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My Assessment Of The Site


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OK. After a little cooling off period for myself and much fanboying by a couple local geocachers (I guess waymarkers in this context) I succumbed to the "shut up and love it, maggot!" kind of attitude that abounds and began to browse Waymarking.com with as much of an open mind as I could. I logged a visit to a local waymark. Sadly, my only real option was a McDonald's across town. I also created a waymark, but laziness caused me to create one in the Sushi Joint category. After spending some time (more than my wife would approve) browsing and using the site I would like to present the following statements, suggestions, opinions and questions in no particular order. Take them for what ever you want them to mean. Flame me if you see fit... but I'll likely not return the gesture.

 

- Once the site gets open to all and the database starts to get populated, I can see this as a great resource for finding things. If given a choice I'll take a Starbuck's over a Peet's (or a Subway over a McD's) any day. It would be nice to know during my upcoming drive to Disney where the best places to stop for both since these usually don't have the big freeway signs. I will be more likely to visit this site for info like that than to compliment my geocaching. IMO, I don't see this as a game or sport at all. For me, it just lacks passion and excitement. But I see it as a worthwhile site.

 

- Though I've never done a locationless, this site seems like a great replacement. It seems to follow the "I like [object] so go find one and tell me where it is" model. The site does add the additional feature of others then being able to visit each of the finds... something that I can see LCs lacked. Since LCs were never really listed right along with other caches, I guess you had to search for them on gc.com in another way. So now that other way in on another site. Whatever. If it works for the LCs then fine.

 

- I still can't see this as a replacement for virtual caches. They say "If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, then its a duck." But sometimes its a goose. This one is a goose. It may be close to the same process but to me it just is not the same. Unlike the LC model, virtuals follow a "I like this [object] go see it and enjoy it". I'll admit that once you get down to an actual waymark entry, there is not that much difference between it and a virtual cache. But as an overall experience, it is just not the same. Its more than just the convenience of having virtuals listed right along with the other caches or the hassle of visiting two sites. Its also the way the info is presented and the process of finding it. The popularity filter is fine and all but just because its popular does not mean its worthwhile (ie, the best music is not always what makes it to the radio) So browsing with the filter set lower... well you never know what gem you never see. It'd be interesting to see what level people start setting their's to. The Location filter will help hide things not near you but its not set up that great. Plus with Waymarking, there is a lot of other things mixed in that aren't really even a "point of interest" as much as just a "point on earth that has something". As the site grows, I can see it becoming even harder to find anything in the sea of everything. Time will tell and I do hope I am wrong.

 

- Whether a cache is a container or not is an opinion... one I don't wish to debate. Our opinions will likely never be changed. We can agree to disagree.

 

- I think you should allow waymark searches from the directory home. For someone who is less interested in finding any particular type of thing but rather something interesting, seeing a mixed list of waymarks from all three top level categories centered around my origin search would appeal to me much more than having to first decide if I want to look for People, Places or Things.

 

- Since the upper right corner seems to remember which origin I last selected, I would like to see distance and direction listed any time there is a list of waymarks like in the results of an origin search..

 

- In the list of origins on the My Origins page, it would be nice if changing your origin did not involve that many clicks of the mouse. Perhaps in the column where it says "you are here" the other origins could have a clickable link that says "No, I am here!" (or something) that would change your current location to that. Clicking edit, checking a box and clicking update is too many steps. Not to mention, that really is not editing the origin itself... just changing which one is currently selected.

 

- I would like to see the waymark count shown next to the category titles regardless if you are sorting by count or not. It is valuable info even when sorted alphabetical or by popularity.

 

- With the Location filter turned on, after drilling down into a category you finally get to a list of waymarks. But that list is the most recently added waymarks with no regard for your location filter. I'd like to see that filtered as well. It seems that the Location filter really only filters out categories that don't have waymarks in your range, but does not filter out waymarks once you get into a category. It seems kind of backwards. The Location filter hides categories that don't have waymarks near you. But then you don't see the categories that you could be creating a local waymark in. Location filter really should only filter out waymarks not categories. Showing the waymark count (as suggested above) for each category, adjusted for Location filter, would let you see the categories that you could add to as well as one that have waymarks for you to visit. Right now it seems you need to decide if you are going to be creating waymarks or visiting one before you start browsing.

 

- Searching by origin defaults your listing to 10 miles. This often means nothing is listed until you select 50 or 100 miles. Is it too much strain on the servers to just do 100 miles like with gc.com? If that produces a list that is too large then it would make sense to then limit it by number of waypoints. Then, as with gc.com, use pagination to progress further and further from the origin.

 

- What is the default range used with the Location filter by origin? Is it 10 miles like the search or different?

 

- While drilling down through the directory, it would make more sense to me to have categories that contain further sub-categories in bold and categories that contain only waymarks not in bold. At the moment the site has it the other way around. This is just an opinion and really makes no functional difference, but I figured I'd mention it.

 

- Can a category contain both waymarks and further subcategories? I've yet to see it but maybe its there. This seems like it would be confusing. Yet the site seems to be built in anticipation of that.

 

Thank you for taking the time to read a long post that I took the time to put together. I tried to make it as constructive as possible and set aside most of my feelings about virtuals (though it was hard not to at least mention it a little :laughing:)

 

mini cacher

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Can a category contain both waymarks and further subcategories? I've yet to see it but maybe its there. This seems like it would be confusing. Yet the site seems to be built in anticipation of that.

 

I'm still looking over the rest of your post, but the answer to this question appears to be no.

ok I see. So then it really does seem set up in anticipation of that. Once you reach a final category that contains the waymarks, we don't really need the "Subcategories: no subcategories" part. We need a list of waymarks. We do get a list of the most recently added, but as mentioned above, they don't get filtered.

 

They [snip] will definitely be taken into consideration.

I really can't ask for more than that. :laughing:

Edited by mini cacher
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While drilling down through the directory, it would make more sense to me to have categories that contain further sub-categories in bold and categories that contain only waymarks not in bold. At the moment the site has it the other way around.

I agree - the bolding to me would seem to indicate 'something more' here.

 

It's not clear to me why you need to indicate on these pages whether there are more categories below or waymarks below anyway. But I think there might a better way to represent this notion rather than bold/not bold. Maybe an icon of some sort would be clearer. Or the use of an ellipsis like this:

 

Arenas ...

Art Galleries ...

Castles

Concert Halls

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Showing the waymark count (as suggested above) for each category, adjusted for Location filter, would let you see the categories that you could add to as well as one that have waymarks for you to visit.

Good suggestion here.

 

As a side note, confused by exactly what was happening with the location filtering, I checked the help (the question mark on the Location Filter box). Maybe it's just me, but I have now read the second sentence in the help message 5 times and I can't make any sense of it at all:

 

If the user attempts to use the directory from within a subcategory that does not contain waymarks, the directory will still allow the user to remain in that subcategory until he/she leaves that category.

 

:laughing:

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Its more than just the convenience of having virtuals listed right along with the other caches or the hassle of visiting two sites.

I thought of this also, but then realized that because I use GSAK, this won't be an issue once the ability to get pocket queries sent from the waymark site is in place. I'll be able to download all the virtuals... I mean waymarks, I want and sort them right into my GSAK database. Then when I send everything to my GPSr or Palm, it will all work as I am used to.

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Its more than just the convenience of having virtuals listed right along with the other caches or the hassle of visiting two sites.

I thought of this also, but then realized that because I use GSAK, this won't be an issue once the ability to get pocket queries sent from the waymark site is in place. I'll be able to download all the virtuals... I mean waymarks, I want and sort them right into my GSAK database. Then when I send everything to my GPSr or Palm, it will all work as I am used to.

perhaps GS can subsidize the reg fee for GSAK so everyone can do things exactly the way you do. :D I've used GSAK but not enough to pay for it just yet. But it still doesn't eliminate the hassle.

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