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Release Notes - October 14, 2014


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Read the previous release notes

 

Release Notes

 

This release updates your Geocaching Account Settings. Here's what you need to know:

 


     
  • New Account Settings features replace Your Account Details.
  • Find your Account Settings through the gear icon under your username.
  • Your Avatar is renamed "Profile Image" and will be the one image displayed throughout the website. Go here for details.

More information is a click away. Read in detail about these and other changes in this FAQ on The Geocaching Blog. Also including in this update:

 


     
  • You can now restore Lab Cache finds in IE 10.
  • Your Field Notes has been localized into multiple languages.

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Other than the already discussed topic about "List Newest in [state]", I don't have strong opinions on most of the changes, except for one.

 

Why take away the Daylight Savings Time choice? What about those people who happen to live in a city that doesn't observe it?

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This appears to have been done solely to improve the mobile display of the profile. Have you guys not heard of Responsive design?

 

You can optimize the display for BOTH viewports you know, right? All I see now is a tiny, measly display that screams "THIS WILL BE USABLE ON A SMALL PHONE".

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The edit profile or as you call it bio, are you sure you couldn't make the edit box a bit smaller? I can still sort of manage to see what I am doing. What was wrong with the old style page? Oh, yeah, it wouldn't fit on Jeremy's iPhone, silly me. And slow? Dead snails crawl faster than that page loads. And once is loads and you go to scroll it, it has to go off and take up more time doing something. You really topped it this time. Next time try to remember not everyone uses a smartphone to access your website, try to figure out how to use adaptive programing.

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I'm very unhappy with the changes. I did not care about the miniature avatars as I have switched off their display in logs anyway. I appreciated the fact however that in my profile page the photo of a painting was displayed completely and in appropriate size. The new version cuts away relevant parts and moreover is too small to be appreciated as what it is.

A lot of users used the geocaching photo to provide a picture of themselves while caching. These profile pictures served a completely different purpose than tiny avatars.

Your next step might be to "pixelize" also the gallery photos. Is Groundspeak aware of the fact that there are still many, many cachers who use the website on a computer?

 

It might well be that some beginners had questions about the difference between the avatar and the profile page. But as in the case of the removed "search nearest link" I do think that the fact that some newbies have questions and difficulties to understand something should be the reason to massively make a product worse for the experienced users.

 

The font size on the new profile pages is tiny and hard to read for my weak eyes.

 

Moreover, I miss the option to remove the display of the list of recently viewed caches (I have reported in another tread about this).

 

Last but not least, let me point out that the recent policy to close down the threads on previous releases is annoying. The topic of the removed "search nearest" and many other recently discussed topics are not yet finished. In order to stay on topic, we should focus on the new release in this thread but are at the same time deprived of the appropriate place to comment about the old release. Somehow this creates the feeling that Groundspeak somehow hopes that people will stop requesting text e-mails, the nearest search link and other things taken away recently when they encounter closed threads.

Edited by cezanne
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Just one Question: Why!??

The page looks worse now than before. You should invest time and resources in useful features.

btw: I am really missing the option to hide the "Recently Viewed Caches" from the profile page. I do not understand why such things are taken away insead of adding useful features. Please bring this option back!

Take a look for example at some of the greasemonkey scripts out there to get an idea how the website could be made much more userfriendly out-of-the-box.

Edited by j-he
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I don't know how to say what I am thinking and feeling. It seems every release we only het more changes that cater to n00bs and/or smartphone users while existing featuures get carved away. If all I want is to play a smartphone game I will go to that "m" game exclusively and take my money with me. Circumstances have kept me from caching as much as I would like to and these last few sets of changes are not encouraging me to return any time soon. You are making a lot of us feel like you neither want or need us any longer. How long will it be before you just stop with the pretense and shut down the web interface entirely?

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I'm very unhappy with the changes. I did not care about the miniature avatars as I have switched off their display in logs anyway. I appreciated the fact however that in my profile page the photo of a painting was displayed completely and in appropriate size. The new version cuts away relevant parts and moreover is too small to be appreciated as what it is.

A lot of users used the geocaching photo to provide a picture of themselves while caching. These profile pictures served a completely different purpose than tiny avatars.

+1

My avatar and my profile photo was two entirely different photos.

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I haven't been that happy with some of the other changes made recently, but not to the point I needed to comment on them. But you've left out a couple of important options - the ability to remove the "recently viewed" list and control on whether stats are displayed or not (we seem to be stuck with whatever we'd chosen previously). Also making the forum avatar the profile picture is a poor choice, what works as a small picture doesn't always work in larger format, and a larger (previous profile picture) doesn't always work as a small avatar.

 

And why not notification of the change in getting to the profile edit? Not that many people use the forums, and fewer read the release notes (which is where I found out about the "gear" to access the edit page).

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Firstly, I would like to point out to the less observant of us that the recently visited and older pages can still be accessed by clicking on the username.

 

 

I would also like to thank Groundspeak for making the design look more modern. It is much better with the smooth stylings and design than the old HTML-heavy design which looked very clunky. It is also great to see more of the site being mobile enabled, as more people are beginning to use their phone to browse the internet and find geocaches.

 

 

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Why take away the Daylight Savings Time choice? What about those people who happen to live in a city that doesn't observe it?

 

With this release we have exposed all major time zone settings as provided by Microsoft in ASP.net. DST is now automatically tracked by time zone and does not need a separate checkbox toggle.

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whether stats are displayed or not (we seem to be stuck with whatever we'd chosen previously).

 

Statistics settings are now changed on the statistics page (http://www.geocaching.com/my/statistics.aspx).

 

Also making the forum avatar the profile picture is a poor choice, what works as a small picture doesn't always work in larger format, and a larger (previous profile picture) doesn't always work as a small avatar.

 

The concept of a "profile picture" as it was no longer exists. You have one singular image now that represents you, both on your profile and in logs. If you want a larger image shown on your profile, you can add it via HTML in your profile contents.

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The concept of a "profile picture" as it was no longer exists. You have one singular image now that represents you, both on your profile and in logs. If you want a larger image shown on your profile, you can add it via HTML in your profile contents.

Before it was in a nice spot in the upper right. As far as I can tell, there's no way to add an image there. :sad:

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If you want a larger image shown on your profile, you can add it via HTML in your profile contents.

 

There are many people who had nice profile pictures who are not familiar with html.

Moreover, all what is added separately can easily get broken with the next design change.

 

Who wins from all these changes that have never been requested by the community?

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I'm very unhappy with the changes. I did not care about the miniature avatars as I have switched off their display in logs anyway. I appreciated the fact however that in my profile page the photo of a painting was displayed completely and in appropriate size. The new version cuts away relevant parts and moreover is too small to be appreciated as what it is.

A lot of users used the geocaching photo to provide a picture of themselves while caching. These profile pictures served a completely different purpose than tiny avatars.

+1

My avatar and my profile photo was two entirely different photos.

+2

There is a big difference (at least there was) between a picture put on a profile page, to either show the cacher or something in his/her interest, and a small icon/picture beside a log or forum post to identify the poster. Some might have changed their profile picture periodically to show a recent geocaching highlight, etc. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

I'm not one to complain as quickly as some around here, but so far I have seen nothing good about this update. Why do you spend so much time and effort to come up with changes like these, and ignore the things we as your customers have actually been asking for???!!!

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See my other post here with another noticing of recent changes. http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=326929&st=0&p=5438344&fromsearch=1entry5438344 Was this change a result of a new release? Are Geocaching.com programmers trying to keep up with the stupidity of Microsoft rolling out a new version of Windows every year that nobody wants or appreciates? I do not own an Iphone or any of its clones and do not intend to hook myself up to that parasitic umbilical cord known as monthly service charges just to feed an addiction to useless non life serving information with little relevance to reality. Maybe there is a 12-step program for technology addiction. I might be tempted to name it TAA if that acronym were not already taken by the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders.

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If you want a larger image shown on your profile, you can add it via HTML in your profile contents.

Not the same. I already have a large amount of HTML in my profile contents, and I don't feel like trying to add more. The profile picture was in a separate location at the top right, where it would immediately be seen.

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There is a big difference (at least there was) between a picture put on a profile page, to either show the cacher or something in his/her interest, and a small icon/picture beside a log or forum post to identify the poster. Some might have changed their profile picture periodically to show a recent geocaching highlight, etc. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I have to be amused by this change. There was definitely a lot of confusion between the two pictures because they were so poorly named and described. But most of us figured out the difference and took advantage of it. Now, after all these years, instead of improving the documentation, they just get rid of one of them despite the fact that many people were happily using it as intended. It must seem even sillier for old timers that put up profile pictures back when they didn't actually use the avatar pictures for anything

 

I try to see changes in the best light, but my guess on this one is that it's a land grab: smaller picture in the profile so there's more room for GC content. I notice that the suggestion of putting a picture is via HTML would put any picture way down in the low rent area of the screen.

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Wow. All I can do is shake my head at this release. I'd give some detailed descriptions of just where you failed, but I won't bother because most of it has been mentioned already and my opinion is unlikely to have any effect.

 

Why take away the Daylight Savings Time choice? What about those people who happen to live in a city that doesn't observe it?

With this release we have exposed all major time zone settings as provided by Microsoft in ASP.net. DST is now automatically tracked by time zone and does not need a separate checkbox toggle.

DST is not universally tied to time zones. There are many parts of the world where a subset of a time zone may have different DST rules than the rest of the time zone. Under the new system, users in those areas will now need to completely change their time zone to an incorrect one twice a year to account for these differences rather than just ticking or unticking a much-more-logical DST box.

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Wow. All I can do is shake my head at this release. I'd give some detailed descriptions of just where you failed, but I won't bother because most of it has been mentioned already and my opinion is unlikely to have any effect.

 

Why take away the Daylight Savings Time choice? What about those people who happen to live in a city that doesn't observe it?

With this release we have exposed all major time zone settings as provided by Microsoft in ASP.net. DST is now automatically tracked by time zone and does not need a separate checkbox toggle.

DST is not universally tied to time zones. There are many parts of the world where a subset of a time zone may have different DST rules than the rest of the time zone. Under the new system, users in those areas will now need to completely change their time zone to an incorrect one twice a year to account for these differences rather than just ticking or unticking a much-more-logical DST box.

I just had a thought. Why couldn't they just use your computer settings for the time zone/DST settings?

 

Like you said, DST is not tied to time zone. There are several areas in the United States where DST is ignored. For example, if I'm correct, the state of Arizona ignores it, except on the Navajo reservation, where DST is observed. Does Microsoft's system take all that into account?

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Didn't there used to be an option to hide the "Recently Viewed Caches" list? I don't see it anymore.

I always access that via Your Profile | Quick View

 

http://www.geocaching.com/my/recentlyviewedcaches.aspx

 

Firstly, I would like to point out to the less observant of us that the recently visited and older pages can still be accessed by clicking on the username.

 

 

You have both completely failed to understand the posts. There used to be an option on your profile to HIDE the "Recently Viewed Caches" list and that option has been removed. I, and I suspect everyone else above, knows where we can go to see the "Recently Viewed Caches" list, but some people liked the option to HIDE it as it takes up a lot of screen space unnecessarily .

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... Somehow this creates the feeling that Groundspeak somehow hopes that people will stop requesting text e-mails, the nearest search link and other things taken away recently when they encounter closed threads.

 

+1,000!

 

 

 

 

Or, maybe they don't care???

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DST is not universally tied to time zones. There are many parts of the world where a subset of a time zone may have different DST rules than the rest of the time zone. Under the new system, users in those areas will now need to completely change their time zone to an incorrect one twice a year to account for these differences rather than just ticking or unticking a much-more-logical DST box.

 

That is why the list of time zones provided via the ASP.net framework has several time zone entries for each specific time offset. That way, you can select the option that best fits your area.

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Why take away the Daylight Savings Time choice? What about those people who happen to live in a city that doesn't observe it?

 

With this release we have exposed all major time zone settings as provided by Microsoft in ASP.net. DST is now automatically tracked by time zone and does not need a separate checkbox toggle.

Interestingly, my Windows 7 time zone settings has entries both for time zone and for DST adjustment. Maybe someone running Windows 8 can check as well? If even Microsoft sees the need for a separate DST setting, perhaps Groundspeak shouldn't be so hasty in removing it.

 

But since it has been removed, I guess you can wait to see if anyone is affected. Perhaps you're right and the current settings cover everything.

Edited by Chrysalides
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Does Microsoft's system take all that into account?

It doesn't appear to. As an example, the far northeastern portion of my province is in the Mountain Time zone, but they do not observe DST. In the list of time zones in the new account page, there's no setting to reflect this. The only choices are "Mountain" (which is incorrect if by default it's assumed to observe DST), "Arizona", and "Chihuahua, La Paz, Mazatlán". I guess users in that region need to pretend they live in Arizona or Mexico.

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DST is not universally tied to time zones. There are many parts of the world where a subset of a time zone may have different DST rules than the rest of the time zone. Under the new system, users in those areas will now need to completely change their time zone to an incorrect one twice a year to account for these differences rather than just ticking or unticking a much-more-logical DST box.

That is why the list of time zones provided via the ASP.net framework has several time zone entries for each specific time offset. That way, you can select the option that best fits your area.

That would work if there was some way to tell which time zone options observe DST and which don't. Is there a guide to these options somewhere that provides this information?

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I said this earlier, obviously ignored, I'll say this again anyway. It would be really nice to allow users to preview any changes before rolling them out.

 

You can try them. Go to http://staging.geocaching.com

But we don't get a heads-up that new changes are coming. Instead of having users continuously check the staging site for new releases, it would be nice if :

 

1) pre-announce and ask people to take a look, or

2) show a banner in the existing page ("we're planning some changes, click here to have a preview")

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There used to be an option on your profile to HIDE the "Recently Viewed Caches" list and that option has been removed. I, and I suspect everyone else above, knows where we can go to see the "Recently Viewed Caches" list, but some people liked the option to HIDE it as it takes up a lot of screen space unnecessarily .

If you use AdBlock Plus, you can add 1 line to your custom filter to block out that div.

 

1. AdBlockPlus, Filter Preference...

 

2. On left, click on Ad Blocking Rules

 

3. On right, click on "Add Filter"

 

4. In the text box that appears, type in :

 

###ctl00_ContentBody_RecentlyViewedCachesPanel

 

hit enter, then "Close" at bottom right corner.

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As other's have said:

 

1. Please oh please bring back the two separate pictures! That was so nice to have the larger one. The profile page looks empty without it now.

 

2. The bio box needs to be bigger. I can barely work with the HTML (that I now have to use to get a larger image) in the little area that we're given.

 

3. Quit making things un-desktop friendly!unsure.gif

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I don't know how to say what I am thinking and feeling. It seems every release we only het more changes that cater to n00bs and/or smartphone users while existing featuures get carved away. If all I want is to play a smartphone game I will go to that "m" game exclusively and take my money with me. Circumstances have kept me from caching as much as I would like to and these last few sets of changes are not encouraging me to return any time soon. You are making a lot of us feel like you neither want or need us any longer. How long will it be before you just stop with the pretense and shut down the web interface entirely?

+1

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Woah! I just visited the website from my phone. On the new settings page, there is a whole mobile site! When did that happen!?blink.gif

 

For now it only seems to be on the new setting page, no where else. Is the rest of the website on it's way to looking like that?

 

 

Not that I have anything against that (I've always longed for it), but do you think you could have a separate style? Not to compare you to others but... most other major websites do it this way.

 

Also, I noticed the "Disable Your Account" button. Is that something new, or just something I haven't noticed before?

 

 

And one more thing! biggrin.gif On the membership page, it says "premium member since" and then it tells the date when I first made my account, not when I first got premium membership. Not sure if this is exactly what was intended.

Edited by ADKer
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DST is not universally tied to time zones. There are many parts of the world where a subset of a time zone may have different DST rules than the rest of the time zone. Under the new system, users in those areas will now need to completely change their time zone to an incorrect one twice a year to account for these differences rather than just ticking or unticking a much-more-logical DST box.

That is why the list of time zones provided via the ASP.net framework has several time zone entries for each specific time offset. That way, you can select the option that best fits your area.

That would work if there was some way to tell which time zone options observe DST and which don't. Is there a guide to these options somewhere that provides this information?

 

Ah, my mistake. I was supposed to know that Arizona doesn't observe DST either to pick the correct one. Yes, a guide would be helpful.

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There used to be an option on your profile to HIDE the "Recently Viewed Caches" list and that option has been removed. I, and I suspect everyone else above, knows where we can go to see the "Recently Viewed Caches" list, but some people liked the option to HIDE it as it takes up a lot of screen space unnecessarily .

If you use AdBlock Plus, you can add 1 line to your custom filter to block out that div.

 

1. AdBlockPlus, Filter Preference...

 

2. On left, click on Ad Blocking Rules

 

3. On right, click on "Add Filter"

 

4. In the text box that appears, type in :

 

###ctl00_ContentBody_RecentlyViewedCachesPanel

 

hit enter, then "Close" at bottom right corner.

 

Many thanks for this info. It works great.

 

Terrible Ts

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I would also like to thank Groundspeak for making the design look more modern. It is much better with the smooth stylings and design than the old HTML-heavy design which looked very clunky. It is also great to see more of the site being mobile enabled, as more people are beginning to use their phone to browse the internet and find geocaches.

 

There was nothing wrong with the old design, it did the job. There are plenty of other things that could have programmer time spent on them rather than design.

 

As for mobile enabled isn't that what apps are for? There are numerous ones out their including an official one (which I paid money for). When I am using a laptop or desktop computer I expect a site suited for that not a mobile device when there is a separate service for those users.

 

Getting to the official app it would be nice if it didn't automatically log finds as if we all lived in the same timezone as Seattle. I would like to specify the date I found it, the same as if I am sitting at a computer logging my finds.

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whether stats are displayed or not (we seem to be stuck with whatever we'd chosen previously).

 

Statistics settings are now changed on the statistics page (http://www.geocaching.com/my/statistics.aspx).

And how is someone to know this? Until you answered here, there wasn't any clear way to find this out. By making things harder to find - and thus, harder to do - you make the website less useful: Many clicks to find the newest cache listing in a state; a unknown icon to replace a written link (profile modification); and statistics change moved to who knows where (unless you are of the very small number who read these threads).

Also making the forum avatar the profile picture is a poor choice, what works as a small picture doesn't always work in larger format, and a larger (previous profile picture) doesn't always work as a small avatar.

 

The concept of a "profile picture" as it was no longer exists. You have one singular image now that represents you, both on your profile and in logs. If you want a larger image shown on your profile, you can add it via HTML in your profile contents.

By your (Groundspeak) choice, not by anyone asking for it's removal. I don't see where a forum avatar has much to do with the profile - different websites and all...

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