Points for owned cache finds?

[+ronocnikral]

The formula to calculate your score is

 

score=sum(finds*terrain)+integral(months)(hides*sqrt(terrain)*uservote)+sqrt(logwords)+log(photosposts*imagequality)-#forumposts-#LPCfinds-#LPChides^2+bicycles+CITO^2+fudgefactor+fudgebrownies

 

and anyone who disagrees is a poopyhead.

 

Edweird

HAHAHAHA!! Edweird, I like how you think....I disagree on one aspect--I think Groundspeak should keep the algorithim a secret. That will keep all those wanting to collect "points" or a higher "score" guessing. And to keep it even more interesting, they can change the algorithim every 6 months or so just to keep them on their toes. But I think you are on the right path. I would, however, suggest some more complexity--a little partial differential calculus never hurt anyone!!

 

And make it so those who don't want to participate don't have to. Even better yet, Groundspeak should charge $40/month to track these stats. Or those who want stats can, as they now can do, go to another app and post it on their profile.

[+Zac Young]

OK, i'm sorry if i have offended anyone.

 

I just asked a simple question. And my post was belittled by several.

 

Some of you are forgetting that without hides, there are NO FINDS. Doesn't matter how you twist it or play the game.

 

Throwing in the towel.

 

No need to throw in the towel. You've learned that your idea isn't wildly popular, so instead of trying to change the game in what many veterans feel would be a negative way, look at this as an opportunity. At one time every area had no caches. Someone took it upon himself to start placing them and things took off from there. If there are few caches in your area, here it is an opportunity to make a major contribution to the sport by hiding your own.

 

By doing so you can actually help bend geocaching to your liking in your area. People tend to hide the kinds of caches they find. It's why some areas have mostly micros in parking lots, while others

have mostly regular caches in the woods. In each case some early cache hiders preferred one style, hid a bunch and people after them followed suit.

 

So if you enjoy regular sized caches that involve walks to area of scenic or historic or other interest, then get out there and start placing them. A hundred bucks will get you 10 Lock n Locks at Walmart, 10 logbooks and pencils at Staples and you'll have a 50 bucks left over for swag to stock them.

 

If on the other hand you prefer driving from parking lot to parking lot to find lamp post micros, you can get a bag of film canisters from your local photo shop and become the Johnny Microseed of your area.

 

No caches is an amazing opprtunity, not a problem.

 

I completely agree with you on this matter. Although you may not have a whole lot of opportunity to find a ton of caches in your unpopulated area, you are at an advantage. You can be the one to start forming your geocaching community. You can hide the types you want and make a reputation out of it. It's also a great opportunity to hide some really creative caches such as puzzles and multis. In bigger communities, all of the fun, popular ideas are used up. Maybe you could take advantage of your community and hide some really creative ones that they have never seen before, but have been planted in far away lands. If you go to Geocacher University, they have a small article on creative puzzle caches, I think you might enjoy the article. Check out Resource 1 at the end of my post. So, as you can see, there is a ton of ways to encourage hides. Although geocaching is not ready to encourage hiding-finds as a statistic, you can still find ways to encourage in your community. Maybe hold an event to encourage cache planting. You could have a prize for most hid, most creative hide, most traditional, most challenging etc. As long as you have a balance of different types, you could make it a very beneficial event for your community to meet new people and get some really cool and numerous caches out there. I hope this helps! Feel free to send me a message if you have any questions whatsoever on my post or statistics etc.

 

Resource 1 - http://geocacher-u.com/content/view/69/35/

Edited September 26, 2008 by Zac Young

[+Renegade Knight]

...Some are making referance that gorundspeak used to have a stat page. What was that like. I would like to hear more about what it was.

 

It wasn't Groundspeak who did it. Another site used the new logs page to pick up info and keep stats. Simple things. Finds by state. Finds by City. Recent logs by city, state, cacher etc.

 

It was really the same info we already have, just sorted out in ways that were interesting and accessable.

 

Groundspeak ultimatly pulled the plug as the site didn't have an agreement with them to 'scrape' the data. About that time the site was having some trouble keeping up due to the sheer numbers of logs and so they really needed to find another way to get the information to keep up their accuracy.

 

Like I said, when this site existed, there seemed to be less stats angst than what now happens when you discuss bringing something similar back.

====================================================

 

Skydiver (now banned) also had a point system for a region in Northern Idaho and Western Montana. It assigned points to finds based on a cache with less finds being worth more than a cache with more finds. 250 Urban Finds was worth about the same as 1 Remote find. Give or take a few points. It put a spin on finding that encouraged folks to get out in the woods. Skydiver went on to found Terracaching.com. I suspect a version of his point system lives on on that site. He had the same problem keeping his stats current.

======================================

PS Most Vetrans cacheers come from the era when we had more stats than now. When they wax nostalgic about 'the old days' when a cache was a cache dammit. The days when stats existed. That irony is a wonderful thing.

Edited September 26, 2008 by Renegade Knight

[+soopadoopa]

VERY good info, everyone. Thanks for taking the time to explain.

[+soopadoopa]

VERY good info, everyone. Thanks for taking the time to explain.

[+wimseyguy]

1. Please read my sig line. It is very appropriate to the treatment you got in the forums on your first visit. I'll refrain from commenting on how much of it you deserved. Compared to other fora this one is pretty gentle.

2. Stats are nice. I care about mine, and do my best to keep them accurate. I don't give a rat's rear about yours nor anyone else's. I care even less what you think about mine.

3. 98.72% of the cachers log their finds honestly. The remainder may not. What do you think would happen if there were other publicly available statistical categories besides finds?

4. There are other websites that are happy to crunch your numbers for you. Others have kindly linked you to those sites. This website prefers to keep away from emphasizing numbers.

5. I have a geopal with over 1000 hides. Why? Because when he wants to go caching, there may not be any new hides in his area for him to seek. So he became a serial hider. Now his area is a target of geotourists with plenty of cacher within a 4-5 hours drive going there for a weekend of fun and finds. Perhaps you could take that approach and create another destination for power cachers?

6. Have FUN!

[+firennice]

This was an idea someone came up with

 

http://dgpstats.com/cacherstats

 

You get points for going after obscure caches, and for placing difficult caches.

It kindof avoids the 'parking lot' syndrome