[Jeremy]

@Team B Squared wrote:

If you let me know what you like, I can email you the files.

TIFF files should work fine Brian. You can send them to jeremy wi-geocaching.com.

Thanks again for all your work on this!

[Jeremy]

One other thing… what other file type options do we have? Could you export these files as TIFF or GIF image files, both of which could be “cleaner” than the JPG, resulting in better fills…

[Jeremy]

@Team B Squared wrote:

Let me know if there are any other changes you would like to see, it is really no problem at all as it usually takes me longer to write the post than to make the changes to the maps.

I’m liking the tan/white, even if it is a little bland. But I’m probably not the best person to be making color/design/fashion type decisions, so if anyone has some suggestions please let us know.

I was planning on giving people the option to choose their fill color, so going with white would let them pick a wide range of fill colors and still have it look OK. (I figure Democrats will want a blue fill color, Republicans-red, ecologists-green, Geo-Pink and high school girls-pink, Johnny Cache-black, etc. :)) I’ll probably go with some shade of green as the default, again to match the site.

Could you make a tan/white Wisconsin map sized down a smidge? Probably just make it the same size as the example Wisconsin map from your gc.com profile.

I plan on trying out some auto-fills with the images tonight just to double check there won’t be any issues with them. And hopefully I’ll have something ready for prime time by the end of the upcoming weekend.

[Jeremy]

@Team B Squared wrote:

Here is the map with the coasts more generalized. I can really edit these maps in any way you would like with no trouble. If you want north arrows or any other map elements I can do that to. Resizing the image is very easy also, I just chose to export it at 100 dpi so it would be larger to look at.

The last version of the U.S. map looks really good. Try exporting it at 50 dpi (which should give a 550 pixel wide image). For the Wisconsin map, I think we’d want that one that is approximately 600 to 700 pixels high to match the scale of the U.S. map (there seems to be a lot of whitespace above and below the WI map that I will probably just crop).

Also it would be great if you could change the background color to the WGA “standard” yellow/tan (RGB FBFBB7 or (251, 251, 183))… that way the maps will match the rest of the site. Hopefully they don’t look too ugly using this background color…

[Jeremy]

Thanks for the alternative maps Brian… they look pretty good and are plenty big for display on the web.

The boundaries on the U.S. map are kind of too detailed… look at the Alaska Inside Passage/Panhandle and the Texas Gulf coast. When this map in reduced in size, these details turn into big black blobs. But I’m guessing you have no control over the level of detail…

[Jeremy]

Carrying a GPS is like so yesterday. 🙂 I wear mine instead:

When the tree cover forces me to use a “real” GPS, I often stick it in a pouch that attaches to a strap of my backpack or CamelBak. This keeps it upright, 5 feet above the ground, and away from from my body (for the most part)… which means I usually have a good satellite lock.

CamelBak Phone Pocket

Of course this method requires that you carry around a backpack or CamelBak, and it sounds like you are trying go light (no camera, front pack, etc.). In that case, I have a GPS belt “holster” I also use:

Outdoor Products Eyespy Glass and Cell Phone Case

[Jeremy]

@GOJeepers wrote:

Can I print and then scan it or would the resolution not be clear enough?

There should be more than enough resolution with a scan of a printout, but you’d need to get the background really white… otherwise the fills could run into problems dealing with the multicolor background (some counties might not fill with color properly).

[Jeremy]

@GOJeepers wrote:

I might have a Wisconsin map that would work. What format do you need it in? Currently it is in MicroStation (CAD) but I can export it to AutoCAD (dwg or dxf) or print it to a PDF.

A PDF would work… but if you could somehow convert it into an image file (GIF or JPEG) this would be even better. Resolution of the image file doesn’t have to be too high either. A width of 600 or 800 pixels would be OK…

[Jeremy]

@GOJeepers wrote:

I agree! The coded map of Wisconsin would be great! I know nothing about programming though….is that kind of thing a pain in the butt?

This is another enhancement I had always intended for the State/County Stats module on the WGA website.

Having the images generated by and kept on the server would make things really easy. You could put a link to your find map image(s) somewhere (such as your gc.com profile) and they would automatically update as you make changes to your stats on the WGA site. (It would work in the same way as the geocaching.com stat bar image.) This would save people from having to upload new maps each time they make a change and possibly editing the img HTML tags.

The hardest part is coming up with some good, “clean” Wisconsin and U.S. maps to use for generating the filled maps. I will be starting a thread in the Suggestion Box looking for such map images… I know some people are manually creating maps of finds and I want to know what they have found work and look the best.

[Jeremy]

I finally got around to trying this program out and it worked great! It picked up all my county “finds” (all 55 of them), and only two of the caches appeared to be classified as being in the wrong county.

I had always planned on writing a My Finds Pocket Query parser for the website. In fact, I started this a couple months back but never got around to finishing it. This parser would automatically determine what states and countries a person cached in, but would not handle the counties.

I have contacted the abcdmCachers to see if they would be willing to share the code/algorithms/etc. that they are using to come up with the county counts. If they do, we should be able to have a parser on the WGA website that can automatically determine state, country, and county statistics! There would be no excuse for people (even the extremely lazy or busy ones ;)) not to enter and keep their statistics up to date…

[Jeremy]

Nice pictures Becky… please continue to share them. We have lots of room on the new web server, so feel free to fill up your personal album.

@Buy_The_Tie wrote:

Oh, that’s all well-and-good….. but… what happens the first time you loose your footing, and go tumbling down into that murky creek?

I’m with you Brian… I usually carry a relatively cheap camera that is completely waterproof and ruggedized. It should be almost unbreakable, but now that I’ve said this is will probably stop working this weekend. 🙂 Camera review.

I’d rather have something small and rugged enough to carry with me all or most of the time than a large, fancy camera that I can only bring on certain hunts. Also important to me is the “bootup” or start up time of a digital camera. It is nice to be able to turn on the camera and be able to almost instantly start shooting so you can get those candid shots.

[Jeremy]

I think it would be a good idea to offer name tags to members on a by-request basis throughout the year. This would be a great way to encourage Wisconsin geocachers to join the WGA. Basically we could set up a web form where people could request their name tags (or replacement name tags) and we’d make up a batch occasionally (once a month?) and mail them out.

In fact, I posed a similar question to the Board about providing name tags back before the campout:

Jeremy’s Old Post

I think we have some extra ID tag “sleeves” left over from the Geo-Campout, so we could make some name tags for the Geo-Picnic without any additional costs to the organization. But as far as I know the Board has not yet committed to providing the laminated nametags for all Geo-Picnic attendees…

[Jeremy]

Thanks for the thanks folks. Believe it or not, I actually enjoy working on this stuff so I don’t mind the time it takes to keep the site running (it is much less stressful than my real job…).

There are still some minor site issues (OK, major issues with the email… sorry BODs :roll:) outstanding, but hopefully these will be cleared up by the end of the month and I can move on to developing some new modules.

And Randy, don’t forget to send me that Webmaster merit badge. I think it would look really good on the sash of my scouting uniform: 😉

[Jeremy]

@Cathunter wrote:

It seems to me it would make sense that when one clicks the “mark all topics read” link on a forum, that it should then return back to the forum index. This think is the default on most phpBB forums I have visited in the past.

Done… after clicking the “mark all topics read” link, you are now redirected back to the main forum index.

[Jeremy]

@Cheesehead Dave wrote:

When search terms are highlighted, they are highlighted in white which makes them invisible when you are looking at posts. Can that be changed to a more visible color?

Done… search terms in matching posts are now made bold and highlighted in red.

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