Oh, we run background checks on everyone who shows up and we're well aware of your sordid and criminal past. It's one of the things we liked best about you--not boring! ;o)

-- Ryan

I feel as if I may have been the inspiration for this policy...

I read that as the "need" for this policy. 😁

Glad to see your probation officer still approves of your involvement in our hobby!

;)

Hey, Wassa what kind of bird doesn't sing?

😉

Mental Note, do not box with sagacorn again, you never what she is really carrying in her back pack. 😂😂

I had to write to something, that comment you wrote had me laughing. 😂

Well that was fun, thought my acerbic demeanor somehow nuked my account! So glad that was not true. May I continue my generally annoying behavior now?

"Hey, Wassa what kind of bird doesn't sing?"

Yeah, just don't pick up the soap>

I read this while taking a drink of water.

Bad idea!

It has finally come--the ability to link your accounts!

Not super useful at the moment, but it's a start. =)

You can link to your LbNA account from the My Account page.

-- Ryan

Will this future update also allow you to see boxes posted on LbNA that are not in AQ???

Not planning on it. If someone doesn't want their boxes listed on AQ, I'm not going to force it.

-- Ryan

Some of you might have noticed that AQ was down for a few minutes while I updated some code. Overall, it was a pretty minor update (and thus the reason I only needed to take down AQ for a few minutes), but here are some of the tweaks:

• Planter's choice is now a keyword instead of an attribute after it was pointed out to me that it's not really a "filter" item like attributes are generally meant to be used for.
• Keywords are now displayed on clues.
• While I was updating keywords, I added a whole BUNCH of "official" keywords. Basically, I looked at the 100 or so most commonly used keywords and the most common and useful ones I elevated as "official". Many of them are attributes that people have asked for over the years but didn't make the attribute cut.
• The exchange page of your logbook will now display the date an exchange was first added to the database and, if the same exchange was added more than once, it'll also display the last date it was added. Since AQ has only been tracking this for a few days now, very few entries will have this extra information, but you'll start seeing it show up in the future as you add new exchanges.
• I've added "signature stamp" as an attribute for personal travelers. This does not mean that you are required or even encouraged to list signature stamps--but it's there for people who feel compelled to track them and an option to record them for those who feel compelled to record those sorts of things. (If someone hasn't added a signature stamp that you want to record a find on, premium members an mark it as a find on an unlisted box.) I, for one, have no intention of listing my signature stamps.
• The maximum length of a password has been increased from 50 characters to... well, whatever your browser will allow in a text input field. (56k?) No excuses for bad passwords! (I've updated my password to use 64 characters.) =)
• Plus a few minor bug fixes that nobody has noticed except the persons who reported them. They're fixed now! =)

I think that covers all the changes. For the most part, they're largely cosmetic changes.

-- Ryan

Gosh golly that is super nifty! You are amazing thank you!

Okay, after someone tried to use an entire sentence as a password (I suspect it was copied and pasted in error), I'm revising the limit from "unlimited" characters to 1024 characters for a password.

You guys are always pushing the limits, eh? ;o)

But you should still be able to create super strong passwords with a 1024-character limit!

-- Ryan

Give them just over 2 tenths a mile and they expect the whole thing 🤣

Give us 2 tenths of a mile and we'll take a parsec. 👽

If it's only 1024 characters, can we at least use emoji's? Or just those boring unsecure English characters?

Theoretically, yes. I haven't actually tried them as a password, though. If you do and get locked out, let me know. =)


You should definitely be able to use foreign characters as well. =)

Truly a spectacularly difficult password for someone to guess if you start adding emojis and non-English characters!

-- Ryan

Ok, so I went to an event, I didn't run home and log everything from that event.........as I am doing it today, it doesn't allow me to put in the actual date the exchange happened like you can on boxes. So, this really isn't helping with tracking when I really did the exchange or where.

being able to log an exchange much like a hitchhiker would be great.
bummed
condo

That is correct. It never did that, and I never said that's how it worked.

This was a quick and easy hack that I thought was better than nothing, but if you want the exchange dates to be accurate, I'd suggest logging them ASAP after the exchange.

At least until I have the time to make a major update to how exchanges work. The feature you are asking for is a lot of extra work, and I have a lot of things I'm working on nowadays! It's just not a high priority for me. Sorry. =(

-- Ryan

So... I decided there was one thing I could do which was relatively easy on my part, which is to allow people the ability to edit their exchanges. So you'll now see edit button on the exchanges in your logbook. In your logbook! That's the only place you'll see the edit button.

You can edit the "list date" (i.e. the date the entry was first added to the database), the "last exchange date" (i.e. the last time you tried to add this person to the database), and a "note" (i.e. kind of an extra field that I've never used before that lets you leave notes about an exchange).

Now... if you want to, you can go back and edit every single freaking exchange you've ever done and put in the correct date so instead of being a "list" date, you can use it as an actual "first exchange date".

I do NOT recommend this. It's incredibly time consuming--especially if someone has a lot of finds. It requires constant maintenance if you don't manage to record exchanges the day they actually happened.

If you go down this path, it may drive you insane. You've been warned. I'd just go with the default.... AQ will record the date you first recorded an exchange with someone and the last date that you tried to record an exchange with someone and leave it at that. It's easy, it's fast, it's actually accurate and requires no maintenance. If you enter exchanges in the order you actually exchanged, it will be in the correct order.

I do not consider this an upgrade--yes, you have more control over how things show up in your logbook--but seriously, it's not worth the effort. Just be happy that AQ at least records when you record finds--which is actually a genuine improvement over how things used to be. And if you make a habit of recording exchanges the same day you did the exchange, it'll automatically be accurate there as well. Win-win!

-- Ryan

thank you Ryan. I was tired and surprised by what it did and didn't do. Being that this was done through an event page, I guess it would have used that date.

I appreciate what you do here.

condo

You Rock!!!!!!!!

not sure about it for all, but the handful this last weekend, yes

No, AQ records the date the exchange was first entered into the database, not the date of an event. It's called the "list date" for a reason, and not the "exchange date."

Exchanges are meant to be trivial easy to enter. Requiring everyone to include a date adds all sorts of complications. What if an event spans multiple days...? What if someone records an exchange more than once? What if someone wants to track what order they did the exchanges in?

These are all sorts of complications that--for people just wanting to keep track of who they exchanged with (which is really the thing that matters most)--are unnecessary distractions. It doesn't feel right for me to force people into adding such unnecessary information, and it doesn't seem right to make assumptions about when an exchange was made because people will invariably complain when it makes an incorrect assumption.

AQ does know precisely when an exchange was entered, however--and it's actually recorded in the database down to the second. (Although editing the entries only saves the date--not the time--since pretty much nobody records a time when an exchange was made.) Recording the date (and time) an exchange was entered is highly accurate, precise, easy and automatic, so that's what AQ will track.

And trying to use it for something else entirely--like exchange dates--I suspect will feel like pulling teeth. It's not designed for that purpose, and in the long run, does the precise date that I exchanged with someone more or less ten years ago? Not really!

For those really wanting to track all sorts of data about exchanges, I'd suggest setting up your own personal spreadsheet which includes all the data you could ever think up. =)

-- Ryan

Thanks for the additional options for tracking exchanges! But please consider upgrading the exchange tracking to be like recording a find on a hitchhiker. Including an optional field for entering location, and a way to edit the find date if desired. This will not force anyone to enter extra data unless desired.

I have great faith that you can do this! Simply reuse the code for logging hitchhikers, and somehow avoid breaking backward compatibility. No hurry, please just keep this request on the back burner.

Give us 2 astronomical units and we’ll take a light-year!

I think the optional note field would work well for entering a location for the exchange(s). I’ve been able to edit the find dates on mine, but if you have more than two (first and last exchange dates), you could probably put those in the notes section as well.

You can do that with the note.


I'd first have to create a way to add a find date before you'd be able to edit it, but you can edit the "list date" already.


Mission accomplished, then. =)

-- Ryan

WOW?! All of this is amazing!! Many thanks as always, Ryan!