Geocaching.com homepage needs to be improved

[+Too Tall John]

<!--quoteo(post=4562916:date=Dec 19 2010, 07:39 AM:name=Motorcycle_Mama)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Motorcycle_Mama @ Dec 19 2010, 07:39 AM) 4562916[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Should you wish to recommend to Groundspeak they they get rid of the forum moderators, please feel free to use the Contact page to do so.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->This was expected. But with an audience of fawning sycophants and the mod wielding the big stick, my cause is lost. I shall take my leave, tata (key poignant music).

For the record, I find your characterization of anyone who doesn't agree with you as "fawning sycophants" offensive. There are plenty of good reasons to want moderation in this forum, and people who say so aren't just sucking up. Your post made my teeth grind. Now, lest I get moderated, back to the main topic:

Where is the easy access to my PQs, my bookmark lists, or my souvenirs?

 

I don't think the analogy with FB is accurate. The whole point of FB is to see your home page. The page that is shown instead of your home page when you aren't logged in just tells you what you need to do to see your home page. It's like the "please upgrade to premium membership" page that you see here when you try to access premium features with a basic account.

 

In contrast, the whole point of geocaching.com is to support geocaching, which includes informing new players, land managers, law enforcement, etc. about the game. I think the site's home page should present such basic information to everyone. Hiding it from new players just because they managed to create an account and log in seems counterproductive.

 

But your ideas could enhance the "Your Profile" page.

I agree with this post 100%. Especially the bit in red, and even more especially the bolded red bit.

 

(I also like that they fixed the quotes here in the forums...)

Edited December 21, 2010 by Too Tall John

[+ICHTHYS]

I have no issues with the homepage as is.

 

I would rather see an update to the profile page. Many of your suggestions are good, I would just rather see them on the profile page.

 

It would be nice to see widgets we can move around and show what we want. I dislike having to scroll down for the link to PQ's.

[+Frank Broughton]

No thanks. I've visited enough unmoderated forums to know that they quickly devolve into uselessness.

I agree big time. The boys and gals do a decent job here considering the amount of drivel many of us add to the threads. They have to weed through much. I applaud their work! Man left to his own accord is not a good thing.

[+PapaMinion]

They are more than welcome to adapt the suggestions from this thread to the "my" page as well.

 

 

+1,000

 

I cannot agree enough. Personally I find the "my" page abysmal to look at. All the tools I need are buried on the right sidebar and, considering they are highly-desirable Premium Tools like PQs and Bookmarks, I would love to see them more prominently featured on my page instead of buried half-way down the page below my unnecessary-to-me Stat Bar. I'm not expecting a dramatic change, but in all seriousness, the "my" page needs some serious redesign love. Make it customizable for the user to add/remove tools and we're golden.

[+ZeroOne]

Personally I find the "my" page abysmal to look at. All the tools I need are buried on the right sidebar and, considering they are highly-desirable Premium Tools like PQs and Bookmarks, I would love to see them more prominently featured on my page instead of buried half-way down the page below my unnecessary-to-me Stat Bar.

 

Very true. By the way, did you notice that they rearranged those "My page" tools a little when they introduced the favorites? The "Your GPS" box was moved significantly down, for one, and that's a good start. Anyway, I have now created yet another mockup of what the homepage slash my page could look like. This time I added those premium tools there. Non-premium members would see some other links or no links at all, or maybe each member could customize the links to their own taste:

 

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Personally I find the "my" page abysmal to look at. All the tools I need are buried on the right sidebar and, considering they are highly-desirable Premium Tools like PQs and Bookmarks, I would love to see them more prominently featured on my page instead of buried half-way down the page below my unnecessary-to-me Stat Bar.

 

Very true. By the way, did you notice that they rearranged those "My page" tools a little when they introduced the favorites? The "Your GPS" box was moved significantly down, for one, and that's a good start. Anyway, I have now created yet another mockup of what the homepage slash my page could look like. This time I added those premium tools there. Non-premium members would see some other links or no links at all, or maybe each member could customize the links to their own taste:

 

 

The mock up looks nice and is a good example of how the page *could* look. However, that's not how I would want *my* home page to look. The map of nearby caches for my area would be almost all smiley faces because I've found most of the caches nearby. There would be a few other caches, but mostly caches that I don't really intend on finding anyway. I don't use the friend feature much since I live in an area which does not have a lot of local geocachers, so I wouldn't want the Friend Activity area to be so prominent on my page. The "Your Logs (last 30 days)" area on my current "my" page is currently empty since I haven't done any geocaching, or had any other reason to create a log in the last 30 days. Since I generally go geocaching infrequently, the list of "your logs" is always short, vertically, but takes up a lot of space horizontally. But those are just my preferences and I understand that someone else, living in a different part of the world, that goes geocaching almost every day might want their "my" page to look different than how I want to see it. That's why I'm advocating customization, rather than just a change in the layout and fixed organization of the content.

[+k6ccc]

The current geocaching.com homepage is a necessary evil: it contains no interesting or useful info for a geocacher. If you are new and just arrived via Google then sure, you might want to watch the video, but why show it to logged-in users? Why are there two large banners of Lost & Found and a random image of some kid? Why are there two search fields? Groundspeak, please add value for your users: information on your friends' caching events, nearest unfound caches, perhaps your own recent actions, latest topics from this forum, etc.

 

 

I virtually NEVER go to the home page. I always go directly to the "My Profile" page. The home page does need to be geared for new people.

 

Jim - K6CCC

[+ZeroOne]

The mock up looks nice and is a good example of how the page *could* look. However, that's not how I would want *my* home page to look.

[...]

That's why I'm advocating customization, rather than just a change in the layout and fixed organization of the content.

 

What would you like to see on the home page (or the "My Page") if you could customize it?

 

I virtually NEVER go to the home page. I always go directly to the "My Profile" page. The home page does need to be geared for new people.

 

Fair enough. Is the "My Profile" page perfect already then, or would you like to see any improvements done there?