Timeframe to archive an event

[+geocat_]

We have a local cacher that likes to police event caches and loves to post NA logs on past events to get them archived. He insists there is a rule that events must be archived within two weeks of the event being held. I searched the help section on geocaching.com and could not locate this information or any reference to when an event should be archived. Am I missing it?

[+T.D.M.22]

Personally-this may not be the best way to handle it- I would delete any such logs and ask him to point out that rule. It really doesn't do anything other than have an icon on the map-it doesn't block caches from being placed, or other events from happening...

 

If it's a small event I would archive it within 2 weeks, or earlier if I know everyone had logged it. Now if it's larger event they might stay longer...a month, maybe six weeks.

Edited November 8, 2013 by T.D.M.22

[+Walts Hunting]

I guess the question that comes up is what does the reviewer when he receives that notice. Does he take any action?

[+Lil Devil]

The guidelines used to say 4 weeks, but now they don't give a timeframe. I still think 4 weeks is more than long enough.

[+DragonsWest]

Agreed, unless it's a mega, give that a couple more weeks. It is a bit of a drag to run PQ's and find a bunch of debris in it, from previous events.

[+jellis]

There is one in my area that has been sitting since August.

[+jellis]

Agreed, unless it's a mega, give that a couple more weeks. It is a bit of a drag to run PQ's and find a bunch of debris in it, from previous events.

How long did Ckayaks wait to archive his 31 days of events?

[Keystone]

The guidelines used to say 4 weeks, but now they don't give a timeframe. I still think 4 weeks is more than long enough.

I still go by this timeframe even though it doesn't appear in the guidelines anymore. People got used to seeing my archive logs sometime after a month had passed.

 

I am privileged to be one of the volunteer cache reviewers serving the OP's very active community. I *thought* this thread was going to be about the one event organizer in the area who always forgets to archive their numerous event listings. I didn't know about the "Event Cop." I'm guessing my colleagues responded to those logs. I might write to them and we could agree to ignore such logs until week four. It would drive the Event Cop nuts! Someone has too much time on their hands.

[+The_Incredibles_]

I bet he's really popular....I wouldn't post a Needs Archive unless it's been months and was somehow obscuring other caches on the map...

 

I think 2 weeks is reasonable...if people haven't logged it yet, they can always search for it and log it after archiving...

[+BBWolf+3Pigs]

I actually had someone from out of state post similar logs on a couple of my events!

 

One of the them I posted "I was going to archive this one today, but decided to leave it alone for a while."

 

My local reviewer posted a note gently suggesting it get archived shortly. Which I did (no sense annoying the reviewer who has been very good to me).

[+Isonzo Karst]

He insists there is a rule that events must be archived within two weeks of the event being held.

 

He would be wrong, http://www.geocaching.com/about/guidelines.aspx#event

 

"After an event has passed, the listing is archived by the cache owner."

 

Through 2010, the guideline read, "archived by the organizer within four weeks".

 

I've seen events archived the next day. Novices can have trouble finding the listing if its archived; more experienced cachers will come up with it.

My admin account occasionally archives events that are a couple of months old.

 

Megas can sit a while, as far as I'm concerned - it improves the odds that traveling cachers, novice attendees, and others will think to log trackables out of the event.

[+St.Matthew]

He/she must be very well liked in your local community.

[+redsox_mark]

I wonder why the "four week" guidance was removed?

 

Obviously it is best to allow some time to pass before archiving - archiving the next day would make little sense and make it more difficult for attendees to log. But keeping them active for many months also doesn't make sense.

 

If the intent was to allow for some exceptions where longer is needed, the guidelines could have been softened (to recommend within 4 weeks) rather than remove the timeframe altogether.

[+-CJ-]

We've published not so many events around here so such complaints/demands are not much common. However I was in the same situation when one guy posted a NA message for the event that he believed must be archived. (Of course, he didn't attend it himself). I followed his advice and archived the event next day (why not? it really was time to archive it). However I know this guy to be a cache cop. He's always posted messages like "difficulty is not 1.5 but 1 here" or "coordinates should be corrected, they're 10 meters off", or "reformat your text so it's friendly to my Garmin device", etc. Sometimes his notes were useful and sometimes they were boring. I think it's mostly not about the period for events to stay unarchived at the site but about people of this sort. Whatever you do he/she will find something to oppose to or complain about. Last time the mentioned guy rushed to post "this puzzle requires geocheckers" at one of my newly published (and pretty simple) puzzles; the posting appeared within one day since the cache appeared at the website and the guy didn't even make an attempt to find it

[+fishgeek]

I think that the event should be disabled after a week, and then archived after 3-4 weeks. Actually, disabling it the next day would not be a bad thing. It will not show up in PQs, but it is still easily accessible for logging.

[+thebruce0]

I wonder why the "four week" guidance was removed?

Well I learned this week that there is a region in the world that re-uses an event listing for repeated events throughout the year by adjusting the date and so people don't have to keep posting Will Attends and Attendeds. The issue was that he didn't want to continue to receive announcements for past events after he posted an Attended log to it. ...that's a whole other problem.

 

But, perhaps that one example for why they removed that 4 week period? *shrug* If so I think that's dumb (I personally don't think event listings are intended to be used more than once just because the "Placed Date" can be adjusted)

[+dprovan]

Obviously it is best to allow some time to pass before archiving - archiving the next day would make little sense and make it more difficult for attendees to log.

That's nice for the attendees, but annoying for anyone that looks at the event only to discover that it's stale. It's easy enough for anyone that posted a "will attend" log to find the event listing after it's archived.

 

But I don't attend many events, and I'm not too worried about them being listed for a while, but I do get annoyed when I look at an event and see that it was months ago.

[+thebruce0]

I like the idea of disabling the event once it passes.

[+SwineFlew]

I wait like 3 to 4 months before I post any NA logs. Its long enough.

 

Its annoying to see the listing when its long passed.

 

I wish GS got an automatic system to archived them after an extreme period of time. Like 3 months or so.

[+redsox_mark]

Obviously it is best to allow some time to pass before archiving - archiving the next day would make little sense and make it more difficult for attendees to log.

That's nice for the attendees, but annoying for anyone that looks at the event only to discover that it's stale. It's easy enough for anyone that posted a "will attend" log to find the event listing after it's archived.

 

 

Maybe for you or me, but I think it would confuse a lot of people. Especially those new to the game, or those who log via a smartphone app - I'm not sure how you would easily find an archived cache that way.

 

They shouldn't stay around forever, but 2-4 weeks seems fine to me. I don't think immediate archiving is the answer.