stat bar download

[+genegene]

does any one know if there is some way to get and have your benchmarks included in the downloadable verson of the stat bar. If not who do we contact to have it added in to it.

[+briansnat]

Moving to benchmark forum

[+gnbrotz]

If you mean this stat bar:

 

 

It's not currently possible. Jeremy and team would have to add this functionality in order for this to work.

[Max Cacher]

Moving to Geocaching.com Web Site

 

Max Cacher

[+genegene]

what does moveing to Geocaching.com Web Site mean?

[+cache_test_dummies]

what does moveing to Geocaching.com Web Site mean?

Originally, you posted your question in a topic in the Getting Started forum. Briansnat, who is a moderator in that forum, moved your topic to the Benchmark Hunting forum. Max Cacher, who is a moderator in the Benchmark Hunting forum, moved your topic to the Geocaching.com Web Site forum, which is the correct forum for discussing new site features.

[+genegene]

thank you cache

[+genegene]

If this something you would like to see added post it here. According to the person i talked to they said they will watch the replys

[+Miragee]

On this page, you can change the words at the bottom of the Stat bar. Until GC.com implements this, you could periodically change the text to include your benchmark finds.

 

Just an idea . . .

 

Edit to say I just realized this only works if you want the stat bar to be different on a different page, like your Profile, or a blog, or a MySpace page . . . It doesn't seem to work on the My Account page . . .

Edited April 17, 2007 by Miragee

[+gnbrotz]

Great suggestion!

[+genegene]

If you would like to see the addition of benchmark finds to the downloadable stat bar say yes here. I e-mailed groundspeek and someone there said that if enough people liked the idea they might add it. One or two yes replies wont get thier attition but 10,000 will. just type yes in the replies here.

[+genegene]

yes

[+StarBrand]

I'v only done a handful of benchmarks but I am not againist it either.

 

 

Neutral.

[+ZSandmann]

Yes...

 

if we could get GS to update the benchmark database.

[+Miragee]

Yes . . . I like the idea.

[+BBosman]

Yes, but one one condition. That if you haven't found any it's not shown. (for those people that don't benchmark)

[+TheBeanTeam]

Yes, but one one condition. That if you haven't found any it's not shown. (for those people that don't benchmark)

 

Yes or a separate banner altogether, and I agree only listed if the individual has benchmark finds on their account.

Edited April 19, 2007 by TheBeanTeam

[+SLO Trekker]

I would love this!

[+kf4oox]

Yes I would like to see this as well. Also update the database.

 

Thanks

 

Paul

KF4OOX

[Keystone]

I merged two threads on the same subject. While your enthusiasm is appreciated, duplicate active threads are not.

[Guyute1210]

I would like to see this feature, but I would like it more if the benchmark database was updated first.

[+genegene]

thank you keystone. i diddent know how to do that. wanted to rewright the question but it wouldent let me. sorry about that

[+Rumpled]

Bringing an old thread back to life.

There's a customizable GC statbar,

 

Waymarking has a non-customizable statbar

 

How about either one for Benchmarking?

Edited September 20, 2007 by Rumpled

[Ranger Fox]

I'm still waiting for Jeremy to respond to my web service request, which has been outstanding since the end of May. In it is a web service that will provide me a breakdown of finds by cache type for a user. If I can ever get that, I can provide everyone with that breakdown on their statbar--including benchmarks.

 

Here's what I can do for you at the moment: Tell me where you want your benchmark stat to appear on the statbar and what it should look like. I will try to add that as a side feature to the Statbar Modifier, supposing it works out. If you provide the URL with a number, it will display that as the number of benchmarks found. Until I get that web service from Groundspeak, that's all I can provide, so it's better than nothing. Alternatively, you could always put the number of benchmarks you found in the user quote section (I created a Greasemonkey script to show whatever statbar you want on your account page). I could also remove your find and hide counts from the statbar and place your benchmarks found count in its place. However you want it, I can also add the benchmark icon to the statbar.

 

Discuss how you want it to appear and I'll see what I can do.

 

Statbar Modifier: www.devfolio.com/geocaching/statbar

It's a free service I created for everyone to use. Submit whatever G-rated, non-copyrighted images you would like. I'm currently working on a new type of statbar with a background and such. Check my profile page for the live test.

 

(When I'm finished with the fully customizable statbar, I'll put it on its own domain.)

[+trainlove]

I would like it if that stat display showed

Found OTT:466, Trad:846, Hidden:6, but that's just me. Fully more than 1/3 of my finds are other than traditional.

 

Benchmarks are fun and since they have not been moved to Waymarking they should be somehow displayable in that stat.

 

But it's too much to break out that stat to something like:

Found: Total1312 TR846 MU125 PU212 EV73 VI24 LB19 WB5 EA4 CI4 LO3 BN35, Hidden.........

 

And perhaps there should be some crossover in showing the Waymarking stats in addition to the geocaching stats all in one. But who really waymarks anyway?

Edited September 25, 2007 by trainlove

[Ranger Fox]

The following is a statbar concept I mocked up (all but the handle and find/hide count will be optional). This is where I would like to go with the Statbar Modifier, supposing I am given the web services I requested.

 

This is the concept:

 

As you can see, it has a background, logo with transparency, selectable font color, and the find breakdown (including benchmarks, though not shown). I want to add a hide breakdown, but need to decide how to distinguish between the two. Perhaps text behind the breakdown, I don't know at the moment.

 

I'm working on another update for the Statbar Modifier that will include backgrounds and selectable font color. It will be a few months before I can come out with the UI for everyone.

[+trainlove]

The following is a statbar concept I mocked up (all but the handle and find/hide count will be optional). This is where I would like to go with the Statbar Modifier, supposing I am given the web services I requested.

 

This is the concept:

 

As you can see, it has a background, logo with transparency, selectable font color, and the find breakdown (including benchmarks, though not shown). I want to add a hide breakdown, but need to decide how to distinguish between the two. Perhaps text behind the breakdown, I don't know at the moment.

 

I'm working on another update for the Statbar Modifier that will include backgrounds and selectable font color. It will be a few months before I can come out with the UI for everyone.

 

I stand corrected, it's not too much if you do it graphically.

 

Now if only the stat that one can customize is the one that all other cachers can see on geocaching.com or anywhere the stats box is displayed, not just any place I put that little snipet of HTML code.

[RV'n Iowans]

Yes I'm for it, and an updated Benchmark listing, too.

[+Lacomo]

Yes I would like to see this.

[Ranger Fox]

All right, then. When I finally get Jeremy's attention, I will be certain to include waymarks in the list. He asked me to email him about this after GW5. Four months and two or three email reminders later and I'm waiting patiently for a reply. When I finish what I am doing at the moment and its UI, I will instead contact Raine (also only once the .Net 2 site is released) and try to get this through.

 

Check out the statbar at the following link. This is part of my semi custom statbar experiment. It's progressing. Without OCR or Groundspeak's support via a web service, I believe this is as far as I can take the statbar modification.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?u=creacher

 

Before this thread dies, is there anything else to request? Would there be interest in a benchmark-only statbar or even one that mixes in Waymarking? As long as it's a good, thought-out idea, I'll spend time developing it for the community.

 

I'll check back here when I can; I will be attending the Alabama Open Invitational (say hi to me if you're there) and am already down in Florida, doing priority number one.

 

Cheers!

[+trainlove]

Check out the statbar at the following link. This is part of my semi custom statbar experiment. It's progressing. Without OCR or Groundspeak's support via a web service, I believe this is as far as I can take the statbar modification.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?u=creacher

 

I love the mod to the World66 map. I've seen it before and have yet to implement it in my profile/web site.

 

Since it appears that the proposal for the new stat bar is to sort of have it all inclusive, i.e. all kinds of geocaches, benchmarks, waymarks (yuck). Why not also have it display the number of days that that user has been listed on geocaching.com? I mean something like, "Caching for 840 days", or more likely doable "Member since 5/20/05". And possibly as an indicator of how active someone is have it show something like, "Last find 125 days ago"

 

Oh, and only list non-zero items, so no mega events or Project APE's for me yet. And it might be nice to have them listed in decreasing numerical order as shown in a prior entry by me.

 

Something I have mentioned before that is sort of related, and I hope that Jeremy is looking at these requests, is as follows.

When looking at a cache page and seeing the logs, knowning that Trainlove has found 1314 caches is only so useful, it would be nice to show that when I logged a particular cache, I had at that time had 750 finds and today have 1314 finds. One number is static and the other number grows with time but show both numbers next to my name.

[+Rumpled]

I'd prefer to have a standalone BM statbar.

Then, put all three statbar's in a row on my webpage, GC,BM, WM

[+Trucker Lee]

Although I like the idea, I wonder about where we draw the line to conserve server resources required to tabulate and provide the information in a current status. How much capacity will be needed for this, and what would be the effect on the rest of the system?

 

Thank you.

[Ranger Fox]

A few things of note:

 

Static finds on logs: I can see where you are coming from with that. Though it might be helpful, it just doesn't feel all that necessary. It also puts more of a focus on numbers, and such a topic certainly does not need further encouragement. Generally, you tend to get a feeling for whose logs to trust when related to your own caching proficiency so you can judge whether you will be able to find a cache. But as for including a snapshot of the user's current find count on the log, something about that makes me shy away. Does anyone have any comment on this?

 

===========

 

Standalone versus combined statbar: I will only build a combined, fully-customizable statbar. This is my goal. With it, you should be able to make whatever statbar you desire--one for each use or one with everything. If you want separate statbars, such as for Waymarking and benchmarks, build the statbar that way (in other words, use two different URLs to produce that result). I will, however, keep this in mind as I was going to require the find and hide count to be included on all statbars. That would not work well if you wanted to include the benchmarks found and that's it.

 

===========

 

Conserving resources: I see what you mean. Currently, the load is just on the find and hide counts--top level numbers. The same stored procedure is executed each time a statbar is requested. Additionally, the same SQL join is executed when a cache page is populated with logs. Therefore, I am ruling out any sort of concern about resources when considering only top level numbers. However, when we look at breakdowns by cache type, I am not so certain.

 

To explain the above scenario:

To pull a user's finds, one would only have to query the cache log table where the user's GUID equals whatever it is.

To pull a breakdown, you would have to join the cache log table with the cache table and get an aggregate sum grouped by cache type ID. Considering those are the two largest tables in the database, it would still take more than thirty or forty milliseconds to complete even with the correct indicies in place. Just considering joining those two tables makes me hesitant. For the lay person, the cache log table has more than 15,000,000 rows (approx. 600,000 active and archived caches with an average twenty-five log entries each). So, yeah, lots of data and lots to consider.

 

Now, let's assume we decide to release the cache breakdown on the statbar, but cache the query results to produce a lighter server load. Should my application cache the last value by fifteen minutes? Would this delay be acceptable to the end user or would it look like it is not functioning correctly?

 

===========

 

Other information on the statbar: Certain metrics, such as "Caching since 30-09-2007", can be added as plain text to the statbar. Other items, such as "Caching for xxx days" will in fact need its own programming. I'll think about things like that. If there is enough demand, that might be a next version thing. I will, though, build into the fully customizable statbar the ability to add more than one text field. Position as you want and assign a value. Viola: instant other information for which we don't have to make an additional DB call. But, yes, most items are calculated metrics, so I'll have to think of something to do.

 

===========

 

Nonzero finds: I did not plan to show cache types without finds. It's good to know such a thing was brought up and has been discussed. Save for the major cache types (traditional, multi, and mystery), I guess we can leave that off, though for viruals and letterboxes I am less certain.

 

===========

 

Well, that's all the time I have to include comments. I need to get back to work.

Edited October 2, 2007 by Ranger Fox

[+trainlove]

All this is for the info posted along with logs, finds, notes...

 

I think my mentioning of static log finds is a little misinterpreted.

I mean that if I, or anyone else, looks at a cache I found last year, it would be nice to know that AT THAT TIME I had xyz finds but today have abcd finds. That IS sort of an indication of my proficiency AT THAT TIME, whereas seeing abcd finds is sort of meaningless since that is today's number not 400 days ago's number.

It also could be used as a way to keep track of milestones, at least approximate since it really only applies to the order that one posts logs.

I don't think that it can be abused in the sense of not being all about the numbers. On the contrary, having each and every one of my logs out there right now saying Trainlove has abcd finds just aboout begs for me to keep on caching to build up that number higher and higher.

 

Now, on to the little stats box.

Not being a database programmer, I'm not sure if this is right but:

I think that a database field could be built that gets updated every time that a person posts a find log, an attended log and a web camera photo taken log. That field is the current numbers for each kind of cache type. No need for a dozen database lookups every time someone looks at someone elses stat box, just one lookup of that field. But currently, actually, anytime that someone looks at someones profile are there not lookups of all kinds of caches, includind the long defunct Reverse Locationless. Keeping this kind of field should actually lessen the lookups that happen.

 

But I don't think that there are any server issues, has that all been fixed since February? I do hope that things are not on the hairy edge of breaking such that just a little bit of more accessing will tip the camel over or in this case the hamsters.