shell1fish

I own several bookmark lists with long descriptions that contain several URLs each. I recently lengthened the descriptions, approaching (but not hitting) the 1000-character limit. When I included a 5th HTML link in the Description of a bookmark list, everything after the initial open bracket for the UBBcode markup disappears when you view the bookmark list. In addition, the link seems to be open-ended, and the entire rest of the webpage is hyperlinked to the "missing" link. I've tried it in Firefox 8 and Internet Explorer 9, on Windows 7, and Chrome on Mac OS X Snow Leopard. In my list of bookmarks from my own account, as well as the Lists tab from my public profile, the description displays correctly. It appears as though the bookmark list description enforces the 1000-character limit after converting the UBBcode to HTML. If the 1000-character limit cutoff happens in the middle of an opening HTML tag, the initial tag is finished, but the closing HTML tag is not included. As a result, the final link is never closed, and any text following the link is not shown. No error message or warning is ever given. Here's a specific case: Broken Links Test Bookmark List The description contains the following: This is a test bookmark list to show what happens when a description gets too long and contains URLS at the end. La dee da dee da, I am text. So much text. See also: [url=http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=0a3e1a81-39d8-45c9-bfb3-7fe026bf883d]States AL-CA[/url] (includes multi-state challenges), [url=http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=92ae789f-c22b-4cea-a6df-c0b9c5679216]States M[/url], [url=http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=47a65d48-7c6a-4f28-ba9f-1925b1621db1]States N-S[/url], and [url=http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=a9cbc2c6-0d34-4e99-b112-ca51819e2ef6]States T-W[/url]. Here is the final link that will break everything. It is for one of my caches. [url=http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=67d71986-4f12-4122-a3ed-c87f91b6d1c2]What's A Yapok?[/url] Learn something new every day! Thanks for helping. The source code shows that the input has been converted to This is a test bookmark list to show what happens when a description gets too long and contains URLS at the end. La dee da dee da, I am text. So much text.<br><br>See also: <a href="http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=0a3e1a81-39d8-45c9-bfb3-7fe026bf883d" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">States AL-CA</a> (includes multi-state challenges), <a href="http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=92ae789f-c22b-4cea-a6df-c0b9c5679216" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">States M</a>, <a href="http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=47a65d48-7c6a-4f28-ba9f-1925b1621db1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">States N-S</a>, and <a href="http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=a9cbc2c6-0d34-4e99-b112-ca51819e2ef6" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">States T-W</a>.<br><br>Here is the final link that will break everything. It is for one of my caches. <a href="http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=67d71986-4f12-4122-a3ed-c87f91b6d1c2" target="_blank" rel="</p"> There is no closing HTML tag. The final sentences, while still seen when I edit the description, are not shown. Again, in my list of bookmarks from my own account, as well as the Lists tab from my public profile, the description displays correctly. I can avoid the problem by using outside URL shorteners, but I hope to see a smarter way of maintaining the character limit implemented or at least an appropriate error message given so people can understand why their bookmark list description is broken. (Are there any native shortform bookmark URLs, similar to coord dot info for caches, profiles, and trackables?) Thanks for helping!

I maintain bookmark lists for U.S. Challenge caches (1100+ caches), and I would love to see the bookmark limit increase to match the PQ limit. Other examples of would-be large bookmark lists I have used are reedkickball's Civil War Geocaches and Isonzo Karst's USA Wherigos.

I'm having the same problem, using Firefox 3.0.15. I first noticed it last night. It fixed itself for me about an hour ago. I guess it was a short-lived glitch.

I'm having the same problem, using Firefox 3.0.15. I first noticed it last night.

If you're traveling in the U.S., my bookmark lists are a decent place to start. I haven't found a reliable way to search on GC.com itself, but with an amazing amount of willing help and emails, I've managed to keep them fairly up to date. U.S. Challenge Caches: States A-M Bookmark List U.S. Challenge Caches: States N-Z Bookmark List Another thread has other bookmark lists: List of Challenge Type Caches Best of luck!

Last summer I dipped a personal geocoin in about 500 caches that I had previously found, so I would have a complete record/map of my finds. I simply explained what I was doing in my note on each of the cache pages, and I deleted the note right after I submitted it. Best of luck, and happy caching. P.S. If you do reference your own trackable, be sure to use the "public" number (listed on the top left of the trackable page, right under Origin), not the actual tracking number used to log it.

GPS Visualizer is a great resource for converting GPS file types and plotting GPS data. Specifically, if you go to http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/gpsbabel/, you can upload a Magellan file from your hard drive, convert it to a GPX file, and map the data directly. I have a Magellan eXplorist 210, and my track data is stored in a .log file on the GPS. I transfer that to my computer and upload it that GPS Visualizer form, with the following options: Type of GPS data you want to convert: Tracks [T] Input file format: Magellan SD files (I obviously pick 'as for eXplorist' but there are other options) Output file format: GPX XML [W][T][R] Upload your GPS file here: MyTrackLog.log (or .mag or .mgx or whatever) Leaving all the other options on their default settings. Once you click "Convert the file," you'll be taken to a new page with your converted GPX file ready to download and save to your computer. This file can be used in any number of mapping programs, including elsewhere on GPS Visualizer itself. But the easiest way to directly map your data is to read below the GPX file to "Create graphics with GPS Visualizer: * Draw a map instantly from "MyTrackLog.gpx": SVG, JPEG, PNG, Google Maps, Google Earth" Click one of those, and your data is instantly mapped. Hope that gives you a good place to start!

Looks fun! To make the tracking/emailing a bit more user-friendly, you might want to consider using just a different "secret code word" instead of CWFL000X for a tracking number. Maybe "yellow" or "rain" or something. You won't have that many out in the wild, and so it shouldn't be a big deal for you to correlate "yellow" with your first card, etc. But that way, it's easy for people to remember, so they'll type it correctly in an email, and it won't be as likely to be confused with a GC.com tracking number. Best of luck!

I have seen this same complaint, with the same wording, on many diverse bookmark lists, from several different regions. Therefore, I would not take it personally. Even on bookmark lists with 20+ people describing how useful the list was, this person persists in responding that it is of "no use to anyone but the owner." However, they are entitled to their opinion, and everyone plays the game their own way. As the owner of two large nation-wide public bookmark lists, I am conscious of cluttering up cache pages. Although I personally think that Geocaching.com has addressed the problem more than adequately by only showing the first three bookmark lists on the cache page itself, I have certainly removed caches from my Challenge lists upon request of a cache owner to avoid "clutter." For personal bookmark lists, or ones that I would like to share only with a few specific people, I definitely utilize the option of having a bookmark list be "shared" but not "public." Thanks for maintaining your lists, and I wouldn't worry about changing anything based on this one complaint.

I recently hit the maximum of 500 allowed bookmarks per list for my U.S. Challenge Caches bookmark list. It has now been split in two: U.S. Challenge Caches: States A-M Bookmark List U.S. Challenge Caches: States N-Z Bookmark List As always, please email me with any corrections, updates, suggestions, or complaints. Also, there is another thread with some additional challenges and bookmark lists: How do you locate "Challenge Caches", ... or is finding them part of the challenge? Happy Caching!

A similar thread is here: List of Challenge Type Caches

I've enjoyed the yard hides I've done and skipped the ones that made me uncomfortable (although I always appreciate it when it's clearly identified as such in the cache description.) But my advice to any hiders is to PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE include your house address number either in the cache description or the hint. There's a world of difference between trusting your GPSr when the neighbor's house is 10 feet away versus knowing exactly which yard you're supposed to be in. Thanks!

Thanks for a workaround until they fix the bug. Once I put back the wanted spaces between words, it does indeed show up correctly on my cache page

Nope, still doesn't work. Thanks so much for bending over backwards trying to help! I had already tried that, as well as getting my web developer buddy to look over the code before I posted the original topic. I'll be more than happy to keep trying whatever, but nothing has worked so far. Does anyone have an unpublished or archived cache that they could try to reproduce (or not) this "bug" on?

Yes, the code for having a space between every letter did work as expected, including the non-breaking two or three spaces between the words. If I remove the excess carriage returns, it does put them right back as soon as I click on "Submit Changes" (in either Firefox or Internet Explorer, on a PC.)

Unfortunately, when I copy and paste that code, GC.com automatically reformats it to be: <span style="color: green;">C</span><span style="color: red;">h</span><span style="color: green;"> r</span><span style="color: red;">i</span><span style="color: green;"> s</span><span style="color: red;">t</span><span style="color: green;"> m</span><span style="color: red;">a</span><span style="color: green;"> s</span> <span style="color: red;">l</span><span style="color: green;">i</span><span style="color: red;"> g</span><span style="color: green;">h</span><span style="color: red;"> t</span> <span style="color: green;">d</span><span style="color: red;">i</span><span style="color: green;"> s</span><span style="color: red;">p</span><span style="color: green;"> l</span><span style="color: red;">a</span><span style="color: green;"> y</span><span style="color: red;">s</span> inserting the same arbitrary carriage returns, resulting in the same extra spaces I pointed out in my first post. I can't help but think of it as an actual bug in the way that GC.com processes long strings of HTML tags.

Thanks! I'd eventually like it to show up "correctly" as: but I'll take what I can get in the meantime. (And thanks for the CSS style attributes, Skippermark; you'll see I did the ultimate faux pas of mixing and matching my HTML code by having the second appearance of the colored words further down on the cache page already using the same code you presented; I'm in the process of switching it over, but since it didn't fix my "extra spaces" problem, I haven't finished that yet.)

Hi trainlove, Thanks for the reply. When I try this, however, the site translates each extra carriage return as a single space, and the cache page ends up looking like this:

On several of my cache pages, I have some minimal HTML code. I recently noticed that in the Long Description, GC.com automatically reformats some code, inserting line breaks when a string of tags becomes too long. My example is taken from this cache (GC15QKJ). I'll copy and paste the following into the Long Description box: This cache is part of a series of caches highlighting places that have excellent <font color="green">C</font><font color="red">h</font><font color="green">r</font><font color="red">i</font><font color="green">s</font><font color="red">t</font><font color="green">m</font><font color="red">a</font><font color="green">s</font> <font color="red">l</font><font color="green">i</font><font color="red">g</font><font color="green">h</font><font color="red">t</font> <font color="green">d</font><font color="red">i</font><font color="green">s</font><font color="red">p</font><font color="green">l</font><font color="red">a</font><font color="green">y</font><font color="red">s</font>. After clicking on the Submit button, the code is reformatted and looks like this: This cache is part of a series of caches highlighting places that have excellent <font color="green">C</font><font color="red">h</font><font color="green"> r</font><font color="red">i</font><font color="green">s</font><font color="red"> t</font><font color="green">m</font><font color="red">a</font><font color="green"> s</font> <font color="red">l</font><font color="green">i</font><font color="red"> g</font><font color="green">h</font><font color="red">t</font> <font color="green">d</font><font color="red">i</font><font color="green"> s</font><font color="red">p</font><font color="green">l</font><font color="red"> a</font><font color="green">y</font><font color="red">s</font>. which results in the text on my cache page having extra spaces between letters: When I first created this series of caches last fall, I know that the same HTML code was shown correctly on the cache page. Unfortunately, I don't visit my own cache pages often enough to be able to pinpoint which GC.com site update "broke" my code. Is this a "bug" or a "feature"? Is there a workaround until/if it gets fixed? Thanks so much for any input!

Not to confuse you with even more options, but if your routes are along roads (as opposed to hiking trails), then there are also a few ways to use Google Maps. If you have Google Earth, you can use this method from another thread: (The initial KML file created by Google Maps cannot be used directly for "Caching Along a Route." It has to be opened and saved again in Google Earth before it can be uploaded to GC.com.) If you don't have Google Earth, there's a third-party JavaScript called GMapToGPX from Elsewhere.Org that will allow you to create a .GPX file directly from Google Maps. That method is described in detail in Steps 1-3 in this thread. You should ignore the optional part of Step 3, and simply upload the saved .GPX file to GC.com. Enjoy your camping trip...

Since we know how much cachers love inexplicable acronyms, I've recently decided in favor of NGF for a "Non-Geocaching Friend."

Registering CacheMate once grants you 5 separate codes within 5 years of the original order date, so even if you end up having to use a different username, you should be ok. You can request a new code for free here.

I've never used GPX Spinner, but I do use Plucker to see cache page images on my Palm. Instead, I use GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife; free to try, $$ to register) to Export a caching database as HTML. Then I use Sunrise XP (free download) to convert the HTML pages to the PDB format that Plucker reads, being sure to set the options to include pictures. The resulting files are orders of magnitude larger than the CacheMate PDBs, but you see the cache page almost exactly as it would look online. Here's another thread along these lines...

GPS Visualizer is a good website for online GPS conversions. The specific link to convert your data for use in Google Earth is here. Best of luck.

I don't think that you even need to have the eXplorist 210 Unit connected to the computer to generate maps using MapSend. For whatever reason, MapSend v. 1.00, while compatible with the 210, cannot actually transfer map files to the GPS Unit itself. So you just need to type in the serial number, as embra said, and then transfer the files later. This thread also seems to confirm that only the serial number is important. As long as you always choose 'Store on Hard Drive' when asked "What would you like to do with this region?" in the Upload to GPS Wizard when using an eXplorist 210, the *.imi files should be created. After choosing 'Store on Hard Drive,' click Next and type in the target serial number (from the About menu.) Since you're not transferring files directly to the GPS Unit, you can ignore the COM ports and Settings and Connect buttons and just click Next again to get to the Upload Wizard - Ready to Upload Dialogue. Make sure that you have enough available space, and then click Finish. Meckers, were you able to get this far? I know that I can do all this with my eXplorist 210 turned off and disconnected, but I don't remember if I had to do anything fancy to get started the first time 2 years ago. It sounds like you tried something similiar, but ended up with *.img files instead of *.imi files? On my Windows XP machine, the resulting *.imi files are located in C:\Program Files\Magellan\MapSend Topo 3D USA\Export\Images If you were able to create *.imi files, there are two ways to transfer them to the GPS Unit. The easiest is to connect your GPS Unit to the computer with the USB cable (with the wire from the USB connection pin running down the back of the unit, and not upside down.) The *.imi files can be dragged and dropped into the Detailed Maps folder just like you tried. Another method, and one that I usually use, is to use software that should have come packaged with the eXplorist 210: Magellan Conversion Manager. On my machine, the short-cut is located in the Start Menu -> Magellan -> eXplorist 210 -> Magellan Conversion Manager. Once you open up the Conversion Manager, it will ask what you want to do. Select 'Transfer Map Regions' and click Next. Follow the on-screen directions by connecting your GPS Unit, turning on the Unit, and choosing "File Transfer" on the GPS Unit itself. Your saved *.imi files should all be present in the Region List, but you can use the magnifying glass icon to browse for them in a different folder if need be. Select the regions you would like to transfer, confirm that your GPS Unit is using the correct drive and click Next. (My unit switches back and forth between using the E:\ and F:\ drives, so I always have to check that.) You will now see the Map transfer screen, which will take several minutes. Once the transfer is completed, click Next, and then Finish. Now you're done, and the maps will show up on your GPS Unit. Best of luck - hope you get this sorted out in the forums; calling any Help Hotline is never fun