How many emails, per week, do reviewers get?

[+cache_test_dummies]

In this post Keystone mentioned that he has archived almost 10,000 cache listings. That post made me think about the continuous volume of emails that must flow into the mailboxes of reviewers every day. New listings, N/A logs, questions from cache owners, accidental emails from the Lily Pad regarding changes to health benefits and 401Ks and stock incentive plans for actual Groundspeak employees that the volunteer reviewers aren't entitled to, spam, hate mail, etc.

 

If you had to make a guess, how many reviewer-related emails a week do you think the average review receives?

 

Not to imply that there are any average reviewers. I'm pretty sure they are all above average.

 

Make a guess. Maybe later some actual reviewers will share some real numbers.

[+cerberus1]

147

[BlueRajah]

winter or summer?

[+Ben0w]

None. If I would implement this, I would suggest an online access to the database, providing a workflow system for the typical reviewer tasks. No need for emails to get the work done. The worklload itself remains, though.

[Keystone]

winter or summer?

Seriously! Right now it's the slowest time of the year for cache reviews in winter climates. Reviewers use that time to work on process improvements, land manager issues, training of new reviewers and other tasks. I fill my volunteer hours by going through caches in my territory and marking trackables as missing when there's a clear record in the logs that the trackable is long gone. In July I have no time to do that.

 

None. If I would implement this, I would suggest an online access to the database, providing a workflow system for the typical reviewer tasks. No need for emails to get the work done. The worklload itself remains, though.

There is quite a bit that's automated in the reviewer tools and, if you looked at the most recent Release Notes, Groundspeak just gave us a late Christmas present with significant enhancements to those tools. For example, we have a "review queue" page that we visit to see what new caches have been submitted for review. Each reviewer can filter that list so they just see the new caches in the region(s) that they cover. Right now I am seeing 10 or 20 new items in my queue each week; by late March, I will start seeing 10 or 20 new items that weren't there when I left to go geocaching for three hours.

 

A lot of the emails we receive are simply watchlist or bookmark notifications so we know to go check on a cache listing that's been updated by the owner. Click link to go to cache page, do work, close that page, delete that email, go to next email.

[+cheech gang]

It is a good thing Keystone does not need his paws to eat his dog kibble while they are otherwise engaged doing all that typing and mouse work on the computer.

[Keystone]

Shhhh --- just because you found out I was a dog doesn't mean that the whole world needs to know.

 

The next cache of yours that I visit, I will be sure to "mark" in my own special way. Think of it as a liquid letterboxing stamp.

[+cheech gang]

Shhhh --- just because you found out I was a dog doesn't mean that the whole world needs to know.

 

The next cache of yours that I visit, I will be sure to "mark" in my own special way. Think of it as a liquid letterboxing stamp.

 

You won't be the first, and you certainly won't be the last. Now back to your regularly scheduled thread...

[+cache_test_dummies]

winter or summer?

Good question. In theory, it makes sense that there could be a seasonal deviation in the number of emails that a reviewer receives. So I'll allow answers based on season.

 

On the other hand, since many reviewers are dogs, and most of the dogs I've met don't seem to particularly care what season it is, nor do most dogs understand what a "week" is, I'm not sure that either your question or my question are valid.

[+cache_test_dummies]

For example, we have a "review queue" page that we visit to see what new caches have been submitted for review. Each reviewer can filter that list so they just see the new caches in the region(s) that they cover.

So reviewers don't receive an email each time a cache is submitted to an area that they cover?

 

Did they used to?

[+NeverSummer]

In this post Keystone mentioned that he has archived almost 10,000 cache listings. That post made me think about the continuous volume of emails that must flow into the mailboxes of reviewers every day. New listings, N/A logs, questions from cache owners, accidental emails from the Lily Pad regarding changes to health benefits and 401Ks and stock incentive plans for actual Groundspeak employees that the volunteer reviewers aren't entitled to, spam, hate mail, etc.

 

If you had to make a guess, how many reviewer-related emails a week do you think the average review receives?

 

Not to imply that there are any average reviewers. I'm pretty sure they are all above average.

 

Make a guess. Maybe later some actual reviewers will share some real numbers.

42. Always 42.

[BlueRajah]

For example, we have a "review queue" page that we visit to see what new caches have been submitted for review. Each reviewer can filter that list so they just see the new caches in the region(s) that they cover.

So reviewers don't receive an email each time a cache is submitted to an area that they cover?

 

Did they used to?

 

I am approaching 5 years of reviewing and I have never seen emails for new listings. Having the Review queue rather than an email system lets me call Keystone and say. "I will be out in the wilderness away from the internet tubes, can you cover for me?" He can then just look at my queue and help out while I am gone.

 

I am getting 5-10 a day now, summer is far higher I would guess 2x-3x the average. Some are detailed emails requiring detailed responses, most are "i fixed my cache, can you check one more time". Like Keystone I deal with land managers more this time of year as the mountain roads are under many feet of snow, so they start looking at the non urgent stuff they put off all summer.

 

It will vary from reviewer to reviewer. New reviewers get less, as most go to the one they are familiar with. Is there one reviewer in your state? or 5? Summer or Winter? Sunday or Tuesday? So many variables.

Edited January 17, 2014 by BlueRajah

[+vipster76]

do you see different icons on the geocache map for multicache or any other stuff?

[Keystone]

Without getting into too much detail, reviewers see very different mapping tools when (and only when) using our reviewer accounts. We need a way, for example, to see all the actual hidden waypoints for a puzzle or multicache on a map. Then we can tell the cache owner that they're too close to the container for stage four of a multicache, and hint that north or east are good directions to look at for a new hiding spot.

[+Christopher Pike]

It varies from season to season and month to month. If I take out the caches I have on reviewer watch for different reasons, I get FAR more emails on my (our) dedicated player account during the summer than I do on my reviewer account, on an average week. The caches I watch as a reviewer could be caches I put notes on for maintanence issues, caches that haven't been published yet that I'm working with the CO on so I can publish them, etc. That number changes from week to week.

 

Right now it's pretty quiet here in the Dakotas, on both accounts. No complaints, no hate mail. I like that.

[+cache_test_dummies]

I am approaching 5 years of reviewing and I have never seen emails for new listings.

Interesting! It's always been my assumption that each new cache listing results in an email to reviewers covering a particular geographic area. I learned something new today.

 

Having the Review queue rather than an email system lets me call Keystone and say. "I will be out in the wilderness away from the internet tubes, can you cover for me?"

Does Keystone return your calls? Because I call him all the time, and I always get a recording. Ten years into this, and I'm starting to think he just plain doesn't want to talk to me.

 

I am getting 5-10 a day now, summer is far higher I would guess 2x-3x the average.

So, in the "off season" you are getting (roughly) 35 to 70 emails a week, and at 3x during the "on season" months something in the range of 100 to 200 emails a week?

 

Amazing - I'm really impressed.

 

So many variables.

I get that - I was just asking what people thought was kind of a general weekly email load on reviewers. Personally, I had no idea, but the responses to my question have generated some interesting insight into what the reviewers go through on a regular basis.

[+briansnat]

I am approaching 5 years of reviewing and I have never seen emails for new listings.

Interesting! It's always been my assumption that each new cache listing results in an email to reviewers covering a particular geographic area. I learned something new today.

 

 

I've been reviewing since 2005 and I don't recall emails for new cache listings either. I'm not saying it was never done, but it surely would be a cumbersome way to work.

[Keystone]

I started reviewing in 2003 when we had the original review queue model. It was one big list for the whole world with no sorting or filtering tools. That wouldn't work well today, when there are hundreds of reviewers and thousands of pending cache submissions at any given time.

 

There has never been an email model for notifying volunteer cache reviewers of new cache submissions.

 

Back on the topic of emails, it is hard to get an exact count because I delete emails that are of no lasting substantive value after I've dealt with the issue. This includes watchlist and bookmark notifications. I save things like flame complaints, land manager correspondence, and guidance from Geocaching HQ.

 

Today I had a grand total of seven emails in my reviewer inbox. Five related to land manager policy issues, one related to planning for an upcoming Mega-Event, and the last was a notification that a cache owner had responded to a question I asked in a reviewer note on their cache page. In August that number of cache owner emails would be more like 20.

[+cache_test_dummies]

In August that number of cache owner emails would be more like 20.

So 20+ emails a day during peak months. A day.

 

And this is outside of the process of checking the queue each day for new cache submissions. And for any given reviewer there must be many queue submissions that are handled each day, some of which require the initiation of further correspondence.

 

My mind is blown. So much work for unpaid volunteers.

 

I had no idea.

[Cascade Reviewer]

Mind you, I'm a back up reviewer, so I'm not as active as other reviewers in my area.

 

For an example, yesterday I received 5 emails (for reviewing, not counting my emails for moderating): 3 were notices from caches on bookmark lists, 2 were discussions with cachers (one an owner taking care of a hide, another was about a reported cache).

[+NYPaddleCacher]

winter or summer?

 

I know that there is at least one reviewer that covers areas not covered by other reviewers and have seen caches published by them in both hemispheres. In that case, winter and summer don't matter.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

In August that number of cache owner emails would be more like 20.

So 20+ emails a day during peak months. A day.

 

I get far more than 20+ email messages a day. If I'm lucky, I actually read about 10% of them.

[+cache_test_dummies]

I get far more than 20+ email messages a day.

Reviewer emails?

[+hzoi]

winter or summer?

Seriously! Right now it's the slowest time of the year for cache reviews in winter climates.

Well, that's curious. I just hid a few out here at the end of December, and all of the automatic emails from Groundspeak read in part, "This is peak season for cache placement." Looks like it's on par with the guy in the office down the hall who's been back from vacation for months but still has his out of office reply on his email and voice mail.

[+cheech gang]

winter or summer?

Seriously! Right now it's the slowest time of the year for cache reviews in winter climates.

Well, that's curious. I just hid a few out here at the end of December, and all of the automatic emails from Groundspeak read in part, "This is peak season for cache placement." Looks like it's on par with the guy in the office down the hall who's been back from vacation for months but still has his out of office reply on his email and voice mail.

 

Or those CAUTION, WET FLOOR pylons that are put out every day whether they are needed or not.

[Keystone]

"It's always peak season somewhere," said the reviewers in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

[+palmetto]

emails per week.....lots and lots and lots and lots and lots.... funny I didn't check email for 3 and half days while traveling, just cleared it.... I didn't count ;-)

 

requests to unarchive, requests to archive, requests to look at this or that cache, requests to adopt, requests to help contact so and so to adopt, requests for explanations of all manner of website functions from pocket queries, to bookmark lists, to logging and recently (a first for me) quite a long email with questions about using the Benchmarks database, land manager emails (which get fast service), questions about organizing events, about how to do challenge caches (both on the seeking and owning side), coordinate update requests, the occasional thank you, questions from Groundspeak staff re appeals or sometimes re land manager/law enforcement issues, requests for info on hosting events, posting multi-caches, posting mystery caches, inquiries about cache design, requests for hints on caches (these from novices who suppose that the person who publishes the cache owns it), explanations about why a cache is still disabled, explanations about caches coming in as email that I asked to be posted as reviewer notes to the cache page, requests for coordinate checks of potential locations, complaints of all flavors, sometimes in the form of rants not really directed at a reviewer, but sent to one because they wanted somebody to read about their hard weekend of travel and dnfs in that place where nobody does any cache maintenance, questions about logging, questions about missing caches, requests for publishing at particular times so that FTF opportunities come the corespondent's way, FTF whining of various flavors, including requests to referee on the FTF issue (sure, for Large Sums of Money), what to do when someone deletes your log, whether to delete a log, who to complain to about weird logs, more coordinate updates, more thank yous, and all manner of other stuff

 

Also read, review, and sometimes and publish cache listings ;-)

[+*gln]

Hundreds/week. More sometimes, less sometimes depends what is going on.

 

Glenn

[+Texas Tornado]

I've had 10 emails so far today in addition to the review queue.