+Snowsurfer11 Posted April 4, 2018 Posted April 4, 2018 Hello, I'm Geocacher in Southern Germany (Baden-Würtemberg, near Stuttgart). Actually we have a great Local community. The responsible Reviewers for this Area are motivated and stay beside for any question. They are happy to help an do a great Job. Since about three Months, we have a Reviewer from another Area (Bavaria, near Munich) who interferes in our Area. He Archieve Caches without caring of arrangements made with the local Reviewers. In our local Community at least ten Cachers gave up Geocaching because of these problems. I Wrote an E-Mail to Groundspeak two Months ago, but I never heard anything from this Side. Now I (and some other Cacher) am thinking about leaving GC.com because of these Problems. Maybe someone had already an similar Problem and could help me with some Contacts or something like that. Sorry for my bad English and Thanks for any Help Quote
+niraD Posted April 4, 2018 Posted April 4, 2018 The only contact info I have is the contact page in the Help Center:https://www.geocaching.com/help//index.php?pg=request 1 Quote
+cerberus1 Posted April 4, 2018 Posted April 4, 2018 "Take my ball and go home" has little to no effect anywhere, really. I remember similar at work once, and they were told to "put your finger in a glass of water, then watch for the hole it leaves when pulled out". I guess that Reviewers discuss things with others a lot. "Arrangements made" doesn't sound like all working towards the same goal. If you feel there's an issue, the only recourse you have is to send an email to Groundspeak. 1 Quote
+Mausebiber Posted April 4, 2018 Posted April 4, 2018 (edited) appeals@geocaching.com can be contacted in German language. Edited April 4, 2018 by Mausebiber Quote
+dprovan Posted April 4, 2018 Posted April 4, 2018 The people I'd be inclined to talk to are the local reviewers. I suspect they'd give you a better understanding of what's going on and why. I don't think there's anything you'll be able to do about this new reviewer's actions since it sounds like it just one more aspect of a general change in attitude of GS towards cache maintenance, but I think you're local reviewers will be able to help you adjust to the changes if you can. I won't defend this reviewer's actions, but I do want to ask you to consider why those caches were archived and whether it's really that big of a deal that they were. Even if you wish they weren't archived, can you still see a reasonable justification for the decision? If so, maybe you should just move on and plant replacement caches instead of archiving caches yourself and leaving the game. I have a hard time seeing the logic in archiving good caches to protest this reviewer archiving caches which must have been in some sense dubious. If you are willing to archive caches so easily, why didn't you archive those caches before that reviewer ever came into the picture? 2 Quote
+arisoft Posted April 4, 2018 Posted April 4, 2018 33 minutes ago, Snowsurfer11 said: He Archieve Caches without caring of arrangements made with the local Reviewers. Normally these arrangements are well documented in the cache log. Is there a possibility that something is arrange behind the curtain and this leads to misuderstandings. Quote
Popular Post Keystone Posted April 4, 2018 Popular Post Posted April 4, 2018 It sounds like the volunteer reviewer team for Germany recently reallocated responsibilities for what we reviewers call "maintenance sweeps." A volunteer performing maintenance sweeps looks for caches that have been temporarily disabled for a long time, with no apparent reason, and for caches flagged by the Cache Health Score algorithm. Because this work is repetitive (spading through a big list of caches), it's done most efficiently by "sweeping" a wide geographic area, rather than just a single county or region. So, a reviewer doing maintenance sweeps might take on that job for a number of review territories. That's why you don't see that reviewer's name as the publisher for new caches in the area. There are some reviewers who do no upfront publishing work, concentrating solely on maintenance tasks, and others who review in one area but perform maintenance sweep duties for a much broader area. This decision is left to each local review team - so long as someone is responsible for the assigned maintenance sweep duties. The standards to be followed under the cache maintenance guideline are the same worldwide. I am sure that the German reviewer team placed their full confidence in the person doing the sweeping in the OP's home area. If there are "arrangements" specific to individual caches, these must be documented on the cache page. Example: "Forest is closed to the public due to a pest control project. Per emails with [Local Reviewer], this cache will remain temporarily disabled until the project is finished and the public is legally allowed back into this forest." If people are leaving geocaching because they don't want to maintain their caches after multiple reminders and adequate time to do so, perhaps that is not the fault of the reviewer who is charged with keeping the game board clear of missing and broken game pieces. 13 Quote
Nicc from KS Posted April 4, 2018 Posted April 4, 2018 Snowsurfer, you won't get any traction here on the forum. The forum regulars and moderators won't allow any real critcism of reviewers. They will even retaliate with false accusations and log deletions without any explanation as to what rules have been violated. The help center will continue to ignore your complaints. I suggest you check with geocaching groups on other social media sites to read about the hundreds of problems a few of these reviewers are causing and about all the geocachers who are leaving the game due to the hostile policies of geocaching HQ. Geocaching HQ continues to perpetuate this problem and everyone wonders, "Why are the numbers down?" 1 Quote
RuideAlmeida Posted April 4, 2018 Posted April 4, 2018 52 minutes ago, Nicc from KS said: ... moderators won't allow any real critcism... Like calling others, liars? Do you really need to know which rule you are violating? 3 Quote
Keystone Posted April 5, 2018 Posted April 5, 2018 3 hours ago, Nicc from KS said: Snowsurfer, you won't get any traction here on the forum. The forum regulars and moderators won't allow any real critcism of reviewers. They will even retaliate with false accusations and log deletions without any explanation as to what rules have been violated. The help center will continue to ignore your complaints. I suggest you check with geocaching groups on other social media sites to read about the hundreds of problems a few of these reviewers are causing and about all the geocachers who are leaving the game due to the hostile policies of geocaching HQ. Geocaching HQ continues to perpetuate this problem and everyone wonders, "Why are the numbers down?" I took the criticism in the OP at face value and responded on the merits in a polite and informative way. As a forum moderator, I welcome respectful criticism and discussions of issues. I don't see where in my post that I made any false accusations. If I retaliated against the OP by deleting logs made by the OP, that would exceed the scope of my authority and would subject me to disciplinary action by Geocaching HQ. So, I haven't deleted any of the OP's logs. Other than that, though, your assessment of the forum moderators is spot on. Thanks for sharing! 5 Quote
+Touchstone Posted April 5, 2018 Posted April 5, 2018 10 hours ago, Snowsurfer11 said: Maybe someone had already an similar Problem and could help me with some Contacts or something like that. Sounds like you have a great working relationship with your local Reviewer(s). Have you tried contacting them to express your concerns? They might be unaware of the seemingly heavy handed approach of this other Reviewer. It might give them an opportunity to discuss some of these apparent offline "arrangements" that have been going on, and get them more aligned with local practices and customs. 3 Quote
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