Any Ideas On How Long My Approval Will Be?

[Odwolda]

I submitted it last evening around 5pm eastern time. I know it says wait up to 48 hours but I'm just wondering if there's any info about how busy the site is. I know it's pretty packed with the holidays though. Also, what does it mean by "volunteers" as the reviewers?

[+Will+Bill]

The reviewer for my area, Mountian Climber, he volentered to do the job, and he usually approves withen a matter of hours. It really just depends on your area.

[+mtn-man]

Volunteers means that we don't get paid to approve caches. Most of us have other jobs and approve caches in our off time. The caches in your area are only about 24 hours behind, so I would imagine it would get approved later this evening or so.

[+CO Admin]

I submitted it last evening around 5pm eastern time. I know it says wait up to 48 hours but I'm just wondering if there's any info about how busy the site is. I know it's pretty packed with the holidays though. Also, what does it mean by "volunteers" as the reviewers?

It means we don't get paid. We do this because we want to help. We all have lives outside of the Geocaching.com web site. Heck some of us even still find time to go look for caches. The FAQ states:

If I post a new cache, how long does it take to be listed on the web site?

 

Because each cache is reviewed by a volunteer, it may take up to 2 days to have your cache posted to the web site. Usually it takes much much less time - but be patient! Someone will approve your cache shortly. It does take longer on the weekends since we receive a larger volume of caches during this time.

 

Notice the last line. give it some time and it will be looked at. Until then take a break and go look for some caches.

[Tahosa and Sons]

Patience, Patience. The virtue we all need and I know I have little of that one. Sometimes they even get it approved before I'm totally ready on my part.

[+Fritz_Monroe]

Along these lines, how do the approvers to their job? Do you actually visit the cache? Do you look on a map to ensure that it's not private property? Just curious as to what goes on behind the scenes.

 

F_M

[+DustyJacket]

I learned from my are approver, that if you make the cache "temorarily unavailable" when creating it, the cache will not appear in the approver's queue. It will not get approved until you make it available again.

 

Since I want the cache number to put on the cache and in the book, I create a new one with no description (I might start putting "pending actual placement" in the description.), finish the box and place it, and then add the description so it will get approved.

[+T10X]

I think the approver in my area does a great job. I sent one in yesterday around noon and it was ok'd late that evening.

[+WebbyCat]

The approver in my area (Kansas) is *gln and he is really on the ball when it comes to approving caches. I've submitted eleven caches and only twice did I have to wait overnight before they were approved. Usually it is only a matter of a few hours before he approves them.

[Keystone]

Along these lines, how do the approvers to their job? Do you actually visit the cache? Do you look on a map to ensure that it's not private property? Just curious as to what goes on behind the scenes.

 

F_M

In VERY rare cases, a regional volunteer reviewer will visit a cache before it's approved (but will not log a find on the cache). I've done this a grand total of two times, where I saw something questionable and the owner swore up and down that everything was OK (it was). We just don't have the time to check out every cache. We would rather find them as geocachers just like everyone else. The website is just a listing service. We can't check the quality of a hide, or even its compliance with *all* of the listing requirements and guidelines.

 

We do check for compliance with the listing guidelines that can be verified from our computer, and from reading the cache page. We check for proximity to other caches, to railroad tracks, to dams, airports and other terrorist targets, etc. We check to see that a permit has been obtained if the cache location is in an area where a published permit policy is in effect. We check for the distance from the geocacher's home area to make sure they can maintain the cache. We check to make sure that the correct cache type has been selected. These are just examples... there are many more things we will check on depending on the type of cache. Basically we just have a good working knowledge of the Cache Placement Requirements/Guidelines and we apply them to all the new cache submissions as fairly and as quickly as possible.

 

To do our work, we have a whole separate section of the website and our own forums to ask questions and to seek second opinions. The new cache submissions show up in what we call the "queue." Thanks to recent programming enhancements by Jeremy, we can now view just the pending caches for the different areas that each volunteer is responsible for. This is a huge time-saver.

 

I hope that this is a helpful peek into the review process. It is not meant to be a mystery so feel free to ask any other questions.

[+CO Admin]

Along these lines, how do the approvers to their job?  Do you actually visit the cache?  Do you look on a map to ensure that it's not private property?  Just curious as to what goes on behind the scenes.

 

F_M

In VERY rare cases, a regional volunteer reviewer will visit a cache before it's approved (but will not log a find on the cache). I've done this a grand total of two times, where I saw something questionable and the owner swore up and down that everything was OK (it was). We just don't have the time to check out every cache. We would rather find them as geocachers just like everyone else. The website is just a listing service. We can't check the quality of a hide, or even its compliance with *all* of the listing requirements and guidelines.

 

We do check for compliance with the listing guidelines that can be verified from our computer, and from reading the cache page. We check for proximity to other caches, to railroad tracks, to dams, airports and other terrorist targets, etc. We check to see that a permit has been obtained if the cache location is in an area where a published permit policy is in effect. We check for the distance from the geocacher's home area to make sure they can maintain the cache. We check to make sure that the correct cache type has been selected. These are just examples... there are many more things we will check on depending on the type of cache. Basically we just have a good working knowledge of the Cache Placement Requirements/Guidelines and we apply them to all the new cache submissions as fairly and as quickly as possible.

 

To do our work, we have a whole separate section of the website and our own forums to ask questions and to seek second opinions. The new cache submissions show up in what we call the "queue." Thanks to recent programming enhancements by Jeremy, we can now view just the pending caches for the different areas that each volunteer is responsible for. This is a huge time-saver.

 

I hope that this is a helpful peek into the review process. It is not meant to be a mystery so feel free to ask any other questions.

Thats a great idea!

 

I approve them a little differently

 

I print all of the cache submissions for the day on 3x5 cards.

 

Then I draw a 6 ft circle on the ground.

 

I then stand in the center of the circle and throw all the cards in the air.

 

All the cards that fall inside the circle get approved all the ones outside the circle get archived. if they land on the line I send an e-mail for more information.

 

Seems to work for me

[+El Diablo]

ROFLMAO!!! That explains it!!

 

El Diablo

[+woof n lulu]

I approve them a little differently

 

I print all of the cache submissions for the day on 3x5 cards.

 

Then I draw a 6 ft circle on the ground.

 

I then stand in the center of the circle and throw all the cards in the air.

 

All the cards that fall inside the circle get approved all the ones outside the circle get archived. if they land on the line I send an e-mail for more information.

 

Seems to work for me

Now thats funny..........!!!

[+mtn-man]

All the cards that fall inside the circle get approved all the ones outside the circle get archived. if they land on the line I send an e-mail for more information.

 

Seems to work for me

I was thinking of something funny, but I can't top that one!

 

[+Fritz_Monroe]

Thanks for the clarification, and the humor.

 

Takes a lot of mystery out of what's going on behind the scene.

 

F_M

 

BTW, I think that I saw the original poster's cache show up this evening.

Edited January 5, 2004 by Fritz_Monroe

[+Planet]

From my past experience on having caches approved it has happened in an hour, or a day, or even a few days. Be patient, and try to submit a well thought out cache page so there aren't too many unanswered questions. Use the space provided for "Note to an approver" for clarifying.

[+trippy1976]

Thanks to recent programming enhancements by Jeremy, we can now view just the pending caches for the different areas that each volunteer is responsible for. This is a huge time-saver.

I think this is a great point Keystone. Everyone should know that Jeremy and the gc.com crew is workin' on it in more than the visible places to improve service at geocaching.com. The back-end update for approvers was a huge improvement and helps a LOT in speeding up the approval process.

 

In my years as a web programmer, I have always been somewhat dissappointed that my greatest accomplisments are often times the things that are unseen or intangible. So while you might not SEE some of the improvements being made for everyone, they are being made constantly.

 

Approval time is variable, but I think in most cases it has improved significantly over the last year. I've put several through this year for myself and for events and they were all approved within 24 hours or so. On the weekends I find the approvers like to *gasp* get out of the house This tends to slow it a bit, but not horrendously.

[+Renegade Knight]

...if they land on the line I send an e-mail for more information....

Son of a bi...er ...gun!. That's what happned to my cache! The card was on the line! It was in cache purgatory!