Reach The Spam

[+kunarion]

I just now got an Android Notification from the official Geocaching App, asking if I completed my August "Reach The Peak" souvenirs for August.  Yes, I acquired both, first on August 5th, the 2nd one August 25th, a week ago.  I found a variety of caches that day, and the souvenir popped up.  Cool.

 

But this Notification made me wonder if there was a bug in awarding the souvenirs... shouldn't Geocaching.com already know that they gave me souvenirs?  So I checked, and both are in there.  So it's just a promotional popup thing, I guess sent out regardless of Souvenir status.

 

It's no big deal, but consider changing the wording of the end of month Notification to something more like "If you got this month's Souvenirs, get ready for next month's!"

 

...because not only did your ad make me concerned that there's a bug (that it's not properly delivering souvenirs), I didn't know there are "peaks" each month for a few months (hadn't read about it).  Which the Notification doesn't mention.

 

 

Edited September 2, 2021 by kunarion

[+Max and 99]

True, the notification doesn't mention the other peaks, but the official app does on your profile.

[+kunarion]

1 hour ago, Max and 99 said:

True, the notification doesn't mention the other peaks, but the official app does on your profile.

Sounds good.  Yes, there are ways to find out what the promotion is about.

[+barefootjeff]

I'm not a huge fan of these promotional notifications on the app (I thought that's what the newsletter was for). My notification arrived yesterday morning while I was cycling over to the beach for a bit of permitted exercise and some take-away coffee. Thinking the chime might have been something important, I pulled over to check. Nup. Kind of rubbing salt into the wound too, as this part of Australia is now in perpetual COVID lockdown so there won't be too many peaks, or even base camps, reached around here. I've almost forgotten what going out caching was like:

 

 

So I guess there'll be similar annoying notifications each month until, well, they run out of peaks I suppose. Maybe our lockdown might have eased a bit by then and I might be able to go to some exotic places outside my local government area and nab one.

[+kunarion]

3 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

I'm not a huge fan of these promotional notifications on the app (I thought that's what the newsletter was for). My notification arrived yesterday morning while I was cycling over to the beach for a bit of permitted exercise and some take-away coffee. Thinking the chime might have been something important, I pulled over to check. Nup. Kind of rubbing salt into the wound too, as this part of Australia is now in perpetual COVID lockdown so there won't be too many peaks, or even base camps, reached around here. I've almost forgotten what going out caching was like:

 

 

So I guess there'll be similar annoying notifications each month until, well, they run out of peaks I suppose. Maybe our lockdown might have eased a bit by then and I might be able to go to some exotic places outside my local government area and nab one.

It was a little different here in Georgia, where I was able to slightly Geocache all year and get a souvenir, due to greatly extended Souvenir expiration dates.

 

This year, there is the matter of inconsistently applied medical prescriptions.  From parks to cities to regions, you never really know how many layers of which appliances are Government Required to be placed on what body parts.  The likelihood of ever-changing checkpoints, fines, or just plain inconvenience keeps me from venturing too far from home.  I probably won’t attend the Mega Event that I had planned for… it’s too close to the elections.  The Deadly Pandemic gets much deadlier for an election, then afterward, it gets better.

 

But an advantage (aside from avoiding restaurants so obviously I stay healthier) is that I get entire parks to myself.  I might get both of this month’s Peaks by just visiting one trail loop.  That’s pretty much how I did it last month, without even looking at the Souvenir requirements.

 

And, yeah, I guess the App will again ask me if I finished it.  

Edited September 3, 2021 by kunarion

[+thebruce0]

The app could provide a feature setting to disable in-app notifications.  Seems like a reasonable setting to turn off those promotional popups and alerts...