How do notifications work?

[+Nakedbamboo]

I am curious as to what notifications are supposed to do. I have set up four notifications for a ten mile radius of my home. I assumed they were a way of detecting new caches without having to run a daily PQ. Sounds good, however I have had these setup for months now and received no emails about new caches. I am aware of at least three new lots in that radius since I set the notifications up. Is there something special to do to make this work? Do they work? Just curious. Oh, and yes, they all have the box checked that says to activate it.

 

By the way, I am searching for "Published Listings." Is that correct for new caches, or is it something else?

[+Miragee]

Perhaps your ISP is sending the Notifications to a SPAM or Quarantine folder. I had to change my email address on GC.com to a gmail.com email address because my previously-dependable ISP decided to start blocking all the Groundspeak domains.

 

I get Notifications for New Caches, Archived caches, and Event caches. They work great.

[+Nakedbamboo]

Perhaps your ISP is sending the Notifications to a SPAM or Quarantine folder. I had to change my email address on GC.com to a gmail.com email address because my previously-dependable ISP decided to start blocking all the Groundspeak domains.

 

I get Notifications for New Caches, Archived caches, and Event caches. They work great.

 

I use a hotmail account and have never had any trouble with any other GS emails.

[+Miragee]

Well . . . if you have the Notifications enabled, but you aren't getting them, there must be a problem somewhere . . . Hotmail has been known to "throttle" GC.com mail in the past, IIRC.

[+Haffy]

You also have to do a separate notification for each type of cache as well. If you only did a notification for a traditional cache and the new caches were of a different type then you wouldn't be getting the notifications anyway.

[+Nakedbamboo]

You also have to do a separate notification for each type of cache as well. If you only did a notification for a traditional cache and the new caches were of a different type then you wouldn't be getting the notifications anyway.

 

I have notifications setup for Mysteries, Traditional, Multi, and (well I just realized this is dumb) Virtuals. I suppose there won't be new virtuals. Anyway, the new caches were all traditional.

 

Well . . . if you have the Notifications enabled, but you aren't getting them, there must be a problem somewhere . . . Hotmail has been known to "throttle" GC.com mail in the past, IIRC.

 

Do the notifications come from the same address as the PQs? The "noreply@geocaching.com?

 

Also what is the difference between Publish Listing and Enable Listing?

Edited September 24, 2007 by Nakedbamboo

[+Miragee]

Yes, the Notifications I got yesterday for new caches came from that address.

 

On Edit . . . Publish is for brand new listings. Enable would be for a cache that had been Temporarily Disabled (or even Archived) and re-enabled.

Edited September 24, 2007 by Miragee

[Keystone]

A "Publish" log is what a reviewer adds to the page at the time that it is first published. Here is one of mine from today. You would want to set up notifications for "published" logs in order to learn about new caches.

 

An "enable" log is what is entered in order to restore a temporarily disabled cache to active status. Typically that happens with existing caches, not new caches.

[+cache_test_dummies]

Are you sure that the 'point of origin' coordinates on the Add/Edit Insta-Notify Subscription page are pointing to your home area? You can test this by clicking the Map It link below the coordinates.

[+Nakedbamboo]

I have checked all of the above. I have and had them set for Publish and the map it shows right on my house. I have increased the range and removed the virtual. I guess I will have to wait until a new cache is placed to test.

[+Nakedbamboo]

Here is an example of a cache that did not trigger any notifications. GC163Y1. It is within a mile or two of my house and I never received any emails about it.

[+Miragee]

I received Notifications today for newly-Published caches and for an Archived cache. I also got "Owner" Notifications.

 

You might try using a gmail.com account for GC.com.

[+Nakedbamboo]

I received Notifications today for newly-Published caches and for an Archived cache. I also got "Owner" Notifications.

 

You might try using a gmail.com account for GC.com.

 

Ok, I am going to try a gmail account. I just have so many mail accounts, I hate making new ones.... Unfortunately, they are all hotmail accounts.

[+Nakedbamboo]

Ok, so I finally got my first notification of a new cache. However it is way farther away than my notification radius. So what is up with that? I got an email about this cache, GC165FT. It is in Oklahoma. The email says that the cache is 17.7 miles away which is within the 20 mile limit I set. However, I set the coordinates of the notification in Flower Mound, Texas. I clicked on the linnk in the email that takes you to the notification page. I then clicked on the map it icon for the coordinates. It is centered right on my house. The cache is almost 80 miles away. I heard that 80 miles is the limits for a notification, so I am wondering if the system is somehow overlooking my radius of 20 miles. At least I got the notification this time.

[+Prime Suspect]

Ok, so I finally got my first notification of a new cache. However it is way farther away than my notification radius. So what is up with that? I got an email about this cache, GC165FT. It is in Oklahoma. The email says that the cache is 17.7 miles away which is within the 20 mile limit I set. However, I set the coordinates of the notification in Flower Mound, Texas. I clicked on the linnk in the email that takes you to the notification page. I then clicked on the map it icon for the coordinates. It is centered right on my house. The cache is almost 80 miles away. I heard that 80 miles is the limits for a notification, so I am wondering if the system is somehow overlooking my radius of 20 miles. At least I got the notification this time.

Did you go back and check the actual coordinates set for the notification? The system plugs in your home coordinates as the default, since that's what most people will use. You may have just thought you entered new coordinates.

[+Nakedbamboo]

Ok, so I finally got my first notification of a new cache. However it is way farther away than my notification radius. So what is up with that? I got an email about this cache, GC165FT. It is in Oklahoma. The email says that the cache is 17.7 miles away which is within the 20 mile limit I set. However, I set the coordinates of the notification in Flower Mound, Texas. I clicked on the linnk in the email that takes you to the notification page. I then clicked on the map it icon for the coordinates. It is centered right on my house. The cache is almost 80 miles away. I heard that 80 miles is the limits for a notification, so I am wondering if the system is somehow overlooking my radius of 20 miles. At least I got the notification this time.

Did you go back and check the actual coordinates set for the notification? The system plugs in your home coordinates as the default, since that's what most people will use. You may have just thought you entered new coordinates.

 

Yes, I checked. I actually want my home coordinates there. But I also used the map icon to see where the coordinates were and they were right on my house.