For the Author stats, if I beef up my logs after the initial posted log, does that up the score?

Question

I'm trying improve my score on the Author badge by writing longer, better logs. (As a CO, I like reading logs that are longer than just "." or TFTC, so I'm sure there are other COs out there who also like to read about the adventurers who find their caches.)

Unfortunately, when we're on the road, writing quality logs is hard when posting on the fly, especially since I'm the team navigator which means I have to quickly pull up the next cache and tell my driver where to go.  Sometimes that means I have to write a fast note so I can get it logged and then go back later when I get to a PC.

Does the Badge Gen only take a look at the log the first time it's posted to count toward the Author gemstone badge or does it take into account edited logs that have been revised?

Answer 1

Why not put your notes in draft form on the geocaching.com App using DRAFT - when you go to log a found, you get a choice of draft or live. We do this all the time and it not only takes your quick ideas and notes, but also records the date. So if you wait a few days to do your full, descriptive logs, it still knows which day you found the cache on and you can post a much longer log at leisure using your notes. The drafts can be seen not only in the App but also on your dashboard page on the website - left hand menu under Drafts. We really use drafts a lot, as we like to write longer more informative logs for the CO.

We have also found that Badgegen does take account of edits to logs when it updates.

Comments

The only reason I haven't been saving them as drafts is because my team is currently doing county runs.  Some have good cell service; some don't.  We use each other's logs to cross check and verify that none of us have missed logging anything.  (Some of my teammates are better at logging in a timely manner than others...)

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That is understandable. Another couple of good features of drafts, however, is that it lists everything you have logged, and in the right order, so you can cross check your draft list with your timely team members’ logs, and also, it puts a different icon (a blue exclamation mark) on the App map, so you can easily see the ones you have done.

Answer 2

My experience is that yes they do. Or at the very least they used to.

I noticed this after I had been caching for a few months and decided to go back and put more info than a simple "TFTC" into my logs as with the experience of becoming a CO myself I realised that a 1 word log gives very little back to the CO as a reward for putting the cache out to be found.

So it was incidental that I noticed a huge jump in my average log word count once I had completed my editing.

That was 3 years ago, so I cannot be more up to date than that :)

Answer 3

I worked on this a few years ago and found that when you edit the log it takes longer for PGC to see it but it does happen eventually. The updates (edits) calculate a new letter and word count.  The average score is what is used to determine your badge level.  

For the Author badge once you reach 100 you will achieve diamond.  After that it doesn't matter because the looping was removed when the new BadgeGen was created to help prevent frivolous logging.  I had mixed feelings about this at the time because I don't log frivolous.  I do my best to write a meaningful log describing my experience finding that particular cache.  The CO deserves nothing less.  It is always best to stick to relevant information.

Answer 4

There will be a delay before your edited wordcount is counted since it takes longer for PGC to notice edits than founds. Information about the timeframe of this can be found in the wiki: https://project-gc.com/w/Data_synchronization But it will be updated sooner or later so you don't need to worry about any wordcount being lost. :)