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Release Notes (Website: Progressive release, new Search/Map) - September 14, 2018


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We haven't even seen the finished product yet. Maybe it's just a tad early to overreact.

 

I know people don't like it when companies "mess with something that works!!!", but if they didn't try to keep improving the software, soon it won't work and the cost to get it working again will be twice as steep. Sometimes there are growing pains adapting to the new way of doing things. That's just the way the world works now.

Edited by Rock Chalk
Edited to delete mention of previous post that has since been removed due to violation of forum guidelines
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I like the interactive behavior of the map.

 

Few issues at first glance;

 

- Clicking "more info" really should open a new tab, it's netiquette!

- Icon for owned caches.  It did briefly show as a star on an orange background (as opposed to the star on classic green).  Use a distinct color please!

- There is an option to add caches to a list, but subsequently you can't map those lists, why not?

- Nice to see premium also gets map options, but the button does not behave appropriately.

- Regional search (as in all caches of one country)?

- Results have been limited to 500, where the old site returned all.

 

That last one is a pain, previously I easily could spot any new cache in my country searching by region, now the results are capped at 500 on the map.  So how would I know if the results would include a new cache once the number of caches goes over 500?

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Can there be an option to enable/disable the ignore list? Every once in awhile I'd like the ability to search that list. I currently use that list as an additional level of filtering mostly for unknown caches that after an initial look I have no idea or intention of solving. So I want to see only the ones I think I can solve or have solved. Right now the only way to do this is to switch to another web site.

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On 10/2/2018 at 2:30 AM, 85614 said:

I try to find mega-Events in central europe. I know one in france, june 2019, see screenshot. How can I find without knowing it ?

Mapsearch.PNG

 

Hi 85641, there's no way to do what you want, IE, Europe, upcoming Mega - without already knowing to some level of detail where and when the Mega is.  With map as it currently exists, if you want Mega Events in Europe, you'd need to select for Event (which is all types), then pan out to see all of Europe. Image below. 

 

  • Assuming the Mega is still some time into the future  and you already know that,  you could filter for Newest - typically Megas are published a year out, while other events are only published a few weeks to at most 6 months out.
  • If you know it's in France, you could zoom down to France. I expect downloading the France event list, and examining it would work. 
  • If you know neither the country nor date of an upcoming Mega, none of the current filters help   
  • To see the difference between the red Event icon and the Mega icon on the map, you need to get down to zoom 12.  As a search for an area of any size, this is not feasible. 
  • I tried "add 500 to a list" from the initial Events, Europe zoom to see if I could get to the Mega by examining the list, but that failed. Ie, I had 500 events, but it didn't pick up the Mega.

 

new search Europe Events.jpg

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The Europe Mega Event search you want doesn't really exist on the site in any easy way now. (OFF SITE - check out the A Team's souvenir page for GIGA MEGA on this page, scroll down for upcoming https://thea-team.net/souvenirs/mega-giga-events )

I can think of 3 ways to do it, 2  require some extra understanding of site functions:

1) use Pocket Queries, select multiple countries  by holding down Control as you make country selections, select event type.  You cannot filter for individual event types in pocket queries, so you'd likely run over 1000, and might or might not get the specific Mega you want.

2) use current search, I'd set around a cache you own, with a large search radius, for events.

https://www.geocaching.com/play/search/@48.1075,11.63725?origin=GC76W5N&radius=500mi&types=6,13,453,1304,3653,3774,4738,7005&pe=1

To clean this up, I'd  directly manipulate the URL to remove most event types (6= Meet and Greet, 13 = CITO)

https://www.geocaching.com/play/search/@48.1075,11.63725?origin=GC76W5N&radius=500mi&types=453,1304,3653,3774,4738,7005&pe=1

This is by far the most useful form of this Mega search! It returns 20 mega, sortable by distance from GC76W5N, or by date placed.

3) using current Map search (not this new beta  Map Search) , I'd select out all cache types, add back Mega and center on Europe.  ( If you subscribe to the Newsletter, (an option on this page) there's always a  Mega event link from it - the map search of only Mega centered on your home coords).  Image below of that map. Note that you cannot add to list from here, and the Save as Pocket Query option does NOT work - it creates a query with APE and GPS Adventure caches set B).  From this map you can see them, but then need to manage them individually.

Mega EUROPE old map search.jpg

Edited by palmetto
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On 2.10.2018 at 8:30 AM, 85614 said:

I try to find mega-Events in central europe. I know one in france, june 2019, see screenshot. How can I find without knowing it ?

Opt out and use this url:

https://www.geocaching.com/play/search?types=453,7005,1304&f=2&c=4,7,8,10,11,16,37,40,53,55,56,57,66,68,72,73,79,80,82,86,92,93,99,102,111,116,117,125,130,141,147,158,159,162,163,181,182,183,186,192,204,207,213,222,227,234,237,243,244,268,272,274&f=2&pe=1#Content

 

8abbd88c7e5736b7708a6191f452eeac.png

 

Hans

Edited by HHL
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On 9/20/2018 at 2:01 PM, K13 said:

Yes, New maps and Old search would be the best!

 

And opting out may be my forced situation, as much as I would like to be involved in helping with this new feature.  Pity we can't switch back and forth to do a true comparison and be able to report that back to the developers.

Hi.  Just a quick note to let you know that the team is currently working on this specific functionality - that is, the ability to switch back and forth, for the precise reason you have noted.  Thanks again for your support and patience.  

 

Best,

Brendan

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On 25.9.2018 at 4:19 PM, MNTA said:

The old search mechanism when selected to filter only my finds would include both active and archived caches on the same map. I've found over the past year or so there is little need of PQs as the functionality is starting to be included elsewhere more elegantly. PQ are the only way to search on attributes but I don't do that often.


I'm using lots of PQs, for FTF runs, for different areas as 1000 is WAY too less for my needs, so lists don't work either. I'm using GSAK to fill my GPS devices and it's completely easy to dl the PQs and create my data set then. And I LOVE the PQ view on the old map. So yes, there are some very good reasons to use PQs. In addition you can easily filter the caches on my GPS device based on PQ files!

 

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It is currently not possible to look for global caches.  If I want to check the total number of webcams remaining int he world (272 at the moment), I can't do that anymore with the current search feature.  The same goes for displaying the total number of caches for 1 country.  The 500 cache cap is horribly low, if you want to find a new cache in a place with more then 500 caches, you are likely to miss it.  There is no way to create enough queries to cover everything.  So regional and global search is currently not part of it.

 

If you are looking at a site with many caches, to find a new cache, you would have to zoom, and shift your position on the map continuously, which is anything but practical, and can be time consuming despite the fact that you have a list automatically updated and sorted.

 

Unlike some reports, the maps load fast and smooth on my end.

 

I am horribly bothered by the fact that owned caches do not have their own icon at the moment.

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On 10/6/2018 at 10:53 PM, Barnyard Dawg said:

It is currently not possible to look for global caches.  If I want to check the total number of webcams remaining int he world (272 at the moment), I can't do that anymore with the current search feature.  The same goes for displaying the total number of caches for 1 country.  The 500 cache cap is horribly low, if you want to find a new cache in a place with more then 500 caches, you are likely to miss it.  There is no way to create enough queries to cover everything. 

 

I don't think it's necessary to cover everything.   Being able to create pocket queries with enough results that one can realistically find on a day seems sufficient to me.  I don't need to create a pocket query which includes every cache in, for example, Spain because there's no possible way I'm going to be able to find every one of them before I have a chance to create another PQ.  To me, the purpose of creating a search which produces a list of caches is to produce a list of caches that one might go out and find.  

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12 hours ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

 

I don't think it's necessary to cover everything.   Being able to create pocket queries with enough results that one can realistically find on a day seems sufficient to me.  I don't need to create a pocket query which includes every cache in, for example, Spain because there's no possible way I'm going to be able to find every one of them before I have a chance to create another PQ.  To me, the purpose of creating a search which produces a list of caches is to produce a list of caches that one might go out and find.  

Sometimes a daily list isn't enough, or a state is too small an area.  We spent 5 months traveling the country in our trailer this year, and with the spotty wifi in a lot of RV parks, I wasn't able to update every day - or even weekly.  In fact, I was often using the same data set for 3-4 weeks.  In the first two weeks we traveled from Washington AC (Above California) to Florida so I needed caches for Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Flordia (I think that's all we passed thru).  Then at my nephew's I was able to update for the run up the East Coast, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and all the states up to Michigan.  And not knowing the exact route we were taking every day, meant I had to have coverage for entire states.  No, I didn't have every cache for every state, I did limit them in various ways (fav points, favorite type of caches, lower terrain and such).  But it still was a few thousand caches I had loaded - and I missed a couple of areas, such as West Virgina, that I hadn't planned on passing thru.  So while "everything" isn't necessary, large area searches are needed at times (it would be easier to get every webcam in the US than to search each state one by one to get them all, for example).

 

My point is, while it's not reasonable to get every cache in the world downloaded, everybody has different needs, so flexibilty in the search is needed.  For this year's travels I needed data for 45 of the Lower 48 states and 6 Canadian provinces, covering over 25 thousand miles of sometimes spur-of-the-moment roads.  Trying doing that with PQs.

 

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10 minutes ago, The Jester said:

We spent 5 months traveling the country in our trailer this year, and with the spotty wifi in a lot of RV parks, I wasn't able to update every day - or even weekly.  In fact, I was often using the same data set for 3-4 weeks.

Could you buy your own hotspot to overcome lack of wifi? In Australia, wifi is not everywhere and I depend on my own hotspot. But then, as mobile coverage doesn't cover large sections of the country either, even the hotspot doesn't always work, but it helps.

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19 minutes ago, Goldenwattle said:

Could you buy your own hotspot to overcome lack of wifi? In Australia, wifi is not everywhere and I depend on my own hotspot. But then, as mobile coverage doesn't cover large sections of the country either, even the hotspot doesn't always work, but it helps.

We have tablets that can be hotspots that we use.  It's not always the coverage, but the time it takes to update a few thousand caches & the daily limits the website has on caches - besides I have to write logs for the caches found that day and plan what/where we're going the next day (or two).

 

ETA:  And sometimes that data coverage is almost as bad as the camps wifi.  And outside the USA we have no data coverage.

Edited by The Jester
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16 minutes ago, The Jester said:

And outside the USA we have no data coverage.

Then you need to buy a local hot spot. I have done that once in another country, although in my travels to other countries outside Australia, I have managed easier so far than I do in Australia to get by on wi-fi. I do bulk loads of caches for places I am visiting before I leave home and store them on my laptop. Then I load them onto my GPS as needed. If I have good wi-fi or mobile coverage I will load an up-to-date bulk load; otherwise, at least I have the preloaded back up bulk load. In fact I am going travelling soon again, and right now I am storing bulk loads on my laptop for my planned travels. Makes work now, but means less work while I am travelling.

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16 hours ago, The Jester said:

Sometimes a daily list isn't enough, or a state is too small an area.  We spent 5 months traveling the country in our trailer this year, and with the spotty wifi in a lot of RV parks, I wasn't able to update every day - or even weekly.  In fact, I was often using the same data set for 3-4 weeks.  In the first two weeks we traveled from Washington AC (Above California) to Florida so I needed caches for Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Flordia (I think that's all we passed thru).  Then at my nephew's I was able to update for the run up the East Coast, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and all the states up to Michigan.  And not knowing the exact route we were taking every day, meant I had to have coverage for entire states.  No, I didn't have every cache for every state, I did limit them in various ways (fav points, favorite type of caches, lower terrain and such).  But it still was a few thousand caches I had loaded - and I missed a couple of areas, such as West Virgina, that I hadn't planned on passing thru.  So while "everything" isn't necessary, large area searches are needed at times (it would be easier to get every webcam in the US than to search each state one by one to get them all, for example).

 

My point is, while it's not reasonable to get every cache in the world downloaded, everybody has different needs, so flexibilty in the search is needed.  For this year's travels I needed data for 45 of the Lower 48 states and 6 Canadian provinces, covering over 25 thousand miles of sometimes spur-of-the-moment roads.  Trying doing that with PQs.

 

 

Yes, everyone has different needs, but would you agree that the ability to load caches for 40+ states at a time might be an exception to most peoples needs.  I would contend that a very high percentage of cachers only need to be able to download enough caches to be able to have enough to actually find for a day or two.   Sure, it would be nice if the search were flexible enough to meet everyones needs but at some point,   GS has to decide if it's worth the effort to spend development time to support the needs of a tiny percent of their users.

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18 hours ago, The Jester said:

My point is, while it's not reasonable to get every cache in the world downloaded, everybody has different needs, so flexibilty in the search is needed.  For this year's travels I needed data for 45 of the Lower 48 states and 6 Canadian provinces, covering over 25 thousand miles of sometimes spur-of-the-moment roads.  Trying doing that with PQs.

Are you saying you spent a lot of time using geocache information that was months old? That would strike me as a much larger problem than how flexible you found it was to download them all.

 

I'm not criticizing -- do whatever you want -- but when I use PQs, one of the main purposes it to get up-to-date information about where I'm going to geocache today. As it happens, I'm normally visiting the same 40 or 50 places in my local area, but I think up-to-date data would still be very important to me even if I were visiting different places every day as I drove around the continent. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't be looking for an easier approach to loading them before I leave home, I'd just be looking for a library once a week or so so I could download the next week's data set.

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3 hours ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

Yes, everyone has different needs, but would you agree that the ability to load caches for 40+ states at a time might be an exception to most peoples needs.  I would contend that a very high percentage of cachers only need to be able to download enough caches to be able to have enough to actually find for a day or two.   Sure, it would be nice if the search were flexible enough to meet everyones needs but at some point,   GS has to decide if it's worth the effort to spend development time to support the needs of a tiny percent of their users.

I'm not sure why downloading is being discussed, because that's outside of the scope of this current change. What's happening now is a change to the search and map features. There are countless reasons why someone may want to perform a search or browse a filtered view of the map, but not want to download the results, so it doesn't make any sense to conflate searching and mapping with downloading.

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7 hours ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

 

Yes, everyone has different needs, but would you agree that the ability to load caches for 40+ states at a time might be an exception to most peoples needs.  I would contend that a very high percentage of cachers only need to be able to download enough caches to be able to have enough to actually find for a day or two.   Sure, it would be nice if the search were flexible enough to meet everyones needs but at some point,   GS has to decide if it's worth the effort to spend development time to support the needs of a tiny percent of their users.

While I don't think travelers like us are a majority, there are enough RVer's and Trucker's who geocache that limiting the search (as it appears they are doing, hopefully just temporarily) will have a large impact on us.

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5 hours ago, dprovan said:

Are you saying you spent a lot of time using geocache information that was months old? That would strike me as a much larger problem than how flexible you found it was to download them all.

 

I'm not criticizing -- do whatever you want -- but when I use PQs, one of the main purposes it to get up-to-date information about where I'm going to geocache today. As it happens, I'm normally visiting the same 40 or 50 places in my local area, but I think up-to-date data would still be very important to me even if I were visiting different places every day as I drove around the continent. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't be looking for an easier approach to loading them before I leave home, I'd just be looking for a library once a week or so so I could download the next week's data set.

Not months old, but occasionally weeks old.  As I said above, PQ's won't hack it for the type of traveling we did.  Part of the time (such as driving the Blue Ridge Parkway) we knew our route, but most of the time we were heading "there" but the exact route was unkown.  Distractions came up all the time - we're heading this way, Oh! look at that!, now were heading that way.  We'll eventually reach our 'final' goal - sometimes weeks later (St Louis was a goal for our snowbird trip, but it was so cold last winter we stayed along the Gulf coast and got to St Louis after Geowoodstock).

 

We've also found that very few of our cache hunts have ended in a DNF because of archiving.  We are aware that's a possibility, it always is but with 'stale' data it's a bit higher chance.

 

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Guess I cache like a dyslexic old fart (am one...),  and changes to the search feature just didn't feel right, so opted out. 

Removing the filter from search, directing me instead to a map wasn't fun for me...

Could give two figs for the nondescript 1.5 pill bottle hides all around me, and am often many miles away from home just for a decent walk

I simply hit the filter for terrain mostly, scroll down n pick a cache that looks promising, then look at the map on that cache's page in case there's any similar nearby.    :)

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14 hours ago, Harry Dolphin said:
15 hours ago, cerberus1 said:

Guess I cache like a dyslexic old fart (am one...),  and changes to the search feature just didn't feel right, so opted out. 

 

Yup.  Don't force changes on us old farts.  Improvements for the IPhone users are okay.  Don't force these improvements on us GPSr users.

 

As a smartphone user, and a desktop user, and also not yet a dyslexic old fart, I heartily agree with this desgin philosophy ;)

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Hi all,

 

Thanks again for your valuable feedback.  Be assured, I am reading all of your comments.  Here are the current updates:

  • Dismiss-able, Left Hand List Menu - Please let us know what you think, as this has been a highly requested item
  • Added a 'Hide My DNFs' toggle in the Cache Details Preview
  • Right Mouse Click on Caches.  - If you right click on a cache pin on the map, you will see the following actionable menu items - Log Geocache, Add to List, Download GPX
  • Initial work completed on sharing caches using the following format (see below) where GCK25B is the GC Code

Once we complete the user interface (UI, ie, the look and feel) portion of the ability to switch between maps, we will deploy that as well.  

 

Next up, we’ll be working on continuing to close the parity gap between old map and new, specifically bringing in Premium Filtering options. Following that, we’ll be focusing on lists and the ability to map lists.  Also looking at opening individual caches in new tabs.

 

Thanks once again for your patience and feedback. Please stay tuned to this forum thread for further updates.

 

Best,

Brendan

Edited by brendanjw
fixed a typo - thanks dprovan
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28 minutes ago, brendanjw said:

Right Mouse Click on Caches.  - If you right click on a cache pin on the map, you will see the following actionable menu items - Log Geocache, Add to List, Download GPX

I don't know if you can avoid this, but it confused me when the cache pin I right clicked on happen to be the "emphasized" pin for the cache that was currently selected and shown in the sidebar. In that case, the pin is ignored and I get the same non-GS menu I'd get when I right clicked on any other field. Right click works as described with any other pin.

 

Is there some reason you don't just pull up the same thing right click brought up on the old map? I think that would be a much better choice than this tiny menu. In addition to having the same options as the old right click, it provides the essential information for the cache without disturbing the sidebar, and allows me to jump to the cache page or the owner page. Not only is that what we're used to, it's also way more useful.

 

32 minutes ago, brendanjw said:

Initial work completed on sharing caches using the following format (see below) where GC1D3FE is the GC Code

https://www.geocaching.com/play/map?st=GCK25B

Well, first, just FYI, I see you changed your mind about which GC code you were going to use as an example, so you might want to fix that in the text talking about the example.

 

In addition, there's an interesting glitch I almost overlooked: when I open a cache using that URL, the sidebar always says "Nobody has found this geocache yet." even though it also shows a list of find logs.

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1 hour ago, dprovan said:

Is there some reason you don't just pull up the same thing right click brought up on the old map? I think that would be a much better choice than this tiny menu. In addition to having the same options as the old right click, it provides the essential information for the cache without disturbing the sidebar, and allows me to jump to the cache page or the owner page. Not only is that what we're used to, it's also way more useful.

Now I'm curious. From what you said above, it sounds like you got some geocaching.com options when you right-clicked on the old map. I've never gotten that. I'm still on the old map, and when I right click, all I get is the browser's typical right-click context menu. That's all I've ever gotten. Nothing geocaching.com-specific.

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7 minutes ago, The A-Team said:

Now I'm curious. From what you said above, it sounds like you got some geocaching.com options when you right-clicked on the old map. I've never gotten that. I'm still on the old map, and when I right click, all I get is the browser's typical right-click context menu. That's all I've ever gotten. Nothing geocaching.com-specific.

The first is a right click on the new map.

The second is a right click on the old map.

What do you see?

image.thumb.png.905d719199812fe9acbe72a13f8c7ad7.pngimage.thumb.png.a335d9f9f347cebb8510190c7960d3ca.png

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2 minutes ago, searcherdog said:

The first is a right click on the new map.

The second is a right click on the old map.

What do you see?

<snip>

Thanks for the screenshots. I've now discovered that the behaviour is map platform dependent. I only ever use the Leaflet platform, where you only get the browser's context menu when right-clicking. If you switch to the Google platform, I see that you get the normal left-click behaviour when right-clicking on a cache (ie. the cache's popup opens on either a left or right click).

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I mostly like the new map: search what you wanted to begin with (mostly), then can scroll or manipulate filters and create 'trip list' without exiting back to 'lists' view, easier to plan a trek. For example, headed to mountains and I want capture earthcaches in the area, then unfilter letterboxes and maybe virtuals and wherigos as well to add those relatively rare types if nearby, then unfilter all and sort by favorites to be sure to get anything special (although would prefer % favored as option), then maybe any particular D/T types I want. All this can now be done in a couple minutes without jumping around, so kudos.

 

My biggest issue is that it immediately jumps to the map from the search page, hoping that will change once testing complete. Often I want to see that list, and especially the useful data. The new map can sort by date placed, but I do not see that date. Finding all he caches hidden by GCer now harder. And other sorts completely gone: last found, alphabetical, and I do not remember what else since I have the beta. And worst of all, completely lost the ability to list and sort, as well as map, ONLY the caches I found.

Edited by archsmooth
grammer
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I'm not a fan of hijacking the browser context menu; too many unknown variables, and it's a browser function with a fairly expected result; takes retraining a user in the context of the geocaching.com map website distinct from standard web functionality. It would need to be universal for all browsers, and any options shown really should just be shortcuts achievable through other means. I had no idea there was a custom context menu in the older map either...  An alternative could be having a hover/tap button to flyout the menu from the left panel available after you select the cache. *shrug*  (I'm not dead-set against it, but it's one of those web-dev tricks that really needs to be implemented well since it's taking over a meta-browser function that's almost universally understood as such)

 

 

@brendanjw  Any response to bringing back the Search Result List page and not forcing results to the Map view?

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19 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

I'm not a fan of hijacking the browser context menu; too many unknown variables, and it's a browser function with a fairly expected result; takes retraining a user in the context of the geocaching.com map website distinct from standard web functionality. It would need to be universal for all browsers, and any options shown really should just be shortcuts achievable through other means. I had no idea there was a custom context menu in the older map either...  An alternative could be having a hover/tap button to flyout the menu from the left panel available after you select the cache. *shrug*  (I'm not dead-set against it, but it's one of those web-dev tricks that really needs to be implemented well since it's taking over a meta-browser function that's almost universally understood as such)

 

 

@brendanjw  Any response to bringing back the Search Result List page and not forcing results to the Map view?

 

Hi @thebruce0 That is a request that we are getting a strong signal on and in fact we just broke out on it and discussed it as a team.  I am comfortable sharing that we are researching and scoping how we might go about bringing back that functionality.  When we have a stronger point of view and something to share, perhaps I can run it by you for your feedback?

Best,

Brendan

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56 minutes ago, brendanjw said:

Hi @thebruce0 That is a request that we are getting a strong signal on and in fact we just broke out on it and discussed it as a team.  I am comfortable sharing that we are researching and scoping how we might go about bringing back that functionality.  When we have a stronger point of view and something to share, perhaps I can run it by you for your feedback?

 

Thanks, good to know... though I doubt there'd be much to provide feedback on if the search result list just returns to its prior functionality, while providing the new map view as an optional view of the results ;)

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Since about mid Sept - which corresponds to the start of the new map system, which I don't know if I'm opted in to, I haven't been able to search for caches by place. The only way I can get a list of caches and then a map is to search for a specific cache and then ask for others nearby. This does not help when I am looking in an unfamiliar area and do not know the cache name. I am using a PC with fairly old Windows software but had no problem till recently.

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30 minutes ago, Teazle 2 said:

Since about mid Sept - which corresponds to the start of the new map system, which I don't know if I'm opted in to, I haven't been able to search for caches by place. The only way I can get a list of caches and then a map is to search for a specific cache and then ask for others nearby. This does not help when I am looking in an unfamiliar area and do not know the cache name. I am using a PC with fairly old Windows software but had no problem till recently.

Sounds like you were opted in on the new search/map experience. 

Any other thoughts/observations?  Is this new experience favorable to you?

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Must admit wasn't aware of the new map/search function until today. Yesterday when I searched for Newest caches I got a list of 1077, today none. There aren't any in the immediate vicinity & if the map is any indication, the search was confined to the paddocks surrounding my location. Clicked on most favourited, none.  Clicked on Events, heaps in Germany. I live in Australia. Tried the Quick Search function with the three options all giving results in Germany. I'd rather get the results I got yesterday so if there is some means to opt out please let me know.  

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When you filter for events and then select an event, there's no way to immediately see when that event will be. No date is given. Only an (in this case) useless last logged date.

 

And I got the exact opposite from Tuena: I live in the Netherlands, but when searching for events I'm sent to Austraila . . .

Then searching for "Virtual" brings me to Moscow. I do like this way of traveling and the suggestions the map makes, but it's just not very useful when you're trying to find geocaches in your area.

 

In the map, my own caches are not distinguishable from any other caches I haven't found yet. No star indicator or anything else shows it's one of mine.

 

Another quirk: When an event cache has not been logged yet, the map suggests to go get it and log FTF. FTF for events?

What I'm seeing now looks promising, but it needs quite some work to get it to work properly I think.

Edited by NLBokkie
merging comments into one post
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Four of the six (that I know of) shortcut buttons are not working properly. They take me to somewhere in the middle of Germany instead of my home location.

Specifically they are the Quick search > Events (from the logged in Home page) and the three shortcuts that display in the left panel when there are no caches displayed on the map:

  • Tradiational caches
  • Nearby caches
  • Events

The other two Quick searches from the Home page (New and Most Favourited) do work.

The difference between the two is that the broken links are missing the "&ot=0" parameter in the URLs that are present in the working links. I don't know what that parameter means, but it seems important.

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12 minutes ago, bruzie said:

Four of the six (that I know of) shortcut buttons are not working properly. They take me to somewhere in the middle of Germany instead of my home location.

Specifically they are the Quick search > Events (from the logged in Home page) and the three shortcuts that display in the left panel when there are no caches displayed on the map:

  • Tradiational caches
  • Nearby caches
  • Events

The other two Quick searches from the Home page (New and Most Favourited) do work.

The difference between the two is that the broken links are missing the "&ot=0" parameter in the URLs that are present in the working links. I don't know what that parameter means, but it seems important.

If those aren't working, it's because you've been silently opted in to the new maps being tested. The new map seems to have dropped the filter feature that those shortcuts utilize, so they won't work if you've been selected to test the new map. If this is problematic for your workflow, you can opt out by clicking the "What's this" link at the top of the map. It would be good to provide feedback on what does and doesn't work well for your workflow, too.

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1 hour ago, The A-Team said:

If those aren't working, it's because you've been silently opted in to the new maps being tested. The new map seems to have dropped the filter feature that those shortcuts utilize, so they won't work if you've been selected to test the new map. If this is problematic for your workflow, you can opt out by clicking the "What's this" link at the top of the map. It would be good to provide feedback on what does and doesn't work well for your workflow, too.

That would make sense then. I've definitely been silently opted-in - there was no indication of it happening, I just got confused when I hit the "Newest caches" button (as I'm want to do).

It's not necessarily an issue for my workflow yet, but I thought I'd point it out here as I assume this is the place to list bugs with the new map.

I was aghast at first, but I'm getting used to it now.

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I know it's been said, but wanted to add my 2 cents, I really miss the list view and the sorting options that came with it. Especially sort by distance from me.

 

I will maybe stay the course with the new display, but it is making my work with solving mysteries 'close by' pretty difficult.

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my feedback - I opted out after eventually finding out how to do it! 

 

When I search I don't want to go straight to a map, I sometimes want a list which I can then sort by the options I prefer (eg letterboxes, or size, or most favourites, or oldest caches).  I then save my list to download to my phone and then when I am happy I look at the map.

 

For example this weekend I am going to the geolympix.  So I want to search for everything within 3 miles, create a list of those and download that for offline use to my phone. 

I will then have access to everything while I'm away and there is no phone signal.

I cannot find any way to quickly and obviously do this with the search option now, it simply takes me to a map which I can't seem  to get to a list from.

Maybe if I had the time and inclination to help you with your testing I could find it.  But I don't and I need to get the list I want today.  So I had little choice but to opt out!

 

My recommendation, ask users what they want before you fiddle with things and don't assume we all use searching options it the way you think we do (ie only to get a map).

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Trying to hang in there with the new search/mapping combo and I see the cache size has been replaced with its name rather than its number so thanks for that. 

 

I'm hoping, as was in the old search, I will be able to go down the list of caches and add them to a list WITHOUT having to click the ellipsis and then selecting add to a list.  It is much easier (IMO) to check a box on the ones I want to add then click Add To List rather then having to click each listing to do it.   I'm sure this has also been mentioned previously but why not have the same listing functionality as before by expanding the list to the right.  I really loved being able to click a column header and sort by last date found/favorites/D/T/date placed/check a box to add to a list.  I really miss these options.  It also would be nice if I could choose how I want the caches to present in that list.  Currently the default is by favorite points but I might prefer by distance from a certain cache I chose or my home location and someone else might prefer by difficulty, etc.  When opening a cache listing from the list I would also like to see the cache owners name.  Currently I have to open the More Info to see that. And an additional 'nice to have' would be: if I gave a cache a favorite point have the heart present as solid blue.  

 

I've also noticed that once I open a cache the search has totally forgotten what my initial criteria was that I started with and I have to start over.  For example; I do a regional search on a state and I click a cache name from the list but do not use the more info button.  When I use the back button next to the filter box (that now contains the GC code of the cache I clicked on in the list) it now sorts by favorites (the default) closest to that cache I just looked at.  I would think most users would want it to go back to the original search criteria they asked for which would be, in this case, a regional search by state name, highest number favorites at top of list.

 

I'm sure this post sounds whiny but in all seriousness I am trying to work with it and I know it will improve over time.  Additionally I'm sure all these things have been mentioned before by someone else.  Is there a time frame as to when this project might be completed?  Do you have a deadline you're working towards? EOY? Q1 2019? When?

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I am not on the new experience, but something that I would really like to be able to do is to be able to filter out not only my finds, but a friend's finds... so we can see which caches we both need. Ultimately it would be great to be able to filter multiple people but one would be a fantastic start! 

 

Thanks for all you do!

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6 hours ago, Run Amok said:

I am not on the new experience, but something that I would really like to be able to do is to be able to filter out not only my finds, but a friend's finds... so we can see which caches we both need. Ultimately it would be great to be able to filter multiple people but one would be a fantastic start! 

 

Thanks for all you do!

You can already filter that up to 4 people and 1000 cache from your home coordinates in the existing filter options by choosing cache you haven't found and adding names to that field.

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