New Notification Format

[+thebruce0]

I support the idea of providing an text only option but, frankly, I think the html logs seem to work pretty well for me on my 4" screen.

 

I think an issue is that it does often depend on the client you use to read emails, even on mobile devices. Generally, a good one will not have a problem. But sometimes they handle html differently, or don't display content in the same manner.

I don't personally care about the images since I have my app set to not download images unless asked. So I get text-only, html-formatted email which is displayed nicely on my screen as well. But I can grasp that some other apps or brands may use a different html engine or just format html badly... It either means that GS needs a testing team to view their HTML formatting on as many different browsers and email applications (desktop/mobile) as possible --- or, you know, provide a text-only option

[+Chrysalides]

I still have a complaint about "New Traditional Cache" notifications. ... Now, you have to open up every single email, and read down to the 7th line to see who published the cache (in a very tiny font, I might add) but you didn't used to have to.

Here's at least one person who is happy with the change for new cache published notifications. Direction and distance is included in the header now, so it is easy for me to tell at a glance where the new cache is approximately located. I do not want to know which reviewer published the cache - it's always the same few reviewers for caches in a 50 mile radius, possibly more. Perhaps you can move the center of the circle to the south so that you don't pick up some many caches from Canada?

[Mr.Yuck]

I still have a complaint about "New Traditional Cache" notifications. ... Now, you have to open up every single email, and read down to the 7th line to see who published the cache (in a very tiny font, I might add) but you didn't used to have to.

Here's at least one person who is happy with the change for new cache published notifications. Direction and distance is included in the header now, so it is easy for me to tell at a glance where the new cache is approximately located. I do not want to know which reviewer published the cache - it's always the same few reviewers for caches in a 50 mile radius, possibly more. Perhaps you can move the center of the circle to the south so that you don't pick up some many caches from Canada?

 

Thanks for the response, I figured almost everyone would think I was a ranting idiot. I'm the only one who will ever post here, but this has been a long standing problem in the Buffalo/Niagara Falls N.Y. CSA, (Population 1.1 million) and the Regional Municipality of Niagara (Population 450,000) in Ontario. Why on earth would we want to move our home coordinates over this new change? And by the way, they're probably livid over this in Port Huron Michigan, and Sarnia, Ontario, as well. Probably not, but that sounded good.

 

They probably never guessed in 1,000 years that this change would affect anyone. But here's an example of someone who it did, speaking for dozens of people who will never post here. Gimme back my "reviewer name published cache name" emails. Just kidding, not a big deal. But in fact a real problem for some people.

Edited July 27, 2014 by Mr.Yuck

[+Chrysalides]

Thanks for the response, I figured almost everyone would think I was a ranting idiot.

With heroic effort, I managed not to comment on this

 

(FWIW, I never thought of you as a ranting idiot )

Why on earth would we want to move our home coordinates over this new change?

Tell you what, we'll just invade Canada and annex over that part of the country. That way, it will be part of the US. Problem solved

 

You don't need to move your home coordinates. Just the coordinates for your notifications.

[+Dr. House]

I still have a complaint about "New Traditional Cache" notifications. ... Now, you have to open up every single email, and read down to the 7th line to see who published the cache (in a very tiny font, I might add) but you didn't used to have to.

Here's at least one person who is happy with the change for new cache published notifications. Direction and distance is included in the header now, so it is easy for me to tell at a glance where the new cache is approximately located. I do not want to know which reviewer published the cache - it's always the same few reviewers for caches in a 50 mile radius, possibly more. Perhaps you can move the center of the circle to the south so that you don't pick up some many caches from Canada?

 

Thanks for the response, I figured almost everyone would think I was a ranting idiot. I'm the only one who will ever post here, but this has been a long standing problem in the Buffalo/Niagara Falls N.Y. CSA, (Population 1.1 million) and the Regional Municipality of Niagara (Population 450,000) in Ontario. Why on earth would we want to move our home coordinates over this new change? And by the way, they're probably livid over this in Port Huron Michigan, and Sarnia, Ontario, as well. Probably not, but that sounded good.

 

They probably never guessed in 1,000 years that this change would affect anyone. But here's an example of someone who it did, speaking for dozens of people who will never post here. Gimme back my "reviewer name published cache name" emails. Just kidding, not a big deal. But in fact a real problem for some people.

 

Being on the other side of the ditch from Mr. Yuck, I'd just like to lend my support to his ranting idiocity suggestion that future "improvements" to the notifications system be sortable by country/state. As much as I like popping over for cheaper fuel and proper chicken wings, I'd prefer to have just my home province in notifications unless I choose otherwise.

 

You know, similar to the choice that should be available with HTML versus classic Text emails to the end user.

[Alan White]

I still have a complaint about "New Traditional Cache" notifications. I live 5 miles from Canada, so my 50 mile notification radius obviously extends 45 miles into that Country. Under this format, I can no longer tell if a cache is in the U.S. or Canada from the subject line, as the subject used to be "Reviewer name published Cache name". Despite my proximity, and almost 500 finds in Canada, I haven't set foot in the Country in 2 years. (busy and stuff, you know). And I'd suspect the overwhelming majority of people in my area rarely cache in Canada, and too can no longer tell without opening the email whether it's in Canada or not. Now, you have to open up every single email, and read down to the 7th line to see who published the cache (in a very tiny font, I might add) but you didn't used to have to.

I sympathise: there are some of my notifications which also cover areas I've not interested in.

 

However, this isn't a problem with the email - you were using a feature of the previous version of the email to work round a missing feature in the notification system itself. If a Canadian reviewer, perhaps helping out during high demand or holidays, published a cache in the USA then your manual filter breaks down .

 

The notification selection criteria are very simplistic: log type, centre and radius are all we get. If this were enhanced to include state and country then you - and no doubt many in a similar position - would be able to make better use of notifications. Perhaps the volume of comments in this and other threads will help Groundspeak see that the notification system is widely used and highly valued, and that it's long overdue for some improvements.

[+Uilebheist]

The notification selection criteria are very simplistic: log type, centre and radius are all we get. If this were enhanced to include state and country then you - and no doubt many in a similar position - would be able to make better use of notifications. Perhaps the volume of comments in this and other threads will help Groundspeak see that the notification system is widely used and highly valued, and that it's long overdue for some improvements.

While I wouldn't mind seeing new useful features like this one, past experience with "improvements" by Groundspeak leaves me with a wish they just left things alone rather than change anything for the even worse.

[Mr.Yuck]

I still have a complaint about "New Traditional Cache" notifications. ... Now, you have to open up every single email, and read down to the 7th line to see who published the cache (in a very tiny font, I might add) but you didn't used to have to.

Here's at least one person who is happy with the change for new cache published notifications. Direction and distance is included in the header now, so it is easy for me to tell at a glance where the new cache is approximately located. I do not want to know which reviewer published the cache - it's always the same few reviewers for caches in a 50 mile radius, possibly more. Perhaps you can move the center of the circle to the south so that you don't pick up some many caches from Canada?

 

Thanks for the response, I figured almost everyone would think I was a ranting idiot. I'm the only one who will ever post here, but this has been a long standing problem in the Buffalo/Niagara Falls N.Y. CSA, (Population 1.1 million) and the Regional Municipality of Niagara (Population 450,000) in Ontario. Why on earth would we want to move our home coordinates over this new change? And by the way, they're probably livid over this in Port Huron Michigan, and Sarnia, Ontario, as well. Probably not, but that sounded good.

 

They probably never guessed in 1,000 years that this change would affect anyone. But here's an example of someone who it did, speaking for dozens of people who will never post here. Gimme back my "reviewer name published cache name" emails. Just kidding, not a big deal. But in fact a real problem for some people.

 

Being on the other side of the ditch from Mr. Yuck, I'd just like to lend my support to his ranting idiocity suggestion that future "improvements" to the notifications system be sortable by country/state. As much as I like popping over for cheaper fuel and proper chicken wings, I'd prefer to have just my home province in notifications unless I choose otherwise.

 

You know, similar to the choice that should be available with HTML versus classic Text emails to the end user.

 

Ah, thanks Dr. House. I actually do not believe I've ever discussed American vs. Canadian notifications with a resident of the Niagara Region. On our side, about 500 people. Since I haven't visited your side in over 2 years, I have literally deleted every cache shadow or cache drone email in my inbox without opening it, for about a year!

 

EDIT: I just checked, and I start picking up the rural sections of Ft. Erie at 6.2 miles. At the 50 mile extreme, I pick up all of Stoney Creek.

 

 

However, this isn't a problem with the email - you were using a feature of the previous version of the email to work round a missing feature in the notification system itself. If a Canadian reviewer, perhaps helping out during high demand or holidays, published a cache in the USA then your manual filter breaks down .

 

The notification selection criteria are very simplistic: log type, centre and radius are all we get. If this were enhanced to include state and country then you - and no doubt many in a similar position - would be able to make better use of notifications. Perhaps the volume of comments in this and other threads will help Groundspeak see that the notification system is widely used and highly valued, and that it's long overdue for some improvements.

 

Nope, Canadian reviewer filling in will never happen. If the 2nd N.Y. Reviewer from the other end of the State doesn't fill in, then we get the illustrious fill in reviewer from New Jersey, Lord Stirling. Whoever that is.

 

Yes. Always been centre and radius. I was around before they had them. We've just dealt with it. It's well known around here you CAN filter out Canada on a PQ, but it's impossible to do so on your notifications.

Edited July 27, 2014 by Mr.Yuck

[Alan White]

Nope, Canadian reviewer filling in will never happen.

Perhaps not, but I was just giving you an example of why your mental filtering based on the reviewer name will not always work. Another example could be that reviewers change: I don't know what it's like in the Niagara area but every few weeks here we seem to get a new reviewer or one leaves.

 

This is why I suggested that Groundspeaks's resources would be better spent - in terms of value to its customers - on things like improving the selection criteria of notifications rather than cosmetics such as changing a perfectly sound email to HTML .

[+ADKer]

Nope, Canadian reviewer filling in will never happen.

Perhaps not, but I was just giving you an example of why your mental filtering based on the reviewer name will not always work. Another example could be that reviewers change: I don't know what it's like in the Niagara area but every few weeks here we seem to get a new reviewer or one leaves.

 

This is why I suggested that Groundspeaks's resources would be better spent - in terms of value to its customers - on things like improving the selection criteria of notifications rather than cosmetics such as changing a perfectly sound email to HTML .

 

Actually, it was today coincidentally, that I saw a different reviewer publish a cache in my area for the first time in years.

 

(Bad wording, hope that makes sense!)

[+Thoric67]

I think the emails are html formatted dedicated to the iphone, since it's the only OS/mailclient i can find, were it looks well:

Overview:

 

mailview:

 

and all important information is visible at a glance without any zooming or swiping (apart from the countryborder problem, mentioned several posts above).

 

But it should reach Groundspeak that responsive design for different devices is a fairy tale, especlially for html in e-mails.

 

I agree in post #125: the whole change is only for populating social and advertisement links.

[+Thoric67]

(for about the 10th time) My point being, I can no longer delete notifications for caches in a Foreign Country, which requires two timely border crossings and a passport or enhanced drivers license, without opening these emails up, and studying them.

 

Isn't it possible for your mailclient to filter the 'Location: CONTRY, STATE' line?

[Mr.Yuck]

(for about the 10th time) My point being, I can no longer delete notifications for caches in a Foreign Country, which requires two timely border crossings and a passport or enhanced drivers license, without opening these emails up, and studying them.

 

Isn't it possible for your mailclient to filter the 'Location: CONTRY, STATE' line?

 

Possibly!! I have a very old version of Outlook Express. Do they even make that any more?

 

I'm not ready to call myself a big dummy yet, but it's pretty much occurred to me after a couple of days that if a cache is more than say 8 miles west of me, it's a no brainer that it's in Canada. I don't know at which point they escalate that to NW or SW (or if they even do/will do that in the subject line). However, this is still no where near as easy as dumping them if I see Cache Shadow or Cache Drone in the subject line.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

P.S.S. This has to affect a lot of people in Europe too, right? I'm sure they get notifications for caches that involve a border crossing that they'll probably never get around to finding. Now they have to open up every single one of them, and read down to line 7 in a tiny font. Or go to the cache page.

 

Actually, at least for the Schengen countries, crossing the border into another country is more like crossing the border from New York into Pennsylvania than crossing from the U.S. to Canada (or, even worse, from Canada to the U.S.). The last time I went to Rome I had a short layover in Brussels, Belgium where I had to go through Immigration after getting off a plane from the U.S., but when I got to Rome, I never had to show a passport to anyone.

 

 

[+Don_J]

As a reply to Keystone post:

I don't see where your ranting, insulting reply had anything to do with my post. I posted merely to provide real-time examples of the latest fixes to the notification emails, reflecting some of the feedback received. I did so in an effort to be helpful. I am a community volunteer; I do not work for Groundspeak.

 

Posts like yours make volunteers like me want to stay out of the forums.

 

And I would hope that that never happens, as you have been our most helpful forum moderator. I thank you for your service!

[+Don_J]

I'm personally convinced that all of the recent email changes to HTML were designed primarily to facilitate a self-serving promotion by gc.com to include their Facebook "Like" button, their Twitter button, their YouTube button, and their Instagram button, and to sell their 2 apps in all of the email they send. Doesn't do US any good, but I doubt that was the primary concern.BRING BACK TEXT!

 

The job isn't finished until HTML is either gone or optional.Thank you.

Amen. I'd love to hear a valid business reason for why this can't be the case.

Post #125?

 

Post #125, quoted above, theorizes why HTML would be the preferred option for Groundspeak. Since it neither came from a representative of Groundspeak, nor answers why both options could not be provided to the user base at the user's discretion, I'm not satisfied with the answer.

 

I don't disagree with your theory, but it sure would be nice to have someone from Groundspeak actually pipe up out of their anti-feedback bunker to answer a simple question: "Why can't both options be provided to the end user?"

 

I'm really happy that Groundspeak gave us our sorting tags back, but after watching this company for nine years, I think that they are not going to reverse a design change. They will simply ride out the negative feedback.

 

The green tint on white hurts my eyes, so Ill drop all of my notifications, expect for the "Oh Snap's".

[+Don_J]

I still have a complaint about "New Traditional Cache" notifications. I live 5 miles from Canada, so my 50 mile notification radius obviously extends 45 miles into that Country. Under this format, I can no longer tell if a cache is in the U.S. or Canada from the subject line, as the subject used to be "Reviewer name published Cache name". Despite my proximity, and almost 500 finds in Canada, I haven't set foot in the Country in 2 years. (busy and stuff, you know). And I'd suspect the overwhelming majority of people in my area rarely cache in Canada, and too can no longer tell without opening the email whether it's in Canada or not. Now, you have to open up every single email, and read down to the 7th line to see who published the cache (in a very tiny font, I might add) but you didn't used to have to.

 

P.S. I almost forgot, I can see this happening for people who live near U.S. State borders. So it's not just a problem for people living in proximity to the frozen tundra that is the entire nation of Canada. Then again, those people don't need a passport or enhanced drivers license and a two time wait at a border crossing to find the caches.

 

P.S.S. This has to affect a lot of people in Europe too, right? I'm sure they get notifications for caches that involve a border crossing that they'll probably never get around to finding. Now they have to open up every single one of them, and read down to line 7 in a tiny font. Or go to the cache page.

 

EDIT: (for about the 10th time) My point being, I can no longer delete notifications for caches in a Foreign Country, which requires two timely border crossings and a passport or enhanced drivers license, without opening these emails up, and studying them. We've dealt with this from day one of the notification system in border Cities, but there was always an easy fix (published by a Canadian reviewer). That easy fix is now gone. And historically, in my case, there are more new caches placed in Canada then in the U.S.

 

P.S.S.S. Somebody call the Wahmbulance.

 

Wow! So they actually broke three things. I just so happy that they are working on this.

[+IlludiumPU36]

Is anyone else now getting 2 emails per log? I have a numbr of notifications set up to cater for all cache types and locations. Before the new email format, all was working great, only got 1 email per log - now I am getting 2 emails for every log - e.g. new geocaches, found it logs, trackables discovered etc. BTW I am not the cache owner...

[+DerRitterROST]

The formatting of these notifications is driving my mailbox nuts. Any way to receive good old unformatted notifications, like "So and So found ThisCache"?

I don't like html-mails as well... Please offer the option of receiving those notifications in plain-text!

The new mails take 4 times the space compared to plain text with no benefit at all, they are rather more difficult to read.

 

Absolutely agree. Please bring back all types of logs/notifications in plain text and shorten header.

 

please bring back the plain-text-notifications!

 

I usually read them on my smartphone and either too small ro read or big enough so I have to scroll....

 

PLEASE!

[+Dr. House]

Still no response here either.... awesome!

[+Uilebheist]

Are you really expecting a response?

Me, the last few notifications I am receiving (because I am maintaining some caches for other COs) now get automatically rewritten by a few lines of Perl (using MIME::Parser and little else) on my mail server. So all I receive is something like:

 

Date: 28 Jul 2014 18:14:36 +0100 (BST)
Subject: [MAINT] GCxxxxx (Cache Name) needs maintenance

Cacher Name reported that GCxxxxxx (Cache Name) needs maintenance
(text of log they put in)

 

Yep, subject and date headers and two lines of text. No need to receive anything else, and certainly no need to use HTML for that, or to include links to every useless site on the planet. 250 bytes or less too, which is very kind to mobile data allowances. And of course if I decide I want different information it's just a quick edit.

 

Remember, no matter what they do they can't force you to read your email the way their advertisers would like you to.

[+Dr. House]

Are you really expecting a response?

 

 

A good company should, in my opinion. Do I expect one from Groundspeak? No. Clearly they know what we'd like to see without bothering to ask anyway.

[team tisri]

Are you really expecting a response?

 

Given past performance I'm not expecting anything other than "this is the new improved way" or a vague promise to address it at some unknown and unspecified time in the future only for it to disappear forever into the black hole known varyingly as the "backlog" or the "to do list".

 

Which is a shame, but then for a company that promised to make better mistakes tomorrow they're doing pretty well.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Are you really expecting a response?

Me, the last few notifications I am receiving (because I am maintaining some caches for other COs) now get automatically rewritten by a few lines of Perl (using MIME::Parser and little else) on my mail server. So all I receive is something like:

 

Date: 28 Jul 2014 18:14:36 +0100 (BST)
Subject: [MAINT] GCxxxxx (Cache Name) needs maintenance

Cacher Name reported that GCxxxxxx (Cache Name) needs maintenance
(text of log they put in)

 

Yep, subject and date headers and two lines of text. No need to receive anything else, and certainly no need to use HTML for that, or to include links to every useless site on the planet. 250 bytes or less too, which is very kind to mobile data allowances. And of course if I decide I want different information it's just a quick edit.

 

Remember, no matter what they do they can't force you to read your email the way their advertisers would like you to.

 

I'd rather read html email with all the social media icons then write Perl code.

[+EngPhil]

Are you really expecting a response?

Me, the last few notifications I am receiving (because I am maintaining some caches for other COs) now get automatically rewritten by a few lines of Perl (using MIME::Parser and little else) on my mail server.

Don't suppose you'd care to share those few lines?

[+Uilebheist]

Don't suppose you'd care to share those few lines?

Yes, but that will have to wait until I'm back home from Mega Scotland.

[+Uilebheist]

I just received the "your premium membership is about to expire" email and guess what? it's in plain text and easy to read.

Obiously there is only one message they want us to see.

(I replied explaining why it won't be renewed - and I would suggest any cacher who is not planning to renew does the same, give them something to do and maybe they won't spend so much time breaking things)

[team tisri]

I just received the "your premium membership is about to expire" email and guess what? it's in plain text and easy to read.

Obiously there is only one message they want us to see.

(I replied explaining why it won't be renewed - and I would suggest any cacher who is not planning to renew does the same, give them something to do and maybe they won't spend so much time breaking things)

 

I let Groundspeak know I wouldn't be renewing my premium membership and got no reply.

 

I honestly don't think they care about people giving up after several years. I suppose as long as they've got a steady flow of people signing up with smartphone apps they don't care about losing the people that have been with them for a decade or more. From a purely financial perspective it makes more sense to have a customer sign up for a year and give up after a couple of months, than a customer sign up for a year and actually use the features for a full year.

[+Thoric67]

'Hi there,

 

Thank you for your feedback regarding the updates to the email notification system. We are currently working through some of the small hiccups (including your suggestions), but overall we are very excited about the changes we made to modernize the email system. All of our notification emails going forward will be sent in HTML format, which most email providers support (e.g. gmail, outlook, etc).

 

If you have already created email filters for the old game-triggered emails, you will have to update them to the appropriate new text.

 

Thanks again for your feedback. Have a wonderful day!

 

Kindly, '

 

That’s it. They already made their decision and as we know, they will go on.

[+ADKer]

'Hi there,

 

Thank you for your feedback regarding the updates to the email notification system. We are currently working through some of the small hiccups (including your suggestions), but overall we are very excited about the changes we made to modernize the email system. All of our notification emails going forward will be sent in HTML format, which most email providers support (e.g. gmail, outlook, etc).

 

If you have already created email filters for the old game-triggered emails, you will have to update them to the appropriate new text.

 

Thanks again for your feedback. Have a wonderful day!

 

Kindly, '

 

Yup, all of them....except the Premium membership renewal emails...hmmm.....

[team tisri]

'Hi there,

 

Thank you for your feedback regarding the updates to the email notification system. We are currently working through some of the small hiccups (including your suggestions), but overall we are very excited about the changes we made to modernize the email system. All of our notification emails going forward will be sent in HTML format, which most email providers support (e.g. gmail, outlook, etc).

 

If you have already created email filters for the old game-triggered emails, you will have to update them to the appropriate new text.

 

Thanks again for your feedback. Have a wonderful day!

 

Kindly, '

 

Yup, all of them....except the Premium membership renewal emails...hmmm.....

 

The mails I've had from them since my premium membership lapsed have had images in them.

 

One was quite comical, it showed a rather idyllic scene with a blue sky, waterfall, beautiful trees, and the little arrow showing the cache at the foot of a tree. Part of the reason I let my membership lapse is that for me the reality is usually more like this:

 

http://goo.gl/maps/K6cUk

[+ecanderson]

Geez - the local council puts up with that???

[+rogbarn]

Now that things are calmed down a bit, I'm wondering if the distance and direction to the cache will ever be part of the log notifications again. Sure does help when there are over a thousand within 10 miles.

[+Mudfrog]

What I can't understand is that they have this forum to get advance feedback for a proposed change. But I wasn't aware of this "improvement" being suggested. If it had we'd have quickly pointed out the pitfalls.

 

I'd much rather that they improved the notification e-mails so that the text was even simpler to see on a phone and takes up less space. They were pretty good before, but improvements could be made. How about having an option for a single e-mail per day containing a digest of all your cache logs, sorted into "Found", "Not Found", "Needs Maintenance" etc.?

 

Those that say "it's no problem, you only have to click a button", perhaps don't get up to 100 e-mails at a time on their phones.

 

Most of you will laugh when i say that my data plan allows me 100 mbs per month. Yes, i am a cheapskate. Because of this, i choose not to automatically receive email on my phone. I pretty much only open mail when wifi is available. I do receive text notifications however, and i have to say that thie new shorter formatting of these texts is nice, straight, and to the point. Have no idea if this has anything to do with the html in email but it sure is nice on my phone. I hope this stays with us...

 

As far as my email itself, i choose to receive and look at it on my computer at home. For now, i only have notifications set for newly published caches. Received a couple last night and they seemed ok. Both were a cleaner looking email with a link to the cache that actually worked.

 

I normally do not like change. If something works, then don't mess with it. Maybe it's early and i just haven't realized a problem but for now, this one change is ok.

 

Well, that was short lived. Not sure why i received the one or two nice short texts. Now they're back to the long harder to read format. Each notification equals 3 or 4 texts with my service,,, arrggghhhhh.

[team tisri]

Geez - the local council puts up with that???

 

They'll usually clear it up, eventually. Some are better than others.

[+Blaubaer61]

Absolutly NO GO for the new notification format!

 

- unreadable in Smartphone mail clients like german GMX mail provider app (have to zoom to discover the characters because the new poor contrast, no automatic line break)

 

- senseless much highter data volume without any (needed ur unneeded) more information, especialy very wrong for all mobile hightspeed data volumes (in germany: always limited volume, without much costs or forced to very slow traffic after reaching the limit)!

 

Seems, there somebody of the webside developers has sleeped very well, instead of

 

- discover, that today nearly anybody uses smartphones where ever they are possible to use, but nearly nowhere exists a real mobile data hightspeed flatrate without limit! Geocachers like to use this always too small data traffic volume better for realtime visiting maps and cache listings "in the fields"!

 

- to learn, what HTML is and why it was developed! One main reason was to display any text WHITHOUT ANY SPECIAL EDITING in any devices and resolutions, as "abstract" written, means ALLOW THE TEXT TO MAKE LINE FEEDS AUTOMATICAL IF NEEDED! This here now in the notifications is not "HTML", but seems it's a very poor beginners "work" without using his brain, but only mouse-click-clack to select bricks from some libraries! If ever there must this bandwidth-eating HTML-format (what should have good reasens, I can't discover): at least PLEASE ALLOW AUTOMATIC LINE FEEDS IN PARAGRAPHS!!!! Better of course: Allow using of plain text, therefor it exists!

 

So as is I can't use mail notifications any longer, because so it's unreadable with nearly 300 notification mails per week for me! My only choice is to delete them all unreaded in blocks now!

 

I'll wait one more week, if there will be a usable solution soon. Other I have to delete all my notifications lists to secure myself from this unreadable spam!

 

Geocaching was a good and phantastic hobby. But now it seems, without usable communication it will never be it any more! What a pitty!

 

(If there some misspellings or other errors in my text above, you can keep them. I'm not english motherspeaking and if you dislike that, I'm very couriouse for your 100% correct answer in my home language instead! )

 

Sorry, that must be written! Sincerly, Blaubaer61

[+J Grouchy]

I'm not buying the "data cap" argument. I forwarded two emails to my Outlook from Gmail (I can't figure out how to read a message size in Gmail) - one old "text only" email and one new style HTML email.

 

Text only size: 14 KB

HTML size: 19 KB

 

Unless you are receiving thousands of emails from GC.com, I don't see how it could make much difference in mobile data usage. If data usage is a concern, maybe you shouldn't be getting email on your phone?

 

I am actually very surprised at the over-the-top reaction to the email formatting change. At MOST this seems like a minor annoyance. For me it's more of a lateral move. Never been a fan of their dependence on email for notifications. I'd rather see in-app notifications...or notifications via the website (similar to those right here in the forums).

Edited July 30, 2014 by J Grouchy

[+frinklabs]

I'm not buying the "data cap" argument. I forwarded two emails to my Outlook from Gmail (I can't figure out how to read a message size in Gmail) - one old "text only" email and one new style HTML email.

 

Text only size: 14 KB

HTML size: 19 KB

 

Unless you are receiving thousands of emails from GC.com, I don't see how it could make much difference in mobile data usage. If data usage is a concern, maybe you shouldn't be getting email on your phone?

 

I am actually very surprised at the over-the-top reaction to the email formatting change. At MOST this seems like a minor annoyance. For me it's more of a lateral move. Never been a fan of their dependence on email for notifications. I'd rather see in-app notifications...or notifications via the website (similar to those right here in the forums).

 

Or how about on The Twitter (which I don't use, but would if this was a feature)

 

[FEATURE] Instant Notification direct to Twitter

[+J Grouchy]

I'm not buying the "data cap" argument. I forwarded two emails to my Outlook from Gmail (I can't figure out how to read a message size in Gmail) - one old "text only" email and one new style HTML email.

 

Text only size: 14 KB

HTML size: 19 KB

 

Unless you are receiving thousands of emails from GC.com, I don't see how it could make much difference in mobile data usage. If data usage is a concern, maybe you shouldn't be getting email on your phone?

 

I am actually very surprised at the over-the-top reaction to the email formatting change. At MOST this seems like a minor annoyance. For me it's more of a lateral move. Never been a fan of their dependence on email for notifications. I'd rather see in-app notifications...or notifications via the website (similar to those right here in the forums).

 

Or how about on The Twitter (which I don't use, but would if this was a feature)

 

[FEATURE] Instant Notification direct to Twitter

Ugh. I cringe whenever Twitter is brought up. I have no interest in Twitter...though I could see it being used for that purpose.

Guess I'm not clear on how it would work, though. I thought tweets went out to everyone who followed a user. How could it be focused to individual users getting very specific types of notifications?

[team tisri]

I'm not buying the "data cap" argument. I forwarded two emails to my Outlook from Gmail (I can't figure out how to read a message size in Gmail) - one old "text only" email and one new style HTML email.

 

Text only size: 14 KB

HTML size: 19 KB

 

Unless you are receiving thousands of emails from GC.com, I don't see how it could make much difference in mobile data usage. If data usage is a concern, maybe you shouldn't be getting email on your phone?

 

I am actually very surprised at the over-the-top reaction to the email formatting change. At MOST this seems like a minor annoyance. For me it's more of a lateral move. Never been a fan of their dependence on email for notifications. I'd rather see in-app notifications...or notifications via the website (similar to those right here in the forums).

 

Looking at my old emails the old format took about 3k and the current format takes about 15k. When I was a premium member I routinely received 100-200 notification emails daily so for me the increase would have been from about 450k to 2250k per day. Someone who has a lot of caches in high-traffic areas could easily have more mails than that coming in.

 

I'd flip your argument around and say that if the data requirement is going to be increased fivefold, what benefit is offered in exchange? The answer, as far as I can tell, is none whatsoever. So Groundspeak have broken email filters set up by their paying customers, increased the data overhead of sending emails, and offered no benefit in return. In the meantime useful suggestions continue to languish in the black hole known as "the backlog" or the "to do list".

[+frinklabs]

I have no interest in Twitter...though I could see it being used for that purpose.

Guess I'm not clear on how it would work, though. I thought tweets went out to everyone who followed a user. How could it be focused to individual users getting very specific types of notifications?

 

I am not sure exactly either, to be honest. The original suggestion thread was relating to a discussion of social media, and how to alert others of your finds without filling The Facebook with cruft.

 

In this context, I think you would set up the notification as usual, but instead of an email address, it would go to a @handle

 

Hashtag efficient. Is that what the kids say?

[+The A-Team]

I am actually very surprised at the over-the-top reaction to the email formatting change. At MOST this seems like a minor annoyance.

For people like you and me, it's a minor annoyance. However, not everyone does things in the same way. Anyone doing automatic filtering, using non-HTML-aware email readers/platforms, or who has limited mobile data plans will be much more affected by these changes.

 

I'm not up in arms over this change because it has significantly affected me, because it hasn't. I find it harder to read the emails on my phone due to the fixed-width HTML (I now have to zoom and pan to read the content), but otherwise I can get by with the new emails. No, I'm up in arms because of the behaviour of Groundspeak, and on behalf of the people who have been significantly affected.

[+J Grouchy]

I'm not buying the "data cap" argument. I forwarded two emails to my Outlook from Gmail (I can't figure out how to read a message size in Gmail) - one old "text only" email and one new style HTML email.

 

Text only size: 14 KB

HTML size: 19 KB

 

Unless you are receiving thousands of emails from GC.com, I don't see how it could make much difference in mobile data usage. If data usage is a concern, maybe you shouldn't be getting email on your phone?

 

I am actually very surprised at the over-the-top reaction to the email formatting change. At MOST this seems like a minor annoyance. For me it's more of a lateral move. Never been a fan of their dependence on email for notifications. I'd rather see in-app notifications...or notifications via the website (similar to those right here in the forums).

 

Looking at my old emails the old format took about 3k and the current format takes about 15k. When I was a premium member I routinely received 100-200 notification emails daily so for me the increase would have been from about 450k to 2250k per day. Someone who has a lot of caches in high-traffic areas could easily have more mails than that coming in.

 

I'd flip your argument around and say that if the data requirement is going to be increased fivefold, what benefit is offered in exchange? The answer, as far as I can tell, is none whatsoever. So Groundspeak have broken email filters set up by their paying customers, increased the data overhead of sending emails, and offered no benefit in return. In the meantime useful suggestions continue to languish in the black hole known as "the backlog" or the "to do list".

 

 

I don't even see that many in a week!

 

Assuming you DO receive hundreds per day, it's easy enough to deal with the problem without it wreaking havoc on data. There are a couple ways I can immediately think of:

 

1 - Separate email account that you access only via a computer or a mobile device while connected to a wifi network (i.e., no notifications, etc.)

2 - If you use Gmail, there is a trick where you can use variations of an email address using only a single account. Say my email was myemail@gmail.com. I could change my email on the GC site to myemail+GC@gmail.com and set a filter to move all emails sent to that address to a particular gmail tab that you do not sync.

3 - Other basic filters could involve all email FROM Groundspeak/Geocaching addresses going to a non-sync tab or folder.

 

I actually DO have unlimited data through Sprint, so it's never been a concern for me. Even so, my usage has never been high enough even to bump against limits other carriers set.

[+J Grouchy]

I am actually very surprised at the over-the-top reaction to the email formatting change. At MOST this seems like a minor annoyance.

For people like you and me, it's a minor annoyance. However, not everyone does things in the same way. Anyone doing automatic filtering, using non-HTML-aware email readers/platforms, or who has limited mobile data plans will be much more affected by these changes.

 

I'm not up in arms over this change because it has significantly affected me, because it hasn't. I find it harder to read the emails on my phone due to the fixed-width HTML (I now have to zoom and pan to read the content), but otherwise I can get by with the new emails. No, I'm up in arms because of the behaviour of Groundspeak, and on behalf of the people who have been significantly affected.

 

That's just it, though. It fits fine on my screen (a Galaxy S3). I don't have to zoom and pan at all.

[+The A-Team]

I forwarded two emails to my Outlook from Gmail (I can't figure out how to read a message size in Gmail) - one old "text only" email and one new style HTML email.

 

Text only size: 14 KB

HTML size: 19 KB

I ran into the same Gmail problem and did as you did with similar results, but I think Gmail may be adding some stuff to the emails and increasing their size, thereby reducing the relative difference between the emails' sizes.

 

When I look at some emails that went straight from geocaching.com into Outlook both pre- and post-change, I see the following results across all of the logs on my caches (with the variations depending on the length of the log's content):

Pre-change (ie. plain text): 7-10 KB

Post-change (ie. HTML): 16-17 KB

 

Therefore, I'm seeing the size of the emails doubling on average. I haven't gotten any especially long logs since the change, so the upper range of the HTML should likely be even higher.

[+The A-Team]

I find it harder to read the emails on my phone due to the fixed-width HTML (I now have to zoom and pan to read the content)

That's just it, though. It fits fine on my screen (a Galaxy S3). I don't have to zoom and pan at all.

It all fits on the screen, but due to the size of the font that has been used, it's just too small to comfortably read on my iPhone. I have to zoom in to make the text readable, but then, due to the fixed width preventing wrapping, I have to pan back and forth to read each line. When it was plain text, it would display with a default, comfortable font size and would wrap as necessary.

 

Edit to add: And in the interest of full disclosure, this is coming from someone with 20/10 vision (ie. better than 20/20). I can't imagine what it must be like for people with poorer vision. The colour-blind have also been mentioned as being significantly affected by this change due to the colours chosen.

Edited July 30, 2014 by The A-Team

[+Harry Dolphin]

 

Edit to add: And in the interest of full disclosure, this is coming from someone with 20/10 vision (ie. better than 20/20). I can't imagine what it must be like for people with poorer vision. The colour-blind have also been mentioned as being significantly affected by this change due to the colours chosen.

 

Shh!!! I have been chastised for mentioning that programmers should consider problems with the visually handicapped!

But I read my e-mail on the computer, so it isn't a problem. (Outside of looking stupid to add ads...) The computer screen is set at 24", as is the keyboard. After cataract surgery (where my vision went from 20/1200 to 20/50), that is where my plastic eyes focus, with the bifocals.

[+Dr.MORO]

Well, that's not good at all...

This format might be locked in...

 

"Release Notes - July 29, 2014"

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=324565&view=findpost&p=5408731

 

I hear you and appreciate the feedback. We don't have plans to provide a plain text option at this time, but I will be sure to bubble up your concerns.

[+ChileHead]

For anybody interested in a text option, it's possible with a little work:

 

- create a new gmail account just for receiving messages

- create a gmail rule to tag all messages with [LOG] with a label such as GCLOGS

- go here https://www.google.com/script/start/ and click start scripting

- click blank project

- copy/paste the code below into the window, making sure to change the value of labelName to whatever you used

- fill in your real email address at the bottom

- save it

- click the little icon that looks like a watch

- click the link to add a trigger

- under Run select process, under Events time-driven, select minutes timer, and every minute (feel free to change the frequency to anything you want)

- click save

 

This is just an example for a watchlist email ... others may be different, and I really haven't tested this other than to see it pulls out just the information I'm interested in. I'm sure people here smarter than me can make this a more general purpose script, but it's a starting point.

 

Note: This deletes all messages that match when it's done sending, so be careful when running it ... another reason to use a gmail account just for receiving messages.

 

If this all runs properly, you'll have a very bare bones email, that will still contain an HTML link or two, but be closer to the old format. Feel free to modify of course! It's hacky, depending on the format of the original email, so no promises it will stay working. I just wanted to see how google apps scripts worked and it seemed to work fine.

 

function process() {

// use whatever label you want here

var labelName="GCLOGS";

 

var label = GmailApp.getUserLabelByName(labelName);

var threads = label.getThreads();

 

for (var i=0; i<threads.length; i++)

{

var msgs = threads.getMessages();

for (var m=0; m<msgs.length; m++)

{

var msg = msgs[m];

var body = msg.getBody();

var subject = msg.getSubject();

var textBody = "";

 

var lines = body.split("\n");

for (var l=0; l<lines.length; l++)

{

var line = lines[l];

if (line.indexOf("Logged by") != -1 ||

line.indexOf("Log Type") != -1 ||

line.indexOf("Date:") != -1 ||

line.indexOf("Location:") != -1 ||

line.indexOf("Type:") != -1)

textBody = textBody + line;

else if (line.indexOf("Log</a>:</strong>") != -1)

textBody = textBody + lines[l+1];

}

 

// textBody and htmlBody are the same for now, but both stripped down versions of the original

GmailApp.sendEmail('yourEmail@yourdomain.name', subject, textBody, { htmlBody: textBody });

GmailApp.moveMessageToTrash(msg);

}

}

};

Edited July 31, 2014 by ChileHead

[+ecanderson]

It would be a heck of a lot LESS work for gc.com to simply hear the majority clearly and roll back the code. At BEST, some here seem neutral about the change. MOST are not very pleased with it. Apart from some self-serving advertising, there's no clear benefit to having done this for either side, and the customers are the unhappy ones. I hope gc.com thinks that on the balance, it was worth it to them to have raised so many complaints just to stick in a few icon links and mobile app ads.