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Benchmarking on your web site


Papa-Bear-NYC

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Like many folks here, I maintain my own web site. In my case, it's mostly hiking and mountain climbing reports with a little running stuff thrown in.

 

I'd like to add a section on my Benchmarking, but clearly what works for a hiking report - typically a long narative with pictures sprinkled in - will not be ideal for Benchmarking. But I'd like to use the superstructure I've already built to "frame" the benchmarking stuff.

 

FYI, here's my home page: Home page.

 

I have some ideas which have not yet gelled into a format. These include:

> Index by county with perhaps a table of links to visited marks. Maybe thumbnails as well

> Link my GC logs. No need to recreate a format when GC has a reasonable one. Perhaps throw my GC logs into a frame.

> perhaps use Google Maps and put all my finds for a given county on a map. Looks like I'll have to learn the Google Map API.

 

I woukld love to hear what others have done, or would like to do. If you have a page already working, by all means post a link. If you have any ideas, implemented or not, throw them out there.

 

Thanks

Papa Bear

Edited by Papa-Bear-NYC
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Like many folks here, I maintain my own web site. In my case, it's mostly hiking and mountain climbing reports with a little running stuff thrown in.

 

I'd like to add a section on my Benchmarking, but clearly what works for a hiking report - typically a long narative with pictures sprinkled in - will not be ideal for Benchmarking. But I'd like to use the superstructure I've already built to "frame" the benchmarking stuff.

 

FYI, here's my home page: Home page.

 

I have some ideas which have not yet gelled into a format. These include:

> Index by county with perhaps a table of links to visited marks. Maybe thumbnails as well

> Link my GC logs. No need to recreate a format when GC has a reasonable one. Perhaps throw my GC logs into a frame.

> perhaps use Google Maps and put all my finds for a given county on a map. Looks like I'll have to learn the Google Map API.

 

I woukld love to hear what others have done, or would like to do. If you have a page already working, by all means post a link. If you have any ideas, implemented or not, throw them out there.

 

Thanks

Papa Bear

 

That kind of reminds me of a local hiker/chacher. He likes to post reports of his hikes too. His web pages are not as nice as yours but he adds a topo map with a GPS track on it. Here's a link to one of his pages. He does not have an index page. Don't miss the "next" link at the bottom of his page. It is somtimes hard to see.

 

That doesn't help you much with your benchmark page.

 

Very nice web page Papa Bear.

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I'm not ambitious enough at this point to have a webpage dedicated to benchmark hunting. I do however post my finds online at a photohost site. My NGS benchmark finds are cataloged simply by PID. If it works for the NGS, it can work for me. There's not a lot of description with them at this point, but I'm working on that. It's a work in progress.

 

This page has my galleries of NGS Marks.

 

This page has additional Survey Stuff & Benchmarks.

 

- Kewaneh

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Here's a listing a collection of individuals' benchmark related websites that I have bookmarked:

 

Holoscene's page

Holoscene's Benchmark Hunting Wiki

BuckBrooke's Benchmark and Related Objects Images (formerly DustyJacket's page)

BuckBrooke's Benchmark Agencies page (click on Benchmarking for his other benchmark pages)

Zhanna's Survey Marks page

Fuzzy's Geocaching Page o'Wonders (page for BMGPX for benchmarks)

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Like many folks here, I maintain my own web site. In my case, it's mostly hiking and mountain climbing reports with a little running stuff thrown in.

 

I'd like to add a section on my Benchmarking, but clearly what works for a hiking report - typically a long narative with pictures sprinkled in - will not be ideal for Benchmarking.

 

Why not?

 

By the way, I third the recommendation that you look at Zhanna's site. Not to copy her design, of course, but just to get some inspiration about doing an attractive site that conveys information clearly.

 

Patty

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Wow! Everyone is doing such a great job with websites that I'm shy about revealing the URL of my current project.

 

With the tremendous growth of GEOCAC reports in the NGS database, it occurred to me that professional surveyors might be wondering who this group is, and can GEOCAC reports be relied upon? So I've been tinkering with a site which would index in search engines if someone typed in "GEOCAC NGS", or something similar.

 

I wrote a narrative and rounded up some cool photos, and included a link to a very well-known benchmarking site. (Hope that's okay, Holo.)

 

It's designed to be brief, but yet build credibility for our organization. It's sitting at

 

http://rxp.US

 

and your comments (or spelling corrections!) are welcome.

 

-Paul-

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WOW everyone has been busy.

 

Here is one poke at my working page.

US RECOVERED BENCHMARKS AND OTHERS

 

This starts at home then spreads from there.

It is not complete yet...adding more everyday.

It is a great way to log all benchmarks in the area.

And have your Enumerated Domain Helper at hand.

META DATA IN PLAIN LANGUAGE

 

ENUMERATED DOMAIN HELPER

I have a couple more things in the works but not worth posting yet.

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Many thanks to those who sent me comments about the Introducing GEOCAC website at http://rxp.us, and a special thank-you to Wintertime who made several excellent suggestions regarding logos and text.

 

The March 2007 issue of Professional Surveyor Magazine has an article about Geocaching, and it mentions benchmark recoveries by hobbists. Over the next year, I expect to see increasing curiosity and interest among surveyors about our NGS entries. Hopefully, http://rxp.us will let them know that our goal is to make our recovery reports as accurate and as useful as possible.

 

I realize that the majority of benchmark hunters don't have any interest in reporting to NGS. And I certainly understand why. It is time-consuming, and you have to convert your finds into a special format, with a sentence structure and vocabulary that would get you an "F" from any high school English teacher. [Grin.] That's why NGS participation has its own forum on this website.

 

Nevertheless, having your reports on GEOCACHING.COM/MARK is useful. The fact that someone from our group visited a benchmark location and did (or did not) find the disk could be significant to a professional. If an inquiry comes in about one of your submissions, I'll let you know, and I'll give you the option to interact with the local professional, if you wish.

 

-Paul-

Edited by PFF
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Well, I've been working a few days on this (while I should have been out doors) and got a "proof of concept" up and running. I've had to relearn some things I hoped to forget on retirement, as well as quite a few new things. Up till now, my web design has been seat-of-the-pants. Now it looks like I have to learn a few slightly more sophisticated things.

 

The audience, content and purpose of my site - primarily the hiking stuff - has been:

> audience: me, friends, other like minded folks

> content: lots of reports and pictures

> purpose: helps me relive and remember my trips; friends and family enjoy; other hikers get ideas and information.

 

This translates in to benchmark hunting except perhaps I don't expect to "relive" a lot of it. I also do not want to or need to duplicate what's already out there, so I do more linking to things and less writing. Hopefully this will allow a new way to look at things and perhaps interest a few other to take up the hobby.

 

So far I have built the files by hand. Once I have the structure of the content the way I like it, I'll have to automate the generation of all the little files and links for hundreds of marks.

 

Some design decisions (subject to change)

> Keep the "look and feel" from existing home page

> make it about my benchmark hunting, but with a little about the general topic.

> Include "travelogue" sections such as "A Benchmark Tour of New York City". etc.

> On the indexing side, divide things by counties and use Google Maps to help. On the maps, if you see something, click or double-click on it. Eventually there'll be more help built in.

> Include not just the NGS marks, but some of the special groups of marks I've gone after such as historic NYC marks.

 

GC logs were a special case. I couldn't put them into one of my frames so my link to them creates a new window. I'll think about how best to do this.

 

Please take a look and give me some feedback. Several things to tell me:

> stuff that's broken. I've just tested it on Mozilla and the latest version of IE. I'm sure there are older browsers on which it may not work.

> stuff that works but that you would like to see done differently.

> stuff that's not there that you would like to see.

> lastly, stuff you liked as is.

 

Here's the link: My New Benchmarking Page, give it a try.

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I’m new to geocaching.com and definitely an amateur at posting to message boards, but I trust that I’ll be corrected if I screw up. As I have what I hope is a relevant web site contribution, this thread seemed an appropriate one to jump in on. I haven’t had a chance to yet to really search the archives so I hope I don’t rehash any subjects that have been beaten to death.

 

I’m new to geocaching but I’m an old hand at recovering control monuments as a land surveyor for the past thirty+ years. For the last 10 years I have enjoyed the benefits of GPS for this activity. It is very exciting to me that many geocachers are adopting benchmark recovery as an organized activity. Not only is it fun, it is a valuable public service. Millions of our tax dollars went into establishing survey monumentation for various agencies across the country. Describing and maintaining these marks aids in every surveying and mapping project that attempts to tie into the National Spatial Reference System. As long as everyone heeds the cautions described at geocaching.com, the quality of the recovery effort will be a positive contribution.

 

I am a Land Surveyor and a Photogrammetrist. Most of my work is in support of aerial mapping. Our company web site has a feature for plotting NGS control in Google Earth for the New England states and New York. Perhaps geocachers will find it useful for planning their exploits.

http://www.mappos.biz/Control_Data.html

 

Papa-Bear-NYC, I have read a few of your posts. I have done a lot of hiking in the White Mountains and performed several boundary surveys along the Maine- New Hampshire State Line. ATF stamped on a ME/NH boundary monument are the initials of A.T. Fowler, a Topographic Engineer with USGS. The two states engaged USGS to undertake the 1927-29 resurvey of the State Line and Fowler conducted that work. I can send more info if you are interested.

 

Larry

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Ikane

 

Thanks for posting that link. And thanks to your company for putting the information on the web site. That will be very helpful to a lot of people in that area. It was also helpful to me even though I am many miles away. I down loaded the NY file and saw there were many stations near or on old Coast Artillery Batteries (another interest of mine) and with the descriptions of the stations I was able to confirm some of the locations of the batteries that I found and marked with Google Earth.

 

It was also fun looking at some of the recoveries. I noticed along Shore Drive Papa-Bear-NY (GEOCACHING (RG)) made a number of recoveries but also skipped a few. I wonder if he saw the marks on Google Earth if he might have found them.

 

I down loaded the county listing for my county and put that on Google Earth. It makes a big difference when looking for benchmarks.

Edited by 68-eldo
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...

It was also fun looking at some of the recoveries. I noticed along Shore Drive Papa-Bear-NY (GEOCACHING (RG)) made a number of recoveries but also skipped a few. I wonder if he saw the marks on Google Earth if he might have found them. ...

I remember moving along from Fort Hamilton to Bay Ridge and all the way to Red Hook. Most of the old NYBE+A stations (1909) near Fort Hamilton and the old "x 43" and "x 44" series (1934) were gone.

 

I do start with the county lists and sort them by location, which is not to say I couldn't miss some. I'll give it a look. I may have ignored some old intersection stations, or there might have been some on the water side of the parkway that I couldn't get to. It's a nice area.

Edited by Papa-Bear-NYC
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lkane,

 

Welcome to the benchmarking forums. We're always glad to have folks like yourself with expertise in the surveying field and to guide us along with some of the finer points of benchmark recovery.

 

Many of us still consider ourselves noobies when it comes to the benchmarking. (I certainly do!)

 

In short, we'll be happy to pester the heck outta you about the all those little nuances or terms that only seasoned surveyors use daily.

 

Again, welcome to the forums.

~ Mitch ~

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Bumping this up, since it may have been lost in the traffic.

 

Please check my note which is 5 above this one.

 

I have a "proof of concept" version of a new benchmark hunting page up (with only token content). Please take a look and give me some feedback. Several things you may want to tell me:

 

> stuff that's broken. I've just tested it on Mozilla and the latest version of IE. I'm sure there are older browsers on which it may not work.

> stuff that works but that you would like to see done differently.

> stuff that's not there that you would like to see.

> lastly, stuff you liked as is.

 

Here's the link: My New Benchmarking Page, please give it a try.

 

Thanks

Papa Bear

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Hi Papa-Bear,

 

Your site seems to work good. I tried all of the links and they took me to all of the proper places.

 

The topper tab bar cannot be read as you can only see a small portion of it. If these are meant to be buttons to click, we cannot. -- John just tried on our other PC and our laptop and the topper can be read but not clicked.... I guess if we change something on my computer, I might be able to see these.

 

John just looked and the screen display settings that work are 1024 x 768 and 1280 x 800. The one on my computer is 1280 x 1024. We checked both Firefox and IE7 on all computers.

 

So, it would be nice to be able to "Click" on those tabs to see where those take me. Is that a feature for the future?

 

Lastly, I love how you have linked to your found and not found marks to show on the map...way cool!

 

Thank you for showing us this.

 

Shirley~

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Hi Papa-Bear,

 

Your site seems to work good. I tried all of the links and they took me to all of the proper places.

 

The topper tab bar cannot be read as you can only see a small portion of it. If these are meant to be buttons to click, we cannot. -- John just tried on our other PC and our laptop and the topper can be read but not clicked.... I guess if we change something on my computer, I might be able to see these.

 

John just looked and the screen display settings that work are 1024 x 768 and 1280 x 800. The one on my computer is 1280 x 1024. We checked both Firefox and IE7 on all computers.

 

So, it would be nice to be able to "Click" on those tabs to see where those take me. Is that a feature for the future?

L...

Shirley~

Thanks. I actually disabled those tabs on purpose since this was a test version. Those tabs don't take you to the future, they go to the past, They're used on my existing web site where I've used those tabs for a few years. But you should be able to see the whole top section. Maybe it's running off the bottom of the screen. Try a bigger screen size. I'll have to do more testing a various screen sizes. When more things are added and working (like more than 1 FOUND and 3 DNFs!), I'll link it all together and the tabs will work to all the sections.

 

Lastly, I love how you have linked to your found and not found marks to show on the map...way cool!

 

Shirley~

The maps are fun to work with once you get them to work. I need to put some more infomation on the maps for what color means what and what you can click on. Check this out: bring up the Westchester county map. Try a "mouseover" and a "click" on the markers. You can also double-click on a point and it will zoom and recenter at the point (a regular Google Maps feature). So on the Westchester map, double click a few times near those overlapping red markers near the bottom (just don't double-click exactly on the marker) and you'll see them separately.

 

Thank you for showing us this.

 

Shirley~

Thanks, and thank you for taking the time to check it out.

Papa Bear

Edited by Papa-Bear-NYC
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Hey Papa Bear, I tried to access your benchmarking page test location, but the link didn't appear to work. I was interested in what you had been working on. Is it still around to share? Thanks.

I moved it. Try this: http://www.stuyvesantcove.org/benchmarking...nchmarking.html

 

I also put it in my signature, but nobody ever looks at those :laughing: (Font is too small to read.)

 

Sorry, I thought this thread was dormant or I would have posted it here. I just put a note on another thread about using Google Maps. Interesting how trends tend to come together.

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