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Release Notes - August 26, 2014


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Read the previous release notes

 

Release Notes:

 

It's time for another round of Geocaching.com release notes! Let's take a look:

 


     
  • Need to update your account? Check out the new Account Settings page. It's beautiful. Like a double rainbow.
  • Say goodbye to the longstanding issues with Send to GPS in IE 11.
  • And, of course, a hefty round of Terminator-style bug extermination.

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So where is the mention that they changed how Geocaching Logs are shown on the geocache page?

 

Um...they are NOT anymore. You have to click the "View Logbook" link.

 

They could have at least left the last 5 logs (like you get downloaded with the app or a GPX file).

 

"Downprovement" if that is a word.

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So where is the mention that they changed how Geocaching Logs are shown on the geocache page?
I still see the logs at the bottom of the cache page in Firefox (MacOS). What browser are you using?

 

I just checked again, and they appear now.

 

Wondering if the hamsters were up to some hyjinx this AM, or if someone did not feed them?

 

Glad to see them back.

 

BTW - using Firefox 31.0

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So where is the mention that they changed how Geocaching Logs are shown on the geocache page?
I still see the logs at the bottom of the cache page in Firefox (MacOS). What browser are you using?

 

I just checked again, and they appear now.

 

Wondering if the hamsters were up to some hyjinx this AM, or if someone did not feed them?

 

Glad to see them back.

 

BTW - using Firefox 31.0

 

I'm still not seeing any logs on the cache page. I also can't see the two maps, and I can't edit the coordinates of puzzle caches. I mentioned these bugs in another thread.

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Feeling strangely underwhelmed...

 

Hmm... notice how this thread was posted under the anonymous 'Geocaching HQ' :unsure:

 

 

M

 

I feel the same... Apparently the flagship update for this release is still in the works??(According to Moun10bike) huh.gif

 

And yes, perhaps they've learned and no one wants to take the heat after the last couple updates?

Edited by ADKer
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In Internet Explorer on a cache page, can't see either of the small maps and have to click to see the logbook. On home page find my location link is dead.

All these are OK in Chrome.

This coincides with The App That Must Not Be Named getting slicker (erm - so I'm told - don't use it myself of course...)

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I also posted this reply in the Bug forum thread:

 

Another IE9 user at work with this problem - no maps, no logs unless I click logbook, etc. I'm sure the folks at HQ are nice people with the best of intentions, but geez Louise! Their communication is HORRIBLE!

 

Mrs. Car54

 

And yippee, skippee - they've hosed this up for us just in time to plan our Labor Day (US holiday) outing. I was hoping to get everything PQ'd and mapped out on my lunch hour today. Sigh...............

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There was a change made to the site to support a change to the /mobile page that was not supported by IE9. This ended up breaking any JavaScript on a page following that call in that browser. We have fixed the issue and so you should not see these issues any longer.

 

Are stats available for what percentage of people use each of the browsers. It would be interesting to see.

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There was a change made to the site to support a change to the /mobile page that was not supported by IE9. This ended up breaking any JavaScript on a page following that call in that browser. We have fixed the issue and so you should not see these issues any longer.

 

Are stats available for what percentage of people use each of the browsers. It would be interesting to see.

 

If they have Google Analytics (which I'll bet they do), sure. By the way, I rarely look at these release note threads. Tough crowd out there. :lol:

 

Edit to fix the word Analytics, and to say I can see the GA javascript when viewing source of the main page of Geocaching.com. :ph34r:

 

Here's a site I run, just for laughs. Last 30 days:

Chrome: 40.25%

Firefox: 20.26%

IE: 15.38%

Safari: 14.58%

Android browser: 5.14%

With 10 others sharing the remaining 4% or so. You can also click on any browser in the GA stats for percentages on the versions used of any browser as well.

Edited by Mr.Yuck
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I don't know if it is related to the the change from txt to html emails, but notifications are not "real time" anymore. There is a huge time delay from a reviewer's publish to the email notification.

 

Example: http://coord.info/GC5BPP8 has been published on August 28 in the evening (approx. around 8 pm). I recognized the new cache on the map, and others already loggged the FTF. The notification email reached me 12 hours later, on August 29, 9:04 am.

 

I looked in the email header and found:

Fri, 29 Aug 2014 00:04:03 -0700 (sent by signal.Groundspeak)

Fri, 29 Aug 2014 00:04:11 -0700 (PDT) (received by my email provider)

Fri, 29 Aug 2014 09:04:30 +0200 (CEST) (received by my email client)

 

So the overall email delivery time is a few seconds, but there is a significant delay from publish to sending.

 

Anyone else with problems like that?

 

And - please bring back the text only emails! :)

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Are we the only ones who noticed that "Traditional Cache"s are now "Traditional Geocache"s and "Unknown" became "Mystery" on the search result pages? (Other cache types seem to be unaffected, but there may be more in the pipeline?)

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Here's a site I run, just for laughs. Last 30 days:

Chrome: 40.25%

Firefox: 20.26%

IE: 15.38%

Safari: 14.58%

Android browser: 5.14%

With 10 others sharing the remaining 4% or so. You can also click on any browser in the GA stats for percentages on the versions used of any browser as well.

 

That matches our numbers pretty closely. In the last month, 15.96% of our visits have been IE, with 12.47% of those being IE8 and 15.70 of those being IE9. That means that IE8 accounts for 1.99% of all visits to the site while IE9 accounts for 2.50%.

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That matches our numbers pretty closely. In the last month, 15.96% of our visits have been IE, with 12.47% of those being IE8 and 15.70 of those being IE9. That means that IE8 accounts for 1.99% of all visits to the site while IE9 accounts for 2.50%.

 

With 6 million geocachers worldwide, that means that about 150 thousand of them use IE9, and could have been affected by the bugs in the most recent upgrade. I suppose that most of those cachers are no longer active, but still, there must have been tens of thousands of IE9 users who were affected. And it wasn't just IE9; the bugs also occurred in some versions of Safari and Firefox.

 

When you make changes to the software, how much testing do you do before releasing them to the public? It seems to me that testing them in all of the commonly used versions of browsers would be a good idea, to catch the bugs before they inconvenience and anger thousands of your customers.

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I think you overestimate Groundspeak's size. People have made comparisons to Google and to the airplane industry which are unrealistic. We have a handful of developers who work on the web site code and the team does basic smoke tests with the major browsers. They will never be able to catch everything, and they will not be able to devote resources to thorough testing of outdated browser versions.

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I think you overestimate Groundspeak's size. People have made comparisons to Google and to the airplane industry which are unrealistic.

 

No, I know Groundspeak is small. I haven't heard any comparisons like that.

 

We have a handful of developers who work on the web site code and the team does basic smoke tests with the major browsers. They will never be able to catch everything, and they will not be able to devote resources to thorough testing of outdated browser versions.

 

Then how about asking for volunteers from the geocaching community to beta-test your changes, before they go public? That way more of the bugs could be caught without causing problems for so many people. I'd certainly be willing to volunteer, and I'm sure many others would too.

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Then how about asking for volunteers from the geocaching community to beta-test your changes, before they go public? That way more of the bugs could be caught without causing problems for so many people. I'd certainly be willing to volunteer, and I'm sure many others would too.

Today's reality is that software is released with minimal testing and the user's will find most of the bugs post release. This is all driven by the users desire to have it now, not later. To support that, the concept of several small frequent releases instead of large releases delivered every year or two has emerged, along with the ability to get the software without physical media. App stores for Apple, Android, and now Windows were developed to support this.

 

That's the reality of the current environment and it's what we're stuck with for now. Actually, it's what we've demanded. Releases with a short period of bug fixes are now the norm for end user services.

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Today's reality is that software is released with minimal testing and the user's will find most of the bugs post release.

Unfortunately that does seem to be true. So here's an opportunity for Groundspeak to start a trend in the opposite direction.

 

This is all driven by the users desire to have it now, not later.

That doesn't seem to be the case for Groundspeak. Most of the changes that they make aren't things that users have asked for, and many of them are things that we definitely don't want. Sometimes, if there's enough outcry, they'll undo the changes. (E.g. a few years ago they removed the exact dates in cache logs, instead saying things like "about a year ago"; fortunately they undid that change fairly quickly.) Other times, even when many people object, the changes remain; the grey icons and HTML emails come to mind. (Please, please, PLEASE give us an option for text-only emails!)

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This is all driven by the users desire to have it now, not later.

...or management's desire to have it now, not later.

 

This user thinks they perfected the secret sauce over a decade ago, and pretty much everything since then (except the maps) has been messing with success. To me, the essence of the game is: Find a little box. Repeat. Not too much. Many of the recent changes get in the way of that.

 

Okay, I know I can't reasonably ask for no changes. But could we please wait on the half-baked changes until they're well-tested and ready for prime time?

 

Thank you.

 

And get off my lawn.

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But still: Please bring back the text only emails :)

 

Oh yes!

 

It's really very cumbersome to read the HTML mails on a smartphone. I always have to change the orientation to landscape and zoom in :( Text emails used to be nice and easy to read...

 

Why is it so important to you to annoy your paying customers?

 

At least give us a choice!

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But still: Please bring back the text only emails :)

 

Oh yes!

 

It's really very cumbersome to read the HTML mails on a smartphone. I always have to change the orientation to landscape and zoom in :( Text emails used to be nice and easy to read...

 

Why is it so important to you to annoy your paying customers?

 

At least give us a choice!

 

Cumbersome...good word but not the word I would have used.

 

Even turning the smartphone sideways it may still be necessary to scroll. Why introduce difficulty?

 

I notice a forum section about the geocache file format seeking input about possible changes. Good idea to ask. Where was that same type of query about text vs html?

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I don't see many changes. Was it most bug fixing?

 

Still missing text notifications and emails as many others.

Please consider to bring them back soon!

 

The changes in the account settings page are visible but I don't see the advantage compared to the old version.

 

Anyhow: Thank you for providing infos about changes.

 

... and even better: Let your customers participate as on the "new gpx file content".

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