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addisonbr

By addisonbr
in General geocaching topics

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Andronicus

Andronicus

Posted
Posted

Man, I totally disagree with you haters. I quite like it. The Canadian Provinces map shows the North as way too big, so is annoying, so I manually use the one from World66.com. Other than that, I think they have done a good job. I like how it has quite a bit of customizability.

 

ReleaseTheDogs: Is that a GSAK script that makes those stats for you?

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jholly

jholly

Posted
Posted

Man, I totally disagree with you haters. I quite like it. The Canadian Provinces map shows the North as way too big, so is annoying, so I manually use the one from World66.com. Other than that, I think they have done a good job. I like how it has quite a bit of customizability.

 

ReleaseTheDogs: Is that a GSAK script that makes those stats for you?

The maps for FSG have been totally redone. World66 is going in the bit bucket, The maps now can now be shaded. The Canada map look pretty cool.

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releasethedogs

+releasethedogs

Posted
Posted

Man, I totally disagree with you haters. I quite like it. The Canadian Provinces map shows the North as way too big, so is annoying, so I manually use the one from World66.com. Other than that, I think they have done a good job. I like how it has quite a bit of customizability.

 

ReleaseTheDogs: Is that a GSAK script that makes those stats for you?

The maps for FSG have been totally redone. World66 is going in the bit bucket, The maps now can now be shaded. The Canada map look pretty cool.

 

No its GCstatistic. Link at the bottom of my profile.

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Mr.Yuck

Mr.Yuck

Posted
Posted

Ok, just going to say...If you think average joe cacher is going to pay for GSAK, then figure out how to setup FindStatGen, I think you are crazy. I think this move by GS will allow the average cacher to have some cool stats to look at, and show off to his/her friends.

 

Actually, I'd say average Joe cacher doesn't give a hoot about statistics. Average Joe highly active cacher will like it, and average Joe totally obsessed cacher will continue to use GSAK. :P

 

If the screen shot my local reviewer posted at a local forum is a picture of what it is going to look like on Geocaching.com, then it looks very similar to the current MyGeocachingProfile.com set-up, including Green being the dominant color used. Which makes sense, some have nicknamed this website "Big Green". And they certainly are if they are "acquiring" people. <_<

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t4e

+t4e

Posted
Posted

Man, I totally disagree with you haters. I quite like it. The Canadian Provinces map shows the North as way too big, so is annoying, so I manually use the one from World66.com. Other than that, I think they have done a good job. I like how it has quite a bit of customizability.

 

 

i agree too, can't be any easier to create a nice profile

 

 

Ok, just going to say...If you think average joe cacher is going to pay for GSAK, then figure out how to setup FindStatGen, I think you are crazy. I think this move by GS will allow the average cacher to have some cool stats to look at, and show off to his/her friends.

 

nevermind paying for it, how about what a big PITA is to use?

 

MyGeocacheProfile is ulgy. i will NOT be using this, i'll stick to what I already use.

 

what's ugly about it? :P

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t4e

+t4e

Posted
Posted

As I said a few posts up, my local reviewer posted a pic on a local forum of what I assume it is going to look like on Geocaching.com. Not my image, and I don't think it's up to me to drop a screen shot here. But here's the link to his image. Go ahead, you can trust Mr. Yuck, click on it. :P

 

Sample Stats

 

there's no secret as to the looks, that screenshot is exactly what my profile looks like now

 

perhaps they will make small cosmetic changes

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Mr.Yuck

Mr.Yuck

Posted
Posted

As I said a few posts up, my local reviewer posted a pic on a local forum of what I assume it is going to look like on Geocaching.com. Not my image, and I don't think it's up to me to drop a screen shot here. But here's the link to his image. Go ahead, you can trust Mr. Yuck, click on it. :P

 

Sample Stats

 

there's no secret as to the looks, that screenshot is exactly what my profile looks like now

 

perhaps they will make small cosmetic changes

 

The thing that makes me think it's what the genuine geocaching.com tab is going to look like is the little "update stats now" button towards the top (or whatever it says). You don't have that on your profile now, I'll bet. <_<

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addisonbr

+addisonbr

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Actually, I'd say average Joe cacher doesn't give a hoot about statistics. Average Joe highly active cacher will like it, and average Joe totally obsessed cacher will continue to use GSAK. :P

That's a pretty good two-sentence summary.

 

I think mygeocachingprofile.com is great. Cameron and Jan do a bang-up job and they've always responded really quickly to my emails. You never know what will change when there is an acquisition, but they're great people who came up with something really nice and I couldn't be happier that it's going to be in the hands of a lot more cachers.

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Castle Mischief

+Castle Mischief

Posted
Posted (edited)
Actually, I'd say average Joe cacher doesn't give a hoot about statistics. Average Joe highly active cacher will like it, and average Joe totally obsessed cacher will continue to use GSAK. :P

That's a pretty good two-sentence summary.

 

I think mygeocachingprofile.com is great. Cameron and Jan do a bang-up job and they've always responded really quickly to my emails. You never know what will change when there is an acquisition, but they're great people who came up with something really nice and I couldn't be happier that it's going to be in the hands of a lot more cachers.

 

I double dirty-dog agree and I highly approve of the upcoming additional tab in the profile. I can't see this being anything other than a Good Thing.

 

It's really, really cool to see some of these often-requested features finally see the light of day. Thank you, Groundspeak.

Edited by Castle Mischief
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Andronicus

Andronicus

Posted
Posted
Actually, I'd say average Joe cacher doesn't give a hoot about statistics. Average Joe highly active cacher will like it, and average Joe totally obsessed cacher will continue to use GSAK. :P

That's a pretty good two-sentence summary.

 

I think mygeocachingprofile.com is great. Cameron and Jan do a bang-up job and they've always responded really quickly to my emails. You never know what will change when there is an acquisition, but they're great people who came up with something really nice and I couldn't be happier that it's going to be in the hands of a lot more cachers.

I wonderf if Cameron and Jan will still be running the sytem, or if they were bought out?

 

Also, I had asked them for a special costomization for the 450ish cachers in Alberta who have found a specific virtual. They said they were going to put it in the que. Now, I wonder what will hapen to that... likely will evaporate.

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Geo_Raptor

+Geo_Raptor

Posted
Posted

I prefer GSAK over MGP both in the flexiblity and look of the finished product. I have used both, when I first started out I would use MGP but quickly made the switch when I figured out GSAK (which did take a while!!)

 

I only hope that GS will continue to allow choice by users as to which stats page to use and will continue to provide the my finds PQ.

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Avernar

+Avernar

Posted
Posted

what's ugly about it? :(

The version you have on your profile just looks bad to me. I think it's the sizes of various items. Some of the graphics seem way too large. The link that Mr.Yuck posted looks a lot better.

 

I like the idea that everyone can have stats without having to be a GSAK expert. But personally I'll still be putting the FSG stats on my profile as I like it better.

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t4e

+t4e

Posted
Posted (edited)

The thing that makes me think it's what the genuine geocaching.com tab is going to look like is the little "update stats now" button towards the top (or whatever it says). You don't have that on your profile now, I'll bet. :blink:

 

i don't, but it is the same just "cleaner"

 

The version you have on your profile just looks bad to me. I think it's the sizes of various items. Some of the graphics seem way too large. The link that Mr.Yuck posted looks a lot better.

 

I like the idea that everyone can have stats without having to be a GSAK expert. But personally I'll still be putting the FSG stats on my profile as I like it better.

 

its essentially the same with few cosmetic changes, which makes it look better indeed

the green background has been changed to white and the numbers around the edges of the graphs look much "cleaner" now

 

anyway, i really like the idea of having that available on my profile, thumbs up for GC......now i only got 9 thumbs up left for future praise :(

Edited by t4e
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NYPaddleCacher

+NYPaddleCacher

Posted
Posted

I prefer GSAK over MGP both in the flexiblity and look of the finished product. I have used both, when I first started out I would use MGP but quickly made the switch when I figured out GSAK (which did take a while!!)

 

I only hope that GS will continue to allow choice by users as to which stats page to use and will continue to provide the my finds PQ.

 

I prefer GSAK and the FindStatsGen macro as well. There are some stats like total cache-to-cache distance (my favorite stat) and some other details that are not available on MGP.

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tozainamboku

+tozainamboku

Posted
Posted

I suspect that Geocaching.com is doing this because some people voted for it on the feedback site and its a fairly easy thing for them to implement. Unfortunately, because things don't get discussed much on that site, some good ideas on how to implement this were missed. Groundspeak seems to have taken the path of minimum effort and acquired one of the existing stats site and promoted it to being the official statistics.

 

The one advantage is that premium members can add statistics to their profile with one click. (Actually I believe the plan is to make it opt out - so premium members will get statistics unless they check they don't want them - more about this later). Currently people need to find another option to create the statistics and learn how to copy the HTML into their profile page. While it is fairly easy to do this, it is enough of a hassle that people just don't do it. Those who want statistics without the hassle are requesting some like this.

 

Other options that could have been explored would be a standard format for uploading statistics. Groundspeak could have published the requirements for a statistics file that can be uploaded to the site and displayed it in the user's profile. That way the various sites and tools that generate statistics could have been modified to produce this file and uploading it would be as simple as uploading your field notes. Even better, Groundspeak could have provided an API to allow the statistics sites/programs to upload the file for the user. This way all statistic sites would have been treated equally - encouraging the competition between the sites that have resulted in new (and better looking) statistics and giving users choice as to what statistics generator to use. The real stats nerds could even write their own statistics generators.

 

The option still exists, of course, to provide your own stats. But you will see these either in addition to the "official" stats page, or you will have to opt out of the official stats. My guess is that a lot of people won't think that the other stats options are worth the extra hassle and fewer people will use them.

 

My biggest concern is the rumor that stats will be opt out.

 

One concern is pretty minor. It is the concern that several people have given regarding stats in the past. By making an official stats page it gives the impression that we are some how competing for stats. While an individual can opt out, it makes it seem that an opt out is protesting this competive view. Someone may have no problem with others competing if they want but prefers not to show stats for another reason. Opt in for stats would be preferable as those who chose to display their stats may be simply interested in sharing this information with others and those that don't opt in are simply not interested in sharing rather than making a statement that stats are bad.

 

My main concern over opt out is privacy. No doubt some of the stats proponents will pooh-pooh my concern for privacy (as well my concern about opt out being viewed as supporting/not-supporting a competitive game) It may be true that the statistics are simply derived from my finds and if someone really wanted they could look at all my finds and compute the same statistics. I will still argue that this not the same as Groundspeak displaying these statistics without my permission. I should not have to opt out to hide the statistics. It should be opt in to show them. I did see one statistic that I believe is a true privacy concern. The samples of what the stats will look like show the display of the closest cache to my home that I have found. I can see in the sample that Groundspeak is not planning to show the distance, but if I live in a cache dense area this may not make a difference. The nearest cache to my home provides information about where I live that I do not want to make public. Groundspeak has this information to allow me to find caches close to where I live as well as to allow the reviewers to determine if I can maintain caches I place. It is not there for the purpose of displaying a statistic from which anybody with a Groundspeak account can determine at least the street I live on and perhaps more. If someone is comfortable with giving out the closest cache found let them opt in. But people who aren't comfortable with this should not be forced to opt out once they realize Groundspeak is not respecting their privacy.

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BBWolf+3Pigs

+BBWolf+3Pigs

Posted
Posted

I prefer GSAK and the FindStatsGen macro as well. There are some stats like total cache-to-cache distance (my favorite stat) and some other details that are not available on MGP.

 

I, too, like the "misc." stats and well as the FindStatsGen "dual" graph of total finds and finds per year.

 

I wish there was a chart showing the caches per calendar day, though.

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hzoi

+hzoi

Posted
Posted (edited)

I've had three different home locations since we started caching: Wiesbaden, Germany; Charlottesville, VA; and now Montgomery, AL. I'll definitely have a few more in the next few years -- don't know where the Army will move us, but move us it will. Neither GSAK nor mygeocachingprofile accomodate this -- INATN didn't either -- but MacDefender's GCStatistic does.

 

I use the maps and the placed cache statistics from FindStatGen and use GCStatistic for the rest.

Edited by hzoi
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Corfmania

+Corfmania

Posted
Posted

Milestone caches are very meaningful to me, and a lot of folks I know. #100, #1000, or whatever.

 

If GS implements showing milestone caches, then they will need a way for the user to change the LogID since people often accidentally log finds out of order. It is pretty simple to fix that problem using GSAK and findstatsgen, but it would be the cat's meow if I could just go in to GC and change the find order.

 

Oh, and +1 for the ideas of a stats upload API and Opt-In

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Avernar

+Avernar

Posted
Posted

The option still exists, of course, to provide your own stats. But you will see these either in addition to the "official" stats page, or you will have to opt out of the official stats.

I hope there will be an option to opt out, or at least an option to hide the sections I don't want, as there will be discrepancies with my FSG stats. For example, I've found a traveling cache from British Columbia but don't want that province colored in on the maps as I've never been there.

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JL_HSTRE

+JL_HSTRE

Posted
Posted

I use mygeocachingprofile and like it so I've very pleased with this development.

 

Milestone caches are very meaningful to me, and a lot of folks I know. #100, #1000, or whatever.

 

If GS implements showing milestone caches, then they will need a way for the user to change the LogID since people often accidentally log finds out of order. It is pretty simple to fix that problem using GSAK and findstatsgen, but it would be the cat's meow if I could just go in to GC and change the find order.

 

mygeocachingprofile allows you to set certain caches as milestones so hopefully this feature will still be implemented. I also am selective about my milestone caches and need to have customized selections so 3 Virtuals I backlogged (with CO permission) from 2009 don't show up as my 1st find and throw off my 100th and 200th milestones. (I logged them somewhere between my 200th and 300th finds.)

 

You know what else mygeocachingprofile tracks (albiet based on user input, not automatically)? FTFs! Hmmm...

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NYPaddleCacher

+NYPaddleCacher

Posted
Posted

 

You know what else mygeocachingprofile tracks (albiet based on user input, not automatically)? FTFs! Hmmm...

 

I have no interest in keeping a list of FTFs (I think I have somewhere between 10 and 20). When I unchecked the box which indicated that it should search for a specific string it produced an image which said I had *no* FTFs.

 

I agree with tozainamboku when he wrote:

 

"I suspect that Geocaching.com is doing this because some people voted for it on the feedback site and its a fairly easy thing for them to implement. Unfortunately, because things don't get discussed much on that site, some good ideas on how to implement this were missed."

 

I think the feedback site works okay for submitting a specific request about a feature or a behavior of the site that might be improved, but as a medium for discussion it's lacking. Although the forums are certainly far from perfect, they're much more conducive for discussion of implementation details, debates over the pros/cons of implementation approaches, etc.

 

All too often it seems that GS likes to surprise it's users with new features (souvenirs, stats, facebook integration, etc) without any sort of interactive discussion between the lackeys and those that will be using the site. Sometimes those surprises are nice, other times it's like getting a surprise from the IRS that you owe taxes rather than getting the rebate you were expecting.

 

If it were up to me, I think that some sort of mechanism where the users of these features can be more engaged in how they're implemented would likely work a lot better. For example,

 

Someone creates an issue on the Feedback site suggesting a certain feature. The feedback site could be used to count votes (both for and against) with brief comments if desired. At some point, GS needs to indicated that the feature is under consideration or not. If it is, someone from GS could initiate a discussion thread in the forums where we all can discuss the details, with someone from GS monitoring the thread to follow the progress. After a short period of time, depending no the nature of the feature, the thread can be closed and GS can go to work on implementation.

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NYPaddleCacher

+NYPaddleCacher

Posted
Posted

IMO, it's ugly. Will there be an option to remove the tab from your page. I don't know if I like the idea of forced stats on my page.

 

One of the approaches here could be to make sure that every element is tagged with an id, then provide some css stylesheets so that the end users can select how the content is displayed. Because MGP renders stats as images that makes it kind of difficult to control font sizes, colors, etc. As an example of the kind of flexibility of how use the same content and displayed it in a variety of ways, check out the CSS Zen Garden site.

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Walts Hunting

+Walts Hunting

Posted
Posted
I wonderf if Cameron and Jan will still be running the sytem, or if they were bought out?

 

Reading the home page seems to indicate that the site will transferred and development by the couple will stop.

 

Mygeocachingprofile.com Acquired by Groundspeak!

12/15/2010

Great news for lovers of geocaching statistics! Groundspeak has acquired the mygeocachingprofile.com site and will be moving the statistics, charts, and maps into the geocaching.com website! They have already begun an initial transfer of several profile sections into a new "Stats" tab in your geocaching profile and they plan to move over more sections in the near future. Look for the new "Stats" profile tab in the upcoming geocaching.com release next week!

 

The mygeocachingprofile.com website will continue to be available in its current form so cachers can take advantage of any existing sections that haven't yet been incorporated into the main geocaching.com site. We'll also be passing along all of your fantastic development suggestions to the Groundspeak team so that they can continue providing new statistics and maps directly on geocaching.com.

 

Thanks to all of our users for your tremendous support and thanks to Groundspeak for bringing these fun features to the geocaching community

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jholly

jholly

Posted
Posted

IMO, it's ugly. Will there be an option to remove the tab from your page. I don't know if I like the idea of forced stats on my page.

 

One of the approaches here could be to make sure that every element is tagged with an id, then provide some css stylesheets so that the end users can select how the content is displayed. Because MGP renders stats as images that makes it kind of difficult to control font sizes, colors, etc. As an example of the kind of flexibility of how use the same content and displayed it in a variety of ways, check out the CSS Zen Garden site.

My vote is that there was minimal changes to the code so it probably is very much and close to MGP. There was very little time between the stats page is going to happen announcement and the apparent reality of it happening next week. About enough time to work a deal, get a code drop and then figure out how to drop it in the present code base and some quick testing. Not to say things won't change over time, I don't expect anything radically different from what you have today on MGP.

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fizzymagic

+fizzymagic

Posted
Posted
That's sad. Totally unimpressed with that stats package. Well, guess I can just ignore that tab like I ignore the souvenir tab. Wasted cycles and bytes.

 

Huh. I kind of like it. And I am usually very picky about these things.

 

Good job, Groundspeak.

 

My only concern is that the ability to display FTF stats will make FTFs seem like an "official" Groundspeak thing.

 

Which would be bad, IMO.

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fizzymagic

+fizzymagic

Posted
Posted

Oh, by the way....

 

The site only takes true Groundspeak "My Finds" PQ zip files. But if, like me, you want the coordinates of the caches to reflect where you actually found them, not the posted coordinates, I have a solution. A little program I wrote to go in to a GPX file, change the coordinates, and write it back out. Indistinguishable from the original except for the new coords and a small bit of text appended to the short description that gives the original coords for reference.

 

Would anybody else want such a thing?

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Mr.Yuck

Mr.Yuck

Posted
Posted
That's sad. Totally unimpressed with that stats package. Well, guess I can just ignore that tab like I ignore the souvenir tab. Wasted cycles and bytes.

 

Huh. I kind of like it. And I am usually very picky about these things.

 

Good job, Groundspeak.

 

My only concern is that the ability to display FTF stats will make FTFs seem like an "official" Groundspeak thing.

 

Which would be bad, IMO.

 

I've never used this program. But I've used Cachestats, in which the FTF tracking is totally manual, i.e. you have to check a little box in front of the cache name if you consider yourself to have been FTF of that cache. Sounds like what they used to do at mygeocachingprofile.com, and the programs are just generating an HTML table of what caches you tell it you were FTF on.

 

I predict this feature will not be in the Geocaching.com version. How could it be anyways? It appears as if you'll just refresh your statistics by hitting an "update these statistics now" radio button on the top of the page.

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Flintstone5611

+Flintstone5611

Posted
Posted

what's ugly about it? :(

The version you have on your profile just looks bad to me. I think it's the sizes of various items. Some of the graphics seem way too large. The link that Mr.Yuck posted looks a lot better.

 

I like the idea that everyone can have stats without having to be a GSAK expert. But personally I'll still be putting the FSG stats on my profile as I like it better.

Ditto.

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Andronicus

Andronicus

Posted
Posted
That's sad. Totally unimpressed with that stats package. Well, guess I can just ignore that tab like I ignore the souvenir tab. Wasted cycles and bytes.

 

Huh. I kind of like it. And I am usually very picky about these things.

 

Good job, Groundspeak.

 

My only concern is that the ability to display FTF stats will make FTFs seem like an "official" Groundspeak thing.

 

Which would be bad, IMO.

 

I've never used this program. But I've used Cachestats, in which the FTF tracking is totally manual, i.e. you have to check a little box in front of the cache name if you consider yourself to have been FTF of that cache. Sounds like what they used to do at mygeocachingprofile.com, and the programs are just generating an HTML table of what caches you tell it you were FTF on.

 

I predict this feature will not be in the Geocaching.com version. How could it be anyways? It appears as if you'll just refresh your statistics by hitting an "update these statistics now" radio button on the top of the page.

That is not how mygeocachingprofile.com works. You tell MGP.com what key phrase you have in all your FTFs. Myne is "FTF...Yah". So whenever MGP.com sees that phrase in one of my found logs, it adds it to the FTF list. You can also add them manualy by entering the cache code.

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