Jump to content

Geocaching.com site update Feb 1st 2011

OpinioNate

By OpinioNate
in Geocaching HQ communications

Followers 10

Recommended Posts

OpinioNate

OpinioNate

Posted
Posted (edited)

Geocaching Favorites

 

Geocaching Favorites is a simple way to track and share the caches that you enjoyed the most. For every 10 caches that you have found, you will be able to Favorite 1 exceptional cache in your find history. The Favorites accumulated by a cache are displayed in search results and on the cache page so everyone can see which caches stand above the rest.

 

Premium Members can earn and spend Favorite Points, and sort search results by the most Favorited caches within a radius of your search. Basic Members also benefit by seeing how many Favorites a cache has earned in search results and on the individual cache pages.

 

New in Phase 2

 

Click the ribbon in search results to view the percentage of Premium Member finds to Favorites.

 

dRPC8.png

 

…and on the cache page by clicking the down arrow on the Favorites total.

 

E83vn.png

 

We have other plans in the works for further modifying this number so that it accurately reflects the quality of a cache when other factors such as age and cache accessibility are taken into account.

 

In addition we have made it easier to Favorite a cache both before and after composing a Find log for it.

 

Visit your profile to see how many Favorite Points you have accumulated, or the Knowledge Base to learn more about Favorites.

 

 

Geocaching Maps Beta

 

Give it a test drive!

 

Take one look and this new map speaks for itself. The fundamental engineering of the maps has been completely revamped to utilize a tiling system that generates and stores map tile images on the fly. Once an area has been generated the data is cached briefly so subsequent visits to that area appear almost instantaneously. No more waiting, and no more 500 cache limit!

 

New in Phase 2

 

  • Display your cache finds and hides
  • Remove your cache finds and hides (Premium)
  • Filter by cache type (Premium)
  • Added My Topo mapping

 

cIvNs.png

 

Geocaching Statistics

 

View yours!

 

What was your biggest caching day of all time? Geocaching Statistics lets you visualize your geocaching activity in different ways, and serves as a checklist of challenges to tackle in the process of becoming a well-rounded geocacher.

 

Maps

 

View your caching activity in regions around the world with these new interactive maps. Scroll over a country to view the number of caches found within a region.

 

H4OFo.png

 

Milestones

 

You can now display your major geocaching milestones in a separate tab of your public statistics. Allow the site to generate the milestones on your behalf, or make individual corrections in your Account Details.

 

56OD1.png

 

Displaying your Statistics

 

In this release we offer you more control over which statistics you wish to display to the world. Edit your statistics settings.

 

FbWzJ.png

 

 

What else is new?

 

 

New

 

24681: Allow users to hide found caches

All users can now see Found caches on the Beta maps, Premium Members can hide them from view

 

24683: Add Topographic Layer

Added [MyTopo] layer to Beta Maps

 

24684: Allow filters for cache type (PMO)

Added filters to remove various cache types from the Beta Maps view

 

25119: Mark caches as found and hidden on the new maps

Caches you have found and hidden now appear on the Beta Maps

 

24710: Toggle On/Off Geocaching Statistics Individually

Added settings page in Account Settings to allow users to select which stats they want to display

 

24719: Allow Users to View Home Location Statistics in Kilometers if they prefer Metric System

Units will be determined and displayed based on the user's account preferences

 

24720: Add [MyGeocachingProfile] Milestone Stats to Geocaching Statistics Page

Added milestones to statistics

 

24651: Display ratio of finds per favorite points in search results

Added percentage favorited to search results (on click) and on the cache page (in the favorites menu)

 

24570: Favorites: Add Favoriting feature to find log post and confirmation page

Added ability to favorite a cache before and after posting a log

 

22985: Updating Send to Phone to link to mobile index page (/live)

Cleanup up sendtophone.aspx and added link to /live

 

24277: Rewrite Your Membership Details page

Updated text describing Premium Member benefits on /my/subscription.aspx

 

24949: Mobile app index page

Added new page at geocaching.com/live to host information related to Live-enabled applications and API

 

24599: display Needs Maintenance attribute in search results

Added needs maintenance attribute to "info" column in search results

 

25144: Update Field Notes page

Consolidated text on the Field Notes page

 

25166: Update twitter page link/text

Added link to /live on the Twitter connect page

 

25175: Add tutorial link to mobile app landing pages

Added tutorials to individual mobile app pages

 

25161: Update Guide to Buying GPS device page text

Added link to /live

 

25167: Update software page text/links

Added link to /live

 

22918: Activation Code Retrieval Tool: Make it easier to find

Added link to retrieval tool in the activation wizard

 

25328: Remove Amazon ads from search results page

Removed advertising from search results for all member levels

 

 

Bug Fixes

 

25251: Beta Map doesn't show new caches

New caches will now appear on the map within 15 minutes

 

25261: Bug in Top Favorites for States

Fixed bug which redirected user back to the advanced search page when sorting by favorites

 

24496: Do not send souvenir notifications to users who opt out

Fixed souvenirs notifications to honor account settings

 

23409: Order of Souvenirs Appears to be Random

The order of souvenirs in the profile is now fixed

 

25345: '404 Not found' for cache note in Serbian

То је сада фиксно

 

25464: Directional arrow on "Next" link on paged cache searches points wrong way in German translation

Fixed localization bug

 

24749: Statistics don't show if user doesn't have a home location

Fixed

 

24844: Umlauts in username prevent user from being given a gift membership

Fixed

 

25053: User's favoriting of specific cache fails to stick

Fixed javascript error preventing user from favoriting a cache

 

25136: Change Live Map Url to Bing Map Url

Updated bing maps URL format on cache pages

 

24596: Editing found log to other log type does not correct number of points needed to next Favorite point

Made point generation and awarding consistent when modifying logs

 

25037: Addition to Geocoin Manufacturers & Resellers list

Added geokes.cz to vendor list

 

24718: Owned caches missing from list in IE8

Cache names with double quotes no longer disappear in IE

 

24321: Valid email getting rejected by site

Fixed account creation for email addresses with a dash preceding the snabel

a/papaki/at/arobase/chiocciola/Klammeraffe/apenstaartje etc. symbol

 

24601: Set GPS Adventures Maze as an event cache

Changed Adventures Maze cache from a traditional to an event

 

24086: "CITO" missing from instant notifications menu

Added CITO caches to the instant notifications

 

24904: List of additional caches to add to the traveling/armchair cache list

Added a number of traveling caches to the exclusion list for stats and souvenirs

 

25402: Need to add User Name to friend request email template

Friend request notifications now contain the username of the recipient

 

25391: Remove Lat/Lon song link from glossary

Sadly, the download expired. Download here for a limited time.

 

25006: Can Not Add Fav. Points to Archived Locationless cache

Fixed

 

24928: Shop Groundspeak: New Distributor

Added worldcaching.com, wherethecacheis.com, serenitybydesign.ca, kiwicachers.co.nz, pulse72geocaching.co.uk

 

24866: Shop Groundspeak: Distributor Updates

Corrected phone number format for UK distributors

 

25397: Fix Update Statistics Button to Immediately Update Stats

Button to regenerate statistics forces update immediately

 

24963: February 2011 Calendar/Desktop Background

Added February goodies

 

24861: Statistics: convert finds per month line chart to bar graph

Converted the graph style in this section of the statistics

 

zeNJw.pngWhere do we go from here?

 

Except for small tweaks here and there, Maps, Stats and Favorites are now in a good state to let the community get to know the features and offer feedback for improvement. But don’t worry, we’re headed back in the lab to develop some exciting new Geocaching toys.

Edited by OpinioNate
Avernar

+Avernar

Posted
Posted

Click the ribbon in search results to view the percentage of Premium Member finds to Favorites.

Nice that it's calculated against premium members. :)

 

We have other plans in the works for further modifying this number so that it accurately reflects the quality of a cache when other factors such as age and cache accessibility are taken into account.

Hopefully we'll be able to sort by this number in a future update.

jholly

jholly

Posted
Posted

Darn, no API announcement. Jeremy hinted at a January 2011 release. Any best guess now? Next update?

 

Very very soon. We are tying up loose ends now. Watch http://www.geocaching.com/live for updates (404 until after the release).

Thanks, I'll keep an eye on it. The maps look like they are getting pretty slick. Thanks for them.

OpinioNate

OpinioNate

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Hopefully we'll be able to sort by this number in a future update.

 

Thanks for bringing this up. The reason we put the percentage behind a click is performance related. We need to do some thinking about how this can be accomplished without impacting site performance, because doing those calculations for [potentially] many thousands of caches at a time is a real resource hog.

Avernar

+Avernar

Posted
Posted

Thanks for bringing this up. The reason we put the percentage behind a click is performance related. We need to do some thinking about how this can be accomplished without impacting site performance, because doing those calculations for [potentially] many thousands of caches at a time is a real resource hog.

I suspected it was performance thing and that you don't have a column in the cache table for that number yet. I'm still glad it was added in this form as it's something we couldn't calculate ourselves. Thanks!

 

I too can't wait to play with the updated beta map... :)

ChileHead

+ChileHead

Posted
Posted

Looks like great changes, especially the maps! They look AWESOME! Can't wait to use them, especially when I'm travelling away from my home area.

 

Two thumbs up on the favorites ... I was initially a naysayer on the favorites concept vs ratings, but after using it I think it's a much better way of handling this than a simple rating system. Already I've used these favorites when planning caching days, again especially when I'm away from home. Adding in the percentage is just frosting on the cake.

Mia&Jesper

+Mia&Jesper

Posted
Posted

I hoped that you had introduced favorites to the gpx files in this update, but I cannot find anything about that. It should be simple to add and will make the favorite system a lot more usefull

JC_Geo

+JC_Geo

Posted
Posted

Some nice updates, but when I open up a single cache in its own page, the name of the cache is all scrunched up in the middle of the page at the top. I am using Firefox 3.6.13

Gushoneybun

+Gushoneybun

Posted
Posted

In the stats tab on maps the flag for the Isle of Man does not appear. My stats are hidden so not sure if you can see them. I have checked a few Isle Of Man cacher's and the IOM is blank for them as well.

Moun10Bike

Moun10Bike

Posted
Posted

Some nice updates, but when I open up a single cache in its own page, the name of the cache is all scrunched up in the middle of the page at the top. I am using Firefox 3.6.13

 

Some of the Greasemonkey scripts need to be updated before they will work correctly with the site.

JC_Geo

+JC_Geo

Posted
Posted

Some nice updates, but when I open up a single cache in its own page, the name of the cache is all scrunched up in the middle of the page at the top. I am using Firefox 3.6.13

 

Some of the Greasemonkey scripts need to be updated before they will work correctly with the site.

 

Thank you for the quick reply

FireRef

+FireRef

Posted
Posted

Does this mean that the twitter integration is fixed now, based on the comments about it in the change log? I couldn't tell if it was fixed because of that or the text on the page was just updated.

Lil Devil

+Lil Devil

Posted
Posted
Some nice updates, but when I open up a single cache in its own page, the name of the cache is all scrunched up in the middle of the page at the top. I am using Firefox 3.6.13

That was my Bag-o-Tricks Greasemonkey script. It and my VIP List script are now updated. They'll alert you within 24 hours or you can just click the "install" links on that page now.

 

My Favorites Percentage script will also be updated in the next few minutes, after I finish some final testing.

 

Thanks to Groundspeak for access to their testing server so I was able to update these scripts over the weekend before the code went live. I really appreciate it :wub:

JeremyR

+JeremyR

Posted
Posted

The maps in the stats tabs are lovely but are you sure it's a good idea to lump Europe and Asia into one? Asia is *enormous* and dominated by utterly vast countries compared to Europe, which is full of tiny little countries, many of which are so small they simply aren't visible at the scale you're displaying the map at. How do you see from the map whether somebody has found caches in Luxembourg or Slovenia, for example?

 

Also, it's likely that there percentage of people who have found caches in both Europe and Asia is going to be very small so most of the map is always going to be unshaded. Perhaps they'd be much better split into two different maps?

 

Other than that, nice job :)

Avernar

+Avernar

Posted
Posted

Thanks to Groundspeak for access to their testing server so I was able to update these scripts over the weekend before the code went live. I really appreciate it :wub:

I was about to reply "That was fast!" right before I read that part. How many boxes of doughnuts and cases of beer did that cost you? :anibad:

OpinioNate

OpinioNate

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

The maps in the stats tabs are lovely but are you sure it's a good idea to lump Europe and Asia into one? Asia is *enormous* and dominated by utterly vast countries compared to Europe, which is full of tiny little countries, many of which are so small they simply aren't visible at the scale you're displaying the map at. How do you see from the map whether somebody has found caches in Luxembourg or Slovenia, for example?

 

Also, it's likely that there percentage of people who have found caches in both Europe and Asia is going to be very small so most of the map is always going to be unshaded. Perhaps they'd be much better split into two different maps?

 

Other than that, nice job :)

 

This was a big disappointment for us, since the Google API does not offer a better map view of either Europe alone, or Asia alone. I can't help but feel this was a huge mistake on their part, which leads me to believe they will provide those views soon. When they do, it will be a simple matter for us to update the stats maps.

Edited by OpinioNate
mujonny

+mujonny

Posted
Posted

Is anyone else having trouble with the new maps beta? Before the update I was able to view everything without any trouble, but now the map refuses to show any caches at all (and no it isn't because I have filtered them all out). The new tools look great, I'm just unsure why the map doesn't seem to be working for me.

Dr. House

+Dr. House

Posted
Posted

I've noticed with the new stats page update that the number of finds I show elsewhere on the site (stats bar, profile, etc.) differs from the number displayed in the stats. I imagine this has to do with Moun10Bike's list of cache exclusions, but wondered if the number mismatch was by design or unintended?

 

I've logged this as a bug on the Feedback forum also just in case.

dfx

+dfx

Posted
Posted

Is anyone else having trouble with the new maps beta? Before the update I was able to view everything without any trouble, but now the map refuses to show any caches at all (and no it isn't because I have filtered them all out). The new tools look great, I'm just unsure why the map doesn't seem to be working for me.

 

It's kinda working for me, but incredibly slow. Looks like the servers can't keep up with handing out those tiles.

Kelinore

+Kelinore

Posted
Posted

What happened to the layout?!?

 

1) Why is the title of the cache now like 20-40 spaces to the right of the icon?

 

2) Why is the D/T stacked now? It's harder to read

 

Glad you fixed some bugs and got the site back up quick, but got a few glitches to work through still I guess.

JoenGPS

+JoenGPS

Posted
Posted

Looks like all great stuff. No mention of the activation code retrieval problem, was that fixed?

 

Thanks for all the improvements! We like the new maps the best!

ZSteve

+ZSteve

Posted
Posted (edited)

Is anyone else having trouble with the new maps beta? Before the update I was able to view everything without any trouble, but now the map refuses to show any caches at all (and no it isn't because I have filtered them all out). The new tools look great, I'm just unsure why the map doesn't seem to be working for me.

 

It's kinda working for me, but incredibly slow. Looks like the servers can't keep up with handing out those tiles.

 

It does take a few seconds, but then the caches show up. However, when I click the personalize box, the caches that I've found turn into smileys (which is good). But, when I then click the smiley box (to get those to disappear from the map), all caches disappear - not just the one's that I've already found.

 

Oh wait - I just looked again and it looks ok. Just took a LOT longer than a few seconds for them to reappear.

Edited by ZSteve
JeremyR

+JeremyR

Posted
Posted

This was a big disappointment for us, since the Google API does not offer a better map view of either Europe alone, or Asia alone. I can't help but feel this was a huge mistake on their part, which leads me to believe they will provide those views soon. When they do, it will be a simple matter for us to update the stats maps.

Ah, that makes sense, thanks :)

JPatton

+JPatton

Posted
Posted

What happened to the layout?!?

1) Why is the title of the cache now like 20-40 spaces to the right of the icon?

2) Why is the D/T stacked now? It's harder to read

 

Glad you fixed some bugs and got the site back up quick, but got a few glitches to work through still I guess.

 

Are you running the Bag O Tricks or VIP Greasemonkey scripts? See Lil Devil's post above for a link to update them.

Hurricane Luke

+Hurricane Luke

Posted
Posted

I echo some of the comments. It appears the favourites widget is interfering with the cache information.

-Titles are spaced much more to the right.

-Instead of being beside each other, D & T are stacked (as mentioned).

-The javascript favourites feature is stuck in an endless loop.

-There is no break between cacher owner and placed date.

 

And yes, the tiles & caches in the new map interface are essentially halted.

 

They'll get it fixed however!!! :) No worries...

PatrickInChicago

+PatrickInChicago

Posted
Posted

Hopefully we'll be able to sort by this number in a future update.

 

Thanks for bringing this up. The reason we put the percentage behind a click is performance related. We need to do some thinking about how this can be accomplished without impacting site performance, because doing those calculations for [potentially] many thousands of caches at a time is a real resource hog.

 

Why not add a field for it, and update the field during the "add favorite" event?

OpinioNate

OpinioNate

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

I echo some of the comments. It appears the favourites widget is interfering with the cache information.

-Titles are spaced much more to the right.

-Instead of being beside each other, D & T are stacked (as mentioned).

-The javascript favourites feature is stuck in an endless loop.

-There is no break between cacher owner and placed date.

 

And yes, the tiles & caches in the new map interface are essentially halted.

 

They'll get it fixed however!!! :) No worries...

 

This is a good list of the bugs we are currently zapping. Thanks!

 

Edit: The stacked D/T rating is intended, however.

Edited by OpinioNate
tozainamboku

+tozainamboku

Posted
Posted

Hopefully we'll be able to sort by this number in a future update.

 

Thanks for bringing this up. The reason we put the percentage behind a click is performance related. We need to do some thinking about how this can be accomplished without impacting site performance, because doing those calculations for [potentially] many thousands of caches at a time is a real resource hog.

Doesn't surprise me at all. Just one more reason why I still think all you really need is the raw favorites count. The whole concept that you can calculate one number to measure cache quality seems absurd. Just tell me what caches had lots of people who enjoyed them. I'll decide whether I agree with any of them.

 

To be on topic - it does look like a nice update. With the ability to select which statistics I want to display, I may just reenable my stats now.

Hurricane Luke

+Hurricane Luke

Posted
Posted

I echo some of the comments. It appears the favourites widget is interfering with the cache information.

-Titles are spaced much more to the right.

-Instead of being beside each other, D & T are stacked (as mentioned).

-The javascript favourites feature is stuck in an endless loop.

-There is no break between cacher owner and placed date.

 

And yes, the tiles & caches in the new map interface are essentially halted.

 

They'll get it fixed however!!! :) No worries...

 

This is a good list of the bugs we are currently zapping. Thanks!

 

Edit: The stacked D/T rating is intended, however.

 

To be honest, I don't actually mind the D/T stacking - it makes it easier to compare the two figures...

mpilchfamily

+mpilchfamily

Posted
Posted

I noticed when searching near by caches that if the cache has a NM log that the NM tile is in the info column of the cache listings. Is this a new feature or was this always there and i just missed it?

 

Pretty sure its new and i love it. Maybe now we'll get more COs paying attention to there caches and logging OM to remove that mark from the list. I'm also liking the modified layout of the cache stats at the top of the cache page.

 

I know updates and fixes are still being worked on but i get a continual load symbol just under the number of favorites on the cache page. I'm using Firefox right now.

NinjaCacher!

+NinjaCacher!

Posted
Posted

Nice job guys. I really have to say I like the way you manage to include user suggestions from the feedback forum into the actual site. It gives us that great warm feeling that Groundspeak is listening to the community and making changes that we suggested! Great work, two thumbs up :D

 

A few small comments/possible improvements:

1. Favorites

Looking great! Would be perfect if the percentage could be displayed automatically with the number, and if it would be possible to sort on percentage in the search result. instead of calculating it "on the fly", i'd suggest to include it, as Avernar said, as a column in the cache page (which is updated whenever it might change, ie. on a PM user log, and if someone gives a fav vote.

Also, would be perfect to include these in the GPX!

 

2. Maps

Sweet!

 

3. Statistics

Nice. One minor thing I noticed in the maps: "SCG" is displayed instead of just "Serbia". SCG stands for "Serbia & Crna Gora" = "Serbia and Montenegro" which doesn't exist anymore. Montenegro and Serbia are also displayed as separate countries on the cache pages.

 

Again, thanks for these great updates!

 

Looking forward to:

- Beta API

- Public API

- remove PQ limit (25229)

and other nice updates in future releases :)

knowschad

knowschad

Posted
Posted

I have been known to be openly critical of many updates in the past, so I want to be equally open in my praise of the last two updates. Thanks for all the hard work! I think you are adding some very useful functionality to the website.

mamoreb

+mamoreb

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the updates, they seem really great!

 

However, am I the only one getting "Geocaching statistics are not available at this time" when trying to view my stats page?

 

I also have this problem:

 

I managed to crash the site editing my Milestones. On the fourth "override" it failed and subsequent attempts to go back to that page failed. Now I can get back in, but attempts to make edits lead me to "An Error Has Occurred"

 

BTW, there are some minor updates that I can't find in the change log, for example a few new icons in the navigation box and reorganization of the cache page part containing hidden by, D/T, etc.

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
Followers 10
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...