[Jeremy]

The new feature released today is called Bookmark Lists. It is a Premium Member feature that allows you to group listings in whatever way you want, and share them with other people (or not). Part of the Bookmark List feature is the ignore feature, which allows you to remove a listing from appearing on your search results page when you filter by found/owned caches (and in pocket queries).

Here are some Frequently Asked Questions from the reviewers who initially tested out the system. I will add to this list as we get more questions. If you have a question make sure to read through this list as it may already have been answered.

Bookmark Lists

How do I get to the bookmark lists?

You can start your first one by clicking on the bookmark link on any cache listing. You can also access your listing from your "my account" page. The link is below the Pocket Query link.

Once you create a list you can add additional waypoints from the Bookmark List page. You'll have to find the GC code from the cache listings to do this.

What is the limit for bookmark lists or bookmarks?

You can have up to 10 bookmark lists. On each bookmark list you can currently have up to 100 bookmarks. We'll monitor the use of the bookmarks to see if we can up that count in the future.

Does the geocacher get notified when I bookmark their listing?

No.

What is the difference between a watchlist and a watched bookmark list?

There isn't much of a difference, and the watchlist will be incorporated into the bookmark lists as a "special" list that is not visible by others. The difference now is that there is no limit on a watchlist though there is one for a bookmark list. This will be the same when the watchlist becomes a bookmark list.

Bookmark lists have a feature to watch or not watch that one list. And yes, you will get notified when those items are logged if you choose to watch the list. You can also toggle them if, say, you go on vacation.

What is a Shared list?

If you exchange the URL of the list with someone else they can see it. This is the URL when you are viewing the contents of the Bookmark List. We'll see if we can make the link shorter.

How do I find Shared Lists?

Unless you have a URL you cannot see a shared list (yet). However, we will be adding functionality to show shared lists on a cache listing so you know someone bookmarked it for whatever reason. Also we will add a tab on the profile page so you can see a user's shared list.

We had to stop implementation somewhere. so these features haven't been added (yet).

Can non-Premium Members see shared lists?

Yes. They will need to be logged in but they can see them.

What is an Ignore List?

It is a list of items you want to ignore on your search results and pocket queries. When you filter your hides and finds on the advanced search page it will filter them out from the results. You will still see them on standard searches.

Can I use the Ignore List with Pocket Queries?

Yes. It will be an option on all Pocket Queries.

Can anyone see my ignore list?

No. Only you can see it. By default it is a list that cannot be shared.

Can I create a Pocket Query of bookmark lists?

Yes. We will be adding that functionality in the future when we implement Attribute searches. This is currently not a feature, however.

When you choose to ignore a listing that you're also watching, will you still get log notifications via email?

Yes. They are two independent features so you'd still get emails for caches on your watch lists, but the listing will not show up on your search results or pocket queries (if you choose to filter them).

Can you add an "add to list" button on the search results page?

This is a great idea for adding "todo list" items and I'm looking into an implementation of this feature.

This post has been edited by Jeremy: 16 February 2005 - 12:08 PM

[Tharagleb]

This is great! Thanks.

[WeightMan]

I like the new look on the pages as well. I love the ignore list. There are a couple of caches close to me that I don't intend to ever do and now I won't need to see them most of the time.

Great job.

[Mopar]

Jeremy, on Feb 16 2005, 01:38 PM, said:

Can I use the Ignore List with Pocket Queries?

Yes. It will be an option on all Pocket Queries.

Am I blind? I don't see this, just a checkbox for "Are on my watch list". Od do I need to actually create an ignore list before I will see the option in the PQs?

[Cow Spots]

Is there a limit on how many caches can be added to a list?

[Mopar]

OK, either I need to cut back on the coffee, or the site is changing before my eyes.
Looks like the "Are not on my ignore list" feature is now in the PQ's. Thanks Jeremy!

[vds]

WeightMan, on Feb 16 2005, 10:49 AM, said:

I like the new look on the pages as well. I love the ignore list. There are a couple of caches close to me that I don't intend to ever do and now I won't need to see them most of the time.

Great job.

I wish there was a way to more efficiently add to an ignore list (ie, have another checkbox on the 'closest caches page' letting us add a bunch of them easily) but it's a big, big improvement as-is. VERY glad to get a few ones requiring boats or scuba off my nearest unfound list. Thanks.

[Jeremy]

Mopar, on Feb 16 2005, 10:55 AM, said:

OK, either I need to cut back on the coffee, or the site is changing before my eyes.
Looks like the "Are not on my ignore list" feature is now in the PQ's. Thanks Jeremy!

There was a moment during the transition where I had to make that option available. You were caught in the moment.

[The Leprechauns]

The Cow Spots, on Feb 16 2005, 01:54 PM, said:

Is there a limit on how many caches can be added to a list?

The limit for each bookmark list is 50 caches, then you get an error message. (It already happened to me!) I will break up my "best caches" list into two separate lists to deal with the limitation.

[radioscout]

Many thanks for the new functions and the great new design!

[Mopar]

I'm liking it so far, but there is always room for feature creep improvement, right?

How about an icon on the cache searches and the actual cache page itself to show when a cache is bookmarked or ignored? This way, if you were not specifically excluding ignored caches in an advanced search, you could see on the search results that you already had a certain cache bookmarked or ignored.

For example:


I helped hide the 3rd cache down, so I added it to my ignore list since I'm never going to log a find on it. It would be nice to see some sort of visual indication that the cache is already on my ignore list as I'm using the search page.

[OpusTerra]

Humm .. seems that the GPX download doesn't work on the cache page ...

[Jeremy]

The Leprechauns, on Feb 16 2005, 11:10 AM, said:

The Cow Spots, on Feb 16 2005, 01:54 PM, said:

Is there a limit on how many caches can be added to a list?

The limit for each bookmark list is 50 caches, then you get an error message. (It already happened to me!) I will break up my "best caches" list into two separate lists to deal with the limitation.

Hmm.. I'll double it to 100 caches.

[Jeremy]

OpusTerra, on Feb 16 2005, 11:28 AM, said:

Humm .. seems that the GPX download doesn't work on the cache page ...

Fixed it.

[The Leprechauns]

Jeremy, on Feb 16 2005, 03:03 PM, said:

The Leprechauns, on Feb 16 2005, 11:10 AM, said:

The Cow Spots, on Feb 16 2005, 01:54 PM, said:

Is there a limit on how many caches can be added to a list?

The limit for each bookmark list is 50 caches, then you get an error message. (It already happened to me!) I will break up my "best caches" list into two separate lists to deal with the limitation.

Hmm.. I'll double it to 100 caches.

Wow! That would be great, thanks.

I think that *most* lists will be under 100, but a favorites list and a "caches to do on this weekend's road trip" list could easily go over 50 for many users.

[Jeremy]

It has been doubled. I also added the answer in the above FAQ.

[globalgirl]

WOA! Major KUDOS to Jeremy and his helpers for a HUGELY HANDY set of site improvements! Goodness but BOTH a sweet multiple bookmark list AND an "ignore" feature in one fell swoop - goodgracious now THAT'S something to CHEER about!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

[AJK]

The new bookmark lists could really lend themselves to the cache rating system, as discussed here

[Jeremy]

AJK, on Feb 16 2005, 12:26 PM, said:

The new bookmark lists could really lend themselves to the cache rating system, as discussed here

Yes. I have designed it so I can add additional "special" lists like the top 10% concept illustrated by Markwell.

[m.zielinski]

The new Features are really nice! But it seems there is an bug - i put all the caches from my watchlist into bookmark-lists (not into the ignore list!) but the caches now DONT show up in the nearest caches page !?!

[nfa]

Jeremy et al,

Thank you very much, these features are awesome additions to the functionality of the site...I'm excited to play with them.

nfa-jamie

[fly46]

The Leprechauns, on Feb 16 2005, 11:10 AM, said:

The Cow Spots, on Feb 16 2005, 01:54 PM, said:

Is there a limit on how many caches can be added to a list?

The limit for each bookmark list is [100] caches, then you get an error message. (It already happened to me!) I will break up my "best caches" list into two separate lists to deal with the limitation.

Which then leads to the question - how many lists are you able to create with this?

[gnbrotz]

*should have finished reading the entire thread!

This post has been edited by gnbrotz: 16 February 2005 - 01:09 PM

[RuffRidr]

Jeremy, on Feb 16 2005, 12:45 PM, said:

Yes. I have designed it so I can add additional "special" lists like the top 10% concept illustrated by Markwell.

Suh-weet! I CANNOT wait until that is implemented.

--RuffRidr

[OpusTerra]

Jeremy, on Feb 16 2005, 12:04 PM, said:

OpusTerra, on Feb 16 2005, 11:28 AM, said:

Humm .. seems that the GPX download doesn't work on the cache page ...

Fixed it.

"Ca c'est du service ! Un gros merci Jeremy !"
Big thanks

[GrizzlyJohn]

Just saw one minor problem on the bookmark list.

If you have one item in the list and click the check all button it does not check anything. Not a big deal you can just click on the box and then do a bulk delete. But it does think it did something because the button text changes from check all to uncheck all.

[junglehair]

Love the ignore list option! I also like the new, more subtle colour scheme. Thanks!

[peter0224]

Thanks for the new option. I have one suggestion. On the "/bookmarks/view.aspx" page, if a cache is disabled can a line appear over the cache name like it does on the normal search pages?

["Team Kleijn"]

Hi jeremy,

Nice extensions you've build. I'm happy to see and use it

I've one question.:

At every log you could see the number of founds of the cacher. Could you append a scorecounter for the number of travelbugs the cacher has logged? I mean all sorts of TravelBugs, it's not necessary to give seperately scores for travelbugtypes.

Presenting this score in every log (as you do with normal cachefounds) give a positive aspect for travelbugs. Because buying travelbugs = donating Groundspeak, this feature give's a new competition element.

I idea to acclerate the selling (= donating) TravelBugs , GeoCoins and other TB related Groundspeak stuff.

'Team Kleijn'
Rob

[Maingray]

The bookmark lists look very cool..will be great for area geocaching socities; for example, must-visit caches for area visitors (polls to decide?), caches that need adoption / maintenance... some good possibilities there!

[globalgirl]

Just a quick suggestion - as I happily wade through dismembering my watch list, creating a goodly gaggle of sweet bookmark categories, and tucking caches into each bookmark nook:

I can only imagine the wondrous array of creative uses and configurations folks will find for these two new features - might be good for someone (I'll defer to others here) to start a sticky thread, just for sharing ideas on creative uses for the new bookmark feature.

Ditto for the new "ignore" feature, 'cuz - while I most surely have long awaited this little gem, I've already had a geochum question me privately with: "what would you want to ignore?". i.e. while it might seem obvious for some, a sticky thread to guide folks and share creative uses might be just the ticket.

P.S. special thanks and squeals of delight for the ability to add comments to each individual bookmark. Sooooo handy for so many things - absolutely BRILLIANT!

[DomHeknows]

another idea, that i've implemented is a list of the bonus caches that often appear at the end of a series. Useful to see series of caches and also when someone completes a whole series and also to get an idea for cache series of my own.

[Tonsil]

Hey, I'm still learning to use the lists, but is there a way to control the order of list items? Like, if want to rank caches as favorites? It seems to default to alphabetical.

[Hemlock]

Tonsil, on Feb 16 2005, 02:34 PM, said:

It seems to default to alphabetical.

Just add a 1. 2. 3. etc to the front and they will be alphanumerically sorted.

[Tonsil]

Doh! Didn't realize you could edit the cache name! Thanks, you're 2 for 2 on quick answers to me today!

[Jeremy]

GrizzlyJohn, on Feb 16 2005, 01:24 PM, said:

If you have one item in the list and click the check all button it does not check anything. Not a big deal you can just click on the box and then do a bulk delete. But it does think it did something because the button text changes from check all to uncheck all.

I saw that too while testing but decided to let it go until I could find some time to mess with it. Probably something silly in the javascript.

[Tharagleb]

Hemlock, on Feb 16 2005, 02:37 PM, said:

Tonsil, on Feb 16 2005, 02:34 PM, said:

It seems to default to alphabetical.

Just add a 1. 2. 3. etc to the front and they will be alphanumerically sorted.

Make that 01. 02. etc. in case you want more than 10.

[The Leprechauns]

globalgirl, on Feb 16 2005, 05:12 PM, said:

Just a quick suggestion - as I happily wade through dismembering my watch list, creating a goodly gaggle of sweet bookmark categories, and tucking caches into each bookmark nook:

I can only imagine the wondrous array of creative uses and configurations folks will find for these two new features - might be good for someone (I'll defer to others here) to start a sticky thread, just for sharing ideas on creative uses for the new bookmark feature.

I started a thread over here in "Geocaching Topics" to discuss ways of using bookmark lists, in the belief that bugs and questions are best addressed here, while user tips are best shared over there. So of course, the early posts to my thread were technical questions about bookmark lists!

Anyways, please feel free to share your ideas in that thread. Thanks!

[VesaK]

So what is the difference between Ignore list and other bookmark lists, besides Ignore having a shortcut button on cache page? When I add a cache to any list, it disappears from my 'nearest to home, finds filtered' page.

To a non-native English speaker the FAQ text sounds like this is not what was intended; is this a bug? If not, then maybe the FAQ should be fixed.

I think the bookmark list feature would be more useful, if only Ignore list was filtered.

[Semper Questio]

OMG!!!! I LOVE the changes!!!! And THANK YOU ever so much for the Ignore List and incorporating them in the PQ's. This will save me SCADS of time and hassle in maintaining my stuff!

An afterthought - Howzabout being able to bookmark other member's profile pages?

This post has been edited by Semper Questio: 16 February 2005 - 02:54 PM

[willcall]

Super-, Super-cool! I'm too often a deer in headlights, not knowing which direction to go next. At least I can start consolidating multiple hunts better (my pocket queries generate way too many caches, naturally). Should make paperless caching easier.

BTW - since I'm on a suggestions thread -- How about adding the "miles to home coordinates" indicator to the search results for the "New in [Washington]" query? I'm always popping in for the new listings, but can't tell if they're 3 miles away or 300.

Again -- thanks for the new features!

[southdeltan]

Mopar, on Feb 16 2005, 01:19 PM, said:

I'm liking it so far, but there is always room for feature creep improvement, right?

How about an icon on the cache searches and the actual cache page itself to show when a cache is bookmarked or ignored? This way, if you were not specifically excluding ignored caches in an advanced search, you could see on the search results that you already had a certain cache bookmarked or ignored.

For example:


I helped hide the 3rd cache down, so I added it to my ignore list since I'm never going to log a find on it. It would be nice to see some sort of visual indication that the cache is already on my ignore list as I'm using the search page.

I think this is a fine idea. It'd be useful for a user to know if he or she has bookmarked or ignored a cache already.


Oh yea - I haven't bookmarked any caches yet (I've ignored quite a few tho) but I heard that bookmarked caches were getting removed from the "nearest unfound" list. I'm sure this is unintended - any word on the status of this "bug".

sd

[hb'sbear04]

Yeah, I'd love to be able to bookmark other members' pages too.

[GrizzlyJohn]

Jeremy, on Feb 16 2005, 05:44 PM, said:

I saw that too while testing but decided to let it go until I could find some time to mess with it. Probably something silly in the javascript.

I hit up on this from time to time. I find I always end up wtih a problem when I play with the array and check the length. Then send it into a for loop and do the wrong thing in either subtracting or not subtracting one from the length on the to part of the for statement. So I either leave one left not being done or I get an out of bounds error because I do one more than is in the array.

[Team Four Paw]

The cache pages are so wide now they cover up the background images people commonly use to spruce up the caches.

[TrailGators]

Jeremy, on Feb 16 2005, 12:45 PM, said:

AJK, on Feb 16 2005, 12:26 PM, said:

The new bookmark lists could really lend themselves to the cache rating system, as discussed here

Yes. I have designed it so I can add additional "special" lists like the top 10% concept illustrated by Markwell.

That is awesome Jeremy! Just had to say thanks!

[WRITE SHOP ROBERT]

Saw a side discussion about this and the idea popped into my head, Could a cache page show or a cache owner be notified about how many users (but not which ones) are ignoring a cache. The idea being that for instance I discover X number of users are ignoring a cache of mine, I would know to maybe change or archive it, or in another example I'm choosing caches to search on a road trip, I might be able to tell some to bypass.

[southdeltan]

WRITE SHOP ROBERT, on Feb 16 2005, 09:36 PM, said:

Saw a side discussion about this and the idea popped into my head, Could a cache page show or a cache owner be notified about how many users (but not which ones) are ignoring a cache. The idea being that for instance I discover X number of users are ignoring a cache of mine, I would know to maybe change or archive it, or in another example I'm choosing caches to search on a road trip, I might be able to tell some to bypass.

I think that's a good idea, but they already said no.

Apparantly people ignore caches for different reasons.

I suppose a menu where you selected some of the popular reasons when you ignored the cache would be useful info, but I doubt that'll get added.

There is a need for cache hiders to know if a high number of cachers are ignoring their caches for a specific reason (such as a poor cache), but I think some think it's more important to protect their feelings.

sd

[planetrobert]

Just noticed that this feature is still listed in the TODO section of the Member Features page

http://www.geocachin...bscription.aspx

[The Leprechauns]

Well Jeremy, you won't find a bigger fan of bookmark lists than me, but I'm already accumulating ideas for future enhancements. Sorry in advance for not letting you take a well-deserved rest on your laurels!

People are already saying that lists are cool but we need better ways to share them and expose the benefits of the new feature. Here are two ideas, in addition to what you already noted (for the user's profile, a tab for their shared lists, and for the cache page linking to the lists mentioning that cache):

Can list titles be searchable? Wouldn't it be cool to search for lists that contained the word "puzzle" if you liked puzzle caches and wanted to see all the lists that collected great puzzle caches?

Can there be a list of shared bookmark lists? Like, on a prominent page, "here are the lists with the most favorable recommendations" or "here are the lists with the highest percentages of favorable recommendations"?

This post has been edited by The Leprechauns: 17 February 2005 - 05:02 AM