Artemis&Apollo

Experience speaking? Jeremy, by the way, has 576 finds in 11 years. 576 finds in 11 YEARS! Jeremy's Profile [bold added by me]

No, no. Don't look at alternatives. What would YOU do if you could build a website for geocaching.

Come on folks. Have some fun. You must have some thoughts.

Here's the official statement regarding the naming of this new "cache type" (from another thread): (bolded by me) Well put!

Everyone has probably gotten a little upset with gc.com at one time or another. Most also realize that there is nowhere else to go to play this game because gc.com has no real competition. And gc.com knows that too. But there must be all the talent and resources needed in the geocaching community to start a gc.com competitor site. Don’t you agree? They say if you can dream it you can do it. I believe that. If you, or the geocaching community, were to start a website to compete with gc.com how would you manage the website and what would you do differently from gc.com? Let your imagination go. P.S. This is just for fun, Jeremy.

Yes, the dates will be fixed in "about a little while"

Benchmarks and waymarks are much closer to the true intent of geocaching than these challenges are, yet neither of those count towards your find total while challenges do? Really makes no sense to me... After release we could see a lot of confusion around what is a valid challenge, so we'll be addressing this early in the activity and encouraging the community to help us guide the activity in a place that fits in the realm of geocaching, mirroring virtuals. For clarity, we'll be introducing the idea of "Challenge Worthy" to help guide people in creating new challenges and reporting on them when they don't fit the definition. We'll also be readdressing Worldwide challenges to reflect these 4 pillars of challenges, so we'll be archiving the "kiss a frog" challenge from the site. What is Challenge-worthy? Location-specific The location of a challenge should be directly related to the action. "Take a picture of yourself with the Eiffel Tower" is location-specific, while "Take pictures of the night sky in Seattle" or "Find this/a geocache" are not. The goal of Challenges, and Geocaching, is to explore the world around you. There should only be one location where you can complete the challenge. Worldwide Challenges are only issued by Groundspeak, but you can recommend new Worldwide Challenges on our feedback site. Straightforward The Challenge should be easy to understand and not too complicated to do. Appropriate Keep Challenges clean so it reflects the family-friendliness of Geocaching. Fun! Like geocaching, Challenges should be a light and fun activity. Create Challenges that reflect this. I think AZTech and Team Shydog were talking about Challenges being added to the find count but Jeremy was saying: “It is staying on Geocaching.com (as is). If you don't like the new activity, don't participate.” Jeremy Jeremy on Challenges

I ran a little test and increased our find count by one with this Challenge Cache: Kiss a Frog If the challenge caches are not going to be reviewed we will probably see a lot more of these. I'd say review and make them appropriate or don't count them as finds. P.S. I tried to flag the cache as ‘inappropriate’ but there is no flag for that sort of thing. Options are: Prohibited, Offensive, Spam, and Unplayable

I’m not a forum guy and I don’t really know how to do this. But there is a FEEDBACK item related to a PROBLEM that Groundspeak created with a June upgrade that is dear to me. It is called “Pocket Query Maps showing all caches” and it is on the TOP list. Groundspeak is treating this PROBLEM the same as it treats requests for ENHANCEMENTS. The only way they are going to address it is if the VOTE count moves the item up on the list. I think it is very important that Groundspeak place PROBLEMS ahead of ENHANCEMENTS. Take a look at the feedback item (Pocket Query Maps showing all caches) and, if you agree me, please vote. Thanks, Apollo

I’m not going to get into the argument about fixed layout. I accept that that is Groundspeak’s choice. The problem is that we cache owners have been allowed to play a part in the web page design for our caches and this fixed layout change has had a negative impact on our designs; specifically the background image. It would be nice if Groundspeak would incorporate our backgrounds into their fixed layout design (i.e. provide a border around the fixed layout that resembles the appearance that used to exist rather than having the background spread from wall to wall on the screen). I think that would take care of most of the objections. Anyway, I have removed all custom backgrounds from all of our caches because they look so awful with the new fixed layout design. I have been replacing the backgrounds with a simple Groundspeak green background that I think improves the overall look of the page. Here is a example: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=71eb5dc7-4da4-479b-bff0-0b88f670c84a If you would like to use our green background it is: http://img.geocaching.com/cache/d30f1159-698a-4431-892f-b5b4ca44f860.jpg

Now that the Beta Maps have became the default maps it’s a little hard to think of them as ‘beta’. Would Groundspeak at least add a toolbar to the beta maps so that we don’t have to keep going back to the Original (non-beta) Maps to navigate the website?

Confirmed on FF4. Does this me that you have the same problem on FF4? I downloaded and installed FireFox 4 and have the same problem as I do with IE8 and Chrome. So as far as I can tell the 'standard' non-beta maps do not work correctly with IE, Chrome, or FireFox. Move the map, zoom, make a change, and the personalization is negated.

Confirmed on FF4. Does this me that you have the same problem on FF4?

No, but I would have loved to. How do you rate so high?

Works for me on FF4. Kinda. Hiding founds and hides works, but unchecking the boxes doesn't bring the items back. Something still doesn't work right. I don't seem to be smart enough to quote only part of a reply so: On the later item: For me any change to the map (movement, zoom, add filter items) negates the personalization (i.e. the smiles come back even though they are checked as 'hide'). Again; IE8 and Chrome.

Groundspeak claims that these items have been completed. I don't agree. Does anyone else feel that way?

This link does nothing for me on Chrome and IE8. Anyone else have that problem?

I just noticed that the map on the cache page has lost its map-controls. I can’t zoom in/out or switch from map view to satellite view. WinXP/Chrome & IE8. Is this another ‘save resources’ take-away?

I’m not sure about “worst ever” but this certainly is one of the worst implementations of a release that I have ever seen. Lost functionality, poorly tested new features, toggling users between production maps and beta maps (neither of which work correctly), and on and on. But I will say that I think the main page is kind of nice looking and appearance seems to be Groundspeak’s top priority.

The "Find My Location" is just there for a second, after the home page is fully loaded "Find My Location" is gone... Find My Location does not show on IE8

MAP PROBLEM: ‘Hide-My-Finds’ and ‘Hide-My-Caches’ does not work for me on the non-beta maps. I check the hide-my boxes and they do go away but as soon as I start checking filter options, or even move the map, they come back. (Chrome & IE8) I don’t consider the following “completed” does anyone else? bring back personalization on standard map(not the beta) Since the betamaps are far from ready to be released, please bring back the personalization on the standard map. It feels like being pushed to the beta maps now. Status: completed Personalization is now operable again on the old map. Moun10Bikeadmin

Could we get a new “Geocaching.com is temporarily down” video. I’ve seen the current one enough lately that I have it memorized.

You might be lucky. NONE of my PQs are coming back.

Pocket Query delivery has become very slow for me too. If anyone at Groundspeak cares.

Email notification is still “iffy”. I posted maintenance on GC1HYM1 today and did not receive an email notification. I posted maintenance on GC1HYMF shortly after that, as a test, and did receive a notification on that one. It is all very hit and miss as far as I can tell. I'll watch for some response from Groundspeak and if I don't see anything I'll open a case with contact@Groundspeak.com