Email from The Frog says I have a new souvenir, but...

January 7, 2011

Topic title says it all! I received an email from GS stating that I have received a new souvenir for a retroactive cache (I cached in Florida last year), yet when I clicked on the link to see my new souvenir, there is a message that says "There are no souvenirs to display". Has anyone else had this issue? How long does it take to appear on your profile page.

January 7, 2011

I just got this same email with the same result.

January 7, 2011

Same here - we got two emails.

10.1k · January 7, 2011

Ah. I have found caches in Florida, and have the souvenir. But I also got one for California, but have never found a cache there. Oh, well.

3.3k · January 7, 2011

My spanky new Florida souvenir shows up on my page. And I also noticed that California has been added since the last time I visited the souvenir list. Hope Florida comes to a list near you very soon!

January 7, 2011

I also got the e-mails about Florida and California but no souvenirs for them at that time. They are on my profile now.

January 7, 2011

I have the Florida and California souvenirs.

If you receive a souvenir for a place you have never visited, is there a chance you may have logged one of the old moving caches? If so, and if that cache has found its way to a place you have never been, you might be awarded an unexpected souvenir. I'm guessing you might lose that souvenir if the cache moves somewhere else.

January 7, 2011

Woohoo! It has showed up! I'm happy now, as it's my first one!

January 7, 2011

I didn't get an email or a souvenir yet

3.7k · January 7, 2011

I have souvenirs for two states I've never cached in: Georgia and Florida. In both cases, it's because I logged moving caches (elsewhere) that originated in those locations. I wish they'd add moving caches to the exceptions list so they wouldn't trigger the souvenirs.

15.3k · January 7, 2011

Ah. I have found caches in Florida, and have the souvenir. But I also got one for California, but have never found a cache there. Oh, well.

I looks like http://coord.info/GC24C1 needs to be added to the list of traveling caches...

14k · January 7, 2011

I got the notifications for the California, Minnesota, and Florida yesterday and have souvenirs for all three (I have found caches in all three states). That brought my souvenir total up to 20.

Edited to add: Ten souvenirs were released yesterday. In the past it's only been three at a time and this batch include California, Texas, and Floria all states with a lot of geocachers. That might explain why the notifications and awarding of the souvenirs took a long time.

Edited January 7, 2011 by NYPaddleCacher

2.8k · January 7, 2011

I received four emails (CA, FL, MI and IA), but the IA is not showing up.

1.2k · January 7, 2011

I received four emails (CA, FL, MI and IA), but the IA is not showing up.

There seems to be an issue with IA. Several people have stated that they got the email, but it never showed. I'm in the same boat.

January 7, 2011

I have also experienced the issues mentioned above. Souvenirs here one day and gone the next, souvenirs for places I havent been, and I also have some on my I-phone that are different than the ones on the computer. WHY??? Someone please explain.

Thanks,

Richard

10.2k · January 7, 2011

I received four emails (CA, FL, MI and IA), but the IA is not showing up.

I received one email (Michigan), but got Florida too, with no email. I did look at Michigan as soon as I read the email, and Florida wasn't there then, but it is a day later.

January 7, 2011

I received four emails (CA, FL, MI and IA), but the IA is not showing up.

I received one email (Michigan), but got Florida too, with no email. I did look at Michigan as soon as I read the email, and Florida wasn't there then, but it is a day later.

I didn't get my Florida souvenir even though I got the email. I feel like a child that wants his candy.

10.1k · January 7, 2011

Ah. I have found caches in Florida, and have the souvenir. But I also got one for California, but have never found a cache there. Oh, well.
I looks like http://coord.info/GC24C1 needs to be added to the list of traveling caches...

Yes. I have mentioned that on the thread about statistics. It's my furthest 'find', and most western.

14k · January 7, 2011

I have also experienced the issues mentioned above. Souvenirs here one day and gone the next, souvenirs for places I havent been, and I also have some on my I-phone that are different than the ones on the computer. WHY??? Someone please explain.

Thanks,

Richard

Let me guess. The ones are your iPhone are the Delaware souvenir and one from Germany.

I can explain why they may be different buy it might get a bit "techie". Some of this is speculation as I don't have access to the souvenir code my self but I think it makes sense and I've posted some of this before an so far nobody from Groundspeak has corrected my assertions.

First, some of the souvenirs are retroactive, which basically means that if you found a cache from a region in the past, when the souvenir for that region is created it will "award" it to you. Other souvenirs, such as the ones based on events are not retroactive. You have to have logged an "attended" log to receive it.

There are at least a couple of different processes for the awarding of a souvenir. First, let use the Florida souvenir as an example. A couple of days ago the souvenir was released. When a souvenir is released some sort of process runs on the Groundspeak server in order to retroactively award souvenirs to all those that have earned it (found a cache in Florida some time in the past). To do that, it has to iterate through every registered user, then check if they have any finds within the souvenir region. Once it finds one it (likely) adds a record in the users profile indicating they have earned that souvenir. Once that process is complete, the retroactive awarding mechanism is done. In other words, if you haven't found a cache in Florida before a couple of days ago, but find one today it'll use a different process. As you might guess the retroactive award process would be quite compute intensive and if something went wrong (perhaps a time-out when writing to the database) your profile information might not be accurate but it still might have sent out an notification that "you have earned a souvenir" (this is a bug, IMHO). As I mentioned in an earlier message there were 10 souvenirs awarded in the last batch (usually there are only three) so the process awarding them all probably just took a really long time.

In this case, if you log a find a cache today, it'll add that cache to the list of caches you have found and will check to see if a souvenir is available for the region (which would be true for a cache found in Florida) then add something to your profile which indicates that you earned one for Florida.

Now, so far none of this has to do with how souvenirs are *displayed* on the web site (or iPhone). Basically, the content of the souvenir tab is generated dynamically. When you click on the tab it'll check what souvenirs you've earned from information in your profile then include the appropriate html to render the image (as a link to the full artwork). If I check *my* profile I'll get a different set of souvenirs because it's looking at my profile information rather than yours. When you're looking at the web site all you are seeing is a rendering of the html that is dynamically generated by the web server. The images for the souvenirs are not saved (well, they might be, depending of if your browser caches that information) on your computer.

Before talking about the iPhone, let's go back to the Delaware and a souvenir from Germany (Baden-Wurttemburg) that I mentioned earlier. These were the first two souvenirs that were awarded retroactively and at the time there was a bug in the system that basically awarded those two souvenirs to everyone. Once that bug was fixed, Groundspeak ran a process which removed the information in users profiles that not actually found a cache in those two regions.

Now, for the iPhone. The iPhone geocaching app is not a web application. It's a native application that runs on your phone that interacts with the Groundspeak servers. The process for awarding souvenirs is much different. For those that do not have the official geocaching app, the only way to obtain a souvenir when traveling to a place where you haven't geocached before is to post a found it log (or an attended log for events) on a geocache in that region. However, users of the official app can merely initiate a search and since the application is location aware (because the mobile device contains a GPS) it can compare your current location to the list of regions where souvenirs have been released and award it to you. In the case of the 10/10/10 souvenir the search I initiated returned an error (instead of a list of caches) but it still awarded the souvenir. There was also a bug in this portion of the souvenir system when manifested itself when the iPhone could not determine a location so it defaulted to Groundspeak HQ and some people were awarded the Groundspeak HQ souvenir. As far as I know that's been fixed too.

Now here's where things, get a bit more complicated. As you've probably seen the geocaching app has a "button" on the bottom of the screen labeled "saved". You can think of the saved portion of the app as private storage space or "folder" (on your phone). It's used to save pocket queries (if you're a premium member), favorites (not the same as the new favorites feature), and a copy of the souvenirs that you've earned. This is pretty speculative but this is how I suspect it works. Rather than rendering html that is produced by the web server (remember it's not a web application) the images for the souvenirs (both the thumbnail and the full artwork) are actually stored on your phone. When you hit the "saved" button it will display how many souvenirs are in the saved folder, then when you click on "My Souvenirs (21)" (the number you see is probably different) you'll see the thumbnails, then clicking on a thumbnail will display the full artwork.

This part is pretty speculative but I'm guessing that there is a process that the app runs to get the souvenirs into the "saved" folder. First, when you initiate a search, the app determines your current location, sends it to the server and the server returns a list of souvenir records with the list of souvenirs already in your profile, and if there is a new souvenir that has not yet been awarded to you, and your are currently in the region, it will add that souvenir to the list. Then the process running on your phone just needs to iterate through that list and compare it to the list of souvenirs in your saved folder. If there is one that has not been saved it sends a request to the server for the thumbnail/artwork and *pulls* the images into the saved area. I'm not so sure about this one, but I'm guessing that if you fire up the iPhone app and go directly to the "saved" section that it basically does the same thing as if you initiated a search but rather that go to list of geocaches it just takes you to the "saved" area page. The process might slightly different but hopefully you get the idea.

Now here's the part which explains why what you seen in your profile and on your phone might be different. Note in the previous paragraph I wrote that the application *pulls* the images into your saved folder. When you think about it, if this is a private space within the application *pushing* data (the application has to initiate the request) into this space, nor would you want the server to be able to *delete* anything in the saved space. So basically, any souvenirs that were erroneously awarded to you have been saved on your phone and the server side of the application can't delete them (unfortunately, neither can you). For example, I see both the Delaware and Baden-Wurttemburg souvenirs on my iPhone but one the Delaware (along with 19 others) on the web site. I *have* found a cache in Delaware but not the state in Germany. That's because GS was able to delete the Baden-Wurttemburg from my profile but can't delete the artwork off my phone.

I know this was quite long winded and some of it may not be technically correct but I think the concepts make sense even if the implementations I described aren't accurate. There are also a few glitches that *haven't* been addressed relating to moving caches locationless caches. That's why some people are getting souvenirs from places like South Carolina when they have never cached there (but did find a cache that currently has coordinates in SC).

January 7, 2011

Thanks for the info. Some of it I actually understood. LOL.

Richard

9.4k · January 7, 2011

Why aren't there souvenirs for all states yet? I have them for 10 of the 20+ states I've visited and they obviously aren't being released in alphabetical order as I have Arkansas and Texas, but not Arizona. I also have never even been to Georgia but I have a souvenir for finding a cache there. What gives?

January 7, 2011

U.S. states are being released in the order they were admitted to the union. If I remember correctly Arizona was the 48th state admitted.\

Team Taran

3.7k · January 7, 2011

Why aren't there souvenirs for all states yet? I have them for 10 of the 20+ states I've visited and they obviously aren't being released in alphabetical order as I have Arkansas and Texas, but not Arizona. I also have never even been to Georgia but I have a souvenir for finding a cache there. What gives?

Patience, Grasshopper. Groundspeak is still making the state souvenirs and releasing them as they are completed, in the order the states were admitted to the union (so Alaska and Hawaii will be last). They are releasing new ones weekly, afaik.

As for Georgia, you probably found a traveling cache (somewhere else) that has Georgia listed as its origin. I have the same scenario (Georgia souvenir, never cached there) and that's what I was told. (I hear there's an exceptions list for caches that shouldn't be included in souvenir determination - like bogus virtuals and traveling caches - so hopefully these travelers will be added to it and the errant souvenirs will disappear.)

Edited January 7, 2011 by hydnsek

9.4k · January 7, 2011

Is there an official list of all souvenirs somewhere?

15.3k · January 8, 2011

Is there an official list of all souvenirs somewhere?

Yes:

List of Released Souvenirs - Groundspeak Forums

19k · January 8, 2011

Is there an official list of all souvenirs somewhere?
Yes:
List of Released Souvenirs - Groundspeak Forums

Hmmm... that also shows Iowa as released. As with others, I got the email, but no souvenir as of yet. So far, though, I haven't lost a bit of sleep, and I think I'll be sleeping well tonight, too.

1.2k · January 8, 2011

Is there an official list of all souvenirs somewhere?
Yes:
List of Released Souvenirs - Groundspeak Forums

Hmmm... that also shows Iowa as released. As with others, I got the email, but no souvenir as of yet. So far, though, I haven't lost a bit of sleep, and I think I'll be sleeping well tonight, too.

Funny, I don't get the emails, the souvis just show up. And I have Florida, but not Iowa.

January 8, 2011

If you read more about Souvenirs it states:

"If you have previously logged a cache in a souvenir zone, the souvenir will be added to your profile at a later date."

I got the email too, and I did find several caches in Iowa. I will wait and see when I get the souvenir.

January 8, 2011

I also received 2 emails yesterday for retroactive souvenirs, one for Michigan and one for Florida. I have found caches in both states so these were expected, except that my Florida souvenir has not shown up on my profile yet. I'm sure it will, in time.

January 8, 2011

I also received 2 emails yesterday for retroactive souvenirs, one for Michigan and one for Florida. I have found caches in both states so these were expected, except that my Florida souvenir has not shown up on my profile yet. I'm sure it will, in time.

Same here. I received emails that I got the Wisconsin and Florida souvenirs, but the Florida souvenir does not show up.

January 9, 2011

I, too, received an email that I would receive a souvenir on caches found in Iowa, but it never showed up.

14k · January 9, 2011

I, too, received an email that I would receive a souvenir on caches found in Iowa, but it never showed up.

I'm thinking that something went wrong with the awarding process while it was processing Florida. I got both the notification and the souvenir for Florida but it sounds like a few people got the notification for Florida but didn't get the souvenir. There have been even more reports of people receiving the notification for Iowa but didn't receive the souvenir. I did a search for caches in a major city in Iowa, then looked at the profiles for a few of the recent finders. I found one that had the Iowa souvenir but they had a find in Iowa *after* the retroactive awarding process ran a few days ago. I also looked at a couple of profiles for cachers that had a lot of prior Iowa finds but none after the Iowa souvenir was released and they did *not* have the Iowa souvenir in their profile.

Did anyone reading here get the Iowa souvenir awarded for a retroactive find?

January 10, 2011

I have received all the Souvenirs that I am eligible for except the Florida Souvenir which is a retroactive one for me. But I did get an email telling my I had received the FL Souvenir, so I have that going for me. Also I will boycott caching in Iowa until all my fellow cachers that are eligible their Iowa souvenirs get them or until I get around to visiting Iowa, whichever comes first.

3.8k · January 10, 2011

January 10, 2011

My wife and I still don't have the souvenir for Florida yet, We both have logged caches in Ft Lauderdale. We did get the California one though.

January 11, 2011

Did anyone reading here get the Iowa souvenir awarded for a retroactive find?

No, I am still waiting for mine too.

January 11, 2011

Got an email 5 days ago stating I received a retro FL souvenir, but I still dont have it.

I dont mind waiting, but this seems a little long... why not send the email after it was actually posted to my account?

3.2k · January 11, 2011

U.S. states are being released in the order they were admitted to the union. If I remember correctly Arizona was the 48th state admitted.\

Team Taran

Well, sort of.. close.... but they have not been released in exactly that order.

5.7k · January 11, 2011

All of our souvenirs vanished, we had 20-30 and they just went poof. We went through the "contact Groundspeak" process and also put a bug report in on the feedback site for good measure, but they still haven't shown back up yet. Been gone for two weeks now. Be nice to have them back, but we lived without 'em for close to three years, so if they come back, they come back, if they don't, they don't.

January 11, 2011

Did anyone reading here get the Iowa souvenir awarded for a retroactive find?

No, I am still waiting for mine too.

I got the email on Jan 6th and I still don't have it either.

1.2k · January 12, 2011

All of our souvenirs vanished, we had 20-30 and they just went poof. We went through the "contact Groundspeak" process and also put a bug report in on the feedback site for good measure, but they still haven't shown back up yet. Been gone for two weeks now. Be nice to have them back, but we lived without 'em for close to three years, so if they come back, they come back, if they don't, they don't.

Oh wow... Maybe you used too much stealth and the geo-detectors never sensed you finding the caches :yikes:

Before it happened, did you email them or anything for any minor corrections or something like that? Did you have any other souvenirs besides the states and maybe a 10/10/10?

5.7k · January 12, 2011

All of our souvenirs vanished, we had 20-30 and they just went poof. We went through the "contact Groundspeak" process and also put a bug report in on the feedback site for good measure, but they still haven't shown back up yet. Been gone for two weeks now. Be nice to have them back, but we lived without 'em for close to three years, so if they come back, they come back, if they don't, they don't.

Oh wow... Maybe you used too much stealth and the geo-detectors never sensed you finding the caches

Before it happened, did you email them or anything for any minor corrections or something like that? Did you have any other souvenirs besides the states and maybe a 10/10/10?

Never contacted the frog or the elves regarding souvenirs.

We got our first one on 10/10/10 and then they started building from there with the release of the U.S. and German states, the other countries in Europe (Portugal, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland), and the A.P.E. cache. We should have around 30 now, if my count is right.

As new souvenirs have been released, we get emails saying we have been retroactively awarded [x] souvenir, but if you go to our profile you can see they're just not there. We've gotten responses of "we're looking into it," but otherwise no change for, what, 3 weeks now?

Edited January 12, 2011 by hzoi

1.2k · January 12, 2011

Interesting. We got the new Kansas and Oregon souvis last night, still have Florida, no sign of Iowa yet.

7.3k · January 12, 2011

I received the email for the Florida suv and it wasn't there at first, but it showed up either later that day or the next.

My problem now, is that I logged a cache in VT a couple days ago, and the suv still hasn't shown up yet. :unsure: Does it take a while for them to register, or is it supposed to be right away?

7.4k · January 12, 2011

Never contacted the frog or the elves regarding souvenirs.

We got our first one on 10/10/10 and then they started building from there with the release of the U.S. and German states, the other countries in Europe (Portugal, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland), and the A.P.E. cache. We should have around 30 now, if my count is right.

As new souvenirs have been released, we get emails saying we have been retroactively awarded [x] souvenir, but if you go to our profile you can see they're just not there. We've gotten responses of "we're looking into it," but otherwise no change for, what, 3 weeks now?

Hi hzoi,

This problem should be corrected on your profile now. It was caused by reaching a certain threshold (number) of souvenirs. We've fixed what was triggering the system to choke and things should be working properly now.

7.4k · January 12, 2011

My problem now, is that I logged a cache in VT a couple days ago, and the suv still hasn't shown up yet. Does it take a while for them to register, or is it supposed to be right away?

What cache did you log in Vermont and what is the log date? I'll take a look and see if I can track down the problem.

14k · January 12, 2011

I received the email for the Florida suv and it wasn't there at first, but it showed up either later that day or the next.

My problem now, is that I logged a cache in VT a couple days ago, and the suv still hasn't shown up yet. Does it take a while for them to register, or is it supposed to be right away?

What was the find date for the log? I thought I recalled seeing something here once about a check to see if someone pre-dated a log on a cache in attempt to prevent someone from burying a bogus found it log in a cache page found it logs in order to obtain a souvenir. I just looked through your found geocaches in your profile and didn't see anything recently logged in Vermont. Are you sure that the found it log "took"?

7.3k · January 12, 2011

My problem now, is that I logged a cache in VT a couple days ago, and the suv still hasn't shown up yet. Does it take a while for them to register, or is it supposed to be right away?

What cache did you log in Vermont and what is the log date? I'll take a look and see if I can track down the problem.

I received the email for the Florida suv and it wasn't there at first, but it showed up either later that day or the next.

My problem now, is that I logged a cache in VT a couple days ago, and the suv still hasn't shown up yet. Does it take a while for them to register, or is it supposed to be right away?

What was the find date for the log? I thought I recalled seeing something here once about a check to see if someone pre-dated a log on a cache in attempt to prevent someone from burying a bogus found it log in a cache page found it logs in order to obtain a souvenir. I just looked through your found geocaches in your profile and didn't see anything recently logged in Vermont. Are you sure that the found it log "took"?

I'm trying to catch up on my logging. The find in Vermont was in 2009.

Vermont Log

If suv's don't show up for backlogs, then that's gonna be a problem for a lot of people who are severely behind (like my whole family).

7.4k · January 12, 2011

I'm trying to catch up on my logging. The find in Vermont was in 2009.

Vermont Log

If suv's don't show up for backlogs, then that's gonna be a problem for a lot of people who are severely behind (like my whole family).

Yep, that's the issue (and one that I raised internally weeks ago). I just spoke to Raine about fixing this once and for all. It won't correct your issue, but will fix it for similar situations moving forward. I'll get your name added to the list of people who have encountered this problem so that you will get the proper awarding of the Vermont souvenir eventually.

Sorry for the hassle.

7.3k · January 12, 2011

I'm trying to catch up on my logging. The find in Vermont was in 2009.

Vermont Log

If suv's don't show up for backlogs, then that's gonna be a problem for a lot of people who are severely behind (like my whole family).

Yep, that's the issue (and one that I raised internally weeks ago). I just spoke to Raine about fixing this once and for all. It won't correct your issue, but will fix it for similar situations moving forward. I'll get your name added to the list of people who have encountered this problem so that you will get the proper awarding of the Vermont souvenir eventually.

Sorry for the hassle.

Thanks so much.

Email from The Frog says I have a new souvenir, but...

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