John & Felicity

I did think of this method - however if a lonely cache (worth lots of points) is suddenly surrounded by a trail of them it will be much less lonely, more often found and its point score will get smaller. Shame for the cachers who found it when it was alone and see their score going down. Of course you could get the points it was worth at the time you found it (which is what my method was trying to do) - Possibly an average over the previous year (or whatever).

I think that geocaching.com would need (if possible) to generate the points which would be exported to MGP to produce the stats

What about backdating. Will I lose points if someone back dates an old find? I'd thought about this - arguments both ways - probably a programming problem rather than an aesthetic one. I'd also wondered if it would be possible to calculate all previous points!!!! As in my reply to the next post this would need to be done by geocaching.com

The best cache finds IMO are those that have'nt been found for weeks or months not those that have already been found three times today. Hence - and the programmers out there will tell me if this is possible - Rate the cache according to the last time it was found - 1 point for 1 or 2 days ago 2 points for 3 - 7 days 3 points for upto 2 weeks 4 for less than a month etc etc up to 20 points for more than a year (or something similar) This would help those caches in unpopulated or fairly cacheless areas be visited more often It would reduce the worth of the 20 caches along the three mile walk It would add another aspect to the which shall we choose to visit - and perhaps disappointment when you found the rarely visited cache was found yesterday (Honesty needed here) It would retain the effect of the T/D ratings as the more difficult ones would be found less often Logs on the same day would be discounted as a: there is only date ordering on the site not time b: Multiple cachers could all log it and get the points Mygeocachingprofile.com would probably do the stats (if asked nicely) Bonus point could be awarded for FTF Maybe 10 first 5 second 2 third Just an idea

When letterboxing on Dartmoor (UK) with my children some years ago an essential item was the rubber stamp and ink pad. Each letterbox (cache) had its own rubber stamp and log book. We stamped their log book with our stamp, and stamped our log-book with theirs. Both owner and seeeker built up a fine collection of different designs which our children (young teenagers at the time) enjoyed looking at. - We and many other hiders and seekers had our own personally designed stamps - some of which were very intricate and many humerous or depicting the cache site. How about this as an idea for geocachers. We have started stamping logbooks with our old stamp and take this with us. How about some owners adding a stamp to their caches. I still look at my log books from time to time even though its twelve years since we've been there and they bring back more happy memories than plastic keyrings!!!

When letterboxing on Dartmoor (UK) with my children some years ago an essential item was the rubber stamp and ink pad. Each letterbox (cache) had its own rubber stamp and log book. We stamped their log book with our stamp, and stamped our log-book with theirs. Both owner and seeeker built up a fine collection of different designs - We and many other hiders and seekers had our own personally designed stamps - some of which were very intricate and many humerous or depicting the cache site. How about this for geocachers. We have started stamping logbooks with our old stamp and take this with us. How about some owners adding a stamp to their caches.