LonelyCache

Corfman Clan wrote:

Opjim wrote:There was discussion about having a button that would update a cache. Has there been any further thoughts or activity on this? I understand the practicality of having so many caches that they can't all be updated everyday. However, when I make a find that actually is worth a significant amount of points, it sometimes can take 6 days before that cache shows up on my list, and being impatient and wanting instant gratification I always hope that there might be an alternative. I understand if it isn't feasible, but one can always hope can't they?

I'm not sure if we'll add an update button to the Geocache page. I think we'll just automatically update your recently found caches when you visit the site instead. Basically, when one visits the site, we'll get a list of caches that person has recently found. For each of those caches, we'll see if we have a log for that cacher for the cache (if it's in LonelyCache). If there is no log, then we'll update the cache.

I've started work on updating the points for a cache right when the cache is updated. Currently the points aren't updated, so if new logs are retrieved for a cache, a message is displayed on the cache page. It also looks funny from when new logs are added to LonelyCache until the points are recalculated when stats are updated. This is especially noticeable for high point caches with few finds (lots of achilles points). I think this is important to complete before allowing users to update caches as the discrepancy would, I think, become even more noticeable.

Also, I've started thinking about this in more depth. That means I'm working on figuring out how to implement it. My hope is that I'll have something available by the new year. This is actually a rather complicated feature so that may not be doable; please realize that hopes are not commitments. There are a lot of things to worry about such as:

• How to handle an update request when a cache is already being updated or is queued to be updated.
• How often to check a cacher's recent finds. How far back do we consider finds recent (Some slackers like TheBlizzles wait two, three, or more weeks before logging )?
• How do we handle a cacher that logs, for example, 2000 finds after making a run along the E.T. Highway?
• How to properly handle a cacher reaching his/her Geocaching Live API cache quota.
• How to propery handle other API errors.
• Etc.

Corfman Clan wrote:I'm not sure if we'll add an update button to the Geocache page. I think we'll just automatically update your recently found caches when you visit the site instead. Basically, when one visits the site, we'll get a list of caches that person has recently found. For each of those caches, we'll see if we have a log for that cacher for the cache (if it's in LonelyCache). If there is no log, then we'll update the cache.