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Google Earth add-in removed


adrian.rutter

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It seems like this forum is only here for pissed off people to say how pissed off they are and a moderator to tell us we're a bunch of losers. How do we let someone know who can actually do something about it?

 

Sad part is the Moderators have zero control or influence over what can or may be done. It would be interesting to understand what (if any) is the escallation path for an issue that arrises in this game. Clearly there are many users that are very unhappy with no recourse but to rant to Moderators of a Forum who should be commended for their efforts but have no real capability to help resolve this situation.

 

How about someone who has more responsibility than Moderating this board come and say something?

Raine and Nate, meet klipsch49er and Sissycats. Klipsch49er and Sissycats, meet Raine and Nate. :D

 

There have been multiple posts by Groundspeak Lackeys in this thread. Their replies get quoted repeatedly when people ask the same questions. I assure you, Groundspeak is aware of this thread.

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I assure you, Groundspeak is aware of this thread.

 

Of that there can be no doubt. This is turning into a public relations mess. BUT Led Zeppelin thrived on that style of marketing - (i.e. not answering the public completely, leaving rumors and a mystique for all to talk about.) It works. I love it!

Edited by Frank Broughton
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It seems like this forum is only here for pissed off people to say how pissed off they are and a moderator to tell us we're a bunch of losers. How do we let someone know who can actually do something about it?

 

Sad part is the Moderators have zero control or influence over what can or may be done. It would be interesting to understand what (if any) is the escallation path for an issue that arrises in this game. Clearly there are many users that are very unhappy with no recourse but to rant to Moderators of a Forum who should be commended for their efforts but have no real capability to help resolve this situation.

 

How about someone who has more responsibility than Moderating this board come and say something?

Raine and Nate, meet klipsch49er and Sissycats. Klipsch49er and Sissycats, meet Raine and Nate. :D

 

There have been multiple posts by Groundspeak Lackeys in this thread. Their replies get quoted repeatedly when people ask the same questions. I assure you, Groundspeak is aware of this thread.

Nate used the 200 number in the initial release notes where he went out of his way to explain why the KML link was being removed. There is no doubt in reading his original post that Groundspeak was aware that many people used the KML link and found it useful. In trying to emphasize that many of the same features were now available in Google Maps and that many more users were using the maps than Google Earth, he threw out the number of 200 users who regularly accessed the GE feature. I think he was trying to emphasize that most user were finding the Google Maps a better solution and were either not using Google Earth or using it very rarely. It was decided that the cost of keeping this option was not worth the benefit as seen by Groundspeak.

 

Perhaps some people are looking for Nate to come back and post that he made a mistake in using the 200 user number. It really didn't prove his point, since there was no definition of what he meant by regularly accessed. Raine's explanation seems to point to regularly access meaning excessive access. So we still have no idea of the number of users who accessed the feature occasionally, perhaps to accomplish specific tasks that aren't easily done using the Google maps. We don't know if the site performance was in fact being impacted by those using the feature occasionally. I will point out that in addition to site performance the KML file also required maintenance by the Groundspeak staff. I recall that every time Google released a new version of Google Earth something would break in the KML link and Groundspeak would have to take time to fix it. Perhaps it was as much of not wanting to maintain two different mapping solutions as it was any performance concern that lead to the demise of the KML link. Nate's original post only mentions performance.

 

One way to win back some respect from the customers that have been ticked off by this is to provide some honest feedback. I appreciated Raine's explanation of where the number 200 came from. However it raises some more questions. Some of which I asked in a previous post. If someone from Groundspeak would like to find where I asked those and provide answers, I'm sure it will be welcomed. Keeping silent will only lead to more distrust from the people who feel their input is ignored.

 

My guess is that the forum moderators are simply posting how they use Google Maps to find caches and rarely or never used Google Earth. I can buy this, because I too rarely used Google Earth. Many of the complaints don't provide enough information about what you were using Google Earth for and why it was preferred over Google Maps. I would venture that majority of cases would find that Google Maps are sufficient to do what you want and in some cases even a better solution. Mtn-man started another thread to discuss ways that you can accomplish things using Google Maps and other ways to get back some of the Google Earth functionality. Unfortunately, change is often difficult to accept. If you have always done something a certain way and that way is taken away, it is natural to feel aggrieved. Perhaps this thread will continue to be the place for people to express their anger and when they come to accept the change they can move on to the other thread to discuss how to accomplish various task using the tools that remain. Maybe instead of coming across as proxies for Groundspeak, mtn-man and Keystone should stop responding in this thread. In the meantime a new official post explaining the decision that doesn't come across as Nate using some made up number of users to justify it might help to win back some trust.

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Count us down for really missing the google earth application. We used it a lot and thought it was a great layer to have on GE with everything else. Was extremely useful for planning outings and trips. We would like to see it come back. If it created any downside on geocaching.com we were not aware of it. :D

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