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Geocaching.com site update May 4th 2011


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Thanks, the pq full of all ready found caches. useless.

 

 

I must disagree with this opinion. The PQ of found caches is enormoulsy useful, and fun. You just have to know what to do with it.

When I'm looking at map and want only unfound caches and get a PQ with found caches that is a waste of server cycles and total waste of PQ's. If I want my found caches I'll run the my founds PQ.

 

No, I still dissent. When I have friends come in from out of town, I routinely run PQs that contains found and unfound so I can give them the highlights in the area. It's only a single checkbox to make them appear or not. Having that flexibility is good.

Your still not getting it. I am not talking about PQ's generated from the create PQ page, I'm talking about PQ's generated from a *MAP* page. I want a map that will have the union of personalization, filtering cache types, show PMO caches, not show what is on my ignore list, a list on the side and be able to generate a PQ.

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Just one change needs to be made to the new layout. It's a super simple one, too.

 

You have the coordinates boxes at the top and all the log entries at the bottom setup in alternating white & light blue solid backgrounds. Please extend this to the short description (light blue) and long description (white) boxes in the style sheet. You can leave the rest of the page transparent, but the actual text boxes for the descriptions MUST be solid color backgrounds.

 

This single change will fix thousands of puzzle cache listings that are messed up by having a transparent text box, plus it will keep the other few hundred thousand listings with user-specified background images readable.

 

Thanks for your support.

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......................

Several people have mentioned text boxes such as the "email a user" and cache description being to small, these and others can all be enlarged by dragging the bottom right of the box out.

 

Nope, No can do - Doesn't work for me.

 

Sorry just checked and that only seems to work in Firefox not IE :(

 

Doesn't work in FF 3.0.

 

Double whoops guess it's just FF4 then, obviously not as helpfull a statment as I intended it to be :huh:

Edited by Raver Dave
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I agree that the transparency makes it difficult to read the pages, and that the fixed width is really not an improvement for me.

 

The loss of functionality that really makes things hard for me is this:

 

On the maps beta, I want to add the selected points to my bookmark lists. This is how I pick which caches I will go for. I was surprised that particular bit of functionality was lost. Can we have that back please?

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On the beta maps:

 

1. Enabling personalization does not hide non-traditional caches which I've already found.

2. All caches on my ignore list appear.

 

PLEASE fix this. If we're forced to use the beta maps for personalization it should at minimum have the same abilities as the classic maps.

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Checking the background image issue I looked at the cache pages I have that use them. I noticed that some of the pages that used background images were not showing up on the page. I then went to edit the listing so that I could check the url for the background image and discovered that there is a limit to the number of characters that can be pasted into the window Background image URL. this limit was not in place when I originally wrote the page and so I am assuming that it was instituted duirng the site update. Please change it back as it will hamper the ability of page writers to include a background image in the future.

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OpinionNate has already noted that there are issues/concerns about the fixed width aspect of the new layout. Well, I'd like to add my voice in saying that this singular change has ruined the look, feel, and solvability of many of my cache pages and, in particular, puzzle caches. Here are four examples. Perhaps the worst of all is this cache, where the images have been removed from the page and are only viewable by clicking on a magnifying glass ... where did that come from?! I have already spent crazy amounts of time devising and establishing an attractive layout for these caches and I have no desire to go and attempt to recreate (80+ of) them in this new environment, that may well change once again. I urge the coders to reconsider this one change .. many of the other changes seem helpful, as opposed to the morass created by the fixed width change.

 

Issues with puzzle caches that utilize background images was the first thing I thought of when I learned that they were going to redesign how the cache pages are rendering, and I'm **know enough to get myself in trouble** type of HTML writer.

 

I can't believe this didn't come up when they were discussing the changes internally. Or perhaps the lackeys, with one or two known exceptions, are just a bunch of web developers and don't really understand how we as mystery cache writers utilize the web pages.

 

This needs to be fixed on the site end instead of requiring the cache writers to fix all of their puzzle caches to conform to the new site design. Seriously, did you guys even think of this?

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Beta Maps - not 'live' representation of caches...

 

A cache was archived today......

Last Updated: about 10 hours ago on 05/05/2011 00:24:42 Pacific Daylight Time (07:24 GMT)

 

and at....

Current Time: 05/05/2011 10:50:19 Pacific Daylight Time (17:50 GMT)

 

...the cache STILL appears on the beta maps, but it was not in my downloaded PQ.......

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Looks as if I will need to re do all my cache pages.

Background images on cache pages used to be a subtle border. Now they dominate the page

See cache page example

 

I like the new look, but I think the text part could be a bit more opaque. The background is a bit strong. But I do like the effect, much better than before.

Yes, please make the site wider, i liked it better before the update. Now alot of stuff reformats into two rows, not so nice.

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I use a netbook (1024 x 600) with Win XP and FF4 for geocaching rather than my desktop so the size issues are fine for me. But the bleedthrough of background images is annoying.

 

Having just entered logs for 25 finds that I made yesterday, I found the need to enlarge the size of the log entry box every time to write a decent length log very annoying! I'd rather encourage cachers to write descriptive logs by giving them a decent size box to write in than encourage a spate of TFTC TNLNs from iPhoners.

 

Chris

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Hi!

 

The fixed page width has come up several times, so I'd like to attempt an explanation into our thought process here. The choice between a liquid (expanding) layout and fixed width is one of appearance and usability.

 

For me the usability is absolutely bad now :-( I'm fine with the new drop down menu instead of the ones at the left and right sides but the new layout is WAY too narrow. My screens are 1920*1200 minimum and you're just using less than half of it. I eventually can understand using a fixed width for most of the pages but at least for the (old) map this is really bad. There's not much map left now :-(

 

Another thing I've seen now is that you now show the already found caches on the old map but I can't switch them off. In this case I would absolutely prefer having them switched off as the default if I can't change it. Now my (small) map is full of smileys and it's really hard to find the unfound caches now ;-)

 

Bye,

Christian

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Thanks, the pq full of all ready found caches. useless.

 

 

I must disagree with this opinion. The PQ of found caches is enormoulsy useful, and fun. You just have to know what to do with it.

When I'm looking at map and want only unfound caches and get a PQ with found caches that is a waste of server cycles and total waste of PQ's. If I want my found caches I'll run the my founds PQ.

 

.. and if you don't want that behavior, you just gotta check/uncheck the selection boxes labeled "I haven't found" or "I have found". Flexibility is good. You can have this data anyway you want.

 

 

No, I still dissent. When I have friends come in from out of town, I routinely run PQs that contains found and unfound so I can give them the highlights in the area. It's only a single checkbox to make them appear or not. Having that flexibility is good.

But that't only one example. The problem stated is if you run a PQ with 1000 caches and you found 999 of them then your PQ has only one cache you can find.

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Thanks, the pq full of all ready found caches. useless.

 

 

I must disagree with this opinion. The PQ of found caches is enormoulsy useful, and fun. You just have to know what to do with it.

When I'm looking at map and want only unfound caches and get a PQ with found caches that is a waste of server cycles and total waste of PQ's. If I want my found caches I'll run the my founds PQ.

 

No, I still dissent. When I have friends come in from out of town, I routinely run PQs that contains found and unfound so I can give them the highlights in the area. It's only a single checkbox to make them appear or not. Having that flexibility is good.

Your still not getting it. I am not talking about PQ's generated from the create PQ page, I'm talking about PQ's generated from a *MAP* page. I want a map that will have the union of personalization, filtering cache types, show PMO caches, not show what is on my ignore list, a list on the side and be able to generate a PQ.

 

Well, that finally makes sense. I've been blissfully successful thus far in not having to run PQs from a map page. If that feature was relied upon from folks and it's now gone, I could see that being a concern.

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Hi all!

 

I'm a new cacher from Austria and I was used to the design of the old homepage. I'm caching with my Iphone and I liked the option to "determine my location" to show me the nearest caches. Why is this feature gone? I know in the advanced search options you can search by coordinates, but it's inconvenient for me because I have to switch to another app to view my coordinates. I wonder why no one complained about that. Is there a reason why this search option was removed?

 

djkrys

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Thanks, the pq full of all ready found caches. useless.

 

 

I must disagree with this opinion. The PQ of found caches is enormoulsy useful, and fun. You just have to know what to do with it.

When I'm looking at map and want only unfound caches and get a PQ with found caches that is a waste of server cycles and total waste of PQ's. If I want my found caches I'll run the my founds PQ.

 

No, I still dissent. When I have friends come in from out of town, I routinely run PQs that contains found and unfound so I can give them the highlights in the area. It's only a single checkbox to make them appear or not. Having that flexibility is good.

Your still not getting it. I am not talking about PQ's generated from the create PQ page, I'm talking about PQ's generated from a *MAP* page. I want a map that will have the union of personalization, filtering cache types, show PMO caches, not show what is on my ignore list, a list on the side and be able to generate a PQ.

 

Well, that finally makes sense. I've been blissfully successful thus far in not having to run PQs from a map page. If that feature was relied upon from folks and it's now gone, I could see that being a concern.

 

All PQs 'generated from a map page' do when you click the pocket query link is pre-enter the starting coordinates and distance for you. You still need to check the 'not found' checkbox on the generation page. It does not do anything magic different from a normal PQ. It's not making a PQ of what you see, for example.

 

I just tried it and it works fine. Click 'Create Pocket Query', then click 'i haven't found' on the page which comes up.

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Thanks, the pq full of all ready found caches. useless.

 

 

I must disagree with this opinion. The PQ of found caches is enormoulsy useful, and fun. You just have to know what to do with it.

When I'm looking at map and want only unfound caches and get a PQ with found caches that is a waste of server cycles and total waste of PQ's. If I want my found caches I'll run the my founds PQ.

 

No, I still dissent. When I have friends come in from out of town, I routinely run PQs that contains found and unfound so I can give them the highlights in the area. It's only a single checkbox to make them appear or not. Having that flexibility is good.

Your still not getting it. I am not talking about PQ's generated from the create PQ page, I'm talking about PQ's generated from a *MAP* page. I want a map that will have the union of personalization, filtering cache types, show PMO caches, not show what is on my ignore list, a list on the side and be able to generate a PQ.

 

Well, that finally makes sense. I've been blissfully successful thus far in not having to run PQs from a map page. If that feature was relied upon from folks and it's now gone, I could see that being a concern.

 

All PQs 'generated from a map page' do when you click the pocket query link is pre-enter the starting coordinates and distance for you. You still need to check the 'not found' checkbox on the generation page. It does not do anything magic different from a normal PQ. It's not making a PQ of what you see, for example.

 

I just tried it and it works fine. Click 'Create Pocket Query', then click 'i haven't found' on the page which comes up.

Yes, the original map page has regained it's former usefulness overnight. Guess it just had to sleep on it :lol:

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Hi!

 

Thanks for the feedback so far everyone, including the critical comments regarding maps and the new look.

 

One more:

 

IE 8 only allows me to "Zoom to address" and set "Premium member filters" on the old map. But it doesn't allow me to switch off my finds and my caches. There's also no "Create pocket query" and no list with the cache names... FF 3.6 shows me all of this!

 

Bye,

Christian

Edited by monsterbox
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Overall I am pleased with the new look and since I do most of my GC stuff on a small laptop the width issue hasn't been an issue for me , yet B) . However, the background image issue has been a pain. It made my pages almost impossible to read. I ended up removing all the background imagaes from my pages :( . I also had to go through the html on each page and remove some <br /> because everything looked so spaced out now, but that might be my fault :unsure: .

 

There is also a problem with the map where a cache is still being displayed that was published and almost instantly retracted due to improper placement - this happened over a week ago.

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Still wondering why I don't have smileys on the Beta fast enough. It took a few minutes clicking on and off the personalization and the found icons. Do I have to deal with this all the time. So glad I have the option to use the old maps.

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Still wondering why I don't have smileys on the Beta fast enough. It took a few minutes clicking on and off the personalization and the found icons. Do I have to deal with this all the time. So glad I have the option to use the old maps.

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Still wondering why I don't have smileys on the Beta fast enough. It took a few minutes clicking on and off the personalization and the found icons. Do I have to deal with this all the time. So glad I have the option to use the old maps.

Oh and is it me or is this sight slowing down?

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I have to say with the possible exception of personalization not being on by default on the beta maps, (why would you want to view the map with out it?) that I very much like the new site.

 

I have tested the new maps in both IE9 and Firefox 4 and all personalization and filters are working just fine.

 

I have several cache pages with backgrounds and have checked others including all the examples mentioned here, all are perfectly readable.

 

Extra white space not a problem for me but I guess thats because I happen to be running a resolution that works with it I can understand others with a higher res will have issues.

 

Several people have mentioned text boxes such as the "email a user" and cache description being to small, these and others can all be enlarged by dragging the bottom right of the box out.

 

Nope, No can do - Doesn't work for me.

 

He's probably using a browser add-on. I can do the same thing in Firefox with the Resizable Textarea add-on.

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The fixed width of the new website looks really good...

 

...on a 16" square monitor set to 1024x768 resolution. (Seriously, just tried it.)

 

For a hobby that requires a GPS or at least a smartphone do we have many users with such obscelecent monitors? Serious question.

 

I have a 17" SVGA monitor. Because of my poor eyesight, if I put it in 1024x768, It puts a tremendous strain on my eyes.

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Sorry guys, but the new layout is not a good one. As mentioned in many post, there is too much whitespace. Additionally the fixed (and too small) content width breaks a lot of cache listings and causes a lot of effort for the owners to fix. The background image is much to prominent now while the listing background is not opaque. Overall the new layout was to be reworked completely!

 

There is a good book about webdesign that I can recommend, which is called "Don't make me think!". Take a look at it... ;)

 

Additionally I currently can't see any improved performance! Sorry...

 

Regards from Germany,

Wolle98

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I think there may be a problem with the new Personal Cache Notes. I pasted the following string into the note:

 

MANMOR0??ORMS?AMA

(it's for a puzzle I'm trying to solve)

 

When I clicked "save", it never seemed to actually save. When I then refreshed the cache page, the following text was in the cache note:

 

MANMOR0jQuery15209289091236147413_1304626909133ORMS?AMA

 

Looks like the double-question-marks got changed (parsed?) to "jQuery15209289091236147413_1304626909133". For Groundspeak's security and mine, I'd rather not have by browser (or Groundspeak) trying to interpret the gibberish in the cache note as anything other than text.

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Not sure if this is the result of the upgrades or not, but the date format option does not allow us to enter logs in the format DD/MM/YYYY (numerical) as used in many parts of the world. (We can of course use the month in words instead.)

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Appears some (all?) new caches are not appearing on the maps- at least when you click on "view larger map."

Examples: GC2VK3E and GC2VK24.

Yep, I made a post earlier in the thread...... caches that were archived almost 11 hrs before were still showing on the map.... looks like the map is not 'live' - which is completely useless....... and I still cannot get the 'bubble' to appear so I can click on the cache for a description...... and where have the cache listings gone from down the right hand side........ I could go on.....

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It's nice that hidden waypoints are displayed in the Print-Version now.

But please give them a bit space in between... when displaying the Printversion of a Cache with many Hiddenwaypoints (Multi-Cache f.e.) you can't easyly read the different waypoints.

 

How do you get a print version with hidden waypoints? I tried to print one but it looks exactly like what's on the screen. I guess I'm confused.

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Appears some (all?) new caches are not appearing on the maps- at least when you click on "view larger map."

Examples: GC2VK3E and GC2VK24.

Yep, I made a post earlier in the thread...... caches that were archived almost 11 hrs before were still showing on the map.... looks like the map is not 'live' - which is completely useless....... and I still cannot get the 'bubble' to appear so I can click on the cache for a description...... and where have the cache listings gone from down the right hand side........ I could go on.....

Yes, that is correct. Some time ago Nate stated that the beta maps are only regened so often. What your looking at is the cached version of the last regen. That is why they are so fast and can zoom out so far. The original maps I believe are real time.

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Yes, please make the site wider, i liked it better before the update. Now alot of stuff reformats into two rows, not so nice.

If wider, then please dynamic/liquid - the current width works perfectly with netbook. On a wider screen, it is rather narrow.

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I'd idly curious about who the added white space is intended to benefit. On my work computer, the white space (or explosion of the background image) is taking up about 50% of the screen real estate, which is kind of crazy (I measured). That can't be what's intended, can it?

 

If it was for people accessing GC.com via mobile platforms (smartphones, etc.), wouldn't it be better to design a mobile-optimized version of the web page, the way that (for example) Amazon.com redirects you to a differently-formatted site if it detects that you're on an iPhone or an iPad or something?

 

If I'm wrong about who it was designed for, I'm curious who was asking for it.

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Haven't see this topic in the update note thread. Are e-mails to other uses now limited to seeing just one line at a time? The text entry box only allowed on character line (Twitter-esque), but the message was fine. Hopefully a reasonably sized note entry box will be available for communication.

 

Agree with this...entry box is too small.

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I don't like the new maps. I don't like that the bubbles don't pop up all the time and I don't like that you can't load from the bubbles. Since they changed sites my Delorme will only load ten caches. when I try to load any more it deletes one. maybe that is coincidence, but it didn't happen 2 days ago.

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As was stated before, it's simple:

 

If (browser = IE)

site = narrow

else

site = dynamic width

 

Weird. On both Firefox 4.0.1 and IE8, the width of the cache info section is 990 pixels (950 plus 20 padding on each side) in both browsers. My monitor's horizontal resolution is 1920 pixels, so that's nearly 500 pixels of background on either side.

 

I found where it's set in Groundspeak's stylesheet, so I may tinker with making it wider.

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Why would you produce a map without a key?

With the beta map I see more territory and more caches. But, I can not find a way to identify those icons? How am I supposed to know which cache goes with which icon?

The old maps had a numbered key which corresponded to numbers next to the cache icons. The 'beta' maps aren't really far enough along in development to be called 'beta'. They need lots of work.

Also, I hope someone is doing some testing with functionality of the site on the iPad. The geocaching app is pretty good. The geocaching site should be iPad friendly, too.

 

And why would you produce a map with NO SCALE??

 

I WANT the transparent icons back on the map. The bordered icons are over bearing.

 

What maps with scales??? I've made that point long ago.. guess that's not ever gonna happen. :(

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There are two things missing from the new maps, that were on the old maps. Why can't we print a map with the #'s and associated cache names? I use this all the time in planning a caching expedition. Also, why do currently disabled caches appear the same as active caches? It is a hassle to have to click on them to make sure they are currently available.

I will be really disappointed if these functions have been lost.

Edited by DittosMom
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Open Letter to Groundspeak:

 

Please reconsider the fixed-width issue. Please go back to fluid width. If the problem is with IE, then please implement what others have suggested (that if the user has IE, then they get fixed width, and if not, they get fluid width). If the problem is with smartphones, etc., please have an alternate website for those apps (as many other web companies do). I believe that the vast majority of use of this site is by people on standard computers (laptop or desktop) and the fixed width is a GIANT step backwards. Nearly all monitors sold now have an HD aspect ratio, and the fixed-width model not only looks bad, but also compromises usability. Additionally (and as others have noted), if the main problem with fluid width is pictures that are too wide, then please just resize those (or restrict the size allowed for those). Do you really want (and need) to ruin the look and the usability of all of the cache pages in order to fix the few with pictures that are too big?

 

Also, your site has a virtual monopoly on geocaching (I don't believe there has been much migration to opencaching), so please don't make changes that only make a small group happy (those with the exact size screens as your fixed width) while alienating the rest (and vast majority) of your users. I think that the fixed-width issue is a huge mistake and will drive quite a few people to trying other sites. In the long run, I believe that is clearly not in your best interest as a company.

 

Again, I urge you to reconsider the fixed-width decision and to go back to fluid width.

 

On a second note, please consider allowing cache owners to decide (with a check box or something similar) whether they would like their background image to be just that or to be a watermark as you have currently changed all background images to.

 

Thank you,

Folboter JAF

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Open Letter to Groundspeak:

 

Please reconsider the fixed-width issue. Please go back to fluid width. If the problem is with IE, then please implement what others have suggested (that if the user has IE, then they get fixed width, and if not, they get fluid width). If the problem is with smartphones, etc., please have an alternate website for those apps (as many other web companies do). I believe that the vast majority of use of this site is by people on standard computers (laptop or desktop) and the fixed width is a GIANT step backwards. Nearly all monitors sold now have an HD aspect ratio, and the fixed-width model not only looks bad, but also compromises usability. Additionally (and as others have noted), if the main problem with fluid width is pictures that are too wide, then please just resize those (or restrict the size allowed for those). Do you really want (and need) to ruin the look and the usability of all of the cache pages in order to fix the few with pictures that are too big?

 

Also, your site has a virtual monopoly on geocaching (I don't believe there has been much migration to opencaching), so please don't make changes that only make a small group happy (those with the exact size screens as your fixed width) while alienating the rest (and vast majority) of your users. I think that the fixed-width issue is a huge mistake and will drive quite a few people to trying other sites. In the long run, I believe that is clearly not in your best interest as a company.

 

Again, I urge you to reconsider the fixed-width decision and to go back to fluid width.

 

On a second note, please consider allowing cache owners to decide (with a check box or something similar) whether they would like their background image to be just that or to be a watermark as you have currently changed all background images to.

 

Thank you,

Folboter JAF

 

While I totally agree with you that fixed width needs to be changed back. However, please don't make the assumption that it should be okay for IE users just because you aren't one. We use IE (just upgraded to IE9) and are perfectly happy with it. It's a big jump to assume that all the IE users would be okay with fixed width, 'cause that just isn't true.

 

Also agree with you on making the transparency on background images an option for cache owners.

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The maps no longer come with a numberable list of the caches shown on the map! This makes printing out an overview map of a new area REALLY tedious. This is true even if you choose the "old maps" option. Bleeeeech!

 

And the arrows for moving the map are no longer there. The maps need a major fix.

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Haven't see this topic in the update note thread. Are e-mails to other uses now limited to seeing just one line at a time? The text entry box only allowed on character line (Twitter-esque), but the message was fine. Hopefully a reasonably sized note entry box will be available for communication.

Great annoyance only seeing the current line of type and none of the prior lines as we used to see when composing a mesg.

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<<snip>>

The fixed page width has come up several times, so I'd like to attempt an explanation into our thought process here. The choice between a liquid (expanding) layout and fixed width is one of appearance and usability. The main disadvantage to having a liquid layout is that Internet Explorer does not support the min-width and max-width CSS properties. <<snip>>

 

I'd dispute that comment about Internet Explorer in general.

 

IE7 and above all support min-width and max-width as part of the CSS 2.1 declarations.

IE5.5 does not support it.

IE6 supports it but in a non-standard way, so it's best to say it doesn't.

 

This is not an opinion or a supposition, it is from the MSDN.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms530811%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

 

maxWidth was introduced in Windows Internet Explorer 7.

 

In general http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_explorer.asp IE6 consumes 2.5% of the overall market for browsers. This a generalisation and GC may have a different ratio. So the description as provided by OpinioNate caters for 2.5% of the browser community at the expense of the remaining 97.5% of the browswer community (again, GC may not be the same ratio).

 

It is not a browser issue (IE6 and lower excepting) and if it is perceived that IE6 and lower need to be supported, it would only impact "wide images flowing off the page" on around 2.5% of the browser community. The page would still render, just wider than expected.

 

So a small number of "wide pages" would show as "wide pages" on 2.5% of the broswser community. This is probably < 1%.

 

So I dispute the reasoning behind the decision to go fixed width.

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