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Ingabo
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Posts posted by Ingabo
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The gist of the post that HHL references is that GS is not making up their own list of countries and territories but has aligned the list of country/regions with an authoritative list that is frequently used by other software applications that need to use geographic place names. The Standard Country and Area codes classification from the U.N. (also called the UN Geopolitical Ontology) is a standard, and like any good software application using existing standards makes sense. In this case, the Geopolitical Ontology also closely aligns with an International Standard for Country Codes and codes for their subdivisions called ISO-3166 (http://www.iso.org/iso/country_codes). If you look at the ISO-3166 standard the "official name" for Kosovo is listed as Serbia.
In practice history has shown that maintaining an update to date list of countries/regions that aligns with the standard has not always been a high priority. When South Sudan split off from Sudan, South Sudan was split off as a separate country within a week or so (perhaps the fact there there were no caches in South Sudan made that easy). However, in 2010 the country formally known as Netherland Antilles split up into several constituent countries (St. Martin, Sint Maarten, Saba, Bonaire, Curacao, Aruba) but if you look at caches on the island of St. Martin you won't find any listed as in Sint Maarten and some are still listed as Netherland Antilles (which brings up the question of whether the name of the country at the time the cache as place should be retained).
Thanks for this thorough explanation. I should have realised that there are political incitaments behind the scene making things more complicated. Gc.com has also no interest or resources on their own to monitor this playground. There are other strange examples the other way around too. Isle of man, Guernsey, Jersey and Åland are definite parts of other countries but are recognized as own countries. And as you mention above a more recent example. Yes, it gets tricky when deciding if a cache found before a certain date goes into the old or new country.
OK I will not bother more around this since it arises more questions than it gives answers. Great to get these good answers and really fast too !
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I am a frequent traveller and like to visit new places and countries not only for the caching but also for seeing new areas. It struck me recently when looking through the list of countries at gc.com that I did not have the same opinion on what is a country and which not. Perhaps my opinion is of less importance here but the opinion of other states and countries should perhaps have a heavier impact ?
Let me take one example. Kosovo is a country respected amongst many other countries like the US government as an example but it is not respected by gc.com as a country instead it is called Serbia. If you talk to people in Kosovo this is the last country they want to become associated with. So why does gc.com cluster a country with a legitimate government controlling its own territory and borders with another country ?
It would be great to hear the opinion from the responsible for the country list at gc.com. Since I do not know who this is I post this question here.
Greetings from Sweden // ingabo
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An invitation to all Finnish geocaching colleagues who want to explore the northern central parts of Iceland.
There are daily events, one each day or sometimes even two. We have picked the best spots the area has to offer as event sites. You can have short walks, 4 day walk, summit walking, glacier walking, midnight sun power trail in the highlands, touristic visits, hot bath and extensive 4x4 driving to targets you would never visit. If this sounds interesting take a look here : http://www.ingabo.n.nu
See you in Iceland this summer ?
Greetings Ingabo
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We had this problem awhile back from iPhone logging in the wee hours of the morning; we were only able to fix it by deleting and re-logging the cache.
Hi. Re-logging around 200 caches is unfortunately not an option to me. especially not as every new My found gpx file is overwriting the old data in GSAK....... Yes I use the latest OSX and Groundspeak app versions too !. BR Ingabo
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Caching/logging finds with an iPhone?
Yes I use the Iphone for reporting my finds mostly. Is that an issue ?? On gc.com they are reported fine. It is when I request the My Founds file that the dates are mismatched. There are hundreds of them !!! Caches found one day are reported on two days - always with one day later than found. I have caches found one day and all of them are reported the day after....... not one but twenty or more...... My friend who checked my founds on his computer is using an Iphone 3GS too without any problems. Everything is correctly reported on gc.com. // Ingabo
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Hi ! Anyone else who has faced that the weekly issued my founds file contains lots of caches found on the wrong date ?? The information under my profile where I report my finds is correct. I store all my founds data in GSAK V7.7.3.23 and update this file on a weekly basis with new information from gc.com. This has worked fine until around one month back in time when I first noticed that caches were reported in GSAK on the wrong date !
I therefore asked a friend to open up a new database in GSAK, then import my "my founds" file and he found exactly the same faulty dates which I have found. His own my founds file works correct.
If it had been only a date or two I could continue to edit them by hand but I have more than hundred the like and they are getting more.......
So, I wonder if there are more people out there receiving crippled my founds data from gc.com ??
Anyone who found a fix ?? I have also addressed this problem to gc.com.
Greetings from Sweden
Release Notes (Website: Links now point to new search results) - April 20, 2021
in Geocaching HQ communications
Posted
After checking out the new functions myself to see what the new improvements are like and thereafter reading some posts here I am convinced that the geocacher has not been in focus when implementing these changes. It for sure looks like if a non-caching programmer together with some financial function has written the new function specification. For sure it is definitely not influenced by any active geocachers. So many fundamentally wrong ways of thinking in one package. At first I thought the system had been hacked or even hijacked. Everything will get fixed again when back in the hands of HQ again. Instead this is supposed to be a HQ final product. I learned already in school that ; if it aint broke don't fix it. I urge responsible functions at HQ to act and wind everything back to where it was as step one. Then, ask geocachers what they really want before planning any implementation. Why not let a group of people beta test the planned release before launching. That is the way we did in the company where I was working. It had 30 000 employees so this should not be a difficult way for a company which employs perhaps only 1% of these. Do not use all cachers as beta testers. This is just my humble opinion.