Good Cache Web Pages (FAQ?)

August 14, 2003

Although there seems to be lots of information about how to create and hide a good cache, I have not seen too much about how to make a good cache web page.

So, I thought I'd start a thread so we could share some "best practices", and tips for how to make your cache page better and more interesting. Hopefully, this will be a living document we can eventually turn into a FAQ.

1) Here are some things to consider mentioning on your page:

Is there poison ivy/oak? thorns?

Is it likely to be muddy?

Are there streams to cross?

Are dogs welcome?

Is it a good place for bringing kids?

Is access restricted to certain times?

Are there any fees (such as parking or entrance)?

Is this a good area to CITO?

2) PARKING You may want to suggest appropriate places to park. You probably do not want to do this in the hint, since many people don't decrypt the hint until they're already at the cache site. If you think providing the parking area would be a spoiler, then you can either encrypt (but leave it in the main cache description area), or add a [unencrypted]

label if you put it in the Hint section (see below).

3) HINTS What should go in the Hint section? Although there are many opinions about this, most people agree that hints:

should not be meaningless. Don't waste someone's time with an encryped hint that says "no hint is necessary".

should be brief enough to decrypt manually (in the field)

should not include things that the cacher would need to know in advance (like parking). Assume the hint may be decrypted at the cache site.

Multi-level hints are popular. For example, you may want to provide several sections, each preceded with an unencrypted (bracketed) label:

[Parking] ...

[Trail Head] ...

[Hint] ...

...

5) CAMERAS Does your cache include a camera? If so, you may want to provide any special instructions on the cache page.

HTML TIPS AND TRICKS

Here are some HTML tips and samples you might want to use to spruce up your cache page. Many of these I've captured off of various web pages. Sorry I didn't keep track of which ones, or I would have given you credit.

1) If you do seem a web page you like, you can usually right-click and select View Source. Many effects can be achieved using plain HTML codes.

2) Remember, if you do use any of these effects, you have to select the Yes I am supplying the HTML check box on the Edit Cache page.

A typical HTML page is formatted like this:

<html>

<body>

Your text here

</body>

</html>

Notice that each tag usually occurs twice, once to start a section, and once to end the section. The ending tag should always have a slash before the tag name.

4) A few simple but useful tags:

<p> Start a new paragraph

<br> Break the line here

<hr> Add a horizontal line to separator

<i>some italic text</i>

5) Adding a bulleted list. Use the <ul> (unordered list, for simple bullets) or <ol> (ordered list, for auto-numberd items) tags to start and end your list. Precede each item with <li>.

Original Cache Contents

<ol>

<li>Slinky

<li>Glowsticks

<li>McToys

</ol>

3) Adding an image. If the image is already on an internet site, you can just add a link to it. Otherwise, you must upload it to the web site. You can do this by selecting the "Change your account information" link on the top right of your My Cache Page. Then, select the "do so now" link under the Photo section. Once uploaded, you can select your image to find the URL (i.e., the web address). Then, add the image to your cache page by inserting a link like this, using that URL:

4) Providing a unique background. This is very easy to do, and can really make your cache page unique. Once you find the right image to use, add it as in tip (3). Then, change the body tag to set the background:

5) Adding a pull-down list of hyperlinks:

<SELECT size=

name="URL" onChange="if(options[selectedIndex].value) window.location.href= (options[selectedIndex].value)"

style="font-family: Comic Sans MS, Sans Serif; color: black; background-color: yellow; font-size: 1em">

<OPTION value=>Puzzle Caches</OPTION>

<OPTION value="http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=76156">Order of the Phoenix (BB02)</OPTION>

<OPTION value="http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=79938">Michael Gordon Elementary (BB03)</OPTION>

<OPTION value="http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=85580">Solitary Confinement (BB04)</OPTION>

</SELECT>

6) Adding a scrolling area with lots of text:

<TEXTAREA style=

"BORDER-RIGHT: black 1px solid;

BORDER-TOP: black 1px solid;

BORDER-LEFT: black 1px solid;

WIDTH: 290px;

COLOR: black;

BORDER-BOTTOM: black 1px solid;

HEIGHT: 66px;

BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ff99cc"

name=textarea4 rows=2 cols=40>

Long pants and bug spray wouldn't hurt, but it's not far from parking.

The difficulty of 3 refers only to solving the puzzle to determine

the coordinates. Finding the cache should be fairly easy.

</TEXTAREA>

7) Using HTML in your hint section. This is a bit tricky. Since the hint section is encrypted, you must encrypt your HTML tags. For example. So, to create an unordered list, you would usually use <ul> with <li> in front of each item. Instead, use <hy> and <yv>.

<hy>

<yv>[Hint] Traditional hiding place.

<yv>

In a hollow tree next to the old stone wall.

</hy>

8) Here are some links to good cache pages that inspired some of these ideas. Please post your own favorites!

Good use of images: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=67514

August 14, 2003

FANTASTIC JOB! MUCH NEEDED ON MY END ANYWAY! Thanks a bunch!

The Cache Couple

East TN

August 14, 2003

quote:
Originally posted by BeachBuddies:
share some "best practices", and tips for how to make your cache page better and more interesting.

I think this is a very good beginning.

Icon Generator

The Texas Geocaching Association has an icon generator that will generate a lot of these features for your cache page. An excellent job they did creating this.

quote:
+ Is it likely to be muddy?

+ Are there streams to cross?

I would not break these out and would not expect a hider of caches that I hunt to do so either.

There are some hiders that describe the environment so well that I know the experience before I even hunt the cache.

Mud, small streams, etc. are part of the thrill for me. Coming upon them provides some of the challenges of the game: do I cross or look for a way around?

Fro.

________________________________________

Geocaching . . . hiking with a purpose

August 15, 2003

quote:
Originally posted by BeachBuddies:
So, I thought I'd start a thread so we could share some "best practices", and tips for how to make your cache page better and more interesting. Hopefully, this will be a living document we can eventually turn into a FAQ.

Great idea and good initiative!

quote:
+ Is there poison ivy/oak? thorns?

+ Is it likely to be muddy?

+ Are there streams to cross?

+ Are dogs welcome?

+ Is it a good place for bringing kids?

+ Is access restricted to certain times?

+ Are there any fees (such as parking or entrance)?

+ Is this a good area to CITO?

I don't want to hear some of this stuff... Thing that would change whether I'd go or bring something different are critical but otherwise don't prevent my reason for going!

Poison Ivy/Prickers = great as kids can be warned, mud/streams irrelavent.. Dogs/Kids/Times/Fees phenomenal.

One I'd add for snow-affected areas would be "winter-accessible".

quote:
A typical HTML page is formatted like this:

<html>

<body>

Your text here

</body>

</html>

This is not needed as your code fragment will be inserted into a complete page!

For background pics, BGPROPERTIES="fixed" may be added (after the url and before the '>') so the background doesn't scroll...

Enjoy,

Randy

38.2k · August 15, 2003

parking I do put the suggested parking coords in the encrypted hint, but I label them as [parking], so the person can choose whether or not to decryt. The only time I'll put the unencrypted parking coordinates on the page is if there are issues with people potentially crossing private property.

hint I do agree with not placing other things in the encrypted hint, including parking (if not labeled as such), or potentially important things about the cache like "bring a flashlight", or "boat is necessary".

"Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, he'll sit in a boat and drink beer all day" - Dave Barry

August 15, 2003

For what it's worth, something that I've seen metioned by one of TPTB on newly approved caches is distance or time estimate to complete it.

I like seeing what the container size is so I know what swag to bring. On the down side, I know it can also be a pretty good hint as to where/how it is hidden.

"I'm not lost. I'm field checking."

August 15, 2003

Fro -- thanks for that great Icons link, I'm going to update my cache pages with those

I tend to agree with you about not spoling the exerience by revealing too much (muddy, streams, etc). I would leave that sort of thing out too, unless it was really swampy -- then maybe just a warning to wear your hiking boots.

RJFerret -- thanks. I wondered if the <html> tag was optional; it makes sense that you don't need it. I've never heard of that BGPROPERTIES tag either, but I like it

August 15, 2003

Good list. I'd also add:

DO NOT include background music in your cache page. You're the only person who finds it entertaining or cute.

--

Pehmva!

Random quote:

sigimage.php

August 15, 2003

Hehe... yeah, and animated icons are good to avoid to

BTW, I modified the output provied by the TXGA Icon Generator a bit, and ended up with this:

<tr><td><image src='http://www.texasgeocaching.com/images/cache_icons/dog2.gif'><td>Dogs Allowed<br>

<tr><td><image src='http://www.texasgeocaching.com/images/cache_icons/ears.gif'><td>Equestrian Trail

<tr><td><image src='http://www.texasgeocaching.com/images/cache_icons/offtrail2.gif'><td>Some Off-trail Hiking

<tr><td> <td align=right><small>Icons provided by <a href='http://www.texasgeocaching.com/selector.asp'>The Selector</a></small></td>

</table>

Here's what it looks like on my cache page.

-BB

1.4k · August 16, 2003

quote:
Cruzin! wrote:
DO NOT include background music in your cache page.

I agree wholeheartedly with this. If you absolutely can not refrain from adding music files, at the very least, provide a button so that it can be turned off.

*****

August 16, 2003

Ditto on the music. It is annoying.

Also, if there is a background image, it plays havoc if I download the pages into my PocketPc and open them in GPXView. Some are unreadable.

August 16, 2003

Hmmm... have you noticed any pattern about which ones are unreadable? Some that have background images are ok? Is it the image itself that makes it hard to read? I have not used PocketPC yet, so I'd like to find out more.

2.3k · August 17, 2003

This is a great idea... Keep the ideas coming people.

I have always dressed up my cache pages to make them more interesting. You can check them out via my profile if you'd like.

---------------------------------------------------

Free your mind and the rest will follow

August 18, 2003

BeachBuddies,

This page is the type that I just cannot read in my Pocket PC:

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=35293

The background image ends up bleeding completely through the main text making the page virtually unreadable - and not just the sides, the whole page is washed out by the image.

I use GpxView on my Ipaq to view the pages offline.

Since all background images bleed through, I would say some are probably ok, depending on what image they used, and how often it is repeated in the background.

Just downloaded Michael Gordon Elementary (BB03)to my Pocket PC, and it is the same way - text washed out by the background bleeding through.

[This message was edited by donbadabon on August 18, 2003 at 05:31 PM.]

August 20, 2003

quote:
Originally posted by BeachBuddies:
7) _Using HTML in your hint section_. This is a bit tricky. Since the hint section is encrypted, you must encrypt your HTML tags. For example. So, to create an unordered list, you would usually use <ul> with
in front of each item. Instead, use _<hy>_ and _<yv>_.

<hy>

<yv>[Hint] Traditional hiding place.

<yv>

In a hollow tree next to the old stone wall.

</hy>

I just learned to double the code in the hint section, once encrypted and once normal. That way if a user clicks 'decrypt', the code won't break!

Using your above example, I'd write it as:

<hy><ul>

<yv><li>[Hint] Traditional hiding place.

<yv><li>

In a hollow tree next to the old stone wall.

</ul></hy>

Which, when decrypted online would result in:

<ul><hy>

<li><yv>[Hint] ...

<li><yv>

...

</hy></ul>

Hope this helps,

Randy

August 20, 2003

quote:
Originally posted by donbadabon:
Just downloaded Michael Gordon Elementary (BB03)to my Pocket PC, and it is the same way - text washed out by the background bleeding through.

Yeah, I was wondering about that one. I'm not familiar with GpxView -- can you use the "Make the page print-friendly" option to avoid the background (before you GpxView it)?

If the image is light, does it work better? For instance, can you view this page ok? I'd guess probably not, if the image bleeds through...

August 20, 2003

quote:
Originally posted by RJFerret:
I just learned to double the code in the hint section, once encrypted and once normal. That way if a user clicks 'decrypt', the code won't break!

Very cool trick, thanks!

August 20, 2003

Great idea for a thread, excellent job on the post.

How 'bout making this a 'sticky' on the 'getting started' page (or anywhere else)?

_________________________________________________________

If trees could scream, would we still cut them down?

Well, maybe if they screamed all the time, for no reason.

Click here for my Geocaching pictures and Here (newest)

August 21, 2003

Here's another tip. People can e-mail you by clicking on your Profile link, and then clicking the Click to Email link. But you can make it easier for cachers to contact you by adding a link like this in your cache description:

<a href="http://www.geocaching.com/email/default.asp?aid=47667">check with me</a>

I always do this for my puzzle caches, since some people like to confirm their solution coordinates before trying to find the cache.

You'll have to find which number to use for you (the 47667 above is mine) by examining the Click to Email link on your Profile page. If you hover over the link, most browsers will show you the URL. (You can also choose the "View Source" option on the right-button popup menu.)

You can also add an HTML mailto link if you would like to provide a different e-mail address than the one GC.com uses for you:

<A HREF="mailto:address@host.com">email me</A>

Just replace "address@host.com" with your e-mail address. Be advised though, that some spam-mongers can harvest your address if you post it like this; so I think the first technique is much better.

August 21, 2003

I find this entire thread to be entirely enjoyable and enlightening. Thanks for the great idea, and I hope it becomes sticky.

However, I suggest that folks make sure they use clean HTML if they want their pages displayed on the widest available number of platforms. For example, BeachBuddies posted (I snipped):

quote:
<tr><td><image src='http://www.texasgeocaching.com/images/cache_icons/dog2.gif'><td>Dogs Allowed<br>
<tr><td><image src='http://www.texasgeocaching.com/images/cache_icons/ears.gif'><td>Equestrian Trail

However, this code is not correct. Every tag that starts should be completed. Simply, there are no </td> or </tr> tags. You shouldn't start a tag unless you end it. Thus,

<tr><td><image src='http://www.texasgeocaching.com/images/cache_icons/dog2.gif'><td>Dogs Allowed<br></td></tr>

<tr><td><image src='http://www.texasgeocaching.com/images/cache_icons/ears.gif'><td>Equestrian Trail</td></tr>

I realize that this code is generated by someone else, and I'll contact them to alert them of the issue as well.

Later, RJFerret wrote:

quote:
<hy><ul>
<yv><li>[Hint] Traditional hiding place.

<yv><li>

In a hollow tree next to the old stone wall.

</ul></hy>

Which, when decrypted online would result in:

<ul><hy>

<li><yv>[Hint] ...

<li><yv>

...

</hy></ul>

<li> is also supposed to be "closed", such as </li>. I guess the right codes then are

<li><yv>[Hint] ...</yv></li>

But I haven't tried it.

Look, I am not trying to be dogmatic about something that works, but not using proper HTML may result in errors for people who don't use the same browser as you do. Plus, HTML is becoming more codified and playing fast and loose won't work for too much longer. If people complain that your page doesn't work on their odd device (PDA? Phone? Offline viewer?) then it could be the result of such small matters.

Dave

(preparing to get flamed)

August 21, 2003

quote:
Originally posted by Dave77459:
However, this code is not correct. Every tag that starts should be completed.

That's not the case with <p>, <br>, or <hr>!

Similarly I don't believe it's the case with bullets or itemized numbered lists within the closed segment.

It's been a standard from the very beginning for browsers to ignore what they can't parse, so what you suggest shouldn't break anything.

Enjoy,

Randy

August 21, 2003

quote:
That's not the case with <p>, <br>, or <hr>!

Probably I should have said every paired tag. That actually includes <p></p>, <li></li>.

I responding mostly to the hacked code supplied by BeachBuddies, which converted the single row TXA Icon Generator output into 3 rows, improperly formatted. They should have included </td></tr>, and without it many browsers would gag. Older versions of Netscape did that.

quote:
It's been a standard from the very beginning for browsers to ignore what they can't parse, so what you suggest shouldn't break anything.

What I suggest will make the code work better with new and strict browsers, and will help migrate to XML. Having browsers ignore what they don't understand is what makes the decryption "tags" <hy> and <yv> work.

Dave

August 21, 2003

I don't know if a recent version of netscape does or not, but the Body attribute mentioned above about bgproperties=fixed only works in MSIE. Netscapers will still see the scrolling. Agn though I haven't used that tag attribute in a long time so not sure if a version after 5? 6 has incorporated it.

I bought a GPS. Now I get lost with style.

August 21, 2003

Thanks for the corrections Dave. I knew about the closing tags, but I usually leave them off. It's easy enough to do it the right way though. I would edit my original post to include all this good feedback, but you can only edit within the first 24 hours after posting. So maybe I'll consolidate all the fixes and suggestions and make a new post eventually...

-J

August 27, 2003

Great post!

Just one question:

quote:
3) Hnits What should go in the Hint section? Although there are many opinions about this, most people agree that hints:

+ should be brief enough to decrypt manually (in the field)

+ should not include things that the cacher would need to know in advance (like parking). Assume the hint may be decrypted at the cache site.

So why do you want HTML in the hint section? HTML is no use for me when I decrypt the hint manually at the cache site.

Cheers,

老盖

August 27, 2003

quote:
Originally posted by Laogai:
So why do you want HTML in the hint section?

I used it for a numbered list (hint versus spoiler) as per my example above.

You might want it to incorporate italics or bold, link to a spoiler pic only accessible if you click decrypt (obviously useless offline), etc.

Enjoy,

Randy

9.2k · August 27, 2003

quote:
Originally posted by Laogai:

So why do you want HTML in the hint section? HTML is no use for me when I decrypt the hint manually at the cache site.

Why? So you can put in line breaks, to make them more readable. Like on this cache. You'll notice that the line breaks in the hint are preserved even after decrypting it.

"Don't mess with a geocacher. We know all the best places to hide a body."

August 28, 2003

quote:
Originally posted by Prime Suspect:
You'll notice that the line breaks in the hint are preserved even after decrypting it.

Of course, how stupid of me ! The HTML code doesn't show on the website nor on the printout. So it does makes sense to use HTML for the hints.

Thanks for pointing this out, Prime Suspect!

老盖

August 29, 2003

quote:
Originally posted by donbadabon:
The background image ends up bleeding completely through the main text making the page virtually unreadable - and not just the sides, the whole page is washed out by the image.

I use GpxView on my Ipaq to view the pages offline.

Donbadabon --

I may have found a fix for the background bleed-through problem you noted. I wrapped everything with a table tag like this:

... normal contents of web page here ...

</td></tr></table>

That way, the main area of the page will be forced to plain white. It doesn't change the appearance of the page in a browser, but it might help with the GpxView / Ipaq use. Can you retest one of those pages (most of mine have backgrounds) and let us know? Thanks!

-BeachBuddies

September 4, 2003

Here's another trick I just learned. You can add a counter to your cache page to keep track of how many people have visited it.

Go to http://www.digits.com/create.html to create the counter. You'll need a unique label to name your counter; I just used my cache GC code (in this case GCGMVJ). Then add the HTML that digits.com provides (or some variant of it) to your page.

Here's the code I added:

<IMG SRC="http://counter.digits.com/wc/-c/2/-d/4/-r/-z/GCGMVJ"

ALIGN=middle WIDTH=60 HEIGHT=20 BORDER=0 HSPACE=4 VSPACE=2>

<small>

<a href="http://www.digits.com/create.html">Counter by digits.com</a>

</small>

That added a counter to this cache page.

-BB

September 4, 2003

Awesome stuff--Domo Arigato

"I cache; therefore I am"

September 5, 2003

Here's another trick. Want to let people rate your cache, so you can get some feedback about what people like? Add a "Rate this cache" button on your web page.

KeenPeople.com provides this free service. Go to this page, enter your cache waypoint, and it will generate the HTML for you. For example, I added this (slightly modified) code for GCGMVJ:

width=320 height=100 align="right" scrolling="no" frameborder="0">

<A href=http://www.keenpeople.com/geocaching/cacherate/articol.php?id=GCGMVJ>Rate This Cache</a></iframe>

See what it looks like on this cache page.

-BeachBuddies

September 8, 2003

Just FYI, I submitted a consolidated (and slightly updated) version of these tips as a FAQ on KeenPeople.com.

-BB

September 8, 2003

Geo-Ferrets has a cache rating system plug-in (difficulty and terrain) for the FINDERS that you can add to your web page. Go here to get the HTML to include.

September 23, 2003

Thanks for the help!

September 23, 2003

Hey guys!

Thanks for posting this thread and the USER-FRIENDLY instrucions on how to post HTML on our cache pages. My cache page was eally blah then I turned it into this. I know it doesn't look fancy but it sure made it look better.

Thanks again!

pLAyS WitH maTCHeS

September 30, 2003

Sometime recently Geocaching.com removed support for the HTML IFRAME tag. This broke some of the "cache rating" code described above.

KeenPeople.com has updated their Cache Rating code to use an image, instead of an IFRAME. It works great. You can find generate the code for your cache at this link.

Here's the version I'm using on my cache pages:

</a>

The Digger.net has updated their code as well. It uses the OBJECT tag. I have not been able to get this code to work inside the posted cache pages, though it works fine from my stand-alone test files. In anycase, you can see the latest version at

this page.

Here's the code I was trying to use:

[Your browser does not support embedded objects or is configured not to display them.

<a href="http://www.digger.net/projects/gcrfs/gcrfs.php?waypoint=GCxxxx" target=_blank>Click here</a>

to view the visitor ratings.]

</object>

-BeachBuddies

October 9, 2003

It appears that TPTB have updated HTML re-processor used by the

Edit Cache page. See this forum post.

For now, you should make sure to use the <img src...> tag instead of the <image src...>. I think the Texas Icon HTML generator used <image instead of <img, so you may have to fix it manually.

Also, no form tags (including <select> are going to be supported (for security reasons), so you can't use the drop-down lists anymore (as suggested by a previous post in this topic). I'm not aware of a good alternative to replace those yet; anyone else know of any?

-BB

The prettiest October, in all the fifty states,

just drive up to the Skyline, park the car and wait!

-Eddie From Ohio (talking about the Blue Ridge in Virginia)

October 21, 2003

removed duplicate post

[This message was edited by BeachBuddies on October 21, 2003 at 11:12 AM.]

October 21, 2003

Wilywampa provided a post about RandMcNally.com maps. Very nice maps (although currently

only for North America). Jeremy's considering adding a link onto all cache pages -- but

until then, you can add a link for your own caches. Here's a link I added (based on the

one posted by ju66l3r):

<a href="http://www.randmcnally.com/rmc/directions/dirGetMap.jsp?A=Parking&z=large&l=9&T=38.75395&N=-77.676716&h=false&c=USA&sLatLongAddr=true&val=CNT" target="_blank">RandMcNally Map</a>

You can see what it looks like on this cache page.

You'll need to change the "T=xxxx" and "N=xxxx" to the lat/lon of your cache

(in decimal degrees). You can change the "A=Parking" to show your cache name

or whatever. You may want to change the "l=9" to control the zoom level.

Try "l-7" to show a larger region (with less detail).

Good Cache Web Pages (FAQ?)

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