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quote:
Originally posted by pcfrog:
jvechinski Oh well…
Sorry Paul, I got anxious and jumped the gun on April 7th deadline. When you get a chance, please fill out the beta test questionnaire online and I will definitely take a look at your responses. Same goes for any other tester who wants to get in some last minute comments or feedback.
Here is an executive summary of the beta test results.
I asked each of the testers to perform a series of 10 tasks (some tasks had multiple parts), and optionally perform a couple additional bonus tasks. In total, our testers attempted 262 tasks/subtasks. Of these:
[*] 233 (89%) tasks were completed without problem
[*] 24 (9%) were completed with some difficulty
[*] 5 (2%) were not be completed due to problemsI have corrected most of the problems (bugs) that led to the “not completed” tasks. I still need to address some areas that confused or caused our testers a lot of difficulty, such as uploading photos into the new photo album and submitting news articles.
I then asked the testers about their overall impressions of the new site. Of those who answered these questions (a few testers I think were in a rush to fill out the questionnaire and skipped over this section and the future section )
[*] All thought the “Ease of Use/Navigation” of the new site was Excellent or Good
[*] All thought the “Features/Functionality” provided by the new site was Excellent or Good
[*] 80% thought the “Site Layout/Graphic Design/Style” of the new site was Excellent or GoodFinally, I presented the testers with a list of future website features that I have considered in the past or that others have suggested. Testers were allowed to select up to three features they would like to see implemented soon (this year). The most requested future features were (from most votes to least votes):
[*] Cache rescue/cache maintenance system
[*] Donate button, donor list
[*] Chat
[*] Member map (showing where our members live)
[*] Listing of cache placement rules and land manager contacts on local/county basisFrom the Fox 6 website…
quote:
Our first cache of “Caching With Condella” is in place and ready to find. Here are the coordinates:
N 42 degrees, 55.187 minutes
W 087 degrees, 50.648 minutesThis cache is located in a Milwaukee County Park. It is an ammo box located about 33 feet directly east of a paved trail.
Here are some hints. Each one is encrypted in case you don’t want to see them all. And each successive hint gives away more of the location. The decryption code is located below.
Hint #1: Fjvatvat fbhgu ol gur ynxr
Hint #2: Orgjrra gur obhyqref
Hint #3: Gur cnex unf n “trareny” anzr
Hint #4: Ba gur tebhaq, byq ybt
Coordinates point to someplace in Grant Park. The cache does not appear to be listed on geocaching.com, and it is just 180 feet from GCV34A, SSSSlither to the totem pole.
I bet Uncle Fun has already scored the FTF, so there is no rush going after it…
OK, here are a couple screen shots for those who are just dying to get a look :
Home (Main) Page
Forums PageI should mention that this is much more than a cosmetic change… basically everything has been rewritten from the ground up or replaced. Things like the forums, photo album, etc. have been replaced with different and more powerful pieces of software. “Custom” modules such as the Cache of the Month, Events, Recent Logs, etc. have either been completely rewritten or greatly enhanced.
I agree that the site looks “prettier” than the old one… but there are probably things we can do to make it look better (I’ve been focusing on the features, not the appearance). In fact, one of the beta testers suggested that the site looked too plain and needed more graphics/icons.
Way to go folks!
I was with Benny7210 when he hit his 100th some time on Saturday. Even this early in his “career” you can tell he is hooked and I’m sure we’ll see him hit many more milestones in the future.
Also, an addition to the list… Piwko Kurczak hit 700+ caching with me in southern Milwaukee and Racine counties today.
It seems the warm weather has brought most of the WI cachers out of hibernation, so I am sure there will be more milestone reports shortly…
The B-Team has just been briefed and sent in to reinforce the A-Team.
The A-Team uncovered only a few major issues and bugs (including Randy’s weird one with Safari which was preventing him from doing pretty much anything), and these have all been addressed. They had many suggestions and ideas for improving the site as well, most of which haven’t yet been implemented… I’m sure the rest of the beta testers will provide equally valuable feedback.
quote:
Originally posted by rubeeslpr:
We did not receive anything yet….
rubeeslpr at aol dot com
Yes, you are on the B-Team, so you should get something by this weekend. This is probably a good thing because Randy uncovered what appears to be a problem with sessions and older versions of Safari. I will be working on fixing this issue tonight…
Other than that, it seems like our other A-Team testers are not having any major issues. They are also providing good feedback on ways the site can be improved… thanks guys.
My A-Team of beta testers has been briefed and they will be checking out the new site shortly. The A-Team is a crack commando unit that was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit, and consists of Hannibal, Faceman, B.A. Barcus, and “Howlin’ Mad” Murdock. Actually, it is a couple folks that I hand picked to look at things first. I want to get some preliminary feedback on the site and work through any problems in the task list/questionnaire before I let the other dozen or so beta testers try things out.
Once I am comfortable with what the A-Team is reporting, I will send the beta test task list to the B-Team (the rest of the beta testers). This may be as soon as tonight, but will definitely be before the end of the upcoming weekend (3/26)… if you volunteered and have not yet been contacted, thanks for your patience.
[This message has been edited by jvechinski (edited 03-23-2006).]
OK, I think we’ve got a good variety of beta testers lined up, so I’m going to stop accepting “applications”. If you are running a browser not listed below, really want to help out, or just want to see the new site, send me an email.
Here is the beta tester list… thanks to the following 16 people/teams for volunteering:
rpaske – Mac with Safari browser
Folk Trakers – Computer savvy power users
Lostby7 – Computer savvy power user, Mozilla
EnergySaver – Computer savvy power user with slow dial-up
pcfrog – Computer savvy power user
Cache_boppin_BunnyFuFu – Bad computer karma, Opera
hogrod – Firefox and Opera under Linux
rubeeslpr – Mac with Safari browser
Timberline Echoes – WebTV, dial-up(?)
jthorson – Computer savvy power user, Pocket PC
kbraband – Grammar, english, and spell checker
Buy_The_Tie – Test admin side of new site
AstroD-Team – Computer savvy power users, older browsers
marc_54140 – Opera
djwini – Computer savvy power user
Coastiegirl04 – dial-up
Green Bay Paddlers – Computer savvy power usersThere will be a total of 10 tasks I’d like all testers to complete, plus a couple bonus tasks. Target date for sending out the task list and questionnaire is Wednesday, March 22. I’d like to have feedback from all the testers by April 7.
quote:
Originally posted by Folk Trakers:
We’d be interested if our qualifications fit into the ones you are looking for. We didn’t know if each of the bullet-points were mutually exclusive, or if the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th ones fell under the first one (not IE or Firefox users).
They are mutually exclusive… I am looking for folks that satisfy at least one of the bullet points (i.e. they have a dial up connection OR they run an alternative browser OR they have little computer knowledge).
So far I’ve got:
rpaske – Mac with Safari browser
Folk Trakers – Computer savvy power users
Lostby7 – Computer savvy power user
EnergySaver – Computer savvy power user with slow dial-up
pcfrog – Computer savvy power user
Cache_boppin_BunnyFuFu – Bad computer karmaTo the folks signed up: I will send you a beta test task list and questionnaire sometime early next week (I’m still finishing them up, and then they need to be run past the Board).
Based on who we have signed up so far, I’m still especially interested members running alternative browsers or really old versions of browsers (like IE 4 or something). Based on our web logs, I know we have visitors running Opera, Netscape, Konqueror, Firefox on Linux…
[This message has been edited by jvechinski (edited 03-18-2006).]
quote:
Originally posted by Team Deejay:
If you are going to buy a Garmin (the only brand I really know about), the ones without PC interface capability are the Geko 101, the Forerunner 101, and the Rino 110 (basically if it has two ‘1’s in the name).
As an exception to this rule and to further confuse things, the Garmin Foretrex 101 has PC interface capability but does not come with a cable…
quote:
Originally posted by djwini:
i’ll try some of these suggestions. i used three different areas for pq’s put the files into mapsource, edited out the ones i didn’t want, put them back into gsak, in a single folder. it would be hard to go thru the whole thing again. i was hoping there was some kind of update button that would go and search the latest from gc.com. maybe that will hapeen someday. clyde makes a lot of nice things happen with gsak
If you can rerun the same 3 PQs, just load the GPX files into GSAK with the “Existing Only” thing selected and you should be good to go. Otherwise, you’ll need to recreate PQs for the same areas.
An automatic update feature like you suggested would definitely be nice but would also require some help from geocaching.com… basically, they’d have to provide a mechanism for submitting a list of caches to include in a Pocket Query.
BTW, I had to run 12+ PQs to get the data to cover the caches on my last trip to SC. Sometimes if you are just going to do a few caches along a long route, it is easier to create a bookmark list on geocaching.com and create a Pocket Query from that (a recently added feature).
I’m assuming you deleted caches out of GSAK and you don’t want to bring them back with a new Pocket Query (that has a whole bunch of other caches, including the ones you want to update)?
One easy way is to simply select the radio button that says “Existing Only” under “Database Update Options” when you load the new Pocket Query (on the Load GPX/LOC File screen). With this selected, only the caches you have left in GSAK will get updated and no new caches will (re)appear.
A side note: I’m a big fan of using the “User Flag” feature to mark the caches I really want to find, and leaving the other caches in GSAK. In your case, you could have simply checked the boxes next to the caches you wanted to find, and then filtered on the user flag before you did an export. The user flagged caches survive a Pocket Query load.
I normally mark the caches I want to find. I then export all the caches to CacheMate, and then filter on the User Flag and do a second export with a different filename. I can then have ALL the caches in CacheMate with some (from the second export) in a special category called “Must Find” so I know which ones I really want to find.
A friend of mine uses a Quest on his motorcycle… bucking the trend of all the other touring riders I know (including myself) who swear by the StreetPilot 2xxx series. He didn’t want to run the power cable needed for the StreetPilot, plus I think he was scared of the large size of the StreetPilots and the touchscreen which can be tough to operate in gloves.
The Quest is smaller than the StreetPilots and has an internal battery, so you can use it when you are away from AC or DC power. The screen is noticeably smaller than the StreetPilots, but has about the same resolution and the same brightness so you can read it in the sun. I only played with it for a couple minutes, but it did seem to be slower when panning and zooming in. (Plus panning and zooming with the touchscreen (or remote!) is just so much cooler. )
The Quest does come with the unlocked City Select maps so you can download detailed maps for whatever will fit in its small internal memory (maybe one or two states). But the StreetPilots either have all the detailed maps preloaded or the ability to use large memory cards.
Bottom line… I’d spend the $100 or $200 extra bucks to go with the StreetPilot series. Amazon has had the 2610s on sale for ~$450 recently… this model and the 2620 are technically discontinued so these prices may not last too long.
quote:
Originally posted by Team Deejay:
Jeremy, If you could send me the information for past months, I will put together the honorable mention list and maintain it. Any format is acceptable (even handscrawled on a napkin) as long as I can either see it or read it into some sort of program.
I put together an “unofficial” list of COTM honorable mentions and sent it to Deejay. Unofficially there are about 130 caches in the list going back to February of 2003. This count may be a little high, and I’m going to rely on Deejay to let me know about the problem caches in the list. Once the list is cleaned up, I will make it publicly available (there will be a link to it off the main COTM page).
Note that I also added links to the COTM winners and COTM honorable mention geocaching.com bookmark lists to the WGA COTM page. I think having the bookmark lists in addition to the official lists on the WGA site is a good idea, and I thank the folks who are/will be keeping them updated.
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