Over the past year, geocaching.com has been receiving facelifts here and there. Some I like, some I don’t like so much.
While it does not effect me directly, I can see where navigating the site with a device such as a mobile phone with internet access would be easier now. Things are laid out in a way that makes it easy to find what you’re looking for.
I also like that the Google satellite view map has come back. I have missed that!
Two things I noticed that were missing, but have found them, at least for now:
- Coordinate logging
It used to be very simple to add coordinates to the log entry as you were on the website to log your find. Now, you must save the log and then go back to edit the log in order to add coordinates. - Log encryption
As with the coordinate logging, you must first enter your log, save it, and open up the editor to have access to the “encrypt log entry” option. From the edit screen, the encryption still works the same way – everything not enclosed in brackets will be encrypted using ROT13.
Since these features were removed from the “log” page, I hope that Groundspeak does not get rid of these features completely when they get around to “updating” the edit page.
The only other major thing that I have noticed Groundspeak has taken away from geocaching.com is the “unique finds” count. There are several theories that I’ve seen as to why it went away, and it was a hot-button topic in the Geocaching forum at the time. Some are glad to see it gone, some (myself included) would like to see it come back. For me, it was a nice “checksum” that helped me to know that I did not double-log any cache finds. Since GSAK and the FindStatGen macro provide “unique” as well as “total” find counts, it is not too big of a deal that it is no longer listed on our geocaching profile.