Jump to content

Release Notes - October 14, 2014


Recommended Posts

There used to be an option on your profile to HIDE the "Recently Viewed Caches" list and that option has been removed. I, and I suspect everyone else above, knows where we can go to see the "Recently Viewed Caches" list, but some people liked the option to HIDE it as it takes up a lot of screen space unnecessarily .

If you use AdBlock Plus, you can add 1 line to your custom filter to block out that div.

 

1. AdBlockPlus, Filter Preference...

 

2. On left, click on Ad Blocking Rules

 

3. On right, click on "Add Filter"

 

4. In the text box that appears, type in :

 

###ctl00_ContentBody_RecentlyViewedCachesPanel

 

hit enter, then "Close" at bottom right corner.

 

Is AdBlockPlus a Firefox thing or something I can use in Chrome?

Link to comment

Other than the already discussed topic about "List Newest in [state]", I don't have strong opinions on most of the changes, except for one.

 

Why take away the Daylight Savings Time choice? What about those people who happen to live in a city that doesn't observe it?

 

It's gone? There's a bit bunch of countries without DST, see http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/countries.htm

Plus we and all other Middle Eastern cachers don't observe it either.

 

EDIT: please let us hide the recently viewed caches again! What's the sense in making a site more usable for mobile phones and then adding more information, requiring more scrolling? On my 12" screen (the only computer I own) I see only the recently viewed caches. For everything else I need to scroll down. <_<

Edited by terratin
Link to comment
The font size on the new profile pages is tiny and hard to read for my weak eyes.
Your browser's minimum font size setting can be very useful for overriding microfonts used by misguided web deezynerz.

 

Sure, it would be better if web deezynerz wouldn't muck up the fonts in the first place, but in the meantime, the minimum font size setting is your friend.

Link to comment

Hi,

 

in general I like the new changes.

 

 

- New Account Settings features replace Your Account Details.

- Find your Account Settings through the gear icon under your username.

 

 

on the old Account Details page was a list of the last five friends who have been online. Has this infobox moved too or has it been deleted?

 

cheers,

Björn

Edited by Team Kowalski
Link to comment

Hmm, the new settings section isn't awful, but it's not that great, either. In Safari on OSX, it renders in "crayon mode".

 

Which, sadly, seems to fit with the recent trend of "dumbing down" the site.

 

Also, it took me quite a while to notice that little "gear" icon. Am I going crazy, or was there previously a more intuitive/obvious way to get into these settings, that has now disappeared?

 

On the plus side, the public profile looks clean and polished to my eye. Well done with that bit, at least.

 

The concept of a "profile picture" as it was no longer exists. You have one singular image now that represents you, both on your profile and in logs. If you want a larger image shown on your profile, you can add it via HTML in your profile contents.

So we now have to write HTML (to get a profile image) as well as encode functionality in URL edits (to restore the "newest caches in" functionality)?

 

OK, I have a request. If we're going down that road, can you please just skip straight to the point where we get to write our own complete website that hooks into the database? :ph34r:

 

Oh, and I still can't find the email preference for plain text......

Edited by EngPhil
Link to comment
The bio box needs to be bigger

 

Firefox and Chrome have a handle that let you drag the text area down.

 

This is the item you change the most so should be easiest. Who really wants to drag an area down each time especially when near the bottom of the screen? Sadly you have achieved the opposite, great own goal. Did any of the developers really try to change their bio after this change and say fantastic I love this change? Please make this easier as soon as possible.

 

Thanks

Link to comment

Didn't there used to be an option to hide the "Recently Viewed Caches" list? I don't see it anymore.

 

Please, please, please give us the option of hiding "Recently Viewed Caches." I can find the link at the top of the page. I know what I viewed recently.

 

Why you removed such option in settings?

 

And how are the news about text email option? or/and about HTML implementing of BB code from logs?

Link to comment

There used to be an option on your profile to HIDE the "Recently Viewed Caches" list and that option has been removed. I, and I suspect everyone else above, knows where we can go to see the "Recently Viewed Caches" list, but some people liked the option to HIDE it as it takes up a lot of screen space unnecessarily .

If you use AdBlock Plus, you can add 1 line to your custom filter to block out that div.

 

1. AdBlockPlus, Filter Preference...

 

2. On left, click on Ad Blocking Rules

 

3. On right, click on "Add Filter"

 

4. In the text box that appears, type in :

 

###ctl00_ContentBody_RecentlyViewedCachesPanel

 

hit enter, then "Close" at bottom right corner.

 

Thank you so much, this did the trick! :)

Link to comment

whether stats are displayed or not (we seem to be stuck with whatever we'd chosen previously).

 

Statistics settings are now changed on the statistics page (http://www.geocaching.com/my/statistics.aspx).

 

 

Shouldn't going to the statistics page by clicking on that tab while in user profile show that same info? It does not show either the option to display/hide your stats or when they were last generated.

 

Mrs. Car54

Link to comment

I actually like the layout of the new profile page.

 

That said, it would be nice if the option still existed to display a proper profile picture. An avatar and a profile picture are used for two different purposes with two different target audiences and removing one of them doesn't make sense.

 

And, removing the option to not see recently viewed caches? What's up with that?

Link to comment

I thought there was a glitch that resulted in my selfie being removed from my profile page; it was disappointing to learn that it had been done intentionally.. and for no good reason it seems. And the suggestion of coding it into your bio, using HTML, seems like something I could handle.. but not most of the other cachers I know. In my book an avatar is not the same as a profile photo - they're two different thing all together; trying to merge them this way seems strange.

 

I also agree that removal of the "Newest In [Location]" link was a bad idea. I thought I was losing it when I couldn't find it - then at a recent event I overheard people discussing how it had been removed. Now.. if I want to see a quick run down of the upcoming events and most recently posted caches in my state I need to navigate through search pages & menus to get to that page again. Seems like a step backwards for no apparent reason.

 

Notification email formatting, time zone settings, display settings for recently viewed caches, and a bunch of other things also seem to be working to many people's dissatisfaction, or simply no longer working. Begging the question.. why?

 

In most cases I can hardly wait to test drive the site's enhancements.. but this time I'm wishing, like many others, that the changes be rolled back and scrapped. How about it GC.com?.. couldn't we just put things back to the way they were???

 

:huh:

Link to comment

After a day, I look at the new public profile, and I kind of like it. It does look cleaner.

 

Removing the ability to hide recently viewed cache in "My Profile" page doesn't affect me since I actually find it useful. And I have a work-around if I want it gone. But why remove that option in the first place? I don't recall reading an official response to this issue.

Link to comment

Didn't there used to be an option to hide the "Recently Viewed Caches" list? I don't see it anymore.

 

Please, please, please give us the option of hiding "Recently Viewed Caches." I can find the link at the top of the page. I know what I viewed recently.

 

AGREE - HATE THE ADDITION !!!!!!!

Link to comment

If you use AdBlock Plus, you can add 1 line to your custom filter to block out that div.

 

1. AdBlockPlus, Filter Preference...

 

2. On left, click on Ad Blocking Rules

 

3. On right, click on "Add Filter"

 

4. In the text box that appears, type in :

 

###ctl00_ContentBody_RecentlyViewedCachesPanel

 

hit enter, then "Close" at bottom right corner.

Thank you so much! Just added the filter and at least that space-wasting box is gone! Good that at lwast users help each other, when Groundspeak continues to ignore the user feedback.

Anyone notice how they never comment on any of the negative feedback or explain why they did what they did?

 

How about some useful features like e.g. being able to add multi- or mystery-stages as waypoints with their coordinates after having found those, with the added feature that those are then taken into account when showing the cache saturation circles on the page to place a new cache?

Link to comment

Well done GS! Where is profile photos? Where is clear profile (this is a confusing mess - at least for me)? And the font size - why is it so small?

 

Many thanks for your "brilliant update"... I hope that you enjoy our money for PM. I hate your last update (same like your update with notification emails).

 

Greetings from CR!

Edited by KulisekW
Link to comment

Anyone notice how they never comment on any of the negative feedback or explain why they did what they did?

They do occasionally. For example, in the previous release notes, they did explain that the "List newest in X" link was removed in the name of reducing clutter on the profile page.

 

However, they haven't explained the recent change that goes in the exact opposite direction and has forced more clutter on everyone. They usually acknowledge unintended changes pretty quickly, so the lack of any word about the removal of the "Recently viewed caches" option leads me to believe this change was intentional. I'm going to have to think long and hard to see if I can come up with a good reason for removing this option. So far, I'm DNFing...

Link to comment

Still open (and requested from many users for quite a while): Please bring back an option to receive emails in text instead of HTML.

 

The Release Notes threads are for reporting of issues related to the current release. They are not meant for feature requests or general griping. Any such posts are off-topic and will be removed. If you want to hold discussions and make feature requests, there is an entire forum section dedicated to that.

Link to comment

They usually acknowledge unintended changes pretty quickly, so the lack of any word about the removal of the "Recently viewed caches" option leads me to believe this change was intentional. I'm going to have to think long and hard to see if I can come up with a good reason for removing this option. So far, I'm DNFing...

 

Yes, that change was intentional. Why? Because the design team wanted to declutter and simplify the account settings. Many of the changes and removals you have seen so far may be "painful" for certain individuals, but they are laying the foundation for an upcoming significant feature that is under development that will replace the /my page entirely. There will always be growing pains when it comes to making changes to familiar and comfortable elements. Unfortunately, such change is necessary in order for the site to evolve and adapt.

Edited by Moun10Bike
Corrected "unintentional" to "intentional"
Link to comment

They usually acknowledge unintended changes pretty quickly, so the lack of any word about the removal of the "Recently viewed caches" option leads me to believe this change was intentional. I'm going to have to think long and hard to see if I can come up with a good reason for removing this option. So far, I'm DNFing...

 

Yes, that change was unintentional.

That is good to hear. Does that mean that the option to remove the recently viewed caches will be back soon?

Link to comment

Unfortunately, such change is necessary in order for the site to evolve and adapt.

 

May I ask adapt to what? I and others see a trend to make the site more and more painful to people who use the site on a PC and suffer from a bad vision.

 

There are lots of sites out there who manage to offer a reasonable design for mobile devices without punishing all other users.

 

I wonder whether Groundspeak really thinks that if as suggested by you users add their photos to their profile page this leads to a page which is decluttered with

respect to the old version where the picture was up in the upper right hand corner.

Link to comment

They usually acknowledge unintended changes pretty quickly, so the lack of any word about the removal of the "Recently viewed caches" option leads me to believe this change was intentional. I'm going to have to think long and hard to see if I can come up with a good reason for removing this option. So far, I'm DNFing...

 

Yes, that change was unintentional.

That is good to hear. Does that mean that the option to remove the recently viewed caches will be back soon?

 

Apologies, I mistyped. That should have said "intentional".

Link to comment

but they are laying the foundation for an upcoming significant feature that is under development that will replace the /my page entirely.

 

After having looked at what the my page offers, I really got worried that further functionality might be taken away. Will it in the furture still be possible to view all one's logs filtered with respect to the log type?

Edited by cezanne
Link to comment

Unfortunately, such change is necessary in order for the site to evolve and adapt.

 

May I ask adapt to what? I and others see a trend to make the site more and more painful to people who use the site on a PC and suffer from a bad vision.

 

There are lots of sites out there who manage to offer a reasonable design for mobile devices without punishing all other users.

 

I wonder whether Groundspeak really thinks that if as suggested by you users add their photos to their profile page this leads to a page which is decluttered with

respect to the old version where the picture was up in the upper right hand corner.

 

Cezanne,

 

Can you tell me what you're PC setup is like? What Operating System and Web Browser that you use?

Link to comment

They usually acknowledge unintended changes pretty quickly, so the lack of any word about the removal of the "Recently viewed caches" option leads me to believe this change was intentional. I'm going to have to think long and hard to see if I can come up with a good reason for removing this option. So far, I'm DNFing...

 

Yes, that change was intentional. Why? Because the design team wanted to declutter and simplify the account settings. Many of the changes and removals you have seen so far may be "painful" for certain individuals, but they are laying the foundation for an upcoming significant feature that is under development that will replace the /my page entirely. There will always be growing pains when it comes to making changes to familiar and comfortable elements. Unfortunately, such change is necessary in order for the site to evolve and adapt.

 

It might be nice to know what's likely to be coming. As it stands it just seems it's yet another set of release notes that relates to little more than yet another set of features taken away and nothing more than a vague promise of "it will be better soon, trust us". Am I the only one increasingly disinclined to extend much trust?

Link to comment

Did new-user signup just get broken?

 

A friend just signed up for a free account. As part of the process, it sends you an email, with instructions to "click the link" to validate the account.

 

He forwarded me the email. Neither of us - and I think we're both pretty smart - can find a link to click to validate the account. The email, and the click-here-for-web-version are all about video-this and Facebook-that and app-something else.

 

Nowhere to click to actually validate the account. The page looks like what you'd see *after* validating.

 

Also, I tried looking up his new username-to-be. Not found.

Link to comment

Cezanne,

 

Can you tell me what you're PC setup is like? What Operating System and Web Browser that you use?

 

Linux/Firefox, but it looks the same under Windows/Firefox.

I have not changed the settings of Firefox and have not set minimum text sizes.

The text size of the E-mail Address, Location, Last Visit etc has decreased in comparison to the old

version and is very hard to read for me.

 

However I do not think that my comment about the removal of the profile photo (the tiny avatar is used instead) and Moun10Bike's suggestion to

add a photo to the section of the profile which each user can control depend on the used operating system/browser. I tried to add what I used

as my profile photo further down, but I preferred the old layout considerably - now more scrolling is necessary and the picture does not show up where I

want it to show up.

 

Cezanne

Link to comment

Did new-user signup just get broken?

 

A friend just signed up for a free account. As part of the process, it sends you an email, with instructions to "click the link" to validate the account.

 

He forwarded me the email. Neither of us - and I think we're both pretty smart - can find a link to click to validate the account. The email, and the click-here-for-web-version are all about video-this and Facebook-that and app-something else.

 

Nowhere to click to actually validate the account. The page looks like what you'd see *after* validating.

 

Also, I tried looking up his new username-to-be. Not found.

 

Do you not see something like this?

 

ClickHere.png

Link to comment

Do you not see something like this?

The email looked nothing like that, no.

 

I just fired off an email (he lives in another town) to see if he recalls seeing anything like that in addition. (Though I kind of doubt it; he'd have figured out the obvious...)

 

EDIT: he says "Nope. I didn't see that. I do have a popup blocker running..."

 

And to clarify, the email he did receive and which he shared with me went like this:

spacer.gif

 

Welcome to Geocaching! You are now ready to take part in the anytime, anywhere adventure of geocaching. Before you head out the door, check out this video for inspiration.

 

[much omitted]

Edited by Viajero Perdido
Link to comment

Yes, that change was intentional. Why? Because the design team wanted to declutter and simplify the account settings. Many of the changes and removals you have seen so far may be "painful" for certain individuals, but they are laying the foundation for an upcoming significant feature that is under development that will replace the /my page entirely. There will always be growing pains when it comes to making changes to familiar and comfortable elements. Unfortunately, such change is necessary in order for the site to evolve and adapt.

 

And therein (the bolded part) lies the problem with most of the changes over the last several releases. What about what your customers want?

Link to comment

I cannot found ICQ and Jabber information about user (and about me )

 

From the FAQ linked in the OP:

 

Other noteworthy changes:

Basic members can now change their Forum title

Removed Online Presence and Instant Messenger

Removed Forum Signature and Profile previews

Removed ability to toggle off Recently Viewed Caches

Link to comment

Many of the changes and removals you have seen so far may be "painful" for certain individuals, but they are laying the foundation for an upcoming significant feature that is under development that will replace the /my page entirely.

 

That's the main page I use to get anything done, and the page I have bookmarked to get to this site in the first place. Can you please share some information about what will be replacing it?

Link to comment

From the FAQ linked in the OP:

 

Other noteworthy changes:

Basic members can now change their Forum title

Removed Online Presence and Instant Messenger

Removed Forum Signature and Profile previews

Removed ability to toggle off Recently Viewed Caches

 

Thanks. Whenever I tried to access the blog page, it either resulted in error messages (for example yesterday evening) or left me with something empty

(like today). So I have not managed so far to look at this text before and others might have issues too.

Link to comment

Yes, that change was intentional. Why? Because the design team wanted to declutter and simplify the account settings. Many of the changes and removals you have seen so far may be "painful" for certain individuals, but they are laying the foundation for an upcoming significant feature that is under development that will replace the /my page entirely. There will always be growing pains when it comes to making changes to familiar and comfortable elements. Unfortunately, such change is necessary in order for the site to evolve and adapt.

 

And therein (the bolded part) lies the problem with most of the changes over the last several releases. What about what your customers want?

 

+1

Edited by Dr.MORO
Link to comment

When I view some cache pages in Firefox at the zoom level that is best for my set-up, I see the logs table shifted and clipped. The zoom level below that or above that does not exhibit this behavior. So if you do not see this, then zoom in a few levels, or out a few levels, while looking that the transition on the page between the "Logged visits" section and the Log table.

Tested with

Firefox version 30.0 in OS/X 10.7.5

Firefox version 31.0 in Windows 7 (64bit) Enterprise with SP1

 

Some cache pages where this happens:

http://coord.info/GC9CE0

http://coord.info/GCK36V

(apparently it makes a difference how many logs there are or how old the cache is)

 

With the Firefox (the Windows version where they have hidden the "about" dialog so I don't know the FF version - probably the latest), with Internet Explorer 11 (ver 11.0.12 for Windows 7) and Safari (ver 6.1.6 for OS/X) this is not the case but zooming to the level that I need on my system does widen the log table to not fit on the page (instead of keeping it at a particular percentage of the displayed area).

Edited by Hynr
Link to comment

For me the behaviour of GC is in some cases the same like from Microsoft..

The design teams decide the goal ..

Microsoft wanted the people to use the Desktop in the same way like their mobile - creating Windows 8.x & Windows 10 - but forgot that only

5% of all of their customers have touch devices - what a mass !!! - So they give their operating system as a "gift" to their customers (because nobody would pay for it ..

But the biggest mass Microsoft did: They forgot their business (enterprise) users .. Windows 8.x is not mangable and usable in enterprises ..

 

GC behave the same (as i recognized in the last few months) ..

They do not listen to their paying customers ....

Make several changes to use a web site on the desktop like on the mobile .. Sorry never mind,

but modern laptops have a resoultion next to 1920 pixels .. Your actual layout could be (partly) used on IPhones with 640 pixel maximum ..

Wehere is the benefit for - i guess - most of us, the desktop users ? Or do you really belive that many users use your web-page on mobile devices ?

I never did, neither on my samsung tab, nor on my htc .. There i need more "applicable" and usabale Native Apps and not you webpage ..

Why? So well, native apps are harming the topic "mobile", so commonly could be used "offline" ..

The UI is more compliant to mobile usage, commonly straight forwarded ..

 

But I think, the design guys of GC know what they do ... ;)

 

So just remove more functions people (your customers) are used to use ..

Maybe you have too much paying customers??

What about customer satisfaction?

What about Customer feedback? - When i read only thsi posts inside this topic i get the feeling that peaople which say that they are missing some functionallity

have to declare theirself against GC in a way like "how can you use this function ..." .. Is this a right way ?

 

So sorry guys, this are only my 2 censt

And alos sorry for some mistakes in englsh, it´s not my native language ;)

 

Ah at the end i have to say something posetive:

It seems - i´m not sure - thata the nerving* bug with the language selection has now been fixed in this release ??

Why I cannot read something about THIS inside the Release docus ??

(*) on each second site when walking through the site the language selection got lost and falled back to the english

default language (independend of Browser (IE, Firefox, Chrome) and Windows Operating System)

 

Harald

Link to comment

Ah at the end i have to say something posetive:

It seems - i´m not sure - thata the nerving* bug with the language selection has now been fixed in this release ??

Why I cannot read something about THIS inside the Release docus ??

(*) on each second site when walking through the site the language selection got lost and falled back to the english

default language (independend of Browser (IE, Firefox, Chrome) and Windows Operating System)

 

That indicates that you are using c:geo. It is responsible for those losses of language selection.

Link to comment

I miss the feature where you can see when your friends have been online last - down to the minute level.

 

I also miss the profile picture. You can't see anything in the avatar anyway...

 

Must agree with the one stating that a Groundspeak motto is: If it ain't broke, break it. Probably too many hired who needs to do something with their time. Really - don't break things that work!

Link to comment

Must agree with the one stating that a Groundspeak motto is: If it ain't broke, break it. Probably too many hired who needs to do something with their time. Really - don't break things that work!

Well, I would hate for everything to just remain static. Change is not necessarily bad and there has been many changes that are definitely improvements. But "Here are the new changes. Deal with it." will not endear Groundspeak to many people.

Link to comment
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...