I went through and changed the status of some trackers to closed and retired, and even deleted a couple that looked like had never been used in the first place.

Rather than doing this manually--and anyone who knows me well knows I prefer to automate as much of my job as I can *wink*--I'm thinking about setting up a night check where AQ would check the status of each tracker, the last time one of the members of the tracker recorded a find, and I don't know what else and automatically try to detect when the status should have been changed but the ring owner has thoughtlessly not done so themselves.

Open and limited trackers, I should think, I can close automatically whenever the launch date has passed.

Closed trackers, I figure, can safely be retired if nobody in the ring has recorded a find in--what would you suggest? Three months? Six months? Granted, those are probably longer time spans than necessary, but I'd like to error on the side of caution. =)

Thoughts or suggestions?

-- Ryan

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what would you suggest? Three months? Six months?

The longer the better. Some ring leaders post the rings MONTHS in advance. So you may have a closed ring that shows no action for 3 months, because it hasn't even started yet.

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So you may have a closed ring that shows no action for 3 months, because it hasn't even started yet.

Well, let me rephrase that. If there is no activity for three months after the launch date of the tracker..... =)

-- Ryan

I think in general that's a really good idea and I'd say retiring them after a couple of months of inactivity works. If the owner needs to re-activate the tracker, they can easily do so. After my rings finish, I often start a new tracker for the single PLBs.

In general, I think that "retiring" them is fine, and even most of the retired rings could be out and out deleted. There are a couple that I would like to see stay around indefinitely and those are those rings that have never finished because there was a black hole, say Armchair Gardeners for instance. I am still hopeful that at some point those 10 boxes (missing for seven months or more) will be recovered. If so, I would like to offer those still around (and interested) the opportunity to get the box if they wanted.

Dewberry

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Open and limited trackers, I should think, I can close automatically whenever the launch date has passed.

I have added people to a couple of my trackers after the launch date. When they beg so pitifully, you hate not to. :) I know the owner can still add names even if they are closed, though.
Stacy

Could there be a way to automatically retire a tracker when everyone has logged in all their finds? There are a couple of trackers that I am listed on that could be retired because of this.

TG

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Could there be a way to automatically retire a tracker when everyone has logged in all their finds?

I can do that, but it's not a perfect solution since if just one person doesn't record a find, the tracker would never get retired. But I can make sure AQ pays attention for such things. *nodding*

-- Ryan

So, please refresh my memory... retiring a tracker removes it from each participant's log book? So by retiring closed trackers we all have more manageable postal tracker pages in our log books?

How about an automatically generated email to tracker owners? Sort of "We've noticed there has been no activity on xxx tracker in (however long). AQ has changed its status to "retired." You can still make changes blah blah blah."

Just a warning and a reminder to those of us who are forgetful about such things. Maybe this just adds to the amount of "stuff" floating around, but it may be that some tracker owners just need a gentle prod or reminder to clean up their own stuff. You could send a reminder earlier, I suppose, and warn the owner that you are going to retire it in xxx days if they don't do it themselves. And perhaps if the owner has a reason to not retire it (like a black or gray hole that one has hopes of resolving) they could do something else? (How about a "suspend" option? or is that making it way too complicated?)

Yeah, I know, leave it to me to make something simple more complicated than it should be.

MoonBunny

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So, please refresh my memory... retiring a tracker removes it from each participant's log book? So by retiring closed trackers we all have more manageable postal tracker pages in our log books?

Yes, that is why I posted a message the other day asking people to retire their trackers. Right now, I have 29 listed in my log book, but a few of them could go away because they are finished and everyone has logged their finds.

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How about an automatically generated email to tracker owners? Sort of "We've noticed there has been no activity on xxx tracker in (however long). AQ has changed its status to "retired." You can still make changes blah blah blah

I think that is an excellent idea.

TG

retiring a tracker won't change our count though, would it? deleting one would be a bad thing for those who aren't premium members and can't count "unlisted" boxes... or am I not understanding how boxes here are counted?

retiring would be a better thing, I think...

night writer

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retiring a tracker won't change our count though, would it?

Retiring a tracker does nothing to your find count. The tracker is simply an easy way for the ring leader to see who has gotten what and hopefully take care of any problem spots before they become black holes.

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deleting one would be a bad thing for those who aren't premium members and can't count "unlisted" boxes... or am I not understanding how boxes here are counted?

If you have a box listed as found, and then the owner deletes that box for some reason, your find will simply move over to the unlisted column even if you are not a premium member.

TG

If someone wants a tracker (ring) to drop off their log book list of trackers, they can always drop their selves from the tracker (without dropping their box from the tracker!!).

That way, they're box stays inside the tracker in the order that it should be in, so if anyone else goes back to see the stats, etc, they can see where all the plbs fit inside that ring---- but the tracker wont show up on your tracker logbook page.

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If someone wants a tracker (ring) to drop off their log book list of trackers, they can always drop their selves from the tracker (without dropping their box from the tracker!!).

True, but not really an ideal solution.

TG