+Von-Horst Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 (edited) Presumably this is a beta test but, for me, this feature is a hinderance rather than a help. I use the Google Map Search to get an overview of what caches are around, what typwe they are and how they are dispersed. Having the individual cache icons replaced by a big blue spodge stops me doing this... I suppose that the splodge is useful for spotting power trails for those unable to wiorkout what a line of closely spaced icons means.... If this feature is adopted fulltime, please can it be turn-offable? Edited January 19, 2008 by Von-Horst Link to comment
+binzi Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 I absolutely second that! The new feature is really annoying and a hindrance when trying to get an overview of new caches in the area. This kind of makes the google map search unusable for me. Especially since the new areas cover both found and not found caches. Could you please turn this feature of by default and then include some kind of checkbox to turn that feature on? P.S.: Speaking of google maps, it would also be great if the map would be centered on my home coordinates instead of somewhere in Seattle. This should also reduce a great number of redundant database queries on geocaching.com... Link to comment
+Von-Horst Posted January 19, 2008 Author Share Posted January 19, 2008 P.S.: Speaking of google maps, it would also be great if the map would be centered on my home coordinates instead of somewhere in Seattle. This should also reduce a great number of redundant database queries on geocaching.com... Have you set up your home cordinates? You can set/alter them by clicking the link at the top of the right-hand tool bar on the 'my account details' page. Link to comment
nounours99 Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 I don`t want it. Put a button to turn it off Let the people have the choice to choose bring back the old map Link to comment
+:-) Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 I hate the grouping as well, but the biggest problem I see is that even though you may have the "Hide My Finds" checked it still creates a groups for them, then you check on it and nothing is there. I assume this would also be the case with the other checkbox options Link to comment
+JunglePete Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 This is awful - get it off or give us a button to turn it off!!!!! Link to comment
+South Lyon Trekkers Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 I see how it could be useful and I know how it bothers me. So, a option to turn it off and on would be great. Link to comment
+Schatzfinder Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 There is still a little hope, that they might fix this buggy new feature some time. In the moment the grouping - not consistent with the filter criteria - makes the maps quite useless. Maybe this is the relaunch of virtual caches: find a blue area where at least one cache appears when clicking at it . Let's hope they fix it after starting Project Phoenix (V2) approx. in 2012. Link to comment
+avgraphics Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 I too find the large blue splotch to be somewhat useless.. If its here to stay then I like the idea of being able to switch it off.. Link to comment
+genegene Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 I kind of like it, It lets me be able to pick an area with a high concentration of caches in an area. I am trying to hit the 200 mark on the 26 and want the 200th to be at an event. this new feature helps me find an area that has just the right number (199) and then go to the event for # 200. I think that if a cacher is in it for the numbers, this new feature will help them get the numbers in an area that has a high cache count. If someone wants to turn it off then thats ok just give them a button. Link to comment
+UncleJimbo Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 Presumably this is a beta test but, for me, this feature is a hinderance rather than a help. I use the Google Map Search to get an overview of what caches are around, what typwe they are and how they are dispersed. Having the individual cache icons replaced by a big blue spodge stops me doing this... I suppose that the splodge is useful for spotting power trails for those unable to wiorkout what a line of closely spaced icons means.... If this feature is adopted fulltime, please can it be turn-offable? This is the first I have seen this. It must be recent. From what I can tell, the blue areas only appear when you zoom out to where too many caches are in the selected area. I guess I could live with this. Formerly, it would just draw a box and you would get no information about caches outside that boxed area. Link to comment
+Noscitare Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 From what I can tell, the blue areas only appear when you zoom out to where too many caches are in the selected area. I'm new around these parts and I've been having a heck of a time trying to figure out just what "blue spodge" this thread was talking about. Then I zoomed out on a map and -- ba-bing -- there's the "blue spodges". From the perspective of someone not familiar with the way this used to operate, I'm really not sure what the problem might be. Zoom in and the "blue spodges" go away. Link to comment
+looksalot Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 Here we go again, fixing something that wasn't broken in the first place. Sheesh! Link to comment
+tozainamboku Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 Here we go again, fixing something that wasn't broken in the first place. Sheesh! It seems there was something broken for many people who live in high cache density areas. When they zoomed out they got more than 500 caches and wouldn't see all the caches. And some people with slow dial up lines found the wait intolerable or complained that the maps locked up. I don't have a slow line so I don't know if the grouping of caches solves the problem for slow lines, but it seems this change may at least be trying to fix something. It clearly also causes problems for some people as well. Perhaps this just needs a bit of tuning to reach the proper compromise. For example, I think the groups start at too close a level. Perhaps it shouldn't happen until you have zoomed out far enough to get 500 caches returned without the grouping. It appears to be buggy however when more that 500 caches are returned. Link to comment
+SuperDiggers Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 (edited) Yep- it's terrible. Terrible, terrible, terrible. Horrid, wretched, unlogical, unorganized, pain in the.... Well anyway, the daylight hours ar short.... out to rely on the ole GPS to plan our route as our maps today are helping us none, nada, nil, zero, zilch . Edited January 19, 2008 by SuperDiggers Link to comment
+Nakedbamboo Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 I can understand that this is an attempt to address the "more than 500" everyone is complaining about, but living in Dallas, with a massive cache density, I have to say that this is actually worse for me than the "more than 500" issue. I can't even zoom to a level where the 500 wasn't an issue without there being fifteen of these purple blocks. I would recommend that it doesn't kick in until there are over 500 on the screen and then that the blocks are bigger than 10 caches each. I also vote for the option to trigger it on or off, although I have no idea if that is a feasible programming option. Thanks for your efforts to address the 500 issue, though. Link to comment
+pklong Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 Yuk the blue splodges are horrible. Please please please do away with them. If we really must have them can you at least fix the bug with hide my finds where the blue blotches include found caches. Link to comment
+monsterbox Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 (edited) Hi! Again Groundspeak proved to be highly unprofessional :-( New "features" that can't be turned off and noone really thought about the people that are quite happy with how it was before. It's quite the same as last time as the new map appeared. Buggy at first try, buggy at second try and still buggy today. We were all treated like lab rats and I hat that :-( Sorry to be that hard but you seem not to be willing to learn out of your faults :-( I personally was at least fine with that status the map search had as of yesterday. Today it's a pain. :-( My default page just shows some blue areas, not what I expected to be shown. And it starts way too fast to be of any use for me. It would be o.k., if it starts at the moment where more than 500 caches should be shown, but that's it! Bye, Christian [Edited by moderator for potty language. Please post respectfully, or don't post.] Edited January 20, 2008 by Keystone Link to comment
+pdxmarathonman Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 (edited) Yep- it's terrible. Terrible, terrible, terrible. Horrid, wretched, unlogical, unorganized, pain in the.... Well anyway, the daylight hours ar short.... out to rely on the ole GPS to plan our route as our maps today are helping us none, nada, nil, zero, zilch . From my perspective the maps aren't showing any less information than before. Zoom in far enough that the individual icons can be usefully displayed and the blue region disappears. Zoom out far enough that the blue region appears and you can actually see the map that was otherwise obliterated by mashed-together cache icons that were so dense it was hard to tell how many were in the area (or be mislead because only some of the cache icons were being displayed). Now you know within a pretty reasonable range how many are in the highly dense areas. Once our knees stop twitching wildly I am sure we'll learn to utilize the new information to make route planning more efficient, and map viewing more tolerable. As someone mentioned above, the blue regions should not include My Finds when I have that box un-checked. That is a significant bug. If I zoom in on an area that says there are 25+ caches, I want it to be 25+ caches I haven't found rather than suddenly showing only 3 of the 25+ because that's all that's left for me to find. Edited January 19, 2008 by pdxmarathonman Link to comment
+monsterbox Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 Hi! From my perspective the maps aren't showing any less information than before. Zoom in far enough that the individual icons can be usefully displayed and the blue region disappears. Zoom out far enough that the blue region appears and you can actually see the map that was otherwise obliterated by mashed-together cache icons that were so dense it was hard to tell how many were in the area (or be mislead because only some of the cache icons were being displayed). Now you know within a pretty reasonable range how many are in the highly dense areas. They do show less information ;-) I can't see all the caches with only one look on the map. So don't tell there's all the information on it :-) I want to see a large area with all the caches that are there and I don't want to see some blue areas showing me that there are SOME caches I even don't know what type they are. That's just annoying! If you're fine with this, o.k.! I am not! And I just want to have the choice. It worked o.k. for me in the last months and I want it back! I can't really work with the map as they behave right now :-( Bye, Christian Link to comment
+GeoScooter1 Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 Why does the map show NO caches when you are using the 5 and sometimes 2 mile scale? I am looking in a rural area and there is less than 500 caches, but you would think there weren't any caches there, because the STUPID new map doesn't show anything. What's up with that? If I zoom into the 1 mile range, I can see them. I really don't like this new feature/function and the blue splotches don't seem to add much. Link to comment
+SuperDiggers Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 (edited) Yep- it's terrible. Terrible, terrible, terrible. Horrid, wretched, unlogical, unorganized, pain in the.... Well anyway, the daylight hours ar short.... out to rely on the ole GPS to plan our route as our maps today are helping us none, nada, nil, zero, zilch . From my perspective the maps aren't showing any less information than before. Zoom in far enough that the individual icons can be usefully displayed and the blue region disappears. Zoom out far enough that the blue region appears and you can actually see the map that was otherwise obliterated by mashed-together cache icons that were so dense it was hard to tell how many were in the area (or be mislead because only some of the cache icons were being displayed). Now you know within a pretty reasonable range how many are in the highly dense areas. Once our knees stop twitching wildly I am sure we'll learn to utilize the new information to make route planning more efficient, and map viewing more tolerable. As someone mentioned above, the blue regions should not include My Finds when I have that box un-checked. That is a significant bug. If I zoom in on an area that says there are 25+ caches, I want it to be 25+ caches I haven't found rather than suddenly showing only 3 of the 25+ because that's all that's left for me to find. I spend a fair amount of time copying and pasting from cache pages to word docs so I can get 4 or 5 and sometimes 6 caches on one page. I print maps that will show me a 6-10 mile radius so I can have them all on one sheet of paper. I do all this to save trees. I love trees. I don't like paper. All the paper cuts and all the shuffling from one map to another... not my cup of tea. I like that 100 caches will appear on one map in front of my eyes. And I write their little names in tiny little handwriting all over the map... and I put little stars on them when I finish them and I circle them when I don't find them. And sometimes I have to print a new page after a couple of months, which is what I intended to do today and well... I was crushed! I am adabtable but I thought forums were to give your honest opinion because we get to test all this stuff. Well, then I can settle for a button to turn it off. A back to the way it was button if you will. A time warp button. A help me I can't see the cache button! With all due respect, I have to stick with my earlier statement. -Kim of the group of SupperDiggers! Edited January 20, 2008 by SuperDiggers Link to comment
+Dolfy Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 I don't like it at all. Really makes my map useless for me in the way that I like to use it. We really need a button to turn them off. Link to comment
+coggly Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 Not sure it will do any good, but add me to the hate it list. It really changes the whole method I use these maps, not for the better either.... Link to comment
+UncleJimbo Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 Yep- it's terrible. Terrible, terrible, terrible. Horrid, wretched, unlogical, unorganized, pain in the.... Well anyway, the daylight hours ar short.... out to rely on the ole GPS to plan our route as our maps today are helping us none, nada, nil, zero, zilch . From my perspective the maps aren't showing any less information than before. Zoom in far enough that the individual icons can be usefully displayed and the blue region disappears. Zoom out far enough that the blue region appears and you can actually see the map that was otherwise obliterated by mashed-together cache icons that were so dense it was hard to tell how many were in the area (or be mislead because only some of the cache icons were being displayed). Now you know within a pretty reasonable range how many are in the highly dense areas. Once our knees stop twitching wildly I am sure we'll learn to utilize the new information to make route planning more efficient, and map viewing more tolerable. As someone mentioned above, the blue regions should not include My Finds when I have that box un-checked. That is a significant bug. If I zoom in on an area that says there are 25+ caches, I want it to be 25+ caches I haven't found rather than suddenly showing only 3 of the 25+ because that's all that's left for me to find. I spend a fair amount of time copying and pasting from cache pages to word docs so I can get 4 or 5 and sometimes 6 caches on one page. I print maps that will show me a 6-10 mile radius so I can have them all on one sheet of paper. I do all this to save trees. I love trees. I don't like paper. All the paper cuts and all the shuffling from one map to another... not my cup of tea. I like that 100 caches will appear on one map in front of my eyes. And I write their little names in tiny little handwriting all over the map... and I put little stars on them when I finish them and I circle them when I don't find them. And sometimes I have to print a new page after a couple of months, which is what I intended to do today and well... I was crushed! I am adabtable but I thought forums were to give your honest opinion because we get to test all this stuff. Well, then I can settle for a button to turn it off. A back to the way it was button if you will. A time warp button. A help me I can't see the cache button! With all due respect, I have to stick with my earlier statement. -Kim of the group of SupperDiggers! Maybe you should go "paperless" like the rest of us? Link to comment
+MM32 Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 Please make it go away ASAP!!!!! I do not need BLUE dots I have enough GREEN ones....... Link to comment
+Nakedbamboo Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 I also noticed that from what I can tell this doesn't do anything for the "more than 500" issue. If I zoom out it still tells me that there are more than 500 caches in the search. So what exactly is the use of these blue areas? What were they designed for since I can't zoom out any farther than before anyway, and now my normal zoom area is full of useless info. I at least figured we would be able to zoom out as far as we wanted and then just get bigger blue areas... This really means they add no new functionality as far as I can tell. If I need to see the roads behind the icons, I can zoom in; or use my GPS which is kind of what it was designed for. Link to comment
+webscouter. Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 According to the post that the developers posted the blue area is designed to speed up the drawing of the maps, instead of drawing 10 icons it only needs to draw one. They are aware that we would like it to exclude the found caches. To those who are complaining about a poor way of doing business I would like to say this. If the developers have an idea that they believe has merit how will they know if people like it without putting it up on the site? I know that the first response is going to be "They could just tell us about it before hand and let us look at it first." Well they told us about it here http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...p;#entry3266156 Link to comment
+Nakedbamboo Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 According to the post that the developers posted the blue area is designed to speed up the drawing of the maps, instead of drawing 10 icons it only needs to draw one. They are aware that we would like it to exclude the found caches. To those who are complaining about a poor way of doing business I would like to say this. If the developers have an idea that they believe has merit how will they know if people like it without putting it up on the site? I know that the first response is going to be "They could just tell us about it before hand and let us look at it first." Well they told us about it here http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...p;#entry3266156 I did not see that thread, so thanks for pointing it out. It appears they were going specifically for speed I guess and not the "more than 500" issue. I wasn't really having a problem with my speed the way it was before, and with the extra clicks and cache refreshes needed to zoom into a blocked area now, it doesn't really speed things up anyway. Many places no require me to refresh the search twice which used to only require once. I think one way to solve this would be to have the blocks appear from a further distance and include more than 25+. If you started them at say 50+, that might be a reasonable area to zoom in on, but having to zoom into see only 10+ is too small to require a new screen refresh in my opinion. Link to comment
+SuperDiggers Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 Maybe you should go "paperless" like the rest of us? I am not sure I know how to go "paperless" nor am I sure I have the technology for it. We can research this idea but I still don't care for the new structure of the map if it inlcudes found caches. Thanks for a new concept we will consider. Link to comment
benji55545 Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 If it is for speed, doesn't the need to zoom in and reload to actually see the caches kind of cancel out any time saved before....? Anyway, just make it possible to turn this off and everybody will be happy. Link to comment
+Nakedbamboo Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 Maybe you should go "paperless" like the rest of us? I am not sure I know how to go "paperless" nor am I sure I have the technology for it. We can research this idea but I still don't care for the new structure of the map if it inlcudes found caches. Thanks for a new concept we will consider. As for going paperless, you need a PDA or some such similiar device like a smartphone. Then there are 3rd party programs like Cachemate (search Google since I don't know how to embed links) that load the cache files, and you can view all the data there. I know this is off topic but thought I would help out. Link to comment
+MountainRacer Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 I see merits in both having and not having this feature: it identifies cache-rich areas for efficient trips, but it does block the individual icon locations, making close navigation choices more difficult from a further zoom. ALSO: Why is the scrolling list at the right of the screen no longer in the order the caches were published? Is this just a temporary bug? Is there some order to it? If so, I have been unable to identify it. That list helped me to see when new caches came out close to wherever I'm headed. Link to comment
+UncleJimbo Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 If the developers have an idea that they believe has merit how will they know if people like it without putting it up on the site? I know that the first response is going to be "They could just tell us about it before hand and let us look at it first." Well they told us about it here http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...p;#entry3266156 Thanks for the link, but I hardly call one post, buried deep in an unrelated thread, as "telling us about it". I don't see why they can't post these changes as announcements or in stand-alone threads so that more people might know about them. Link to comment
+Nakedbamboo Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 If the developers have an idea that they believe has merit how will they know if people like it without putting it up on the site? I know that the first response is going to be "They could just tell us about it before hand and let us look at it first." Well they told us about it here http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...p;#entry3266156 Thanks for the link, but I hardly call one post, buried deep in an unrelated thread, as "telling us about it". I don't see why they can't post these changes as announcements or in stand-alone threads so that more people might know about them. I tend to agree. If there are any "announcements," they are usually just done by thoughtful moderators in the middle of random threads that may be related. Then later a thread devoted entirely to that issue is created and no one ever sees the "announcement." They should just have a sticky thread that contains official announcements about website changes that only moderators posted on. And it would be nice if the announcements were before the actual change, even though, yes, I am aware that not everyone would see the announcement before they saw the change. At least they would have a place to go to see what it was and what it was created for. Link to comment
wwflover13 Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 I agree that this new "feature" should be scrapped. Link to comment
+GeoScooter1 Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 Why in the world in a rural area where there is a lot less that 500 caches, am I unable to see them with the map zoom level at 5 miles and sometimes even 2 miles???? I get a map screen with absolutely NO caches showing, yet I know they are there. I have to zoom to the 1 mile radius (at least that is what is says in the lower left-hand part of the map) before I can see anything. This is completely ridiculous and serves no purpose that I can see. Please get rid of this feature on the maps and go back to what they were. At least those maps worked. Blue splotches....HONESTLY! Link to comment
+kurchian Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 Have you set up your home cordinates? You can set/alter them by clicking the link at the top of the right-hand tool bar on the 'my account details' page. I have my home coordinates in and I still see Seattle every time I open the maps, also. Link to comment
+alexrudd Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 If I squint and tilt my head sideways at the map, the blue splotches appear to read: I *love* being an involuntary beta tester! Link to comment
+UncleJimbo Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 Have you set up your home cordinates? You can set/alter them by clicking the link at the top of the right-hand tool bar on the 'my account details' page. I have my home coordinates in and I still see Seattle every time I open the maps, also. How are you opening maps? From your profile so that it centers them on your home coordinates? Link to comment
+kurchian Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 Have you set up your home cordinates? You can set/alter them by clicking the link at the top of the right-hand tool bar on the 'my account details' page. I have my home coordinates in and I still see Seattle every time I open the maps, also. How are you opening maps? From your profile so that it centers them on your home coordinates? If I open Google Maps from within the "Hide and Seek a Cache" option it opens up in Seattle even though I have my coordinates added to the My Coordinates section. Link to comment
+UncleJimbo Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 (edited) Have you set up your home cordinates? You can set/alter them by clicking the link at the top of the right-hand tool bar on the 'my account details' page. I have my home coordinates in and I still see Seattle every time I open the maps, also. How are you opening maps? From your profile so that it centers them on your home coordinates? If I open Google Maps from within the "Hide and Seek a Cache" option it opens up in Seattle even though I have my coordinates added to the My Coordinates section. Yes, for some reason opening Google Maps that way does not take into account your settings. You need to open the maps from your profile page. You can also enter your home coordinates or zip code into the Hide & Seek page and then search. Edited January 21, 2008 by UncleJimbo Link to comment
+avgraphics Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 Have you set up your home cordinates? You can set/alter them by clicking the link at the top of the right-hand tool bar on the 'my account details' page. I have my home coordinates in and I still see Seattle every time I open the maps, also. How are you opening maps? From your profile so that it centers them on your home coordinates? If I open Google Maps from within the "Hide and Seek a Cache" option it opens up in Seattle even though I have my coordinates added to the My Coordinates section. The map centered on you home coords is opened from your profile page by clicking the Map It button. Link to comment
+avgraphics Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 ..at certain zoom levels I see no caches, no blue, no red warning.. nothing. Strange. I vote for removing the new feature or making it optional. PLEASE Link to comment
+UncleJimbo Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 ..at certain zoom levels I see no caches, no blue, no red warning.. nothing. Strange. I vote for removing the new feature or making it optional. PLEASE Yes, I have noticed this today as well. Also, I am seeing some maps that have 10+ Blue Blotches on the same map as large clusters or >>10 caches all overlapping each other. Weird. I am not sure how Google is deciding if and when to show these Blue areas. Link to comment
+JC_Geo Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 If I have the option of being able to turn off the Blue Splotch grouping, then I have no problem with it. I find much more annoying when I am searching in a high cache area. I also am one who does not like it. Link to comment
+JustKeely Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 I love it. I can see more cleary where the high density areas that I need to start working through. Link to comment
KLWhite Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 Given its current limitations, count me as one against it. It needs to be a choice for users. Some find it completely annoying. It needs to go away if the "Hide my finds" feature takes the grouping to less than 10. Link to comment
+joranda Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 I'm not a fan of it either. But what can you do if they leave it. I liked the old map before the one we are using now. It never came back. I just got used to this one. Link to comment
+Wadcutter Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 Here we go again, fixing something that wasn't broken in the first place. Sheesh! I agree. Hate it. Get rid of it. Worse than useless. I had an instructor who said that a sure sign of a geek is someone who tinkers with programs, makes changes to things that aren't wanted or needed, and then tells you how much you want his changes even tho it does absolutely nothing for you. The geek "knows" what is best because all he knows how to do is tinker but doesn't have the knowledge or marketing skills to ask the customer first. Sure sign of geeks in action again. Tinkering, making changes not asked for or needed, but, by golly!, you'll have the changes and darn well like em. Link to comment
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