scottpa100

No, in Chinese we use 2006-06-13. Well, say if Groundspeak had to do one change and it was to keep everyone happy, I would work with the ISO standard, which is the one that the Chinese use anyhow (as it turns out). It is clear what the pattern the information is presented in due to the 2006-xx-xx format. Ultimately though, I still think it should be a user preference so that anyone across the globe can use the date format that they want to use. Scott

I agree, I think the googlemaps is great. Someone has said about reviewing the other map services too. I hope (certainly from a UK perspective) that the streetmaps one won't go. That has the 1:50,000 scale Ordnance Survey maps which allows you to see rights-of-way, paths, forests and most importantly, contours! Though, if anyone wants to link in to Ordnance Survey maps itself and use the 1:25,000 scale maps that would be even more marvellous! However, the Ordnance Survey are bound to charge an incredible licensing fee for that.... Thanks for the good work!

I am pleased to see that this concern has not gone away. It is not about applying a change across the website. It is just a request for a preference button. The thing is, this is just not a UK thing. All the Europeans and Oz / New Zealand use the d/m/yyyy format. That is something like 500 million people!

Well, I didn't know you could do that! And hey, it works! [] Very many thanks!

Just for my ten-penneth, I use Cache Mate for my Palm / Handspring visor, which was $8. About £4.36 or something sterling. I also use EasyGPS (free download). Using the pocket queries from the geocaching.com website (you need to be a Premium member which I note from other comments you are), you get e-mailed a substantial GPX file. I open that file into EasyGPS, connect my GPSr, and upload all the waypoints. Takes 30 seconds. I then load that same GPX file into Cachemate, which does all the conversion work, I select all, save as, and job done. That takes about 30 seconds too. The longest bit is when I synchronise my Palm / Handspring, taking a couple of minutes! Its made my caching loads easier, allows me to be more flexible should plans change (no thinking "Where is that piece of paper with those really complex instructions?") I fortunately had an old Palm computer lying around, but at $8 for the software... what have you lost if it doesn't work out? The price of a few beers (it would be about two pints of beer in the UK!) Cheers Scott

Now that's a top tip! Thanks very much!

Found this blurb on Cachemate website "There seems to be problems with this in Palm OS versions earlier than 4.0, though, considering the search feature relies heavily on certain OS functions. An alternative way, in CacheMate 2.3 or later, is to go to the list view, select the waypoint sort order, and start entering characters in the waypoint name (with Graffiti or an attached keyboard). The list will scroll to the first matching record as you do that." A top tip I think there regarding the Graffiti entry. I will, excuse the pun, practice my P's and Q's! So that's it, it appears that I will have to upgrade my Palm... Boooo! Scott

I haven't exported the GPX yet, as I already have loads of caches on the GPSr. That will be test two! I use EasyGPS. I was just thinking about the GCxxxx number as a preference. As you'll know with the CSx, you click find, select geocache, and the GPSr bring up the caches closest to you at the top of the list then further down the list you go, the further the caches are from your current position. The list presents the GC number. You can click enter on them and get some very limited information. I will contact Cachemate and see what they advise. Thanks for all your advice and feedback so far.

Hello! After reading the forums etc, I have splashed out on Cache Mate (all 8 USD, about £4.36!) for my old Handspring Visor Edge. It is a Palm all but in name. What want to know is how have other people found the Find facility on the Handspring / Palm? I have a Garmin GPSMAP 60CS which will show you the nearest caches from your current location, and due to space constraints shows you the GCxxxx number. I then want to put that GCxxxx number into my Visor's find facility and the blurb to appear on screen. The VERY first time I did this, it worked. But on subsequent attempts, the find facility does not find any GCxxxx numbers. Reading on Cache Mates website, it acknowledges that there was a problem on Palm based computers with firmware previous to version 4.x. Fine I would accept that, but it did work the once! Anyone have any other thoughts / experiences? Cheers Scott PS. The Visor Edge has 8 Mb of RAM, I have uploaded 300 caches onto it and still have 6.6 Mb free!! I could be in caching heaven!!

Wow, all this because of a suggestion! For a change in preferences, so that the people who use alternative date formats would not even be affected!

The fact that you joined such a 'US-centric' site and continue to use it bears this out. You seem to be implying that I have an anti-US thing going on. I don't. Its just a request, an idea, and I acknowledge the fine work that development are doing (the searches in a radius from your postcode is serious coding and works great!). You are right in that the date functionality is not the be all and end all, not like world poverty or other such global things, and that's why I still use the site. The site itself uses US English, which is fine. The site is administered from the US. However, to say it is US centric is bit like putting your head into the sand. There are caches all over the world. Admittedly, probably the majority of caches are in the US, but look at the number of geocaches across Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Czech Republic, the UK, southern Scandanavia, New Zealand, and on the west and east coats of Australia. You can see all these caches accessing this graphic. http://www.geocaching.com/goodies/2006-01/1024.jpg As you can see it is very much a global game with global users.

If that's the case, then the site will just stagnate. The internet is no longer the bastion of America that it was 5 years ago. By recognising that others work in different ways across the globe and being accommodating ensures that new blood, new interest and ultimately new subscribers still come along and hand over money. geocaching.com is not the only GPS treasure hunting website in the world, but I know that geocaching.com is currently the best GPS treasure hunting website in the world. It can only remain the best if the bar is constantly raised to meet and exceed the expectations of the customer. And meeting the needs of the customer and making money? That is the American Dream!

But that's the thing - it is not just a cosmetic enhancement. We (Europe, Australia, New Zealand and other parts of the world) use the dd/MM/yy format everyday. For everything. Cheques (money checks), invoices, appointments, birthdays etc etc. So when you look at a date, you instantly interpret the way you use it everyday. Now it can be fairly easily distinguished when the date appears as 12/31/05. Everyone else on the globe looks at it and goes "31 months?" but when it is 12/11/05, do they mean the 12th of November or the 11th of December? Looking at this months wallpaper available from the geocaching website, there appears to be a lot of German caches. Germans (along with other Europeans) would appreciate a dd/MM/yy format. Just because they are on the other side of the pond, their preference should not count? And that's what it should be. A preference. The people who want and use a mm/DD/yy format should be able to do so, and the people who want a dd/MM/yy format should be able to do so. Are we just a vocal minority or are the silent masses afraid to speak out?

An account option on the user's profile I think is definately the fairest way. This would accommodate for all the different ways that people use and manage date formats, to see the date their way. From what I understand (please forgive me if I am not precise here) but computers do store the date in ISO YYYYMMDD and it is just juggled aboout and presented differently for the person using the computer at the end. If a profile option was implemented, then the American market is happy, the European markets are happy and potentially most of the world is happy (from what I have read on this article here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_format ) Scott (UK)

Cool, this is getting some good responses. Changing the date everywhere, across the entire website, would affect many people. There will be many different standards used by the people across the globe who access this website. People using the US standard, the standard used throughout most of Europe and other areas and there will be computer geeks using the ISO standard. I don't see any reason for the requirement of a compromise if computer operating systems can accommodate the change, surely the website can?! The website can tell me all the geocaches within X number of miles (and taking on the feedback from BalkanSabranje, I think the option of having the distances in kilometers is a great idea!) surely it can tell me that a geocache was collected on the 14th of July 2005, rather than the 7th of the 14th month, 2005? Are there any Groundspeak bods out there who can advise or is it impossible?? Scott

Hello, this may be have been covered / requested but I couldn't see it so here goes! Anyway of getting the date format to show your own locale settings. The website uses American settings (mm/dd/yyyy) yet most of Europe uses dd/mm/yyyy. I'm forever misreading the dates of caches and visits. This may be could be something on my account settings, or when you enter your home co-ordinates, the system assumes from that? Many thanks! Scott (U.K.)

I'm in the UK, and I've just put it down to the weekend. During the week, it does run smoother.