Help!: What a terrible site... The flaws here are ubiquitous

I've used the site for several months now and have had very few problems with it. Minor bugs  pop up every now and then (most recently noticed start time and end time didn't update properly) but those were all very short lived. I think the MapMy team is doing a great job!

The site has replaced the Excel spreadsheet I was using to track training. The site is [relatively] simple to use and provides great reports. 

Both thumbs up for the site and the development team! If you don't  like the site, simply stop using it and save your negative comments...it's obvious from all the responses to your post that others are not having the same negative experience.

Peter-DG - I use the site to track my runs and my rides, but I've never tried to create a cue sheet. Not sure how to do that other than adding notes. For that matter, I've never tried to print out a route either. I'm generally using the site to track my training rather than setting things up for others, especially groups, so my needs may be different than yours. I had some issues when I first started using the site, but I've never had a situation where I couldn't correct my mistakes. Then again, the longest route I've mapped is about 35 miles.

Given the fact that the site uses Google Maps and that is what I would call Consumer Quality computerized mapping (as opposed to Professional Quality mapping software that a cartographer or surveyor would use) , and that the site is free, I think they do a wonderful job. There is not a software system built anywhere by anyone that couldn't be improved. But this is pretty d*** good.

rptpreccajr wrote in response to my original post:

"I don't know exactly where you have mapped your route, where you are entering the road or what scale you are working at, but lots of variables could contribute to what you see. For example, if there is a driveway cut or turn lane to go into/out of  a private lot there is probably not a connection in the data for that. If you have the follow roads feature on and do a left turn across the road, there may not be a road feature to follow except by going right to the next cross street and then do a u-turn. This site is using Google Maps, They get their map data from another source - Navteq who in turn compiles that world-wide road data from hundreds or even thousands of other sources at lots of different scales. My agency supplies that data for Indianapolis and we have one person working full time for our measly 4200 miles of roads."

 Please note that this part of my route did not access nor "cross" private ways nor use any roads that take you into private lots. The section of the route where I experienced the u-turn problem only uses major roads (the two-laner and the intersecting four-laner). I did have the Follow Roads feature turned-on. It sounds as if you're saying that the problem here, then, really comes from Google maps/Navteq. True?

Please note that I went back and tried it again with Follow Roads turned OFF, and then it worked fine.

 Thanks,

 DavidY

runningyogi:

I am having similar problems as the original poster.

I've used this site successfully about 75% of the time. It seems to work best for my shorter, uncomplicated runs. But when it doesn't work, it makes me want to tear my hair out. 

Issues:

1. Once saved, the title says my route was 12.8 miles, which is accurate. But when I opened up the map, it showed only about 9 miles of what I had plotted. When I tried to fix it, it segmented the route and then showed the total as zero miles.
2. Many of my marker comments [written for her amusement, I'm usually not so detailed] mysteriously disappeared. Some would show up half the time, some just went away completely.
3. Several times I hit 'undo' and it put me 10-20 miles east of my route. From that point I went to zoom out and I could see the entire world map. Tried to zoom in and I wound up in Alberta.
4. The site is also often really slow to load.
5. Given that it's so buggy, it really irritates me that I cannot save frequently as I plot. Saving requires exiting editing mode, answering an seemingly endless questionnaire [the first time anyway], then getting back into editing mode again. Very time consuming, and half the time I lost the very work I was trying to save anyway.

A Price

 Yogi,

    Whoa, that is one ugly map.  My success rate is a bit higher than yours, and yet some bugs are really annoying if you don't work around them.  Some can't be worked-around.  I would prefer a bug-free site, but the work-arounds make it fairly functional.

1 & 2)  Editing a map now causes all personal notes and 'follow roads' turn-by-turn notes to disappear.  This really is a huge annoyance, requiring a 'Clear All Points' and a complete remapping to regenerate the turn-by-turns.  This should be number one on the bug-fix list.

3) Turn off 'Auto Recenter Map' in Map Settings.  It would be ideal if this option was off by default.

4) Try the ABP plug-in for Mozilla.  I use dial-up (yes, I'm lame) and you can see how many maps I've made.  It takes me about 5 minutes to make a map.  Also, turn off 'Display Elevation' and use the basic map view.

5) Quickly saving a map-in-progress would be a useful feature.  I wish it's on the feature request to-do list.

 Hope that helps,

RoJoNo 

This is only my second day using this site and as yet I've only used the most basic functions. So far I've found it to be quite hard to get around. It seems to have lots of tabs and menus for quickly getting to your weekly logs and your runs etc. which is great but it seems to let you down where it matters the most (in the actual ease in editing or mapping). In this respect, this website is far from user friendly.

For instance, I mapped a potential route last night which I decided to deviate from slightly (ran down a different street to avoid the traffic lights after which I rejoined the original route) when I ran this morning. When I returned I wanted to log this slightly modified run, and it took me over half an hour to realise that it just couldn't be done. If there is a way, I couldn't figure it out (and I think I'm reasonably good with computers).

 In reply to all the guys saying it's a free website, I don't know if you realise that there is a paid version of it too? 

Either way, I think that pointing out bugs for the programmers to fix is a good thing as long as it eventually happens so don't flame people who take the time to do so. 

I have to agree with the orignal thread starter.  I thought nothing could be worse than the original MapMyRide, but the new site is total crap.  It may be ok for short running routes.  Bike routes can be very long.  I mapped a 66 mile route, it took forever and then I have yet to succesfully pull up the route again without the browser on 2 different computers saying a script is taking to long and should be shut down.  Now I can't pull up the route so I can export it to a .crs file for my garmin.  That is the sole purpose for me mapping it. 

This site is junk.  Its amazing that people are actually paying for the premium version of this.  I would never pay for something so slow and buggy.  A little hint - you have to invest a little money and get a pretty good product out there before you are going to get people to pay for it.

Very disappointed and none of the promises given over the old site hold true