CacheSense - Why the huge increase in time!?

[+BellHousehold]

Hello,

 

Today I went out GeoCaching with my daughters and we use Cachesense as it blends perfectly with GeoCaching.com. There is normal a time limit of around 3 GeoCaches being downloaded within 15 minutes.

 

Now I can understand this as if you're getting more in that time you're not taking this that serious. However, today we completed two and I download a 3rd incorrectly. So I went back to the one I wanted and was hit with I cannot download anymore for 24 hours as I'm not a premium member.

 

Now I find this unfair, I paid for the app and was more than happy with the time limit set, but 24hrs!?! Honestly this is no very fair.

 

I know GeoCaching is not associated with the app. but I would like to air how unhappy I am that this rule has been put in place.

[+UMainah]

It's actually not Cachesense's fault. This is a limit Groundspeak has placed on any Basic Member who wants to use an app enabled with the "Groundspeak Live API".

Premium Member vs. Basic Member Services:1. Features and Geocaching Data provide through the API shall be available only to authorized geocaching.com account holders with the following limitations which are subject to change at the discretion of Groundspeak:

 

a. Basic Members shall be limited to viewing full geocache details for up to 3 Geocaches per day. Prior to viewing the full details for each of the 3 geocache listings, the Basic Member must be notified of this restriction using text supplied by Groundspeak or, in the absence of text supplied by Groundspeak, text which is substantially similar to the text displayed in Exhibit B.

b. Geocache search results for Basic Members shall be limited to Traditional Geocache Listings only.

 

c. Basic Members may request full geocache details for non-Traditional Geocaches using the GC reference code; however, they will remain subject to the limitation of 3 as set forth in section 1a above.

 

You definitely should complain to Groundspeak and Geocaching.com if you would like to see a change and not to Cachesense since there is nothing they can do about it.

[+ChileHead]

Or buy Groundspeak's app. It's a one time fee of only $10, and I'm pretty sure it doesn't have the same limitation that 3rd party apps do. If the API was free & unlimited, then Groundspeak would not make any revenue from 3rd party apps so it seems reasonable to me (unless you subscribe to the "Is Groundspeak getting rich..." thread.)

 

Edit: Sorry, I see cachesense is for blackberry? So maybe there isn't another option, but I'm not familiar with it. I thought that was an iphone or android app.

Edited September 3, 2012 by ChileHead

[+wanderaboutaimlessly]

the app for the windows phone is free, but still has the 3 cache limit unless you are a premium member

[+Walts Hunting]

For a mere $30 a year you can download thousands. As stated the issue is your basic membership.

[+BellHousehold]

Would it be better for me to trial 3 months to see if I appreciate the difference? I'm not overly sure of the 12 months you see?

Edited September 3, 2012 by BellHousehold

[+GeoTrekker26]

Would it be better for me to trial 3 months to see if I appreciate the difference? I'm not overly sure of the 12 months you see?

 

That is obviously a question only you can answer. You have to weigh the $10 vs $30 option against what future you see for yourself in geocaching. No one else can do that for you.

[+beltfamily]

As it isn't clear to a normal human being who is setting and enforcing these Live limits, those poor developers are getting some extremely unpleasant emails demanding refunds.

 

3 a day?

 

This whole setup is hard to understand.

 

1) Groundspeak themselves have different limits on their own software than those enforced on 3rd parties

2) Non sanctioned "rogue" software developers have no need to observe these limits at all, and deliver fully functional apps able to rip off. THEY CONTINUE TO DO SO UNOPPOSED.

 

The ones getting kicked in the shins? The people who toe the line with Groundspeak, and those who PURCHASED their software. It's sickening.

 

Sanctioned Groundspeak 3rd party apps are getting a raw deal, and now the purchasers of their software want their money back. Can you blame them? They have the option of not paying at all and getting different software and get EVERYTHING WITHOUT LIMITS.

 

Where is Groundspeak here? Why are they enforcing a contract and a set of rules on people that are PAYING, and doing nothing to stop those that are FREELOADING?

 

THIS SUCKS.

 

(Edit: spelling only)

Edited September 4, 2012 by beltfamily

[+BellHousehold]

I received a nice email back from the CacheSense person explaining the ins and outs. I'm going to stump for 3 months of Premium to make sure that I use it enough to warrant the full amount in the future.

[+fuzziebear3]

Don't forget to check out the other benefits of Premium Membership, such as Pocket Queries, Cache along a route, and Premium Only Caches.

 

I don't know much about CacheSense, but also realize that even as a basic member you are not limited in the amount of caches you look at on the computer, it is just the CacheSense application that uses the API and is limited. So you might prefer planning out your caches in advance, and then going out and finding them.

[+JohnCNA]

Actually, it's the Groudspeak Live API that has the limits, not the apps. Even as a PM, there are limits to how many calls to the Live API we can make in a single day. If I ask it to download 20 more log entries for 500 caches, that's 10,000 calls to the API and will probably fail with an error code from Groundspeak. I have had GSAK continue with a request like that and then present the GC API error message when the limit was reached.

 

The app providers need to be more clear aboutneeding a PM membership in order to enjoy maximum benefits from their apps, even though they aren't THEIR restrictions. In the case of CacheSense, they have a 30 day free trial, during which anyone would easily discover that a PM account would be needed to get full value. You can't fault CacheSense on this one.

[+39chevy]

As it isn't clear to a normal human being who is setting and enforcing these Live limits, those poor developers are getting some extremely unpleasant emails demanding refunds.

 

3 a day?

 

This whole setup is hard to understand.

 

1) Groundspeak themselves have different limits on their own software than those enforced on 3rd parties

2) Non sanctioned "rogue" software developers have no need to observe these limits at all, and deliver fully functional apps able to rip off. THEY CONTINUE TO DO SO UNOPPOSED.

 

The ones getting kicked in the shins? The people who toe the line with Groundspeak, and those who PURCHASED their software. It's sickening.

 

Sanctioned Groundspeak 3rd party apps are getting a raw deal, and now the purchasers of their software want their money back. Can you blame them? They have the option of not paying at all and getting different software and get EVERYTHING WITHOUT LIMITS.

 

Where is Groundspeak here? Why are they enforcing a contract and a set of rules on people that are PAYING, and doing nothing to stop those that are FREELOADING?

 

THIS SUCKS.

 

(Edit: spelling only)

 

1) You get what you pay for. I don't think a Ford Dealer will do warranty work on a Honda unless he is a Honda dealer too.

 

2) You work for Groundspeak? You seem to KNOW a lot about what they do. Since you are an EXPERT software developer send your resume to Groundspeak and help them out.

[+beltfamily]

2) You work for Groundspeak?

You seem to KNOW a lot about what they do.

Since you are an EXPERT software developer send your resume to Groundspeak and help them out.

 

No.

Yes.

Thanks.

 

As for getting what you pay for, that's exactly the point - thanks for emphasising it.

 

The people who purchased the software based on a service level they were getting at the time thought they knew what they were getting for what they were paying for. When that suddenly changed, the thought the software developers had done something devious/dishonest, and they demanded a refund (reasonable, no?)

 

The problem is that the Groundspeak enforced limits on basic memberships are just too tight. If you so much LOOK at 3 caches' details, that's it for the day. You don't even get to LOOK at another one. This has nothing to do with logging them. I mean, you can't even LOOK at more than 3 Traditionals (in full detail) in 24 hours.

[+The A-Team]

1) Groundspeak themselves have different limits on their own software than those enforced on 3rd parties

What's wrong with that? It's their system. They can do whatever they want with it.

 

2) Non sanctioned "rogue" software developers have no need to observe these limits at all, and deliver fully functional apps able to rip off. THEY CONTINUE TO DO SO UNOPPOSED.

I only know of one such "rogue" app, and it isn't what I would call "fully functional". It seems like any time Groundspeak makes more than minor changes to the site, it breaks their app. When Groundspeak pulled the old maps, it really badly broke their app for a while. Anyway, what do you propose Groundspeak do to oppose them? They've already taken steps to try to block this app from using its unapproved methods. The app isn't doing anything illegal, just things that Groundspeak doesn't want them to do (they're just Terms of Use, not a law or a contract), so they can't take them to court or anything. They've tried to work with the app developers to come to a mutual solution, but the developers have stubbornly refused (from what I understand).

 

The ones getting kicked in the shins? The people who toe the line with Groundspeak, and those who PURCHASED their software. It's sickening.

Really? My shins feel just fine. I've used the official iPhone app for a couple of years now, and it's been nothing but excellent. It's worth far more than the measly $10 I originally paid for it.

 

Now, excuse me while I go continue toeing the line...

[+BellHousehold]

Just a note :- I received an nice email from the CacheSense people and they have explained the issue to me

 

This was a change made by Groundspeak, apparently they had misconfigured their server to allow 3 downloads/15 minutes, it was supposed to be per 24 hours.

 

There was more to the email, but there is no need for the full email.

[+Don_J]

Actually, it's the Groudspeak Live API that has the limits, not the apps. Even as a PM, there are limits to how many calls to the Live API we can make in a single day. If I ask it to download 20 more log entries for 500 caches, that's 10,000 calls to the API and will probably fail with an error code from Groundspeak. I have had GSAK continue with a request like that and then present the GC API error message when the limit was reached.

 

Actually, that would be 500 calls. Each call provides 30 logs. You are allowed 200 log calls per hour.

[+RichardandJoanna]

Hi, This thread interests me. I have been away for 3 months so my GSAK has fallen behind. I am updating it with the finds I made during my holiday. That is easy enough but trying to find out how many finds there have been on my 124 caches I have hidden is proving difficult.

 

My pc has been running for 36 hours and it downloads a few logs from the API and then I get the message "api call per hour limit reached" and a timer appears to count down the next hour. My caches are popular at holiday time and at the current rate this is likely to take another three or four days. I am going away again and cannot leave my computer on and I assume if I turn it off i will lose all the information downloaded so far. Is there an alternative way (a macro, maybe) to obtain this information?

 

Richard

[+MartyBartfast]

Is there an alternative way (a macro, maybe) to obtain this information?

 

Richard

 

Why not create a Pocket Query covering the areas where your caches are placed (it may need more than one depending on cache density etc)? run it once and import it into GSAK - that should bring all the logs up to date so any subsequent API calls will have less to deal with.

 

I can't actually remember if PQs download all logs on a cache, or just a limited number, but even if it's the latter it will still help.

[+dakboy]

I can't actually remember if PQs download all logs on a cache, or just a limited number, but even if it's the latter it will still help.

Just the last 5.

[+Team Periwinkle]

You can also import pocket queries into CacheSense.

 

BTW, CacheSense is awesome and a really great app for those of us still hanging onto our Blackberries. I primarily use pocket queries loaded onto my Garmin GPSr, but CacheSense is nice for getting 'live' access to the most up-to-date info - either a cache published after I generated (and copied to the GPSr) my most recent PQ, or to check on the logs (or even status) of a cache after I generated my most recent PQ.

 

Dave

[+Don_J]

Hi, This thread interests me. I have been away for 3 months so my GSAK has fallen behind. I am updating it with the finds I made during my holiday. That is easy enough but trying to find out how many finds there have been on my 124 caches I have hidden is proving difficult.

 

My pc has been running for 36 hours and it downloads a few logs from the API and then I get the message "api call per hour limit reached" and a timer appears to count down the next hour. My caches are popular at holiday time and at the current rate this is likely to take another three or four days. I am going away again and cannot leave my computer on and I assume if I turn it off i will lose all the information downloaded so far. Is there an alternative way (a macro, maybe) to obtain this information?

 

Richard

 

Richard, what you are asking really doesn't have anything to do with this topic, but, I can give you the answer. Update GSAK to the latest patched version. GC.com recently changed their api limit for "get logs" from X per hour back to X per minute. Your version of GSAK doesn't know about this and is choking.

[+Rynee]

Cachesense is on android

Or buy Groundspeak's app. It's a one time fee of only $10, and I'm pretty sure it doesn't have the same limitation that 3rd party apps do. If the API was free & unlimited, then Groundspeak would not make any revenue from 3rd party apps so it seems reasonable to me (unless you subscribe to the "Is Groundspeak getting rich..." thread.)

 

Edit: Sorry, I see cachesense is for blackberry? So maybe there isn't another option, but I'm not familiar with it. I thought that was an iphone or android app.

[+Rynee]

cachesense isn't just for those holding onto blackberries I have it on my android device

You can also import pocket queries into CacheSense.

 

BTW, CacheSense is awesome and a really great app for those of us still hanging onto our Blackberries. I primarily use pocket queries loaded onto my Garmin GPSr, but CacheSense is nice for getting 'live' access to the most up-to-date info - either a cache published after I generated (and copied to the GPSr) my most recent PQ, or to check on the logs (or even status) of a cache after I generated my most recent PQ.

 

Dave

[GrandPotentate]

 

I only know of one such "rogue" app, and it isn't what I would call "fully functional". It seems like any time Groundspeak makes more than minor changes to the site, it breaks their app. When Groundspeak pulled the old maps, it really badly broke their app for a while. Anyway, what do you propose Groundspeak do to oppose them? They've already taken steps to try to block this app from using its unapproved methods. The app isn't doing anything illegal, just things that Groundspeak doesn't want them to do (they're just Terms of Use, not a law or a contract), so they can't take them to court or anything. They've tried to work with the app developers to come to a mutual solution, but the developers have stubbornly refused (from what I understand).

 

I don't know if it qualifies as a rogue app, but I just logged into my team account (basic membership) using a free app and I was able to view 10 different caches of all different types (multi, mystery...). Never once got a message about download limits.