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[FEATURE] Prod cache owners to maintain their caches


ertyu

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An important part of hiding a cache is maintaining it and that often seems to be lacking. I think that owners with outstanding 'Needs Maintenance' requests on their cache (i.e. the attribute has not been removed) should be prodded periodically to prove they are aware of the issue and taking action to rectify it. I don't mean to say they have to perform the maintenance at that time, just indicate that they are aware and working on it. If they don't respond to these requests and demonstrate that they are not willing or able to maintain the cache, then the cache should automatically be marked 'Needs Archive' and passed through the standard review process to determine if something further needs to be done about the cache.

 

I'm thinking something along the lines of the cache owner being sent an email after one of their hides has had a Needs Maintenance attribute present for a month. At which point they would have a couple weeks to a month to respond. I would suggest the response is simply logging into the website and ticking a box that they are aware and taking action on the cache. The time to respond could be shortened or lengthened and accordingly a set number of times they failed to respond would be the trigger the automatic marking of the cache as Needs Archiving.

 

That's a start. It would also be nice if hiders chronically lacking in maintenance would be limited in future hides.

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An important part of hiding a cache is maintaining it and that often seems to be lacking. I think that owners with outstanding 'Needs Maintenance' requests on their cache (i.e. the attribute has not been removed) should be prodded periodically to prove they are aware of the issue and taking action to rectify it. I don't mean to say they have to perform the maintenance at that time, just indicate that they are aware and working on it. If they don't respond to these requests and demonstrate that they are not willing or able to maintain the cache, then the cache should automatically be marked 'Needs Archive' and passed through the standard review process to determine if something further needs to be done about the cache.

 

I'm thinking something along the lines of the cache owner being sent an email after one of their hides has had a Needs Maintenance attribute present for a month. At which point they would have a couple weeks to a month to respond. I would suggest the response is simply logging into the website and ticking a box that they are aware and taking action on the cache. The time to respond could be shortened or lengthened and accordingly a set number of times they failed to respond would be the trigger the automatic marking of the cache as Needs Archiving.

 

That's a start. It would also be nice if hiders chronically lacking in maintenance would be limited in future hides.

 

sounds a lot like ...

 

cachepolice.jpg

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Maybe there could also be a checkbox for "The maintenance issue has been addressed, but I don't know how to clear the Needs Maintenance attribute."

 

And based on previous forum threads, perhaps a checkbox for "The maintenance issue has been addressed (or was bogus to begin with), but I do not want to post an Owner Maintenance log without actually visiting the cache site and performing maintenance."

Edited by niraD
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Maybe there could also be a checkbox for "The maintenance issue has been addressed, but I don't know how to clear the Needs Maintenance attribute."

 

And based on previous forum threads, perhaps a checkbox for "The maintenance issue has been addressed (or was bogus to begin with), but I do not want to post an Owner Maintenance log without actually visiting the cache site and performing maintenance."

 

Yep, good ideas. Options for responding that the maintenance has been performed already or not required grouped into one place.

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An important part of hiding a cache is maintaining it and that often seems to be lacking. I think that owners with outstanding 'Needs Maintenance' requests on their cache (i.e. the attribute has not been removed) should be prodded periodically to prove they are aware of the issue and taking action to rectify it. I don't mean to say they have to perform the maintenance at that time, just indicate that they are aware and working on it. If they don't respond to these requests and demonstrate that they are not willing or able to maintain the cache, then the cache should automatically be marked 'Needs Archive' and passed through the standard review process to determine if something further needs to be done about the cache.

 

I'm thinking something along the lines of the cache owner being sent an email after one of their hides has had a Needs Maintenance attribute present for a month. At which point they would have a couple weeks to a month to respond. I would suggest the response is simply logging into the website and ticking a box that they are aware and taking action on the cache. The time to respond could be shortened or lengthened and accordingly a set number of times they failed to respond would be the trigger the automatic marking of the cache as Needs Archiving.

 

That's a start. It would also be nice if hiders chronically lacking in maintenance would be limited in future hides.

 

sounds a lot like ...

 

cachepolice.jpg

 

More like RoboCop.

I have a feeling that we may see something like this someday.

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Recently I went to publish a new cache and was greeted by a message that one of my existing caches was flagged as needs maintenance. I didn't know it had the flag, so I went and fixed it.

 

I suspect this is the case for many cache owners. They don't know that there are NM flags on their caches.

And they don't know how to clear them. They'll fix a cache with issues, or enable a disabled cache that had a NM flag, and not clear the flag. Cache is fine.

 

For a long time, logging Needs Archived automatically set the NM flag. That's no longer the case, but there are caches that had the NM flag set from someone logging NA. Cache owner has no idea that the icon had been set by that NA, and never has cleared it.

 

Or per niraD, "The maintenance ... was bogus to begin with", and they're ignoring it. Not realizing that they should log onto the attributes page of the cache, and remove the NM icon.

 

NM needs a ton of education: cachers should stop using it instead of a DNF log, or because they didn't like the location, the swag, something in the write up, hard to park etc.

 

At top of your private profile http://www.geocaching.com/my/default.aspx

is a list of Your Unpublished Disabled Caches

 

Having a list of Your Published Disabled Caches and Your Caches with Needs Maintenance Icon would be a nice touch, and might help with cache maintenance. At least where cache owners are still logging in. People hide caches and leave the game. No help for those hides.

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Recently I went to publish a new cache and was greeted by a message that one of my existing caches was flagged as needs maintenance. I didn't know it had the flag, so I went and fixed it. I can't remember if it was a warning or a road block to publishing a new cache.

 

It's basically just a "heads up." I got the same message because one of mine was Temporarily Disabled, but I was able to continue with the new cache. Of course, I already knew that my cache was temporarily disabled and I was just waitling for the tree-trimming in the area to be finished before putting it back in place and re-enabling it.

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Recently I went to publish a new cache and was greeted by a message that one of my existing caches was flagged as needs maintenance. I didn't know it had the flag, so I went and fixed it.

 

I suspect this is the case for many cache owners. They don't know that there are NM flags on their caches.

And they don't know how to clear them. They'll fix a cache with issues, or enable a disabled cache that had a NM flag, and not clear the flag. Cache is fine.

 

For a long time, logging Needs Archived automatically set the NM flag. That's no longer the case, but there are caches that had the NM flag set from someone logging NA. Cache owner has no idea that the icon had been set by that NA, and never has cleared it.

 

Or per niraD, "The maintenance ... was bogus to begin with", and they're ignoring it. Not realizing that they should log onto the attributes page of the cache, and remove the NM icon.

 

NM needs a ton of education: cachers should stop using it instead of a DNF log, or because they didn't like the location, the swag, something in the write up, hard to park etc.

 

At top of your private profile http://www.geocaching.com/my/default.aspx

is a list of Your Unpublished Disabled Caches

 

Having a list of Your Published Disabled Caches and Your Caches with Needs Maintenance Icon would be a nice touch, and might help with cache maintenance. At least where cache owners are still logging in. People hide caches and leave the game. No help for those hides.

 

All of the reason as to why the attribute is on the cache page could be addressed in the automatic notice with instructions on how to clear it.

 

I saved the link that pops up at the beginning of cache creation page, http://www.geocaching.com/hide/cachemaintenance.aspx and use it occasionally to remind me if I have something that needs attention. I had intended to put in a feature request to put it on our "My" page, but I guess I forgot. Putting it exactly where you suggested is a great idea.

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