Map

[+Hynz]

And please fix the bug that sometimes (too often!) the cache icons are not responding to clicks anymore...

^this is by far more important than any other new or changed features of the map.

[+Redn3ck]

Caching since 2010 premium shortly after starting

 

Changes Id Like To See:

 

DNF icon's on DNF logs

 

when zooming in sometimes the icons don't respond to clicking to bring up the info till you get very close

 

Change the virtual icons for earth caches till you get zoomed in close enuf why not actually show earth cache icons? vs virtual from far away

 

 

keep every thing else the same

[+cerberus1]

Caching since 7/'04, ten of those years as pm.

 

Maps don't work for me now.

Maps are one of the (very) few reasons I'd consider pm again (never really needed much else ), and hope they aren't bastardized for phone usage.

I'd like 'em to stay as-is thanks.

CJ finally home, simply upgraded me to IE 11 and I again have maps.

- Kinda surprised notice wasn't given for IE 9 support, like earlier versions.

Anyway... still like to see 'em as is thanks.

[jri]

I've been geocaching since 2005 and cache in a variety of urban and rural locations. I am based in the UK, but also enjoy caching in other countries when I travel. I find that I am interested in different features from the map when I am in different locations. For rural caching, I want a map that shows terrain type and gradient, and satellite photos that show trails and natural landmarks. For urban features, I want to know about street names, transport links, and traffic. Wherever I am, I want to see maps that show a good level of detail in my locality, not just in the USA.

 

I developed the Geocaching Map Enhancements greasemonkey script, so obviously I think that all its features are sufficiently worthwhile to spend the effort coding. However, I understand that there are various reasons why they are not all for everyone, or not suitable for rollout on the main website. That said, I see there are a number of requests for similar features in this thread.

 

I use the Maps page as my main landing page for Geocaching.com. In fact, other than my Profile page and the cache listings themselves, I don't often view much of the rest of the website. However, I tend only to use the Maps page on a laptop computer, or at least a tablet. On smaller mobile devices, apps do a far better job.

 

Basic Features

 

• Map layer selection - absolutely essential.
• Search box - I use this a lot. I think there is a lot of potential to make it much more useful, e.g. by allowing you to pan to the location of a cache by GC code. In GME I use the box as a command line interface, e.g. to allow markers to be dropped at precise, typed coordinates. It would also be handy to return multiple results, not just the first one out of the geocoder. The sidebar would be a convenient place to display these.
• Share link - While I'm aware of this, I've never used it to share a link. It duplicates what you can do by cutting and pasting the browser URL. Although having a shortened URL is nice, I think some people may get confused that it gives a different URL to the browser. At the moment, this is a waste of space in the sidebar. If you keep it, I would turn it into a small link icon, with a popup to let you cut and paste the short link.
• Cache details - Most of this is useful. However, I never use the Send to GPS function, as I use a smartphone for caching. I would have more use for a GPX link, or a QR code that would let me open the cache in my preferred mobile app.

Premium Features

 

Although I'm currently a Premium Member, I don't use PM features much. I do use PQs from time to time, but (apart from My Finds) never normally download them. I do find previewing them on the map more helpful though. The cache type filters are useful, but there's probably a way of displaying them that takes up less space.

 

The "Set Map Preferences" button takes up far too much space for something that most people will only ever use once or twice.

 

Google Maps used to be my preferred streetmap, but OpenStreetMaps are now generally much better, at least where I have used them in the UK and Europe. The Google Satellite view is useful and far preferable to the MapQuest Aerial photos, which have no detailed coverage in my part of the world.

 

Community requests

 

+1 for showing DNFs. I think that this would encourage more people to log DNFs, giving more feedback to COs and helping improve the quality of the game.

 

+1 for showing corrected coordinates. Planning a trip to visit some puzzle caches is very hard without this feature unless you have an app or addon script.

 

Selecting caches in a polygon would be neat, even if it was just a rectangle. However, you would have to decide how to deal with corrected coordinates. In a similar vein, being able to draw a route on the main map and use if for the Caches along a Route feature would be handy. GME goes some way towards doing this, but much more could be made of a route planning feature built into the main website.

[Moun10Bike]

Thank you all for sharing your feedback. We will now be compiling all of the posted messages and using this information to start the next step in planning.