Postcode Search does not work *BUG?*

[+RachelsRiffRaff]

To the Bug Team - Today I went to search my local area and as usual typed in my postcode, expecting the usual mini-menu to pop-up with 10 or so choices, mine being smack-dab in the middle, but instead it just goes straight to a (blank) page with a CITO message. I've tried on two different browsers (IE and Firefox). I have updated My Location, just in case, but no good. So I tried to search with my area name, Wanganui but only got caches 9.6km and above, even though they had Wanganui in the name of the cache, and were in Wanganui City/Town. When I changed the name to Whanganui (with an 'H'= the district) it then displayed the caches closer to our home location. Extremely Frustrating. Are these bugs or just a new way of doing things?

[+Gushoneybun]

This does not help directly with the issue you are seeing, but why not when looking for caches close to home do something different and quicker?:

 

On the Your Profile page to the right,

under search options click on either the little map icon (called Map It) which will display a map based on your home coordinates or below there is another title: Search For Geocaches with two options,

either select near your home location

or if you do not want to see those you have found or placed click on filter out finds.

[OpinioNate]

Gushoneybun's suggestion is good. Try setting your home location here: http://www.geocaching.com/account/ManageLocations.aspx

 

Also, if you add "New Zealand" to your search for Wanganui it should grab the correct location. Unfortunately it seems like our geocoding does not have your postal code in the db, but that is being updated all the time.

[+RachelsRiffRaff]

Thanks very much guys, however done and done. I did reset My Location but that didn't help. I did find the 'Map It' link which is exceedingly useful, and also the 'near your home location' link. However, there are certain things I want to do when I search and the postal code search method did what I wanted.

Thanks Gushoneybun for your suggestions, much appreciated.

 

OpinioNate, yes I have reset my location but that did nothing to help. As for the database, I know for a fact that 4500 was in the database because I've been searching my local area using our postal code ever since we joined up in 2009. I would put the code in and hit GO, then a sub-menu would pop up with 10 or so choices of other 4500 postal codes, I would click on my area and then all the caches would then display. When I put my postal code in now, nothing happens, so something is either broken or changed.

 

Thanks for your suggestion to add New Zealand in the search which I have tried with partial success. Its the added 'H'. Its a town versus district issue. The Town is called Wanganui (with no H), the District is called Whanganui (WITH an H). I want to search for caches in Wanganui town (which has 60,000+ ppl), but when I search for Wanganui (no H), I don't get any caches under 9.6km. The only way I can get the township caches is to search 'Whanganui' (the district). It never used to be this way. (And FYI, all the township caches use the Wanganui spelling as well). If I searched for Feilding or Palmerston North (nearby towns), I have no such problems. The 'H' in Wanganui has been a contentious issue here and now it appears to be making its presence felt as I can only surmise that the database has been updated with the 'H' when the town and the district are two different entities.

 

I guess we all have to get used to change, but the way the database is now makes things very difficult for the searches I like to do. And the postcode search was so easy, and now it doesn't work at all. It would be great if the postal code search could be fixed (if it wasn't a deliberate change), and the database amended so that Wanganui is recognised as a town in its own right, and Whanganui as the district. (We always knew that blasted 'H' was going to be a problem!)

 

Thanks very much for the replies. Cheers

Edited January 19, 2012 by RachelsRiffRaff

[+Raine]

Sadly we're having to move away from Google's Geocoder which returned the different types. You're going to have to be a bit more specific until we can get a more robust Geocoder in place for those ambiguous searches.

[+RachelsRiffRaff]

Thanks for that Raine. I guess none of us like change, I should know better than anyone, I tutor older people on their computers, they HATE change. Seems I'm not too different to them. LOL.