Exploring Life

Geocaching, geocoins and the many roads of life.

This is made up of stories from my caching and my reviewing.  It is a collection of those along with comments and thoughts.  Photos, and maps of some adventures and lists of some of the oldest caches.

Filtering by Tag: Needs Archived

NEEDS ARCHIVED!!

I recently was asked by someone why one cache was archived quickly and another is archived weeks later after someone placed a needs archived note on them. I thought I would take a moment to shed some light on my thought.

I should say that I save every needs archived email that I get.  I narrow that into four categories.

  1. Are you kidding?  This category is for odd or dumb things.  Cache appears to be cracked, you saw a snake near it.  The cache is still there, and perhaps deserves a needs maintenance.  I usually ignore these altogether.
  2. hmmmm maybe.  You report the cache as missing. Perhaps you are the first one. Or it is a high difficulty.  With these I place in a folder to look back on them in the future.  Seeing if there are more needs archived notes, or if the owner responded. 
  3. Looks missing.  In this case we have an active owner or a number of DNF's. Perhaps the NA note was placed some time ago, and the owner has not responded.  These usually mean I will place a note for the cache owner to take a look at the cache or it will be archived.
  4. Gone.  This category is for those that people have checked back on, is not there, and the owner is not active.  Poof.  the cache will go away.

All of these can be adjusted by certain factors.  Difficulty, number of DNF's, did experienced people visit or new cachers, has someone visited that found the cache before, type of cache, is the owner honest (yes some lie to us - shocking), etc.  All of these can adjust things.

Note:  if a cache is archived it can be revived.  I bring back a few each month that a cache owner has went out and fixed.  It is subject to a re review, so  it has to meet the current requirements.  (that is why virtuals, webcams cannot be unarchived). 

Hope that helps? any questions feel free to ask. (no specifics please)

Needs Maintenance or Needs Archived

What is the difference and when to use them.  There are so many explanations here that I don't know where to start. 

Needs Maintenance creates an attribute on the cache.  You can filter those out when you run a PQ.  That way caches that may have trouble you can automatically skip.  It lets the owner know there is trouble.  Some reviewers check those regularly.  They don't let me know automatically.  When things are slow I can do a PQ like you and find them and go through them.
A Needs Archived sends a note directly to the reviewer.  I get those and usually look at them instantly.  If you have a number of Needs Maintenance and/or Needs Archived flags, over a reasonable amount of time, you may not get a warning.  Other cachers are policing you and telling you there is a problem, go fix it.  I may leave you a note if it is appropriate, or disable the cache and send you a note.  Time to go look at them.


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