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Re: Add Blue or Purple Diamond as searchable attributes
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #1026913 by PI Joe
Oct 5, 2023 2:06pm
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Where is it in the normal sceme (menu) of things to see on this site?

It's not. More of a "secret" link, but premium members can add it to the menu as a custom link if they want.

I don't really want to promote the link too much because I'd imagine some people might get upset if I didn't add them after implementing a suggestion or not do it quick enough. (I typically only send the updated page to the live site when I do a Big Update--not during little ones, so typically only once or twice per year.

It's not really a feature I want to stress over, so I don't don't promote it. More of a historical record for me to look up when certain features were added.

-- Ryan
Re: Adding a last found date range for box searches
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #1026906 by Servant
Oct 5, 2023 4:21pm
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Yeah,it might take some finagling to to get those kinds of time constraints. Maybe a combination of hiding old finds and sorting.
Re: Add Blue or Purple Diamond as searchable attributes
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #1026926 by Green Tortuga
Oct 5, 2023 7:14pm
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I don't really want to promote the link too much because I'd imagine some people might get upset if I didn't add them after implementing a suggestion or not do it quick enough.

I can certainly understand that reasoning. I'm glad to have it now as there is so many features of this site that I am not aware of that I would like to explore. Similarly, the Clue Tracker folks have been posting tips recently showing off features that I had no idea were available in that app.
Re: Add Blue or Purple Diamond as searchable attributes
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #1026938 by PI Joe
Oct 5, 2023 9:26pm
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People can also find out about features on AQ just by exploring the site on their own, clicking around. Lots of people don’t seem to ever do this.
Re: Please, please, please
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #996753 by aMAZEing adventure frog
Oct 31, 2023 12:48am
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Agree!
Re: Please, please, please
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #996753 by aMAZEing adventure frog
Nov 15, 2023 11:31am
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I used to give LTCs as First Finder prizes.
Re: Please, please, please
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #996755 by Linden Leaf
Nov 15, 2023 12:12pm
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Accidentally bumped my phone and hit the "rude" button. Sorry!
Re: Please, please, please
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #1028050 by The Borgas
Nov 15, 2023 1:25pm
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Just unclick it.
LbNA Search Features
Board: Suggestion Box
Dec 24, 2023 10:30am
Thread Board (disabled)
At one point in the past, I seem to recall that you could search clue text in LbNA listings much like you can via an advanced search in AQ. This was an especially helpful feature for us, as many of the older LbNA listings do not contain an address, but simply a city and town. As many preserves and hiking areas are contained within multiple cities and towns, this provides some difficulty in obtaining all of the boxes that are in a certain area. Is there a chance that the clue text search could be re-implemented on LbNA?
Re: LbNA Search Features
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #1028874 by Nairon
Dec 24, 2023 2:15pm
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Is there a chance that the clue text search could be re-implemented on LbNA?

I originally removed it because it was causing slow queries and bloating the database, but with the new server and things running better, I added it back for LbNA supporters. Basically a premium member perk for people who support that site, although I haven't really developed an automated way of doing that like there is on AQ.

For the most part, I want to keep LbNA more of a bare bones experience like when I started using the site, but some of the more useful features that aren't strictly necessary I might add for supporters.

-- Ryan
Re: LbNA Search Features
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #1028879 by Green Tortuga
Dec 25, 2023 4:57am
Thread Board (disabled)
Along the same lines, I miss the "What's New" by state. That is a super helpful feature.
Re: LbNA Search Features
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #1028879 by Green Tortuga
Dec 25, 2023 6:10am
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This is much much needed because of the way clues used to be written. Thank you!!

I don't seem to be able to find that option. Maybe I'm not considered an lbna supporter any more? Also couldn't find a way to become one.
Re: LbNA Search Features
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #1028879 by Green Tortuga
Dec 25, 2023 6:16am
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That's great. Much appreciated.

I went in and tried to give it a test run, but I couldn't see the clue text search on the LbNA search page. I tried a hard refresh and it still didn't come up. Is the feature live at this point? We are LbNA supporters and have the little shield icon next to our trailname.
Re: LbNA Search Features
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #1028884 by SherlockMiles
Dec 26, 2023 4:07am
Thread Board (disabled)
Maybe I'm not considered an lbna supporter any more? Also couldn't find a way to become one.

Probably not. There are only two people right now who actually donated anything that went to me.

There was a "Donations" table in the database when I took over the database, but it was empty and apparently unused. There's a column in the database with the amount people have donated, but I'm not actually sure what that value represents. Total donations the person has donated over time? Donations with the past year? In any case, it was before I took over the website so those donations helped with the old server, but not the new one.

The two payments that did wind up with me I put in the Donations table which I'll use to track donations in the future, but I haven't had a chance to set up code that automatically handles everything yet. It's a very manual process for me to see the donation and add it to the database.

One of the "Tips of the Day" shows how to donate for LbNA, but you might have to refresh the page a bunch of times to find the right tip. In a nutshell, donations (specifically for LbNA) can be sent via PayPal to donate@letterboxing.org or through Venmo at @Ryan-Carpenter-156

I haven't really developed the code that accepts donations as of yet. I wanted to keep LbNA as much the same as possible, including the "fundraising drive" each year, so I figured I'd worry about it more come spring time. Kind of a "spring fundraising drive," then leave LbNA "commercial free" for the rest of the year. Donations can be sent at any time, though. Not like I'll turn it down if spring isn't convenient for you!

And maybe I'd have a few more perks for those who donate. Right now, the "clue search" option is the only one. I'm not sure I'll have more perks ready by spring, but hope springs eternal. =)

And rather than a set price like AQ has, leave it more open-ended in how much people would prefer to donate each year, perhaps with different perks for different donation levels.

I've thought a little about it, but I haven't really done anything yet because I'm still thinking about it. I'm not really sure what I'll do in that regards.

I'm happy to listen to suggestions if you care to share your thoughts on the subject, but I like the idea of trying to keep the way of supporting LbNA as similar as possible to how it's historically been done.

Right now, LbNA counts a "premium member" as someone who has donated at least $10 (based on that "donations" column in the member table--even though I have no idea if that's actually based on relatively recent donations, the last donation, or total donations) and sent a donation within the past year (according to the Donations table, which currently only has the two people whose contributions actually went to me since that table was empty when I inherited the website).

Is the feature live at this point? We are LbNA supporters and have the little shield icon next to our trailname.

The feature is live, but the little shield currently shows up for anyone who has donated based on the "donations" column of the members table and doesn't actually look at the Donations table. So it's not actually actually showing who's counted as a "premium member"--just some sort of donation in the past.

I suppose I'll need to fix that. Or at least have some way of indicating what "level" someone is at in terms of donations. More details for me to work out.

There are a few people who are listed as "admins" on LbNA that can see the feature as well. (Essentially donating their time instead of money.)

But right now, none of this stuff happens automatically. LbNA can't "detect" when a donation is submitted, or send notifications when your perks are about to expire, or... well, anything related to money. There's a lot of coding I need to do to make all that work more seamlessly.

But feel free to donate to donate@letterboxing.org (via PayPal) or @Ryan-Carpenter-156 (via Venmo). The clue-search perk won't show up immediately since I have to process it manually, so it could be a day or two depending on where I am or what I'm doing. (Longer if I'm on a hike and offline for extended periods of time, but that's not currently the case.) A minimum of $10 will get you on the "premium member" list for a year.

I'm calling it a "premium member" list in quotes because I don't really want to call it that, but for lack of a better term.... I kind of like the idea of setting up donation levels and each level getting a different name, but I haven't been clever enough to think up a naming convention for them or what perks each level would have. Details for the future....

Anyhow, that's the scoop. =)

-- Ryan
Re: LbNA Search Features
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #1028883 by Arf!
Dec 26, 2023 4:40am
Thread Board (disabled)
I miss the "What's New" by state.

I may have just spent some time to add that feature back for donors. ;o)

The main reason I got rid of it was so I didn't have to worry about making the code work on the new server. Easier just to delete it than fix it, but it's a pretty simple feature to implement and now donors can see what's new based on the state.

-- Ryan
Re: LbNA Search Features
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #1028893 by Green Tortuga
Dec 29, 2023 6:23am
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I'm calling it a "premium member" list in quotes because I don't really want to call it that, but for lack of a better term.... I kind of like the idea of setting up donation levels and each level getting a different name, but I haven't been clever enough to think up a naming convention for them or what perks each level would have. Details for the future....

Interesting. Instead of working to move LbNA to a freemium model, you could instead run a fundraising campaign once a year like Choi used to do. The idea was that people could donate with the goal of keeping LbNA going so that all features were available to everyone: the kindness and generosity of a few people helping everyone in the LbNA community. That is a much different model than what you are planning, but probably simpler for you and for users of LbNA.

Of course I have no idea if that approach would yield enough money for you to keep all of the LbNA features available to everyone; that is your call.
Re: LbNA Search Features
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #1028893 by Green Tortuga
Dec 29, 2023 4:48pm
Thread Board (disabled)
those donations helped with the old server, but not the new one.

I thought when you took over LbNA you moved it to the same server as AQ so that it wouldn't require separate expenses? I therefore assumed that anyone paying for an AQ premium membership would also be supporting LbNA. Is that not the case?
Re: LbNA Search Features
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #1028883 by Arf!
Dec 29, 2023 8:40pm
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Yes! That is what I have missed, too.
Re: LbNA Search Features
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #1028963 by Silver Eagle
Dec 29, 2023 10:45pm
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I thought when you took over LbNA you moved it to the same server as AQ so that it wouldn't require separate expenses?

Yes and no. Putting them on the same server does save in overall costs, but it's still using resources. I had to move AQ to a bigger server a few months ago because the old server was staining under the loads it was dealing with, and LbNA is part of that.

There are technically 10 separate accounts running on the server, but the "big ones" that use the bulk of the resources are AQ, LbNA and Walking 4 Fun. The rest could probably run fine on the cheapest of shared servers.

But anyhow, it saves money, but it's not free.

I therefore assumed that anyone paying for an AQ premium membership would also be supporting LbNA.

At the end of the day, the money all goes into the same box. But it's useful to separate where money does flow through. It's kind of a vote for where I should spend more time and effort. If nobody ever donates through LbNA, it suggests nobody really cares about it and maybe I should spend less time on it. Overall, AQ gets almost 10 times more traffic than LbNA on an average day, so I'm hoping that LbNA will contribute about 5 to 10% of the overall expenses I have.

-- Ryan
Re: LbNA Search Features
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #1028961 by JerseyTrailblazers
Dec 30, 2023 2:18am
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it may at least make it 'cleaner' for someone to send the donation... or appear to make it cleaner/easier.

Well, like I said before, I wasn't going to worry too much about it until closer to the spring when I figured I'd enable a "spring fundraiser" option for LbNA. I kind of doubt I'll have it all set up to happen automagically like it does on AQ, but there will at least be an easy button one can click to send a donation. I'll still have to handle the payments manually when they come in, but at least you won't have to figure out where to send money to. The button would take care of that. =)

-- Ryan
Re: LbNA Search Features
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #1028966 by Green Tortuga
Dec 31, 2023 1:40pm
Thread Board (disabled)
I used to be able to search through Silver Eagle's LBNA boxes by state, but that doesn't work anymore because that "sort" capability is not functional any more. Is that a result of what you all are talking about now? I really miss being able to do that.
Re: LbNA Search Features
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #1028986 by QueenMother'n'CloudWalker
Jan 1, 2024 1:37am
Thread Board (disabled)
I'm a little confused. I just tried to run a search for Silver Eagle boxes planted in Texas just to check everything is working, and it seems to be working just fine.

If you share the link of the search you're running, I can look into it more. But as far as I can tell, it's all working just fine.

-- Ryan
Re: LbNA Search Features
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #1028986 by QueenMother'n'CloudWalker
Jan 1, 2024 9:00am
Thread Board (disabled)
The LbNA Clues Search page is actually three different searchs on the same page. You want the bottom one where you can specify the box owner and the state and then click the Search button in that section of the page. Leave the location field in the top section blank.
Re: LbNA Search Features
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #1029003 by PI Joe
Jan 1, 2024 7:13pm
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The LbNA Clues Search page is actually three different searchs on the same page. You want the bottom one where you can specify the box owner and the state and then click the Search button in that section of the page. Leave the location field in the top section blank.

Thank you! I'll give it a try. QM
Re: LbNA Search Features
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #1029000 by Green Tortuga
Jan 1, 2024 7:14pm
Thread Board (disabled)
I'm a little confused. I just tried to run a search for Silver Eagle boxes planted in Texas just to check everything is working, and it seems to be working just fine.

If you share the link of the search you're running, I can look into it more. But as far as I can tell, it's all working just fine.

Thank you for your response. I'll try again and see what I discover. QM
Re: LbNA Search Features
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #1029000 by Green Tortuga
Jan 1, 2024 7:24pm
Thread Board (disabled)
I'm a little confused. I just tried to run a search for Silver Eagle boxes planted in Texas just to check everything is working, and it seems to be working just fine.

If you share the link of the search you're running, I can look into it more. But as far as I can tell, it's all working just fine.

So I just went and checked it out. For Silver Eagle. On page one, the "sort by state" works, but it I go to page 2 it switches back to "sort by box name". I want to find all his boxes in the state of WA.....and other states we may travel to. I tried going to page 10 of his plants, change it to "sort by state" and it reverts to page one. Then when I go to page 2, it reverts to "sort by box name". It seems like there must be a glitch of some sort, or I am totally missing an important step! Thanks for your help.

https://www.letterboxing.org/boxes/search/by-owner.php?ownerId=64&showArchive=1&sort=location&page=2
Re: LbNA Search Features
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #1029014 by QueenMother'n'CloudWalker
Jan 1, 2024 7:26pm
Thread Board (disabled)
The LbNA Clues Search page is actually three different searchs on the same page. You want the bottom one where you can specify the box owner and the state and then click the Search button in that section of the page. Leave the location field in the top section blank.

I tried again. It works on page 1, but if I move to page 2, it reverts to "sort by box name". I'm trying to find his boxes in Washington State, for starters. He has a LOT of plants to look through! I must be missing something.....
Re: LbNA Search Features
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #1029016 by QueenMother'n'CloudWalker
Jan 2, 2024 9:54am
Thread Board (disabled)

Thanks for the URL. That's very helpful! I have to admit, I have absolutely no idea how you found that link. As far as I knew, the only link to it was the "My Letterboxes" link option which shows your own boxes. The fact that it works for other box owners is more-or-less a side-effect of code reuse that I started implementing after taking over LbNA. A lot of search options will work in the URL for that page--but they weren't actually ever intended to be used that way. Long term, I want to remove that page entirely and just link to a regular box search with the necessary search options set to return the same results.

Which is mostly how AQ works, btw. There are all sorts of links for "newest boxes" or "logbook plants" or whatever--but they all essentially just run the same code to do a search. The only difference is that the default settings are set differently for each one.

LbNA largely hadn't done that historically, but rather than maintain a dozen different pages that essentially run variations of the same basic search, I've been working to combine them into a single search results page that just have different default settings applied depending on the link that's followed.

Anyhow.... not really important to your problem. =) But at least knowing what page you were on, I understand where you are.

You are correct about the sort option being broken on that page, but I'm not really sure I want to fix it. I'd rather just redirect the link to an actual search page with the necessary settings and have one less page to maintain. Especially given the fact that that's already my long-term goal for the site.

But you can run an actual search that does what you want. Go to the Search for Letterboxes page. That's the main search page.

It's divided into three sections. The first is mostly just a "simple search" that people want to run 99% of the time. "What are the letterboxes near XYZ location."

The second section lets you look up a box by its LbNA #. Useful if you happen to know it because it's printed on the clue and you wanted to look it up to record a find or something.

The third section is basically the same as the "Advanced Search" page on AQ. It has all the options! That's the section you want to use.

Fill in "Silver Eagle" as the owner and select "Washington" as the state. The default settings might have the "hide my plants, find and attempts" checked depending on your preferences, and you can click those off if you want to see the whole list of boxes he has planted in Washington.

Then it takes you to these search results.

It's a beautiful list. The best list. You've never seen a list like it before. It has all of the results you want and nothing extra. There aren't pages of boxes to look through. Silver Eagle might be a prolific planter, but the number of boxes he's planted in Washington are relatively modest. =)

The boxes are sorted by location, but only because there's no sort option otherwise available. Long term, I'd like to add a sort option so they can be sorted based on the name of the box, location, last found, planter, or all sorts of options like AQ allows, but that hasn't happened yet. But in this case, all of the matching results easily fit on a single page of results and you shouldn't have any trouble finding what you're looking for there. =)

-- Ryan
Re: LbNA Search Features
Board: Suggestion Box
Reply to: #1029025 by Green Tortuga
Jan 2, 2024 12:07pm
Thread Board (disabled)

Thanks for the URL. That's very helpful! I have to admit, I have absolutely no idea how you found that link. As far as I knew, the only link to it was the "My Letterboxes" link option which shows your own boxes. The fact that it works for other box owners is more-or-less a side-effect of code reuse that I started implementing after taking over LbNA. A lot of search options will work in the URL for that page--but they weren't actually ever intended to be used that way. Long term, I want to remove that page entirely and just link to a regular box search with the necessary search options set to return the same results.

Thank you for all this information. I have no idea how I found that link either..... I sure wasn't searching for it! It's just what comes up each and every time I go to LBNA!

I will try the info you sent and see if I can make it work! QM
Bonus boxes
Board: Suggestion Box
Mar 1, 2024 12:17pm
Thread Board (disabled)
I see an Add to Event button on the owner's box info page. Could there ever be an Add Bonus Box?