Searching for UK [BE, IR etc.] caches

[+kewfriend]

An unintended by-product of searching for UK caches by region is that we now cannot view in one search all new UK caches as we are limited to the regions offered. Given that the UK is geographically smaller than France and many but not all US states this worthy attempt at being useful to the geo-punter has backfired. The search focus is now very very local.

 

I live in SW London. Technically I am a Londoner. But being not far from Heathrow I am also on the boundaries of Southern and South Eastern UK, and in fact most of my caching goes out west into the countryside.

 

Basically I have been shafted through good intent.

 

Please re-instate the all UK search capability.

Edited January 14, 2009 by OpinioNate

[OpinioNate]

I realize this method won't work for basic members, but as you're a PM you might have some success by setting up a Pocket Query and bookmarking it.

[+The Blorenges]

Not quite the answer we were looking for. We used to be able to search the whole UK, now we can't so someone somewhere has edited some code methinks....... anychance it can be 'undone' so the 'All' option comes back?

 

Chris (MrB)

[+tozainamboku]

Not much you can do on the hide and seek page. However on the PQ query page you can select multiple states/provinces/regions by holding the ctrl key down when you click. I have a couple of pocket queries that do this to find caches in several different US states. Be warned however that if you combine this with a distance from your home coordinates it doesn't work right. You need to put in specific coordinates for each pocket query where you do this. Create a PQ with your favorite parameters and preview this when you want to search for caches in your area.

Edited January 13, 2009 by tozainamboku

[+The Blorenges]

I regularly used the 'advanced search' facility to search all Event caches within (country) United Kingdom. It was quick and easy and gave me all events that I might want to go to. (After all, the whole of UK is mostly within 900 miles of me )

 

I can't do it any more

 

MrsB

[OpinioNate]

I'm sorry, I missed where this had actually just changed today. I'll see what can be done to allow these searches again.

[+tozainamboku]

I can't even select the United States in the country box on the hide and seek page. You people in the United Kingdom and Belgium and even in Canada should be happy that Geocaching.com recognizes your countries. You asked to have states, provinces, or regions so you could be treated more like the United States. Then when you you get them you want special treatment so you can look for caches in all the states, provinces, and regions of your countries. Well I can't do that. Maybe President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton can restore America's standing in the world and we can get the same treatment as other countries

[+Munkeh]

I'm sorry, I missed where this had actually just changed today. I'll see what can be done to allow these searches again.

surely the easiest solution is to have a "all regions" option on the pull down

[+kewfriend]

I can't even select the United States in the country box on the hide and seek page. You people in the United Kingdom and Belgium and even in Canada should be happy that Geocaching.com recognizes your countries. You asked to have states, provinces, or regions so you could be treated more like the United States. Then when you you get them you want special treatment so you can look for caches in all the states, provinces, and regions of your countries. Well I can't do that. Maybe President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton can restore America's standing in the world and we can get the same treatment as other countries

I forgive the grumpiness of this posting. The UK and Germany have a vast number of caches each equal to the total of at least a dozen US states bar the obvious ones such as CA. The UK is geographically stretched out. There is a very strong case for the regional listings simply to break down volume. However the UK geo-area is actually quite small (we are the densest populated country in Europe bar Holland and far more dense than any US state), and so dipping into a nearby region easily is 'de rigeur.' We need both regional and as Munkeh says, 'All regions'. There's is a strong case for Germany to be treated the same.

 

The Belgian issue is a federal, language and incipient nationalism issue. It drives most Belgians crazy whether they are a 'Flem' or a 'Walloon', or even as a few pointedly remind one: a native German speaker. Try driving from central Brussels to Ypres following road signs and you'll appreciate the problem!! Mental note to stop off and do a few more Belgian caches.

 

The PQ solution is convoluted, will give partial results and will have to have them 're-sorted' in GSAK or something similar. GC.COM are now aware of the issue and I welcome any move back to simplicity and offering 'all regions' again asap.

 

[+The Leprechauns]

Is it not fixed for you, as is being reported in the United Kingdom section of the Forums?

 

It's still broken here in the U.S. I can be in Ohio or West Virginia in a half hour from my home in Pennsylvania, or in New York or Maryland in 90 minutes. I've always had to search each state one at a time unless I use a distance-based search.

[+DanPan]

The "--Search All--" option is back for UK, BE & DE.

[+The Blorenges]

Thanks to whoever's responsible for returning our -Search All-

 

I know some folks perceive an 'inequality' in this search facility but, for me, it's all about geographical area.

 

Think of UK as (roughly) equivalent to one USA state.

 

We have it sub-divided down into individual regions. One region = (roughly) 4 USA counties. (Whether these regions are of much use is a topic of regular dispute on the UK Forum.)

 

We like to be able to -Search All- caches within UK, just as many in USA would -Search All- caches within California, or Utah, or any of your individual states.

 

I understand that some are saying, "But we can't -Search All- the entire USA", but that would be rather like us wanting to -Search All- the whole of Europe.

 

(No, I don't want to... thanks )

 

Anyway.. Thank you!

 

MrsB

[+Windsocker]

Ireland's search all is still broken

[+tozainamboku]

I can't even select the United States in the country box on the hide and seek page. You people in the United Kingdom and Belgium and even in Canada should be happy that Geocaching.com recognizes your countries. You asked to have states, provinces, or regions so you could be treated more like the United States. Then when you you get them you want special treatment so you can look for caches in all the states, provinces, and regions of your countries. Well I can't do that. Maybe President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton can restore America's standing in the world and we can get the same treatment as other countries

I forgive the grumpiness of this posting. The UK and Germany have a vast number of caches each equal to the total of at least a dozen US states bar the obvious ones such as CA. The UK is geographically stretched out. There is a very strong case for the regional listings simply to break down volume. However the UK geo-area is actually quite small (we are the densest populated country in Europe bar Holland and far more dense than any US state), and so dipping into a nearby region easily is 'de rigeur.' We need both regional and as Munkeh says, 'All regions'. There's is a strong case for Germany to be treated the same.

Well being in that obvious large, geographically stretched out, and cache dense state where David Beckham plays for our local soccer (football to you) club when he is not in Italy, I suppose I could sympathize if only Groundspeak would divide California up by region or counties. The problem is I live in the cache and population dense southern region which consist of 7 or 8 counties some of which are among the largest in area in the US. I tend to find the area I most often cache in is better describe by distance from my home coordinates rather than any political boundaries. Since I don't scuba dive, I tend to avoid caches hidden in the ocean so I am able to offset to the east a bit and have less of my circle in the Pacific Ocean. However the coastline starts running east to west near where I live and I want to find caches in the area the the northwest of me so I can't shift my circle too much. I have not much sympathy for the Europeans who asked for regions/states for their country because they are cache dense and the geography doesn't lend itself to using search by distance and now say that because they live by a boundary of two or more regions they want to also be able to search for all regions. I don't have this capability, I don't see that Groundspeak would ever give this capability, and I am not going to ask for this capability. I will just continue to use my convoluted set of PQs and GSAK to find the caches I seek.

[+trainlove]

I'm sorry, I missed where this had actually just changed today. I'll see what can be done to allow these searches again.

Related to http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=206473

Somewhere around that timeframe you, or someone else at Groundspeak, made the "all regions" ability available to some, but not all 15, of the Countries where it could have been placed.

Forgive my calling it "all regions" I'm not sure just what it was called and I'll try to find that particular message where someone at your end was confused by the request, even after it was 'fixed'.

 

Not quite this one either, but perhaps one of the ones linked to in this one: http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=203936

Edited January 14, 2009 by trainlove

[OpinioNate]

The "all regions" search will be returned to those countries that previous had this functionality. In fact, it should be ready to go now (both search methods).

 

The reason some countries don't have this search option is because the query is simply too large and would put too much of a burden on the site. In fact, Germany is getting to the point where we may have to remove the option, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

[+trainlove]

In fact, Germany is getting to the point where we may have to remove the option, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Then perhaps 'add' a new province/state to all those that are too big, and call it 'catch-all' for those caches that are not in Massachusetts, and not in New Hampshire and not in New York... I.E. Those caches that 'somehow' are not within a state/province of the country selected. There were something like 40,000 in the UK that are not listed.

Perhaps just display a statement to the effect,

the 'region' you selected has 123,456 caches and that is just too many to display, perform some other kind of search.

[+sTeamTraen]

I have not much sympathy for the Europeans who asked for regions/states for their country because they are cache dense and the geography doesn't lend itself to using search by distance and now say that because they live by a boundary of two or more regions they want to also be able to search for all regions.

A few random thoughts:

- Not all the people in each country asked for states/regions. In fact, probably a small minority of cachers asked for them, via the forums. To withdraw the "all country" functionality on that basis would be undemocratic, not that this is a democracy here.

- In some European countries the split by regions helps the reviewers as much as anyone else. For example, in Belgium, the region determines which reviewer will be able to understand the language the cache is written in. Again, the players didn't necessarily ask for this. Even the reviewers need to look for caches across state boundaries, and they don't always want to wait for one of their (limited number of) pocket queries to run. In fact one of the things the reviewers might want to do is to find caches which don't have a state listed, and ask the owner to update the listing. That's kind of hard when they've disappeared from the radar.

- Nobody is asking for new functionality here. It disappeared as a result of a bug, which was fixed. Groundspeak has given no suggestion that this was a feature, nor that they will save any significant resources by removing this functionality across the board at this time.

[+Harry Dolphin]

I regularly used the 'advanced search' facility to search all Event caches within (country) United Kingdom. It was quick and easy and gave me all events that I might want to go to. (After all, the whole of UK is mostly within 900 miles of me )

 

I can't do it any more

 

MrsB

 

I agree with Keystone! 35 miles, or an hour's drive, and I'm in New York, or Pennsylania. 107 miles, and I can hit the furthest point in New Jersey. Hey! New Jersey is smaller than Belgium!