DaveD Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 I am sorry to see that a change has been made to accessing the images from the Gallery by allowing just an enlarged version of the picture. Losing the link to the full station report basically makes this format useless to NGS. By linking to the full station report, in the past NGS has been able to easily and quickly harvest different images and especially updated hand-held positions to add to the NGS database. Over the past couple of years we have added digital images and updated positions to more than 30,000 marks in the National Spatial Reference System. This new realization makes that effort far more time consuming if not impossible and we won't have the resources to work with this potentially valuable information. I am sad to see us lose this resource. Quote Link to comment
+Rotareneg Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 Considering how they've buried the benchmarking link on the front page, I'm surprised they even have a benchmark photo gallery like that anymore. Did you try to contact Groundspeak, futile as the attempt might be? Quote Link to comment
DaveD Posted September 19, 2011 Author Share Posted September 19, 2011 I have a staff of one (me) that works on this and I just don't have the time to track them down. When the site was easy to use I could spend the time capturing this valuable info, but I have too many things on my plate to do much else. Quote Link to comment
ArtMan Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 As Rotareneg says, the Groundspeak management doesn't seem particularly interested in our little corner of Geocaching.com, so it's possibly worth an appeal, but don't be too optimistic. The file name assigned to the uploaded photos (e.g., 0cf4e078-107a-442c-88fe-5c2a514fda44.jpg), look random to me, but maybe they encode the PID or some other identifying information. Regardless, a quick perusal of the Gallery suggests that some percentage of the photos are labeled with their PID, so possibly at least those images could be scraped. I've been including the PID, Designation, and location for a while now, precisely so it would show up in the Gallery. A campaign to active (serious) benchmarkers to include at least the PID in their photo caption (and preferably a bit more than that, e.g. "Area view, Z 283 (JC1122), Monroe Co, Ill.") might be helpful. Or would that still be too much work, Dave? Maybe this is just a way to get all of us who have massive libraries of photos to organize, label, rename, and submit them to NGS. ~ArtMan~ Quote Link to comment
DaveD Posted September 19, 2011 Author Share Posted September 19, 2011 No disrespect to anyone who posts here, but not all of the images are of the quality and orientation NGS wants in the database. Regrettably there are too many misidentified stations for NGS to just accept all the images and coordinates that everyone holds. Many posts are for intersection stations which (with some modest exceptions) are not a significantly useful part of the National Spatial Reference System anymore, and I hesitate to load pictures for these stations unless there is a historical or cultural significance to the station. The ability to look at the entire station log gives me a way to evaluate the images, ensure they are linked to the correct mark and where provided ensure that the hand-held position is generally correct. I believe the data we have captured in the past will prove to be a valuable resource for anyone looking for these stations in the future. I am sorry that the system adminstrators have made this change. Quote Link to comment
2oldfarts (the rockhounders) Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 I have a staff of one (me) that works on this and I just don't have the time to track them down. When the site was easy to use I could spend the time capturing this valuable info, but I have too many things on my plate to do much else. Dave, Go here to either call them on the phone or send an email. It would be the link for general inquiries to contact@Groundspeak.com. I should think to call and talk directly to Jeremy might be the quickest way to know if he would be willing to change things back to how they were. Now, he might not have known all of what you have been doing and how important it is to NGS. That might just make a difference to tell him personally about what you have been doing and what the impact is to U.S. Surveyors. Let him know that we (benchmark hunters/Geocachers) matter. Even whether we send info directly into NGS or not. Might work, can't hurt to try, right? If you do talk to Jeremy, let us know the outcome, please. Shirley~ Quote Link to comment
2oldfarts (the rockhounders) Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 No disrespect to anyone who posts here, but not all of the images are of the quality and orientation NGS wants in the database. Regrettably there are too many misidentified stations for NGS to just accept all the images and coordinates that everyone holds. Many posts are for intersection stations which (with some modest exceptions) are not a significantly useful part of the National Spatial Reference System anymore, and I hesitate to load pictures for these stations unless there is a historical or cultural significance to the station. The ability to look at the entire station log gives me a way to evaluate the images, ensure they are linked to the correct mark and where provided ensure that the hand-held position is generally correct. I believe the data we have captured in the past will prove to be a valuable resource for anyone looking for these stations in the future. I am sorry that the system adminstrators have made this change. Dave, We understand. I have another link for you. The profile to the Prime Lackey himself, complete with his Email address. Lackey Irish. Shirley~ Quote Link to comment
DaveD Posted September 19, 2011 Author Share Posted September 19, 2011 I will try tomorrow. Quote Link to comment
+EdrickV Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 It's possible this may get fixed. See here: http://feedback.geocaching.com/forums/75775-geocaching-com/suggestions/2248597-cache-gallery-images-not-linked-anymore-to-cache-p Quote Link to comment
AZcachemeister Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 I'm not sure what changes have been made, since I have rarely visited the BM gallery. I do see that a photo is now just a photo with no connection to a Geocaching 'recovery report'. I have always (well, almost always) included the PID and designation as the caption for all my photos, but I see how there still would be extra steps required even if you have that. Sadly, I can only feel happy that there is at least still a Benchmarking section in Geocaching.com. Jeremy already has his plaque from the NGS, so what else have they to gain? Quote Link to comment
Wintertime Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 It's possible this may get fixed. See here: http://feedback.geocaching.com/forums/75775-geocaching-com/suggestions/2248597-cache-gallery-images-not-linked-anymore-to-cache-p Unfortunately, they only fixed the photos that are attached to geocache logs. There is indeed a "View log" option for those again. But DaveD is talking about the benchmark gallery: http://www.geocaching.com/mark/gallery.aspx And the photos on that page do NOT offer a way to link back to the benchmark's page, hence in most cases there's no way to know which mark it is. Patty Quote Link to comment
+EdrickV Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 It's possible this may get fixed. See here: http://feedback.geocaching.com/forums/75775-geocaching-com/suggestions/2248597-cache-gallery-images-not-linked-anymore-to-cache-p Unfortunately, they only fixed the photos that are attached to geocache logs. There is indeed a "View log" option for those again. But DaveD is talking about the benchmark gallery: http://www.geocaching.com/mark/gallery.aspx And the photos on that page do NOT offer a way to link back to the benchmark's page, hence in most cases there's no way to know which mark it is. Patty Never actually knew that gallery was there. You could start a feedback thread (similar to the one I linked to above) but for the Benchmark gallery. Quote Link to comment
+shorbird Posted September 28, 2011 Share Posted September 28, 2011 Dave, Some of us always include the PID in our picture captions. Hope that this can assist you. shorbird Quote Link to comment
2oldfarts (the rockhounders) Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Check out the Benchmark Gallery, I do believe everyone will be surprised and pleased that it is back. Click on a picture and the link is at the bottom right to the log and thus the benchmark page. Maybe they like us after all - well a little anyway. Shirley~ Quote Link to comment
+EdrickV Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 This would appear to be why that's fixed now: http://feedback.geocaching.com/forums/75775-geocaching-com/suggestions/2281558-link-the-benchmark-gallery-pictures-to-the-log-pag Though from other items it is still clear that they aren't very interested in supporting Benchmarking any further then they have been. Quote Link to comment
TillaMurphs Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Check out the Benchmark Gallery, I do believe everyone will be surprised and pleased that it is back. Maybe they like us after all - well a little anyway. Shirley~ YES! This is good news. Quote Link to comment
+Harry Dolphin Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Hmm... 1000 photos in 12 days ain't bad! Should keep Dave busy. Quote Link to comment
ArtMan Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Hmm... 1000 photos in 12 days ain't bad! Should keep Dave busy. I'm trying to keep him busy by sending him photos of marks recovered in the past. After doing this for 9+ years, I've amassed quite an achive. Amazing thing is, almost mark comes back to me clearly once I see a photo. Great tour down memory lane. Wish I remembered what I had for dinner on Tuesday, though.... -ArtMan- Quote Link to comment
foxtrot_xray Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 I'm trying to keep him busy by sending him photos of marks recovered in the past. After doing this for 9+ years, I've amassed quite an achive. Amazing thing is, almost mark comes back to me clearly once I see a photo. Great tour down memory lane. Wish I remembered what I had for dinner on Tuesday, though.... ...If you took a picture Wednesday... ..ew. --Me. Quote Link to comment
TillaMurphs Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 Check out the Benchmark Gallery, I do believe everyone will be surprised and pleased that it is back. It really is great to have this back. It allows you to browse around and see great finds like this recent stone monument recovery by edexter. Until this week, it has only been recovered once in in 120 years: LW2038 Quote Link to comment
2oldfarts (the rockhounders) Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 Check out the Benchmark Gallery, I do believe everyone will be surprised and pleased that it is back. It really is great to have this back. It allows you to browse around and see great finds like this recent stone monument recovery by edexter. Until this week, it has only been recovered once in in 120 years: LW2038 It is always fun to see these old ones. That is in pretty good shape for that old. Shirley~ Quote Link to comment
DaveD Posted October 9, 2011 Author Share Posted October 9, 2011 I'm really happy to see that this functionality has been restored. I can continue my efforts to utilize these data to improve the quality and integrity of passive control in the National Spatial Reference System. Quote Link to comment
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