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


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22 hours ago, brendanjw said:

New Map Settings:

 

We’ve added an additional setting allowing the geocacher to set the number of caches shown on the map.

Is this envisioned as a final solution, or is this just a temporary measure until technology/equipment/expertise improves to the point that we can get back the ability to see an unlimited number of caches? Personally, I consider this limitation to be a deal-breaker. Pan, click, pan, click, pan, click, pan, click, etc. is not a good user experience. I also have the same concerns as some others here in that it isn't easy to predict which caches aren't being shown, if any, and how many.

 

Basically, what I'm wanting is what we have now: the ability to browse the map. The current proposed implementation drops this ability and replaces it with a search function, such that browsing is significantly more difficult. Browsing accounts for 90+% of my map use, so losing this ability or making it more difficult will significantly impact me.

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What if... and this doesn't necessarily reduce server pressure...  the prior layering system is kept, but rather than displaying icons for the layer, the data is retrieved, then of those results (of the caches shown in the viewport) the filter is applied so that matching cache listings are highlighted in some way.

 

Not knowing in the slightest how the backend is set up to reitreve search/browse/layer results on the current map, would it not be possible to defer the more complex query to after the basic data is retrieved?

Perhaps 1) ie, display the basic cache map (at this point afaik the search is limited by location only to the window bounding box), per the current map feature, then filter the results to the more complex parameters and update the icon plotting visually as expected?

Or 2) Query the complete search parameters, then display the basic cache map per the window position, then apply the matching cache filter to the icons to highlight the matches?

(by highlighting the matches I mean either some visual distinction between match and not-a-match, or simply not showing the non-matches at all; just something to distinguish them)

 

If a search is a radial search from a center point, the initial zoom could be expanded to match the search diameter. Or, since the current map only allows layering out to a minimum zoom, then zoom out to that minimum and if it's not far enough then drop an alert in the corner saying that matches expand beyond the zoom level. (panning will be able to browser the results, but if you zoom out then the 'advanced' filters will no longer apply; or, you lose the view of all non-matching caches if they're shown).

 

Just brainstorming here... exploring ideas to retain the 'old map' browsing feel combined with a more advanced live filter...  But then, they may just be conceptually incompatible if the server power is just not sufficient.

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I've been using the new map and search for a while, but some new changes just popped up today (12/06).  A LOT of functionality has just been lost if we're using a mobile browser.

 

Using a mobile browser on my Android tablet or phone using Chrome, I can no longer tap on an icon on the map and have it open the description in the pop out panel.  This works on the default internet browser, but not in Chrome.

 

The Filter option works as before on the Android tablet but is no longer functional on the smaller screen of the phone.

The Filter page on my phone stops at the checkboxes for the cache types.  It will not scroll beyond that to show the rest of the filter options.  This is happening with both browsers on the phone. (Android 8.0.0)

 

I get that the new option to "search this area" reduces server hits, and it actually makes it easier/faster to pan the map to a new area.  But it's pretty annoying to move the map a mere millimeter or on a mobile device have it interpret a screen tap as a millimeter pan function and have it pop up the "search this area" button again.  You should really be looking at the amount of map change first to determine if a refresh search is necessary.

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22 hours ago, The A-Team said:

Basically, what I'm wanting is what we have now: the ability to browse the map. The current proposed implementation drops this ability and replaces it with a search function, such that browsing is significantly more difficult. Browsing accounts for 90+% of my map use, so losing this ability or making it more difficult will significantly impact me.

Agreed. That is what I like about the current map. If I want to search from a specific location, that will normally be while I'm out, in which case I will be using Cachly anyway, not the website. At home when I use the website, I like to be able to browse around, easily spot trails and clusters of caches in locations I want to visit. I travel a fair distance for days out, if it's somewhere I want to go, so I generally want to be able to see a large number of caches at a time. Hopefully I can stick with the old map for a long time yet!

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11 hours ago, heartradio said:

Agreed. That is what I like about the current map. If I want to search from a specific location, that will normally be while I'm out, in which case I will be using Cachly anyway, not the website. At home when I use the website, I like to be able to browse around, easily spot trails and clusters of caches in locations I want to visit. I travel a fair distance for days out, if it's somewhere I want to go, so I generally want to be able to see a large number of caches at a time. Hopefully I can stick with the old map for a long time yet!

 

Assume heartradio and The A-Team are referring to the "Live Map" function ( e.g. https://www.geocaching.com/map/#?ll=54.42532,-3.90015&z=6 ), which is still available and working well - this extremly useful function DEFINITELY needs to be retained. For reasons given by both, I also use this to browse for potential caches in new areas - also useful for displaying caches you have found Vs unfound. When using the "Live Map", it makes you realise how restrictive, clunky and frustrating the new search map operates at present.

 

GCHQ should use a selection of actual cachers to test such major changes ... perhaps that would curb some of the (poor) ideas being followed by developers of the new search map.

 

None of the bugs / important changes needed / additional requests that I have logged so far on this forum have been mentioned by Brendon!!

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I was one of the initial recipients of this new search and had stuck with it for a long time, finally reverting back to the 'old' new search about a week ago.  I regularly come back to this thread to see what progress has been made and read other's opinions on the functionality.  Today I switched back to the 'new' new search to view the newest updates.  Long story short, I only see two improvements that I like which are being able to choose to see all premium caches or all basic caches and the ability to filter on GeoTour caches. Other than that, it is still terrible. "Search this area" is the worst.  It expands the radius of caches but only shows a limited number of them based on # of favorite points.  I would like to see all of them. And where is the setting to change the number of caches shown on the map?  I am unable to locate it.

 

If you haven't noticed, most comments here preferred the 'old' new search as it was practically perfect and don't understand the need for this 'new' new search.  I am tuning out again, reverting back to what works.  Using the 'new' new search gives me a headache and makes searching for geocaches a frustrating experience.   

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There've been a number of issues people have repeatedly raised almost right from the beginning but so far haven't even been acknowledged let alone addressed. These include:

  • No scale on the map. All the other maps on the site have a scale, why can't this one? Not all caches are in urban streetscapes where the scale is obvious. Consider this one - is the cache fifty metres from the road or several kilometres?
    NoScale.jpg.84f4ae46dd5b6d63000716359d560113.jpg
     
  • Owned caches appear as unfound on the default map, but change to their owned "star" icon on the other two Google options. Is there are reason for this or a reason it can't be fixed?
  • Clicking on More Info overwrites the existing browser tab rather than opening the cache page in a new tab, wiping out any filters and map panning/scaling that had been set up when you go back to resume searching. Having it open the cache page in a new tab would also mean you could have several cache pages open at once, something that's very useful when planning a day's caching in an area.
  • The content of the "Short Description" field on older caches isn't included in the text when showing the description, whereas it is everywhere else on the site and in the app. On some caches the Short Description is used as an "if you don't read anything else, read this!" but not displaying it defeats that use. Is this by design or is it a bug that's going to be eventually fixed? If the former, I'm going to have to go back through all my older hides and move the content in the Short Description field to the Long Description, but I'd rather not have to do that if it's something that's about to be fixed.
  • The summary information for event caches doesn't show the event date anywhere, which is arguably the most vital piece of information when looking at event caches. It would also be useful to see the hidden date on caches when sorting by oldest or newest, otherwise it's just a list with no indication of how new is new or how old is old. As it currently stands, the "Last Logged" field in the summary panel is duplicating information that can be seen in the list of logs lower down, so could this be used instead for the event/hidden date?

Please, can we have some indication of whether these are features or bugs, and if the latter, can they be fixed?

Edited by barefootjeff
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I agree with everything barefootjeff posted. Some of those issues are so simple and quick to solve that it's hard to understand why they weren't addressed when they were first pointed out (like the scale, hide icons, and open in new tab).

 

In the case of this point...

54 minutes ago, barefootjeff said:
  • The content of the "Short Description" field on older caches isn't included in the text when showing the description, whereas it is everywhere else on the site and in the app. On some caches the Short Description is used as an "if you don't read anything else, read this!" but not displaying it defeats that use. Is this by design or is it a bug that's going to be eventually fixed? If the former, I'm going to have to go back through all my older hides and move the content in the Short Description field to the Long Description, but I'd rather not have to do that if it's something that's about to be fixed.

 

...I feel there's really only one answer: the short description needs to be added to the map display. When weighing the impact of a relatively small amount of developer time compared to having all COs change all of their cache listings, there's no contest.

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On 12/5/2018 at 12:20 AM, brendanjw said:

New Map Settings:

 

We’ve added an additional setting allowing the geocacher to set the number of caches shown on the map.

 

BUG on Firefox 63.0.3 (64-bit):

  • go to new map settings and increase the number of caches shown on the map to either 750 or 1000
  • zoom out until you exceed this limit
  • ensure that you clicked on "Search this area" to update map view and search results
  • now try e.g. to zoom in/out, move the map, step through the search pages - the result is always the same: the Firefox window gets completely white, everything's gone
  • even a refresh doesn't help

On Chrome this is not an issue.

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8 hours ago, Die Batzen said:

 

BUG on Firefox 63.0.3 (64-bit):

  • go to new map settings and increase the number of caches shown on the map to either 750 or 1000
  • zoom out until you exceed this limit
  • ensure that you clicked on "Search this area" to update map view and search results
  • now try e.g. to zoom in/out, move the map, step through the search pages - the result is always the same: the Firefox window gets completely white, everything's gone
  • even a refresh doesn't help

On Chrome this is not an issue.

 

I noticed same bug appear from this morning using Firefox Quantum 63.0.3 (32 bit). If I click page refresh the "loading caches" message and part of the background appears briefly before returning to a white screen. Also agree that Chrome does not seem to show the same bug.

 

Only just found the selection bar for number of caches to be displayed ... why on earth is it part of a drop down menu in top right corner of the page? Not somewhere you would think to look, but I kept searching having reada few comments about the choice - couldn't see it in filters etc ... now I understand why!

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22 hours ago, The A-Team said:

I feel there's really only one answer: the short description needs to be added to the map display. When weighing the impact of a relatively small amount of developer time compared to having all COs change all of their cache listings, there's no contest.

 

Tbh, it would have been simpler for them just to have concatenated the data from the two description fields and got rid of the short description altogether.

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On 12/7/2018 at 3:07 AM, OneEighth said:

The newest map update is horrible. You have to click "Search this Area" constantly. I like to just move freely around the map while caches load on their own. 

 

Hitting "Search this Area" when panning the map short distances would definitely get annoying.   That's much less the case when one wants to move the map a great distance. 

 

I would prefer to see an option to turn off/on a 'refresh when panning map' behavior.  If I am looking at the map and panning the map in a general area I leave the zoom level and just pan to another nearby area.  However, I will often look at caches at an area then go to another place on the map far away.  For example,   a few months ago I had a 10 day trip to Belgium and over the weekend took the train to Luxembourg.  I was looking at the map  in an area where I was staying in Belgium then wanted to see caches in the town I would be visiting in Luxembourg (Ettelbruck).  When I zoomed out on the map, so that I could pan quickly to an area several hours away, the density of the caches on the map was such that I couldn't see any place names on the map.  In such a case, I'd would like to be able to turn off "refresh the map" so that I could more easily find and zoom into another area, then hit "search this area".  

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I think there is a big missunderstanding. I think the new "MAP" is a replacement or enhancement of the search funktion.

 

The old "MAP" was a map for browsing, just to do some visual search without the requirement to define some search criterias. One of the positive goodies is the fact that there are some filters activated by one click.

 

The new search"MAP" is OK, although the the usability of the filters is a nightmare,  if the browsing MAP will be available as well.

Stll very important is the ability to show the result of PQs just by a click. 

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1 hour ago, Linus.de said:

I think there is a big missunderstanding. I think the new "MAP" is a replacement or enhancement of the search funktion.

 

The old "MAP" was a map for browsing, just to do some visual search without the requirement to define some search criterias. One of the positive goodies is the fact that there are some filters activated by one click.

 

The new search"MAP" is OK, although the the usability of the filters is a nightmare,  if the browsing MAP will be available as well.

Stll very important is the ability to show the result of PQs just by a click. 

 

Actually, have they actually said this?  I've been looking for the answer to "Is this replacing only the search function OR the map and the search function" and haven't been able to find that?  I've asked in these forums two times and have not seen a response (and pardon if I missed the response....)

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1 hour ago, GeoMonkeyTiger! said:

I've been looking for the answer to "Is this replacing only the search function OR the map and the search function" and haven't been able to find that?  I've asked in these forums two times and have not seen a response (and pardon if I missed the response....)

TPTB haven't said anything officially, but I think it can be safely assumed that this new map is intended to replace both the old map and search. They wouldn't go to all the trouble of building a new map and then leave the old one running (at least not long-term; maybe for a short change-over period).

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2 hours ago, GeoMonkeyTiger! said:

 

Actually, have they actually said this?  I've been looking for the answer to "Is this replacing only the search function OR the map and the search function" and haven't been able to find that?  I've asked in these forums two times and have not seen a response (and pardon if I missed the response....)

That haven't said anything. However, in the course of discussion, it helps to know which Map people are talking about when describing features or issues.

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1 hour ago, The A-Team said:

TPTB haven't said anything officially, but I think it can be safely assumed that this new map is intended to replace both the old map and search. They wouldn't go to all the trouble of building a new map and then leave the old one running (at least not long-term; maybe for a short change-over period).

 

I for one, (of likely MANY) can only hope that this atrocity doesn't replace the current (old) map.  A tried the new experience early on, and held out for a while, but found it so lacking for me. I have returned to the old search because IT WORKS.

 

Making better mistakes tomorrow may make a cute sigh in the office hallway, but it is not a working philosophy for a successful company.

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I may be misunderstanding something about the new map.

I click on newest caches which brings me to the new map search. I use the filters function to select "not found", expecting to see caches that have not been found yet. Instead, I get a list of caches that have not been found by me.  Am I missing an option?

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12 hours ago, Max and 99 said:

I may be misunderstanding something about the new map.

I click on newest caches which brings me to the new map search. I use the filters function to select "not found", expecting to see caches that have not been found yet. Instead, I get a list of caches that have not been found by me.  Am I missing an option?

The found/not found distinction has always been with respect to your own account. I don't believe there's ever been a way to search for caches that haven't yet been found by anyone (other than by doing a search and sorting a list by the Last Found date).

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I don't know if this has been reported yet but there was a discussion about a souvenir for Isreal in another thread and someone mentioned the potential political implications an Palestine so I entered Palestine in the search box and it suggested "Palestine -- regional search".   The page then rendered a map with a "No Matching Results" but the map rendered centered to an area west of Washington DC (near Front Royal).  First of all, if the auto-suggest is suggesting a location, even if it doesn't have any caches in it, why is it displaying the map centered at a different location.   When I then panned the map just a bit, and clicked "Search this area" (the map is still displaying in the U.S.) I get a "Loading Geocaches" popup message, and the "No Matching Results".  The only way to get it to display caches again is to search for another area.  Using the old map/search for "Palestine -- regional search" returns 17 caches in a list.

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New BUG: when viewing the new search map on an iPhone7+ via a web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari show the bug) ... not all “Filters” are displayed compared to using a Win10 PC.

 

Only “Cache Type” and “Caches in a geo-tour” are accessible using the phone - cannot find any way to access the rest. See screen shot.

99F061F6-D2AF-418B-B08F-590FEE6E0743.png

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I used tue new map again for a few days.

It´s now clear to me now what is most important to me.

 

I Need About 95% just the Browsing capability of the old map. I asked myself the question what I would do if this funktionality would go away?

 

I would Change to external Services or even switch to a different Caching Platform.

Why paying for a Service which does not serve my Needs?

Maybe I stop Caching at all. It has to be fun, but with the new map it isn´t.

The current map is good as it is. If you want to improve, there is no Need to reinvent everything. Just add some funktionality like filter for D/T Rating or hidden date, but please without any additional confirmation Buttons.  

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I'm afraid I didn't test the new map for very long - because within a few minutes of using it, I couldn't do what I wanted to do, which was to create a Pocket Query of what I could see on the map.

 

I use that a lot as it is the easiest way of creating a Pocket Query that I know will include all the caches I want.

 

So I had to go back to the old map. 

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I looked at the new map for our area of the UK today, and it is absolutely hopeless! 

Lacks detail, most of the Public Footpaths and cycle tracks are missing, so no hope of navigating from one cache to the next nearest. Total waste of time. 

Open Street Map is far superior, why was it necessary to meddle with the maps at all? 

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On 12/17/2018 at 6:44 AM, Border Caz said:

I couldn't do what I wanted to do, which was to create a Pocket Query of what I could see on the map.

 

In the left  field, above the list of caches is "add to list" (very small text, easy to miss).  Once added to a list, you can query that list. 

Querying from a list, you cannot further modify the PQ, whereas from old map, you can create a PQ, and you'll have a PQ page with all the search selection features, ie, you can further modify the query. For example, does NOT have the NM attribute set, or DOES have "dogs allowed", altering the search radius, etc.

 

I go back and forth between Search and the new map search.  I find the failure of the map search to conserve filters, especially distance filters, on any refresh to be annoying.  I'm okay with needing to click the search button over and over, as I understand that this helps with server load.  Thanks for explaining that.

 

Relative to current Search, it's slower and requires many many more clicks and fiddles, and doesn't offer a couple of things I want; date of last find,  searches that are  not radius based, or output that offers a lot of info visible at one time. 

 

Relative to old map search, not being able to create a PQ that then can be further modified on the PQ form is a serious issue for my player account. 

 

 

Edited by palmetto
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Like many have said, there lots of things with the new search/map experience that are inconvenient to use and unable to get the desired result.  It almost seems like those developers working on the project don't know very much (if anything at all) about Geocaching.  This may be why so many of the 'features' are not what so many of us want to see in the usage of the new experience.

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2 hours ago, K13 said:

Like many have said, there lots of things with the new search/map experience that are inconvenient to use and unable to get the desired result.  It almost seems like those developers working on the project don't know very much (if anything at all) about Geocaching.  This may be why so many of the 'features' are not what so many of us want to see in the usage of the new experience.

Watch out: the last time I said something almost exactly like that, I was banned from the forums for 6 months.

 

I have to add that I'm not really getting that impression from the map changes. In fact, to some extent the problems people are complaining about seems to be because the map developers are thinking about how they'd like to use the map in their day-to-day geocaching, but how they're starting to think about the map is different than the traditional ways everyone else has always used the map. Although I'm still using the new map, I do from time to time get caught by the problems, but I can still see the logic of doing it the way it's done even if it's not the way I'd prefer it done. I've kinda divided my map approaches in two: if I'm just browsing, I bring up the normal map without the search features and do all the normal map moving and zooming we all do these days for any map we look at. If I'm looking at a specific area, I do the search, then look at the results without moving or zooming the map too much since that's when the logic stops seeming natural to me.

 

That reminds me: in the old search/map results approach, there was a tab I used all the time that I could click on that told the search code that I was no longer interested in the search. "Cancel filters" or something like that. That's a big thing I miss in the new map. I used it a lot like the brand new "search here" button, except I just clicked it once, and the map stopped worry about the search I'd started with. Without it, I now have to select a cache near the center of the map, go to the cache's description page, and then open the map from that cache's page to get the unfettered map of that same location. In the terms I used in the previous paragraph, I switch from searching to browsing by going through a cache page.

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Hi all!

 

I hope you are all doing well! Here’s some information regarding today’s update:

 

Sorting options:

We’ve added the following sorting options to the map:

  • Distance

  • Difficulty

  • Terrain

  • Size

  • Placed Date

From the ‘Sort by:’ drop down, select the desired sorting options.

 

One caveat, we are going to make this less ‘wordy’ and more intuitive by considering alternative ways to offer these sorting options.  This is not final.

We have the underlying functionality built and our intent was to get this out to you the testers and geocachers as soon as it was ready.  Please let us know how this works for you.

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Filter option:

We’ve added the Corrected Coordinates filtering options, allowing geocachers to filter for Mystery Caches that they have solved.

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Open caches in new browser tabs

We’ve added some functionality, to the overflow menu on the list, and the right-click (context) menu from the mouse which allows for opening a specific cache in a new browser tab.

 

Overflow menu:

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Mouse Right-Click (Context Menu):

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Event date:

 

We made a small update to Events, and have included the date of the event in the list item.  

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Updates to ‘Done’ button:

We added some functionality to the Done button on the Filters panel, adding the following behavior:

  • If you have made any selections and customizations using the controls and options contained on the Filters panel, we will turn the button green and won’t let you dismiss the panel until the user has clicked Done, thereby setting the choices.

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We also fixed a small bug where we weren’t showing the star icon for owned caches.  This is now fixed!

 

Thanks again for all your patience and I can’t wait to hear how you like this update!

 

Once again, here’s what we are working on and what to expect in the future:

 

  • Multi-select list view  - This provides a way to select specific caches from the map’s list view, and add them to list.

  • List and Map - This is probably the most requested change in the forum. We plan to decouple the search results list from the map, so that from the initial search on the home page, you will have the option to view the search results on a list or on the map.

  • Search World - Editing and optimizing the zoom level so that we honor searches that require a zoom level to show the entire world.

  • Filters and Sort - Continuing to add filters and sorting options that exist on the old map, our goal is full parity.

 

Best,

Brendan

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9 minutes ago, tomtwogates said:

I've heard a lot about this new map thingy, but when i look at any cache and expand the map, or go directly to the map on the heading it looks just the same as it always has - so how do I get this new updated phenomenon

 

Something to try:

Play

Search

Click on "New Map" option near the top. Does that get you there?

Edited by Max and 99
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Hi,

 

First time looking at the new map today and have a few comments.

 

Available map options are very limited and the 'Geocaching' map has no distinguishing features whatsoever for my local area. i.e. no roads, footpaths, rivers, place names or anything! The Google map options work OK, but I often choose different options on the old map. Esri imagery is better in some places than google satellite view. Open cycle map often has better trail coverage than other map options. Please tell us that at least some of the other map options will become available?!

 

Is it possible for you to amend the behaviour so that the search automatically updates after you drag the map or zoom out? It's going to get tiring (mentally!) to hit the 'Search this area' button every time you adjust the view. Perhaps you need a 'browsing the map' option as well as a 'search results' mode. I often just want to browse, starting centred at my home location without a specific search in mind.

 

Possibly a more minor niggle, but I preferred the old behaviour where solved puzzle caches reverted to their unsolved location after being found. Geo-art lovers must be telling you this? Is there an option I can toggle somewhere?

 

Anyway, keep at it! I do hope that this won't be made the default map too soon. Learn from the debacle of the 'new' app launch, when a lot of required features were still missing.

 

Thanks.

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5 hours ago, tomtwogates said:

I've heard a lot about this new map thingy, but when i look at any cache and expand the map, or go directly to the map on the heading it looks just the same as it always has - so how do I get this new updated phenomenon

 

Its a bit confusing. And people really should be using a different descriptor than New Map.

 

The screen shot you posted is The Map. You find this by going to Play => View Map. This map hasn't changed. It is still the one that has been in use for awhile now.

 

The new map is The New Search Map. You find this by going to Play => Search. Groundspeak has been playing with a the search interface. The new experience is to go right into a map and then have search filters on the side pop out. The old way is to have a filter page and then manually click Map Caches.

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Ho ho ho,

 

It's way better, thanks. Still :

- clicking on "More info" keeps opening the cache page in the same tab. It should by default open in a new one ! You manage to do it from the map's conceptual menu, it should be easy to do it here too ! Please !

- coming back from the cache page, most filters are now remembered, which is great. Still, some are not : ""basic/premium", "enabled/disabled", "has corrected coords Y/N". How about a filter "name doesn't contain" ? (If I want to ignore "bonus" or "challenge" caches, for exemple) And the previous location and zoom information are lost :(. Had the previous point (open in new tab) been done, this wouldn't happen...

- when entering the search textbox, all previously text is deleted. That's not very user friendly:( 

- Why is there still no scale on the map ? I can guess distances in my home zone, but not in some remote area !

- Is the owner of a cache so unimportant that it's not even displayed in the preview of the cache in the left panel ?

- Still no further map provider ?

- Still no pocket queries integration ? Pity :(

It's surely better, but there's still a lot to be done. I'm looking forward to seeing the result of the next iterations. Until then, I'll stick with the old quicker and more responsive map.

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8 hours ago, tomtwogates said:

I've heard a lot about this new map thingy, but when i look at any cache and expand the map, or go directly to the map on the heading it looks just the same as it always has - so how do I get this new updated phenomenon

 

It's a trial that Groundspeak are rolling out gradually.  Once in the trial you can opt out (and back in again), but so far as I know you can't chose to join the trial.  If I'm wrong, someone please let me know, because I'd like to be involved... ?

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23 minutes ago, IceColdUK said:

 

It's a trial that Groundspeak are rolling out gradually.  Once in the trial you can opt out (and back in again), but so far as I know you can't chose to join the trial.  If I'm wrong, someone please let me know, because I'd like to be involved... ?

Contact GS and let them know I'll gladly give you my spot?

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@brendanjw  - Finally!!!  Some wonderful improvements!  I'm going to try working with it again and see how it goes.  

 

Would like to see the placed date for all caches listed in the search.  I just sorted by Placed Date (Old - New) which is great but it would be nice to know at a glance what is the actual placed date without having to actually open the cache page.  Owner name would be nice too.

 

Looking forward to the next round of improvements.

 

 

 

 

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5 hours ago, Twinklekitkat said:

Would like to see the placed date for all caches listed in the search.  I just sorted by Placed Date (Old - New) which is great but it would be nice to know at a glance what is the actual placed date without having to actually open the cache page.

This is a very good point. While we now have the ability to sort the list based on more criteria (thanks!), the new sorting isn't very useful for a few of the options because you can't see the values relevant to the chosen sort. For example, if I sort by Distance or Placed Date, the list happily sorts by that value, but we have no visibility of the value for each cache. We now know that one cache is farther/closer or older/newer than the one after it in the list, but there's no way to see by how much.

 

On another note, when sorting the list by Size, I get some strange results. If I select "Size (Small - Large)", the first ones I see are of size Other. Then there are some events (size Other, but this size isn't shown in the list), some "None" (which appear to actually be "Not chosen"), some more Other, more Event Others, more None, etc. I would expect each size to be grouped together, but the sizes "Other", "None" (which isn't even a valid size), and Events which don't display a size in the list all seem to be treated equally as far as the sorting is concerned.

 

While I'm mentioning things I notice:

  • The sizes "Not chosen" and "Virtual" are missing as filter options. Even though these sizes are apparently grandfathered, they still exist in the database and should be available when searching.
  • The arrangement of the filter options isn't very optimal. While I can understand why the marketing department might want the GeoTour option to be front-and-center, in reality it's an option that would be rarely used and doesn't need to be near the top. One of the options that would be used the most is the one to filter out found caches, but right now it's barely "above the fold" even when viewed on a 24" monitor. Options like that should be near the top where they're easily accessible without scrolling.
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Why needs the new map more CPU activity ( or is my laptop at fault ) ?

 

I'm using Windows 10 and FireFox & Chrome, all newest versions/updates. For a test, I have in FireFox 3 tabs open, one with nothing ( empty ), one with the old map and in the last tab the new map. When showing the empty tab, the cpu is steady +/- 2% ( I have all other windows closed, except Task-Manager ). After switching ( just a mouse click ) to the old map, the cpu ( & wifi ) 'jumps' up a bit, but both slow down after a few seconds. When switching to the last tab ( with the new map ), the cpu goes to +/- 20% and stays there. When switching back to the empty FireFox tab, the cpu goes down to +/- 2% again


The same thing happens in Chrome, but the max. cpu load is lower ( 2% to a steady 8%, in the new map ).

Of course there are more Windows processes active, but these stay the same when switching between tabs. Adding the same cpu percentage to the cpu-total for each tab. So the difference between the old and the new map, is in FireFox about ( 20 - 2 = ) 18% more cpu load.

Oké, the data in the new map needs to be loaded and displayed on the screen, but after that, there's nothing to be computed. The map is static, because you need to click on "Search this area" to reload caches and displaying them, so there's nothing to do for the cpu. So why the high cpu-load?

When using a laptop or desktop, this ( higher cpu level ) is not a big problem. But why is there such a difference between the old and new map and what happens when using a mobile phone or tablet? A higher cpu load, is a bigger load on the battery.
 

229135776_2018-12-2113_35_38NewGCmap-a.thumb.png.247dcb3d69c188a1f30e2243680c2963.png

See small Wi-Fi activity window for when switching between tabs.

 

Edited by LinkaLovers
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22 hours ago, IceColdUK said:

 

It's a trial that Groundspeak are rolling out gradually.  Once in the trial you can opt out (and back in again), but so far as I know you can't chose to join the trial.  If I'm wrong, someone please let me know, because I'd like to be involved... ?

Okay - I'm not one of the chosen ones - so I'll just have to wait - thought I was going a bit moggy when I could not find it even at Play  = >Search

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3 hours ago, tomtwogates said:

Okay - I'm not one of the chosen ones - so I'll just have to wait - thought I was going a bit moggy when I could not find it even at Play  = >Search 

 

I wasn't part of the original group, but a while later, I think they opened it up to everyone. The way I get to it is by starting a search (I have to hit the search button and it gives me a list of caches). Once the list of caches comes up, there's also a blue ribbon near the top of the screen with a link to "Go to new map."

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6 hours ago, tomtwogates said:

Okay - I'm not one of the chosen ones - so I'll just have to wait - thought I was going a bit moggy when I could not find it even at Play  = >Search

This is bugging me!

Can you include a screen shot after you hit Play, Search,  (then choose one of the three options: how about "Newest Caches").
I'm really curious what your screen is showing.

That would be great.

Thank you!

Edited by Max and 99
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