Team Monkeyboy

I'm a premium member, but I've recently noticed ads appearing on the search results page in an area previously occupied by Groundspeak banners. I confirmed that I'm logged in (ads have always appeared when I wasn't)... if I remember correctly, one of the "perks" of a premium membership was the removal of advertising. Is this a glitch, or has policy changed?

The mouse-over info screens are just one of the many design "features" that render GC.COM useless on most mobile devices. I was surprised to find out that there's no way to "fake" a mouse-over on an iPhone or iPad, even though that seems to be a growing trend in web design.

I know of which you speak, and I agree... the button is in the wrong place. It's also greyed out by default - no indication at all that it's an input box. It was there for quite a while before I actually realized it was a search box, since all of the other search options are buttons to take you to input screens. GC codes are only a few characters long... wouldn't there be room for a "search" and a "cancel" button there? I can't tell you how many times I've entered a GC code (tricky enough on an iPhone keypad to begin with, especially with gloves) just to hit "Cancel" thinking it was enter and cleared out the field...

That's a horse that's already been beaten many times. The way I understand it, it's not just a matter of modifying a feature, it's a matter of changing the entire distribution model. The way it was explained best to me: think of the notifications as "logs" - the new caches are being "logged" by the reviewers, and it's these "logs" that are actually being sent to you... not actual notifications. If you look at them that way, there's a limited list of items that can be relayed... "reviewer" would be one of those. This isn't a feature they seem willing to spend resources on, despite innumerable requests for modifying notifications: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=296675 http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=288455 http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=302502 http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=304649 http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=302502 http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=285152 http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=302973 etc...

Thanks for the pointers guys, but I got the whole cache creation thing down pat (we've published 100+ caches so far). MANY of the cachers in our area use their phones exclusively, and I'd really prefer they see my descriptions the way I intend them to look instead of how they "happen" to look... I won't even get started on the page redesign "standard width" thing that Groundspeak sprung on us several months ago... but I digress. I do make sure they look good on the web, but they can look good on both platforms if they're "tweaked" enuff. Most of our caches are VERY graphic intensive (puzzles, challenges, etc..) and it would just make my world spin smoother if there were an easier way to view unpublished caches in the apps... hence the feature request.

When designing a cache page, I try and make sure that it looks as good on my iPhone as it does on a PC (like many, many geocachers, I use my phone for paperless caching A LOT). Up to this point I've had to do that by the guess-and-hope-it-works method since I can't access my unpublished caches through the iPhone app, nor can I download a GPX file for said caches through the web page. It would make life much easier to be able to view these caches directly on the mobile device without having to wait until it publishes, then scrambling to make the changes necessary in order for it to appear presentable. Or, at the very least, to be permitted to download the GPX file for an unpublished cache I own.

The last "Geocaching.com site update" posted in the "Notices from Groundspeak" forum was from July 24th, 2012... any recent news? Like, why the site was taken off-line last night?

Ahhhh.... I never noticed that the notifications were the logs. That's obvious now that you pointed that out! That also explains why the info that's given is given. Unfortunately, that also explains why it would take a major code change for GC.COM to change. I guess I'm requesting a new feature rather than a revamp of an existing one. That being said, while I can appreciate why they want us to visit the cache page instead of providing that info in an alert, they need to realize that notifications are a MAJOR factor in many of the user's decisions to have a premium membership, and that the slower (and more unreliable) the site becomes, the more valuable it would be to be able to pick and choose which new cache pages you want to visit based on info in an alert. In other words, I'd love to be able to ignore a new cache if it doesn't interest me WITHOUT having to wait 5 minutes for the page to open.

I know I'm beating a dead horse here, but with each passing "update" I wait with baited breath to see if the notifications have been improved... only to be sorely disappointed once again. I know many, many users in our circle of friends have a premium membership SOLELY for the purpose of receiving instant notifications of newly published caches. While they're serviceable in their current form, that's about all that can be said about them. They do contain a link to the cache, which is nice, but why do I need to know who the reviewer is? I imagine this info is provided in case there's a problem with the cache, but why devote precious notification real estate by including it in the subject line of the notification? And not only is it included in the subject line, it's mentioned again in the body of the notification, along with a link to the reviewer's profile. Include usable information that I'm interested in in the subject line... Who hid it? What's the difficulty/terrain rating? How far away is it? What's the size? I do like the fact that the subject line includes the cache type, but since you have to set up each notification based on a certain cache type anyway - why not just include the name that you give the notification when it's created? For instance - I created a notification to tell me when a traditional cache type is published within 15 miles of my home. I had to choose a specific type of cache when I created it, and I had to give it a name, so I chose the "traditional" cache type and named it "Traditional caches near home". If the name of that notification were to be included in the subject line... you see where I going here? Eagerly awaiting the next update...

Has there been any thought given to allowing searches by multiple fields? For example; I just did a search by cache name for "The Rock". There were 77 pages of results... if I could have also stipulated "Ohio", that would have narrowed down the results to a dozen or so. I can understand the limitations of not being able to sort by distance in a global search like that, but why no ability to search by, say, name AND state AND difficulty... ect.?

I'd rather see the ability to add a cache handled through a better version of the mobile web site... or any mobile web site at all. I agree with JesandTodd - it's easier to use the web site to create a cache rather than risk another major software revision.

I was not aware that even though you can enter custom locations for "Unknown" caches, their icons appear at the original listed coordinates in the maps. Is that a new feature, or has that always been the case?

No. Well, thank goodness we have you to speak for the entire caching community.

The services have become so unreliable they felt it necessary to provide us with a status update page? Does anyone else find that disheartening?

I don't often get a chance to troll the forums, and I just ran across this posting by accident (now almost a year after the initial creation). I can say that I agree with your philosophies almost 100%, with the exception of the puzzle caches... we LOVE them; but I can certainly understand if they're not your thing. I've spent far too many hours trying to solve the "unsolvable" without the first clue as to where to begin (grin). I will say that we REALLY enjoy running into you at the events you have made it to, and hope to see you again at many more! When we first started caching, we grabbed any and every cache we could get our hands on. In the first full month we were cachers, we logged over 100 caches... we were gung-ho to say the least. Like you, a large factor of caching was the exercise. I lost almost 100 pounds in a year hiking the long trails and high terrains. Then we made a Dayton/Springfield run with some amazing friends, and found over 100 caches in a single day. While we did have a great time, it burnt us out on caching. We did very little hunting for almost 3 months after that. Since then, many personal experiences we've had have led us to cut WAY back on our caching activities - a few (very few, thankfully) inconsiderate/rude fellow cachers, MANY, MANY muggled/vandalized containers on caches we've placed, negative attitudes of local government agencies towards the sport, a rash of poorly conceived/poorly implemented caches in our general vicinity, run-ins with angry property owners unaware of the cache that was hidden on their property WITHOUT PERMISSION (It's not always easy or pleasant to deal with the "uninitiated" to get permission for this strange little hobby, especially when you're explaining for the unpteenth time why anyone would want to find a tupperware container in the middle of the woods just to sign a piece of paper inside it, but it makes the experience a million times better for those finding the cache), etc... Also, our kids are getting older, and we've burnt them out by doing too many too fast... it's tough to talk them into going out with us to spend an afternoon caching these days. Not to mention their personal schedules are busy with scouts, band, sports, etc... Don't get me wrong - we still LOVE to go caching when we get the opportunity. But these days we're MUCH more selective about which caches we go after. They have to be unique or interesting, or at least involve unique and interesting people (grin). We really like events, but the majority are 20 miles or more away from home, and many are on weekdays. That usually means getting home around 9:30-10pm (so taking the kids isn't usually an option... so we've even become selective about the events we attend. Our philosophies about caching have changed dramatically since we started. It used to be about the numbers, but now it's about the hide. The container. The location. The over-all experience. We'd rather hike a beautiful trail and find breathtaking scenery than a film canister in a lamp post... unless that film canister contains the log for an extremely well crafted puzzle cache. We'd rather spend hours searching for a cache in an amazing location with fellow cachers to chat with and share stories with than spend 30 seconds grabbing yet another key container off the back of a guard rail in an obvious location. We still find our share of 1.5/1.5 caches... you hit the nail on the head - "It's difficult to avoid them or resist them, since they seem to be everywhere I park my car these days". A quick grab while you're in a new area can still be fun. But our PREFERENCE is for those few and far between caches that we end up talking about at the next several events that we attend! Hope to see you one the trail again soon my friend!!!

Have requests in the queue for 3 pocket queries... none of them have ran in the past 3 hours or so.

For some reason, I'm unable to edit a log I've already posted through the web interface in the Safari browser on my iPhone. I click "edit" on my log to bring it up in the edit log screen. When I click in the text area, it activates the window and gives me the text cursor, but then immediately cancels the action and dumps me out of edit mode. I assume there's something in the page code that's auto refreshing, and dumping the browser out of text edit mode. I haven't tried other browsers, nor other text entry areas on the web site. Anyone else have this problem?

If you updated to iOS5, you must be using a 3GS? (3G's won't go to iOS5 - iOS 4.2.2 was the last supported update). The 3GS works great. We've upgraded to iPhone 4, which work even better, but we've found hundreds of caches with the 3G and the 3GS both. The accuracy wasn't the same as our Garmin, but it usually got us to within 30 feet. If *ANY* of our GPS devices get us to within 30 feet, I consider myself lucky (grin).

Didn't see any release notes anywhere... changes? Updates? Or was it a maintenance thing again?

We're looking at grabbing an external USB battery pack. A 5000 mAh pack runs $20-$30 and easily triples or quadruples the battery time. Keep it in a backpack and just run a USB Apple cord out a zipper hole to plug it into the phone (or any other USB device) when needed. I'm sure the added cord is a bit of an inconvenience, but the added battery life is invaluable. If we're stopping somewhere on the hike, it could be used to charge the phone (instead of having to keep it plugged in). I'm pretty sure the battery pack itself can be charged in the car on the go. Just found a 9900 mAh USB pack for $61 on ThinkGeek. That's HUGE, considering the iPhone 4's battery is only 1420 mAh.

We're looking at grabbing an external USB battery pack. A 5000 mAh pack runs $20-$30 and easily doubles or triples the battery time. Keep it in a backpack and just run a USB Apple cord out a zipper hole to plug it into the phone (or any other USB device) when needed. I'm sure the added cord is a bit of an inconvenience, but the added battery life is invaluable. If we're stopping somewhere on the hike, it could be used to charge the phone (instead of having to keep it plugged in). I'm pretty sure the battery pack itself can be charged in the car on the go.

Well, unless you want those new fangled turn-by-turn directions.

Those of us without iPads would DEFINITELY rather see two separate versions... 1) there's plenty of bugs already; don't compound the situation 2) let the development team devote their time to the existing app and those who already paid the $10 If you want an entirely new app for an entirely separate platform, pay for it.

Is there any particular reason why you can't "pass" the coordinates from the iPhone app to an application such as Navigon via a menu option? It's a feature in some other Geocaching apps, and since Navigon supports off-line maps, it can be used where reception is spotty/non-existent.

Has anyone else noticed the lack of formatting of "hints" on a cache page once they're decrypted? It looks like the line returns are being stripped out. Looks OK when it's encrypted though...