Deleting bulk messages

[+Esper Ranger]

I get a lot of messages due to an old Virtual Cache that was grandfathered in. I don't visit the actual website very often and the messages build up. Is there a way to do a mass deletion of saved up messages rather than go through them one by one? I'd rather they just show up in my email and not be saved on the geocaching website. Thanks in advance.

[+niraD]

In the Help Center article Message Center, it currently says, "We do not currently have the option to delete a conversation."

 

I am an EarthCache owner, and I do my best to completely ignore the Message Center. I have my account configured to send me email every time anything is posted to the Message Center, and I just use those emails and the other email notifications that geocaching.com sends me.

[+cerberus1]

Unless it's changed very recently, we can't delete mail at all in the message center, only "hide" them.  One-at-a-time.  Sheesh...

We have mention that we use email only on our remaining cache pages because we can't delete when done from that message thing.  

[+Isonzo Karst]

https://www.geocaching.com/account/settings/emailpreferences

You can ask to be emailed about messages, then handle them all through email, and just ignore the message center - I thought I'd offer the link so you don't have to hunt it - niraD nailed this in his post.

 

If I owned this, to avoid the message issue, I'd change the logging requirement.

 

Instead of, "To claim this cache find the name of the sculpture, what war it relates to and what year it was made. Enjoy!" 

Ask for a image of cacher at statue; something like: 

To claim this cache pose in front of the  sculpture, and *take a picture of yourself there;  your face is not required to be in the image.   OR  *take a picture of your hand, making the thumbs up.

You cannot require a picture of face, (privacy concerns, and this overrides any grandfathering ) but mostly you'll get that. You're getting a lot of selfies in the area now.

 

This removes the need for anyone to email or message you, and is a better method of preventing armchair logs (info you request can be found online in seconds).

Edited May 21, 2018 by Isonzo Karst

[+arisoft]

18 hours ago, Esper Ranger said:

I get a lot of messages due to an old Virtual Cache that was grandfathered in. I don't visit the actual website very often and the messages build up. Is there a way to do a mass deletion of saved up messages rather than go through them one by one? I'd rather they just show up in my email and not be saved on the geocaching website. Thanks in advance.

 

Check your Email Preferences first. You can find them here

 

You should check these options to transfer all your Message Center messages to your e-mail.

 

 

Now you can forget the Message Center and you can delete all messages permanently from your e-mail client when you have processed them.

[+hzoi]

3 hours ago, Isonzo Karst said:

You can ask to be emailed about messages, then handle them all through email, and just ignore the message center

 

You can ask to be emailed and ask people to not use the message center, but that last part is a bit of a hand wave.  A CO can't require one form of communication over another.  So I'd disagree then that a virtual or earthcache owner can just ignore the message center.

 

From the help center article on logging virtuals and earthcaches:

 

Quote

  Send your answers by email or Message Center directly to the cache owner. (Note: cache owners cannot require information to be sent through one particular tool.)

 

By asking for emails over messages, one can minimize message center involvement, but one can't ignore it.

 

I agree that changing the logging task might be the better way to go.

[+niraD]

15 minutes ago, hzoi said:

So I'd disagree then that a virtual or earthcache owner can just ignore the message center.

That's where configuring your email preferences comes in. You need to configure the system to send you an email for every Message Center message.

[+cerberus1]

I thought only Reviewers can "ignore" the message center.   

[+hzoi]

On 5/21/2018 at 12:31 PM, niraD said:

On 5/21/2018 at 12:15 PM, hzoi said:

So I'd disagree then that a virtual or earthcache owner can just ignore the message center.

That's where configuring your email preferences comes in. You need to configure the system to send you an email for every Message Center message.

 

That of course assumes that one is getting an email every time one gets a message.  YMMV, but in my experience it's been less than 100%.

[+niraD]

6 minutes ago, hzoi said:

That of course assumes that one is getting an email every time one gets a message.  YMMV, but in my experience it's been less than 100%.

Yeah, and sending an email reply doesn't work if the address geocaching.com uses is forwarded to some other email address where you actually read and handle your email messages.

 

But for EarthCache (and virtual cache) purposes, it allows a CO to ignore the Message Center most of the time.

[+arisoft]

11 hours ago, hzoi said:

That of course assumes that one is getting an email every time one gets a message.  YMMV, but in my experience it's been less than 100%.

 

The good thing is that you can check all messages from the message center if you are not sure. For me it works better than 99,99%.