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Waymarking app, please


Sikko

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We had written to geocaching.com and asked if it was not possible to get an app like the geocaching app, where you can read Waymarking, take pictures and log while we're out.

We find it difficult to open a browser and go to Waymarking.com and find out about the Waymarking nearby.

Is there an easier way to do it without the use of computer, mobile and browser.

Geocaching.com could not help and referred to this forum.

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IMHO - Geocaching got pissed at Waymarking because all the "good" GPS users left or seriously curtailed their "Tupperware searching" to actually use their GPSr and cameras to do somethnig meaningful, making interesting Waymarks. So they quit supporting Waymarking, hoping it would die off and the "lost souls" would end up returning to Geocaching.

So, no, Geocaching will not help make an app, nor allow it to be published (and thereby help keep Waymarking going). Actually, it still surprises me that they haven't just pulled the plug on the Waymarking servers!

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I'm still using the chilehead web app  to see all the waymarks around me when I travel.
The functions "Navigate (compass)" and "Visit waymark" that worked in the past unfortunately do not work anymore.
But the functions "Find waymarks near My location", "View on map" and "Full listing on Waymarking.com" still work.

A topic was created in the Forum about this web app in 2013 but the last post is from January 2015.

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The BIG problem with the chilehead web app is that it will NOT keep you logged in.  And I don't mean across usages.   I mean within a single usage/session of the app.  You log in, and then do anything that requires a login, and it tells you that you need to log in!

I would be using it all the time if it weren't for the "not really logged in" issue.  If that could be fixed, I think we'd be there as good as we can get.

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18 hours ago, MountainWoods said:

The BIG problem with the chilehead web app is that it will NOT keep you logged in.  And I don't mean across usages.   I mean within a single usage/session of the app.  You log in, and then do anything that requires a login, and it tells you that you need to log in!

I would be using it all the time if it weren't for the "not really logged in" issue.  If that could be fixed, I think we'd be there as good as we can get.

So Where's chilihead these days? Can anyone contact him/her/it and point out the problem(s)? I've actually tried it but haven't made real use of it.

Keith

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I also use this app from time to time, but usually I only look what is around and don't use it to navigate to waymarks, log visits or create new waymarks.

Anyway, I tried the "Navigate (compass)" option and it seemed to work.

Also I could post a visit, but couldn't upload a photo (neither from the gallery nor by taking a new photo with the camera).

About the login problem: I tried a few things, and the app kept me logged in all the time. Even if I used the back button to go back to the page where I wasn't logged in, it still keeps me logged in. I use the "Samsung Internet" app instead of a browser, so maybe it makes a difference which browser is used.

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For now it seems to be staying logged in, even after dismissing the browser and coming back in.  I'm using Chrome on an Android.  The same one that I had the login problem with 3 or 4 years ago.

However, it still is rather limited in use.  It is showing my current location on the map. That's good.  And I told Chrome to allow the page to use my current location.  No problem there.

But when I hit the button for nearest waymarks to my location, it starts with waymarks over 9 miles away, even though there is one literally in my back yard (not figuratively), and there a slew of them in my town only 2.5 miles away.  No matter how many times I leave the "app" (really just a proxy that uses the Groundspeak API for Waymarking), it still shows my correct location, but the "nearest waymarks" are over 9 miles away.

Goofy.  Not sure what I can use it for.

Another "fix this and then I'll use it" thing.  :rolleyes:

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Okay.  I figured out the "nearest waymarks" being 9 miles away thing.  There is an option - ON by default - to ignore the ones you've already visited.  (Surprised that there's any within 20 miles that I haven't visited.  Got more visiting to do!)  Turned it OFF and all was fine.

EXCEPT, when I come into this app the first time every day, I have to login again.  Also when I haven't been in the app for a few hours -- not sure how long -- I have to login again.  Seems like the browser is expiring a cookie that it shouldn't be, or something.  Perhaps it's the browser's fault, not the proxy?

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I tried to use the app on my 25 day long Alaska trip, but again, it would not stay logged in.  I would click the Nearest Waymarks link and it would tell me to log in, so I would.  Then I'd click on the Nearest Waymarks again, and it would tell me to login again.  I tried this at different locations on the trip, and with 2 different browsers,  and could never get it to work.

 

Somehow the app is either (1) not handing off the login information correctly to the underlying web page, or (2) "forgetting" that you have already logged into the underlying web page.

 

Note: Using the Waymarking web page directly (kinda tricky on a Motorola Mini Droid) worked fine.  So there was nothing wrong with my login or logging in.  Only the app has the problem, on both Chrome and Ad-Block Browser (essentially Firefox).

 

In fact, it is still doing this today when I'm at home and connected to WiFi.  I cannot even mark a visit to anything because it tells me I'm not logged in.  This really needs to be fixed to make this proxy app useful.

 

Edit: I've even stayed logged into Waymarking on one tab of the browser, then used the app link and the same browser, so that the app is on one link and the regular Waymarking page is on the other tab.  No go.  It is not the browser's fault, not Waymarking's fault; it is clearly the app. "forgetting" that you logged in.

Edited by MountainWoods
Adding one more thing.
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If we are talking about Waymarking Mobile (geotrailsw.com) I have contacted Chilihead about the recent problem.  Currently you are unable to log into Waymarking from the app, which makes it almost useless.  He spoke with his contact at GroudSpeak and they told him that they were making changes on the Waymarking site and that is the problem.  

 

Personally, I have used this website, as it is not an app, for setting up over 1500 waymarks, so I am really at a disadvantage when it comes to posting new waymarks.  I actually had to get my gps out and figure out how to use it again.

 

I don't expect to see Waymarking or Groundspeak doing anything to assist in getting this up and running because we all know that Waymarking is dead and our membership money goes to pay for Geocaching.

Edited by jhuoni
incorrect word
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10 minutes ago, Alfouine said:

It's not because Groundspeak does not invest in Waymarking that Waymarking is dead....

 

I don't think that this is true. Often when I talk with geocachers about Waymarking, they have no idea what it is. And after explaining it to them, they usually ask questions like "is there an app for it?", "can I create pocket queries?" etc. And after all the "No" answers I have to give them, only few of them will even start looking at Waymarking.com. The design and bugs of the website will deter more people from starting to publish waymarks. So, my theory is: If Groundspeak would invest as much in Waymarking as it does with geocaching, it would be much easier to find new waymarkers. Just imagine how wonderful Waymarking could be, if the website would have a modern design, (almost) no bugs and features like pocket queries, a Waymarking app, a Waymarking blog, souvenirs for visiting waymarks in a certain country, better options for filtering waymarks, the opportunity to organize Waymarking events .... and the list goes on and on. If all this was there, people would love to be part of it.

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3 hours ago, PISA-caching said:

 

I don't think that this is true. Often when I talk with geocachers about Waymarking, they have no idea what it is. And after explaining it to them, they usually ask questions like "is there an app for it?", "can I create pocket queries?" etc. And after all the "No" answers I have to give them, only few of them will even start looking at Waymarking.com. The design and bugs of the website will deter more people from starting to publish waymarks. So, my theory is: If Groundspeak would invest as much in Waymarking as it does with geocaching, it would be much easier to find new waymarkers. Just imagine how wonderful Waymarking could be, if the website would have a modern design, (almost) no bugs and features like pocket queries, a Waymarking app, a Waymarking blog, souvenirs for visiting waymarks in a certain country, better options for filtering waymarks, the opportunity to organize Waymarking events .... and the list goes on and on. If all this was there, people would love to be part of it.

 

Wasn't the API updated a while ago? The info seems to be in there, so it seems to me that GS cares just about enough to include it. Maybe they're hoping that one of the authorized users will do anything with it? Who knows...

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23 hours ago, jhuoni said:

 

 

I don't expect to see Waymarking or Groundspeak doing anything to assist in getting this up and running because we all know that Waymarking is dead and our membership money goes to pay for Geocaching.

 

I didn't mean to ruffle any feathers by that statement.  It was meant "tongue in cheek".  

 

What I meant is that Geocaching gets all the "cool stuff" and Waymarking is left by the wayside.

 

I sincerely apologize if I offended anyone.  

 

John

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14 hours ago, PISA-caching said:

 

I don't think that this is true. Often when I talk with geocachers about Waymarking, they have no idea what it is. And after explaining it to them, they usually ask questions like "is there an app for it?", "can I create pocket queries?" etc. And after all the "No" answers I have to give them, only few of them will even start looking at Waymarking.com. The design and bugs of the website will deter more people from starting to publish waymarks. So, my theory is: If Groundspeak would invest as much in Waymarking as it does with geocaching, it would be much easier to find new waymarkers. Just imagine how wonderful Waymarking could be, if the website would have a modern design, (almost) no bugs and features like pocket queries, a Waymarking app, a Waymarking blog, souvenirs for visiting waymarks in a certain country, better options for filtering waymarks, the opportunity to organize Waymarking events .... and the list goes on and on. If all this was there, people would love to be part of it.

 

My point exactly.  

 

 

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Even if I can't be a beta tester for an ios app, I can still tell you which features I think (for me) would be great to have:

 

Of course the app should show the waymarks around the current position. That list should either exclude my own waymarks and waymarks, that I have already visited (by default or with a single click). The list should show the waymarks name, the standard photo, the category, the distance to it and the direction. And I should be able to add them to an internal list of visited waymarks. With another click I should be able to email this list to my email account, so that I can easyly open each visited waymark once I'm back at home and log the visits with the photos that I took with my camera (I usually don't use my cell phones photos for logging visits). With an additional click I should be able to remove all the visits from the internal list.

 

I'm sure that others will want completely different features, but I doubt that I personally will ever post or visits waymarks on my cell phone, no matter how good the app is.

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On 1/3/2018 at 8:42 AM, vulture1957 said:

IMHO - Geocaching got pissed at Waymarking because all the "good" GPS users left or seriously curtailed their "Tupperware searching" to actually use their GPSr and cameras to do somethnig meaningful, making interesting Waymarks. So they quit supporting Waymarking, hoping it would die off and the "lost souls" would end up returning to Geocaching.

So, no, Geocaching will not help make an app, nor allow it to be published (and thereby help keep Waymarking going). Actually, it still surprises me that they haven't just pulled the plug on the Waymarking servers!

 

Hadn't noticed this post before.

The Vulture must have been caught on a "difficult" day. I recall his being in a better mood, as a rule.

 

Think about this: Any Geocacher who forsook the site for Waymarking continued to use the same site, IE Groundspeak.

 

That notwithstanding, I totally agree with the "Tupperware" aspect of the opinion expressed. Once we discovered Waymarking, Geocaching seemed to us an ultimately "wasteful" activity, by comparison.

Keith

Edited by ScroogieII
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10 hours ago, ScroogieII said:

 

Hadn't noticed this post before.

The Vulture must have been caught on a "difficult" day. I recall his being in a better mood, as a rule.

 

Think about this: Any Geocacher who forsook the site for Waymarking continued to use the same site, IE Groundspeak.

 

That notwithstanding, I totally agree with the "Tupperware" aspect of the opinion expressed. Once we discovered Waymarking, Geocaching seemed to us an ultimately "wasteful" activity, by comparison.

Keith

actually, I am usually in a more foul mood, I've just learned that people don't want to hear it!  ;-)

that's more of a joke, but some is true. I feel that posting negative stuff on sites doesn't help much, drives away new folks. So I usually try to be more upbeat, give encouragement that it may get better.

 

Lee in Oklahoma

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