Blue Square Thing
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Posts posted by Blue Square Thing
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What a "good" cache page needs does depend on a) what the cache needs (is it simple or complex) and b) what you like to see
In terms of "how", I think an understanding of how the HTML code (and related CSS) works is the most useful thing if you want to make something consistent, well laid out and readable on a computer or in web view (like the one Jeff shared). Others might well argue that they want a basic cache page because they use a device that doesn't use the fancy formatting that's possible. The way you go on this depends, I guess.
I *think* copying and pasting from Word can be complex as it might bring across some formatting. I've certainly seen a number of cache pages where the formatting is all over the place.. I'm not quite sure why - I suspect a combination of that and using the visual editor. But you do have to dig in to the HTML and CSS if you don't want to use that.
The most influential cache page for me was the now archived One O'Clock Gun cache in Edinburgh. I've used this an inspiration for a number of my more complex multi style cache pages - you can find these via my profile. That cache tells a story of course, which is something I often try to do with mine as well.
And read your cache pages lots of times. You won't pick up all of the typos, but you'll get most of them (I found one this morning on a cache that was published this time last year...)
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On 2/17/2024 at 8:20 PM, barefootjeff said:
Sorry, I'd forgotten that I'd set that one to PMO because of the dangerous location. I've set it back to full access now so you should be able to view it (GCABG77).
Thanks for doing that Jeff. I particularly like the formatting of the caution notice at the top.
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20 hours ago, Viajero Perdido said:
PS, if anyone thinks challenge cache boilerplate is too wordy, feel free to borrow this tightened-up version.
Any chance you could post the text here for those of us who don't have premium accounts? Thanks
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2 hours ago, JL_HSTRE said:
It would have been helpful to link one in the FAQ because I have no idea where I should look to find out.
Fwiw, part of the problem is that it's complicated, dependent on purpose, and lots of the divisions keep on changing, splitting, combining and other things.
Honestly, it's not really worth worrying too much about. If it helps, I suspect that the Irish ones are based on the four traditional provinces of Ireland with Dublin split off out of Leinster, presumably because of the population dynamic going on there.
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Oh dear.
That's really not great. No need for the green and some of the cols are far too wide. I shouldn't need to horizontally scroll on an even vaguely wide window *ever*, let alone for something like this.
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17 hours ago, Donutz90 said:
OK, so this is a set of four <div> tags - divisions - with three of them placed inside the others. The code which sets up each div tag (using CSS) is quite complex - probably more complex than it needs to be - the user must have used a combination of tools looking at the way some of the CSS is formed.
Essentially what you have is:
div to set up the big black box, inside of which is:
- div with the image of the cache owner inside it
- div with the Italian flag inside it
- div with the main bit of the description, including the main image inside it (these three could easily have been combined inside one div)
- div with the La Cache bit inside it - this needs a div due to the border
- a horizontal rule tag (<hr>, although <hr /> would be better...)
- div for the flag counter
and then the original div is closed - this makes sure everything inside it takes the same style and is inside the big black box
The code for the big black box div is:
Quote<div style="padding:1em;margin-bottom:1em;font-size:14px;color:#CCCCCC;font-family:Trebuchet MS,sans-serif;text-align:justify;border:solid 2px #333333;border-radius:2em;-moz-border-radius:2em;box-shadow:1em 1em 1em #999999;-webkit-box-shadow:1em 1em 1em #999999;background-color:#000000;">
...much later it's closed with
</div>Much of the harder parts of this could be stripped out straight away to leave:
Quote<div style="padding:1em; font-size:14px; color:#CCCCCC; font-family:Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; text-align:justify; border:solid 2px #333333; border-radius:2em; background-color:#000000;">
- padding is the space around the side of the div - it means the text doesn't go too close to the edge of the box. 1em is the width of the letter m in the font chosen and is a standard sort of way to space things (it comes from the way printers worked). You can vary this: 2em is more, 0.25em is less.
- font-size, color and font-family all relate to the font. I think the font family code is redundant - GS makes good choices with regard to fonts - and bear in mind that many devices won't necessarily have the font you specify (the sans-serif part is a fall back font if I don't have Trebuchet MS installed). In this case we're setting the size to 14 pixels (I'd have used 1.2em here as it's more flexible) and the color (note American spelling) to #cccccc - which is a nearly but not quite white sort of grey.
- I changed text-align: justify - which is a bad idea in cache descriptions - to text-align: center because the cache description then goes on and uses text-align: center in each paragraph underneath. You could just set it once here (I would rarely center text anyway, let alone a large block like this);
- the border bit sets a solid, 2 pixel wide border of color #333333 (dark grey) around the black box. If you squint you can sort of see it. This is pretty much unnecessary
- border-radius: 2em then sets the curved borders. To my eye this is too much - I tend to use between 2 and 15 pixels for border radius
- background-color is then set to #000000 - black
You could simplify this code again to:
Quote<div style="padding:1em; color:#CCCCCC; text-align:center; border-radius:15px; background-color:#000000;">
That would work just as well I think.
The only other div which does anything interesting - other than centre stuff - is the box at the bottom. The code there is:
Quote<div style="font-size:12px; margin:1.5em 0; padding:1.5em; border:solid 1px #000000; border-radius:2em; border-color:#FFF;">
<p align="center"><strong><font color="#FFFFFF">La cache</font></strong></p>
<p align="center">Semplice cache contentente il solo logbook.<br>
<br>
Il titolo è per via di alcuni grossi vasi posizionato nel cortile della fabbrica antistante.</p>
</div>This does similar things - the margin adds a gap before and after the div - the 1.5em adds at the top and bottom and the 0 doesn't add anything on the left/right (this is now getting slightly complex so it might be better to read up on the CSS documentation if you intend to do this sort of thing). This time we have a smaller font (why?), padding again, and a white, thinner border (#fff - which means the same as #ffffff). The border-color tag overwrites the #000000 which is setting the border color to be black. The paragraphs are then a bit of a mess and do all sorts of unnecessary stuff.
I'd re-write this whole section with:
Quote<div style= margin-bottom: 1.5em; padding: 1.5em; border: solid 1px #fff; border-radius: 15px;>
<p><strong>La cache</strong></p>
<p>Semplice cache contentente il solo logbook.</p>
<p>Il titolo è per via di alcuni grossi vasi posizionato nel cortile della fabbrica antistante.</p>
</div>This assume you set text-align to center in the big black box div. The margin at the bottom is needed because there's no content before the <hr /> tag which sets a line across the page.
Is it eye-catching? Maybe. Personally I prefer black text on a white background and then using colour and bold to highlight specific sections, (along with boxes like the last one) but that's my preference.
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On 2/26/2023 at 8:13 AM, Donutz90 said:
yes this its nice.
and other like this: https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC6RRDM_milano-foro-bonaparte
there is no a site for some examples or generator with code and visual side by side?
I can't see that one because it's Premium Member Only. Is there a basic one that you could share that looks like the sort of thing you might want.
It's an interesting idea to have a side-by-side example set. In time I might be able to do something like that I suppose. Part of the issue is that GS could easily change what HTML/CSS elements are accepted - they seem to be allowing gaps in code just now (a good thing), which seemed to get stripped out in the past, for example.
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23 hours ago, Donutz90 said:
hello all i'm trying to create a description for a cache that has a nice graphical style. i usually just copy and slightly modify the code i see in other caches so i wanted to know if you know any other caches with nice descriptions or advice on where to find example of valid html code for this purpose, thanks!
It depends on what you mean by "eye catching" or "nice".
My favourite cache page is https://coord.info/GC5KKAH (now archived). The HTML is simple enough and the layout works for me - to the extent that I've used it as a way to create other cache pages.
You could easily figure out what the HTML does there and then use that knowledge to create your own pages.
Of course, you might want something fancier than that. I'm not sure why you would, but you might.
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9 hours ago, Hynz said:
I receved a message with a good photo and a nice text but no found log on the cache. I explained and three days later the cache was loged with the current (=wrong) date, a not so good photo and a very short logtext. I tried again in friendly words - but in vain - to explain what the apparently "smartphone only"-person should do.
So I ended up similar to what you did: I made a note on the correct date explaing the situation but I also included the good photo and text I received with the message. I left the wrong dated log since I'm sure the cacher who has a modest find rate would not understand the deletion (or would log again with an even wronger date
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So my irk goes mainly towards the crippled app but also a bit to the unwillingness or inability of users (at least then when friendly asked) to use the webpage.
Otoh, there are also enough cache owners who can't handle the placed date field on virtual rewards...
As for the app, I used it for the first time in ages (years) today - I have a cache (of mine) that I can rarely find at the best of times - but, yeah, I understand the issue there.
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14 hours ago, GeoElmo6000 said:
Here's something that irks me, when someone *not quite* follows my virtual cache instructions by messaging me a photo instead of posting it on the log. I tried to create an easily manageable virtual. My instructions are as follows:
If someone messages me a photo without posting it, I'll kindly remind them that the logging requirements are to post the photo, not message it to me, and I'll even send a link to their log with an offer to help if they need help posting their photo.
I should just delete the logs but then I feel bad, especially since they did take the photo and I did see it. But others who are looking at the logs don't know I've received the log and might think I'm just letting people get away with logging the cache without a photo.
<snip>
I post a note saying that I've seen X's photos. I've seen that done a couple of times by other people and, for me, it works just to demonstrate I'm keeping an eye on things.
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17 hours ago, Jayeffel said:
Curious as to what a Bailey Bridge is.
Pre-fabricated, sort of temporary type of bridge - here's the wiki article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailey_bridge
I happened to very nearly walk across one yesterday. No idea how common they are.
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On 2/9/2023 at 9:18 PM, barefootjeff said:
There are also four Rewards 3.0 caches with placed dates during February 2022 (the earliest being the 6th), bringing the total to 2880. This is still well short of the 4000 that were offered.
I get 2,963 as of now - which includes five that have been archived (!!) and 11 that are disabled. 8 with hidden dates of February 2022 - all published in Feb 2023 because people made an error with the year... (none from January afaict)
Iirc last time there was a big old rush at the end. It's difficult to tell because people seem to have not changed the hidden date at all in a number of cases, but there are 252 virtuals with a hidden date of December 2022 (the last month of VR 2.0), but at least one of the ones I found from VR 2 has its original hidden date (2019-06-04) but was published on 30 December 2022...
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On 4/25/2022 at 2:33 PM, terratin said:
Ugh, my Germany geomap still looks very incomplete. I've just booked two nights on this island with the arrow to cycle around (70km) and mop up some EarthCaches there. And if the whole planning kind of works I'll be able to add another 'county' to SE Denmark as well. Babysteps...
Lubeck's nice if you've not been btw. Excellent walls and old stuff - and fabulous marzipan.
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There are some excellent caches in Montreal. Amtrak goes there (although at the moment I guess it might be tricky to get there).
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A map compare using Project GC might also be effective - especially if you want to look for caches more than one person found.
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7 hours ago, South Lyon Trekkers said:
I have posted before about issues with geocaching.com and the Safari web browser. I have not seen much posted in response to the issues with the browser. If I missed an answer to this, and I did search, please let me know.
I don't know if this is a settings issues, a Safari issue, or a geocaching.com issue, but I and finding more and more that Geocaching.com does not work on the Safari web browser. While I can get to the site, most pages, especially map pages, render as a white page. I can no longer trust that geocaching.com will work on Safari. I have switched to Chrome, but I don't like having to use different browsers for different things and would like to understand what has happened to keep the site from working. If there is a simple fix on my end, please let me know. I am happy to work with TPTB if my help is useful.
Which version of Safari? And on what platform?
I'm OK right now with 12.1.2 on a fairly old OS X. You could try clearing all the browser caches and so on associated with the site - I've had issues with specific sites before with Safari that that's fixed.
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11 hours ago, Claireena said:
Micro and nano caches in London, UK....
I know it's hard to find spaces to put larger ones but omg
Although I understand your pain, it's even worse when you're in the middle of a forest in Norfolk and all that some people hide is micros...
There are some really good bigger caches in central London fwiw. The ratio of small/reg/large to other sized caches isn't that much different between London and Norfolk - we are a little better off, but only a little. You just have to choose to ignore most of the micros and play the game your own way. It is possible and it can work.
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On 6/2/2021 at 4:30 PM, Keystone said:
The instructions you were asked to follow are outdated. Geocaching.com changed it so that you can no longer link directly to images hosted on other websites. You will need to save the image from the government website, then upload it to your cache page, and then substitute the URL for that uploaded image into the HTML that's required to be on your cache page.
Did anyone ever query the copyright implications of uploading images first to Groundspeak servers btw? Say that one of my copyrighted images was used on a cache page without attribution, for example. Is that now Groundspeak's responsibility?
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4 hours ago, Tom98028 said:
I am preparing to hide my first Geocache and have a question about the log book. Can I print a log paper? If so where? Keep in mind the cache I am hiding is a small.
Thanks!I use a foldable printed sheet - A4 (standard printer size) which folds down to a booklet that fits inside most of my small containers - if they're very small then you might have to think a little more about how to do it.
There are a tonne of places you can get instructions to do this - https://www.instructables.com/An-8-Page-Book-From-a-Piece-of-Paper/ for example.
My standard template has words in the section that sits on the front that I can just change easily. I should really put Word and PDF versions of this online at some point. Am I right in thinking that in the US Letter size paper is still standard for home printers (as opposed to A4)?
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Another consequence of the refusal to allow basic members to see list of the caches other people have found.
I have an earthcache. It's pretty remote and barely gets any visits. So when I get a log that might look a little, well, dodgy, it's helpful to be able to take a look and get an idea whether the cacher was in the vague area on that day. As opposed to getting answers from photos while they're sat in Dusseldorf, Hamburg or Leipzig, say.
Now of course it's impossible for me to tell. So I guess that's any benefit of the doubt out of the window then...
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1 hour ago, Bl4ckH4wkGER said:
You can also see a list of all your finds via https://www.geocaching.com/my/logs.aspx?s=1<=2 - the list of all your found logs that is accessible from your "Logs" page, so are other log types, if you just want to browse them. The old search used to be the way to do it from your public profile. Whether that was really the best way to do it can be debated, yet there are other options.
I know the old functionality did not indicate that as much, still, a search interface is not a browse interface. If you want to browse, use the page that was built to do so - see the above link. Expecting that a search interface be rewritten to also allow browsing of 1000s of results is not realistic as that are two very different use cases.
Now, the above does not work for other player's finds and that is something we pledged to address down the road. Thank you for your consideration.Thank you for pointing that out: it's really helpful and much appreciated. I'll admit to not understanding that the other method was a search, but I can see there is a distinction. Much appreciated that this method exists.
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8 hours ago, BOTOCH said:
If caches were something that needed to be checked on in crowds or indoors I might agree with you, but really using Covid here is pretty much just an excuse. If you are going to be a CO then take care of your caches and I am not saying you have 48 hours to get it right but come on a year of DNFs, NM requests, and you don't even have to go outside to disable it. My guess is more people have been getting outdoors caching and just hiking or taking walks in parks with Covid, so nope I am not buying it.
Well, in these parts travel away from home was very much discouraged during the early part of this year. That would have made checking caches further than a walk away from home difficult to manage for many people - certainly, of the 26 I have hidden only 3 are easily walkable (i.e within 15 km) of my home. I have several a good hour away and three which are a three hour drive from here - there's no way I could have justified that journey in order to check on a geocache.
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5 hours ago, thebruce0 said:
The new UI/style does have an interface that is paged and more compact than the search results list.
Maybe the found/hidden lists could mimick the layout of the Your published hides page. Heck if you're looking at your own profile, why not make that Hides link go to that page? I also keep a bookmark for the page that shows unpublished/archived caches just for completion's sake.
Even better, it allows you to decide, to an extent, how many caches to show on the page as well. That would be an excellent enhancement and the base of the code is already written.
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How do you make a good geocache page
in How do I...?
Posted · Edited by Blue Square Thing
It's called marquee text. There are a whole pile of reasons why you probably shouldn't use it - from a web design perspective it's generally seen as a really bad idea these days and has been depreciated for ever. Different browsers might well fail to display it and I have no idea what on earth the GC app would make of it.
Seriously: put a nice message up instead if you really want to. Maybe centre it and make it a little bigger. If you really feel the urge, change the colour. But please don't scroll text.