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Release Notes 1/12/10


OpinioNate

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Also, I have to say: I am a paying member and am wondering: Who owns geocaching.com now? Did lobbyists (GPS manufacturers, PC manufacturers, browser companies etc) have anything to do with your updates. Do I need to buy all new equipment to be able to cache and post caches? It seems that a lot of my stuff is all of a sudden outdated, I'm unable to use it (i.e. IE-which had served me well), or I have to attend a geocaching.com course to learn how to do a cache page all of a sudden. Is there a conspiracy to keep AARP members (or non-members, you get my drift: the "older" generation or someone not too techsavy) from enjoying this hobby/sport? I wouldn't be surprised if somebody tried to seek attorney advise. Don't we as your customers have any rights?

Can I be the first to say "Huh?!"

 

I am being fecitious!

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The more I think of it, you should really detect IE6 and stick to the top of every page this:

 

ie6e.png

 

Of couse just like in Asterix, there will be a few indomitable Gauls that should speak out... Sorry, I'm translating from French where this would fit perfectly.

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Can anny one tell me why i have to accept "Yes. I have read and understand the guidelines for submitting an EarthCache." when i uppdate a traditional geocache?

I dont have a Earthcache and i then i dont feel the need to accept the guidelines ..... logic?

It's called a bug, a software malfunction or error, name usually attributed to a moth that got caught in a relay switch of an ENIAC.

The media would call it "a glitch", as in, "The entire world-wide web of geocaching was nearly brought to a screeching halt due to a software glitch"
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The more I think of it, you should really detect IE6 and stick to the top of every page this:

 

ie6e.png

 

Of couse just like in Asterix, there will be a few indomitable Gauls that should speak out... Sorry, I'm translating from French where this would fit perfectly.

Amen.

 

I mean seriously. Some guy brought me his circa 1997 computer with Windows 95 on it and asked me to look at it because he couldn't access some website. Time to upgrade.

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I think this has been mentioned, but there is no spacing between the short and long description on a cache page.

 

Here's an example of a page with a short description (some cache's leave this blank)

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...b2-d5c2c16d6be2

 

I'd think there should at least be a paragraph break there.

 

I agree. Things were running together entirely in our first release yesterday and we fixed that, but there could stand to be more spacing. I'll enter that into our database, but it will not be fixed for this round of release.

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It would be nice to be able to read a read only thread

"this issues we know about and ar going to fix in this prio. order" :P

 

I've been pushing to provide such a list but there has to be some additional buy-off from other people in the organization first. It is unlikely that we will be able to share what the fix priorities are on various issues, though - that just opens up a whole can of worms.

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XP and IE6 - what version do we need to be using?

 

IE6 is a difficult situation. It was released in 2001, which is ancient by computer and web standards, yet because it was what was installed by default on one of the more popular OS releases of all times, it is still in use by a significant portion of users. For that reason we still want to support it. However, the significance of its market share is quickly dwindling, so if you have the ability and opportunity, I do recommend that you try updating. Your web browsing on a whole will be much better for it.

 

Just adding that while I have to use IE6 here at work, I am by no means suggesting that support for a 9-year-old browser should be something of a priority. If I'm not able to view some things correctly then so be it- I'll just wait till I'm at home. I'm only posting the issues I see with IE6 to highlight the issues should the dev team feel that they will continue to support it and so maybe other users of IE6 can see the source of their problems.

 

There are a ton of reasons why you shouldn't be using IE6. If it's a PC that you own and that you can download updates to then there's really no reason to be avoiding IE7 or IE8. If you have your automatic updates running properly and you're connected to the Internet then you should already be using it. If you're not updating the OS, then you're going to have a host of other issues.

 

Operating Systems and Browsers become obsolete, it's just the nature of the beast.

 

I have to disagree with the latter post. Basic functionality for IE6 (like map viewing) should be a priority for Groundspeak. It certainly should rank higher than MINE/YOURS and white space concerns. IE6 is around and Groundspeak knows that their customers are using it. If they wish to drop support they need to make their intent clear and allow time for users to make the migration. Prioritization should be based on the impact to the customers and maps not displaying is a major impact.

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IE6 is around and Groundspeak knows that their customers are using it. If they wish to drop support they need to make their intent clear and allow time for users to make the migration.

Exactly and a banner like displayed on YouTube or even Landsharkz should begin NOW so they could target something like July 1st.

 

It will then be so much easier for the developpers to forget about all the hacks they have to add and verify each time to make things works with IE6.

 

I'm running another website than mine and stats show me that from a month to another around 65-75% of users are visiting with IE and in that, between 10-20% only are with IE6, all others are with IE7 or IE8. They have stats and I wonder how it looks like for them. Do you think those are kept for private use?

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So far I've been pretty upbeat about the whitespace issues, but I just visited one of my own cache pages... one that is on several (3) bookmark lists, and the additional whitespace in the bookmark frame seriously affects how the rest of the page displays. Of course, it is worse for me, because one of those bookmark lists is my own, and so for me, it also shows the added "My bookmark list" window (BTW: shouldn't that be, "Your bookmark list? :P )

 

See GCWFC4

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It would be nice to be able to read a read only thread

"this issues we know about and ar going to fix in this prio. order" :P

 

I've been pushing to provide such a list but there has to be some additional buy-off from other people in the organization first. It is unlikely that we will be able to share what the fix priorities are on various issues, though - that just opens up a whole can of worms.

Just curious here...

You guys have some type of database to keep track of bugs and fixes don't you? I doubt it's all kept track of by email or on paper. Without knowing anything about how you track these, is there enough information stored where you could periodically, maybe monthly, run a query and publish a list of known bugs in some type of priority order? Omit anything that is internal or sensitive, just a list with a title or brief description of the problem and a feel for how long it might be down the road would be helpful. Really, anything beyond the next few months could just be lumped into a 'sometime in the future' category since I suspect we're mostly interested in what we're going to be getting soon.

 

When you release a new build and there are a flurry of new bugs or change requests, it would be nice if us users could see a more frequent list of items to be worked that were caused or associated with the new release only. We could check on that to see if our problem has been reported and accepted. We'd get fewer repeated problem posts because "this thread is n pages long and I'm not going to read it". Whether they say that or not.

 

Just thinking out loud, but I imagine lots of us would like to see some kind of future work/known issue list and know if it's going to be worked soon or if we need to keep finding alternate solutions.

 

At least everything that I usually use is working this time so it could have been worse (for me).

Change is good, testing is better, a limited functionality test site that more of us could preview a future release and provide feedback on would be awesome! :)

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IE6 is around and Groundspeak knows that their customers are using it. If they wish to drop support they need to make their intent clear and allow time for users to make the migration.

Exactly and a banner like displayed on YouTube or even Landsharkz should begin NOW so they could target something like July 1st.

 

I think that's being more than considerate.

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I tried to look at a picture gallery of a cache I tried today.

I can see the thumbnails. when I click on the images, I can see the first two that are in the same log.

I cannot see the full size pictures of the logs that have an individual picture.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/gallery.asp...17-f37dec7c1436

 

I tried it in Win7 using IE8, Google Chrome, and Firefox 3.57

On the Win XP Netbook, Firefox gave the same result, and IE6 just crashes when I open the website.

 

On the My/Your profile page.

I don't care what you want to call it, just pick one and change it all to the one chosen.

 

I wouldn't call this much of an update, at least on the user(my) end.

The cache pages formatting are screwed up.

The additional hint section, why is the decryption key in between the title and the hint?

 

I also dislike the double spacing, I thought the site was much easier to read/scan preupdate.

If you want to print anything it takes double the paper for the paper, for the same information.

 

I agree if browser support is going to be dropped, give people a heads up.

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I noticed a similar problem in the cache pages. You used to be able to get a small description of the attributes by moving the mouse pointer over the attribute icon. That is not working anymore.

 

I also noticed this (Firefox 3.5.7, WinXP), and the only way to tell exactly what a particular icon means is to manually click the "What are Attributes?" link below them which takes you to a separate page with descriptions. I have to say that the mouse-over was VERY nice and if it's not returned, it will be sadly missed.

 

And I also want to voice my concern not only about the Mine/Your issue (it really should be the old way of "My/Mine"), but also that the extra padding/leading/line height/cell width is so overblown as to make much of the site not only much more difficult to navigate because you have to scroll around much more, but also much more difficult to read. I actually have trouble reading the text, and often times, there are HUGE gaps on the page where there should be none (see GCZGXM). Additionally, it seems like there is much less smaller-sized font (9 pt?), such that everything is overly large and difficult to read. I mean, do the log listings for the past 30 days on our profile pages really have to be in a font that large?? And the puffed-up padding in the line spacing actually makes the text all over the site more difficult to read, not easier or cleaner. Honestly, I find this to be absolutely terrible.

 

I refuse to accept the easy answer that the site redesign has to be this way because of internationalization -- I have never seen a site that looks anything like this, and I'm sure there are thousands of sites I have come across that cater to an international crowd, taking into account language differences.

 

I am an ardent surfer of the web and I have been for nearly 20 years since its inception, and I have been studying the design of sites since the very beginning (and often designing my own). Honestly, next to Facebook's recent GUI overhaul, I have never seen a site more poorly redesigned.

 

Don't get me wrong, though -- I truly do love this site! It has an overall simple site map, and while not perfect, it is very usable. And while I absolutely wouldn't mind a redesign, this particular attempt is clearly going in a backwards direction, making the site look more like circa 1995 versus 2010 and beyond. If you could please add me to the list of paying customers who do not like the redesign, I would very much appreciate it. Thanks.

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XP and IE6 - what version do we need to be using?

 

IE6 is a difficult situation. It was released in 2001, which is ancient by computer and web standards, yet because it was what was installed by default on one of the more popular OS releases of all times, it is still in use by a significant portion of users. For that reason we still want to support it. However, the significance of its market share is quickly dwindling, so if you have the ability and opportunity, I do recommend that you try updating. Your web browsing on a whole will be much better for it.

 

To better understand some of the issues with IE6, you should read this informative blog entry at Mashable.com.

 

The problem is IE6 is still considered standard by many corporations. I'm using it right now because of this. Unfortunately, Microsoft pushed technology like ActiveX documents back in the day that they've since dropped support for. It's easier to keep using IE6 than it is to either make standalone versions of these old apps or rewrite them.

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The site is going down one final time for an update to the release.

 

The following bug fixes are included in this build:

 

14612

Keep user-customized area of public profile and cache descriptions free from CSS control

 

14556

Gallery Images not displayed when logged out

 

14588

Cache results highlighting doesn't show up in IE

 

14620

500 - Internal server error when clicking on "Groundspeak Goodies" on the Resources page

 

14623

Sorting by last log column in list of owned trackables causes 500 - Internal server error

 

14621

Left-hand menu formatting broken in IE8 when logging trackable

 

14616

Missing icons on lists on trackable items, cause due to reference to non-existent image location

 

14590

Columns for found and owned trackables unevenly formatted

 

14582

Column for found caches on user profile is too narrow

 

14609

Earthcache guidelines checkboxes do not appear on edit (reopened to remove from ALL cache types)

 

Outstanding issues include:

 

Checking the "exclude finds and hides" box on Advanced Search with Postal Code not working

Missing username in subscription confirmation emails

Hover text missing from trackable icons in search results, attributes on cache pages

Postal code tool for reconciling ambiguous post codes searches showing up for coordinate searches

Logs appear in order user logged them rather than by date when viewing another player's logs

Mapping errors in Internet Explorer 6

 

... and various browser formatting issues related to the site remastering.

 

These are priority items as far as we are concerned, but at some point we have to lock down the release build so we can continue development on the site. It is rare to take the site down 3 days in a row, and for good reason - it's hugely disruptive to our community of users. We will hotfix what we can and at the end of this next release cycle we will release fixes for the rest.

 

Many thanks to everyone who has been patient with us and offered helpful feedback these last couple days!

 

(closing this topic - please repost in the new thread)

Edited by OpinioNate
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