Geocaching Gurus by City?
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- 10000 or more caches found
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Geocaching Gurus by City?
We from the shaky isles are considering adopting the Geocaching Guru functionality that has been so kindly provided here
One brief question, it would be easier for us if we could create a list of main cities/towns e.g. 20 largest or similar, and just list the Geocaching Gurus by city/town. The suburb approach seems just a little fine-grained for our needs, and a city/town-based approach would make it far easier to produce a quick list esp. if there may only be say 2-3 gurus in a town.
Where I'm heading with this is I'd like to be able to statically link from gps.org.nz pages to searches for say Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch, Dunedin etc to make it quick and simple for newbies to find the gurus. And perhaps use the State to pre-filter, e.g. by selecting North Island, South Island etc and only showing towns from that 'state'.
Once again, the work that everyone does on this website does no go un-noticed over here, perhaps the biggest problem is that we don't keep up with all the additions and improvements!
Cheers Gav
One brief question, it would be easier for us if we could create a list of main cities/towns e.g. 20 largest or similar, and just list the Geocaching Gurus by city/town. The suburb approach seems just a little fine-grained for our needs, and a city/town-based approach would make it far easier to produce a quick list esp. if there may only be say 2-3 gurus in a town.
Where I'm heading with this is I'd like to be able to statically link from gps.org.nz pages to searches for say Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch, Dunedin etc to make it quick and simple for newbies to find the gurus. And perhaps use the State to pre-filter, e.g. by selecting North Island, South Island etc and only showing towns from that 'state'.
Once again, the work that everyone does on this website does no go un-noticed over here, perhaps the biggest problem is that we don't keep up with all the additions and improvements!
Cheers Gav
- CraigRat
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Glad you like the site!
The suburb listing is quite granular, however, it does display people nearby over quite a large radius (50km or so)
So if you had a Guru on the outskirts of Auckland (say Manukau) they will still appear in the gurus list if Auckland is chosen.
The system uses the cachers home co-ordinates, so the people who want to be known as Gurus would need an account here, plus correct(ish) home co-ords).
We don't have a direct way to link to this list right now, but it's not impossible for us to do it. Leave it with me for a bit and I'll see what we can come up with.
We would LOVE to make stronger bonds with the NZ caching community, so if there is anything you would like to see, let us know and we will see what we can do. (especially if it means helping get rid of that cutting grass stuff, I got well lacerated last time I was caching in NZ )
The suburb listing is quite granular, however, it does display people nearby over quite a large radius (50km or so)
So if you had a Guru on the outskirts of Auckland (say Manukau) they will still appear in the gurus list if Auckland is chosen.
The system uses the cachers home co-ordinates, so the people who want to be known as Gurus would need an account here, plus correct(ish) home co-ords).
We don't have a direct way to link to this list right now, but it's not impossible for us to do it. Leave it with me for a bit and I'll see what we can come up with.
We would LOVE to make stronger bonds with the NZ caching community, so if there is anything you would like to see, let us know and we will see what we can do. (especially if it means helping get rid of that cutting grass stuff, I got well lacerated last time I was caching in NZ )
Might be as easy as having a second homepage for the NZ cachers. As it is at the moment, NZ is pretty much reduced to an extra couple of Australian states!CraigRat wrote: We would LOVE to make stronger bonds with the NZ caching community, so if there is anything you would like to see, let us know and we will see what we can do. (especially if it means helping get rid of that cutting grass stuff, I got well lacerated last time I was caching in NZ )
A "Geocaching New Zealand" homepage/skin for the site would help inspire some patriotism and surely increase usage.
- caughtatwork
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It's not exactly what I think you have in mind, but should work.
http://geocaching.com.au/search/gurus/christchurch/nz/
http://geocaching.com.au/search/gurus/dunedin/nz/
http://geocaching.com.au/search/gurus/hamilton/nz/
It should allow you to statically link any suburb you want / need.
Note that the postcode table we use only has NZ rather than NI or SI, so we're somewhat constrained in that matter.
Does that help?
http://geocaching.com.au/search/gurus/christchurch/nz/
http://geocaching.com.au/search/gurus/dunedin/nz/
http://geocaching.com.au/search/gurus/hamilton/nz/
It should allow you to statically link any suburb you want / need.
Note that the postcode table we use only has NZ rather than NI or SI, so we're somewhat constrained in that matter.
Does that help?
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- 10000 or more caches found
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Yep, that's actually pretty close to what I had in mind. Just a nice easy link to each one that we can statically link to. We're currently having discussions in our forums about what actually constitutes a guru and what people expect from them!caughtatwork wrote:It's not exactly what I think you have in mind, but should work. Does that help?
Are these the old or new postcodes? The new post codes were introduced last year. The problem with NZ postcodes is that they are controlled by a private company, and hence you have to pay to have a database of them, or to obtain a shapefile of their boundaries. So, I'm not sure how useful this is for us.caughtatwork wrote:Note that the postcode table we use only has NZ rather than NI or SI, so we're somewhat constrained in that matter.
That shouldn't be too difficult, most of them at that level are increasingly aware of this siteCraigRat wrote:so the people who want to be known as Gurus would need an account here
Ditto! There are a lot of us that go back and forwards across the Tasman, and the better shared experience we can create the better. Certainly with more Kiwi's 'discovering' GCA recently there seems at last to be the critical momentum in interest in GCA that we haven't had in the past. I think most of the growing interest is currently around stats and some of the associated nifty features such as friends, gurus etc.CraigRat wrote:We would LOVE to make stronger bonds with the NZ caching community, so if there is anything you would like to see, let us know and we will see what we can do. (especially if it means helping get rid of that cutting grass stuff, I got well lacerated last time I was caching in NZ icon_lol.gif )
And you're not the only one that wants to stop hunting caches in toi toi, or the more humble flax bush. We've had many a thread on our forums discussing this!
That sounds great - but we wouldn't want to ask too much given it is all done for free. I think that a New Zealand dashboard similar to the Australian homepage that focuses on New Zealand would be a good start - particularly for the top hiders/finders/caches.Damo. wrote:Might be as easy as having a second homepage for the NZ cachers. As it is at the moment, NZ is pretty much reduced to an extra couple of Australian states! A "Geocaching New Zealand" homepage/skin for the site would help inspire some patriotism and surely increase usage.
In terms of formatting, would it be as simple as reading our profile state, and if SI or NI, then perhaps changing the Blue bar to Black, and we could probably come up with a similar logo to be used in its place. This would also change which stats are shown on the homepage? I'm sure that would get quite a few more Kiwis using it, especially if the NZ aspect is made more obvious and accessible.
Might have the added side benefit of removing NZ from the Australian page
Anyway, thanks for the help, and keen to see where this takes us.
Cheers Gav
- caughtatwork
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The home page is for all, not just Australia. So if a NZ cache or cacher gets to the right number, they appear on the board.That sounds great - but we wouldn't want to ask too much given it is all done for free. I think that a New Zealand dashboard similar to the Australian homepage that focuses on New Zealand would be a good start - particularly for the top hiders/finders/caches.
There's also this:
http://geocaching.com.au/dashboard/nz/si/
and this:
http://geocaching.com.au/dashboard/nz/ni/
I agree that if we could identify a Kiwi, it would be nice to have the stats based on NZ only. Hey, if we could identify a Kiwi, we could just as easily identify a Victorian or Queenslander and have a home page just for them. Hmmm.
The trouble we've run across is that not everyone has the right state set up in their profile. That could cause a problem for a Kiwi who doesn't have a state set up, it would look like the generic site. It's an interesting idea though and I like the skinning idea. Might be a bit tricky and a bit of duplication, but I kind of like it.In terms of formatting, would it be as simple as reading our profile state, and if SI or NI, then perhaps changing the Blue bar to Black, and we could probably come up with a similar logo to be used in its place. This would also change which stats are shown on the homepage? I'm sure that would get quite a few more Kiwis using it, especially if the NZ aspect is made more obvious and accessible.
Apart from the cacher having their correct state set up (visitors who aren't registered or logged on wouldn't even have a state) is there another idea for how we could determine what country / island a visitor is from with a good degree of accuracy?
No idea how old the data is. It's so old that the postcode actually don't exisit, there is just the lat / lon for the post office and the name of the area. For NZ Guru searches we use the locality name rather than a defined postcode.Are these the old or new postcodes? The new post codes were introduced last year. The problem with NZ postcodes is that they are controlled by a private company, and hence you have to pay to have a database of them, or to obtain a shapefile of their boundaries. So, I'm not sure how useful this is for us.
- caughtatwork
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As a simple change to see how effective it will be to differentiate content based on your home state, when you visit the site now, if you are logged in and you have a state set in your profile (AU / NZ only),you should now see at the top left, next to the GCA logo, your state flag.
Clicking on that state flag will take you to the dashboard for your state.
Question for the Kiwis. Do you have a separate flag for each island? Each state / terriitory in Australia has a different flag, but I couldn't find any for the two NZ isles. If you can find one, let me know and I'll update them.
Similarly, if your state is correct but flag is wrong, let me know and I'll fix them. NT and ACT are the two I'm most suspicious on.
Clicking on that state flag will take you to the dashboard for your state.
Question for the Kiwis. Do you have a separate flag for each island? Each state / terriitory in Australia has a different flag, but I couldn't find any for the two NZ isles. If you can find one, let me know and I'll update them.
Similarly, if your state is correct but flag is wrong, let me know and I'll fix them. NT and ACT are the two I'm most suspicious on.
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- 10000 or more caches found
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That worked pretty well - came up with the NZ flag for me. No the NI/SI thing is a historical distinction we used when gc.com was implementing states and it made sense for us to choose a geographical rather than political distinction.
Since we don't have a Federal Govt, we don't have independent states either, although sometime us Cantabrians wonder
Re: defaults - I don't see why if you can identify someone you just present the generic site as it is now.
Since we don't have a Federal Govt, we don't have independent states either, although sometime us Cantabrians wonder
Re: defaults - I don't see why if you can identify someone you just present the generic site as it is now.
- caughtatwork
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- caughtatwork
- Posts: 17016
- Joined: 17 May 04 12:11 pm
- Location: Melbourne
- Contact:
- caughtatwork
- Posts: 17016
- Joined: 17 May 04 12:11 pm
- Location: Melbourne
- Contact:
- caughtatwork
- Posts: 17016
- Joined: 17 May 04 12:11 pm
- Location: Melbourne
- Contact:
Please do. We strive to please as well as being fun for the developers so if you want other things, don't hesitate to ask. Not all may be accommodated, but we'd be interested in helping anyones use of the site get better.rediguana wrote:That's really nice I gotta go tell the others! Hehehe
Great work!