email notifications

[+bluedragonfly]

I recieved an email notification of a new cache in my area. I recieved the email at 10:26 AM. I checked the cache page only to find that someone had got up earlier than the rest of their family and went and got FTF, which leads me to believe that this person recieved the notification well before I did. This is the second time this has happened in 1 month. The last time this same person had found the cache a whole day before it was even published (according to the time stamps and date). Has anyone else ever had this problem? can anyone tell me why this is happening?

[+TheAprilFools]

I suspect that cheating is going on but its not due to the notification. Its probable that the owner gave them advanced info on the cache.

 

I believe the normal edicate is that if someone is with the owner when they place the cache or otherwise gets advanced info, they can log the cache but not until the FTF'er does and there note in the cache log should indicate that its not the FTF.

[+Cache O'Plenty]

Yes, it happens all the time here. I've seen cases where one person will get a notification via his cell phone up to 45 minutes before I get in my e-mail. Verizon vs. Nextel are different. And the ISP being used by the users play a big part in it as well - some process mail quicker than others.

 

As far as "advanced" info, we like to use "Beta Tester" as someone who found the cache first but with advanced knowledge.

 

And, there is always the "cheat" mode!!

Edited June 6, 2008 by Cache O'Plenty

[+bluedragonfly]

I understand that some email is delivered faster than others, but this persons log indicates that they found the cache a couple of hours before I even recieved the notification. The time before that this same person logged FTF before the cache was published.

[+Cache O'Plenty]

There may be a "cheat" going on. I read (a really long time ago - somewhere) that there is a way to view "Unpublished" cache pages before they are published (normally reserved for Reviewers). If true - there's one way to get "advanced information".

 

I've also noted that sometimes the time stamp of the first log precedes the Reviewer's "Published" note by a day. But usually, that clears up later. I have no idea how/why that happens.

[+TotemLake]

I understand that some email is delivered faster than others, but this persons log indicates that they found the cache a couple of hours before I even recieved the notification. The time before that this same person logged FTF before the cache was published.

Not all ISPs are created equal. All notifications go out generally at the same time. All notifications are not generally delivered to the inbox by all ISPs at the same time. Servers can glitch and hang on to the e-mail, and ISPs have been known to slow down e-mail from certain entities.

 

Calling someone a cheater because they received their e-mail a couple of hours before you did is pretty harsh.

[+CurmudgeonlyGal]

Deja vu.

[+TotemLake]

Deja vu.

Angsty today ain't they?

[+CurmudgeonlyGal]

I had to check the calendar to make sure it wasn't a Monday.

 

 

 

michelle

[+Stunod]

I understand that some email is delivered faster than others, but this persons log indicates that they found the cache a couple of hours before I even recieved the notification. The time before that this same person logged FTF before the cache was published.

 

Take a look at the full header info for your notification email. Look at the time it left the Groundspeak servers compared to when your ISP or email provider delivered it to you.

 

I'm guessing your ISP is delaying the delivery.

[+Markwell]

There may be a "cheat" going on. I read (a really long time ago - somewhere) that there is a way to view "Unpublished" cache pages before they are published (normally reserved for Reviewers). If true - there's one way to get "advanced information".

 

I've also noted that sometimes the time stamp of the first log precedes the Reviewer's "Published" note by a day. But usually, that clears up later. I have no idea how/why that happens.

Goodness - that WAS a long time ago.

 

Used to be that the cache urls were just the sequential numbers of the cache. When I started it was around 1083, and http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=1083 can still be viewed in that manner. When you were waiting around for ANY cache to be "approved" (they weren't published back then but "approved") you could just roll up to the next number and see ...cache_details.aspx?ID=1084 or ...cache_details.aspx?ID=1085.

 

That stopped a WAY long time ago.

 

It looks like now the most recently published cache in Illinois is 899689, but if you try to go up to a cache like [http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?id=910000]910000[/url], you get a page that says "Cache is Unpublished"

 

 

My guess is that it was given to a friend so they could log the first to find.

 

So what?

[+CurmudgeonlyGal]

 

My guess is that it was given to a friend so they could log the first to find.

 

So what?

 

You lose the self-important distinction of being FTF?

 

You get cheated out of the FTF!

 

OMG! SOMEONE CHEATED AND GOT THE FTF!!

 

-=-

 

geocacherweirdnessstory: Round these parts, and lo those many years ago, when normal notifications would come out for 'new' caches 50 miles east of here, we were able to arrange child-care, get the info, go pick the other person up and drive an hour to the new cache location and still get the FTF... all that stopped when the 'local-to-the-cache' nut-jobs started complaining about how difficult it was to get FTF's in their area because the non-locals were coming in and getting them.

 

Oh. Sorry. Freak.

 

 

 

michelle

[+Cache O'Plenty]

It just seems that every time you try to play a game and "play by the rules" there is someone out there that eventually destroys it by finding some way to "cheat". Until he's discovered, it becomes disheartening for those playing. Of course, once the "cheat" is discovered, he's banished from the game and it can continue until the next one. Sorta like Baseball with all the new "stars" next to the records. Or the "Miss America" that gets dethroned - and the runnerup gets the crown. But she still missed out on the hoopla of the crowning. I sure glad professional wrestling hasn't succumbed to such shennanigans.

[+CurmudgeonlyGal]

It just seems that every time you try to play a game and "play by the rules" there is someone out there that eventually destroys it by finding some way to "cheat". Until he's discovered, it becomes disheartening for those playing. Of course, once the "cheat" is discovered, he's banished from the game and it can continue until the next one. Sorta like Baseball with all the new "stars" next to the records. Or the "Miss America" that gets dethroned - and the runnerup gets the crown. But she still missed out on the hoopla of the crowning. I sure glad professional wrestling hasn't succumbed to such shennanigans.

 

If there is some way TO cheat, someone WILL cheat. Solution: care less about how others choose to 'play'.

 

Sometimes it seems like it is so completely outside of the realm of possibility for most folk to leave the drama behind.

 

 

 

michelle

[+lrosell]

I was wondering when this topic was going to come up...

 

Yes, there is a way to cheat or 'cheat', depending on your take on it. One of the loopholes have been fixed; there was an exploit on the wap.geocaching.com site that allowed a user to view unpublished caches. This loophole has been plugged in the latest site fix. I suspect that there may still be another exploit on the main site, but only time will tell...

 

Personally I do not care about FTFs, to me it is just another cache. There are however several users who live by FTFs and collect them as if they were precious stamps or something. It still irritates me though that some users still find time and ways to cheat, and in geocaching of all sports.

 

Get a life for pete's sake!

[+flask]

back in my heyday i considered it great sport to poach new caches; to find them before they were published.

 

sometimes we were armed with little more than a guess. you notice a TB that's in a cache you never heard of. you can't get a cache placed because of "proximity", you're looking for a different cache and you think: i'd put one in here- and there's one in there.

 

these are all ways (and certainly not the only ways) to poach an unpublished cache, but i wouldn't call them cheating.

 

you start looking for a cache based on only the north coords and see how much of an advantage that is.

 

we used to do it all the time. it's more fun than regular FTFs.

[Keystone]

Please don't open the same thread in multiple forum sections. I'm closing this one in favor of your other thread in "Geocaching Topics," because principally the issue is what the community defines as "cheating."