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Read Thread: Pin-Pointing the Parking Lot-Suggestion for discussion

Re: Pin-Pointing the Parking Lot-Suggestion for discussion
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #155091 by Key Note Sneakers
Nov 19, 2007 8:38pm
Thread (disabled) Board
but...but...this makes the game of "parking lot roulette" obsolete!

Parking lot roulette is played like this:

clues: from the far end of the parking lot, heat toward the tallest saguaro with a mesquite bush at teh base of it.

me: but this place has three parking lots! which lot? which end is the far end? the end furthest from where I came in? the end furthest from where I enter the (name of location that I don't actually have to enter in order to get the box)?

clues: park near the sidewalk that's by the bus pick-up zone, then walk down the sidewalk to the nth light post.

me: do you mean the sidewalk by the tour-bus zone? or the sidewalk near the city bus stop? or the sidewalk that runs between the tour-bus zone and the city bus stop? all three of which are decorated with light posts?

night writer
Re: Pin-Pointing the Parking Lot-Suggestion for discussion
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #155110 by Romana
Nov 19, 2007 8:50pm
Thread (disabled) Board
Now, night writer, tell us just how sweet the find is when you actually find the correct parking lot out of the three in question. MO5
Re: Pin-Pointing the Parking Lot-Suggestion for discussion
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #155081 by Green Tortuga
Nov 20, 2007 6:12am
Thread (disabled) Board
I've found that if you enter the location name and GPS coordinates, the coordinates may be slightly askew. It will place the mark at the closest place to your coordinates, while trying to place it on the road or location as well. That actually helped me with one of my boxes, as the coordinates I got were slightly off. Having it snap to the closest road will probably help searchers zero in on the box.

You can view the search for my box by clicking here and then map results: http://www.atlasquest.com/lboxes/results.html?gTypeId=2;gStatus=1035;gCoord=28.335628,-82.259551;gRad=1;gLocation=saint+leo%2C+fl;gTitle=Saint+Leo%2C+FL%2C+US

To get GPS coordinates anywhere, I highly recommend visiting this site: http://www.lcwireless.net/Documents/TechDocs/GettingGPS/GettingGPS.html.
Re: Pin-Pointing the Parking Lot-Suggestion for discussion
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #155081 by Green Tortuga
Nov 20, 2007 7:36am
Thread (disabled) Board
For instance, you could write "Lincoln Park West Parking Lot, 35.2355 -120.3422" as the location, and the "address" will show up as "Lincoln Park West Parking Lot" while internally, it represents a location at 35.2355, -120.3422.


This didn't work for me. I tried it with my '2 Cats' boxes. The Google Map link opened up in the middle of Guelph instead of the southwest side near the highway.

It seems that Google Maps ignores the 'location' and only looks at 'city', 'state', 'country'. All of my Guelph boxes are apparently located in the middle of Guelph.
The URL that comes up in Google for each of my Guelph boxes is:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Guelph+ON

I've noticed the same thing happens to other letterboxes planted by different letterboxers in Canada. Example: Rue Mont-carmel Quebec, Quebec (Canada) goes to: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Quebec+QC
Re: Pin-Pointing the Parking Lot-Suggestion for discussion
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #155235 by Lone R
Nov 20, 2007 11:36am
Thread (disabled) Board
The Google Map link opened up in the middle of Guelph instead of the southwest side near the highway.


You people are killing me here. =) The map links do not work. They only display the city of the letterbox--it's a known problem I haven't found a good solution for. The mapping of search results works correctly, and AQ knows the exact coordinates of the starting point for the letterbox, but the map links don't use it.

Actually, while AQ was inaccessible this morning and I wasn't able to check the message boards, I figured out how to make the Yahoo Map link work and uploaded the changes. So that link will work, but the MapQuest and Google Maps link will only show the city, and there's nothing you can do to change that. That's something I have to fix.

-- Ryan