New Ideas for the site.

[Guest PneumaticDeath]

I'd like to start by thanking jeremy for creating such a cool, functional, professionally done site.

 

I'm wondering what kinds of functionality would be neat to add to the site? I can think of 3 broad categories of possible improvements:

1. Further internationalization
2. More/Better mapping links
3. Weird stats.

 

Internationalization (maybe I should spell that internationalisation )

There has already been some discussion of language localized versions, but as was pointed out this is a tricky problem... especially for languages that need 16 bit character sets like unicode.

 

Another problem is that lack of links to good maping sites outside the US. I realize that there may not be any good global solutions, but most of europe, britain, north america can be covered. Which brings me to he second area:

 

Maps

The provided maps are pretty good, but they have some problems. I've found that here in California, the topozone maps are consistently 50-150 ft off (the marker shows up nw of the actual cache location) While that may not seem drastic, it often apparently puts the cache across a ravine/creek/ridge or at the bottom of a hill rather than the top, and this makes it useless for planning your final approach. Maybe we could put in a correction factor, or allow the cache owner to post a "corrected" URL in the map section. (Some already do this in the descriptions.)

 

Weird Stats

This is the least important, but may be easy to implement, and probably a lot of fun. This would include things like querying the system about notable caches (longest time unfound, found most often, furthest north/south, oldest existing cache, etc..) As well as being able to query more info about users (Seeing a list of all caches hidden/found by a particulat user, seeing how many differnt states/countries/continents a particular user has found cache on, etc.

 

I realize that Mr Irish probably has a day job, and this stuff can't occupy too much of his time, but I'd be willing to help on some of this stuff. I have done ASP programming before, and am handy with a SQL statement.

 

Maybe some of these features shouldn't be included, but others should. I'd love to hear a discussion of where people would like to see this go.

 

[This message has been edited by PneumaticDeath (edited 25 June 2001).]

[Guest Paul Lamble]

the internalization idea.

 

As for the maps, I've been thinking lately that the maps should NOT appear on the detail page unless you request them. I went out for a cache a while back with nothing more than the coordinates to guide me. I didn't know where it was (it was in a park, but I didn't know which park), and I didn't have any hints. This was PURE geocaching to me. Nothing but my GPS and my wits to guide me. I really liked it. So I'm thinking I might like to get just coordinates from the details and not see a map (that I can't help looking at otherwise) to help me get in the neighborhood.

 

And for the stats idea, it seems good to me. Jeremy has noted that he is being interviewed regularly by the media asking questions about things like these.

 

I agree with you that Jeremy has done an excellent job with this site. This site IS geocaching, in my opinion. I think extra features will solidify its premier status and prevent upstart sites from taking over.

 

PL

[Guest Artful Dodger]

I recon Jeremy awoke a sleeping giant when he created this website. I am sure he didnt envision the exponential popularity that has resulted. Since this site is a one-man show, one will have to be patient for any enhancements, additions and upgrades. J.I also has a full time job that must eat into any spare time. This is a cool site that can grow tremendously but its difficult to reliquish some programming responsibility to others without feeling a slight loss of control. Hopefully, this can be averted and the progression of this site can continue.

[Guest Prime Suspect]

quote:

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I'm wondering what kinds of functionality would be neat to add to the site? I can think of 3 broad categories of possible improvements:[/b]

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There's already a very active thread on this subject here.