New Geocaching Image Features

9.1k · February 17, 2004

As someone who enjoys using photos to tell the story of my cache hunt, I was excited to read Today's Announcement about being able to associate waypoint coordinates with the photos we post. I just went and edited one of my photos and saw all the cool editing options, like the ability to change the photo caption, in addition to being able to add latitude and longitude.

Apparently benchmarkers have been able to do this from the get-go. Thanks, Jeremy, for sharing this functionality with the rest of us for our geocaching and travel bug photos!

What other plans are in store for making better use of the huge geocaching image gallery? What would people like to see?

9.4k · February 17, 2004

I'm definitely looking for suggestions.

However, please keep in mind that although I'd love for people to be surf crazy, this also opens up a lot of additional bandwidth costs. In January alone we had to pay another $700/mo from the additional geocachers getting involved after Christmas.

4k · February 17, 2004

Cool beans, J!!! Keep up the good work!

9.4k · February 17, 2004

In January alone we had to pay another $700/mo from the additional geocachers getting involved after Christmas.

How much of that was because of Sparky?

4k · February 17, 2004

In January alone we had to pay another $700/mo from the additional geocachers getting involved after Christmas.

How much of that was because of Sparky?

Hey now....I probably saved him money from all the noobs that were scared away by my avatar! Besides, if I ever get another job, I'm gonna upgrade to a paying member....I...I....I feel guilty using the site now without paying....

1.8k · February 17, 2004

In January alone we had to pay another $700/mo from the additional geocachers getting involved after Christmas.

How much of that was because of Sparky?

Hey now....I probably saved him money from all the noobs that were scared away by my avatar! Besides, if I ever get another job, I'm gonna upgrade to a paying member....I...I....I feel guilty using the site now without paying....

Maybe we need something like what Slashdot implemented: the ability to purchase a gift subscription for somebody else. You can even do it anonymously if you want.

I figure I can find a few loose coins under my car seat that I can throw into the plate to buy Sparky a subscription... <_<

1.6k · February 17, 2004

Send in a cheque to Groundspeak with somebody's nickname on the back of it (or however it works).

MarcB

1.3k · February 18, 2004

Seen this Jeremy?

Microsoft blends digital photos and GPS

southdeltan

1.9k · February 18, 2004

other than it is micro$oft it looks cool

February 18, 2004

Very cool! Now I have to find a good way to keep track of the coordinates when I take a picture. I suppose waypoints as pic1, pic2, etc... will be what I have to do.

9.4k · February 18, 2004

Seen this Jeremy?

Yeah. One of the developers is on the GPX discussion list. There's another site that does the same thing. I forget what it is called.

1.6k · February 18, 2004

I'm definitely looking for suggestions.

However, please keep in mind that although I'd love for people to be surf crazy, this also opens up a lot of additional bandwidth costs. In January alone we had to pay another $700/mo from the additional geocachers getting involved after Christmas.

Gallery suggestion: How about a limit of 30 days on the main server, the the photos are archived indefinitely in a manner that can allow the images to be retrieved from a tape drive or other long term storage device if needed (with the obvious lag time for retrieval.) This is how my hospital handles radiology images. All the recent ones are kept on active status and all the old ones are still retrievable, but just not immediately online. This might lower your bandwidth cost by making the galleries smaller.

Finances: Its been 2 years since I joined, and its still 30 bucks a year. Much as I hate to spend money and hate to make a flame target of myself, but if a bump in the annual dues has to happen, then lets do it early while it can still be a small one.

February 18, 2004

I may be way off and if I am feel free to correct me but keeping all of the gallery pics on the main server is more of a storage problem not a bandwidth issue isn't it? You are only using bandwith when people are trying to retrieve those pics.

As far as finance, I may get crucified for this but instead of increasing the rates for current paying members maybe there needs to be more incentive for the non paying members to join. What is the ratio of paying members compared to non-paying members. Getting the pq's were incentive enough for me so that I could go paperless but you could do other things to "motivate" the others like limiting number of posts per day. No offense Sparky. I am sure that there must be other limits that can be imposed without taking away from the usefulness of the site to non-paying members.

1.6k · February 18, 2004

I may be way off and if I am feel free to correct me but keeping all of the gallery pics on the main server is more of a storage problem not a bandwidth issue isn't it? You are only using bandwith when people are trying to retrieve those pics.
As far as finance, I may get crucified for this but instead of increasing the rates for current paying members maybe there needs to be more incentive for the non paying members to join. What is the ratio of paying members compared to non-paying members. Getting the pq's were incentive enough for me so that I could go paperless but you could do other things to "motivate" the others like limiting number of posts per day. No offense Sparky. I am sure that there must be other limits that can be imposed without taking away from the usefulness of the site to non-paying members.

I would suport this, but to be truthful, the only way you get people to join is to limit their access to the cache listings, as most of the users don't use the forums.

9.4k · February 18, 2004

I may be way off and if I am feel free to correct me but keeping all of the gallery pics on the main server is more of a storage problem not a bandwidth issue isn't it? You are only using bandwith when people are trying to retrieve those pics.

Storage is cheap. Backups are less cheap but we upgraded our tape drive so it has the capability for 3 terabytes of data, so that isn't an issue.

Image downloads for a large number of users over a month can be a significant bandwidth hog. For home users it is a flat rate but not for web sites that serve pages to the masses.

The onus is on us to increase memberships by providing additional features. We're doing ok now but I want to make sure that a new feature doesn't financially cripple running the site.

1.6k · February 18, 2004

Storage is cheap. Backups are less cheap but we upgraded our tape drive so it has the capability for 3 terabytes of data, so that isn't an issue.

Image downloads for a large number of users over a month can be a significant bandwidth hog. For home users it is a flat rate but not for web sites that serve pages to the masses.

The onus is on us to increase memberships by providing additional features. We're doing ok now but I want to make sure that a new feature doesn't financially cripple running the site.

Here is an idea: Limit the number of caches that you can place on the site if you are a non-member to something like 1. This would give a new player a taste of the game and if they wanted to get more involved, they could pony-up. Limit downloads of cache pages to say 10, again a user could easily click the paypal link and drop 30 bucks or buy a month's worth.

I don't go paperless as it doesn't seem logical to pay 200 bucks for a pda to take out into the woods (and lose it) when you could spend 10 cents on some paper copies and lose them instead. The pocket queries were interesting to me while I was still into the paperless route, but no longer. How about Satellite photos or topo maps that could be downloaded along with a cache page for members, but not non-members? Even if the topo was only 1 or 2 km around the cache, it would still be better than the mapquest maps that come now.

February 18, 2004

Bigred, that's kind of along the same lines that I was thinking but maybe a little bit less restrictive. I don't ever want this game to be strictly pay to play but for what some people get out of this site even if they don't use the pq's it is still a bargain.

As far as the paperless route you can get a pda that will work for caching much cheaper but I use a pda daily anyways so I bought a nicer one. I don't live in an area that is very cache dense so I take a day here and there to go to Erie or Buffalo to hit those caches. It is nice for me to be able to go there and let my gpsr tell me what caches are close by and already have that info on my palm without having to do extensive planning and a whole lot of printing. <_<

February 18, 2004

Here is an idea: Limit the number of caches that you can place on the site if you are a non-member to something like 1. This would give a new player a taste of the game and if they wanted to get more involved, they could pony-up. Limit downloads of cache pages to say 10, again a user could easily click the paypal link and drop 30 bucks or buy a month's worth.

I've pondered the same kind of idea...

...charging to list caches, above and beyond a "free" limit of say, 2 caches. Something reasonable like $1 each. That might cut down on lame caches, and and might filter out those that might not be commited to maintain their cache. That way, the "listing service" could be supported, in part, by those that list.

It wouldn't cost anything to play, as you could still find caches at no charge, and have the opportunity to place a small number of caches at no charge also.

I might get flamed for such a suggestion, seeing as I don't own any caches myself, but I don't know how GC.com can be expected to continue providing free services if the hobby/sport it expected to grow and grow.....

February 18, 2004

Adding waypoints to images is a very nice feature, thanks!

Would it be possible in the future also to download the waypoints like it's possible for the cache waypoints? It would be great to be able to download any waypoint that is stored in the site including image, log, etc. waypoints.

Jyrki

4.1k · February 19, 2004

I may be way off and if I am feel free to correct me but keeping all of the gallery pics on the main server is more of a storage problem not a bandwidth issue isn't it? You are only using bandwith when people are trying to retrieve those pics.

Storage is cheap. Backups are less cheap but we upgraded our tape drive so it has the capability for 3 terabytes of data, so that isn't an issue.

Image downloads for a large number of users over a month can be a significant bandwidth hog. For home users it is a flat rate but not for web sites that serve pages to the masses.

The onus is on us to increase memberships by providing additional features. We're doing ok now but I want to make sure that a new feature doesn't financially cripple running the site.

If it is possible to track how many hours a single user is on the site, then maybe setting a time limit of something like 5 hours per month or per 30 day period, of free usage. After that point you would have to pay. Alternately you might be able to set a limit on the number of cache searches (as in find the nearest caches) done in a month.

Perhaps it would be possible to set up a page or link with a listing of all Geocaching Clubs / organizations. This might help get more newbies in the mood to release a little of the green.

We (2oldfarts) wouldn't mind paying a bit more per year (as in $50 a year).

John

February 19, 2004

Very cool! Now I have to find a good way to keep track of the coordinates when I take a picture. I suppose waypoints as pic1, pic2, etc... will be what I have to do.

You might want to look into Ozi Explorer

and OZiPhotoTool.

Cut from OziPhotoTool webpage:

OziPhotoTool takes the digital photos with EXIF metatdata, and tracks from OziExplorer to determine where the GPS was when the photo was taken. As long as the GPS was in the same location as the camera this represents the location of the photo. OziPhotoTool outputs the linkage between the photo and its location by creating an OziExplorer waypoint file, generating map features on OziExplorer maps, watermarking the photos, embedding location information in GPS EXIF tags, and/or generating HTML output.

And for those not familiar with OziExplorer:

OziExplorer GPS Mapping Software which will work with Magellan, Garmin, Lowrance, Eagle, Brunton/Silva and MLR GPS receivers for the upload/download of waypoints, routes and tracks and most brand of GPS receivers for real time tracking of GPS position (Moving Map).

I have not used this combination myself, but as soon as I have restocked the empty slot in my bag where the camera used to sit I'll do.

hbrx.

3.1k · February 19, 2004

Here is an idea: Limit the number of caches that you can place on the site if you are a non-member to something like 1.

So if I don't join you'd want me to archive 95 of my caches and just pick my favorite online?

Jeremy has the right idea, make joining worth my while, not a threat. <_<

1.6k · February 19, 2004

Here is an idea: Limit the number of caches that you can place on the site if you are a non-member to something like 1.

So if I don't join you'd want me to archive 95 of my caches and just pick my favorite online?

Jeremy has the right idea, make joining worth my while, not a threat.

We would grandfather existing caches. I really don't think that expecting heavy users to shoulder a little of the cost of the site is that unreasonable.

February 19, 2004

Image downloads for a large number of users over a month can be a significant bandwidth hog. For home users it is a flat rate but not for web sites that serve pages to the masses.

You have propably already considered this, but however; Have you considered relocating the servers ?? There might be a much cheaper connection provider in the world. Today it does not make big difference where the physical server boxes are. More complex, but not impossible would be to have mirror servers on the other side of the globe which could use the cheaper 'night rates' and thus reduce the costs, and btw backup costs also.

1.8k · February 20, 2004

Here is an idea: Limit the number of caches that you can place on the site if you are a non-member to something like 1....

<SNIP>

Bzzzt. This smacks too much of "pay to play" and might end up being a disincentive for cachers to place new caches rather that for new cachers to become members. Looking up and placing caches are the "foundation features" of this site and I would never support anything that would put a financial restriction on that.

This is a good discussion, though. Could it be split out of the picture thread into its own thread?

1.6k · February 20, 2004

Here is an idea: Limit the number of caches that you can place on the site if you are a non-member to something like 1....

<SNIP>

Bzzzt. This smacks too much of "pay to play" and might end up being a disincentive for cachers to place new caches rather that for new cachers to become members. Looking up and placing caches are the "foundation features" of this site and I would never support anything that would put a financial restriction on that.

This is a good discussion, though. Could it be split out of the picture thread into its own thread?

The idea was that you could drop your $30 a year and then place as many caches and find as many caches as you liked. The idea of a severe limit on cache placement by non-members is to incentivize them to join. After all, $30 is about what a cache costs to place with an ammo can. So you place 4 caches a year instead of 5, the site will get the funding it needs to keep alive, and you will be able to enjoy the site as a supporting member.

Here is another idea. Transfer ownership of the image gallery to a 503c non-profit foundation that could accept donations. Make donating easy (ie: Paypal link or some other electronic payment vehicle). Users (members and non-members) could donate to keep the gallery going as a act of charity. After all, the gallery will contain ultimately 1000's of pictures with a time/date stamp and GPS coords embedded on them. Strikes me that this would be of interest to enviros and land managers to track land usage and given the quality of some of the photos we have seen already, some are going to be of interest as art. Those of us who are able and so inclined could kick in and take the tax deduction.

February 20, 2004

Since this discussion has become one of Money and not of New Image Features, why not make the Image Features for paying members only?

Make it so only paying members can upload a pic, (including avatars)and the thirty bucks seems a bit more substantial.

Og

9.1k · February 20, 2004

I am closing my topic because it has gone off-topic.

New Geocaching Image Features

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