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Geocaching.com site update Jan 17th 2012


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Read the last update's Release Notes

 

Recently Viewed Geocaches

 

Have you ever been out for a day of caching and then struggled to remember which caches you found so you could log them? In this update we added a list of caches you recently viewed to the profile and a new top navigation link under "Play" to directly view the list. The last 50 viewed caches are included and are saved for 10 days.

 

Try it out.

 

dhgT4.png

 

Release Notes

New Features:

 

• When a user searches for a Trackable using the private code the code will now automatically populate the "Add a log Entry" form field

• Added a list of allowable HTML to create/edit cache page to assist cache creation

• Created new "large" image size for cache image previews and image edits instead of displaying the original image size

• Removed Google Map API from user routes (CAaR) and replaced with Leaflet/open-map

• Removed Google Map API from Trackables maps and replaced with Leaflet/open-map

• Updated URL from travelbugS.aspx to travelbug.aspx and setup redirect

• The Action Challenge type has been retired and is no longer available as an option to create new Challenges; existing Action Challenges are grandfathered

• Added Send to GPS support for Falk GPS devices

• Added instructions for uploading Field Notes from Falk GPS devices to /my/fieldnotes.aspx

• Added a new section to profile displaying a list of the last 50 geocaches viewed within 10 days; navigation updated with "Log a Cache" option in dropdown for Play

• Replaced the Girl Scouts PDF on the Education page with a newer version

• Added a Swedish language Intro to Geocaching brochure to /tools/default.aspx

• Changed "What is a Travel Bug" to "What is a Trackable" on cache details page

 

Bug Fixes:

 

• Modified top level navigation to point to a default page for each menu item when clicked (e.g. Play links to Hide & Seek page)

• Fixed bug when flagging a Challenge as "inappropriate" that caused the spinner to spin indefinitely

• The site will now strip "<" characters from cache titles to prevent malicious scripting attacks

• Fixed bug which caused international characters to be HTML encoded in gallery image captions, rendering them unreadable

• Fixed bug which caused mobile app logs to lose carriage returns when displayed on the website

• Fixed issue on advanced search where geocoding by address would only return caches at 0,0 coordinates

• Fixed bug causing Caches Along a Route PQs to not honor excluded attributes

• Fixed bug which caused Premium Members with a plus (+) sign in their email address to lose instant notifications

• Fixed cache Additional Waypoints error caused by editing the same waypoint twice in succession

• The print view for a cache with modified coordinates will now properly display the new coordinates when printed

• Fixed anchor links in Travel Bug "How To" FAQ

• Fixed Facebook sharing functionality to display the appropriate cache type thumbnail and a link to the cache that was logged

• Fixed bug in Trackable stats panel which caused a generic TB icon to be displayed in place of the Trackable's default image. Domo!

• Changed "What is a Travel Bug" to "What is a Trackable" on cache details page

• Fixed layout of cache page in IE8 when printed using the non-print-friendly version (i.e. regular cache page view)

• Fixed issue preventing certain users from purchasing a gift membership by credit card

• Modified link to mapy.cz on Czech cache pages to accord with the new URL format

• Fixed cross-site scripting vulnerability by implementing new HTML filtering rules to cache descriptions

• Fixed bug which caused new images uploaded to a Trackable by the owner would be listed as the default image whether or not that option was chosen

• The cache page "other conversions" page now properly converts coordinates in UTM format for caches in the southern hemisphere

• Fixed bug where a knowing the GUID of an unpublished cache would give access to gallery, waypoints and logs

• Fixed incorrect sort order for GPS reviews (e.g. "Most Owned", "Highest Rated" etc)

• Fixed issue with forum avatars displaying in the wrong size causing some avatars to be blurry/stretched

• Added Globalcaching.eu to list of API partners on /live/

 

 

 

KD0cp.png Geocaching Live API Beta

 

The beta launch of the Geocaching Live API continues! This time we're pleased to announce four new partners:

 

49J9b.png Locus

 

Locus is an Android application for hiking, geocaching and everyday outdoor life. Support for online and offline use, vector maps, navigation, track recording, weather, parking, POI alert and many geocaching features.

 

BsybO.png CacheMaid

 

CacheMaid is a tool for geocachers that runs on Android devices. It shows information about caches and lets you navigate to them using the built-in GPS and compass. Features include offline maps, paperless caching, search and download caches online, log your finds, full support for Trackables, import GPX files, import Pocket Queries and more.

 

LRgEw.png Geopt

 

Geopt Geocaching Tools is a set of tools that facilitates the uploading of multiple photos, easy construction of listings in html code, uploading logs through Field Notes, moving/discovering numerous Trackables simultaneously, managing Bookmarks, coordinate converter and a host of other features constantly updated. The application is free.

 

oig1R.png Globalcaching.eu

 

Globalcaching.eu is a free geocaching portal website for Dutch and Belgian geocachers. The website offers several tools and features including advanced cache search, the ability to create Trackable groups, a helpful tool for submitting cache listings, and an active Dutch forum and chatroom.

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Continuing a discussion from the previous release notes thread...

I'm usually much more interested in what my geocaching friends are going to do in the future (when I might be able to join them) than in what my geocaching friends have done recently (when it's too late to join them). But I don't need the geocaching.com Friends feature to help me with that, because I have email, local forums, Facebook, etc.
Ok, so more to the point then, if the Friends features on gc.com were improved, would it hinder or deter or reduce your use of GC.com's friends features? Or would you feel that improving would still be better for the general populace, even if you didn't take advantage of the improvements? (those who wouldn't use it aren't really reasons not to move forward, unless the changes worsen their experience)
That depends entirely on what the "improvements" actually are. Worst case, Groundspeak developers waste time on "improvements" to the Friends feature, time that would have been better spent working on something else (like the "Beta" maps). Well, actually, I suppose the worst case is that the Friends feature becomes worse than useless and I un-Friend everyone, in addition to the developers wasting their time. But more likely, the social network features will merely remain irrelevent, like the social networking features on several other sites that I use.
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The pictures size for the benchmarks were to be fixed I thought. It didn't happen. When you go to a log, the picture - when clicked on has a smaller picture come up than on Cache logs. Then even when you click view log, and then click the picture in the viewer, on caches it gets to a larger size, on benchmark logs it doesn't. We were told it would be up for a fix on the 17th. Maybe a month from now, or was it missed somehow?

 

Will this be fixed at all?

 

Thank you for your time.

 

Shirley~

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Domo!!!

 

New Features:

 

• When a user searches for a Trackable using the private code the code will now automatically populate the "Add a log Entry" form field

• Added a list of allowable HTML to create/edit cache page to assist cache creation

• Created new "large" image size for cache image previews and image edits instead of displaying the original image size

• Added a new section to profile displaying a list of the last 50 geocaches viewed within 10 days; navigation updated with "Log a Cache" option in dropdown for Play

• Changed "What is a Travel Bug" to "What is a Trackable" on cache details page

 

 

All these, VERY COOL!!!

What a nice addition!

 

Bug Fixes:

 

• The site will now strip "<" characters from cache titles to prevent malicious scripting attacks

• Fixed bug which caused international characters to be HTML encoded in gallery image captions, rendering them unreadable

• Fixed bug which caused mobile app logs to lose carriage returns when displayed on the website

• The print view for a cache with modified coordinates will now properly display the new coordinates when printed

• Fixed anchor links in Travel Bug "How To" FAQ

• Fixed bug in Trackable stats panel which caused a generic TB icon to be displayed in place of the Trackable's default image. Domo!

• Changed "What is a Travel Bug" to "What is a Trackable" on cache details page

• Fixed cross-site scripting vulnerability by implementing new HTML filtering rules to cache descriptions

• Fixed bug which caused new images uploaded to a Trackable by the owner would be listed as the default image whether or not that option was chosen

• Fixed issue with forum avatars displaying in the wrong size causing some avatars to be blurry/stretched

 

 

Awesome Job, GC Lackeys, and Hampsters!!!

 

BIG Thanks!

 

~ Dr.MORO

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Continuing a discussion from the previous release notes thread...
Why?
Because I had already composed my reply when the other thread was locked, and this seemed like the most reasonable place to continue the discussion.

Even though it has nothing at all to do with this topic?

 

Anyway, about the update...

The new Recently Viewed Caches is great and all, but I've got a couple of issues with it.

1. The intention seems to be to make it easier for people to log caches. If this is the case, then why are caches I've already found or own shown in this list?

2. The placement on the profile page is very disruptive. Instead of having my recent activity near the top, it has been bumped down below a section that I suspect will not be used by many cachers. For all the cachers that log using GPSr field notes or through the app, this section will not be very helpful, and actually gets in the way. At least let us disable it or collapse it.

 

One thing that should be updated on the Recently Viewed Caches page is the "Log it" icon. It really needs to have a hover tooltip. I had to hover over it and look at the URL to realize what it was. Newer cachers or "computer-challenged" users may not figure it out.

 

As far as the other changes, thank you for fixing the image size issue! That was very annoying, and it's great to see them back to full size. I also greatly appreciate the autopopulating of trackable codes. That will make logging trackables much easier and faster.

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Domo again!

 

The pictures size for the benchmarks were to be fixed I thought. It didn't happen. When you go to a log, the picture - when clicked on has a smaller picture come up than on Cache logs. Then even when you click view log, and then click the picture in the viewer, on caches it gets to a larger size, on benchmark logs it doesn't. We were told it would be up for a fix on the 17th. Maybe a month from now, or was it missed somehow?

 

Will this be fixed at all?

 

Thank you for your time.

 

Shirley~

 

Oops, totally missed that one...

Yes, the Benchmark page update is long overdue, and needs to catchup with the rest of GC.com ASAP.

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The pictures size for the benchmarks were to be fixed I thought. It didn't happen. When you go to a log, the picture - when clicked on has a smaller picture come up than on Cache logs. Then even when you click view log, and then click the picture in the viewer, on caches it gets to a larger size, on benchmark logs it doesn't. We were told it would be up for a fix on the 17th. Maybe a month from now, or was it missed somehow?

 

Will this be fixed at all?

 

Thank you for your time.

 

Shirley~

 

This is indicated as having been corrected in today's release. Are you looking at benchmark images uploaded after the update or before?

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The pictures size for the benchmarks were to be fixed I thought. It didn't happen. When you go to a log, the picture - when clicked on has a smaller picture come up than on Cache logs. Then even when you click view log, and then click the picture in the viewer, on caches it gets to a larger size, on benchmark logs it doesn't. We were told it would be up for a fix on the 17th. Maybe a month from now, or was it missed somehow?

 

Will this be fixed at all?

 

Thank you for your time.

 

Shirley~

 

This is indicated as having been corrected in today's release. Are you looking at benchmark images uploaded after the update or before?

:blink:

It isn't retroactive? When the fix was applied for images in cache logs, and today for cache pages, ALL image links were fixed no matter how old they were. Why wouldn't it be the same for these?

 

Edit: Changed "images" to "image links"

Edited by The A-Team
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Recently Viewed Geocaches

 

Have you ever been out for a day of caching and then struggled to remember which caches you found so you could log them? In this update we added a list of caches you recently viewed to the profile and a new top navigation link under "Play" to directly view the list. The last 50 viewed caches are included and are saved for 10 days.

 

Is there a way to turn this off, please? I would much rather see our current log activity at the top of the page.

 

Thank you,

Mrs. Car54

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Re: Removed Google Map API from user routes (CAaR) and replaced with Leaflet/open-map

 

It would appear upon zooming in that these new CAaR routes use far fewer GPX points. That will make them totally useless for narrow searches along a route.

 

When I plan a route for traveling some distance, I know that I will not wish to cache more than 0.5 miles (and sometimes less) from the highway. These new maps will leave sections of the route unsearched as the highway winds around and the straight-line search of the route chooses to ignore these curves. Google maps used to have this problem but have significantly refined and improved their maps. Now, you've chosen to return to the less useful routing. Why did you make this negative experience choice?

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:blink:

It isn't retroactive? When the fix was applied for images in cache logs, and today for cache pages, ALL image links were fixed no matter how old they were. Why wouldn't it be the same for these?

 

Edit: Changed "images" to "image links"

 

No, as benchmark images are handled completely differently. For instance, they do not appear in a pop-up box like those on cache pages.

 

I've confirmed that the issue has been corrected for benchmark images uploaded after today's release, but images uploaded between last release and today will remain small.

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Recently Viewed Geocaches

 

Have you ever been out for a day of caching and then struggled to remember which caches you found so you could log them? In this update we added a list of caches you recently viewed to the profile and a new top navigation link under "Play" to directly view the list. The last 50 viewed caches are included and are saved for 10 days.

 

Is there a way to turn this off, please? I would much rather see our current log activity at the top of the page.

 

Thank you,

Mrs. Car54

 

Yes. The link at the very top, with "Geocaches (Yours) ... is sufficient if we ever wanted to use this feature.

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Recently Viewed Geocaches

 

Have you ever been out for a day of caching and then struggled to remember which caches you found so you could log them? In this update we added a list of caches you recently viewed to the profile and a new top navigation link under "Play" to directly view the list. The last 50 viewed caches are included and are saved for 10 days.

 

Is there a way to turn this off, please? I would much rather see our current log activity at the top of the page.

 

Thank you,

Mrs. Car54

 

As always, ABP to the rescue with an element hiding rule:

 

geocaching.com#div(id=ctl00_ContentBody_RecentlyViewedCachesPanel)

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The pictures size for the benchmarks were to be fixed I thought. It didn't happen. When you go to a log, the picture - when clicked on has a smaller picture come up than on Cache logs. Then even when you click view log, and then click the picture in the viewer, on caches it gets to a larger size, on benchmark logs it doesn't. We were told it would be up for a fix on the 17th. Maybe a month from now, or was it missed somehow?

 

Will this be fixed at all?

 

Thank you for your time.

 

Shirley~

 

This is indicated as having been corrected in today's release. Are you looking at benchmark images uploaded after the update or before?

 

I am looking at both. None show any difference than before.

 

One from 12/06/2010 and one from 01/14/2012 and I went to the benchmark gallery just now and saw your test. One of your pictures is small. But even if it is only for those pictures posted after the update, that leaves 1000's of pictures that are useless to Surveyors that are coming to GC to view the benchmark logs!! Can't it be fixed to show them like they were before the problem started? Or do we have to go through our pictures and reload them?

 

Shirley~

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I'm sorry, but I absolutely hate the Leaflet maps. I don't see why you'd replace them with something way less useful. Zooming just doesn't work right and even panning gets the map to black. You can't switch to sattelite view anymore and really nobody's using Leaflet maps anyway. So why change something working perfectly?

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:blink:

It isn't retroactive? When the fix was applied for images in cache logs, and today for cache pages, ALL image links were fixed no matter how old they were. Why wouldn't it be the same for these?

 

Edit: Changed "images" to "image links"

 

No, as benchmark images are handled completely differently. For instance, they do not appear in a pop-up box like those on cache pages.

 

I've confirmed that the issue has been corrected for benchmark images uploaded after today's release, but images uploaded between last release and today will remain small.

So the site was permanently resizing the images for over a month? If so, it's completely unacceptable that it was left to do this for so long with no warning.

I'm still skeptical that the issue has been fixed, though. I've just browsed through a bunch of benchmarks, and all the images (even ones from years ago) are still small. See the following for examples:

TR0788

TR2513

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As always, ABP to the rescue with an element hiding rule:

 

geocaching.com#div(id=ctl00_ContentBody_RecentlyViewedCachesPanel)

 

What pray tell is this? And, how would I use it?

 

http://adblockplus.org/en/

 

Then you add it as a custom element hiding rule in the preferences.

 

Thanks. I'll wait to see if Geocaching takes care of it before I try to figure that out. I appreciate your reply.

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The pictures size for the benchmarks were to be fixed I thought. It didn't happen. When you go to a log, the picture - when clicked on has a smaller picture come up than on Cache logs. Then even when you click view log, and then click the picture in the viewer, on caches it gets to a larger size, on benchmark logs it doesn't. We were told it would be up for a fix on the 17th. Maybe a month from now, or was it missed somehow?

 

Will this be fixed at all?

 

Thank you for your time.

 

Shirley~

 

This is indicated as having been corrected in today's release. Are you looking at benchmark images uploaded after the update or before?

 

I am looking at both. None show any difference than before.

 

One from 12/06/2010 and one from 01/14/2012 and I went to the benchmark gallery just now and saw your test. One of your pictures is small. But even if it is only for those pictures posted after the update, that leaves 1000's of pictures that are useless to Surveyors that are coming to GC to view the benchmark logs!! Can't it be fixed to show them like they were before the problem started? Or do we have to go through our pictures and reload them?

 

Shirley~

 

Here is one from 2007. It also shows a smaller picture when the original picture is clicked, instead of the larger one, like it had been before either update. Is this just how it is and we are left like this?

 

Shirley~

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So the site was permanently resizing the images for over a month? If so, it's completely unacceptable that it was left to do this for so long with no warning.

I'm still skeptical that the issue has been fixed, though. I've just browsed through a bunch of benchmarks, and all the images (even ones from years ago) are still small. See the following for examples:

TR0788

TR2513

 

Not cache images, but possibly (and mistakenly) benchmark images. I have a inquiry in to the developer of the image handler and will have more information tomorrow.

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HTML entities don't work properly any more. I.e. if I enter & gt;b& lt; to produce a literal "<b>" in the text, it's translated into an actual HTML tag instead and so doesn't show up. Is this expected?

 

Bump? This is a rather magor issue.

 

Edit: I just noticed I had it backwards in my OP, it should be & lt;b& gt; - the issue remains the same tho.

Edited by dfx
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Re: Added a list of allowable HTML to create/edit cache page to assist cache creation

 

Where do we find this? Thanks.

You'd think it would either be on the cache submission page or here in the Help Center, but it isn't in either.

 

It's on the cache submission/edit page and it appears when you check the "The descriptions below are in HTML" check box.

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Re: Added a list of allowable HTML to create/edit cache page to assist cache creation

 

Where do we find this? Thanks.

You'd think it would either be on the cache submission page or here in the Help Center, but it isn't in either.

 

It's on the cache submission/edit page and it appears when you check the "The descriptions below are in HTML" check box.

So it is! Nice! Thanks

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Reiterating, entering the following into a cache listing:

 

<foo>test</foo>
<foo>test</foo>
<foo>test</foo>
&amp;lt;foo&amp;gt;test&amp;lt;/foo&amp;gt;

 

instantly gets translated into this upon submission:

 

test test
<foo>test</foo>
<foo>test</foo>

 

So, you have to triple escape the HTML entities to make them show up. Additionally, double escaping allows you to inject disallowed HTML code.

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Reiterating, entering the following into a cache listing:

 

<foo>test</foo>
<foo>test</foo>
<foo>test</foo>
&amp;lt;foo&amp;gt;test&amp;lt;/foo&amp;gt;

 

instantly gets translated into this upon submission:

 

test test
<foo>test</foo>
<foo>test</foo>

 

So, you have to triple escape the HTML entities to make them show up. Additionally, double escaping allows you to inject disallowed HTML code.

 

Looks like the forum is eating some HTML here too. The original text is here: http://pastebin.com/2TmR5UVe

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Recently Viewed Geocaches

 

Have you ever been out for a day of caching and then struggled to remember which caches you found so you could log them? In this update we added a list of caches you recently viewed to the profile and a new top navigation link under "Play" to directly view the list. The last 50 viewed caches are included and are saved for 10 days.

 

Is there a way to turn this off, please? I would much rather see our current log activity at the top of the page.

 

Thank you,

Mrs. Car54

 

I am agreeing with this request. I really do like the feature, just not the placement. Perhaps a tabbed interface would make everybody happy?

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Re: Removed Google Map API from user routes (CAaR) and replaced with Leaflet/open-map

 

It would appear upon zooming in that these new CAaR routes use far fewer GPX points. That will make them totally useless for narrow searches along a route.

 

When I plan a route for traveling some distance, I know that I will not wish to cache more than 0.5 miles (and sometimes less) from the highway. These new maps will leave sections of the route unsearched as the highway winds around and the straight-line search of the route chooses to ignore these curves. Google maps used to have this problem but have significantly refined and improved their maps. Now, you've chosen to return to the less useful routing. Why did you make this negative experience choice?

 

Yikes! That could get ugly fast!

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Recently Viewed Geocaches

 

Have you ever been out for a day of caching and then struggled to remember which caches you found so you could log them? In this update we added a list of caches you recently viewed to the profile and a new top navigation link under "Play" to directly view the list. The last 50 viewed caches are included and are saved for 10 days.

 

Is there a way to turn this off, please? I would much rather see our current log activity at the top of the page.

 

Thank you,

Mrs. Car54

 

Yes. The link at the very top, with "Geocaches (Yours) ... is sufficient if we ever wanted to use this feature.

 

This is a bandwagon I'll jump on. I use the recently logged list far more than I'd ever use the recently viewed. Having it in the menu bar would be sufficient for me. Or, maybe better, pu tit under the List Management page with the favorites, bookmarks, and watchlist.

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I'm sorry, but I absolutely hate the Leaflet maps. I don't see why you'd replace them with something way less useful. Zooming just doesn't work right and even panning gets the map to black. You can't switch to sattelite view anymore and really nobody's using Leaflet maps anyway. So why change something working perfectly?

 

Google Maps to charge for usage

 

only a rumor it seems

Edited by t4e
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Recently Viewed Geocaches

 

Have you ever been out for a day of caching and then struggled to remember which caches you found so you could log them? In this update we added a list of caches you recently viewed to the profile and a new top navigation link under "Play" to directly view the list. The last 50 viewed caches are included and are saved for 10 days.

 

Is there a way to turn this off, please? I would much rather see our current log activity at the top of the page.

 

Thank you,

Mrs. Car54

 

Yes, I too would like the ability to turn this new "feature" off.

Link to comment

I'm sorry, but I absolutely hate the Leaflet maps. I don't see why you'd replace them with something way less useful. Zooming just doesn't work right and even panning gets the map to black. You can't switch to sattelite view anymore and really nobody's using Leaflet maps anyway. So why change something working perfectly?

 

Google Maps to charge for usage

 

Can't argue with that.

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I'm sorry, but I absolutely hate the Leaflet maps. I don't see why you'd replace them with something way less useful. Zooming just doesn't work right and even panning gets the map to black. You can't switch to sattelite view anymore and really nobody's using Leaflet maps anyway. So why change something working perfectly?

 

Google Maps to charge for usage

 

only a rumor it seems

 

Nope. I'm sure Jeremy just grabbed the first story he could find. Here's the source of the "rumor" : http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2011/10/introduction-of-usage-limits-to-maps.html

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I'm sorry, but I absolutely hate the Leaflet maps. I don't see why you'd replace them with something way less useful. Zooming just doesn't work right and even panning gets the map to black. You can't switch to sattelite view anymore and really nobody's using Leaflet maps anyway. So why change something working perfectly?

 

Google Maps to charge for usage

 

only a rumor it seems

Not at all. Here's the Google page detailing the limits.

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Has the recently viewed panel already been hotfixed? Just looked at the profile, and it's now got its own link in the header link bar, and nothing above recent activity but what was there before

I still have it, too. Have you recently viewed any caches?

d'oh, heh, yeah.

When I hadn't viewed caches since the update, it wasn't there but the link up top was. I only tested that page after looking at a cache, but hadn't checked my profile again :P Yes, the panel is still there on the profile page. bah.

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