Log Change from HTML to Markdown

[+MartyBartfast]

The nice thing about markdown is that it degrades nicely. On a device (such as a GPS), I'd much rather see "I'm so great, I was *FTF* on the cache" than "I'm so great, I was <i>FTF</i> on the cache".

 

So getting the "raw" logs is the best way of handling this, as the 3rd party software stack is likely to be completely different than geocaching.com's.

This is what I don't get. HTML is a standard, and renders perfectly well both in GSAK and on my GPSr (Garmin). It also used to render well on geocaching.com.

Markdown however, only renders fully on geocaching.com. I don't understand how that is being consistent.

 

I think ChileHead makes a valid point. While HTML is a properly defined standard and your particular GPS will render it properly there are still devices out there which won't render it (or BBCode), at least Markdown still looks OK when it's not being rendered.

[+thomfre]

I think ChileHead makes a valid point. While HTML is a properly defined standard and your particular GPS will render it properly there are still devices out there which won't render it (or BBCode), at least Markdown still looks OK when it's not being rendered.

I still don't buy this argument. How about the description, which is more important than the logs, is still in HTML. If a device doesn't know how to render a log, it shouldn't know how to render the description either.

 

And it is a big problem that a lot of logs are displayed wrong on geocaching.com now, since every 500+ million of them are treated as Markdown, even though only a tiny tiny part of them were actually meant to contain Markdown markup.

Even displaying everything as plain text, dropping support for formatting all together, would be better than this.

[+Target.]

If the API won't be providing formatted versions of the log text, then will GS be providing their official implementation of Markdown so 3rd parties can render log texts the same as on GC.com? (else recommend all 3rd parties to just display raw text?) ...this seems like a big consistency problem...

The nice thing about markdown is that it degrades nicely. On a device (such as a GPS), I'd much rather see "I'm so great, I was *FTF* on the cache" than "I'm so great, I was <i>FTF</i> on the cache".

 

So getting the "raw" logs is the best way of handling this, as the 3rd party software stack is likely to be completely different than geocaching.com's.

 

Markdown does degrades nicely but non markdown logs dont work as markdown as nice.

Look at this cache http://coord.info/GC31Z54 the first log i mine and the two following has unintentional header 2 test because of lines with -----.

Old logs before markdown should have been set as not markdown in the database an shown as plain text and not treated as markdown until they are edited.

A quick and dirty change would be to insert blank line before lines with only - or = because they will result in large text and is quite common. Lines starting and ending with # that also results in text size is not as common.

 

The announcement had stats of how many logs used BB code and html but i have seen no info of how many logs has unintentional Markdown in them. I think that unintentional formating is worse then missing formating

[+Wulfman_Do]

I also noticed that ending # is required on gc.com markdown but is optional inte other markdown. If that was not the case i would have 2073 logs that had a heading 1 on the first row.

That requirement was added as a result of feedback during testing. Lots of geocachers begin their logs with a number counter, like "#3738" for the user's 3738th overall cache find, or "#5 of 32 cache finds today." Thanks for noticing!

 

BUT the Infos under the GC Help Center do not match to the requirements ?!

 

4.14. How to format Markdown

https://support.Groundspeak.com/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=739

 

It would be great when the IT guys / give us a corrected list with all possible Codes using on geocaching.com and not a universal list from markdown codes from the web.

 

Thanks

[+Bartje2428]

After 10 years of Geocaching, again a change made on the COM site I don't understand ???

For years my logs were full of colours, red, blue, orange, green and teal

Now my log a looking very boring and full of html junk :-(

You putted the 'Challenge caches' on hold for a year, but for this no more than a second ???

 

Can we have the colors back ?

Greetz,

Bartje2428

 

example of my logs:

 

[][][][red] FTF No 122 [][][] et cache 8672 [][/red]

De retour dans le VAR et hops on était déjà à Nice [^]

Que du Shopping de 10 à 18h pour Katje et si on a encore du temps une petite cache pour moi []

A la chambre de l'hôtel je voyais une toute nouvelle série publié par Olissa []

Oeps un scramble comme d'habitude n'est pas possible, trop loin []

Aujourd'hui la température 18° et du Grand Bleu en route pour Brégançon [8D]

Les vues super magnifiques [^]

[blue]Bravo Katje avec ton STF [:X][/blue]

[orange]Un Grand Merci à Olissa pour cette série dans un coin très bien connu [][]

Salut et A+,

Bartje[/orange][green]

 

Favo no 1 c'est le mien [][/green]

 

[teal][8D][^] 9 ans, 11 mois et 2 jours de Géocaching, encore 28 jours pour mes 10 ans [^][8D][/teal]

[+sloth96]

I was really hoping for the

 

~~~Strikethrough~~~~ but no luck.

[Spatial Distortion]

markdown is crap.

 

Who seriously uses numbered bullets in their logs.

Seriously?????

 

1st they screwed up our Profiles and now this.

 

These are all steps backwards IMHO

Edited February 4, 2016 by Spatial Distortion

[+Pontiac_CZ]

You're right about this, cachers rarely use ordered and unordered lists in their logs (and if they do, they write it manually, in plain text) but I guess it's a third party editor (?) so they just left it there.

[+danlm]

Perhaps we can found a mean to start a petition asking Grounspeak to find a solution that our old logs can be seen as they were before or provide a tool to updated them easily ?

[+barnold]

You're right about this, cachers rarely use ordered and unordered lists in their logs (and if they do, they write it manually, in plain text) but I guess it's a third party editor (?) so they just left it there.

even worse. i always started my found log with the found number followed by a ".".

e.g. <<1869.>> now this is rendered as a line number and only partially like <<1.>> and all following text is indented.

not what i asked for, not what i intended. completely readable text on every platform is now made unreadable because of markup.

can at least nubers, say, above 10, just be rendered as they are, without interpretation and clipping as line/paragraph numbers?

see this log.

Edited February 4, 2016 by barnold

[+Difool]

even worse. i always started my found log with the found number followed by a ".".

e.g. <<1869.>> now this is rendered as a line number and only partially like <<1.>> and all following text is indented.

not what i asked for, not what i intended. completely readable text on every platform is now made unreadable because of markup.

can at least nubers, say, above 10, just be rendered as they are, without interpretation and clipping as line/paragraph numbers?

see this log.

 

\ escapes in Markdown so this should work

1869\. and all following text is indented.

not what i asked for, not what i intended. completely readable text on every platform is now made unreadable because of markup.

can at least nubers, say, above 10, just be rendered as they are, without interpretation and clipping as line/paragraph numbers?

see this log.

Or add a # infront of the number

#1869. and all following text is indented.

not what i asked for, not what i intended. completely readable text on every platform is now made unreadable because of markup.

can at least nubers, say, above 10, just be rendered as they are, without interpretation and clipping as line/paragraph numbers?

see this log.

Edited February 4, 2016 by Difool

[+EngPhil]

\ escapes in Markdown so this should work

Or add a # infront of the number

Are you suggesting barnold should go back and edit 1,869 logs to fix this?

 

Because.... No. Groundspeak broke it, they should fix it.

[Spatial Distortion]

Thats right,

 

Groundspeak BROKE IT

 

FIX IT Groundspeak

 

Addendum:

I am not typically this vocal, but this is just ridiculous what they have done

[+niraD]

Because.... No. Groundspeak broke it, they should fix it.

+1

 

Once again, for emphasis: Groundspeak broke it, they should fix it.

[+on4bam]

Because.... No. Groundspeak broke it, they should fix it.

+1

 

Once again, for emphasis: Groundspeak broke it, they should fix it.

 

+10000 but "it ain't gonna happen". Look at other "half baked" stuff (notifications, Messedup Center, ... )

 

Fortunately the messed up logs still look good in GSAK and will probably be fine when uploaded to my Oregon600.

Edited February 4, 2016 by on4bam

[+MartyBartfast]

Because.... No. Groundspeak broke it, they should fix it.

+1

 

Once again, for emphasis: Groundspeak broke it, they should fix it.

 

+10000 but "it ain't gonna happen". Look at other "half baked" stuff (notifications, Message Center, ... )

 

Fortunately the messed up logs still look good in GSAK and will probably be fine when uploaded to my Oregon600.

 

I too think that the way GS have handled this is really shoddy, but I doubt anything will be done about it. Once all the caches have had half a dozen logs in the new format, the old "broken" logs will drop off the first page and the vast majority of them will never be looked at again. The very small percentage of broken logs which might be viewed by a small percentage of customers means there will be no significant pressure to fix it.

[cezanne]

The very small percentage of broken logs which might be viewed by a small percentage of customers means there will be no significant pressure to fix it.

 

I'm not convinced. I think that many cachers care about their own logs and are annoyed by the fact that is extremely difficult to ensure that no logs are broken if one has too many of them to

go through them manually.

 

Also for many caches the value of logs goes far beyond reading them for to get a hint or information potentially helpful to find the cache. Many of the nicest caches have a considerable number of logs that tell stories. Those stories have never been intended to be read say on a GPS-device in the field.

[+Arne1]

 

Also for many caches the value of logs goes far beyond reading them for to get a hint or information potentially helpful to find the cache. Many of the nicest caches have a considerable number of logs that tell stories. Those stories have never been intended to be read say on a GPS-device in the field.

I do not understand what the problem should be on mobile devices. Since my beginnings seven years ago, I use quality 3party software, problem I'm just reading the listing that are stored in the image.

 

But with this change I do not know how I'll just take on the mobile device new logs, none of Groundspeak does not want to explain.

[+geo-amd]

This is my first ever userscript for Chrome. It renders BBCode directly on your browser, i.e. it performs a client-side rendering.

 

Some of you may find it useful to view the old style logs, while we wait for some solution to convert hundreds of logs or thousands of logs to the new style (I have myself more that 5000 logs containing some BBCode.)

 

Enjoy!

 

// ==UserScript==
// @name         Geo-BBCode
// @match https://www.geocaching.com/seek/*
// @match https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/*
// @author       geo-amd
// @version      1.0
// @version_name v1.0, Feb 5 2016
// @description  Client-side rendering of BBCode for geocaching.com pages. Developed for Chrome.
// ==/UserScript==

// LIMITATIONS:
//  1: Not tolerant of small mistakes regarding the open and close order of the BBCode tags.
//  2: The number of supported tags is limited. Only these are available:
//           url, b, i, center, size, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black.
//  3: Deals only with BBCode, not HTML.
//  4: Works well when viewing individual logs. However, in the context of a cache listing, only
//     the first few logs in the listing are converted. This is because the listing is lazily
//     loaded. If you know how to deal with this problem, please tell me or improve my solution.

// INSTALLATION (easy!):
//  1: Copy this script to a new text file named "Geo-BBCode.user.js".
//  2: Inside Chrome, use the URL  chrome://extensions  to bring the Extension page into view.
//  3: Drag the icon of the file "Geo-BBCode.user.js" and drop it in the Extensions page.
//  4: Confirm the installation go ahead in the dialog that appears.
//  5: That's all! No restart is necessary.

// TESTING:
// After installation, test the script using this log for example: http://coord.info/GLFG94FQ

function transform(str) {
   str = str.replace(/\[url=([^\]]*)\]([\s\S]*?)\[\/url\]/igm,'<a href="$1">$2</a>');
   str = str.replace(/\[b\]([\s\S]*?)\[\/b\]/igm, '<b>$1</b>');
   str = str.replace(/\[i\]([\s\S]*?)\[\/i\]/igm, '<i>$1</i>');
   str = str.replace(/\[center\]([\s\S]*?)\[\/center\]/igm, '<center>$1</center>');
   str = str.replace(/\[size=([^\]]*)\]([\s\S]*?)\[\/size\]/igm, '<span style="font-size:1.7em">$2</span>');
   str = str.replace(/\[red\]([\s\S]*?)\[\/red\]/igm, '<span style="color:red">$1</span>');
   str = str.replace(/\[orange\]([\s\S]*?)\[\/orange\]/igm, '<span style="color:orange">$1</span>');
   str = str.replace(/\[yellow\]([\s\S]*?)\[\/yellow\]/igm, '<span style="color:yellow">$1</span>');
   str = str.replace(/\[green\]([\s\S]*?)\[\/green\]/igm, '<span style="color:green">$1</span>');
   str = str.replace(/\[blue\]([\s\S]*?)\[\/blue\]/igm, '<span style="color:blue">$1</span>');
   str = str.replace(/\[purple\]([\s\S]*?)\[\/purple\]/igm, '<span style="color:purple">$1</span>');
   str = str.replace(/\[black\]([\s\S]*?)\[\/black\]/igm, '<span style="color:black">$1</span>');
   return str;
};

function process(elems) {
   for( i = 0; i < elems.length; i++ ) {
       var e = elems[i];
       if( e.className == "LogText" || e.id == "ctl00_ContentBody_LogBookPanel1_LogText" )
           e.innerHTML = transform(e.innerHTML);
   }
};

process(document.getElementsByTagName('span'));

// End of script

[+Bartje2428]

Thanks a lot geo-amd for this 'script' I like it !!!

 

I can now view my logs in colors again

 

Greetz,

Bartje2428

Edited February 5, 2016 by Bartje2428

[+The A-Team]

4.14. How to format Markdown

https://support.Groundspeak.com/index.php?pg=kb.page&id=739

 

It would be great when the IT guys / give us a corrected list with all possible Codes using on geocaching.com and not a universal list from markdown codes from the web.

...and a list that is actually a list, not just an image which you can't select or copy text from. I often copied and pasted the smilie codes from the little smilie popup window to my logs. That isn't possible now.

[The Arkaroo]

Thsi Change is not acceptable! all my logs are spoiled, showing now the html tags. I feel, Groundspeak must translate these 1000 entries. I give a lot of effort logging - others than just TFTCM - which is not acceptable. probably another reason to quit geocaching. run out of premium, now in feb, and will only ontinue, if greoundspeak further wants us!

The Arkaroo

[+HHL]

[...] I often copied and pasted the smilie codes from the little smilie popup window to my logs. That isn't possible now.

 

Wrong.

When in Post a New Log: Click on How To Format

and see what?: Scroll down, Surprise!

 

Hans

Edited February 5, 2016 by HHL

[+The A-Team]

[...] I often copied and pasted the smilie codes from the little smilie popup window to my logs. That isn't possible now.

Wrong.

When in Post a New Log: Click on How To Format

and see what?: Scroll down, Surprise!

I haven't actually logged any caches since the change yet, so I haven't explored the new log page. Thank you for pointing that out. You may want to consider using more polite phrasing in the future, but you did pass along the necessary information.

 

Since that version of the Markdown cheatsheet is in selectable text, one wonders why they didn't just copy that over to the Help Center article instead of taking a screenshot.

[+HHL]

[...] You may want to consider using more polite phrasing in the future,[...]

 

I can't see any unpolite phrase in my post. Calm down please.

 

Hans

[+noncentric]

[...] You may want to consider using more polite phrasing in the future,[...]

 

I can't see any unpolite phrase in my post. Calm down please.

 

Hans

I see it. Perhaps it's just a cultural thing, but your post does seem harsh.

 

For example, instead of saying "wrong", one could just say "that is not the case" or "you actually can copy and paste the smile codes". The "Surprise" party of your post also seems a bit snarky. That may just be your writhing style, but just saying that others may see it at being impolite.

[+HHL]

[...] I see it. Perhaps it's just a cultural thing, but your post does seem harsh.

[...]

 

Well, I'm not a native speaker and can't see what's wrong with the word "wrong".

Sorry to say, but that seems to be a kind of nit picking here.

 

Hans

[+geo-amd]

Version 2.0 of the Geo-BBCode script is now available.

The new version supports most of the BBCode specification and HTML. It is also 10 times faster than the previous version.

Check it here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29982238/Geo-BBCode/index.html

[cezanne]

I see it. Perhaps it's just a cultural thing, but your post does seem harsh.

 

For example, instead of saying "wrong", one could just say "that is not the case" or "you actually can copy and paste the smile codes". The "Surprise" party of your post also seems a bit snarky. That may just be your writhing style, but just saying that others may see it at being impolite.

 

There is definitely a huge cultural difference involved. Often what is regarded as polite by people from the US (just an example) sounds strange and often insincere to me and sometimes it feels like someone is pulling my leg (this is not the case for your alternative formulations above of course but for example it's the case for the kind of replies one receives when asking a question to some US company).

Similarly, a lot of what is deemed as impolite and respectless e.g. in this forum by Northamerican readers is a normal communication style in many other countries.

[+dprovan]

Well, I'm not a native speaker and can't see what's wrong with the word "wrong".

Sorry to say, but that seems to be a kind of nit picking here.

No, not nit picking, so please take it as input. The main thing, for me, is that you're going out of your way to point out he was wrong: the point of your post was (or should have been) telling him how to find what he hasn't found before. The opening "wrong" is completely superfluous.

 

I also find leaving out such unnecessary pronouncements causes less grief if it turns out he wasn't wrong, after all. For example, perhaps he was using a browser that was suppressing that part of the interface. By announcing he has to be wrong, you are claiming that you know every possible situation the other person could be facing.

 

Having said all that, I thought your post was within norms. It's quite common for someone to start a post pointing out what someone else seems to have missed by declaring them wrong. I think it's rude, but I don't think it's so rude that it's remarkable.

[Keystone]

Let's get back on topic, please.

[+nannibella]

I am SO angry and disappointed!

 

Just noticed today that the log design changed, and when I looked through my old logs it gave me a stomach ache.

 

I had been quite proud to put a lot of effort and design into the logs of the caches I liked to honour the owner, and now all the work is for nothing.

 

Do you really expect me to go through all my logs and change them by hand?

 

For what? For Groundspeak to erase that work again in a year or two with a scratch of the pen?

 

I am sure it would have been possible to save the old logs, if Groundspeak really had cared, but obviously they didn´t.

 

It´s a shame and an insolence towards everyone who wanted to create beautiful logs instead of boring the cache owner with just "TFTC".

 

Maybe that´s what I should do in the future, sparing me the trouble.

 

I just can repeat: I am very angry and disappointed!

[+nannibella]

After 10 years of Geocaching, again a change made on the COM site I don't understand ???

For years my logs were full of colours, red, blue, orange, green and teal

Now my log a looking very boring and full of html junk :-(

You putted the 'Challenge caches' on hold for a year, but for this no more than a second ???

 

Can we have the colors back ?

Greetz,

Bartje2428

 

example of my logs:

 

[][][][red] FTF No 122 [][][] et cache 8672 [][/red]

De retour dans le VAR et hops on était déjà à Nice [^]

Que du Shopping de 10 à 18h pour Katje et si on a encore du temps une petite cache pour moi []

A la chambre de l'hôtel je voyais une toute nouvelle série publié par Olissa []

Oeps un scramble comme d'habitude n'est pas possible, trop loin []

Aujourd'hui la température 18° et du Grand Bleu en route pour Brégançon [8D]

Les vues super magnifiques [^]

[blue]Bravo Katje avec ton STF [:X][/blue]

[orange]Un Grand Merci à Olissa pour cette série dans un coin très bien connu [][]

Salut et A+,

Bartje[/orange][green]

 

Favo no 1 c'est le mien [][/green]

 

[teal][8D][^] 9 ans, 11 mois et 2 jours de Géocaching, encore 28 jours pour mes 10 ans [^][8D][/teal]

[+nannibella]

Exactly.

Same with me.

 

How does THIS look now?

 

09.07.2013

 

謝謝

 

你的美麗的

 

奧秘[/size=6]

 

[red]大哥是沉默 - 小妹妹是大聲 [/red][/size=3]

 

[black](typical Chinese phrase)

 

 

I am SO angry and disappointed!

 

Just noticed today that the log design changed, and when I looked through my old logs it gave me a stomach ache.

 

I had been quite proud to put a lot of effort and design into the logs of the caches I liked to honour the owner, and now all the work is for nothing.

 

Does GS really expect me to go through all my logs and change them by hand?

 

For what? For Groundspeak to erase that work again in a year or two with a scratch of the pen?

 

I am sure it would have been possible to save the old logs, if Groundspeak really had cared, but obviously they didn´t.

 

It´s a shame and an insolence towards everyone who wanted to create beautiful logs instead of boring the cache owner with just "TFTC".

 

Maybe that´s what I should do in the future, sparing me the trouble.

[+nannibella]

markdown is crap.

 

Who seriously uses numbered bullets in their logs.

Seriously?????

 

1st they screwed up our Profiles and now this.

 

These are all steps backwards IMHO

[+nannibella]

Exactly.

 

Couldn´t have said it in a better way.

 

It´s another step backwards, and it shows an incredible amount of disrespect towards the members.

 

Yes "It´s only a game", as moderator Keystone says - but if they change the rules of that game at random all the time, it´s not fun anymore.

[+nannibella]

The very small percentage of broken logs which might be viewed by a small percentage of customers means there will be no significant pressure to fix it.

 

I'm not convinced. I think that many cachers care about their own logs and are annoyed by the fact that is extremely difficult to ensure that no logs are broken if one has too many of them to

go through them manually.

 

Also for many caches the value of logs goes far beyond reading them for to get a hint or information potentially helpful to find the cache. Many of the nicest caches have a considerable number of logs that tell stories. Those stories have never been intended to be read say on a GPS-device in the field.

[+nannibella]

Exactly.

 

I DO care about my own logs, and it gives me almost physical pain to see them broken.

 

When I did an unusally nice cache, I used to honour it and its owner with an unsually nice log, telling a story and designed with colors and things to make it look beautiful.

 

And I do care about the logs of my own caches- after all nice logs are the reward for the owner.

 

It is sad enough that the tendency goes towards boring and "TFCT"-Logs - but now those who cared for their logs in the past are even punished.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

 

I am sure it would have been possible to save the old logs, if Groundspeak really had cared, but obviously they didn´t.

 

 

I suspect that the logs you put in are still exactly the same as when you entered them. The difference is when they're viewed on a cache page or on "View Log" page, that the contents is transformed before it's sent back to the browser.

 

 

[+niraD]

I am sure it would have been possible to save the old logs, if Groundspeak really had cared, but obviously they didn´t.

And we're back on topic.

 

If HTML and BBCode are too dangerous to be allowed in logs, then go ahead and render the HTML and BBCode as plain text. That would be unfortunate, but it would be merely collateral damage in the process of securing the servers.

 

But interpreting logs as markdown when the logs were not written as markdown is far worse. That is not being user friendly. That is being user hostile.

 

At a bare minimum, logs that were last modified before Groundspeak introduced markdown should be displayed as plain text. There are other things you can do to improve the use of markdown on the site, but that is the bare minimum.

[+lodgebarn]

 

I am sure it would have been possible to save the old logs, if Groundspeak really had cared, but obviously they didn´t.

 

 

I suspect that the logs you put in are still exactly the same as when you entered them. The difference is when they're viewed on a cache page or on "View Log" page, that the contents is transformed before it's sent back to the browser.

In my software development world we try and keep compatibility with how everything looked in the past and it is considered a break in contract to change it. Hence there is no doubt in my mind that all old logs should be rendered as they were before. This should be a separate consideration from how new logs are rendered.

Edited February 6, 2016 by lodgebarn

[+barnold]

couple of days ago I wrote:

even worse. i always started my found log with the found number followed by a ".".

e.g. <<1869.>> now this is rendered as a line number and only partially like <<1.>> and all following text is indented.

not what i asked for, not what i intended. completely readable text on every platform is now made unreadable because of markup.

can at least nubers, say, above 10, just be rendered as they are, without interpretation and clipping as line/paragraph numbers?

see this log.

 

Miraculously, this situation now has improved. lognumbers like 1869. are rendered today as I intended them, just like 1869.

A first step in adjusting Markdown to the geocacher's needs?

Edited February 6, 2016 by barnold

[+nannibella]

couple of days ago I wrote:

even worse. i always started my found log with the found number followed by a ".".

e.g. <<1869.>> now this is rendered as a line number and only partially like <<1.>> and all following text is indented.

not what i asked for, not what i intended. completely readable text on every platform is now made unreadable because of markup.

can at least nubers, say, above 10, just be rendered as they are, without interpretation and clipping as line/paragraph numbers?

see this log.

 

Miraculously, this situation now has improved. lognumbers like 1869. are rendered today as I intended them, just like 1869.

A first step in adjusting Markdown to the geocacher's needs?

[+nannibella]

As I said, they could do it if they wanted.

 

And as lodgebarn wrote:

 

"In my software development world we try and keep compatibility with how everything looked in the past and it is considered a break in contract to change it."

 

Exactly.

 

That they didn´t care indicates to me how much (or how little) Groundspeaks values us as appreciated customers.

[+AnnaMoritz]

Miraculously, this situation now has improved. lognumbers like 1869. are rendered today as I intended them, just like 1869.

A first step in adjusting Markdown to the geocacher's needs?

 

Yes, today this was changed.

 

Hopefully this was not the last change to restrict Markdowns ability to damage old (and new) logs that were not meant to be interpreted as Markdown and restrict/limit Markdown to what is shown in the help section.

 

If it were up to me, I would only support italics, bold, line breaks and hyperlinks using only * ** enter and pure links for compatibility reasons for old logs and [linktext](address with dot followed by top-level domain), maybe (address with dot followed by top-level domain) but not all other ways of catch them all like <link> or what 'normal' Markdown provides apart from [text](link).

 

And I would support an (only one) equivalent to <pre> resulting in monospace (without surrounding box or anything else) to provide rudimentary table or whatever formatting.

 

I don't like it, but maybe also font size by H1, H2 etc. because it is used mostly for emphasis only and not for header/caption. And horizontal lines (although I personally have not seen a single log that had one before the change and don't see the need).

 

And let cachers that need ordered lists, unordered lists and quote do that themselves (by writing 1. , * and "). No centered bold green.

 

That would help the 96.5% that up to now had no formatting in their logs and minimize negative side effects to old and new logs (except for the poor geocachers who have * around/after/before their usernames).

[+Pontiac_CZ]

Nannibella: why go TFTC, just continue writing about what you experienced when out caching. Owners appreciate the log content, they're not as much interested in the log form (at least I am not ). And they're even less interested in reading e-mails with the text mixed up with BBCode...

 

But anyway, I agree with you that Groundspeak shows sort of disrespect towards their customers. I guess it is technically possible for the old logs to stay rendered the old way.

[cezanne]

And they're even less interested in reading e-mails with the text mixed up with BBCode...

 

Since the introduction of html mails by GS, I do not read the logs any longer in the mail form but exclusively on the web page.

Moreover, I case of my logs I strongly recommend to read the logs on the website anyway as I change parts of them on the average about at least 3-5 times after having sent them off.

[+frinklabs]

In a perfect world, I would be given the option to have log entries - and notification emails - rendered in my format of choice.

 

However,

 

Mr. Irish and his people are going to do what they feel is best for us, not what we want.

 

I don't believe that.

 

They are going to do what they feel is best for them.

 

I have said it before and I'll say it again: I can't figure out which is worse -- that they don't care, or that they don't care that they don't care.

[+fizzymagic]

They (Groundspeak) are going to do what they feel is best for them.

 

I have said it before and I'll say it again: I can't figure out which is worse -- that they don't care, or that they don't care that they don't care.

 

I don't think they don't care; that's a little too harsh for me. I do think that they prioritize things in a completely mystifying way.

 

Why do they have a free app that has many features that are missing from the paid app? Why won't they implement very simple features (such as a flag for corrected coords in PQ GPX file) that we have been requesting for (literally) years? Why do they keep tweaking irrelevant parts of the user interface?

 

About the Markup thing: I could, in a couple of days, write a Python code that would fix the HTML and BBCode in existing logs and convert most of it to Markup. It's not that difficult. So the part of this that puzzles me most is the disregard for the usability of the database. You would think that the collected logs from caches would be one of the crown jewels of the company!

 

ETA: Here is a working Javascript converter. The source code is here.

Edited February 7, 2016 by fizzymagic

[+thebruce0]

What fizzymagic said.