Log Email Changes

[+Sherminator18]

As of last night log emails now have random, unnecessary text. I don't really think the greeting or goodbye portion of the email are really necessary and I could really just do without it.

[+hzoi]

Noticed that today.  Don't care enough about it to worry about whether it stays or goes.

[+dprovan]

When I saw that start happening today, I had to look at it twice to work out that it was the mail that was being signed by Geocaching HQ. There's no visual way to tell that the "Happy geocaching. Geocaching HQ" isn't part of the log itself. I've been assuming this was just a bug that would go away soon since the sign off makes very little sense to begin with in the context of sending a copy of a log.

[+The A-Team]

9 minutes ago, dprovan said:

I've been assuming this was just a bug that would go away soon since the sign off makes very little sense to begin with in the context of sending a copy of a log.

Or, if it was an intentional change, at least add a separator or some other kind of formatting to clearly separate the content of the log from the rest of the email.

But yes, I agree that there shouldn't be a salutation or valediction in these log emails.

[+CAVinoGal]

I noticed this as well - the extraneous stuff is not on the actual log itself, just the email I receive when someone logs a cache of mine.  So, no biggie. the "Hello   , would make more sense if it said Hello (my geocaching name) - rather than Hello with a space as if the name *should* have been there ...

The ending Happy Geocacing, Geocaching HQ is superfluous, as we can already see that is is generated from Geocaching HQ with the banners and logos in the email.  Whatever...it doesn't show up in the actual log posted, so I can live with HQ putting it in the email.  I'm not sure why it was added, but it doesn't affect me one way or the other.

[+lodgebarn]

Don't care about anything at the bottom, however the Hello at the top is particularly irritating since the interesting content is even further down the page.  Hence you see even less of it without scrolling. Yet another unasked for change. Please can you revert back to the previous format and also get rid  of the remaining empty lines while you are on the case. 

[+arisoft]

I have a email filter for all short TFTC logs and now it is leaking. Ok, it is not hard to remove all new static extras it just takes some time to adjust. Maybe I could open a new service for filtering Groudspeak emails and get some profit.

[+cerberus1]

22 hours ago, dprovan said:

There's no visual way to tell that the "Happy geocaching. Geocaching HQ" isn't part of the log itself.

22 hours ago, The A-Team said:

Or, if it was an intentional change, at least add a separator or some other kind of formatting to clearly separate the content of the log from the rest of the email.

But yes, I agree that there shouldn't be a salutation or valediction in these log emails.

Got one today on our lesser hide.  "TFTC" seems to be about it on that one at a scenic spot...

The addition adds a bit more to most logs these days.   

 - But I agree, it just seems weird and maybe a little rude (to me) for that to be there, in addition to someone else's log.  

 

[+thebruce0]

I noticed that recently and thought maybe some app the person was using the auto-log was adding some default footer text to the log (I didn't consider also checking the online version) - I just shrugged it off, but the more I saw it the more I was tempted to contact the person and let them know their loggin method was adding some strange sign off text.  But I never thought that through, just wasn't that important.

Yes, it is odd and confusing, especially without the visual separator identifying the end of the actual log text.

[+Gill & Tony]

In another thread a lackey talks about the development backlog being a reason to defer stuff folk are actually requesting and which would be useful.

But they can find time to muck about with nonsense like this!

Get your priorities straight, please.

[+Viajero Perdido]

Hello ,

On 29/09/2017 at 5:21 PM, The A-Team said:

Or, if it was an intentional change, at least add a separator or some other kind of formatting to clearly separate the content of the log from the rest of the email.

Right. 

Groundspeak, if you're trying to communicate, it should be clear who the speaker is.  But you shift the speaker from cacher to HQ without any warning, and a whole short sentence goes by before you drop any hint about what you've done.

Remember "This log has been edited by..."?  Same problem.  You fixed that one at least, after many years, thank you finally.

This is probably just a programming glitch, but whatever, it should be fixed.

Happy programming,

VP

Edited October 1, 2017 by Viajero Perdido

[+DragonsWest]

Happy Caching,

Geocaching HQ

This reminds me of some particular doors and a computer named "Eddie"

 

Aside that, looking back through email of the week and I see this:

At Geocaching HQ we are on a mission to make every person an explorer and make every location an adventure. As a cache owner you’ve helped do just that.


We’re excited to release new functionality on your geocaching dashboard! You will now have the option to view logs and pictures on the caches you own. Even more exciting, you will see when your cache earns a Favorite point!


We hope this will improve your experience as a cache owner as you’ll now be able to learn about the status of your caches and get the recognition you deserve all in one place.

 

Every cache is an adventure - even the ones I have hidden.  Something I'd rather see going into the site is the ability to see the icons for the last ten logs.  Can that be arranged?

 

Something like:

 

This would be far more useful to me as a CO

[+Isonzo Karst]

Simply agreeing with others, please remove the new HQ superfluous text.

In Grammarian mode, the space between the end of Hello and the comma is annoying, "Hello ," and will bother me every single time.

 

 

[+dprovan]

On 9/30/2017 at 5:51 AM, lodgebarn said:

Don't care about anything at the bottom, however the Hello at the top is particularly irritating since the interesting content is even further down the page.  Hence you see even less of it without scrolling. Yet another unasked for change. Please can you revert back to the previous format and also get rid  of the remaining empty lines while you are on the case. 

I'm more worried about the bottom since, even after several days, I still can't stop myself from thinking, "Why is Geocaching HQ writing a log on this cache?" But I agree with you that the wasted space at the top is another downside. And a few times now, I've seen that salutation and thought it must be something other than a simple log report e-mail.

The longer they keep coming, the more I can't believe they don't stop. It just has to be a bug. They don't make any sense to begin with, and that stray space seems to shout that the salutation is supposed to be for some other type of e-mail where a name is provided. Besides, I can't imagine anyone intentionally designing that signoff such that it's impossible to distinguish the signoff from the text of the log.

[+CAVinoGal]

I received a couple of logs from trackables I have on my watchlist - they did NOT contain  the salutation or "signature" from Geocachng HQ.  I've only seen it on logs for my owned caches, so far.

[+barefootjeff]

1 hour ago, CAVinoGal said:

I received a couple of logs from trackables I have on my watchlist - they did NOT contain  the salutation or "signature" from Geocachng HQ.  I've only seen it on logs for my owned caches, so far.

It's not appearing on caches on my watchlist either, just on my own caches. As others have said, the extra scrolling it causes isn't appreciated, particularly as it serves no useful purpose - notification of a log is meant to be an informative tool, not a chit-chat. Well, I suppose at least they don't sign off with "have a nice day!".

[+Mockingbird559]

GS-could you work on something that people really want and would find useful? Where do you get these ideas? This Hello and HQ signature is essentially useless and is just clutter. Please remove it.

 

Thank you

[+Pontiac_CZ]

The same request on my part: please remove the salutation and signature from new log notifications on my own caches.

[+hzoi]

On 10/1/2017 at 7:30 AM, Isonzo Karst said:

In Grammarian mode, the space between the end of Hello and the comma is annoying, "Hello ," and will bother me every single time.

My guess is that this is a work in progress, and that it'll eventually read "Hello [your name here]," but again, I don't view this as a relevant change.

[+dprovan]

1 hour ago, hzoi said:

My guess is that this is a work in progress, and that it'll eventually read "Hello [your name here]," but again, I don't view this as a relevant change.

My guess is that's it's a feature that's escaped from some place else where it already reads "Hello [your name here]". I really can't imagine anyone thinking "Hello, dprovan" makes any sense, much less would be worth implementing, as a preamble to a log notification message.

[+arisoft]

I made some streamlining to my notification feed after these unecessary additions broke my e-mail filter.

Which one do you prefer?

[+dprovan]

This was fixed 2 days ago (October 3rd, around noon), and I freely admit I didn't notice until just now despite the fact that I read many clean notifications over the last 48 hours. So, belatedly, thank you to whoever sorted it out and removed the errant greeting and closing.

[+Pontiac_CZ]

Arisoft: it's actually pretty clear that number 2. But GS will probably never format the e-mail notifications the old text way. They prefer lots of unnecessary white space and lots of data downloaded.

[Frau Potter]

On 10/5/2017 at 4:12 PM, dprovan said:

This was fixed 2 days ago (October 3rd, around noon), and I freely admit I didn't notice until just now despite the fact that I read many clean notifications over the last 48 hours. So, belatedly, thank you to whoever sorted it out and removed the errant greeting and closing.

To be honest, I didn't see this public forum thread (because I was traveling), but had noticed the salutations from Geocaching HQ in the emails for my own personal cache hides and trackables. I reported it to engineering and they rolled back the email changes. 

Please continue to notify us if you see changes like this that don't quite make sense. We will do our best to followup.

Cindy / Frau Potter

[+arisoft]

On 6.10.2017 at 8:21 AM, Pontiac_CZ said:

Arisoft: it's actually pretty clear that number 2. But GS will probably never format the e-mail notifications the old text way. They prefer lots of unnecessary white space and lots of data downloaded.

The size of the email is 90% smaller. Now I hope that nothing changes in the future again as it took hours to build this filter.