Bug? Filters button not appearing in Advanced Search for a user

[+thebruce0]

I have a friend who for some reason can't see the Filters button on the advanced search page.

Two other accounts tested, on the same machine, work fine. Also tested on another machine, same results.  She is a premium member.

Is there another cause for the filter button to stay hidden for a specific user?

Edited August 30, 2018 by thebruce0

[brendanjw]

Hi, 

Thanks for sending in this feedback!

 

We have rolled out a new map experience to an initial cohort of 1000K users.  Yes, that is very small number.  The purpose of the slow rollout is to gather both both qualitative and quantitative feedback on the new map experience.  The friend you mentioned in your post is a premium member and is part of this 1K user cohort.  

 

To address the specific feedback related to advanced search and the Filters button - the new map does not have the advanced search page and the corresponding Filters button that you have noted.  Some of this functionality can be found by using the Filters button on the list view on the new map.  We are continuing to work on bringing more of that functionality to the new map.  

 

Best,

Brendan Walsh

 

Edited August 30, 2018 by brendanjw

[+HHL]

When I filter out my finds the Done link is vanishing. I have to set the cursor into the search field again to make the link appearing.

Thes filters should be sticky (ie: part of a cookie )

The Groundspeak map is lacking a scale.

Sending all visible caches to a BM list is pretty cool. Would be nice to have an equivalent Gpx save function as well.

 

Happy Coding

Hans

 

Browser: Firefox 52.9.0 ESR

[+Team Christiansen]

25 minutes ago, brendanjw said:

an initial cohort of 1000K users.  Yes, that is very small number. 

1000K -- you mean a million? That is a small number?

[brendanjw]

3 minutes ago, Team Christiansen said:

1000K -- you mean a million? That is a small number?

Hello,

 

That was a typo!  Thanks for catching it.  I have corrected it - thanks again!

 

Best,

Brendan

[+thebruce0]

So just for the record, this friend is no longer using the advanced search page under her account but her husband's, because she had no idea about the change, hasn't been informed, and couldn't really be bothered to try to figure out a different process than what she's used to and can have on the same machine under a different account...

 

Is there some form of official explanation about what this "test group" has to do differently?

[brendanjw]

Hello,

 

I am sorry to hear about your friend's experience.  She can certainly opt out of the new map experience, by selecting 'What's This' from the upper right hand corner of the view on the new map page and then just following the directions on how to opt out..  I apologize if that wasn't clear.  Your friend, as well as anyone in the test group, can revert back to the old map experience at any any time. If and an individual opts out of the new experience, we are actively soliciting feedback on what's missing and the reason for the opt out.  I hope this explanation helps.

 

Best,

Brendan

[+thebruce0]

Thanks, I'll let you know.

 

Being unable to test it myself, what exactly is the 'update'? What happened to Filters? Do test participants get some form of contact, info, instruction?

[+thebruce0]

Actually, are you talking about a new map page? I'm referring to the Advanced Search.  Or are both connected?

This is what she sees:

 

[+HHL]

6 hours ago, thebruce0 said:

Actually, are you talking about a new map page? I'm referring to the Advanced Search.  Or are both connected?

Yes, the filter button is now part of the map. When I called some formerly saved search urls I've been automatically redirected to the map. that was pretty annoying, so I opted out from this "test".

 

Hans

[+TaupeChercheuse]

I am premium and there is one thing still don't find about filters. I love working on mysteries and with the previous ''system'' I was able to choose a Geocacher, to click on Mystery but, and lastly to choose uncorrected coordinates (to get only the list of his mysteries I still don't solved), Maybe I'm blind as my mole but I don't see this filter anymore

 

 

[+thebruce0]

11 hours ago, HHL said:

Yes, the filter button is now part of the map. When I called some formerly saved search urls I've been automatically redirected to the map. that was pretty annoying, so I opted out from this "test".

 

Well, her map page looks exactly the same.  (I'd do more to work through this but I'm a middle man at this point :P)

[+barefootjeff]

5 hours ago, TaupeChercheuse said:

I love working on mysteries and with the previous ''system'' I was able to choose a Geocacher, to click on Mystery but, and lastly to choose uncorrected coordinates (to get only the list of his mysteries I still don't solved), Maybe I'm blind as my mole but I don't see this filter anymore

 

Does this help?

 

[+TaupeChercheuse]

That's what I was using before so many times... but in the new lay out, we can only get the solved on the map... Nothing about ''has corrected coordinates''. Thanks

 

 

 

[+HHL]

"show only my solved coordinates" is quite the same than ''has corrected coordinates''.

[+TaupeChercheuse]

nope... in the previous lay out, we were able to get a list of the mysteries not having corrected coordinates (a list, not a map). And with this list, just have to choose the next one to working on. In the new lay out, if I check ''has corrected coordinates'', I'll only see on the MAP / list these solved mysteries. If I uncheck ''has corrected coordinates'', all the mysteries appear on the list / map. Nothing about having ONLY unsolved...

[+HHL]

12 minutes ago, TaupeChercheuse said:

[...] Nothing about having ONLY unsolved...

That was missing in your post above. But now I your issue having with the lack of a NOT state. Easiest way to get back to the old filter behaviour is to opt-out from the new map.

[+thebruce0]

So just to be clear... this new test group has a new map page, and also has the Filters button removed from the Advanced Search page? Not sure what the latter has to do with the former, but nonetheless my friend says the map view hasn't changed, on mobile or desktop, but there's still no Filter button on the Advanced Search page...

[+HHL]

1 hour ago, thebruce0 said:

but there's still no Filter button on the Advanced Search page...

For me the filter button on the advanced search is still there.

 

 

It was vanished (and moved to the map age) when I was forced to use the new map page. And it comes back after opting out. That lets me guess there is an context.

 

Hans

Edited September 6, 2018 by HHL
Added screenshot

[+NYPaddleCacher]

2 hours ago, thebruce0 said:

So just to be clear... this new test group has a new map page, and also has the Filters button removed from the Advanced Search page? Not sure what the latter has to do with the former, but nonetheless my friend says the map view hasn't changed, on mobile or desktop, but there's still no Filter button on the Advanced Search page...

 

When the "new search" was introduced, and had a "Map these Geocaches" would display the results on the map, the page would render without the left side bar, and one could only see other caches on the map by clicking on "Clear Search Filters".    Apparently the issue was that the map page didn't support some of the new filters available on the search page (what do you mean by  "Advanced Search Page").  It sounds like they're working on implementing these filters on the map page.  I'd be curious if they're also working on implementing some of the filters on the PQ search criteria page in the Search Filters overlay (and in the map).  

[+HHL]

24 minutes ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

It sounds like they're working on implementing these filters on the map page

Right. these filters are now part of the "New Map". There are some other enhancements on the New Map as well, like preview description and hint from the list. Or saving the visible caches (depending on zoom levels) as a Gpx file, etc, etc. Looks challenging at all, despite the delete of the filter button from the search itself (which is nuts in my opinion).

Edited September 6, 2018 by HHL

[+thebruce0]

Oooook. I discovered the confusion now. She let me use her account to try it out. It seems what was happening was she was going to the old map directly - it doesn't push her to the new map - so that's why she was saying the map hadn't changed but the Advanced Search (now just the search) page still wasn't showing the Filters button. She wasn't doing a search from that page, she just went to her bookmark for the (old) map page.

 

She'd go to the search page, be confused, then just go to the map page she always used. No "What's this?", no opt out, no difference.

If she'd executed a search from the query page then she'd have been moved to the new map page.

As not a very techie person (likely relying on browser bookmarks), I think it was confusing to have access to two versions of the map. Especially having not been informed of what happened and why.  But she's happy now to know why and how to get the filters back (either by doing a search from a location, or by opting out)

 

Couple points...

Seems inconvenient to me to actually cripple the search page which provided a list view of results - that can have a different practical purpose than pushing every search query to the full map view. Can I suggest leaving the Filters option and list results available for the Search page?  A "Map this" link would be what makes sense to me to knowingly move from a list view to a map view. We've had those two versions of searching for ages.

 

Secondly, dropping people into a test group without their knowledge, without informing them, can have a pretty drastic effect. They should at least be notified beforehand of the change, if not also given the option to try it.

Edited September 7, 2018 by thebruce0

[+HHL]

6 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

Secondly, dropping people into a test group without their knowledge, without informing them, can have a pretty drastic effect. They should at least be notified beforehand of the change, if not also given the option to try it.

Yes, the lack of politeness and HQers minimum communication skills is what let me opting out. ;-)

Edited September 7, 2018 by HHL

[+TaupeChercheuse]

[+The A-Team]

4 hours ago, thebruce0 said:

Secondly, dropping people into a test group without their knowledge, without informing them, can have a pretty drastic effect. They should at least be notified beforehand of the change, if not also given the option to try it.

That's the part I can't figure out. If you want someone to test some new functionality, wouldn't you want to point it out to them, describe the changes, and explain the intended benefits so they can effectively test it? Otherwise, you simply get confusion as evidenced here and the testing doesn't give any useful results. I would think you'd also want to tell the testers how they can provide feedback, but they can't very well do that if they don't even know that they're testing something.

[+niraD]

4 minutes ago, The A-Team said:

That's the part I can't figure out. If you want someone to test some new functionality, wouldn't you want to point it out to them, describe the changes, and explain the intended benefits so they can effectively test it? Otherwise, you simply get confusion as evidenced here and the testing doesn't give any useful results. I would think you'd also want to tell the testers how they can provide feedback, but they can't very well do that if they don't even know that they're testing something.

There are types of tests where the results depend on people not knowing they're part of a test. In A/B testing, you randomly present two different versions (e.g., the current version and a potential new version that you are uncertain of) to different users. Then you analyze their behavior to determine which version better meets your test criteria.

[+thebruce0]

Yeah, so it depends what exactly they're testing. Are they testing the new map publicly? Or are they testing their manner of rolling out updates swiftly and silently?

[+Team GBS]

From reading the forum it seems we have been chosen as one of 1,000 to test out the new system - we don't like it at all - please can you give us back the Filter button that used to show to the left of the search tab. Can't tell you just how much we preferred it - having to search with only what the map shows is hopeless for us - we live in a country with appalling internet connections and constantly having to load up maps does NOT work for us - please, please, please give us back the Filter button that other users still have - please rather test it on someone from the first world. That said, our third world problem aside we just do not like the new search map - the old search was easy to use and displayed a lot better than the new one does on our small laptop computer - we just want the old Filter button back please.

[+K13]

21 minutes ago, Team GBS said:

From reading the forum it seems we have been chosen as one of 1,000 to test out the new system - we don't like it at all - please can you give us back the Filter button that used to show to the left of the search tab. Can't tell you just how much we preferred it - having to search with only what the map shows is hopeless for us - we live in a country with appalling internet connections and constantly having to load up maps does NOT work for us - please, please, please give us back the Filter button that other users still have - please rather test it on someone from the first world. That said, our third world problem aside we just do not like the new search map - the old search was easy to use and displayed a lot better than the new one does on our small laptop computer - we just want the old Filter button back please.

In the upper right corner is a link to begin the steps to return to the better search you desire.

[+G.4ce]

So without any warning, today I find I am part of a group to test out the New Map Page.  I played with it for a little while and can't find anything I like about it.  The problem isn't just with the map page, the problem is getting rid of the Advanced Search Page.  I want to see a list of the caches I'm searching for.  I am opting out and hope this is not forced on me anytime soon.

[+G.4ce]

So I went to Opt Out and it won't let me do that.

[+The A-Team]

1 hour ago, G.4ce said:

So I went to Opt Out and it won't let me do that.

Strange. Something odd happened and some of the text on the page got into the URL somehow.

 

To opt out, you can click this link.

[+halhal]

I have used the new map and search filters. I have tried searching with a specific word in the title and with a hider's name.  The resulting map to the right of the search stays about the same and shows a bunch of the caches near my home. With either of the search criteria mentioned, there is no limiting of caches in the map or a listing of the results as in the older search capability. This new search functionality needs a lot of work.  I prefer getting the results in a list rather than having a large map next to me that just shows me caches in my area.  Regards, halhal (Hal Huntley)

[+halhal]

The new map search also now allows sorting only favorite points, newest and oldest.  How about distance? The old search allowed sorting by any column of returned values. You can't set how far you want to search to go. I think this new search is really useless.  It does not provide any flexibility or meaningful results.  It would be nice to continue being able to test things without opting out; we should be able to just toggle new/old  and let us by toggling new again, we are opting back in.  I'll opt back in soon, but to get the information I need I need to opt-out; I really don't want to be opt-ed out -- just want to be able to use either and then give feedback as I try things.  Hal