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Geocaching.com site update January 8th 2013


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Release Notes

 

  • The slide show begins on geocache page image galleries. Now just open an image on a geocache page and you can scroll left and right through the gallery - easy as that.
  • Less is more on the Geocache Submission Page. There's now only one button on the final "Submit Cache" page. Click "Save and Exit" and your geocache will be submitted for review.
  • The number 500 was in the cross-hairs of our developers this release. You'll see it less. They found and fixed a half-dozen pages that throw Server 500 Errors.
  • Let's welcome three new languages to the family of more than a dozen languages on Geocaching.com. The site's main pages are now available in Korean, Latvian, and Estonian.
  • And… bugs, bugs, bugs. Developers squashed a total of 26 bugs all told, making the site even more stable.

Some additional details:

  • Now preventing insertion of large encoded <img> tags into cache descriptions - encoded binaries will be stripped from HTML upon edit/save to prevent bloated listings that "break" GPS units
  • Now allowing the coordinate entry field on the Cache Submission Process (CSP) to handle the ordinal symbol (º) used in place of the degree symbol (°)
  • Fixed the "destroyed" benchmark icon
  • Fixed overlapping text on the videos page
  • Fixed spelling for OpenStreetMap and OpenCycleMap on cache pages
  • Renamed Chungcheon puk do to Chungcheong buk do in the list of Korean provinces

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And… bugs, bugs, bugs.

Are you able to list these, or are they behind-the-scenes things that we wouldn't see or care about? It would be nice to know which bugs have been fixed, partially for our personal edification, and partially so we can confirm that they are indeed fixed.

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  • The slide show begins on geocache page image galleries. Now just open an image on a geocache page and you can scroll left and right through the gallery - easy as that.

 

I just learned that scrolling works both by clicking on the arrow that you see with the image and also using the arrow keys on the keyboard. Nice!

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And… bugs, bugs, bugs.

Are you able to list these, or are they behind-the-scenes things that we wouldn't see or care about? It would be nice to know which bugs have been fixed, partially for our personal edification, and partially so we can confirm that they are indeed fixed.

 

They are mostly behind-the-scenes or what most of the community would gloss over as noise. I tried to pull out the ones that are of most use to most people in the "additional details" section.

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  • The slide show begins on geocache page image galleries. Now just open an image on a geocache page and you can scroll left and right through the gallery - easy as that.

I just learned that scrolling works both by clicking on the arrow that you see with the image and also using the arrow keys on the keyboard. Nice!

Not only that, you don't have to click exactly on the arrow. You can click anywhere on the right half of the image to go to the next image, or the left half to go to the previous.

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Now preventing insertion of large encoded <img> tags into cache descriptions - encoded binaries will be stripped from HTML upon edit/save to prevent bloated listings that "break" GPS units

 

Just wondering if we could get an explanation of exactly what that means and what it affects? Do I have to be careful not to go back and edit my cache pages now in case images I have there disappear, or do you just mean img tags that have the image data in the tag as opposed to a url?

Edited by funkymunkyzone
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Now preventing insertion of large encoded <img> tags into cache descriptions - encoded binaries will be stripped from HTML upon edit/save to prevent bloated listings that "break" GPS units

 

Just wondering if we could get an explanation of exactly what that means and what it affects? Do I have to be careful not to go back and edit my cache pages now in case images I have there disappear?

Previously, you could copy-and-paste an image directly into the description field, which would severely bloat the HTML for the page, leading to long loading times and significantly increased GPX file sizes. It was fixed for the old submission form in November, and the new submission form has now been fixed (I tried it just now). If you haven't added an image to a cache description in this way, you don't need to worry. For example, if you uploaded an image to your cache page through the "Upload Images" link, or linked to an image hosted elsewhere online, you aren't affected.

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Previously, you could copy-and-paste an image directly into the description field, which would severely bloat the HTML for the page, leading to long loading times and significantly increased GPX file sizes. It was fixed for the old submission form in November, and the new submission form has now been fixed (I tried it just now). If you haven't added an image to a cache description in this way, you don't need to worry. For example, if you uploaded an image to your cache page through the "Upload Images" link, or linked to an image hosted elsewhere online, you aren't affected.

 

Wow, never even occured to me to do that in a cache description. Thanks for your help, A-Team, I didn't even have to hunt you down in the Los Angeles underground... ;)

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Previously, you could copy-and-paste an image directly into the description field, which would severely bloat the HTML for the page, leading to long loading times and significantly increased GPX file sizes. It was fixed for the old submission form in November, and the new submission form has now been fixed (I tried it just now). If you haven't added an image to a cache description in this way, you don't need to worry. For example, if you uploaded an image to your cache page through the "Upload Images" link, or linked to an image hosted elsewhere online, you aren't affected.

 

Wow, never even occured to me to do that in a cache description. Thanks for your help, A-Team, I didn't even have to hunt you down in the Los Angeles underground... ;)

Were the icons changed (and now changed again) a "bug fix", or is there something we should know about the progress on readability of the still-present grey icons throughout the site?

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The "feature" to view the name of an Unpublished Cache in Recently View Caches has been removed. I guess this fell under "And… bugs, bugs, bugs. Developers squashed a total of 26 bugs all told, making the site even more stable."

 

Any chance ithis useful capability that has been in place for over 3+ months will be put back?

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The "feature" to view the name of an Unpublished Cache in Recently View Caches has been removed. I guess this fell under "And… bugs, bugs, bugs. Developers squashed a total of 26 bugs all told, making the site even more stable."

 

Any chance ithis useful capability that has been in place for over 3+ months will be put back?

 

This bug was being heavily abused in certain circles in order to obtain the coordinates for unpublished caches. What possible value is there to seeing the names of and distances to unpublished caches other than this?

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Were the icons changed (and now changed again) a "bug fix", or is there something we should know about the progress on readability of the still-present grey icons throughout the site?

 

The icons weren't changed again; rather, additional parts of the site were updated to incorporate the new icons. It is an ongoing process.

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The "feature" to view the name of an Unpublished Cache in Recently View Caches has been removed. I guess this fell under "And… bugs, bugs, bugs. Developers squashed a total of 26 bugs all told, making the site even more stable."

 

Any chance this useful capability that has been in place for over 3+ months will be put back?

 

This bug was being heavily abused in certain circles in order to obtain the coordinates for unpublished caches. What possible value is there to seeing the names of and distances to unpublished caches other than this?

 

Whoa! I never noticed the distance was displayed. I assume that direction was also displayed otherwise there are far too many possible coordinates. My only personal interest is that this bug fix broke one of my puzzles. :(

 

Thanks for the reply...

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The "feature" to view the name of an Unpublished Cache in Recently View Caches has been removed. I guess this fell under "And… bugs, bugs, bugs. Developers squashed a total of 26 bugs all told, making the site even more stable."

 

Any chance ithis useful capability that has been in place for over 3+ months will be put back?

This bug was being heavily abused in certain circles in order to obtain the coordinates for unpublished caches. What possible value is there to seeing the names of and distances to unpublished caches other than this?

Well, I don't know, but maybe someone could make a puzzle out of it or something. ;)

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Were the icons changed (and now changed again) a "bug fix", or is there something we should know about the progress on readability of the still-present grey icons throughout the site?

 

The icons weren't changed again; rather, additional parts of the site were updated to incorporate the new icons. It is an ongoing process.

Ah. Looked like the smiley face was different.

 

Also, the "Archived" and "Needs Archive" icons were swapped in this newest release. What was "new" with the cabinet being for "Archived" and file for "Needs Archived" has now been swapped.

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The icons weren't changed again; rather, additional parts of the site were updated to incorporate the new icons. It is an ongoing process.

I hate to break it to you, but there were some changes to the icons in this release. The ones I've noticed are:

-New smiley for "Found it" (also used elsewhere on the site)

-Pencil added to "Write note"

-Icons for "Needs archived" and "Archive" swapped

-"Attended" now uses the aforementioned new smiley and is yellow rather than green

 

Whoever told you the icons didn't change is pulling your leg.

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The icons weren't changed again; rather, additional parts of the site were updated to incorporate the new icons. It is an ongoing process.

I hate to break it to you, but there were some changes to the icons in this release. The ones I've noticed are:

-New smiley for "Found it" (also used elsewhere on the site)

-Pencil added to "Write note"

-Icons for "Needs archived" and "Archive" swapped

-"Attended" now uses the aforementioned new smiley and is yellow rather than green

 

Whoever told you the icons didn't change is pulling your leg.

 

My comment was in response to a statement that the smiley icons had changed, not that there were no changes to any icons at all.

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My comment was in response to a statement that the smiley icons had changed, not that there were no changes to any icons at all.

I don't mean to quibble, but NeverSummer never singled out the smiley:

Were the icons changed (and now changed again) a "bug fix", or is there something we should know about the progress on readability of the still-present grey icons throughout the site?

I took his post as referring to the multiple changes to icons. Anyway, water under the bridge.

 

Can we expect any further changes to the icons, or will the grey ones be sticking around long-term and the others staying as they are currently? New icons every few weeks makes it hard to get used to them, especially when the meaning behind an icon completely changes (ie. NA/Archive swap).

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I don't mean to quibble, but NeverSummer never singled out the smiley:

 

Don't be disingenuous; you love to quibble. And if you had read his message in this thread that appeared one minute before his message here, you too may have believed he was referring specifically to the smileys.

 

Can we expect any further changes to the icons, or will the grey ones be sticking around long-term and the others staying as they are currently? New icons every few weeks makes it hard to get used to them, especially when the meaning behind an icon completely changes (ie. NA/Archive swap).

 

Yes, we have other icon changes that you will see trickle out in future releases. We are not changing what has already been changed, however, unless it is to correct the odd error or inconsistency.

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I don't mean to quibble, but NeverSummer never singled out the smiley:

 

Don't be disingenuous; you love to quibble. And if you had read his message in this thread that appeared one minute before his message here, you too may have believed he was referring specifically to the smileys.

 

Can we expect any further changes to the icons, or will the grey ones be sticking around long-term and the others staying as they are currently? New icons every few weeks makes it hard to get used to them, especially when the meaning behind an icon completely changes (ie. NA/Archive swap).

 

Yes, we have other icon changes that you will see trickle out in future releases. We are not changing what has already been changed, however, unless it is to correct the odd error or inconsistency.

 

Does this mean that your users that are having trouble distinguishing the low contrast grey icons should just suck it up and try to get used to it? Grey is supposed to be used to signify a disabled feature. If you insist on using them, the least that could be done is making them black and grey so that they have some contrast. Two similar shades of grey or grey and white simply does not work for a lot of your users. I have never had any trouble with the contrasting greys on the forum, and I think the new look on the public profile pages looks really sharp, but cramming very similar shades of grey into a 16X16 image just doesn't work.

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Does this mean that your users that are having trouble distinguishing the low contrast grey icons should just suck it up and try to get used to it?

 

We certainly would never ask that you "just suck it up!" We are evaluating all feedback, even though there is currently no plan to re-overhaul the icons.

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  • The slide show begins on geocache page image galleries. Now just open an image on a geocache page and you can scroll left and right through the gallery - easy as that.

You had me going there for a moment. Went to look and...

 

Still no slide show (or "lightbox" in geek speak) if you click on a named image from the list immediately above the "nnn Logged Visits". It's tedious to look through the cache page images if you have to keep hitting Back and keep waiting for the cache page to reload. And ticking up your count on a PMO cache.

 

No biggie, but we had this functionality years ago for a while. Then it disappeared.

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Still no slide show (or "lightbox" in geek speak) if you click on a named image from the list immediately above the "nnn Logged Visits".

While those images are in the gallery, clicking those links won't bring you to the gallery. If you click the "View Gallery" link in the top-right Navigation box, or click the "View the Image Gallery of ## images" just above the logs, you can now step through the gallery as stated.

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  • The slide show begins on geocache page image galleries. Now just open an image on a geocache page and you can scroll left and right through the gallery - easy as that.

You had me going there for a moment. Went to look and...

 

Still no slide show (or "lightbox" in geek speak) if you click on a named image from the list immediately above the "nnn Logged Visits". It's tedious to look through the cache page images if you have to keep hitting Back and keep waiting for the cache page to reload. And ticking up your count on a PMO cache.

 

No biggie, but we had this functionality years ago for a while. Then it disappeared.

 

Yes, that is a pain in the posterior. I usually right click and open in a new tab, but sometimes I forget and simply click, expecting it to popup like the rest of the site.

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I can no longer see who has viewed my cache, has this feature been removed with the update?

The audit log is only available if the cache is Premium Member Only, but your cache isn't set as PMO. Did you change this setting recently? I just tried making one of my caches PMO, and the audit log became available and was working.

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I don't mean to quibble, but NeverSummer never singled out the smiley:

 

Don't be disingenuous; you love to quibble. And if you had read his message in this thread that appeared one minute before his message here, you too may have believed he was referring specifically to the smileys.

 

Can we expect any further changes to the icons, or will the grey ones be sticking around long-term and the others staying as they are currently? New icons every few weeks makes it hard to get used to them, especially when the meaning behind an icon completely changes (ie. NA/Archive swap).

 

Yes, we have other icon changes that you will see trickle out in future releases. We are not changing what has already been changed, however, unless it is to correct the odd error or inconsistency.

Perhaps I need to clarify here.

 

I noticed that the icons used throughout the site changed a little while ago. There was no announcement about it, and, in addition, no clarity about what the new icons looked like. They were different from the previous version in significant ways, and this was difficult to get used to right away.

 

Then, with this new release, the icons changed again. The "new" smiley is used on the maps, which is where the comment you, Moun10bike, mention above was posted in the General forum. Once I went to look for myself, I also happened upon the swap of Archived and Needs Archive icons. That was VERY confusing at a glance, and I had to reload and refresh a few times to make sure that it wasn't my browser or a "bug".

 

I guess I'm glad I didn't post it as a bug report!

 

All of this said, could icon changes please be added and outlined with details the next time a change is made? A "FAQ" or guide to the icons would be nice. Hovering over the icon can help, but it would be nice to see some communication here when an icon is changed. (Icons are ways to visually note something without reading. Icons are used in other ways (logos), and humans recognize, process, and memorize them faster than they do words.)

 

Thanks for addressing the icon change on some level. I look forward to seeing other feedback-driven improvements coming up

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I can no longer see who has viewed my cache, has this feature been removed with the update?

The audit log is only available if the cache is Premium Member Only, but your cache isn't set as PMO. Did you change this setting recently? I just tried making one of my caches PMO, and the audit log became available and was working.

Yes I did change it recently, that must be why, thanks!

Although maybe it would be useful for normal caches as well?

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  •  
  • Now preventing insertion of large encoded <img> tags into cache descriptions - encoded binaries will be stripped from HTML upon edit/save to prevent bloated listings that "break" GPS units

 

Bad work, guys.

 

The code is still in the listing and is still in the GPX, too. :blink:

 

(Do you only fix the *.JPG-pictures, but not the *.PNG, etc?)

Edited by Eastpak1984
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  • Now preventing insertion of large encoded <img> tags into cache descriptions - encoded binaries will be stripped from HTML upon edit/save to prevent bloated listings that "break" GPS units

 

Bad work, guys.

 

The code is still in the listing and is still in the GPX, too. :blink:

 

(Do you only fix the *.JPG-pictures, but not the *.PNG, etc?)

I'm fairly sure that all they've done is prevent new cache listings from using encoded <img> tags. They haven't removed these tags from cache listings that were created before the update.

 

Are you saying that you know of new cache listings that use these tags?

 

--Larry

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The change that we made does not affect the content of existing caches. As I stated above, the data will only be stripped out once the cache owner edits and saves an existing listing. Until then, the data will still be present in the listing and in the GPX generated from it.

 

Obviously the change also affects the userprofiles, so that base64-encoded images are stripped from those edits as well. Is that behaviour intended or accidental? And if it is accidental, will it be fixed?

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The change that we made does not affect the content of existing caches. As I stated above, the data will only be stripped out once the cache owner edits and saves an existing listing. Until then, the data will still be present in the listing and in the GPX generated from it.

 

Obviously the change also affects the userprofiles, so that base64-encoded images are stripped from those edits as well. Is that behaviour intended or accidental? And if it is accidental, will it be fixed?

 

This is intended functionality. We do not want to have to maintain multiple HTML filters across the site.

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The change that we made does not affect the content of existing caches. As I stated above, the data will only be stripped out once the cache owner edits and saves an existing listing. Until then, the data will still be present in the listing and in the GPX generated from it.

 

Obviously the change also affects the userprofiles, so that base64-encoded images are stripped from those edits as well. Is that behaviour intended or accidental? And if it is accidental, will it be fixed?

 

This is intended functionality. We do not want to have to maintain multiple HTML filters across the site.

Why don't you strip those base64 images just in GPX-files instead of the web pages and listings? Or - even better - let the user choose whether he/she want's to download GPX files with or without images? The changes you actually made are clearly a regression in your sites functionality.

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I'm curious why a few people seem to be up in arms about this. Why is it so important to you?

 

There are multiple ways to upload photos to the site, and multiple 3rd party websites to upload pictures to. Why are you so fixated on uploading them as part of the profile itself?

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