Duplicates are getting worse...

[+dartymoor]

Can anyone shed light on this?

 

Today I've had one cacher log 37 found logs on a series of 16 caches. One cache he found six times!

 

This isn't confined to one player, and when I've notified cachers that I'll be deleting their duplicate logs, I've learned two things:

 

1. This isn't intentional! (Some are upset if they read the deleted log notifies first, others are embarrassed. Some may be put off caching if they can't trust the tools.)

2. They're *all* using phones. (But not all live-logging, sometimes they batch-log)

 

(It's also getting MUCH more frequent - some 30 duplicates on this one little series this week alone. It's probably not a coincidence that it's a particularly newbie-friendly series in a high tourist area.)

 

So - badly behaved app? Or a problem with the API?

 

I've asked a few people about that to be told that the API doesn't always give confirmation; or has long timeouts so if they're in a poor data signal area, their phone app tries again.

 

Now - as somebody who's done a bit of software, that's all fine. You would have systems in place on the server to prevent duplicate logs. Except Groundspeak doesn't.

 

I know that topic's come up a few times before, but I've never seen a logical reason why logs that are identical (words, status, date) are not rejected automatically, forcing cache owners to spend time doing housekeeping.

 

Does anyone know why?

 

Groundspeak haven't acted on this suggestion previously, is it likely they will if I file it again?

 

Does anyone know of an automated way of dealing with these? (Project-GC will show any that I miss at notification time)

Edited September 2, 2015 by dartymoor

[+Gackt]

So - badly behaved app? Or a problem with the API?

I would say the former, or at least this is part of the problem, as I have managed to post duplicate logs myself using an unofficial app that does not use the API.

 

The duplicate logs happen when I have logged out in the field, which I don't do often, and have had bad data coverage. c:**o says it cannot submit the log and saves a draft, which you can log when you have data coverage again, which is good. But sometimes it has actually submitted the log even though it says it hasn't. I am quite good at tidying up my mistakes quite quickly, but it is a bit embarrassing.

 

I don't know of an automated way of dealing with these logs, sorry.

 

I would imagine it would only be a small bit of code to stop duplicate logs with words status and date. I don't know why Groundspeak have not done this. And I don't know if it is likely they would if you asked again (though I can guess the answer to that). However if you put a request in I would second this suggestion, as I am sure others would. You would need to tell me where to write, post, or mail them to do this though.

 

I am guessing, though I can't substantiate my guess with real theory as I have done very little programming, that it wouldn't be too hard for them to write and run a script to clear up all such duplicate logs submitted on all caches to date too?