Souvenir for state I have not cached in.

[+NeecesandNephews]

Ok, so I come home tonight, and my Blackberry chirps telling me I have a notification. New cache!!! Run out the door, and get the FTF. Cool!!

 

Caches are usually published by our local Reviewer (General Dissarray) at 8 o'clock in the evening. This one published at 6 o'clock, and was published by "IowaAdmin". When I logged the cache as found, the website gave me the Iowa State Souvenir!!! The cache was in Oklahoma.

Now I have a souvenir for a state I never cached in. What's up with that?????

 

[+cache_test_dummies]

Although the cache you found is actually in Oklahoma, it is listed as being in Iowa.

 

The cache owner may have accidentally selected the wrong state.

[+dfx]

Because the cache listing says that it's in Iowa.

[+NeecesandNephews]

Duhhh:blink:

 

That'll probably do it!! I never even looked at where it was listed, just grabbed the coords and ran!! Thanks for pointing that out.

 

Nothing to see here.... move along... move along!!

[+BlueDeuce]

hmmm, when I click the Report a new Cache, several options are auto-populated, including the state. Must be a pre-existing condition.

[+pppingme]

Isn't this something the reviewer should have caught? I mean its not like its on the border and the two states are next to each other.

[+cache_test_dummies]

I do wonder, however, what will happen to your Iowa souvenir once they fix the state on the cache page.

 

Will you get to keep it? Or will it suddenly disappear, leaving one feeling the same way one would feel if someone suddenly tore the "This car climbed Mount Washington!" sticker off their bumper when their car hadn't actually climbed Mount Washington.

[+NeecesandNephews]

I wondered about it being published by a different reviewer. I just assumed any Reviewer can publish any cache in the waiting list.

 

I sent the Owner an email and also one to Groundspeak to see if I can get it removed from my profile.

 

Don't want to throw stones at anyone, but I have to wonder why the Reviewer didn't catch this, or if it is a glitch in the system.

 

c t d it's not going to bother me if the corrected cache page makes it dissappear. Call me a P___itan, but I don't want a souvenir if I haven't actually been there and found a cache.

Edited April 16, 2011 by NeecesandNephews

[+lamoracke]

hrm. I wonder if someone can make an entire 70 cache series. True coordinates, but each one with a different state and canadian province. One can get the entire set while on one mini power trail. Sarcasm of course but you get the point.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I do wonder, however, what will happen to your Iowa souvenir once they fix the state on the cache page.

 

Will you get to keep it? Or will it suddenly disappear, leaving one feeling the same way one would feel if someone suddenly tore the "This car climbed Mount Washington!" sticker off their bumper when their car hadn't actually climbed Mount Washington.

 

I suspect that the souvenir will remain in the OPs profile until someone from Groundspeak manually removes it. Although I don't have access to the code which is used for awarding souvenirs I can make a pretty good guess regarding how it works. When a new cache is found, there is a check to see if the location falls within a souvenir zone (it appears that it's using the State/Country information provided rather than reverse geocoding[1] based on the coordinates) in which the logger has not yet acquired a souvenir. If not, it adds that souvenir to their profile. When the Souvenirs page is displayed, it's just displaying the souvenirs based on what's in the users profile and not recalculating what souvenirs should be displayed based on the geocachers list of finds.

 

Although we haven't seen any new souvenirs created since all of the US States and Canadian provinces became available, but when new souvenirs are released a separate (retroactive) rewarding process was used. In that case, the system iterates through every user, then iterates through the finds list to test if it contains a waypoint which falls within the just released souvenir. When it finds a match it adds that souvenir to the users profile.

 

There's a thread around somewhere what has been used to notify Groundspeak when a souvenir was incorrectly awarded (or when someone earned a souvenir but didn't receive it).

 

[1] "Reverse Geocoding" is the process of finding an address, toponym or an other type of resource for a given lat/lng pair.

[+cache_test_dummies]

c t d it's not going to bother me if the corrected cache page makes it dissappear. Call me a P___itan, but I don't want a souvenir if I haven't actually been there and found a cache.

Yeah, I wouldn't want an unearned souvenir in my profile either.

 

Nor would I put a "This car climbed Mount Washington!" bumper sticker on my car unless my car had actually climbed Mount Washington.

 

It hasn't, but I have.

[+cache_test_dummies]

I suspect that the souvenir will remain in the OPs profile until someone from Groundspeak manually removes it. Although I don't have access to the code which is used for awarding souvenirs I can make a pretty good guess regarding how it works ... snip

This makes perfect sense.

[+edscott]

c t d it's not going to bother me if the corrected cache page makes it dissappear. Call me a P___itan, but I don't want a souvenir if I haven't actually been there and found a cache.

Yeah, I wouldn't want an unearned souvenir in my profile either.

 

Nor would I put a "This car climbed Mount Washington!" bumper sticker on my car unless my car had actually climbed Mount Washington.

 

It hasn't, but I have.

 

Neither would I.. no car has actually climbed Mt Washington. The Parking lot is not at the top. Close to GZ but not close enough to sign the log.

[+cache_test_dummies]

Neither would I.. no car has actually climbed Mt Washington. The Parking lot is not at the top. Close to GZ but not close enough to sign the log.

P___itan!

 

[+NYPaddleCacher]

c t d it's not going to bother me if the corrected cache page makes it dissappear. Call me a P___itan, but I don't want a souvenir if I haven't actually been there and found a cache.

Yeah, I wouldn't want an unearned souvenir in my profile either.

 

Nor would I put a "This car climbed Mount Washington!" bumper sticker on my car unless my car had actually climbed Mount Washington.

 

It hasn't, but I have.

 

Neither would I.. no car has actually climbed Mt Washington. The Parking lot is not at the top. Close to GZ but not close enough to sign the log.

 

I've never been to Mt. Washington but I came across another road that climbs to the top of a mountain that would be a wonderful spot for a cache. It's called Tianman Shan (Heaven's Gate). It's located in the Hunan province in China.

 

 

LIke Mt. Washington, there is also a tram that can be taken to the top rather than driving up the road. I just got some email last week that strongly suggests I'll be getting an invitation soon to participate in a workshop in China, but it's in Beijing, a long ways from Tianman Shan.

Edited April 16, 2011 by NYPaddleCacher

[+briansnat]

Isn't this something the reviewer should have caught? I mean its not like its on the border and the two states are next to each other.

 

Not necessarily. A reviewer chiefly checks to see if the cache conforms to the guidelines. It is possible that he might not notice that its in a wrong state because the maps are zoomed in pretty close as a default. Looking at the cache in question, you have to zoom out several clicks on the map before you even see a town name. Without zooming out quite a ways the map probably looks very similar to much of Iowa.

 

I wondered about it being published by a different reviewer. I just assumed any Reviewer can publish any cache in the waiting list.

 

I sent the Owner an email and also one to Groundspeak to see if I can get it removed from my profile.

 

Don't want to throw stones at anyone, but I have to wonder why the Reviewer didn't catch this, or if it is a glitch in the system.

 

c t d it's not going to bother me if the corrected cache page makes it dissappear. Call me a P___itan, but I don't want a souvenir if I haven't actually been there and found a cache.

 

Probably the quickest way to get it fixed would be to email the reviewer who published it.

Edited April 16, 2011 by briansnat

[+cache_test_dummies]

The state listed for the cache being discussed has been changed to Oklahoma.

 

And the Souvenir page for NeecesandNephews is still showing the Iowa souvenir.

 

So I guess that answers one question, anyway. Looks like NYPaddleCacher was right.

[+EvilTree]

I have the opposite problem cached in California and didn't get the souvenir for that state, emailed Groundspeak andthey said the developers will look into it, they may need to be manual added, I know their busy but 3 months later still nothing....

 

 

The Souvenier system is`nt perfect, but still fun, maybe the next update will fix all these issues, as to the next update, when is that????, the last one wasnt really a update more of a small set of bug fixes

Edited April 18, 2011 by EvilTree

[+Redfist]

I have the opposite problem cached in California and didn't get the souvenir for that state, emailed Groundspeak andthey said the developers will look into it, they may need to be manual added, I know their busy but 3 months later still nothing....

 

 

The Souvenier system is perfect, but still fun, maybe the next update will fix all these issues, as to the next update, when is that????, the last one wasnt really a update more of a small set of bug fixes

 

I have the exact same issue - California. Same word from the devs...

[Mr.Yuck]

The state listed for the cache being discussed has been changed to Oklahoma.

 

And the Souvenir page for NeecesandNephews is still showing the Iowa souvenir.

 

So I guess that answers one question, anyway. Looks like NYPaddleCacher was right.

 

Man, I hate when he's right. Just kidding. I don't know, was there a thread about improperly awarded souvenir's? I remember a thread about caches that messed up people's stats, such as my "find" in Nunavut, which was actually in Southern Ontario. That required manual Lackey intervention, and I'll guess this will too.

[+JJnTJ]

If you get the souvenir removed, please describe what it took. I still have the Groundspeak HQ souvenir I got for using the official Android app with my phone's GPS disabled. It defaulted to the lilypad for GZ and the souvenir appeared.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

The state listed for the cache being discussed has been changed to Oklahoma.

 

And the Souvenir page for NeecesandNephews is still showing the Iowa souvenir.

 

So I guess that answers one question, anyway. Looks like NYPaddleCacher was right.

 

Man, I hate when he's right. Just kidding. I don't know, was there a thread about improperly awarded souvenir's? I remember a thread about caches that messed up people's stats, such as my "find" in Nunavut, which was actually in Southern Ontario. That required manual Lackey intervention, and I'll guess this will too.

 

Here's the thread about caches messing up stats. Although it's more about managing a list which is causing souvenirs to be improperly awarded, in many instances Mount10Bike fixed the profile of those reporting problems.

 

There may also have been a Feedback issue that was being used to report improperly awarded souvenirs and used to report when a souvenir was earned but no awarded but I can't seem to find it. There *is* a feedback issue about providing a mechanism for users to delete a souvenir from their profile themselves.

[+NeecesandNephews]

Just to update... I did contact the CO and he got the listing corrected, but the souvenir is still there. Sent an email to Groundspeak Support about it.

Got a reply today from Dani- Community Relations Specialist with the following message:

"Thanks for letting us know about his. The souvenir doesn't look like it has been removed from your profile, so I let our team know. They should have it removed by weeks end.

 

Happy caching!"

 

So it seems it is fairly easy to correct. Will update when it is corrected. Thanks Dani !!!!

[+Crow-T-Robot]

I have the opposite problem cached in California and didn't get the souvenir for that state, emailed Groundspeak andthey said the developers will look into it, they may need to be manual added, I know their busy but 3 months later still nothing....

 

 

The Souvenier system is perfect, but still fun, maybe the next update will fix all these issues, as to the next update, when is that????, the last one wasnt really a update more of a small set of bug fixes

 

I have the exact same issue - California. Same word from the devs...

 

I don't know if this would work but perhaps if you delete your find log and then relog it, it might get the souvenir to appear.

[+Harry Dolphin]

c t d it's not going to bother me if the corrected cache page makes it dissappear. Call me a P___itan, but I don't want a souvenir if I haven't actually been there and found a cache.

Yeah, I wouldn't want an unearned souvenir in my profile either.

 

Nor would I put a "This car climbed Mount Washington!" bumper sticker on my car unless my car had actually climbed Mount Washington.

 

It hasn't, but I have.

 

That's why I got the "This Body Has Climbed Mount Washington" t-shirt. Hope you did the webcam when you were there...

 

I've given up getting bogus souvenirs removed, and hae decided to keep Manitoba!

[+docsigma]

I once got two souvenirs for Germany... and I've never left North America. They were gone within a week. So very odd. I wonder why they showed up in the first place.

[+Team GPSaxophone]

Neither would I.. no car has actually climbed Mt Washington. The Parking lot is not at the top. Close to GZ but not close enough to sign the log.

 

 

I dunno...looks like a lot of houses on Mt Washington. I don't think they'd put driveways and garages on those houses if no cars could get to the top.

[+paleolith]

I think the state listed determines what reviewer queue the submission goes in, but otherwise has little to do with the review process. I once submitted a cache in California but neglected to change the default state from my home state of Florida. I got an amused note from the Florida reviewer saying he had moved it to the California reviewer's queue and that he recognized the terrain in my photos because he used to live in Riverside. But there's a lot more difference between Florida vs California terrain than there is between Iowa vs Oklahoma terrain, and I had an extensive description with several photos. Something that's just across a state line, with nothing in the description to hit you in the head about the state line, I think there's no reason the reviewer would notice it.

 

Edward

[+NeecesandNephews]

Just wanted to let everyone know Groundspeak has cleared the "extra" souvenir from my profile. Not sure when they did it, as I did not check yesterday, but today it is gone!!

 

Thanks to all the helpful people at the Lily Pad for taking care of this quickly!!

 

edit spelling.

Edited April 20, 2011 by NeecesandNephews

[+Redfist]

Just wanted to let everyone know Groundspeak has cleared the "extra" souvenir from my profile. Not sure when they did it, as I did not check yesterday, but today it is gone!!

 

Thanks to all the helpful people at the Lily Pad for taking care of this quickly!!

 

edit spelling.

 

I just checked and my missing California souvenir is now there. Thanks Groundspeak!