FTFs

[+DonB]

I'm wondering about cache postings and how soon it's possible for a member to know about them. I'll give an example, if a cache is released today and I as a premium member get an email on it at 8:30PM tonight, how soon will it be posted on the website and a none premium member be able to know about it?

 

I'm asking the question because of a discussion I had with a friend and neither one of us knows the answer for sure. As a premium member I see the new caches listed as soon as I get the email, but I can't tell if I'm seeing the list the same way a none premium member would. I would think there would be some kind of a delay in posting for just members.

[+ChileHead]

Unless it's a members only cache, everybody can see them at the same time.

[+cache_test_dummies]

I'm wondering about cache postings and how soon it's possible for a member to know about them. I'll give an example, if a cache is released today and I as a premium member get an email on it at 8:30PM tonight, how soon will it be posted on the website and a none premium member be able to know about it?

 

I'm asking the question because of a discussion I had with a friend and neither one of us knows the answer for sure. As a premium member I see the new caches listed as soon as I get the email, but I can't tell if I'm seeing the list the same way a none premium member would. I would think there would be some kind of a delay in posting for just members.

A cache, once listed (published) on the site, can be seen immediately by both Premium Member and regular members. There is no delay that hides the listing from regular members for some period of time.

 

As you mentioned, the advantage for Premium Members is that they can sign up to receive a notification email when new caches are published in their area.

[+cache_test_dummies]

Unless it's a members only cache, everybody can see them at the same time.

As I understand it, even if the cache is a PMOC, non-members can see the listing. They just can't see coordinates on the cache page.

[+DonB]

I'm wondering about cache postings and how soon it's possible for a member to know about them. I'll give an example, if a cache is released today and I as a premium member get an email on it at 8:30PM tonight, how soon will it be posted on the website and a none premium member be able to know about it?

 

I'm asking the question because of a discussion I had with a friend and neither one of us knows the answer for sure. As a premium member I see the new caches listed as soon as I get the email, but I can't tell if I'm seeing the list the same way a none premium member would. I would think there would be some kind of a delay in posting for just members.

A cache, once listed (published) on the site, can be seen immediately by both Premium Member and regular members. There is no delay that hides the listing from regular members for some period of time.

 

As you mentioned, the advantage for Premium Members is that they can sign up to receive a notification email when new caches are published in their area.

That answers some of my question but still leaves part of the question unanswered.

 

If I get the email like I said, at say 8:30PM tonight and the cache was published that day, is the cache posted on the site at that same time? If it is there isn't much sense in requesting the email notification because I probably wouldn't check my emails until the next morning. I would think there would be some kind of a delay from the time premium members get the email until the cache is posted.

[+Isonzo Karst]

If I get the email like I said, at say 8:30PM tonight and the cache was published that day, is the cache posted on the site at that same time?

 

The notification email is sent immediately after the reviewer enters the publish log.

 

The cachers that are eager for FTF are often receiving these via cell phone - or have pop-up alarms for email that says, "Notify:reviewer published xxxxx"

[+cache_test_dummies]

If I get the email like I said, at say 8:30PM tonight and the cache was published that day, is the cache posted on the site at that same time? If it is there isn't much sense in requesting the email notification because I probably wouldn't check my emails until the next morning.

While that may be true for you, there are FTF hounds who will drop whatever they are doing, regardless of the time of day or night the notification arrives, to run out and find a new cache.

 

I would think there would be some kind of a delay from the time premium members get the email until the cache is posted.

You have it backwards: the delay, if there is any, occurs after the cache is published (listed on the site for all to see) and before the notifications are sent out. Generally speaking, the notifications go out almost immediately after the reviewer hits the 'publish' button, but because emails can sometimes be delayed in transit, it is not impossible for a regular member to notice a new cache listing before his PM geocaching friends have received their notification emails.

Edited November 10, 2007 by cache_test_dummies

[+sduck]

You should probably be aware that many of the notification emails are held up in the bowels of the Groundspeak machinery for extended lengths of time, for whatever reason - most of the time the emails arrive promptly, but they can be held up for hours sometimes. I've received the notification emails for new caches in my area only to find that legitimate finders have already logged them.

[+Too Tall John]

You should probably be aware that many of the notification emails are held up in the bowels of the Groundspeak machinery for extended lengths of time, for whatever reason - most of the time the emails arrive promptly, but they can be held up for hours sometimes. I've received the notification emails for new caches in my area only to find that legitimate finders have already logged them.

My impression has been that the notifications don't get bound up at Groundspeak as often as they get bottlenecked by our mail servers.

 

In a practical sense this makes very little difference, except for when you are trying to get the problem resolved. If the problem is on my end, I shouldn't be yelling to GS to fix their servers.

[+Zop]

I'm wondering about cache postings and how soon it's possible for a member to know about them. I'll give an example, if a cache is released today and I as a premium member get an email on it at 8:30PM tonight, how soon will it be posted on the website and a none premium member be able to know about it?

 

I'm asking the question because of a discussion I had with a friend and neither one of us knows the answer for sure. As a premium member I see the new caches listed as soon as I get the email, but I can't tell if I'm seeing the list the same way a none premium member would. I would think there would be some kind of a delay in posting for just members.

 

Wow.. That will really vary. I have seen caches pop up on my closest to home lists, gone out and found the cache, come home to log it and not receive the E-mail notification for up to several hours later. Bring in IT however, I would never complain about something like that because I realize that it is very easy to overload an email server and there will ofter be several other varying factors which will impact the timliness of a delivery.