I have a few observations, perhaps I am using the site incorrectly?
I've now found the new Terracaching stat bar, I don't now what UCR etc means and also my stat bar only shows my name, there are no figures against any of the fields, are there a minimum number of finds required?
I don't like the new cache search, I used to have a bookmark that took me right to the info I wanted, this no longer seems possible, so now I have to fill in the drop downs each time, very slow, doesn't seem to take any notice of your selections either, I the default 100 miles chosen, I select Country as UK and State as England and click search, but it still shows me caches in Belgium etc... it took around a minute to show me the message (8591) cache(s) loaded. Seems a lot for England, could this be the whole database?
When I look at Terracentral, why do I need a 4x4 grid of my found caches with the same image that tells me nothing, they all have the same redirect URL too?
I tried importing a new gpx file into GSAK to update the one Terracache I found on holiday www.terracaching.com/Cache/TCEJK by selecting receive gpx, this gets emailed to you, so I saved it, then imported it and I get '' is not a valid integer value, click ok and it imports ok, but creates a new waypoint, rather than updating the existing one.
In the TC community area there are lots of pdf files that explain the scoring system, UCR etc. This is a link to one. It can take a bit of work to get your head around it all, in fact I would probably find it hard to explain much of it. If you have found or hidden something though, I would think you should have a score other than zero.
I understand what you are saying about the 4x4 grids. The other day I updated some of the cover photos (a new feature) of my caches so that they looked different than the standard map icons TC give us, see below.. but yes, they all have the same url redirect. I don't know why that is, it's not useful.
For these questions, and the ones I haven't answered at all, have you posted your questions in the community section of TC? That is the best place for this. If you can't access it, or do not want to post there for whatever reason, I can so this on your / our behalf. That is the focal point from where they are gathering bugs and queries from users and rectifying and improving from. There will be a delay for some issues though I know because a number of the key TC bods are out on a week long TC 10 year anniversary event, but I am sure they will be back on the issues as soon as they are back, I do see Cash responding to a few of the queries whilst he is on the road to the event though.
Thanks for the reply, I'll have a look in the community part of the new site to firstly see if anyone has posted similar questions before posting my own, I hadn't looked there before as the site was very unresponsive on iPad, but it seems to be ok at present.
I'll just start off by saying that I love the ethos of the site and the people behind it and those who support it seem really nice, and I would LOVE for it to do well.
But I'm just not feeling it right now: although the site looks amazing, it's just SO SLOW! Not once have cache icons actually appeared on the map, which takes an age to load for me each time. So I just give up, and thus I have yet to find a TC.
It also isn't very professional as it stands: its favicon is really peculiar (some pages and a spanner for me) and the pages are called "Home" etc - this should be "Terracaching - Home" etc. When I access TC.com on my iPad, the page opens quite zoomed in, has anyone else had this issue? In my opinion all these little things count, and this aspect just feels really unfinished, unlike the stunning design.
Also, I still can't access the TC Community page or forum, it won't recognise me. I get emails saying people nearby need sponsorship, but when I get to the page it just lists every cacher in the world needing sponsorship... So I can't help someone who I may know, which means the emails are pointless and contradictory!!!
I really think TC has the potential to succeed, but (for me, I don't know if it's like this for everyone) the dream is a long way off.
Last Edit: Aug 24, 2014 19:27:19 GMT by Griff Grof
Post by Bear and Ragged on Aug 24, 2014 22:31:13 GMT
It's slow. GPX files wont download/open in GSAK (Results in an Error) Emails saying "Personal Name" has accepted sponsorship, and NO indication of who it is cacher-wise... /Be warned, if you've set your personal name in the profile/email section!/
Forums? Such a phaff to find them, and no logical format/thread to them...
Only showing 4/5 people after sponsorship is such a slow way to do things...
Having to select each one separately takes AGES... Why not have it set to select the box, then click?
Had another play today after a tweet from terracaching informing me of site updates...
1. My Stat Bar has now been updated to show my two finds. 2. I now appear on the leaderboard, but only if I remove the State/Province of England and leave it as '- Please Select', if you leave England selected then only 'Gackt' appears, no-one else. 3. Importing gpx files from each individual cache listing page now imports in GSAK, you also get the cache listing description and logs as well. 4. Cache Hunt is still slow if you have the map showing, switching to 'tiles' view is much more responsive. 5. Download gpx file for a search of caches within 200 miles which showed 194 caches downloads a zip file containing a gpx file for each cache listing, sadly this zip file only contains 100 of the 194 caches, my closest three caches are 'Gather No Moss', 'Above the Dove' and 'The Roaches' however only the first two of those three were in the zip file. The importing this zip file does import all of the terracacahes into GSAK though, cache descriptions and logs which is good. I might try filtering by 'Cache Style' to keep the list under 100 and hope for the best :-)
Decided to clear GSAK of Terracaches and reload from individual searches by 'Cache Style' each returned less than 100 caches. All loaded fine into GSAK, full cache descriptions and logs.
66 Classic 81 Offset 1 Other 43 Virtual
191 Caches loaded (I ignored the 3 events)
Manually loaded 11 remaining English caches outside the 200 mile search.
Decided to clear GSAK of Terracaches and reload from individual searches by 'Cache Style' each returned less than 100 caches. All loaded fine into GSAK, full cache descriptions and logs.
66 Classic 81 Offset 1 Other 43 Virtual
191 Caches loaded (I ignored the 3 events)
Manually loaded 11 remaining English caches outside the 200 mile search.
I'm struggling with the download. Trying to get all of the UK... But it seems to load a lot of France and Germany. How the heck they get to be listed as UK beats me!
Clyde has made some changes to GSAK, so at least those that do download look better in GSAK.
On the old site you could at least download all of the UK in one go.
You'll need to do similar to what I did. I too initially got foreign caches in my 500 mile search, you'll have to break up your searches by cache style to keep it below 100 caches per search else they will not all be in the gpx download. Using my postcode I didn't get right down into the far south west of England, so manually did those missing 11 caches, I will only do future searches on placed date and manually add them to GSAK one by one now, it's not like this will take long given the small amount of caches :-)
I now appear on the leaderboard, but only if I remove the State/Province of England and leave it as '- Please Select', if you leave England selected then only 'Gackt' appears, no-one else.
I replicated this on there this morning. I have raised it on the community page. Hopefully we will have an answer soon. It's a bit lonely being the only one on there
Griff Grof, when you say you cannot access the community pages, could you let me know exactly what is not happening? e.g. you cannot see them, or you cannot login etc, and I will post the query on there.
Side note, I am going to host a TC event in early January in the north Bath area. More details soon.
Cash has posted a reply to the leaderboard question.
Quote:
cash108 | Houston | 9/7/2014 |
Thank you so much for your post Gackt.
It is a site issue. The leaderboard module is not yet finished and you do look very lonely as the number 1 person on the England Leaderboard. To answer your question completely I will have to do some more research. Your assumption about home coordinates is a good one. The site uses two things to place a person on a leaderboard. 1) Your home coordinates on your profile, and 2) Caches you have found. When we translated the data from TC1 we used an api to convert your lat long into a home city, state/province, country, and zip. We have since found that some of these did not translate correctly. So it would be a real big help if members would go and look at their profiles. Click on you name in the upper right corner and edit profile. If they first clear out the country and city, then If they click on the three dots and just click a spot in the city nearest their home, this should auto-fill the rest of the information for them in the boxes. While they are at it, it would be a big help if they click on "Notification Management", at a minimum click on "subscribe to email notification" this will send you notices when some logs your cache, you don't have to have all of the ones below clicked unless you desire. If you don't click the top box, then you won't get any notifications from the site.
When I look at the member gaz_zippy, it appears that they have the country and province completed so you would expect them to at least show up on the leaderborad with you. This part should be working, with your feedback we can try to fix this portion of the module.
Thank you and let us know more about your upcoming TC Event.