Release Notes (Website and Geocaching® app: Event start and end times) - October 17, 2024

[+Geocaching HQ]

Release Notes (Website and Geocaching® app: Event start and end times) - October 17, 2024

 

With this release, we have removed the automatic population of event date/time from the beginning of the cache description on Event Cache pages. The only exception to this is that event date/time are still included at the beginning of the cache description when viewed on GPS devices.

 

The event date and time are still displayed at the top of the cache details page on Geocaching.com and in the Geocaching® app.

 

Nicole (nykkole) Lead, Senior Product Manager, Mobile is watching this thread to answer questions whenever possible.

 

Any posts in this thread should relate to features in this release. Comments unrelated to the release may be removed. Please direct unrelated comments to other appropriate threads. Thanks!

[+kamla]

imho this is a change for the worse. The info at the top is a lot less visible and considering that date + time are among the most important information for an event they are now too "hidden".

[+technetium]

The date & time where put in the short description field. I suspect t.p.t.b. now want to really get rid of it.

 

Tc

[+Viajero Perdido]

Why?

 

~~~

 

May I suggest bolding the important parts of the small print up at the top?

 

An Event Cache by Viajero Perdido  Message this owner
Event Date: 19 Oct 24 Add To Calendar
Start time: 6:30 PM  End time: 8:30 PM

 

...because it's hard to find, but it's important.

[+Brain]

As others have mentioned, event times are arguably one of the more critical parts of an event listing which now relies upon minor detail text alone (and then however an individual CO wishes to display them in the description which they - to my understanding - aren't necessarily required to do).

Are there any plans to make event times prominent in other spaces like the search function on the website or mini details view on mobile to compensate for this?

[+Optimist on the run]

I can't see any advantage in doing this, and it only seems to make things harder - could Nicole (nykkole) explain the reasons behind this decision please?

[+Optimist on the run]

Another point - not all apps pick up the date and time automatically (not everyone uses the official app), so if the EO doesn't manually add the information to the description, then it's not possible to determine the time of the event.

[+capoaira]

Why? It was very helpful to have it at the top of the description. I always used to read the date/time there.

I just checked, where I can now find the information and needed some time to find...

[+Deepdiggingmole]

Yup - not good - I just submitted two events not aware that this change had been made and as a result discovered the date and time was not the first part of the description in bold as it has been for some while 
This was an important feature in event submissions and was so helpful to ALL event hosts not to have to worry about including that in the description whereas now they do 

As it was an automatic feature that all event hosts appreciated why get rid of it ?

I suspect this was not done following consultation with a whole bunch of event hosts which you would thought would have been the correct process if consideration for a change is made 

Please change it back 

[+St.Nicholas]

This does seem like a backwards step and with no explanation as to why.

[+Nutty_and_Evil]

If there is no technical reason for this
Can it be changed back, please

Edited October 18 by Nutty_and_Evil

[+BWJM]

I'll toss my name into the bucket of people wanting this reverted.  I rather preferred the original format where the event date and time could always, reliably and clearly be found at the top of the description on the website.  Please revert.

[+LinguiJosh]

Genuinely... why? What is the logic behind this decision? Surely we want to promote Events as a great, safe way to interact with others and encourage a positive, interactive discourse between cachers and caching groups, so why is HQ aiming to make it less  accessible? Having the necessary Event details at the top of the page has been immensely helpful, whether it's for just noticing that there is an event nearby I hadn't been previously aware of, or just for checking en route that I had the times and location correct in mind. Is there any real justification for getting rid of this very useful and very ideal feature of events? 

 

Adding to the requests: please revert this decision.

Edited October 18 by LinguiJosh

[+6foot3]

It was really useful information in a prominent and defined place. So everyone could immediately see when the event was taking place. 
I don't understand the benefit of putting such important information in such a small and barely visible location.
Please give that back to us.

[+The Imp]

This decision is totally bonkers.  Why oh why, oh why has this crazy decision been made?

 

The old position of the time frame was literally in your face. A most noticeable position for everyone to see and read.    Now you have to scroll to the small print to find the details and this takes your attention away from the immediate impact of the event details when reading the text.

 

I can not believe this is a positive move for anyone ! Being duplicated as "it was" ,  and being constructive here, it was not a bad thing especially with the position by the text.

 

If this counts for anything (and I am not looking for any credit here) I do know what I am talking about!!!    Having attended over 660 events and hosted 295 myself this is a backwards move and should be reverted back to the visually agreeable old way immediately.

 

It is hard enough getting new members to attend events and you seem to forget that Event Hosts are ambassadors of Geocaching.

 

You should be helping us make it easy, not the opposite ! PLEASE REVERSE THIS DECISION

 

The Imp

 

[+willy 98]

It's fine for me, it wasn't clear in the text and it unnecessarily tied up the text. Duplicating some information is unnecessary and I rate this positively.

[+rragan]

This change broke the cachetur mechanism to provide updated event times when users modified them. It allows events in trips to have current times. Now truly broken. 

[+lodgebarn]

Who requested this change I wonder and why anyone thought this worth any development time is beyond me. Please roll this back again to the previous behaviour which was a very useful feature.

[+rragan]

I can speculate that this is necessary to get rid of the Short Description area and hence part of a general cleanup off the page. Developer driven. 

[+Viajero Perdido]

41 minutes ago, rragan said:

I can speculate that this is necessary to get rid of the Short Description area and hence part of a general cleanup off the page. Developer driven. 

 

I hope that's not the explanation.  Given there are many older caches with content in that field, the risk/reward for removing it seems pretty high.

[+SpiritGuide]

12 hours ago, Optimist on the run said:

Another point - not all apps pick up the date and time automatically (not everyone uses the official app), so if the EO doesn't manually add the information to the description, then it's not possible to determine the time of the event.

 

The event date and time is available in the API so the partner apps do have access to the information outside of the description.

[+A J Pombo]

It was helpful to have the event date and time at the beginning of the description. Can you please change it back? Thanks.

[+Optimist on the run]

11 hours ago, rragan said:

I can speculate that this is necessary to get rid of the Short Description area and hence part of a general cleanup off the page. Developer driven. 

If that's the case, why not add it automatically to the long description?

[+sloth96]

This has blanked the event times from gcdroid.

 

This has made the day of scheduling at geocoinfest annoying as that was the only place the times occured.

[+JavaJudt]

From a web design perspective, I honestly think this change makes much more sense. When they first came out with the feature that lets you select your event start and end time, I thought it was a little weird that they put it down below, away from all the other cache metadata-type details, especially since the date hidden/hosted is already up at the top.

 

Now that everybody is used to having it right by the description, though, it will definitely be a harder transition for users to have to switch where they're looking. Maybe the date and time could be bolded in the top section to have it stand out.

[+Optimist on the run]

On 10/17/2024 at 6:36 PM, Geocaching HQ said:

Nicole (nykkole) Lead, Senior Product Manager, Mobile is watching this thread to answer questions whenever possible.

Nicole, we're looking forward to your comments on this discussion, and responses to the questions of why this decision has been made, and how Groundspeak thinks it improves our caching experience.

[+J S-B]

On 10/17/2024 at 7:36 PM, Geocaching HQ said:

Release Notes (Website and Geocaching® app: Event start and end times) - October 17, 2024

 

With this release, we have removed the automatic population of event date/time from the beginning of the cache description on Event Cache pages. The only exception to this is that event date/time are still included at the beginning of the cache description when viewed on GPS devices.

 

The event date and time are still displayed at the top of the cache details page on Geocaching.com and in the Geocaching® app.

 

Nicole (nykkole) Lead, Senior Product Manager, Mobile is watching this thread to answer questions whenever possible.

 

Any posts in this thread should relate to features in this release. Comments unrelated to the release may be removed. Please direct unrelated comments to other appropriate threads. Thanks!

How do you see this as an improvement?

[+thomfre]

This change is horrible! Please revert.

[+sloth96]

On 10/19/2024 at 8:50 AM, sloth96 said:

This has blanked the event times from gcdroid.

 

This has made the day of scheduling at geocoinfest annoying as that was the only place the times occured.

Nevermind gcdroid has issued an update.

[+rragan]

Using AM/PM format too. Hardly a change that works for all countries.

[+HHL]

Use the API partner app GSAK and change the Event's name before exporting the Event to your unit.

 

Edited October 27 by Keystone

[+Deepdiggingmole]

15 hours ago, HHL said:

Use the API partner app GSAK and change the Event's name before exporting the Event to your unit.

 

Not everyone uses GSAK - and certainly not for creating an event cache page (or any cache page for that matter) where everything should be at hand on the creation page itself !!

[+HHL]

3 hours ago, Deepdiggingmole said:

Not everyone uses GSAK - and certainly not for creating an event cache page (or any cache page for that matter)

Right, but some do. This post might help them.

This tool is not for creating a webpage, but for exporting a geocache to a GPS unit.

(And there is absolutely no need to use shouting double exclamation marks)

 

 

Edited October 27 by HHL

[nykkole]

Thank you for all your feedback. We understand that removing the bolded event times at the beginning of the description has removed them from a familiar place.

 

That display of event times in the short description was a workaround from a time when we were not able to easily display event times natively across platforms in the users time format, as is currently done. As some have mentioned in this thread, the short description field is otherwise no longer part of new cache pages.

[+Optimist on the run]

On 10/28/2024 at 9:49 PM, nykkole said:

Thank you for all your feedback. We understand that removing the bolded event times at the beginning of the description has removed them from a familiar place.

 

That display of event times in the short description was a workaround from a time when we were not able to easily display event times natively across platforms in the users time format, as is currently done. As some have mentioned in this thread, the short description field is otherwise no longer part of new cache pages.

Thanks for finally responding. Is there any reason why the event date and time can't be automatically added to the long description instead? 

[+kamla]

On 10/28/2024 at 10:49 PM, nykkole said:

when we were not able to easily display event times natively across platforms in the users time format, as is currently done

unfortunately on your own website, which I guess is still the most popular place to browse geocaches, the info is now *not* shown in an easily accessible place anymore. I think noone in this thread has a problem with the old way being removed - the problem is that it's not at the same time being added in a well-accessible place. The tiny info at the top of the listing is just not good enough!

[+MartyBartfast]

54 minutes ago, kamla said:

unfortunately on your own website, which I guess is still the most popular place to browse geocaches, the info is now *not* shown in an easily accessible place anymore. I think noone in this thread has a problem with the old way being removed - the problem is that it's not at the same time being added in a well-accessible place. The tiny info at the top of the listing is just not good enough!

It's right there at the top of the event page with all the other critical info, I don't get why that isn't good enough:

Edited November 2 by MartyBartfast

[+HHL]

5 minutes ago, MartyBartfast said:

I don't get why that isn't good enough:

It could be a bit bolder from my point of view. And date and time could be a one-liner as well.

[+technetium]

It's not that hard to create a GreaseMonkey script that will put the begin and end times in bold at the top of the page.

In fact I kind of expect the next version Geocaching little helper https://github.com/2Abendsegler/GClh will do that.

[+lefisher]

I use Locus Map and it no longer shows the time in the basic listing so, unless the CO writes it in the description, I have to have data to download the webpage.

[+HHL]

On 10/27/2024 at 5:02 PM, HHL said:

Right, but some do. This post might help them.

This tool is not for creating a webpage, but for exporting a geocache to a GPS unit.

(And there is absolutely no need to use shouting double exclamation marks)

 

 

 

1 hour ago, lefisher said:

I use Locus Map and it no longer shows the time in the basic listing

With the help of GSAK it does.

[+capoaira]

On 11/4/2024 at 7:41 PM, technetium said:

In fact I kind of expect the next version Geocaching little helper https://github.com/2Abendsegler/GClh will do that.

We created an issue but due to our limited time, the next release will need some time.

[+HHL]

On 11/2/2024 at 3:54 PM, HHL said:

And date and time could be a one-liner as well.

The time format should respect the user's choice from his settings or home location. That is: Leave us (the Europeans) alone with the am/pm format. Thanks.

Edited November 10 by HHL

[+Hofmannsthal-Gang]

On 10/28/2024 at 10:49 PM, nykkole said:

Thank you for all your feedback. We understand that removing the bolded event times at the beginning of the description has removed them from a familiar place.

 

That display of event times in the short description was a workaround from a time when we were not able to easily display event times natively across platforms in the users time format, as is currently done. As some have mentioned in this thread, the short description field is otherwise no longer part of new cache pages.

Dear Nicole,

thanks for the answer.
For me it is OK, that the date/time information is now in at the very top of the listing page.
BUT it is NOT OK, that the date/time information is now missing in the printer friendly listing page https://www.geocaching.com/seek/cdpf.aspx?guid=...

Please restore it there in any way you like.
It is a big problem, when this important information is missing on the print-out.
See also

Many thanks in advance
Georg (Hofmannsthal-Gang)

Edited November 19 by Hofmannsthal-Gang

[+SFTX]

On 11/4/2024 at 12:41 PM, technetium said:

It's not that hard to create a GreaseMonkey script that will put the begin and end times in bold at the top of the page.

In other words: Here's one way you can work around this problem.

That's a very cool addon with some amazing features - thanks for linking it! But I think threads like this are the right place to provide feedback to Groundspeak so they can directly improve the website for everyone, without the need for hacks.
 

Edited November 30 by SFTX

[+technetium]

On 11/30/2024 at 12:11 AM, SFTX said:

But I think threads like this are the right place to provide feedback to Groundspeak so they can directly improve the website for everyone
 

Yes, you are right, but also realize that Groundspeak has limited resources. My experience is Groundspeak rarely implements the suggestions made in this forum.

 

According to project-gc, there are about 300 000 active users in Germany and 500 000 in the USA. I've not bothered to lookup other countries. If only 1% of them can program and of those only 1% is frustrated enough by what Groundspeak provides and create something themselves. There are more people programming outside Groundspeak than they have employees, let alone programmers. That's why third party tools are usually much better.

 

Tc