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Text Notification - new caches and/or watched caches


Master_Dirt

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I've seen brief mention of this in some messages but as yet, haven't found anything definitive.

 

Has there been enough interest in text message notification from members and Geocaching dot com to consider the addition of text notification for those who have the ability to receive text messages.

 

I can estimate the numbers of text characters necessary to transmit new caches but utilizing abbreviated information e.g.

 

Cache ID Name type coords in decimal difficulty Description

GCxxxxx name+abcdefghijk type -00.000 -118.000 0.0/0.0 Abcdefghi 110 characters...

 

I don't know about others but T-mobile's text messaging is limited to 160 characters so, accordingly, we'd have to find the lowest denominator for TM length and configure accordingly.

 

There are many items to consider here but, 32 character name length limits, use of decimal degrees uses fewer characters, a description name field for texting would have to be added to the cache creation page that the cache owner would have to describe in an abbreviated form for TM transmission only etc..

 

These additional fields of course would increase our database size but, could it be done economically? After all, it's only another ~113 million characters to add to the DB.

 

A similarly abbreviated TM can be configured for cache notifications (watching) and be even more abbreviated by needing only Cache ID, CacheName and activity occured. Details are not essential here but could be adjusted to fit the actual needs.

 

Just my 99 cents worth, but it would certainly be a nice addition to GCs already awesome database format.

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if it helps ... SMS is limited to 160 characters for text messaging transport in every network in the world (assuming 7 bit encoding) .. its a standard courtesy of 3GPP :huh:

 

Concatenated SMS, multipart or segmented SMS or "long sms" can be sent using multiple messages, in which case each message will start with a user data header containing segmentation information. Since UDH is inside the payload, the number of characters per segment is lower: 153 for 7-bit encoding.

 

The receiving handset is then responsible for reassembling the message and presenting it to the user as one long message. While the standard theoretically permits up to 255 segments - 6 to 8 segment messages are the practical maximum in most networks

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The big issue, as I understand it, is that a seeker should really be reading the cache page so they could see any warnings or notes that have been posted. (Park closes at dusk, the dog doesn't bite, it's my house, etc.) If you can get the basic info via a text message, why would you bother to pull up the web page and actually read the rest of it?

 

TPTB get revenue from the number of eyeballs that see the ads on the website. If they text us cache info, they won't get paid when we don't see the ads!

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I receive notifications of new caches via email on my BlackBerry. Upon receipt I will copy that GCID from the email message, and send a message to 41411 with the following info "GEOC ?GCID" I then receive a txt back that gives me coords and some basic info. I can copy and paste those coords into Google maps and see where it is at. If it's something I want to go after I load it up in the Colorado and am off.

 

Info on logging and info via sms is available at http://coord.info/textmark.aspx

Edited by Genoist
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for me getting a text notification just means that something has published in my home turf... but the notificaiton it's self for me is worthless. it has so much repete and meaningless info for a short text message that there is really no value so what i need to do is go to the hand write out the waypoint id on paper, hit the wap site (which no longers works) re type it back in to get the Lat and Long to plug into my gps to see if it's something i would like to hit.

 

[GEO] Notify:"name of reviewer... (do i need this?) published (first letter of cache) This is an atuomated message from GoeCaching For GC1H0ZD: Caching A Class" thats all I get.

 

example:

 

From NoReply@geocaching.com

Subject:[GEO]Notify: Prime Reviewer published C This is an automated message from GeoCaching For GC1H0ZD: Caching A Class (Tradition thats it.

 

this point it almost pointless

:[GEO]Notify: Prime Reviewer published C This is an automated message from GeoCaching For

 

so now i have identical notification running. one to my Text Message and a second to my email that i can get from my cellphone.

 

the text message tells me there is a cache. i can get the distance from zero from cellphone access to mail, but to get anything else like Lat and Long (cuz the links dont work) i need to do the wap site by hand.

 

Cant we come up with a notification that says

(type) (waypoint) Geocache (action): (name) was publsihed at Lat Long. It is a 1/3 (dif/ter) cache..... (put in all the other stuff)

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It's great having all this input and I appreciate it all. Using SMS's 160 character capability. The feature I'd see here is that for those of us who travel around a given area and are not with immediate access to a computer would still be advised (it can include coordinates) and determine if he can pursue that cache now. Many of us have portable wireless capabilities and can 'hook up' to get the details of the cache within moments.

 

Of course the ad based revenue is important but I think this might just add more hits since we'd still have to go to GC.

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I receive notifications of new caches via email on my BlackBerry. Upon receipt I will copy that GCID from the email message, and send a message to 41411 with the following info "GEOC ?GCID" I then receive a txt back that gives me coords and some basic info. I can copy and paste those coords into Google maps and see where it is at. If it's something I want to go after I load it up in the Colorado and am off.

 

Info on logging and info via sms is available at http://coord.info/textmark.aspx

 

I use a similar setup in that new cache emails go to an address I can retrieve from my BB. Where I go different is that I then visit the link in the email and download the GPX file. That file then loads into CacheBerry which allows me to push it a waypoint to BlackBerry maps (it can also push to Google Maps, but I tend to use the BB maps more often... I've gotten used to the direction of travel option when navigating). By doing this I also get the description and hint (with the ability to decrypt the hint easily).

 

Though to this point I only have one FTF... but my wife and I have only been caching for about 1.5 months :laughing:.

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I was using TMobile up until about a month ago... I would set up notifications to email me when new caches are published and I utilized a nice (albeit, not highly publicized) feature TMobile offers... SMS email. It comes with every SMS plan and does not cost extra. You can use your phone number as the email address, with tmomail.com as the domain (e.g. 1234567890@tmomail.com). Now I use an iPhone with AT&T and get my GMail on my phone... but hopefully you will still find this useful. If you are not on TMobile, maybe your carrier has something similar.

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...If they text us cache info, they won't get paid when we don't see the ads!

 

Are you kidding me? If GC.com offered text messages, they would generate a lot more revenue than they could from ad displays. Ad space on the internet is cheap (a small fraction of a cent per display), text messages (especially if they also incorporate ads) can generate a couple cents per text (if free), or more if they charge a premium. There is a big market in sending horoscopes, jokes, sports scores, etc via text because they get a cut from the carrier.

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Are you kidding me? If GC.com offered text messages, they would generate a lot more revenue than they could from ad displays. Ad space on the internet is cheap (a small fraction of a cent per display), text messages (especially if they also incorporate ads) can generate a couple cents per text (if free), or more if they charge a premium. There is a big market in sending horoscopes, jokes, sports scores, etc via text because they get a cut from the carrier.

 

I think you're referring to those services where you sign up for "joke of the day" and then you get billed 50c or whetever for each joke until you cancel. The difficulty is that those services are hosted by the phone company; the joke providers just send in a list at the start of the month and the phone company sends them out one per day. (It's more the joke provider getting a cut than the phone company.) The amount of data is involved is minimal: a fixed list of phone numbers and a a 20 word joke per day. Also, the sending of the jokes can be carefully timed. You can bet that you get a bigger cut if you can show the phone company that your content can go out at 2am rather than 8am.

 

I don''t see how that would work with Groundspeak publishing more than 500 caches per day. For every cache you would have a different list of recipients (which Groundspeak would have to generate on the fly) and different text content (at least per cache, and potentially for each recipient, if you include the distance from their home, which I guess is useful: you're more likely to go for a 1-mile cache than a 10-mile). And you'd want the phone company to drop everything and send it *NOW* because half an hour later isn't good enough. I don't think the phone companies are able to do that.

 

And of course all that is just for the United States. For the more than 40% of caches which are published in other countries, all of the above applies, but slightly differently for every phone company you have to deal with. (Premium rate SMS messages are strictly non-international in every sense.)

 

One other thought: if it's 50c per SMS, do you really want to be billed $10 when someone places a 20-cache power trail near you? :(

Edited by sTeamTraen
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Go to your account page on geocaching.com. Scroll down about halfway and look on the right side of the page for a link that reads "Set up Notifications". Click on that and set up whatever notifications you want.

 

For new caches, you want to select "Publish Listing" after you select the Type to Watch. Be sure the coordinates are what you want.

 

The alerts are sent as emails not specifically as texts. But you just need to put in the email address for your phone in accordance with your phone carrier. For example, 1234567890@myphonecarrier.message.com (or whatever it is).

 

If you aren't sure what the correct email is for your carrier, either Google it or search the forums. There are lists in many places. Typically, it just requires that you have text messaging.

Edited by Motorcycle_Mama
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The big issue, as I understand it, is that a seeker should really be reading the cache page so they could see any warnings or notes that have been posted. (Park closes at dusk, the dog doesn't bite, it's my house, etc.) If you can get the basic info via a text message, why would you bother to pull up the web page and actually read the rest of it?

 

TPTB get revenue from the number of eyeballs that see the ads on the website. If they text us cache info, they won't get paid when we don't see the ads!

 

not sure that this is 100% correct. if GC wanted to force us to the cache pages there would be NO PQ via email, WAP or the recently released ipod app. I might argue that there are more ways to get cache info without going to the browser based GC.Com website that going to it.

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with this prog it will do.

 

http://debroekies.dyndns.org/debroekies/Downloads/gcn.zip

 

but it's from the netherlands so I don't know of it's useable with a american phone

I wrote this program and I can tell you that it now also works for any mobile phone.

I added the option to use google calendar. With google calendar you can setup an event notification through SMS.

 

So, this is what it will do:

- it checks your email for new cache notifications.

- adds an event to google calendar (default 10 minutes ahead)

- sets the event notification of that event to 5 minutes before start of event

Now you should receive an SMS in 5 minutes after receiving the geocaching.com email notification.

 

The layout of the SMS can be configured.

 

The download contains an English manual.

If you are interested and need any help, please let me know.

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The problem I'm having with text messages (I have them sent to my cell phone via its SMS email) is that the email is split across multiple messages. While the phone (iPhone) will reconstruct the message, its hyperlinks are wrong due to the split. It would be much more convenient if this didn't happen.

 

As it stands, I have two options:

1) Memorize the GC, go to the web browser, bring up a web page I created, type in the GC, and get redirected to the cache page.

2) Check my email on the phone and, if the email came in at the same time, click the link there. This means, of course, the server is sending two emails per cache for me. It's a workaround, though.

 

I like the idea De broekies came up with, but don't like the delay, nor having the notification sent to an address other than my main one. GMail has too much spam.

 

Edit: Redundancy clarification

Edited by Ranger Fox
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The problem I'm having with text messages (I have them sent to my cell phone via its SMS email) is that the email is split across multiple messages. While the phone (iPhone) will reconstruct the message, its hyperlinks are wrong due to the split. It would be much more convenient if this didn't happen.

 

As it stands, I have two options:

1) Memorize the GC, go to the web browser, bring up a web page I created, type in the GC, and get redirected to the cache page.

2) Check my email on the phone and, if the email came in at the same time, click the link there. This means, of course, the server is sending two emails per cache for me. It's a workaround, though.

 

I like the idea De broekies came up with, but don't like the delay, nor having the notification sent to an address other than my main one. GMail has too much spam.

 

Edit: Redundancy clarification

Maybe there is some miss perception on how the tool works.

 

1) you don't need any link. It not just forwards the email, but sends you the cache attributes you like (like Waypoint, coordinate, bearing from home etc). You can configure what you want as SMS text

2) you don't need gmail for your geocaching.com notifications. The program can use any IMAP/POP3 enabled email server to fetch the notifications.

 

The delay is configurable. It can be set to 1 minute instead of the 5 minutes. The default is just on the safe side in case the client computer is running too far behind (PC clock). But like I said, you can adjust these settings.

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I use a similar setup in that new cache emails go to an address I can retrieve from my BB. Where I go different is that I then visit the link in the email and download the GPX file. That file then loads into CacheBerry which allows me to push it a waypoint to BlackBerry maps (it can also push to Google Maps, but I tend to use the BB maps more often... I've gotten used to the direction of travel option when navigating). By doing this I also get the description and hint (with the ability to decrypt the hint easily).

 

Though to this point I only have one FTF... but my wife and I have only been caching for about 1.5 months :D .

 

 

I use the same setup. Last week I found a cache 15 minutes after it was published. Seems to be working just fine.

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