Release Notes (Adventure Lab®: ‘Can’t complete stage’ reporting) - August 10, 2023

[+Geocaching HQ]

Release Notes (Adventure Lab®: ‘Can’t complete stage’ reporting) - August 10, 2023

With this release, players can use the ‘Can’t complete stage’ link in the Adventure Lab® app to report issues with Adventure stages to Adventure creators.
 

When a player submits a report about a stage, the Adventure creator will receive an email notification including the player’s description of any issues with the stage, along with the player’s email address if they have chosen to share it.

 

 

 

 

Pooja (onepooja), Product Manager, is watching this thread to answer questions whenever possible.

 

Any posts in this thread should relate to features in this release. Comments unrelated to the release may be removed. Please direct unrelated comments to other appropriate threads. Thanks!

[+Hügh]

It seems to me that I cannot report a problem with a stage that I've already completed. Granted, the button says "Can't complete stage", but it would be nice if I could use the button even after completing a stage -- perhaps a stage's coordinates are off, but the answer is still close enough to find. With the current system, I have to remember to go back and report the problem first, before entering the answer.

[+Hügh]

Also, I just tested this feature on my Adventure from a sockpuppet and got this email:

 

Quote

From: Geocaching <noreply@geocaching.com>

To: <me>@gmail.com

Subject: ADVENTURE REPORT: XXX submitted a report for Atl'ka7tsem: From Sea To Sky

 

Atl'ka7tsem: From Sea To Sky has new player feedback:

Report from: XXX
Email: XXX
Problem Specifics: Other
Additional info: Testing report feature from sockpuppet - how does this work?

We recommend you review your Adventure to resolve any potential problems that keep players from completing it. Further reports may result in additional administrative action taken with your Adventure.

 

This tells me the Adventure where the problem occurs ("Atl'ka7tsem: From Sea To Sky") but not the stage. This would be useful information to have in the e-mail, and not something that the reporting user has to indicate in the "Additional info" box.

[+Hügh]

It also seems that the reporting user can tick the box to "allow creator to view my email", even if they haven't verified their email address. That feels... wrong: the system shouldn't give me an e-mail address that hasn't been verified to belong to the reporting user.

Edited August 11, 2023 by Hügh

[+thebruce0]

if the user can hide the email address, then it effectively makes the sender a no-reply email address. Unless replying can be like the message center and push the reply to their MC inbox. Or the system can just forward the reply silently to the original user by proxy. Otherwise... yeah, reporting an error becomes an anonymous one way alert. =/

[+Hügh]

1 hour ago, thebruce0 said:

if the user can hide the email address, then it effectively makes the sender a no-reply email address. Unless replying can be like the message center and push the reply to their MC inbox. Or the system can just forward the reply silently to the original user by proxy. Otherwise... yeah, reporting an error becomes an anonymous one way alert. =/

 

Well, the e-mail includes the username of the reporting user, so it's not entirely anonymous. It doesn't link to the profile though, so there is definitely a bit of a barrier responding to these reports.

[+thebruce0]

55 minutes ago, Hügh said:

Well, the e-mail includes the username of the reporting user, so it's not entirely anonymous. It doesn't link to the profile though, so there is definitely a bit of a barrier responding to these reports.

 

I suppose this doesn't apply to the hide-from-3rd-party-apps 'feature'  So the option would really only relate to the email address anyway. It does seem kind of frivolous; but it's similar to the option for people to see your email address or hide it on your geocaching profile (ideally, they should be the same option, instead of just an AL reporting function)

[+peter-tvm]

Will there be something similar to the "needs maintenance"-attribute that warns other that there is a problem with the stages?

 

Will these reports be gathered by HQ and action taken when a certain number of reports on the same lab has been given?

 

The change is excellent but as with the "needs maintenance" on geocaches it will only work when the owner cares about the owned caches. 

[+nwpvr]

Something isn't really clear to me.

It would be nice if there was a button/possibility that the Adventure Lab owner could use on this "needs maintenance" report. 
 

The email to the owner suggests that "further reports may result in additional administrative action being taken with your adventure". 

Some Adventures are a little trickier/challenging to get the right answer, and as a CO you want to be able to clearly state that you have checked your adventure.

Edited August 12, 2023 by nwpvr

[+nwpvr]

On 8/11/2023 at 8:37 AM, peter-tvm said:

Will these reports be gathered by HQ and action taken when a certain number of reports on the same lab has been given?

 

 

I think: Yes they will.



 

[+DougyB]

I have now received reports on 2 of my ALs. In both cases I believe that the reports were not in the spirit of the intended outcome.

 

In the first case I received a report that indicated "Problem Specifics: Other". The user added additional information of "HBM...isn't working" (which I can't decipher in the context of my AL).

 

The problem here is that the report doesn't tell me which location is at issue.

 

Another problem in this case is that the user didn't give clear details. I reached out via the email address for clarity but haven't seen a response.

 

So I get an ambiguous report with very little detail and no way to determine if there is a problem to solve or how to solve it.  And if there is no response from the user I am left hanging.

 

But on top of that, the email indicates that if this continues to happen, HQ may take "additional administrative action". Hardly seems fair to the AL owner if the provided info can't lead to actionable results.

 

The second report I received was from a Geocacher who I know. This report indicated that "a location isn't accessible". Again, no detail on which location. And no additional info on what the problem is (a plaque removed? a building demolished? a park turned into a parking lot?).

 

Also, and interestingly, when I checked the reviews on this AL, that user had left a review. Which means that they completed whichever location they reported.

 

After reaching out to the user, it turns out there was a protest going on that temporarily prevented them from getting an answer.

 

Ok. I don't need to resolve anything here. However, I now have an "X" against me/this AL as far as HQ is concerned. What if a larger group of users had sent reports because of a protest? I have no idea what threshold triggers "additional administrative action" and what those actions might be.

 

I think that HQ has some work to do on this feature.  Thoughts for consideration:

 

- the email report should include the specific name of the location in question

- users should be able to provide more than the limited information they can currently give

- there should be some sort of reference number for each report (since HQ is watching to potentially take "additional administrative action") so that all parties can be on the same page

- AL owners should be able to report back to HQ that an issue has been resolved (similar to writing a "Maintenance Performed" log on a traditional/etc. geocache) ... and this should reduce the "X" against the AL by 1 for each owner response 

- HQ needs to better define for AL owners the consequences of not responding to these reports, and at what thresholds "additional administrative actions" might be taken, and what those actions might entail

- in the Builder, create a place where the owner can view the list of outstanding and closed issue reports

 

I applaud HQ for continuing to develop Geocaching in general and Adventure Labs in this specific instance.  The community has requested the ability to report problems to AL owners and HQ has responded.  However, this version of the capability is not without problems, and there is a lack of transparency between HQ and the AL owners as to status and consequences.

 

Edited August 14, 2023 by DougyB

[+bruzie]

The stage name/location is a critical piece of information that needs to be added to the email. Especially when the functionality is "Can't complete stage"

[+Beechtrees]

14 hours ago, bruzie said:

The stage name/location is a critical piece of information that needs to be added to the email. Especially when the functionality is "Can't complete stage"

Agree stage name/location is key. 

I just had report on one of my series which simply states "physical object isn't there."

I've therefore no idea which object at which location of the five.

 

Also it's not easy to reply quickly.

Could user name of sender be hyperlink so that CO could choose to respond via messaging or email? I had to "search for other player" to find profile, slowing process ++.

[+CarSim97]

On 8/12/2023 at 6:59 PM, nwpvr said:

I think: Yes they will.



 

 

How will Groundspeak know that I have reviewed my ALC and resolved potential problems? And what administrative action will be taken and at what point?
And what if there was no problem other than the user not knowing what they are doing?

 

And like others say: please add the location on which the problem is reported.
Add a textbox to all the options the user can report, we need more specific information to take any action.

Edited August 15, 2023 by CarSim97

[+CarSim97]

We had a message today "Can't unlock geofence". I contacted the player who reported it and asked at which stage this problem occurred. She had no idea she said, she said she probably did something wrong and had completed the ALC. She blames her bad eyesight.

Maybe the link is to close to the answer button?

 

 

[+HHL]

5 minutes ago, CarSim97 said:

Maybe the link is to close to the answer button?

Yes. The link should be placed below the "Answer" button.

[+Blue Canary]

Two notifications from the same player on the same AL. One said answer isn't on site. The other said physical object isn't here.

Nothing in the notification advises me which stage or stages  has a problem.

The player email address was provided but 24 hours later they haven't responded to my inquiries.

A physical check of all five stages revealed that the three buildings with attached marble plaques or benchmarks are intact at three stages, the brick entrace way with attached marble plaque is intact at a fourth stage and the concrete cannon is intact at the last.

 

The bottom of the email informs me that Further reports may result in additional administrative action taken with your Adventure.  However I cannot find any location on the app or builder page to report that owner maintenance has been performed.  How do I prevent "additional administrative action" when there are no issues with the AL?

[+dadoskawina]

What in case I'm stuck on the stage of linear AL series? Can I upon reporting the unanswerable question, skip it and go to the next stage? Or still I'm unable to finish the rest of the adventure?

[+Pleu]

I have not yet recieved an email like this, but some of my friends have. I have a concern about the "further reports may result in additional administrative action being taken with your adventure", it has already been mentioned here in the thread that this new feature is sometimes used even when the actual issue is that the player just can't find the answer.

 

All ALs aren't easy, some of them have intentionally been created to be harder to solve. The fact that one can't log a "DNF" on a AL means some people will use this feature in such cases. Combined with the mention that Geocaching HQ might take action on the AL if it has to many reports there is a risk here that AL-owners will need to "dumb down" their ALs to be allowed to keep them.

 

For me the USP of geocaching is the variety. Not every cache is for every cacher. It's the variety that makes it good. This should include ALs, there should be allowed to be variety in ALs. Not every AL will be D1 and it shouldn't be either.

 

I really appreciate the ability to report issues with AL-Locations, I just fear that people will use it for more than it's intended for and the multiple examples of this in this thread seems to confirm this.

[onepooja]

Hello, Thank you for trying out the new feature! We are currently reviewing the feedback you have shared with us, specifically looking at how we can improve the email to Adventure creators so that the email is more informative and supportive. Again, appreciate your thoughtful feedback and will keep you updated on our progress.

[onepooja]

Hello, Thank you for trying out the new feature, and thanks for your patience as we incorporated your feedback. 

 

We are happy to announce an update to the email we send to Adventure Lab creators. As of this update, the email will include the reported stage name and the stage coordinates. We've also removed the phrase "administrative action" as that does not reflect Geocaching HQ policies.

 

Thanks again for your thoughtful feedback. We will continue to monitor the forums and keep you updated.

[+Hügh]

3 hours ago, onepooja said:

update to the email we send to Adventure Lab creators

 

For those that have yet to receive a "new" report, this is what they look like:

 

Quote

From: Geocaching <noreply@geocaching.com>

To: <me>@gmail.com

Subject: ADVENTURE REPORT: XXX submitted a report for Atl'ka7tsem: From Sea To Sky

 

Atl'ka7tsem: From Sea To Sky has new player feedback:

Report from: XXX
Stage name: Ch'axáý / Horseshoe Bay
Stage location: 49.3654,-123.2736
Email: XXX@gmail.com
Problem Specifics: Other
Additional info: Testing testing 123.

We recommend you review your Adventure to resolve any potential problems that keep players from completing it.

 

Very minor nitpick: I'm the owner, so I know exactly where this stage is based on the stage name, but it would be nice if the stage location coordinates were given in decimal minutes instead of decimal degrees. It just looks... weird.

Edited August 18, 2023 by Hügh

[+Carta57en99]

Deze bezoeker van mijn labcache wilde dus alleen een vraag stellen, maar ik krijg een heel erg naar emailtje van HQ.

Op zich vind ik het een prima manier om de maker van een labcache een vraag te stellen, maar de mail richting de CO.