+ChileHead Posted February 20, 2008 Posted February 20, 2008 If somebody contacts me through my profile and sends me a note without the checkbox "include my email address", then it becomes a bit painful to reply. I can't just respond to the note in my email program like I would any other one. Often I'll compose a reply before noticing the "noreply@geocaching.com" address. I'd like an option so that I can check something saying "refuse all email without a return address". Either that, or an option to automatically reply to such a note in a manner that allows cachers to keep their email address private. So if geocacher "i_am_paranoid" wants to contact "chilehead" but without sending the email address because they hear chilehead is a stalker, they can email without the checkbox selected, and I'll get a note with a valid reply address that automatically goes back to the sender, using some sort of session id like "reply23489729347235523@geocaching.com"
+Okiebryan Posted February 20, 2008 Posted February 20, 2008 I agree completely and 2nd this request. It is a major pain to reply to anonymous emails. Please help to find a way to workaround this.
+StarBrand Posted February 20, 2008 Posted February 20, 2008 My easy solution is to not respond to those that do not provide me an easy way to do so.
+ChileHead Posted February 20, 2008 Author Posted February 20, 2008 My easy solution is to not respond to those that do not provide me an easy way to do so. Yeah, I've thought about that and done that, but I don't want to be too much of a jerk (I mean too much more of a jerk than I already am.)
+Renegade Knight Posted February 20, 2008 Posted February 20, 2008 I've thought about this, but I have to say I like the present system. If I email you about a potential issue with your cache. I've done my part, done you a favor by not posting about it in the cache log and don't need to be punished by having my email potentially exposed. The present system protects email addressed both directions. Yes, it's rather a pain to get an email about a shrubbery only to find I have to click the link to their profile to respond. However I think that's the price we have to pay to be able to do the right thing and keep some semblence of privacy. Especially for those who don't use throw away email accounts for these kind of contacts.
+Okiebryan Posted February 20, 2008 Posted February 20, 2008 I've thought about this, but I have to say I like the present system. If I email you about a potential issue with your cache. I've done my part, done you a favor by not posting about it in the cache log and don't need to be punished by having my email potentially exposed. The present system protects email addressed both directions. Yes, it's rather a pain to get an email about a shrubbery only to find I have to click the link to their profile to respond. However I think that's the price we have to pay to be able to do the right thing and keep some semblence of privacy. Especially for those who don't use throw away email accounts for these kind of contacts. "You must return here with a shrubbery, or else, you will never pass through this wood... alive. One that looks nice. And not too expensive." Sorry, couldn't resist...
+Isonzo Karst Posted February 20, 2008 Posted February 20, 2008 pssst, I hear that chilehead guy is a stalker .... don't let him have your real email.... I'm with RK on this. Don't reply, or work back through the sender's profile. Both decent, if sometimes annoying, options.
+ReadyOrNot Posted February 20, 2008 Posted February 20, 2008 There are times I want to send a message to a cache owner and I'm not expecting a reply and want to remain anonymous. One instance was a cache that was in the owners front yard and the owner removed the cache, but didn't bother archiving it. I wasted gas going over there and looked for it for what must have been 30 minutes. The owner finally came out and told me to kick rocks and the cache had been removed (owner was not very pleasant).. I sent the owner an email upon returning home explaining that he was extremely rude, unpleasant and should have archived the cache after removing it. I also notified him that if he did not archive it that I would request a reviewer do so (which is what eventually happened). Talk about a grade A "unpleasant" person. This brings up another issue that I won't go into too much, which is why all the people before me didn't bother letting me know they couldn't find it? Urf! It takes all kinds doesn't it. You shouldn't be able to filter out emails coming from anonymous, because they might contain important information, but you certainly don't have to respond to them.
+Caching Scout Posted February 20, 2008 Posted February 20, 2008 I perfer that the less people that know my e-mail the better. I wouldn't want to let people know my e-mail if it's my work one, could give away my job, and that would be no good. But I do like the idea of a certain "coded" return adress
+Prime Suspect Posted February 21, 2008 Posted February 21, 2008 If somebody contacts me through my profile and sends me a note without the checkbox "include my email address", then it becomes a bit painful to reply. I can't just respond to the note in my email program like I would any other one. Often I'll compose a reply before noticing the "noreply@geocaching.com" address. I'd like an option so that I can check something saying "refuse all email without a return address". Either that, or an option to automatically reply to such a note in a manner that allows cachers to keep their email address private. So if geocacher "i_am_paranoid" wants to contact "chilehead" but without sending the email address because they hear chilehead is a stalker, they can email without the checkbox selected, and I'll get a note with a valid reply address that automatically goes back to the sender, using some sort of session id like "reply23489729347235523@geocaching.com" If you can come up with a way to ensure that the person I'm writing to doesn't have one of the thousands of PCs infected with viruses that collect email addresses for spamming, then I'll endorse your idea.
+JohnnyVegas Posted February 21, 2008 Posted February 21, 2008 I perfer that the less people that know my e-mail the better. I wouldn't want to let people know my e-mail if it's my work one, could give away my job, and that would be no good. But I do like the idea of a certain "coded" return adress set up a seperate e-mail account with Yahoo, hot mail, myway or any other free mail service for geocaching related use. That way no one will see your work info
+Hynr Posted February 21, 2008 Posted February 21, 2008 Since the email message comes from the Groundspeak server, there is no reason why the programmers could not include a link which when clicked browses to the e-mail section of the website ready to reply to the geocacher that sent the message, preferable with the text box populated with a “On –date– you wrote:” and the quote. This is really not difficult to do for folks with as much web page programming skills as our fabulous team.
+BlueDeuce Posted February 21, 2008 Posted February 21, 2008 If somebody contacts me through my profile and sends me a note without the checkbox "include my email address", then it becomes a bit painful to reply. I can't just respond to the note in my email program like I would any other one. Often I'll compose a reply before noticing the "noreply@geocaching.com" address. I'd like an option so that I can check something saying "refuse all email without a return address". Either that, or an option to automatically reply to such a note in a manner that allows cachers to keep their email address private. So if geocacher "i_am_paranoid" wants to contact "chilehead" but without sending the email address because they hear chilehead is a stalker, they can email without the checkbox selected, and I'll get a note with a valid reply address that automatically goes back to the sender, using some sort of session id like "reply23489729347235523@geocaching.com" When I use the "Find another player" it always jumps me to "Sending an email to a user" and that gives me the send address option. Seems easy enough to add that link to the email when being contacted.
+Rattlebars Posted February 21, 2008 Posted February 21, 2008 There are times I want to send a message to a cache owner and I'm not expecting a reply and want to remain anonymous. Emphasis added. Your profile link is included with the message you're not anonymous. Anyway, how hard is it to click the link and type in a reply in the user's text box? Must be winter.
+Prime Suspect Posted February 21, 2008 Posted February 21, 2008 Since the email message comes from the Groundspeak server, there is no reason why the programmers could not include a link which when clicked browses to the e-mail section of the website ready to reply to the geocacher that sent the message, preferable with the text box populated with a “On –date– you wrote:” and the quote. This is really not difficult to do for folks with as much web page programming skills as our fabulous team. It's already there. Actually, it's a link to their profile page, but that contains the email link, so it's just 1 extra click away.
+Cache Liberation Front Posted February 22, 2008 Posted February 22, 2008 I agree with the OP. It's incredibly frustrating when someone emails you through the system and you can't just "reply."
+Tealby Posted March 25, 2008 Posted March 25, 2008 I agree with the OP. It's incredibly frustrating when someone emails you through the system and you can't just "reply." But... it is even more frustrating when the sender leaves the "I want to send my email address along with this message" box checked & the email address still comes through as "noreply@geocaching.com". I think there is a glitch in the programming, because EVERY email I have received over the last month or more has been a "no reply" one, even from folks who have provided their email address to me previously. Tonight it finally got me suspicious, so I sent a test email using my son's geocaching account & it still came through a "no reply" despite my instructions otherwise. This is a real pain when I get emails regarding my EarthCaches, because I have several extra steps to acknowledge/authorise their find. Hopefully Groundspeak will fix this apparent bug in the system - I came to the forums to see if anyone had reported it yet & this was the closest post I could find, but I may have missed something.
+Prime Suspect Posted March 25, 2008 Posted March 25, 2008 I agree with the OP. It's incredibly frustrating when someone emails you through the system and you can't just "reply." But... it is even more frustrating when the sender leaves the "I want to send my email address along with this message" box checked & the email address still comes through as "noreply@geocaching.com". I think there is a glitch in the programming, because EVERY email I have received over the last month or more has been a "no reply" one, even from folks who have provided their email address to me previously. Tonight it finally got me suspicious, so I sent a test email using my son's geocaching account & it still came through a "no reply" despite my instructions otherwise. This is a real pain when I get emails regarding my EarthCaches, because I have several extra steps to acknowledge/authorise their find. Hopefully Groundspeak will fix this apparent bug in the system - I came to the forums to see if anyone had reported it yet & this was the closest post I could find, but I may have missed something. It's not a bug. It's working correctly. Before, it was spoofing your email address in the TO field, which is both bad Internet practice, but can make the email appear to be spam. The correct way to do it is to put your email address in the REPLY TO field, which is exactly what happens when you ask to send your email address. If your email client can't understand that it should reply using the REPLY TO address, you need to get a better one.
+Vinny & Sue Team Posted March 26, 2008 Posted March 26, 2008 If somebody contacts me through my profile and sends me a note without the checkbox "include my email address", then it becomes a bit painful to reply. I can't just respond to the note in my email program like I would any other one. Often I'll compose a reply before noticing the "noreply@geocaching.com" address. I'd like an option so that I can check something saying "refuse all email without a return address". Either that, or an option to automatically reply to such a note in a manner that allows cachers to keep their email address private. So if geocacher "i_am_paranoid" wants to contact "chilehead" but without sending the email address because they hear chilehead is a stalker, they can email without the checkbox selected, and I'll get a note with a valid reply address that automatically goes back to the sender, using some sort of session id like "reply23489729347235523@geocaching.com" Good point! These kinda emails sent via Groundspeak tend to bug me too. Not only is it a pain in the butt, with a lot of make-work, to reply to the person, but the implicit message that they wish to write to me to ask me something but cannot trust me enuf to send me their email address is bizaree to me. Luckily, the few times it has happened to me, it has usually turned out to be a teenaged girl in easten Canada, and we have been able to find her real email address by carefully examining the profile in question, whereupon I proceed to send her a cranky wiseass reply via email as thanks for her bizarre and uninvited comments.
+Renegade Knight Posted March 26, 2008 Posted March 26, 2008 (edited) ...Either that, or an option to automatically reply to such a note in a manner that allows cachers to keep their email address private. So if geocacher "i_am_paranoid" wants to contact "chilehead" but without sending the email address because they hear chilehead is a stalker, they can email without the checkbox selected, and I'll get a note with a valid reply address that automatically goes back to the sender, using some sort of session id like "reply23489729347235523@geocaching.com" A link in the private email to their profile or email contact page, should be simple enough. it would be handy as heck. I don't mind the private emails but it can be a pain to respond at times. Edited March 26, 2008 by Renegade Knight
+whistler & co. Posted March 26, 2008 Posted March 26, 2008 Wow..I just tried sending an email to myself through our son's profile. One time I checked the box to show the email address and the next time I unchecked the box. Both emails came from the address noreply@geocaching.com, but when I hit "reply" from the one where I wished to reveal my email address, it automatically put my son's email in the address place and he received the return email. With the one where I wished to remain anonymous, it put the noreply@geocaching.com address in the recipient's address box. Unfortunately, there is no way to know what to expect unless you hit "reply" and then remember to check the recipient's address before you click "send." Doing that appears to be the only way to find out if the person does want to reveal his/her address or if he/she thinks you are a psycho-stalker and wants to keep his/her address a secret.
+the hermit crabs Posted March 26, 2008 Posted March 26, 2008 Unfortunately, there is no way to know what to expect unless you hit "reply" and then remember to check the recipient's address before you click "send." Doing that appears to be the only way to find out if the person does want to reveal his/her address or if he/she thinks you are a psycho-stalker and wants to keep his/her address a secret. No, there is a way to tell. Look at the two messages again. At the bottom of the anonymous one, you will see this: This email was sent without a return email address. You will need to respond to this email through the Geocaching Web site. Visit http://www.geocaching.com and log in to respond to the message from your "my account page". Forward abuse complaints to: contact@geocaching.com
+baloo&bd Posted March 26, 2008 Posted March 26, 2008 Unfortunately, there is no way to know what to expect unless you hit "reply" and then remember to check the recipient's address before you click "send." Doing that appears to be the only way to find out if the person does want to reveal his/her address or if he/she thinks you are a psycho-stalker and wants to keep his/her address a secret. No, there is a way to tell. Look at the two messages again. At the bottom of the anonymous one, you will see this: This email was sent without a return email address. You will need to respond to this email through the Geocaching Web site. Visit http://www.geocaching.com and log in to respond to the message from your "my account page". Forward abuse complaints to: contact@geocaching.com Also the default on your email client should be set to use the "reply to:" address, or at the very least, include it. No extra "clicks" involved.
+whistler & co. Posted March 26, 2008 Posted March 26, 2008 Unfortunately, there is no way to know what to expect unless you hit "reply" and then remember to check the recipient's address before you click "send." Doing that appears to be the only way to find out if the person does want to reveal his/her address or if he/she thinks you are a psycho-stalker and wants to keep his/her address a secret. No, there is a way to tell. Look at the two messages again. At the bottom of the anonymous one, you will see this: This email was sent without a return email address. You will need to respond to this email through the Geocaching Web site. Visit http://www.geocaching.com and log in to respond to the message from your "my account page". Forward abuse complaints to: contact@geocaching.com Also the default on your email client should be set to use the "reply to:" address, or at the very least, include it. No extra "clicks" involved. You're right...I didn't notice that. And here I thought all the local cachers were suddenly trying to distance themselves from me by keeping their addresses a secret!
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