"Instant-Notify" by direction

[+RIclimber]

I've been using Instant-Notify for awhile, but it's not effective where I live. For me a 10 mile limit is great for North and South (15 minute drive), but even 3 miles West is an hour trip around a huge body of water! I'd love to select different distances for each of the 8 directions.

I'd have one set for NW>E>S at 10mi and one SW&W for 3mi.

 

I know the site already has the info listed on the page so it should be an easy feature to add.

[+Lil Devil]

Just move the center point of your notifications more to the NE.

[+StarBrand]

Just move the center point of your notifications more to the NE.

this.

[AZcachemeister]

Just move the center point of your notifications more to the NE.

 

...and create several notifications based on different locations to suit your area.

 

Problem solved.

[+RIclimber]

Just move the center point of your notifications more to the NE.

 

...and create several notifications based on different locations to suit your area.

 

Problem solved.

 

I would need to set up 4 locations to cover the area. That's 4 for every cache type!

That's not "Problem solved" it problem worked around.

As a paying member I should be able to use the features in a way that is quick and simple to set up.

 

They had time to play with Souvenirs and add the countdown clock, so it's not like they're too busy to work on the Geocaching part of the website.

[AZcachemeister]

Take a look at the 'missing TB' thread.

 

Even if your idea was 'accepted' today, it might be years before it is implemented.

 

I think I could probably do what you need in about an hour or (most likely) less.

 

Do you want it resolved, or do you want to about the difficulties of taking care of it for yourself?

[+T.D.M.22]

Couldn't you set up a weekly PQ centered around a point say 3 miles from the edge of the water farthest from you and have it run, for example, Caches/events not found/attended and published since the last PQ?

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Just move the center point of your notifications more to the NE.

 

...and create several notifications based on different locations to suit your area.

 

Problem solved.

 

I would need to set up 4 locations to cover the area. That's 4 for every cache type!

That's not "Problem solved" it problem worked around.

As a paying member I should be able to use the features in a way that is quick and simple to set up.

 

There are lots of other paying members, and most of them would probably never use that feature.

 

 

They had time to play with Souvenirs and add the countdown clock, so it's not like they're too busy to work on the Geocaching part of the website.

 

In the case of the new souvenirs, the artwork has existed for a long time and the processes for awarding souvenirs has been in place for a long time as well. The only real work involved is setting a flag in the database which indicates that the region has an active souvenir. The countdown clock did require a bit of development but it's something that every geocacher can enjoy, and given the amount of traffic on the 2 millionth geocache threads it's something a lot of people liked. In fact, there was a feature request to continue displaying the active cache count on the site.

 

In order to implement a directional notification the system would have to persist the "direction" string for every user (and default to "none" for those that don't) and that would require a change to the database schema, and data store access code. Making changes to the underlying database is not something that can be taken lightly.

[+hzoi]

I would need to set up 4 locations to cover the area. That's 4 for every cache type!

 

As an aside, can anyone state the rationale behind why notifications are limited to cache type?

[+J Grouchy]

Personally, I'd like to see in-app notifications for the Geocaching android/iphone apps instead of emails.

 

At the very least, I'd like the links to be able to open the appropriate geocache in the app instead of opening in my phone's browser.

[+GeoTrekker26]

 

At the very least, I'd like the links to be able to open the appropriate geocache in the app instead of opening in my phone's browser.

 

That feature already exists on the iPhone.

[+T.D.M.22]

Personally, I'd like to see in-app notifications for the Geocaching android/iphone apps instead of emails.

 

At the very least, I'd like the links to be able to open the appropriate geocache in the app instead of opening in my phone's browser.

 

How about when you click on a geocache link(from email or whatever) you get the choice to open it in the app, or using the phones internet browser. It will also give an option to set either of those as default so as to not have to ask again...

 

That's a great idea!! So great that they already have it in both Iphone and Android

[+J Grouchy]

Personally, I'd like to see in-app notifications for the Geocaching android/iphone apps instead of emails.

 

At the very least, I'd like the links to be able to open the appropriate geocache in the app instead of opening in my phone's browser.

 

How about when you click on a geocache link(from email or whatever) you get the choice to open it in the app, or using the phones internet browser. It will also give an option to set either of those as default so as to not have to ask again...

 

That's a great idea!! So great that they already have it in both Iphone and Android

 

Well...I'm well aware that it gives you that choice, but I've yet to see it actually WORK. I just get a "Searching..." message...and it never opens the app.

[+RIclimber]

Take a look at the 'missing TB' thread.

 

Even if your idea was 'accepted' today, it might be years before it is implemented.

 

I think I could probably do what you need in about an hour or (most likely) less.

 

Do you want it resolved, or do you want to about the difficulties of taking care of it for yourself?

Then why even have a feature request area in the thought is they will never work on it?

 

Couldn't you set up a weekly PQ centered around a point say 3 miles from the edge of the water farthest from you and have it run, for example, Caches/events not found/attended and published since the last PQ?

 

A weekly PQ will not help in the FTF race.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Take a look at the 'missing TB' thread.

 

Even if your idea was 'accepted' today, it might be years before it is implemented.

 

I think I could probably do what you need in about an hour or (most likely) less.

 

Do you want it resolved, or do you want to about the difficulties of taking care of it for yourself?

Then why even have a feature request area in the thought is they will never work on it?

 

The forum section is called Feature Discussions and Suggestions. There are a lot of feature suggestions that some (including Groundspeak) would rather not see implemented. In some cases there is a viable work around. In some cases the amount of effort and development time (Groundspeak does have a finite amount of development resources) isn't worth the effort compared to the benefits. There are also sorts of reasons why a feature request *could* be implemented but *should not* be implemented.

 

 

Couldn't you set up a weekly PQ centered around a point say 3 miles from the edge of the water farthest from you and have it run, for example, Caches/events not found/attended and published since the last PQ?

 

A weekly PQ will not help in the FTF race.

 

[+The A-Team]

As an aside, can anyone state the rationale behind why notifications are limited to cache type?

It's because different cache types have different log types. The event types have "Attended", "Will attend", and "Announcement", but not "Found", "Did not find", "Needs maintenance", or "Owner maintenance". Webcams have "Webcam photo taken".

I've seen a few suggestions in this forum of ways to clean up the notification-creation process, but nothing has happened.

[AZcachemeister]

As an aside, can anyone state the rationale behind why notifications are limited to cache type?

It's because different cache types have different log types. The event types have "Attended", "Will attend", and "Announcement", but not "Found", "Did not find", "Needs maintenance", or "Owner maintenance". Webcams have "Webcam photo taken".

I've seen a few suggestions in this forum of ways to clean up the notification-creation process, but nothing has happened.

 

But, every cache type has a 'Published' log type, eh?

 

While I was away from here, (yes, I do have other things to do), I was thinking the real solution that would relieve the OP's burden would be an option to choose WHICH cache-types he wants 'published' notifications for.

 

And, I do agree that asking for notifications on 'PUBLISHED' log types for a selectable range of cache types would be beneficial....for the FTF freaks.

[+hzoi]

As an aside, can anyone state the rationale behind why notifications are limited to cache type?

It's because different cache types have different log types. The event types have "Attended", "Will attend", and "Announcement", but not "Found", "Did not find", "Needs maintenance", or "Owner maintenance". Webcams have "Webcam photo taken".

I've seen a few suggestions in this forum of ways to clean up the notification-creation process, but nothing has happened.

 

But, every cache type has a 'Published' log type, eh?

 

While I was away from here, (yes, I do have other things to do), I was thinking the real solution that would relieve the OP's burden would be an option to choose WHICH cache-types he wants 'published' notifications for.

 

And, I do agree that asking for notifications on 'PUBLISHED' log types for a selectable range of cache types would be beneficial....for the FTF freaks.

A-Team: makes perfect sense. Thanks.

 

I still have notifications going even though I don't race for FTF. I just like knowing when and where new caches pop up.

[+AHGoodwin]

I too would really like to be able to select multiple cache types to be notified on for being published. It seems silly to have to have a separate notification for each type. Maybe if there is such an incompatibility between cache types they could have an option to select the notification type FIRST and then they will show the available cache types. So if you select a cache type first, it shows the available actions for that type, but you could also instead choose the action first and THEN choose the cache types you want. Just an idea....

[team tisri]

Just move the center point of your notifications more to the NE.

 

...and create several notifications based on different locations to suit your area.

 

Problem solved.

 

I would need to set up 4 locations to cover the area. That's 4 for every cache type!

That's not "Problem solved" it problem worked around.

As a paying member I should be able to use the features in a way that is quick and simple to set up.

 

There are lots of other paying members, and most of them would probably never use that feature.

 

Anyone living in an area where 5 miles in one direction represents more travelling than 25 miles in the other direction would use it.

 

For me it's easier to travel 20 miles headed SW than to travel 5 miles headed E, simply because I live on the outskirts of a very busy city. It's not quite as dramatic as having a huge lake nearby but might as well be. For now I just feed email notifications into my GPX management software and have a query telling me of all new caches within about 40 miles, I figure out on the day where I'm going and if I happen to pass some caches then all well and good.

 

They had time to play with Souvenirs and add the countdown clock, so it's not like they're too busy to work on the Geocaching part of the website.

 

In the case of the new souvenirs, the artwork has existed for a long time and the processes for awarding souvenirs has been in place for a long time as well. The only real work involved is setting a flag in the database which indicates that the region has an active souvenir. The countdown clock did require a bit of development but it's something that every geocacher can enjoy, and given the amount of traffic on the 2 millionth geocache threads it's something a lot of people liked. In fact, there was a feature request to continue displaying the active cache count on the site.

 

In order to implement a directional notification the system would have to persist the "direction" string for every user (and default to "none" for those that don't) and that would require a change to the database schema, and data store access code. Making changes to the underlying database is not something that can be taken lightly.

 

I agree with the OP that Groundspeak seems to have lots of spare resources to waste yet lacks the resources to do the things people suggest. I also agree with you that this kind of thing is easy to define in outline terms and hard to define in sufficiently objective terms to implement it in a way that's easy to use and achieves the desired result. As you say defining exactly what should be excluded (e.g. how far north or south of exactly west can a cache be before being 3 miles away doesn't mean you have to drive all the way around the lake?)