Geocaching.com site update March 5th 2013

[Moun10Bike]

Read the last update's Release Notes

 

Release Notes

 

• Logs in any other Language would still be Logs

Log a geocache or the journeys of a Travel Bug® in any language you'd like. Geocaching is adding support for double-byte characters,

also known as Unicode,

to cache logs and trackable logs. It's now a snap to write logs in Japanese, "私はジオキャッシング大好" or Arabic أنا أحب غيوكاشينغ or Hebrew אני אוהב את הסרבית. (They all translate to, "I love geocaching.") The update won't be immediate however.

Geocaching.com and our mobile apps will be offline temporarily to essentially double the storage required for logs to accommodate double-byte characters. The site will be offline on Tuesday, March 5th, 2013 at approximately 8pm PST. The outage is expected to last about three hours as our developers and IT works to upgrade the site. Follow @GoGeocaching on Twitter for updates about this or any site outage.

• Banner Ad Variety

Banner ads will begin showcasing more variety. Geocaching and partner placements will appear with a mix of appropriate ads for the geocaching lifestyle.

• Weekly Mailer under Repair

Work on laying the foundation for a new Geocaching Weekly Mailer template and functionality is nearing completion. Expect an updated look and feel for your Weekly Mailer in the coming months.

[+gustafer]

Hello Moun10Bike,

 

Thank you for the release note for the next geocaching.com update. I, and many of us geocaching in Japan, appreciate the move to double-byte characters. Now it will be so much easier to log!

 

Many thanks to the geocaching.com team for implementing this change. For the Japanese geocaching community, this is a huge moment. The update will in many ways improve the game's experience.

 

I have a question about exactly when this change will take place. The release note about how "the update won't be immediate." Can you clarify what is meant by this?

 

I ask because many of us, depending on which platform or apps we use, re-encode our Japanese logs by using apps or online tools. This update would mean that we will not have to do so. We would like to know when we should stop re-encoding our logs.

 

Again, many thanks!

 

gustafer (from Tokyo)

 

Read the last update's Release Notes

 

Release Notes

 

• Logs in any other Language would still be Logs

Log a geocache or the journeys of a Travel Bug® in any language you'd like. Geocaching is adding support for double-byte characters,

also known as Unicode,

to cache logs and trackable logs. It's now a snap to write logs in Japanese, "私はジオキャッシング大好" or Arabic أنا أحب غيوكاشينغ or Hebrew אני אוהב את הסרבית. (They all translate to, "I love geocaching.") The update won't be immediate however.

Geocaching.com and our mobile apps will be offline temporarily to essentially double the storage required for logs to accommodate double-byte characters. The site will be offline on Tuesday, March 5th, 2013 at approximately 8pm PST. The outage is expected to last about three hours as our developers and IT works to upgrade the site. Follow @GoGeocaching on Twitter for updates about this or any site outage.

• Banner Ad Variety

Banner ads will begin showcasing more variety. Geocaching and partner placements will appear with a mix of appropriate ads for the geocaching lifestyle.

• Weekly Mailer under Repair

Work on laying the foundation for a new Geocaching Weekly Mailer template and functionality is nearing completion. Expect an updated look and feel for your Weekly Mailer in the coming months.

[+The Trekbuddies]

The need to keep logging in and re authorizing apps is getting really boring, this happens in Geoget and locus to mention a few and is a right pain in the arse

[Moun10Bike]

I have a question about exactly when this change will take place. The release note about how "the update won't be immediate." Can you clarify what is meant by this?

 

 

That phrase was intended to lead into the second paragraph explaining its meaning: we are taking the site down at 8:00 PM PST tonight to make the hardware switch necessary to handle the change. We aren't sure exactly how long this will take, but are hoping that the work will be done within 3 hours.

[Moun10Bike]

The need to keep logging in and re authorizing apps is getting really boring, this happens in Geoget and locus to mention a few and is a right pain in the arse

 

Please write to contact@geocaching.com if you are encountering issues. I have not seen reports of others experiencing this problem.

[+The Trekbuddies]

many thanks i will do, for example i authorized it for geoget this morning after it had already been authorized and i had to do it again this evening, the same with locus re authorized in the morning and was logged in 2 hours later tried to update a cache in locus invalid username or password, went to preferences to find i had been logged out and had to go through the whole re authorize action

[+gustafer]

Thanks, Moun10Bike, for your quick reply! Only a few hours -- wow, that's a quick update. Again, many many thanks! -gustafer

 

I have a question about exactly when this change will take place. The release note about how "the update won't be immediate." Can you clarify what is meant by this?

 

 

That phrase was intended to lead into the second paragraph explaining its meaning: we are taking the site down at 8:00 PM PST tonight to make the hardware switch necessary to handle the change. We aren't sure exactly how long this will take, but are hoping that the work will be done within 3 hours.

[+Dr.MORO]

• Logs in any other Language would still be Logs

Log a geocache or the journeys of a Travel Bug® in any language you'd like. Geocaching is adding support for double-byte characters,

also known as Unicode,

to cache logs and trackable logs. It's now a snap to write logs in Japanese, "私はジオキャッシング大好" or Arabic أنا أحب غيوكاشينغ or Hebrew אני אוהב את הסרבית. (They all translate to, "I love geocaching.") The update won't be immediate however.

 

This is TRULY phenomenal! Unicode as last! Bye-bye HTML Entity! Direct Japanese, or any other double-byte language logging!

Geocaching is finally universal!

HUGE Thanks web team!

 

Also thanks for the Japan Souvenir on Monday as a 2,000,000th cache celebration.

Double-goodies for the Japanese caching community. Awesome-er!

 

I guess a new dawn for Geocaching in Japanese is arriving this Spring.

 

Thanks again!

 

~ Dr.MORO

 

(Groundspeak Volunteer Japanese Translator & iPhone App beta-tester)

 

PS:

 

BTW and FYI, "私はジオキャッシング大好" should be "私はジオキャッシングが大好き！"

[+Don_J]

I notice the coordinates on the cache page are once again bold. Thanks for that.

[Nylimb]

Geocaching is adding support for double-byte characters, also known as Unicode, to cache logs and trackable logs.

 

How about profile pages? Is it possible to use non-ASCII characters there? (I have a list of my FTFs and FTSs on my profile. Some of them have non-ASCII characters in their names, but I've never found a way to include those.)

 

On another subject, I see that the pencil icon bug has been fixed. Thanks!

[+fizzymagic]

I really like the new login page that you go to when you are not logged in. I hated the little Javascript thing in the corner; nice to know that you can get a real page where the browser username/password feature can work!

[+JL_HSTRE]

• Weekly Mailer under Repair

Work on laying the foundation for a new Geocaching Weekly Mailer template and functionality is nearing completion. Expect an updated look and feel for your Weekly Mailer in the coming months.

 

Any way to improve the consistency of when the Weekly Mailer gets emailed out?

 

For awhile it seemed to come Thursday afternoon or evening. Then it was showing up early Friday. Then not too long ago it suddenly showed up on Monday or Tuesday for a couple weeks before reverting to Thursday or Friday. This week it's after 8PM EST on Friday and I still haven't gotten this week's email.

Edited March 9, 2013 by Joshism

[+Dr.MORO]

• Logs in any other Language would still be Logs

Log a geocache or the journeys of a Travel Bug® in any language you'd like. Geocaching is adding support for double-byte characters,

also known as Unicode,

to cache logs and trackable logs. It's now a snap to write logs in Japanese, "私はジオキャッシング大好" or Arabic أنا أحب غيوكاشينغ or Hebrew אני אוהב את הסרבית. (They all translate to, "I love geocaching.") The update won't be immediate however.

Geocaching.com and our mobile apps will be offline temporarily to essentially double the storage required for logs to accommodate double-byte characters. The site will be offline on Tuesday, March 5th, 2013 at approximately 8pm PST. The outage is expected to last about three hours as our developers and IT works to upgrade the site. Follow @GoGeocaching on Twitter for updates about this or any site outage.

 

Domo again!

Double-byte logging is great.

I also would like to know if the cache/TB descriptions can handle double-byte characters as well.

 

BTW, I just noticed a new Japanese user who has a Japanese double-byte user name.

Check this Profile. http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?guid=374a2e0d-26bd-438c-89a1-0b2f488d929e

I'm wondering if this is also something that was introduced with this update.

Or, is this something in relationship with logging in with one's Facebook account? Maybe both?

FYI, I have been seeing cache names which include double-byte characters for some time now.

 

Thanks,

 

~ Dr.MORO

 

(Groundspeak Volunteer Japanese Translator & iPhone App beta-tester)

[+luis_pt]

Do dedicated GPSr devices from major manufacturers currently support such characters? That is to say, are those devices able to correctly display listings and logs that are written in japanese or arabic?

[Moun10Bike]

New release notes are posted.