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Geocaching.com site update Feb 1st 2011


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Making the user adjust the radius everytime the numbers change is (IMO) ridiculous. My closest to home PQ changes the distanct everytime I run it - new caches hidden, caches I find both change the radius. And often I see 2-5 caches at the radius not included because they are above the max number. If I have a PQ set at exactly the radius, then sort that list which of these 2-5 other caches are included?

 

Thanks to your both for your quick reply. I fully agree with The Jester and his/her comments above. If I run a PQ to generate a list, I expect that list to be reordered and not draw in caches from within the set radius. How does one find the optimum radius to select 1000 caches only? This radius figure would, on average, reduce each day, as there are more newer caches in my area than those that are archived. This would require everyone to edit their PQ daily to reduce ( and work out ) the optimum radius. The software currently only returns 1000 max caches and dumps these into the .gpx file, so why cannot it be set to ignore caches outside the 1000 closest? Thanks. Steve

 

The problem is that sorting "nearest 1000" by date is pretty meaningless because, as you say, the "nearest 1000" radius changes every day.

 

For example, there could be a new cache today being the "newest" but it's sitting right on the edge of your PQ radius. Now if tomorrow two new caches are published closer, but the previous newest doesn't go down to place 3 in the "newest list" but drops out. Not really useful.

 

If you create, on the other hand, a PQ with say 50 miles distance, and then sort the results by date, you'll always see the newest caches within these 50 miles.

 

So I'd suggest 2 PQ for 2 different things:

- For the nearest caches in your area, use your PQ with 1000 caches from home coordinates.

- If you want to know the newest caches in your area, first decide how far you're interested in the newest caches, setup a PQ with that distance limit and then sort the results by date - you'll always see the newest caches on top even if there are more than 1000 caches.

Or you could just use GSAK (gsak.net) and put the PQs together and filter however you wish. That listing can certainly be sorted by date.

GSAK is great, but it doesn't have all the data for sorting yet - mainly FAV's aren't included in the GPX file.

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GC28A2Y

 

I mentioned this in the general forum and was given a possible explanation.

 

There apparently is a bug with the percentage of favored votes. If a log owner has deleted a found it log in the past apparently it is still being factored in the percentage ratio. I.E. I saw a cache with 3 found it logs, 1 favorite, but the percentage said 25%. Could be because of a log deletion.

 

Could you give me the GC code of the cache in question? I'd like to investigate this. Thanks!

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PQ error?

From the Active Pocket Queries window, in the preview column, I click the left icon to preview a PQ.

The window opens with a list of 1000 caches...... lets say these are the 1000 caches closest to my home.

I then click the Placed column, to presumably order the 1000 caches newest to oldest......

What I then find is that the list populates with caches that were NOT in the original 1000 cache PQ..... it comes up with caches that are at the opposite end of the UK and even some from the Netherlands appear. The list still claims to have 1000 over 50 pages.

What is going wrong here? Surely the Placed column reorder should display the original 1000 in order newest to oldest?

Anyone any ideas if this is a bug in the software?

Thanks.

 

That is by design. Your PQ is maxed out, meaning you have it set to return caches out to a radius that exceeds the 1000 cache capacity. When viewing it sorted by distance, it returns the 1000 closest caches, even though the pool you are telling it to draw from is greater. When you then sort by date placed, it sorts all of the caches in that pool by date and returns the 1000 newest. Some (or many) of those newest ones may not be among the group of closest ones.

 

You should trim down the radius in your PQ so that it is not unnecessarily drawing from caches so distant from the origin. It's best to try to set the radius to a point where the number of returned caches fall at or just below the maximum of 1000.

This is counter-intuitive. When you get a list and sort it, you expect THAT list to be sorted, not to get another list. Making the user adjust the radius everytime the numbers change is (IMO) ridiculous. My closest to home PQ changes the distanct everytime I run it - new caches hidden, caches I find both change the radius. And often I see 2-5 caches at the radius not included because they are above the max number. If I have a PQ set at exactly the radius, then sort that list which of these 2-5 other caches are included?

 

You need to think of a PQ as an advanced search with a limit on what can be returned. Each time you re-sort, it re-runs the search using the new criteria you've specified. You specify the radius when setting up the PQ and this is not changed just because you change the sort order.

 

If you find yourself frequently needing to re-sort your PQ, then you should adjust it so that your radius is accurate, or use the other search mechanisms on the site.

How do you adjust the radius to exactly match the list? As I mentioned, sometimes there are multiple caches at the radius that are NOT included because of the size limit. So resorting gives a different list - and that will NOT be the list returned by the PQ file.

 

So sorting the preview of a PQ means you are no longer looking at a preview of the PQ, you are looking at something quite different. That's what's counter-intuitive: I set up a PQ and view the preview, I expect to see the same caches as will be included in the GPX file - no matter what sort I use. But by changing the selection (which a sort should not do - it should only change the order of the selection) you invalidate the preview. What I want is a way to see the PQ sorted by the FAV count - and as that is not included in the GPX file - there is no way to that. "Use other search mechanisms on the site" - where else can you sort by FAV's?

 

I can see one advantage to the way things are now (but only one). If you set up a PQ and select all fifty states, if you sort by FAV's you will see the highest in the whole country (another thread was talking about this).

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Beta maps still doesn't work properly on the iPad: tapping on the cache symbol in the map doesn't open a balloon with the cache information & link to the listing. Clicking on the cache symbol in Safari on Macbook works as expected, but not in Safari on the iPad. Tried another browser on iPad as well (Mercury); also doesn't work.

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GC28A2Y

 

I mentioned this in the general forum and was given a possible explanation.

 

There apparently is a bug with the percentage of favored votes. If a log owner has deleted a found it log in the past apparently it is still being factored in the percentage ratio. I.E. I saw a cache with 3 found it logs, 1 favorite, but the percentage said 25%. Could be because of a log deletion.

 

Could you give me the GC code of the cache in question? I'd like to investigate this. Thanks!

 

Yep, it does in fact look like archived find logs are getting figured into the calculation. I've entered a bug on this in our internal queue. Thanks!

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Advanced Search / All geocaches / By Country/State -> An Error Has Occurred

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

An Error Has Occurred

Your request has resulted in an error. Please return to this site's home page to continue.

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Copyright © 2000-2011 Groundspeak Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 

 

Search for all geocaches Belgium

Edited by DanPan
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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.

Hard to believe Google did such "mistake". Maybe this will help: http://code.google.com/intl/pl/apis/visualization/documentation/gallery/intensitymap.html#Configuration_Options

Possible values are: 'world', 'africa', 'asia', 'europe', 'middle_east', 'south_america', and 'usa'
Edited by Thathanka
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Check this one: Baek park. The text i in Dutch, but it's about the layout.

 

Some caches look better compared to others

I see the issue as well. I think it depends on the cache page. When the descriptions are in HTML the print preview is okay, but when the description is in plain text the line endings get ignored.

 

Edit: It's also mentioned on the Feedback site here.

Edited by BBosman
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so...I guess this would be a bit of feeback....Just on the new beta map...I am a fan....I have just glanced at it real quick, but I loke some of the options from what Ive seen, some being that it appears that the 'refresh caches' has been done with, I can move around the map freely and see the caches automatically, and only view the ones I want, like excluding earth caches from the map...it seems cool.....also....the switch of view is neat...I know I will be using the 'topo map view' due to one cache hike we attempted last fall just north of bartlett New Hampshire in the white mountains, where the sign said 2.8 mile hike (with many caches along the route, I believe there were 6 of the 7 on that trail we found)...anyways...we did not calculate that most of the 2.8 miles was UPHILL.....this topo view on the geocaching site seems like it will be full of use, at least from this cacher......One thing I noticed on the 'tiles' view on the side was the '?' (Unknown cache) is now called 'Mystery cache'....same concept..and I hope the 'blue ?' still stands for the same type of cache, I guess Ill have to find one to see...I usually think of caches that dont fit into any catagory of caches, or if they are 2 types in one (puzzle cache and multi-level cache)... From what Ive seen so far on the map, I like. Thanks for making the geocahing experience better .....One thing I do have trouble with is the FORUM....I find it extremly difficult to post/search/find posts within the forum...perhaps I just need to learn how to use it a bit better ( heck, I have this post on which is good....but felt foolish when I made my last post on paperless caching with a garmin 205nuvi and the helpful sites I found just to learn someone already had done so years before (I couldnt find it when I looked and searched the web on my own)...anyways...ya....keep it caching...

Edited by Seditious
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Advanced Search / All geocaches / By Country/State -> An Error Has Occurred

Yes, can confirm that issue - searching for caches by country where states are supported by GC results in a 500 internal server error since the last update/fix when trying to use "all states".

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Advanced Search / All geocaches / By Country/State -> An Error Has Occurred

Yes, can confirm that issue - searching for caches by country where states are supported by GC results in a 500 internal server error since the last update/fix when trying to use "all states".

 

Also it happens to me.

Link

 

Greetings.

omortsoN

Edited by omortsoN
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Advanced Search / All geocaches / By Country/State -> An Error Has Occurred

Yes, can confirm that issue - searching for caches by country where states are supported by GC results in a 500 internal server error since the last update/fix when trying to use "all states".

Also it happens to me.

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx?country_id=186'>http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx?country_id=186

Thanks for the fast first fix for filtering cache types. :grin:

When I tried the above link I also get 500 after hitting the button. :yikes:

 

If I start from http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx and select a country it works for a search for all caches. :anicute:

But there are other issues:

  • search for all Event types results in the 500 error for some countries, not all: Ireland, England, Germany, Austria are bad. I think Slovakia, Netherland, Belgium and Poland are ok. Really strange behavior, I think with Finland first it didn't work, then it did work.
  • Searching for individual event types works without problems.
  • All event types returns only events and mega events, CITO events are not included.

(why I am doing all those searches? you can win a 2011 German reviewer coin http://www.stash-lab.de/?p=1238 :laughing: )

 

Another big bug, not sure if this is related to the update:

I wanted to discover a geo coin which I saw at an event and was logged in the event, but I made a mistake writing down the coin code. :sad:

So I posted a note to the coin "saw it but have the wrong code"

Then I tried this: I changed the note to a discover log. I was really surprised that it worked without entering a code. :surprise:

Edited by Frank_Z
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Another big bug, not sure if this is related to the update:

I wanted to discover a geo coin which I saw at an event and was logged in the event, but I made a mistake writing down the coin code. :sad:

So I posted a note to the coin "saw it but have the wrong code"

Then I tried this: I changed the note to a discover log. I was really surprised that it worked without entering a code. :surprise:

Did it also add the icon to your profile?

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Then I tried this: I changed the note to a discover log. I was really surprised that it worked without entering a code. :surprise:

Did it also add the icon to your profile?

I already had the icon, because the trackable owner had two coins in different metals. But yes, it is in my trackable profile and a "2" behind it.

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Advanced Search / All geocaches / By Country/State -> An Error Has Occurred

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

An Error Has Occurred

Your request has resulted in an error. Please return to this site's home page to continue.

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Copyright © 2000-2011 Groundspeak Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 

 

Search for all geocaches Belgium

 

The same for Italy and for all other nations

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Making the user adjust the radius everytime the numbers change is (IMO) ridiculous. My closest to home PQ changes the distanct everytime I run it - new caches hidden, caches I find both change the radius. And often I see 2-5 caches at the radius not included because they are above the max number. If I have a PQ set at exactly the radius, then sort that list which of these 2-5 other caches are included?

 

Thanks to your both for your quick reply. I fully agree with The Jester and his/her comments above. If I run a PQ to generate a list, I expect that list to be reordered and not draw in caches from within the set radius. How does one find the optimum radius to select 1000 caches only? This radius figure would, on average, reduce each day, as there are more newer caches in my area than those that are archived. This would require everyone to edit their PQ daily to reduce ( and work out ) the optimum radius. The software currently only returns 1000 max caches and dumps these into the .gpx file, so why cannot it be set to ignore caches outside the 1000 closest? Thanks. Steve

 

The problem is that sorting "nearest 1000" by date is pretty meaningless because, as you say, the "nearest 1000" radius changes every day.

 

For example, there could be a new cache today being the "newest" but it's sitting right on the edge of your PQ radius. Now if tomorrow two new caches are published closer, but the previous newest doesn't go down to place 3 in the "newest list" but drops out. Not really useful.

 

If you create, on the other hand, a PQ with say 50 miles distance, and then sort the results by date, you'll always see the newest caches within these 50 miles.

 

So I'd suggest 2 PQ for 2 different things:

- For the nearest caches in your area, use your PQ with 1000 caches from home coordinates.

- If you want to know the newest caches in your area, first decide how far you're interested in the newest caches, setup a PQ with that distance limit and then sort the results by date - you'll always see the newest caches on top even if there are more than 1000 caches.

Or you could just use GSAK (gsak.net) and put the PQs together and filter however you wish. That listing can certainly be sorted by date.

GSAK is great, but it doesn't have all the data for sorting yet - mainly FAV's aren't included in the GPX file.

 

Fav's will probably need a GSAK update, too. (Clyde's probably already working on it.)

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Advanced Search / All geocaches / By Country/State -> An Error Has Occurred

Yes, can confirm that issue - searching for caches by country where states are supported by GC results in a 500 internal server error since the last update/fix when trying to use "all states".

 

Also it happens to me.

Link

 

Greetings.

omortsoN

 

Now already it works well. Thanks.

 

Greetings.

omortsoN

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Perhaps it has been mentioned, but with the beta maps the distance scale is in metric. A few of us loyalist like the imperial measure. Any way to change it?

Interesting. I see both. At one zoom level it says "500 m" above the scale line and "2000 ft" below the line.

Ah, I'll have to check that. I was zoomed in a bit more when I noticed.

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Since this most recent release (or the one just before), when viewing cache pages, the lower Larger map (the interactive one) doesn't show the map images - just the geocache and zoom controls. I've created 3 caches recently, and none of them show the map, and neither does about half of the cache pages I view. It appears random, for the caches I don't own, but the ones I own don't show up ever. Any ideas or reason ?

 

Denis

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This evening I'm having difficulty viewing maps using Firefox. It was working fine this morning. IE is okay.

The upper map is a small vertical line. When I click on it I get a small message box that says "The requested content cannot be loaded.

Please try again later."

The lower Larger map (the interactive one) doesn't show the map images. If I navigate away (like clicking on Search Trackables) and navigate back, the maps show up.

When I try View Map, the map page shows up and it goes into the "loading maps" loop and nothing happens.

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Since this most recent release (or the one just before), when viewing cache pages, the lower Larger map (the interactive one) doesn't show the map images - just the geocache and zoom controls. I've created 3 caches recently, and none of them show the map, and neither does about half of the cache pages I view. It appears random, for the caches I don't own, but the ones I own don't show up ever. Any ideas or reason ?

 

Denis

 

I had the same problem for awhile, then started using Firefox browser and it was ok until today. Now the same thing is happening. And on the cache page, when I click on "Geocaching.com Google Map" under "For online maps", it takes me to the page but the map is completely blank. If I click on "View the new Maps Beta", that will come up ok (even though I don't care for it). Also, when I click on "Decrypt" the hint, it just takes me to the top of the cache page. AND, it doesn't even decrypt!

 

Am also having trouble, as of today, logging a geocoin as "visiting" and then "dropped off". I logged a TB as "Retrieved" today, and it worked, but it wouldn't log as "visited". Now the coin is still showing in my inventory when it is actually in the cache! Am going to post to the general topic forum on this problem since I don't know if anyone else is having a similar issue(s).

 

All of this is frustrating :blink:

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This evening I'm having difficulty viewing maps using Firefox. It was working fine this morning. IE is okay.

The upper map is a small vertical line. When I click on it I get a small message box that says "The requested content cannot be loaded.

Please try again later."

The lower Larger map (the interactive one) doesn't show the map images. If I navigate away (like clicking on Search Trackables) and navigate back, the maps show up.

When I try View Map, the map page shows up and it goes into the "loading maps" loop and nothing happens.

 

It still wasn't working on Firefox an hour ago. Now it's okay. Play Twilight Zone music...

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