somehow get mixed in on the email. We think Waymarking would succeed much better if it had more integration with Geocaching 2) All mega-events should be listed. I mean, people on the East Coast do go to Las Vegas for the annual CES, people on the West Coast do go to NYC to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, the Times Square New Year's ball drop, etc. A mega-event is kind of the geo-caching equivalent of these and even if we don't have to time or means to usually go to the faraway ones, it doesn't mean that others don't. 3) Finally, is there a way to sort the new cache lists by direction? One quirk in this part of the country is that "as the crow flies" distances have almost no meaning. We have caches that are <10 miles from us in this sense but are really hour-long drives with toll bridges because they are in NJ or Long Island and major water geography makes them not be a quick and simple cache run. Or they are in Manhattan (about 10-20 miles "as the crow flies"), which means either planning for parking or a costly train ride, so not a "cache and dash" either. Yet we have caches that are 25 miles away in this sense in Connecticut and the lowermost regions of Upstate New York that are quite simple drives from here. I imagine you won't do it, as few other areas really have this geographical quirk (the SF Bay Area and Seattle come to mind, maybe parts of the New Orleans area), but was worth mentioning. Edited November 4, 2006 by HaLiJuSaPa Link to comment
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