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Release Notes - October 14, 2014


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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.

 

The last changes that appealed to desktop users who are not relying on third party software happened quite some time ago. Since then only functionality has been taken away. I do not care at all about how the new profile page looks on a mobile device and I definitely would prefer a design that manages to provide a nice result also for those who do not access the site from a mobile phone.

 

When reading arguments that Groundspeak decided to use the avatar as profile photo in order to simplify the life of the cachers and at the same time suggest that users could add their own photos in the profile section I end up with the feeling that someone pulls my leg. Understanding the difference between an avatar and a profile photo has certainly been way easier for the average user than it is to include a profile photo at an appropriate place into the profile page. Even though I'm familiar with html I had to play around for a while and I'm still not fully happy with the result.

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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?

 

+1

 

Same here.

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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?

 

+1

 

Same here.

 

Ditto.

 

Any chance at a sneak peek before we just sign on one day and we can't find anything? Maybe even get to have a little input into the new look?

 

sorry. Lost my mind for a moment.

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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?

 

+1

 

Same here.

 

Ditto.

 

Any chance at a sneak peek before we just sign on one day and we can't find anything? Maybe even get to have a little input into the new look?

 

sorry. Lost my mind for a moment.

In April of this year, you were given a week-long opportunity to provide feedback on the following questions:

 

How do you connect and interact with geocaching websites or apps when you aren't outside finding caches? Are there features that offer a new perspective, an unexpected laugh, bits of knowledge, or something helpful, inspiring, or entertaining?

How do you keep up with your geocaching friends’ activity?

What functionality would you consider essential to a logged-in geocaching dashboard (private profile)?

 

Your response? "I would love to respond, but right now I just don't have to time for this much detail."

 

Just sayin'.

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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?

 

+1

 

Same here.

 

Ditto.

 

Any chance at a sneak peek before we just sign on one day and we can't find anything? Maybe even get to have a little input into the new look?

 

sorry. Lost my mind for a moment.

In April of this year, you were given a week-long opportunity to provide feedback on the following questions:

 

How do you connect and interact with geocaching websites or apps when you aren't outside finding caches? Are there features that offer a new perspective, an unexpected laugh, bits of knowledge, or something helpful, inspiring, or entertaining?

How do you keep up with your geocaching friends’ activity?

What functionality would you consider essential to a logged-in geocaching dashboard (private profile)?

 

Your response? "I would love to respond, but right now I just don't have to time for this much detail."

 

Just sayin'.

 

That's right. I did. I also stated, in the part you so so conveniently ignored, that

 

"...each of these questions should be split into separate topics of much more specificity for more focused discussions and better clarity. Broad, open-ended, multi-point topics will get confusing quickly and will go off on so many tangents it will be difficult to reign (sic) it all in and make sense of it."

 

Perhaps if you were not so busy trying to be clever you would recal that I and many, many others (including you if I recall correctly) have been contributing or discussing various ideas and suggestions for years. How much input do they need? Apparently none since very little of what we have suggested or begged for, or even what they tell us they are working on, ever sees the light of day.

 

Just sayin'.

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Your response? "I would love to respond, but right now I just don't have to time for this much detail."

I, on the other hand, took the time to carefully consider your question and responded that I always use a desktop, I generally liked the current approach, and was against any move towards something more like a dashboard.

 

Just sayin'.

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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.

 

That's cool but I have to ask that if this is something that is going to be incorporated into a significant feature in the future, did it HAVE to be changed now? Couldn't it be left as is for the time being and then eliminate it whenever this redesign takes effect? Seems like a waste of resources to work on something that is planned on being turned into digital dust anyway.

 

 

I don't mind change. The first few days of any change is usually the most painful and then you adapt and move on and the changes made with this update haven't cause me any anguish...at least that I've found. I like the look of the profile page. I do miss the profile picture but it isn't a big deal for me. As a PC user, my functionality hasn't changed but I can understand the anguish for someone whose ease of use has been made harder.

 

 

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In April of this year, you were given a week-long opportunity to provide feedback on the following questions:

 

How do you connect and interact with geocaching websites or apps when you aren't outside finding caches? Are there features that offer a new perspective, an unexpected laugh, bits of knowledge, or something helpful, inspiring, or entertaining?

How do you keep up with your geocaching friends’ activity?

What functionality would you consider essential to a logged-in geocaching dashboard (private profile)?

 

Apart from the fact that feedback period was very short, let me comment on how I understood these questions.

 

Actually, I did not understand any of those questions in a way that it made sense to me to state that I want Groundspeak to keep what is offered on the current my page - being able to search for the

newest caches in my country with one click and getting a list of all my finds, DNFs, notes etc (this feature exists right now, but I'm not sure whether it will survive) seemed so basic actions to me that

I could not have imagined that someone would want to take them away.

 

All asked questions seemed pretty much irrelevant for my own style of using the site, so I intentionally chose not to reply.

I understood the questions cited above as an interest of what additions users might be interested into and not what we do not want Groundspeak to take away from us.

Maybe that's again a cultural issue that I misunderstood the questions.

 

To provide you with a concrete example, before the switch to html e-mails was made, it would not have occured to me that such a change could happen without offering a text option.

The same is true for many other changes.

 

 

Cezanne

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In April of this year, you were given a week-long opportunity to provide feedback...

 

I hadn't realized. I guess I missed my shot. I would hope that, since only 23 people responded out of thousands of active geocachers, that limited sample was given the appropriate weight.

 

And no offense to chilehead, but I really hope their concept is not what the /my page turns into.

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How many people did this questionnaire get sent out too? I never received anything asking me what I thought. Of course what the paying customer wants is usually ignored. If it wasn't for pocket queries I wouldn't need to waste my money on a membership every year.

It wasn't "sent out" to anyone.

It was part of the User Insights Forum.

- Possible some ideas were also taken from the 16 participants each day at the 3-day, "User Insights with HQ's Product Development Team" during the Block Party.

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In April of this year, you were given a week-long opportunity to provide feedback on the following questions:

 

 

The topic had already closed by the time I saw it :-(

By the time I noticed it and figured what was said, it was closed.

I didn't feel it was presented clearly to folks with little or no tech background.

I was lost at dashboard... :laughing:

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I was also lost at "dashboard".

 

How this:

 

Discussion points:

 

How do you connect and interact with geocaching websites or apps when you aren't outside finding caches? Are there features that offer a new perspective, an unexpected laugh, bits of knowledge, or something helpful, inspiring, or entertaining?

 

How do you keep up with your geocaching friends’ activity?

 

What functionality would you consider essential to a logged-in geocaching dashboard (private profile)?

 

resulted in this update is beyond me.

 

Latest update

 

Now we get chastised by Keystone saying "you had your chance to comment". How can we comment for instance on avatar/profile photos, or recently viewed caches, or list newest caches in state, if we have no idea they are considering changing them. (Not that I really care, just some examples). Should I have entered in the fray and posted "I like my geo-name the way it is, please don't limit it to seven characters" if I have no idea they are considering that.

 

This place confuses me...

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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.

 

The last changes that appealed to desktop users who are not relying on third party software happened quite some time ago. Since then only functionality has been taken away. I do not care at all about how the new profile page looks on a mobile device and I definitely would prefer a design that manages to provide a nice result also for those who do not access the site from a mobile phone.

 

When reading arguments that Groundspeak decided to use the avatar as profile photo in order to simplify the life of the cachers and at the same time suggest that users could add their own photos in the profile section I end up with the feeling that someone pulls my leg. Understanding the difference between an avatar and a profile photo has certainly been way easier for the average user than it is to include a profile photo at an appropriate place into the profile page. Even though I'm familiar with html I had to play around for a while and I'm still not fully happy with the result.

 

This might not be the right spot for this comment, but ... What I noticed, when I went to edit my profile page, the size of the edit windows in the new form. One of the boxes did not make sense - forum signature, since it imported a link I had to cacherstats.com. I was not aware of the change since I don't follow the forums. I assume this is an "improvement". I much preferred having the entire page in one window, or at least have the Bio window show more than 5 lines at a time. I figured out the avatar quickly the first time I saw it - in trying to document this comment I found that the previous page with all the account info on it has been broken several pages. And no explanation easily available as to what's where - we are Groundspeak and we know what's good for you. It is, however, the only game in town.dry.gif

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This might not be the right spot for this comment, but ... What I noticed, when I went to edit my profile page, the size of the edit windows in the new form. One of the boxes did not make sense - forum signature, since it imported a link I had to cacherstats.com. I was not aware of the change since I don't follow the forums. I assume this is an "improvement". I much preferred having the entire page in one window, or at least have the Bio window show more than 5 lines at a time.

 

I also preferred it the old way and I need to admit that without a comment made in this thread I would not even have noticed that the window can be made larger by clicking in the lower right corner (you need to do that however each time you use the window).

 

Somehow all those terms handle, dashboard etc are terms that do not belong to my vocabulary. Somehow all these changes the site seem to be attempts to appeal to a completely different audience while not bothering with leaving behind many of the long term users of this site.

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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.

Sure, but the last really useful changes were a few years ago - about when they stopped that page where one could make improvement suggestions and vote for them.

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I was also lost at "dashboard".

 

How this:

 

Discussion points:

 

How do you connect and interact with geocaching websites or apps when you aren't outside finding caches? Are there features that offer a new perspective, an unexpected laugh, bits of knowledge, or something helpful, inspiring, or entertaining?

 

How do you keep up with your geocaching friends’ activity?

 

What functionality would you consider essential to a logged-in geocaching dashboard (private profile)?

 

resulted in this update is beyond me.

 

Latest update

 

Now we get chastised by Keystone saying "you had your chance to comment". How can we comment for instance on avatar/profile photos, or recently viewed caches, or list newest caches in state, if we have no idea they are considering changing them. (Not that I really care, just some examples). Should I have entered in the fray and posted "I like my geo-name the way it is, please don't limit it to seven characters" if I have no idea they are considering that.

 

This place confuses me...

1. My moderator account has not posted to this thread prior to this. It's not a moderator's job to "chastise" people who post their opinions in a manner that follows the forum guidelines.

 

2. Moun10Bike has already explained that the changes in this Release are a step along the way in a process that will revamp the current "/my" page. The full nature of those changes hasn't been released yet.

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2. Moun10Bike has already explained that the changes in this Release are a step along the way in a process that will revamp the current "/my" page. The full nature of those changes hasn't been released yet.

 

Indeed, but I guess by his statement he created additional concerns and worries. The changes visible so far only took things away and somehow it seems hard for me to stay optimistic that the full nature of the changes will have to offer something positive for me and will not be a further big disappointment. It would be good to know if the revamped site does only take into account the group of users who neither use the site on mobile devices or have any interest into fashionable design trends, but rather do not want to lose functionality they have valued for years.

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2. Moun10Bike has already explained that the changes in this Release are a step along the way in a process that will revamp the current "/my" page. The full nature of those changes hasn't been released yet.

Which is exactly what many here are apprehensive about.

 

Personally, I can deal with most changes Groundspeak make, either by adapting or through AdBlock and GreaseMonkey, but others may not want to, know how to, or are not willing to go to such steps. I find it to be a much less painful alternative compared to figuratively banging my head against a wall. I know I sound like a broken record, but please share changes before rolling them out, listen to your users / customers - and answer them, and if possible at all, provide a preview.

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Personally, I can deal with most changes Groundspeak make, either by adapting or through AdBlock and GreaseMonkey, but others may not want to, know how to, or are not willing to go to such steps. I find it to be a much less painful alternative compared to figuratively banging my head against a wall.

 

The approach to use adblock, GreaseMonkey and other workarounds has other drawbacks as well. For example, it needs to be applied to each computer one is using and then it affects everyone using that computer which is not always desired.

 

I've set up adblock to hide the most recently viewed caches on the computer I use the most and another one will follow probably, but I will certainly not extend this procedure to all computers I have in use and I need to deal with the annoying list and other results of the recent changes when staying with friends and using their computers.

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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.

I agree on both counts. I'm sure if Groundspeak brought back the webpage style from 2002 people would look at it and think "I'm sure glad it doesn't look like that anymore."

 

And, as for forcing changes? Yeah, you force any change on people and they will hate it by default but most people adapt pretty quickly. It seems to be the model for companies now: Microsoft, Apple, Facebook -- they all take the same approach to making changes. For the most part I can understand that. When you're dealing with such a diverse group of users, you'd never reach a consensus. The feedback on the forums is not a good way to judge how accepted a change is because it's a self-selecting demographic of the user base.

 

I don't understand the desire to take away things though. We had an option to hide recently viewed caches suddenly yanked from under us. They tell us there is a master plan and these are all minor incremental changes which may not make sense to us now but they will when we get to see the end result.

 

I guess my question is "Who is beta-testing the bold new Geocaching.com site?" We don't see any "normal" forums users saying "Guys, I've seen where they are going with this and -- trust me -- you'll love it." Does anyone know anyone who actually gets a sneak preview at what's coming up and gets to play with it for a few weeks? I see two possibilities. Either the beta testing is all done in house (scary because it's that self-selecting demographic again) or those who have been chosen to be beta testers are under some sort of NDA.

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How many people did this questionnaire get sent out too? I never received anything asking me what I thought.

I've set an alert for new topics in that Forum so next time we get a chance to provide feedback I'll know. Of course, I'm not sure a week really gives me a ton of time to carefully consider my response. I saw that topic and thought "Dashboard? Good question. Never thought about that before." then BAM -- topic closed.

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If I'm soliciting feedback regarding (for example) the "Your Profile" page, I wouldn't post it in the forums or send out email. I would have a banner appear on the "Your Profile" page, so that people who actually use that page will see it and (hopefully) respond, because this is the group that will be affected.

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If I'm soliciting feedback regarding (for example) the "Your Profile" page, I wouldn't post it in the forums or send out email. I would have a banner appear on the "Your Profile" page, so that people who actually use that page will see it and (hopefully) respond, because this is the group that will be affected.

+1

Makes sense.

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How many people did this questionnaire get sent out too? I never received anything asking me what I thought. Of course what the paying customer wants is usually ignored. If it wasn't for pocket queries I wouldn't need to waste my money on a membership every year.

It wasn't "sent out" to anyone.

It was part of the User Insights Forum.

- Possible some ideas were also taken from the 16 participants each day at the 3-day, "User Insights with HQ's Product Development Team" during the Block Party.

So, a very limited time to respond, with a very limited audience. You're hardly likely to get a representative sample of responses from that..... (this is the first I even heard of it.)

 

Meanwhile, long-term feedback from the forum designated for "Bug Reports and Feature Discussions" seems to be ignored....

 

(Also, as with others here, if asked "what features do you want", I certainly wouldn't think it necessary to enumerate all the existing features to avoid them taking the axe to them!)

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[ I'm sure if Groundspeak brought back the webpage style from 2002 people would look at it and think "I'm sure glad it doesn't look like that anymore."

 

When it regards me (I have been around in the last quarter of 2002) I'm not even sure about that. The site back then has met my needs at that time much better than it meets my needs now. The cache submission form, for example, was a simple one page form as it stayed until quite recently before they moved to the new one which annoys me that much for everyone.

 

Maybe my recollections are not complete, but I cannot remember that back then so much marketing and tech speak has been used by Groundspeak. When I read through the recent blog post dealing with the current release or Jayme's post in the user insights forum, I end up with a mixture of the feeling that someone pulls my leg, of confusion and anger. Back then they did not have staff dealing only with marketing, web layout etc which had drawbacks, but also many advantages from my side.

 

It cannot be denied that many changes that have been negative for cachers like myself happened either with newcomers in mind or with cachers who rely on paperless caching and mobile phones.

 

I simply feel annoyed by statements like

"The Account Settings tabs page was designed to look great in a mobile browser" when at the same time no effort is spent how the page looks like for cachers who do not use mobile browsers.

 

Personally, I do not care a bit how the site looks in a mobile browser, and I rather have the site frozen at the state from ten years ago than have things taken away that were important for me.

 

Cezanne

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I just had a thought. Why couldn't they just use your computer settings for the time zone/DST settings?

 

Like you said, DST is not tied to time zone. There are several areas in the United States where DST is ignored. For example, if I'm correct, the state of Arizona ignores it, except on the Navajo reservation, where DST is observed. Does Microsoft's system take all that into account?

 

Using the local computer settings really would be best IMO. Handle everything on the wire, on the servers and in the database as UTC (not PST), and then translate UTC to local time via JavaScript in the browser. That way, if the time is displayed wrong on my computer, it's all on me because my computer isn't set up properly for the timezone I'm located in.

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In April of this year, you were given a week-long opportunity to provide feedback on the following questions:

 

How do you connect and interact with geocaching websites or apps when you aren't outside finding caches? Are there features that offer a new perspective, an unexpected laugh, bits of knowledge, or something helpful, inspiring, or entertaining?

How do you keep up with your geocaching friends’ activity?

What functionality would you consider essential to a logged-in geocaching dashboard (private profile)?

 

How was this communicated to members? Was it only via the forums? What about those of us who only come here every few months? Was it via email? A banner on the website? And why only one week? There's a very good chance I was completely offline for that week, so I didn't see that banner and didn't catch it in the weekly email, and as a result I never had an opportunity to respond in the first place.

 

Edit: OK, now I've seen the other replies on this subject and I'm even more disappointed. I went over to that section and saw no topic listed that hinted at being a feedback request as described above. Then I saw people referencing the "Dashboard" thread. That is quite possibly the worst possible title for that topic. The subtitle, "How do you engage with geocaching" is better, but still not optimal.

 

It's almost as if it was set up such that someone can point at it later and say "see, we tried, but no one answered!" while making it sufficiently hidden and obfuscated as to prevent significant participation.

Edited by dakboy
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Since it appears we will not get back the option to hide recently viewed caches, a compromise of putting that information at the bottom of the page would be nice. It is simple enough for a user to hit the end button if one wanted/needed to see it. Thank you.

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Since it appears we will not get back the option to hide recently viewed caches, a compromise of putting that information at the bottom of the page would be nice. It is simple enough for a user to hit the end button if one wanted/needed to see it. Thank you.

 

Seriously? :blink:

 

How does this small list being where it is on the page ACTUALLY cause you difficulty?

 

I wonder if it wasn't for trivial complaints like this, Groundspeak might be more willing to seriously invest in some of the more useful changes many users have requested for a long time.

 

As things stand, Groundspeak can just shrug and take the view that whatever they change, some people will like it, some people won't. They might even shy away from big changes on the basis that large change = more complaints. I'd probably do the same myself :mad:

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Since it appears we will not get back the option to hide recently viewed caches, a compromise of putting that information at the bottom of the page would be nice. It is simple enough for a user to hit the end button if one wanted/needed to see it. Thank you.

 

Seriously? :blink:

 

How does this small list being where it is on the page ACTUALLY cause you difficulty?

 

I wonder if it wasn't for trivial complaints like this, Groundspeak might be more willing to seriously invest in some of the more useful changes many users have requested for a long time.

 

As things stand, Groundspeak can just shrug and take the view that whatever they change, some people will like it, some people won't. They might even shy away from big changes on the basis that large change = more complaints. I'd probably do the same myself :mad:

 

It appears you just read my post and not the pages upon pages on multiple threads about people not wanting this information on their profile page at all or wanting to have the option to show it or not like we had before the update because the information is not useful enough to them to be on that page. Further, it seems you failed to recognize my statement is NOT a complaint in any way but a simple solution to ease some of the angst and possibly eliminate some of the complaints. Like I stated, a compromise. :rolleyes:

 

As far as Groundspeak's being "more willing to seriously invest in some of the more useful changes many users have requested for a long time", I've been on geocaching.com for over half its lifetime and have not seen many of those made nor attempted. (However, I am appreciative of the few useful changes that have been instituted.) More times than not, it looks as if they make changes for the sake of change itself and not for any usefulness to the end users or start a project but fail to see it to fruition or support it. :sad: This may not be the case but it is how it is perceived by many. Perceptions have been known to trump facts.

 

And to clarify, these statements are not complaints, just observations.

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As things stand, Groundspeak can just shrug and take the view that whatever they change, some people will like it, some people won't. They might even shy away from big changes on the basis that large change = more complaints. I'd probably do the same myself :mad:

 

What you write might be true for some changes, but not for the one to remove the option to hide this list.

Noone will complain about the fact that others could hide a list they do not want to see. That option did not harm anyone and it did not clutter any page.

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I remember when the cache history list was first introduced: lots of people complained about it, and thus the option to hide it was introduced. Now it's back. Thanks for that GS <_< Now I have to actually scroll down using the arrow keys on my rather smallish notebook to see the last logged caches on the 'my' page :huh: I really do wonder how that will look like on a mobile phone.

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As things stand, Groundspeak can just shrug and take the view that whatever they change, some people will like it, some people won't. They might even shy away from big changes on the basis that large change = more complaints. I'd probably do the same myself :mad:

 

What you write might be true for some changes, but not for the one to remove the option to hide this list.

Noone will complain about the fact that others could hide a list they do not want to see. That option did not harm anyone and it did not clutter any page.

 

Read my post again, and the post I was responding to and you might be able to work out why you're completely out of context here.

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It appears you just read my post and not the pages upon pages on multiple threads about people not wanting this information on their profile page at all or wanting to have the option to show it or not like we had before the update because the information is not useful enough to them to be on that page.

 

And regardless of all of that I maintain that suggesting pushing it further down the page as a compromise is both unhelpful white noise and ignores what probably amounts to an equal number of users who either like having that information right where it is (myself included) or who couldn't care one way or the other. I didn't need to read through pages of anything to come to those conclusions.

 

Further, it seems you failed to recognize my statement is NOT a complaint in any way but a simple solution to ease some of the angst and possibly eliminate some of the complaints. Like I stated, a compromise. :rolleyes:

 

Oh - so it wasn't a complaint? Fine. I refer you to the above point.

 

As far as Groundspeak's being "more willing to seriously invest in some of the more useful changes many users have requested for a long time", I've been on geocaching.com for over half its lifetime and have not seen many of those made nor attempted.

 

So you've only been on geocaching.com for half it's lifetime and you have seen useful changes that users have requested for a long time made or attempted. While wondering which useful changes you haven't seen I still can't work out what point you're trying to make :rolleyes:

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Read my post again, and the post I was responding to and you might be able to work out why you're completely out of context here.

 

Still removing the option to hide the list effects many cachers in a negative way (for whom the display of this list is a big nuisance and not just a minor thing) and having kept it would not have effected any cacher in a negative way.

Requests like introducing a new cache type for challenge caches and many others are certainly much less important for me than the option to hide this list. Meanwhile I applied the Adblock workaround to 3 computers but that's far from complete and it takes quite some time which I rather would like to spend with something else.

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Read my post again, and the post I was responding to and you might be able to work out why you're completely out of context here.

 

Still removing the option to hide the list effects many cachers in a negative way (for whom the display of this list is a big nuisance and not just a minor thing) and having kept it would not have effected any cacher in a negative way.

Requests like introducing a new cache type for challenge caches and many others are certainly much less important for me than the option to hide this list. Meanwhile I applied the Adblock workaround to 3 computers but that's far from complete and it takes quite some time which I rather would like to spend with something else.

 

And off you go on a massive tangent yet again - which rather neatly proves the point I made in the first place.

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And off you go on a massive tangent yet again - which rather neatly proves the point I made in the first place.

 

It neither is a tangent nor does it prove anything.

 

Wrong on both counts.

 

If I cared even slightly to know your answer I would ask you to explain how Requests like introducing a new cache type for challenge caches and many others isn't a tangent to a thread entitled Replying to Release Notes - October 14, 2014

 

And that reference is also a lovely example of the white noise I was referring to in my earlier post.

 

The very fact we're having this stupid conversation is reason enough for Grounspeak to shrug and pay no attention to any points made that are actually worthy of consideration.

 

Are we done with the white noise now? I do hope so.

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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?

 

I too, would like to understand more about how things will change. As silly as it sounds, I liked my profile image and had even received some nice comments on it from other cachers. When I noticed it suddenly disappeared, I was a little miffed, but not overly distraught. It took a little digging to find the image url, it was from a photo I uploaded to a cache found many years ago, and I wasn't sure which one. Luckily, I remembered that someone had used my profile image as a background for a cache they placed to commemorate a long geocaching streak (by my view anyways) I had accomplished, so I was able to get the url from that. Curiously, the URL still has a file extension which reads "...//imgcdn.geocaching.com/user/large/....." which seems like it is linked to something in my profile account. Wondering if those images will get purged or of they will remain in storage somewhere.

 

But the point I was really going to make, was that getting my profile-image back on my profile-page took way less time than reading through this thread has taken. Interesting as it all is (but mostly kvetching), I'm not too worried about the brand new look of things to come. Sure it would be nice to see a preview. But I know that whatever it ends up looking like, I will be able to adapt it to something that suits me.

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As silly as it sounds, I liked my profile image and had even received some nice comments on it from other cachers. When I noticed it suddenly disappeared, I was a little miffed, but not overly distraught. It took a little digging to find the image url, it was from a photo I uploaded to a cache found many years ago, and I wasn't sure which one. Luckily, I remembered that someone had used my profile image as a background for a cache they placed to commemorate a long geocaching streak (by my view anyways) I had accomplished, so I was able to get the url from that. Curiously, the URL still has a file extension which reads "...//imgcdn.geocaching.com/user/large/....." which seems like it is linked to something in my profile account. Wondering if those images will get purged or of they will remain in storage somewhere.

 

Users can still access any profile images they uploaded prior to this change from their account settings. Go to https://www.geocaching.com/myaccount/settings/profile and look for the link under the profile image at the top that says, "See previous profile photos." This will give you access to the former gallery.

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But the point I was really going to make, was that getting my profile-image back on my profile-page took way less time than reading through this thread has taken.

 

Probably because it's the only contents of your bio section. I needed some time to choose the parameters to fit my profile image in (and I needed to look up the required html commands needed for that). I also would have preferred to have it more to the top so that no one with accidentally miss what is written below.

 

Sure it would be nice to see a preview. But I know that whatever it ends up looking like, I will be able to adapt it to something that suits me.

 

I'm not as confident when it comes to myself.

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Users can still access any profile images they uploaded prior to this change from their account settings. Go to https://www.geocaching.com/myaccount/settings/profile and look for the link under the profile image at the top that says, "See previous profile photos." This will give you access to the former gallery.

 

It is mentioned in the blow post however that the photos will not stay there necessarily. So I decided to save a copy of profile image to an archived cache page of mine and use this link in my bio section. Of course I have a local copy of the image, but I cannot link that one from my profile. Somehow it is not very convenient that there is no dedicated space for profile images any longer.

Edited by cezanne
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In April of this year, you were given a week-long opportunity to provide feedback on the following questions:

 

How do you connect and interact with geocaching websites or apps when you aren't outside finding caches? Are there features that offer a new perspective, an unexpected laugh, bits of knowledge, or something helpful, inspiring, or entertaining? don't come here for new perspectives, laughs, inspiration or entertainment

How do you keep up with your geocaching friends’ activity?

What functionality would you consider essential to a logged-in geocaching dashboard (private profile)?

 

I only come to the forums when something strange appears like the sudden re-inclusion of the “Recently Viewed Caches.” I don’t remember seeing the limited opportunity to provide feedback. If I had, I wouldn’t’ve known what a “dashboard” was … I’m guessing I won’t like it if it’s anything like the geocaching app for my phone. I have that and after trying it in the field a couple times gave it up as poorly conceived for the way I cache. In the field I use my GPSr and Geosphere exclusively … after planning using GSAK.

 

So, here’s my first thoughts on “How do you connect …”

 

At home, I interact with the geocaching website through my PC. I first go to the “/my/default.aspx page” and from there do whatever I need to do to prepare for caching. I also interact through GSAK but do not get there through www.geocaching.com.

 

The links I use often include:

Play>Hide & Seek a Cache> Where I enter either a city name, a specific GCID or more rarely coordinates …from there I use any cache to go the “View Larger Map” to look at and for caches in that area I might be interested in.

 

Community>Find Another Player> where I can enter the name of a cacher using “Find another player” if I’m interested in seeing where they’ve been or what caches they might’ve recently placed. I have little if any interest in connecting with “Friends.” That to me is a tedious extra step. There are only two or three “friends” in my so-called friends list whose activity is of interest to me. Some are folks that asked to be a friend and, not wanting to be rude, I said, “sure.” I’ve never looked at what they’re doing and if I thought I could unfriend them without them taking offense I’d do so. One is a dead dog that you were required to make friends with to get the coordinates to a puzzle. The owner of said dead dog, now uses that ID as a sock puppet to place caches which he can then find so I link through it occasionally to see what caches have been placed. I could get to any of the folks whose caching might be of interest by entering their GCID as mentioned above … I have no need for the “Your Friends” list link.

 

Stat Bar Box/Link to view my public profile. I don’t use the “Your Public Profile” link in the “Hello two bison” box

 

Your Profile>Pocket Queries> to create and run route queries for traveling. I used to use the circle based pocket queries but now find it much more useful to use the rectangle tool within GSAK in the Geocaching.com access area. Circles have too much overlap when trying to cover an area of interest.

 

Lists>Bookmarks List> most often to collect caches for challenges requiring a bookmark list and occasionally to save caches of interest in areas a long way from home.

 

At one time or another I’ve clicked on most every link on the “/my” page.

 

Links I wouldn’t miss on the “/my” page:

The entire favorites block. Manage Favorites is available from the “Lists” link near the top.

In the Search Options block: You could eliminate view nearby benchmarks and view nearby waymarks. Keep the others.

 

In the Premium Features block: I never use and do not need “Get Started.” I’m guessing that’s available somewhere else.

 

In the Community Block: I never use “Tell a Friend …” “Upgrade Another…” “View your …” “View Your …”

 

Hope these thoughts are of use to those who are planning the big new changes. If I think of anything else, I'll add them here.

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Regarding the "Recently Viewed Caches"

 

It appears y'all think it's a wonderful thing and it isn't likely to go away. If you could move it to the bottom of the page under the useful Last 30 Days or make it so that it takes the same amount of space as the list of links starting with "Quick View | Lists | ... " at the top of the page I could ignore it and live with that.

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