Feature Enhancement: States

January 25, 2007

County Fingal, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, and South Dublin replaced the now non-existent County Dublin

Similarly, County Tipperary North and South Tipperary.

I actually did read somewhere about the change to County Dublin. I thought I'd get away with leaving it anyway, but you caught me in the act

My reasoning for leaving just "Dublin" was that "Fingal, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, and South Dublin" is a very long string (i'ts just one county that has changes name, right, or are this 3 separate counties now? If it's still just one county, do you, as an Irishman (It's you who will have to work with it) think that this long string is workable? Will you really be looking for this county name and start typing "Fin..." in the ropdown box when you're placed/want to look for a cache in Dublin?

About Tipperary, are they 2 different counties now or is this (also?) just a name change of 1 single county?

On a personal note (I've lived in Dublin myself a couple of years), what happened to North Dublin? Is that part of Wexford now?? (Or maybe it's Fingal, which I'm afraid doesn't ring a bell with me.)

I'd leave Dublin for now as you say its a long string and not many people will be aware of the division :huh:

Tipperary is now two countys its even shown on the vehicle registration plates now

North Dublin "Wexford" <_< :unsure: with Wexford prices we wish it was

It's Fingal and were I'm from

Edited January 25, 2007 by The Windsockers

January 25, 2007

Will it possible to select one than one county at a time. Maybe limit to max 3 or 4 counties ?

I don't think it's possible right now to select more than one US state, so I guess the answer will be no. It could however be a useful feature request, also for people in the US who live close to a state border. But if you're going to lobby for this new feature, please do so in a separate thread

January 25, 2007

Will it possible to select one than one county at a time. Maybe limit to max 3 or 4 counties ?

I don't think it's possible right now to select more than one US state, so I guess the answer will be no. It could however be a useful feature request, also for people in the US who live close to a state border. But if you're going to lobby for this new feature, please do so in a separate thread

It's probably a more useful feature in the UK/Ireland due to the (much) smaller counties (states).

January 25, 2007

I'd leave Dublin for now as you say its a long string and not many people will be aware of the division

Good to hear you liked my reasoning after all <_< About the 'for now' bit: I don't think we will see weekly updates for the geographical subdivisions, so you may have to live with your choice for quite a while :unsure:

Tipperary is now two countys its even shown on the vehicle registration plates now [/color]

OK, I updated the spreadsheet accordingly and the new version is available for download again.

1.5k · January 25, 2007

Tipperary is now two countys its even shown on the vehicle registration plates now

You might want to run that one past the folks in Tipperary

I for one would argue to keeping the counties in their old designations (like the GAA teams). That's what most people are familiar with, especially those from outside the county and possibly compiling a PQ for a visit.

It won't really affect me away up in the NW though :drama:

January 25, 2007

You might want to run that one past the folks in Tipperary

Well so far nobody from Tipperary has commented on it either way. Let's not drown in details here, we have to get something up and running for the wole world, and since North and South Tipperary are now officiall distinct counties, it'll just have to do. Tipperary, South Tipperary or North Tipperary, it's still a long way...!

January 26, 2007

Edited to delete post discussing an issue that's already been amicably resolved

Edited January 26, 2007 by daraconn

January 26, 2007

The Island of Ireland

<snip>

All these counties are already in the updated spreadsheet. The ones referring to the republic as part of Ireland, the other ones as part of the UK (it would be great if the Island of Ireland had a political status, but we can't go into politics here:)

I promise not to go into politics here, or to enter into any further discussion on the subject, but I just want to make you aware (if you are not already) that the current practice is for caches in Northern Ireland to be allocated to Ireland or the United Kingdom according to the whim or preference of the cache owner.

For example, the 40 caches nearest to Belfast (all of which are located in Northern Ireland) are divided roughly equally between "Ireland" (24) and "United Kingdom" (16).

If it is technically possible to have "Antrim", "Armagh", etc. included in both the Ireland and UK counties list, this would maintain an existing functionality that is widely used and appreciated by everyone concerned.

January 27, 2007

The Island of Ireland

<snip>

All these counties are already in the updated spreadsheet. The ones referring to the republic as part of Ireland, the other ones as part of the UK (it would be great if the Island of Ireland had a political status, but we can't go into politics here:)

I promise not to go into politics here, or to enter into any further discussion on the subject, but I just want to make you aware (if you are not already) that the current practice is for caches in Northern Ireland to be allocated to Ireland or the United Kingdom according to the whim or preference of the cache owner.

For example, the 40 caches nearest to Belfast (all of which are located in Northern Ireland) are divided roughly equally between "Ireland" (24) and "United Kingdom" (16).

If it is technically possible to have "Antrim", "Armagh", etc. included in both the Ireland and UK counties list, this would maintain an existing functionality that is widely used and appreciated by everyone concerned.

I'm sure it's technically possible (I don't know if it would be hard to do or not, but hey, POSSIBLE I'm sure it is). It's hard to get into the issue without getting into politics, but I'm not in favor of implementing this idea.

Caches in Northern Ireland should all be listed as part of the UK, and if they've been listed as part of the Republic of Ireland, then I would call that a mistake (it confirms my suspicion that the state subdivisions (so far?) are not linked to geographical delimitors at all (so I guess you could create a cache in New York and list it under California).

Maybe in the future it would indeed be better to classify England, Wales, Scotland and Norther Ireland as separate 'countries' (it would not be all that revolutionary, because some 'parts' of specific countries are listed as separate countries right now too - e.g. "Alland Islands" which I believe actually belongs to Finland).

I think that would solve this problem anyway.

To list some caches in Northern Ireland as part of Ireland, and others as part of the UK sounds like chaos to me (for obvious reasons I won't get into the question if it's the catholics that list them for Ireland, and the protestants that list them for the UK).

The next thing will be that people will list some caches in South Tirol (which is part of Italy) under Italy, and others will list them under Austria. South Tirol is not located in both Austria and Italy, it really exists only once, just like the counties in Northern Ireland.

Maybe if the counties are actually available, this issue will solve itself. And from what you're saying it seems that only 24 caches would need to be reclassified.

Sorry for not agreeing with you, but the only pliable reasons for doing what you suggest IMHO would be of political nature, and we're not into that here.

Katja

1.3k · January 27, 2007

Katja, I'm not sure if you can compare Wales and other parts of UK to Åland Islands. Åland belongs to Finland, that's true, but they have very strong autonomy there and it's for example de-militarized area, Finnish Defence Forces are not allowed to be there.

January 27, 2007

Katja, I'm not sure if you can compare Wales and other parts of UK to Åland Islands. Åland belongs to Finland, that's true, but they have very strong autonomy there and it's for example de-militarized area, Finnish Defence Forces are not allowed to be there.

I didn't really want to compare anything to anything. I was trying to say that it could be an option to list England, Wales, etc as separate countries. Otherwise (or until then) I think people in Northern Ireland should list their caches as part of the UK.

Anyway, I don't think there are any laws about what level of autonomy 'subparts' of nations should have before they will qualify to be listed as a separate country on geocaching.com.

January 29, 2007

I'm sure it's technically possible (I don't know if it would be hard to do or not, but hey, POSSIBLE I'm sure it is). It's hard to get into the issue without getting into politics, but I'm not in favor of implementing this idea.

Caches in Northern Ireland should all be listed as part of the UK, and if they've been listed as part of the Republic of Ireland, then I would call that a mistake (it confirms my suspicion that the state subdivisions (so far?) are not linked to geographical delimitors at all (so I guess you could create a cache in New York and list it under California).

[...]

To list some caches in Northern Ireland as part of Ireland, and others as part of the UK sounds like chaos to me (for obvious reasons I won't get into the question if it's the catholics that list them for Ireland, and the protestants that list them for the UK).

The next thing will be that people will list some caches in South Tirol (which is part of Italy) under Italy, and others will list them under Austria. South Tirol is not located in both Austria and Italy, it really exists only once, just like the counties in Northern Ireland.

Maybe if the counties are actually available, this issue will solve itself. And from what you're saying it seems that only 24 caches would need to be reclassified.

Sorry for not agreeing with you, but the only pliable reasons for doing what you suggest IMHO would be of political nature, and we're not into that here.

Katja

Katja, 2 more purely factual clarifications (still staying well away from politics):

- it's not just 24 caches. It just happened that out of the first 40 caches returned by my query, 24 were listed as Ireland. If this is representative, we may estimate that approximately half of the caches in Northern Ireland are listed as "Ireland".

- it's not a "mistake", and it's not chaotic; it's policy. This procedure is in place with the full and explicit approval of the reviewers, and is based on extensive discussion to determine the best way of dealing with a complex situation. You may feel that this policy should be reversed for political reasons but please do not do so lightly or without some form of consultation with the people affected.

Edited January 29, 2007 by daraconn

January 29, 2007

Katja, 2 more purely factual clarifications (still staying well away from politics):

- it's not just 24 caches. It just happened that out of the first 40 caches returned by my query, 24 were listed as Ireland. If this is representative, we may estimate that approximately half of the caches in Northern Ireland are listed as "Ireland".

- it's not a "mistake", and it's not chaotic; it's policy. This procedure is in place with the full and explicit approval of the reviewers, and is based on extensive discussion to determine the best way of dealing with a complex situation. You may feel that this policy should be reversed for political reasons but please do not do so lightly or without some form of consultation with the people affected.

Don't worry, even if I wanted to I can not reverse any policy on geocaching.com! I was just expressing my personal opinion and I am a complete nobody on gc.com (I have only volunteered to compile a list for Jeremy to work with). It sounds like this is indeed a complex situation and would require involvement of said local reviewers. I will make a note of that in the spreadsheet I'm compiling. Thanks for the clarification!

January 29, 2007

Don't worry, even if I wanted to I can not reverse any policy on geocaching.com! I was just expressing my personal opinion and I am a complete nobody on gc.com (I have only volunteered to compile a list for Jeremy to work with). It sounds like this is indeed a complex situation and would require involvement of said local reviewers. I will make a note of that in the spreadsheet I'm compiling. Thanks for the clarification!

Well, let me say now what I should have said in the first place - thanks for volunteering to do this! I am very much looking forward to having this new feature in place and have often wished we could have it but never thought it could be possible. I really appreciate that you and Jeremy are putting in the work to make this happen.

May 20, 2007

As this was (obviously) possible for Belgium, could TPTB please enable the state feature for Austria as well?!!

TIA,

BalkanSabranje

List of States:

Burgenland

Kärnten (Kaernten)

Niederösterreich (Niederoesterreich)

Oberösterreich (Oberoesterreich)

Salzburg

Steiermark

Tirol

Vorarlberg

Wien

*bumb*

2.3k · May 21, 2007

Ah, now if we can only get grand_high_pobah to implement all these 'states' in his geocaching stats site. Along with Northern Hemisphere vs. Southern Hemisphere and a lot of other types of distinctions.

August 13, 2007

I have added the regional division of Poland to the list now (thanks to Exocet for the help.

Jeremy, are you still with us? I know you are working hard on GC.COM 2.0. Any chance that this feature will be included too?

The updated country list is on http://www.inlinea.biz/geocaching/countrylist.xls

Katja - kdv

August 19, 2007

all the dutch people will be thankful when this option has been implemented. :unsure: )

August 29, 2007

Jeremy, are you still with us?

Sure he is, but I'm too hoping he reads this conversation.

Bringing this feature to life would be a major improvement! Perhaps it could start with only a few countries?

Zilvervloot.

August 29, 2007

A major part of Groundspeak is coming to Europe (or is already overhere), so maybe they get aware that this feature (and others) would be useful. More than three years after the first proposal is hope the last do die.

August 31, 2007

A major part of Groundspeak is coming to Europe (or is already overhere), so maybe they get aware that this feature (and others) would be useful. More than three years after the first proposal is hope the last do die.

It actually is already active with a few countries (e.g. US and Belgium), but I guess simply adding more countries would not satisfy Jeremy at this point, as the "State/province" list boxes are a bit 'messy', with a mix of US states, Belgian provinces, etc.

Just let's continue on keeping our fingers crossed

Katja - kdv

September 1, 2007

Hey folks,

Is it just me or are the region/province/.. fields actually being filled in at the moment. I see regions for Portugal and Spain now. Or have they been there all along?

Just trying not to cheer too soon

Katja

1.3k · September 2, 2007

Hey folks,

Is it just me or are the region/province/.. fields actually being filled in at the moment. I see regions for Portugal and Spain now. Or have they been there all along?

Just trying not to cheer too soon

Katja

You're right. Portugal and Spain have now a filter by region. :-)

Thanks to all at Groundspeak. Very nice feature.

September 13, 2007

Germany's states are online too. And if the last state (Hessen, as alltogether there are 16, but not 15 states) is inserted, the list will be complete. Right now i won't find any caches in my neighbourhood using the "Search by country"-method.

September 13, 2007

Thank you for implementing the german states! :-) (Hessen has been added in the meantime since Wutzebears posting.)

1.3k · September 17, 2007

I have a question to Groundspeak.

Seems that the new listings need to have the portuguese district specified. As for the older ones, the owners can edit and place it on the right district.

Is that the only way? Can't Groundspeak run a script and move them to the right district?

Thank you!

September 17, 2007

Of course I'm not Groundspeak and of course I am not replying on their behalf but maybe the answer to your question is this:

They probably can 'run a script' but they would have to define region polygons first to base the script on, at least if noone has manually made a list of Portuguese caches with corresponding regions.

I hope they will give priority to adding regions for more countries before (or instead of) doing this.

Also I hope that you at least like the new feature

Katja

I have a question to Groundspeak.

Seems that the new listings need to have the portuguese district specified. As for the older ones, the owners can edit and place it on the right district.

Is that the only way? Can't Groundspeak run a script and move them to the right district?

Thank you!

1.3k · September 17, 2007

Of course I'm not Groundspeak and of course I am not replying on their behalf but maybe the answer to your question is this:

They probably can 'run a script' but they would have to define region polygons first to base the script on, at least if noone has manually made a list of Portuguese caches with corresponding regions.

I hope they will give priority to adding regions for more countries before (or instead of) doing this.

Also I hope that you at least like the new feature

Katja

I sent those region polygons to our reviewer. All the work was done by fellows geocachers that run the portuguese stats site.

The feature is great, but I think that owners that aren't active won't pass the caches onto the right districts. It would be nice to see the script running.

You've done a great work, too.

1.1k · September 20, 2007

We are still stuck with just the UK. We cannot even choose between England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

September 25, 2007

As this was (obviously) possible for Belgium, could TPTB please enable the state feature for Austria as well?!!

TIA,

BalkanSabranje

List of States:

Burgenland

Kärnten (Kaernten)

Niederösterreich (Niederoesterreich)

Oberösterreich (Oberoesterreich)

Salzburg

Steiermark

Tirol

Vorarlberg

Wien

*bumb*

*bump2*

September 30, 2007

As for Belgium, Spain and Portugal, one can still choose "search all" without having to focus on a certain state or province.

Why has this feature been disabled for Germany?

October 10, 2007

Any news?

I'd really like to see this implemented for Dutch caches as well.

2.1k · October 10, 2007

We have a number of various country's states documented and will add them eventually, but right now we're sort of busy with more high priority issues. This is on the horizon, though.

October 10, 2007

Ok. I was just curious as Germany, Spain and Portugal recently got added.

1.3k · October 10, 2007

As for Belgium, Spain and Portugal, one can still choose "search all" without having to focus on a certain state or province.

Why has this feature been disabled for Germany?

It's because we have better weather.

It also makes sense to broaden the search through the country without specifying a county.

As for caches with absent owners, can't Groundspeak index them to the area of those counties/districts?

October 10, 2007

We have a number of various country's states documented and will add them eventually, but right now we're sort of busy with more high priority issues. This is on the horizon, though.

Thanks for the update Nate! We can't wait!

Well, actually we can and we will

January 14, 2008

We have a number of various country's states documented and will add them eventually, but right now we're sort of busy with more high priority issues. This is on the horizon, though.

Just curious if those "high priority issues" are still keeping you busy... :laughing:

January 31, 2008

What a great morning for italian geocachers...

I would like to thank Jeremy and the entire Geocaching.com staff for adding the italian regions in the "States" dropdown box !!!

Thank you very, very... very much !

Kazuma, geocaching-italia.com

Edited January 31, 2008 by kazuma

January 31, 2008

Yesterday Italy, today the rest of the world?

January 31, 2008

Can't wait for the UK and Ireland lists to be implemented, but will probably have to

6.2k · January 31, 2008

Just adding my vote to the request for UK & Ireland to have this feature.

January 31, 2008

Just adding my vote to the request for UK & Ireland to have this feature.

Me too. This has been on the 'to do' list for years it seems!

February 1, 2008

Just adding my vote to the request for UK & Ireland to have this feature.

Me too. This has been on the 'to do' list for years it seems!

Me too.

1.1k · February 13, 2008

When will the UK get counties? They would be great to have please :lol:

1.1k · February 13, 2008

Please can we have counties in the UK Please :lol:

2.1k · February 13, 2008

Please can we have counties in the UK Please

Do you or anyone you know have access to a complete list?

February 13, 2008

Do you or anyone you know have access to a complete list?

The excel sheet posted earlier in this topic contains a list.

I don't know if it's complete. (It is for the Netherlands though)

February 13, 2008

Hi Nate,

I've been compiling a list for a lot of countries:

http://www.inlinea.biz/geocaching/countrylist.xls

Please be aware that there is a particular issue for the UK/Ireland. The UK/Ireland geocaching community (including the local reviewers) like to have the counties in Northern Ireland listed as part of the UK AND as part of Ireland. This way if a cache is place in once of these counties, the owner of the cache can choose whether to use UK/Northern-Ireland-County-Name or Ireland/Northern-Ireland-County-Name. I guess it would make sense to get a UK/Ireland reviewer involved in compiling the final lists.

Katja

Please can we have counties in the UK Please

Do you or anyone you know have access to a complete list?

1.6k · February 13, 2008

Sorry KDV but your list for the UK in particular Wales is not what is in current usage, you've listed the Ceremonial Preserved Counties of Wale Clwyd for example is comprised of Conway,Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham all seperate counties. There are currently 22 counties in Wales and not the 8 ceremonial ones listed.

OpinioNate I'll post the question in the UK forum and get back to you with a definitive list.

1.5k · February 14, 2008

Please can we have counties in the UK Please

Do you or anyone you know have access to a complete list?

Hi Nate,

Due to the complex relationship between Ireland and the UK any implementation of UK counties would be best done in conjunction with Ireland. I'll speak to Deci about coordinating this if possible and also come back to you with a list of Irish counties. I'm on a business trip until the weekend so it won't be in the next couple of days.

(PS. In my opinion the Ireland list is wrong also with Tipperary split into North and South but I'll confirm that before committing)

Feature Enhancement: States

Recommended Posts