Summer 2023 Wandrer wrap-up

8 September 2023 by Pearl

Well, we blinked and suddenly we have a one-year old and the days are getting shorter and cooler here in Atlanta. I honestly don’t understand how a year has already flown by since our little baby was born, but she’s taken her first steps, so it’s probably time to start her Wandrer account and begin tracking her progress around the world. She also started daycare a few weeks ago, which means I have time, glorious time for working on Wandrer again. Here’s an overview of what’s new at Wandrer from the last few months:

Do you love Wandrer? Would you like to be featured on our login page?

Wandrer’s login page, Dashboard, and Big Map are getting a fresh design! For the new login page, we are looking for testimonials about how much you love Wandrer. If you’re willing to be featured, please send me ~ 1-2 sentences saying what you like about Wandrer and a picture of yourself out exploring. I will share a preview of what would be posted on our login page before I publish anything to the website.

Map updates have returned! (And will take some time to process)

As I mentioned in my update at the beginning of the summer, Craig spent the summer updating Wandrer’s map data structure. This upgrade is necessary for features that we’re excited to roll out in the future. Happily, Craig finished transitioning all Wandrers over to the new data structure a few weeks ago. Now we’re processing map updates again! These updates are moving slowly to begin – we have many to do and are being extra careful with accuracy since this data structure is new. Please be patient and we promise to get all the updates in eventually.

New feature request form available for upgraded Wandrers

Upgraded Wandrers can now submit feature suggestions and upvote their favorite ideas via our new Feature Request Board. Look for the link in the footer to access the board. We’ll use this board to help prioritize our efforts as we continue to try to improve the Wandrer experience. There are also handy features that allow you to see what we’re working on and what we’ve completed. Some of our best features are suggestions from y’all, so please do keep sharing your ideas.

View the previous month / year’s progress on leaderboards

Curious who won the previous month or year’s challenge for a particular area? You can now view (and optionally sort by) “Progress Last Month” and “Progress Last Year” as columns on arena leaderboard. Select the “Table columns” link on the leaderboard page to select and view these columns.

Better labels for untraveled roads available on the Wandrer Browser Extension

The Wandrer Browser Extension now labels Untraveled Roads that are either bike-only or foot-only with cute little icons. These labels should help you plan routes that maximize your combined progress and avoid walking a bike-only route and not receiving credit for it (or vice versa).

Get them before they’re gone! Only six bike sloth patches left in stock

I’ve really enjoyed mailing our patches and stickers all over the world. We are down to the very last bike sloth patches, with only six remaining in stock. At the moment, we don’t have plans to re-stock (unless there is a large demand), so if you want a bike sloth patch, don’t wait! We do have plenty of hiking capybara and jogging tapir patches. For stickers, we only have the bike sloth design available right now (although if you want a hiking capybara or jogging tapir sticker, let me know - stickers are easier to restock than patches).

Lots of media recs for you

Finally, we’ve been collecting a whole bunch of articles, interviews, and maps relevant to the Wandrering soul:

• Greg Heil at Strava mentioned Wandrer as a useful tool to help complete every single street in an area in this blog post
• Stephanie Rosenbloom wrote in the NYTimes about the beauty of wandering aimlessly while traveling
• Craig Mod wrote a love letter to his electric bike
• Metro Manila is trying to maintain the momentum of a pandemic-initiated cycling boom
• A Wandrer rode every single street in Seattle
• Another Wandrer rode every single street in Lancaster County and plans to eat lots of ice cream
• Read all about crossing Luxembourg on foot here.
• Here’s a fun interview about riding across the USA to research a book on micromobility
• And finally, a Wandrer made this cool GIS-style map of their Wandrer progress!

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