Nylimb

... One of my puzzle caches has stopped working for the same reason: X Marks the Spot - a puzzle cache Clicking on any white square in the grid should take you to a JPEG image showing a digit, but as of today it no longer works. Originally, you could just hover the mouse over a square and a small box would appear showing the digit; it worked by using "title" tags in the definition of the map. But that feature went away in a previous update a year or two ago, and has never come back.

I'm using Safari 2.0.4 on an iMac running OS X version 10.4.11. Since the update, a couple of things that used to work fine have stopped working: First, when I click on Decrypt next to Additional Hints in a cache page, the hint doesn't get decrypted. Instead, the page scrolls to the top and a pound sign gets added to the URL in the address bar. (If I click on Decrypt in an encrypted log, both the logs and the hint get decrypted.) Second, the Trackables page no longer works; when I click on Track or Search, nothing happens. Both of these still work in Safari 3.0.4. In case anyone wonders why I don't just switch to version 3.0.4, here's why: Version 3.0.4 doesn't handle opening links in new tabs as well as 2.0.4: It's supposed to be possible to open a link in a new tab by holding the Command key while clicking on the link, and that works for most links. But it fails for some links on nearest caches pages. If I'm displaying the 20 nearest caches and command-click on any of the links to go to a different page (i.e. Prev., <<, <, a page number, >, >>, or Next), the new page overwrites the current one instead of showing up in a new tab. Those links work correctly in Safari 2.0.4 but not in 3.0.4. Until now, everything at geocaching.com has worked fine in 2.0.4 but not in 3.0.4. Since the update, some things work only in 2.0.4 and others work only in 3.0.4, so I have to keep switching back and forth between the two browsers.

Now they've all been logged out of the 10 Years event, and they no longer show any directions for their 29.8 mile move.

Recently I've noticed that on trackable pages, the direction of motion is often missing or wrong. For example, here are 3 geocoins which moved from CITO in the Redwoods to 10 Years! Eureka, CA about a week ago: Cacher on Board Geocoin TFJ's Out Cacheing Around TB N33 x W118 Micro Compass Rose Geocoin Although they all made identical 29.8 mile moves, the first is shown as moving north, the second as moving northwest, and the third as moving south. The actual direction is about 12 degrees west of north. Also, in each case, the coin's previous move is shown with a distance but no direction.

I haven't seen this bug mentioned yet: When I do a search for geocaches, there's sometimes a geocoin icon shown next to a cache icon, indicating that a coin is in the cache. If there's more than one coin, a generic icon (a stack of coins) appears. I used to be able to get more information by moving the mouse pointer onto that icon; a small box would appear which showed what kinds of coin were in the cache. Now that doesn't happen; I have to go to the cache page to find that out.

This problem started happening within the last couple of weeks. Another one that started at about the same time is that if you grab a TB from another geocacher, the TB page says you grabbed it from the cache that that person retrieved it from. For example, the web page for Dox Japan Official Geocoin # 1 says ____2/25/2008 hidegoseek retrieved it from Samoa Rocks! and then ____2/28/2008 Nylimb grabbed it from Samoa Rocks!. In fact I grabbed it from hidegoseek, and until recently the geocoin's web page said so.

When I submit a cache, a Reviewer Note is automatically generated, saying "Original Cache Location:" and giving the listed coordinates of the cache. What is the purpose of that? For a puzzle cache, should I edit it to give the actual location, or should I leave it as is?

Let's check: GC16XYD. Yup, no I, L, O, S, or U in there...

Good news: The problem has been fixed. I just logged the 5 PM caches that I found in November. It's nice to have an accurate find count again. Thanks to the programmers who fixed this!

Is there a quick way to delete all of the caches and trackables from my watchlist? On a dialup line, it would take me a couple of hours to delete them one at a time.

The nearest caches page doesn't show the direction to a cache if it's almost exactly north or south and more than a mile or so away. For example, look for caches near N 41° 12.000 W 123° 24.840: Nearest Caches. The closest one is Fish'n at Red Cap Lake, which is due south, but the page doesn't show an arrow. This has been known for more than 4 years: Small Bug In Nearest Cache Page, Direction to cache not always shown

I don't see that in trainlove's post. But for anyone who's interested, here it is: Jeremy's post P.S.: Oh, I see. It was in one of his earlier posts, #34. Never mind.

If I understand what you're suggesting, that doesn't work either. For example, the guid of Power Loop Cache, which I found today, is fad5f908-a463-4b4a-9053-0940dde7c281. So the URL for the log page should be http://www.geocaching.com/seek/log.aspx?gu...53-0940dde7c281 . When I put that (the whole thing, not the shortened version shown here) in my browser's address bar, I get the now-familiar "Sorry, the owner of this listing has made it viewable to subscribers only.". Or did you have some other method in mind?

(gollie, it would be helpful if you would quote the message that you're replying to.) When I go caching with a premium member, we share information before the trip. When we get to a cache, I usually don't remember whether it's a PM cache or not. I don't find that out until I try to log it, at which point it's too late to retrieve any TBs that I dropped. I'll try to keep track of that as long as this change is in effect, but I doubt that everyone else will. I don't consider it a disservice. In fact, logging the cache benefits the cache owner and anyone who's planning to look for the cache, letting them know that it's still there, and about any problems with the cache. So I'm hoping that the disappearance of this feature is just a programming error which will eventually be fixed. As you say, the method is a bit of a hack, so maybe it could be replaced by something simpler.

Now that the back door for regular members to log PM caches has been closed, what should we do about travel bugs? If I drop a TB in such a cache, I no longer have any way to make it show up in the cache's inventory.

In January I created this cache: X Marks the Spot - a puzzle cache. To get the coordinates, you solve a crossword puzzle and then click on certain places in the grid on the cache page. The HTML has a "usemap" in the "img" tag, followed by a "map" tag to define areas within the image and specify URLs for them. To make things easier, I also included "title" tags in the area descriptors, so that you don't actually have to click; if you just point to a spot in the grid, a small number should show up near the pointer. It worked fine at the time, but now the numbers don't show up. If I do "View source" then the HTML that I see doesn't show the title tags. But if I click on "edit listing" they're still there. Has there been some change that causes title tags to be ignored? I've tried this using Safari 2.0.4 on an iMac and using Firefox 1.0.1 on a PC. It worked in both browsers in January, but doesn't work now. Nylimb

I think this is an excellent suggestion. I've frequently posted notes to caches and TBs asking their owners to mark bugs as missing, but usually nothing happens. Part of the problem is that a TB whose owner is no longer active sometimes ends up in a cache whose owner is no longer active, so neither of the people who can mark the bug as missing cares enough to do so. Giving that ability to those of us who do care would save us time; instead of posting 2 "please mark as missing" logs, waiting a few weeks, and then emailing Eartha about it, we could just post one log. Of course there'd need to be some safeguards. The system could be set up to require more than one "report as missing" log before the bug is marked as missing, as steveko suggested. Or it could be set up to wait a week or two before marking it, and allow the owner of the cache or bug to cancel the request within that time. Nylimb

I've added rel="nofollow" to the broken links on my cache page (GC18V3M), and it's working fine now. So that's no longer an example of the bug. Instead, take a look at my profile; it shows HTML code where there used to be clickable links. Nylimb

It looks like links that include rel="nofollow" still work; those that don't are broken now. Nylimb

Here's one of mine that has the same problem. It was fine this morning: In the 2 paragraphs above the puzzle, the links were clickable; now the HTML code shows up. X Marks the Spot - a puzzle cache Nylimb

I don't understand why the combination of puzzle plus micro is any more objectionable than a micro without a puzzle. For me, the main point of a puzzle cache is the sense of accomplishment that I get when I solve it. As long as the cache itself has a logbook to sign, I don't care if it's big or small. In fact, for really difficult puzzles caches which don't get found very often, I think that micros are better, since that way people won't be tempted to drop off travel bugs that will sit in the cache for months. For that reason, most of my puzzle caches are micros that are fairly easy to find once you have the coordinates. I also enjoy finding caches that have difficult puzzles and are hard to get to and/or cleverly hidden; that just increases the sense of accomplishment. If I lived somewhere with a large population of cachers, I'd hide some like that, but in my area it doesn't seem worthwhile. Nylimb

The icons on my Trackables page are all showing up now. But there are a couple of things on my Watchlist whose icons are missing; all I see are little blue squares with question marks in them: a Geopelli Geocoin, http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=1028939 and a Dragonfly Geocoin, http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=841871 The Geopelli coin is also listed on my trackables page, and the icon is fine there. It's only on my Watchlist that there's a problem. I'm using Safari version 2.0.4 with Mac OS X version 10.4.10. Nylimb

Hidegoseek told me about your question, so I looked in the DeLorme atlas of northern California and then on-line. Martin's Ferry Bridge is about 3 miles WNW of Weitchpec, at about N 41 12.4 W 123 45.3. Here are some links that may be helpful: Groundspeak's list of nearby placenames Mapquest map (bridge is just to the right of the red star) Do you need more info than that? Nylimb

My favorite was A Pair of Quintuplets. I tried for months to get to a place like that. The first time, I locked my bike to a fence and went walking toward the spot. I couldn’t reach it, and when I got back, I found two horses leaning over the fence chewing on my bicycle seat! (I hid a cache there later to commemorate the event: Dinner for Two - a puzzle cache.) Another time I went to one that a topo map showed was on a beach, but it was actually about 150 feet offshore. Several times I rode or pushed my bike for miles up steep hills, only to find a Keep Out sign blocking the way. It was very frustrating. But I kept at it, and on my 12’th try I finally succeeded. I like variety, and the locationless caches added a lot of that to geocaching. I’m sad to see them go.

I've noticed a similar problem with the watchlist page. If I click on the link to "My Account" on the left, the watchlist page gets refreshed. At least, that's what happens when I use Internet Explorer 5.1 on an iMac. Yesterday I tried it in some version of Internet Explorer on a PC, and it worked OK. In both cases, it seems as if the browser is adding something to the intended URL. For the 'Find a Benchmark' link, the URL should end with "/mark/", but instead ends with "/mark/details.aspx/?PID=" followed by the PID of the benchmark whose page you're viewing. For the "My Account" link, the URL should end with "/my/", but instead ends with "/my/watchlist.aspx".