What's new on Geocaching Australia

Discussion about the Geocaching Australia web site
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caughtatwork
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Cache owner's name on the logging page

Post by caughtatwork » 07 April 14 7:50 pm

SamCarter asked:
Idea:
Cache owner's name on the logging page -- At the moment the name of the cache owner is not visible on the page where you compose/submit your log. I sometimes like to acknowledge the hider/owner in my logs, and it would be great if the name was there, perhaps just after/under the cache name.
Your friendly developers say ... yes. Done and ready for use.

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caughtatwork
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dragonZone

Post by caughtatwork » 07 April 14 7:50 pm

Just in case you haven't noticed yet.
http://wiki.geocaching.com.au/wiki/DragonZone

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caughtatwork
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dragonZone Cache Control via My Query

Post by caughtatwork » 26 April 14 11:08 pm

http://forum.geocaching.com.au/viewtopi ... 73#p209873

Thanks to blossom* My Query now has the ability to add a clan and whether or not a cache is controlled by that clan so you can better target your caches to gain control. She has been rewarded with some dragonZone points. Thanks blossom*.

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Zalgariath
5500 or more caches found
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Re: What's new on Geocaching Australia

Post by Zalgariath » 27 April 14 11:20 am

=D> Great Idea!

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rogerw3
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Re: What's new on Geocaching Australia

Post by rogerw3 » 01 May 14 7:09 pm

:gnome :gnomette :frog :frogette :weepingangel

With the moveable challenge in 'full swing' thanks to Zalgariath. It would be a good idea to be able to change the cache ratings when doing a moved log, that would eliminate a lot of 1/1 that is no longer applicable.

:weepingangel :frogette :frog :gnomette :gnome

canary
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Re: What's new on Geocaching Australia

Post by canary » 05 May 14 11:53 am

Why does "Nearby GCA Unfound" on the cache listing page, show owned caches as well as unfound?

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caughtatwork
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Re: What's new on Geocaching Australia

Post by caughtatwork » 05 May 14 12:58 pm

canary wrote:Why does "Nearby GCA Unfound" on the cache listing page, show owned caches as well as unfound?
You can find your own caches at GCA, but it's about Moveables, basically. I think it's reasonable to exclude "owned" caches as well, in hindsight.

canary
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Re: What's new on Geocaching Australia

Post by canary » 05 May 14 2:05 pm

caughtatwork wrote:
canary wrote:Why does "Nearby GCA Unfound" on the cache listing page, show owned caches as well as unfound?
You can find your own caches at GCA, but it's about Moveables, basically. I think it's reasonable to exclude "owned" caches as well, in hindsight.
What about excluding non-movable owned caches?

Toriaz
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Re: What's new on Geocaching Australia

Post by Toriaz » 05 May 14 6:40 pm

canary wrote:Why does "Nearby GCA Unfound" on the cache listing page, show owned caches as well as unfound?
This also happens with GC caches. I clicked on the nearby unfound button yesterday, and got this unexpected long list of caches. I was scratching my head, wondering when all of these new caches got published, then realised they were all mine :oops: .

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CraigRat
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Re: What's new on Geocaching Australia

Post by CraigRat » 06 May 14 8:13 am

There is a function we have to do that, but it appears to not be working...

I'm re-building my dev system again (again again) as it broke during the last Arch Linux Apache update... I'll investigate ASAP

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caughtatwork
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Re: What's new on Geocaching Australia

Post by caughtatwork » 06 May 14 8:35 am

CraigRat wrote:There is a function we have to do that, but it appears to not be working...

I'm re-building my dev system again (again again) as it broke during the last Arch Linux Apache update... I'll investigate ASAP
Is all fixed now.

canary
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Re: What's new on Geocaching Australia

Post by canary » 06 May 14 11:43 am

Thanks as always for the great service.

I love that wierd things that bug you, and can be fixed, the problems get treated solved.

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caughtatwork
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dragonZone Trophies

Post by caughtatwork » 22 June 14 4:16 pm

dragonZone Trophies are up.
http://geocaching.com.au/cacher/trophies/caughtatwork/ (as an example).

10 points for Bronze
50 points for Silver
100 points for Gold
500 points for Blaze
Variable points for Limited (none currently available).

Go to your cacher page.
From the tabs hover over My and click Cacher Page
Hover over dragonZone and click on Trophies

If you're visiting your own page, you get a link named UPDATE which you can click to self serve update your trophies. Done this way as some cachers may not want to participate in trophies and therefore they get to ignore any potential trophies they may have earned. It also saves CPU time on our server by only updating on demand. Sorry, we need to be a little bit cheap and cheerful nowadays as our infrastructure grows old and weary.

So when you're done logging for the day, visit your page and update your trophies. If you miss claiming a trophy for Bronze, Silver, Gold or Blaze they will always be available for your next update. If you miss updating your Limited Edition trophies during the applicable time period... tough luck. Once they've elapsed, they're gone.

Trophies only apply to dragonZone members and only start accruing from the date you joined the game.

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caughtatwork
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A new look menu, front page and cache page

Post by caughtatwork » 13 August 15 7:31 pm

For a long time Geocaching Australia has been (justifiably) criticised for it menu and navigation system, its hotpotch of information on the front page and the random stuff thrown around the geocache page. We have other criticisms as well, but they are for a different discussion.

Over the last 6 to 8 weeks caughtatwork (one of the Geocaching Australia) developers has been developing a new menu structure, front page and geocache page.

You can cut to the chase and see the final result live.
http://geocaching.com.au

For some more light reading.
The goal was to focus the site in a few ways.
1. Mobile device usability (you can't hover over a menu on a mobile device).
2. FIND and HIDE a geocache were never easy to navigate to if you didn't know your way around. As this is the principal of geocaching, this needed to be easier to get to.
3. Make the landing page more useful in finding a geocache.
4. Arrange the data on the geocache page to make the most relevant data load fast and the other data load only on demand.

This went to the Geocaching Australia Senate at the start of July for some discussion and with no dissension it went forward in design and development.

Rather than impose the will of the few upon the needs of the many, we decided to offer input and accept feedback from the community who use the site and who may not use the site now, but if changes were made, mighjt use the site in the future.

We did not want to be dictatorial. That's not the Geocaching Australia way.

In the 3rd week of July it was far enough along in development to demonstrate what was being proposed and went to the Geocaching Australia community both in the forums and via this Facebook page.

This was the forum post. http://forum.geocaching.com.au/viewtopi ... =1&t=18874

There was a nice amount of feedback with some robust discussion about how to tackle the experienced geocacher and site user vs. the new geocacher and someone who has not experienced the site before.

There was discussion about the front page and how / what to include and some great suggestions from the community.

There was also discussion about how to "find" something in the menu structure, so a Site Map was added to the bottom of each page which should show you all the options at one. You can see from that site map just how much data and how many options there are at Geocaching Australia. We doubt there will ever be a perfect navigation solution to the Geocaching Australia site. Navigation is always the hardest part of any site. Getting the balance between minimal options to choose from, then "drilling down" is opposed by a lack of visibility as to "where you are going". Wide and deep navigation structures are too cumbersome and simple narrow navigation structures mean more "journey" to get where you are going by adding clicks.

We also improved the Geocache page so you can see the most important data immediately (or as soon as the database can serve it up) and then click to see other data. This takes the strain off the database as a smaller volume of data is prepared each time. Do a search, then click on the geocache to see its page.

We've enhanced the search pages to focus your search on the area you want. Locality. Postcode. Name. Co-ordinates. Waypoint (code). Events. Recommended. All sorts of search options. Again, this was a desire to avoid overloading the database with irrelevant queries. Regrettably this means you will need to choose what you're looking for, but your answer should be back in about 1/3rd of the time it used to be. Of course you can still use the hjighly customisable My Query generator to deliver specific search criteria.

The site has been tested extensively by caughatwork on as many devices and screen sizes as was reasonable for someone who has no development fund, only what he can buy himself. Everything seems to be working so far.

Please come and visit the Geocaching Australia site.

Look at the home page (your can check your experienced view of the front page against a new geocachers view by logging out and seeing what options are presented).

Check out a geocache page and see the new look and how to interact with the information.

Look at the menu (I hope you've been able to find it) and see how it works for you on a desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile.

Please give us your feedback. We can't say that we will cater for everything as sometimes design and useability need to trade off against each other, but we will certainly look at what you're asking for.

If you happen to notice something not working (as opposed to just looking wonky), then please let us know here or in the dedicated bug thread. http://forum.geocaching.com.au/viewtopi ... =1&t=13578

The senators (current and present), the developers and the community who help to build Geocaching Australia all hope that this approach works out for the better.

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Tyreless
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Re: What's new on Geocaching Australia

Post by Tyreless » 13 August 15 8:25 pm

Looks great on my ipad2. Thanks so much c@w.

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