+Danie Viljoen Posted March 9, 2017 Posted March 9, 2017 End of the road? I've been monitoring the number of views on this thread for the past view months. Even with regular postings for the last two months, the numbers have been dwindling. To give you an example - yesterday's posting on favourite points has only been viewed by 18 people up to now. (The average is about 30 views per day.) Given the amount of time I normally spend on this, I can't help wondering if it is worth it to continue. Maybe it is time to finally let it die?
+SawaSawa Posted March 9, 2017 Posted March 9, 2017 Hi Danie, it would be a shame if the interesting and informative service which you provide were to cease - I for one have greatly appreciated and enjoyed your postings and the (admittedly few) responses - but I would fully understand your position if it did, given the time and effort involved in producing the material. Is there any way in which the availability and content of this forum could be promoted, eg. at geocaching events or through GC web sites . . . any ideas out there?
+PieterM Posted March 9, 2017 Posted March 9, 2017 Hi Danie, it would be a shame if the interesting and informative service which you provide were to cease - I for one have greatly appreciated and enjoyed your postings and the (admittedly few) responses - but I would fully understand your position if it did, given the time and effort involved in producing the material. Is there any way in which the availability and content of this forum could be promoted, eg. at geocaching events or through GC web sites . . . any ideas out there? Ditto I look at the stats everyday and find them very interesting.
+Enigma_DKL Posted March 9, 2017 Posted March 9, 2017 Hi Danie Please keep posting ... it is very informative ... some of us are just swamped with work and are only able to look every few days
+battlerat and pussycat Posted March 9, 2017 Posted March 9, 2017 (edited) Seeing the post today had me thinking about this tread and the (SA) forums in general. Before FB this was the place to discuss geocaching related stuff, asks questions or give advise and support. I liked the forums as it allowed one to catch up if and the forum history is always available. Unfortunately with FB and other IM apps, the information is quickly lost and it is not possible to have any meaningful discussion... I suspect (perhaps you can collect some empirical data and present it :-)) that it only the cachers that have been around for many years that appreciate and enjoy your stats. It surely takes a lot of time to generate the stats, even though by now you probably have templates for just about every questions there is to be asked. So the question is whether it is worth it? I'll also miss the stats if it is not published anymore, but would totally understand. I don't bother reading the FB posts, but have you ever considered posting there and linking to this page? How many of the newer cachers know about these forums? Andre Edited March 9, 2017 by battlerat and pussycat
+jtomcat16 Posted March 10, 2017 Posted March 10, 2017 Hi I consider myself a "newer cacher". (I've been caching for about 2 years now) I only discovered this forum by accident when someone posted a link on our whatsapp group, and since then I've been somewhat hooked. One or two shares of this page on FB or whatsapp will definitely bring in some more views and hopefully, some of those will stick around. Really hope this thread, and the stats, don't die James
+B and C Inc Posted March 10, 2017 Posted March 10, 2017 Hi Danie, it would be a shame if the interesting and informative service which you provide were to cease - I for one have greatly appreciated and enjoyed your postings and the (admittedly few) responses - but I would fully understand your position if it did, given the time and effort involved in producing the material. Is there any way in which the availability and content of this forum could be promoted, eg. at geocaching events or through GC web sites . . . any ideas out there? Morning all, I for one love these stats, we are not as active as what we were in the past, but I still like to catch up here to see what is going on with Geocaching. Danie maybe once you have posted the stats you can also put a post on the FB Forums, that way people that only use FB can see the link to this site and just maybe it draws more people here? Not sure if that would work. I agree with the sentiments above that it would be a shame to loose this info, but I've always wondered how you manage to find time for all of this!
+Carbon Hunter Posted March 10, 2017 Author Posted March 10, 2017 Danie - PLEASE NO NO NO.... your inputs are invaluable - and are in many ways a reference for all of us.
+Danie Viljoen Posted March 10, 2017 Posted March 10, 2017 Thanks for all the input. I should probably not care about the dwindling numbers, because I enjoy doing this. I do however find it extremely discouraging when I see that fewer than 20 people viewed my postings (which sometimes take hours to generate). The general lack of feedback (which goes hand in hand with the very low forum visitor numbers) also makes it difficult to keep this up on the long term. There are a few plans: Linking from Facebook, GoSA newsletter, etc. I'll see if it works. Otherwise it may make more sense to move over to Facebook, where the masses are.
+davmur Posted March 10, 2017 Posted March 10, 2017 Seeing the post today had me thinking about this tread and the (SA) forums in general. Before FB this was the place to discuss geocaching related stuff, asks questions or give advise and support. I liked the forums as it allowed one to catch up if and the forum history is always available. Unfortunately with FB and other IM apps, the information is quickly lost and it is not possible to have any meaningful discussion... I suspect (perhaps you can collect some empirical data and present it :-)) that it only the cachers that have been around for many years that appreciate and enjoy your stats. It surely takes a lot of time to generate the stats, even though by now you probably have templates for just about every questions there is to be asked. So the question is whether it is worth it? I'll also miss the stats if it is not published anymore, but would totally understand. I don't bother reading the FB posts, but have you ever considered posting there and linking to this page? How many of the newer cachers know about these forums? Andre I agree with the statement made here about the information being quickly lost on FB. I hate FB for that very reason. There are so many posts that one sometimes want to go back to but you can never find it. I also admit that I do not follow Forums as much as I would like. I think regular posts on both FB and Whatsapp groups would remind members and notify newbies that this exists would have a big positive effect on the number of views. davmur
+Danie Viljoen Posted March 10, 2017 Posted March 10, 2017 I think regular posts on both FB and Whatsapp groups would remind members and notify newbies that this exists would have a big positive effect on the number of views. I did not know there are any geocaching-themed Whatsapp groups?
+Danie Viljoen Posted March 10, 2017 Posted March 10, 2017 Favourite Point heatmap OK, back to statistics. The following two maps show where the concentrations of FPs are in South Africa. (I only considered active caches.)
+Danie Viljoen Posted March 13, 2017 Posted March 13, 2017 Cache density heatmaps: South Africa How these maps were made, for the technically interested: I started with a SQL database with all the active South African caches. Then I looped through all the caches and for each cache calculated how many other caches were within 5km. (Extremely ineffective and time-consuming to do this in SQL for large cache numbers - it took more than an hour). Next the results were placed in a 3D grid: Lat, Lon, and number of close neighbours. Where more than one cache fell in the same grid cell, the average was used. Did some filtering and smoothing of the data. Next the values were colour-coded: red for the maximum, through orange,yellow, green, cyan to blue for the minimum. (White where there is no data). Lastly the data was plotted.
+battlerat and pussycat Posted March 13, 2017 Posted March 13, 2017 I was wondering whether Geocaching benefit from major events such as the Cape Town Cycle Race(or another major event in the country)? It would be interesting to see if whether there is a meaningful change in number of caches found in around Cape Town for for last week and this week...
+Danie Viljoen Posted March 13, 2017 Posted March 13, 2017 I was wondering whether Geocaching benefit from major events such as the Cape Town Cycle Race(or another major event in the country)? It would be interesting to see if whether there is a meaningful change in number of caches found in around Cape Town for for last week and this week... Let's give them a week to log their finds and then I'll look at Cape Town next week.
+Danie Viljoen Posted March 14, 2017 Posted March 14, 2017 Highest cache densities in South Africa: 1km radius: There are no less than 40 active caches within 1km of GC6ANHF Equestria - Altzheimers. This is in the east of Pretoria, and 38 of the 40 are owned by Geelvink. The maximum number of caches that can theoretically be fitted into a circle with a radius of 1km is 140, so Geelvink still has some way to go! 5km radius: 343 caches within 5km of GC4G7MT Gentlemen's Game in Port Elizabeth. (The theoretical maximum for 5km is 3501) 10km radius: 725 caches within 10km of GC5N5V8 Whistle Stop 2. This is in the same area as the previous one, in Port Elizabeth. The theoretical maximum for 10km is 14006. All of a sudden P.E. looks very attractive to me as a holiday destination!
+Enigma_DKL Posted March 14, 2017 Posted March 14, 2017 Highest cache densities in South Africa: All of a sudden P.E. looks very attractive to me as a holiday destination! Agreed ... think i need to start adding to my holiday list as well 😊 Thanks for the info Danie
+Carbon Hunter Posted March 14, 2017 Author Posted March 14, 2017 I was wondering whether Geocaching benefit from major events such as the Cape Town Cycle Race(or another major event in the country)? It would be interesting to see if whether there is a meaningful change in number of caches found in around Cape Town for for last week and this week... Let's give them a week to log their finds and then I'll look at Cape Town next week. I'm not so sure that we have sufficient cachers to see this. For instance other eventss like the Soccer world Cup so no significant upswings. Some localized caching (like the Midmar Mile) are seen annually here in KZN - but over the entire W Cape - I do not believe the Argus (wind or not) would make a significant difference?
+Danie Viljoen Posted March 15, 2017 Posted March 15, 2017 Highest cache densities: Western Cape 1km radius: 31 active caches around GCTWKE Fido 002 Music Connection 5km radius: 295 active caches around GC33PME Enjoy the Shade 10km radius: 568 active caches around GC68J5Z PR7: Uranus
+battlerat and pussycat Posted March 15, 2017 Posted March 15, 2017 I was wondering whether Geocaching benefit from major events such as the Cape Town Cycle Race(or another major event in the country)? It would be interesting to see if whether there is a meaningful change in number of caches found in around Cape Town for for last week and this week... Let's give them a week to log their finds and then I'll look at Cape Town next week. I'm not so sure that we have sufficient cachers to see this. For instance other eventss like the Soccer world Cup so no significant upswings. Some localized caching (like the Midmar Mile) are seen annually here in KZN - but over the entire W Cape - I do not believe the Argus (wind or not) would make a significant difference? Oh, so someone has thought about this before... No point then in running a query...
+Danie Viljoen Posted March 16, 2017 Posted March 16, 2017 Highest cache densities: Eastern Cape 1km radius: 38 caches around GC5CQ1W Daisy Duck 5km radius: 341 caches around GC4G7MT Gentlemen's Game (the most in the country) 10km radius: 725 caches around GC5N5V8 Whistle Stop 2 (the most in the country)
+Carbon Hunter Posted March 17, 2017 Author Posted March 17, 2017 This must be a first for any province outside W Cape or Gauteng. Well done E Cape
+GlobalRat Posted March 20, 2017 Posted March 20, 2017 Danie Please don't stop! We just need to spread the word and get people more active on the forums again
+Danie Viljoen Posted March 21, 2017 Posted March 21, 2017 Highest cache densities: KZN 1km radius: 35 caches around GC40V12 Nature Always Wins 5km radius: 270 caches around GC3QJTG Fern Gully 10km radius: 537 caches around GC6J3F4 Onder, diep en donker (The red dots are the caches in the densest 1km radius; orange 5km; brown 10km)
+Thrips Posted March 22, 2017 Posted March 22, 2017 Hi Danie, I have mentioned it before, but I really do love the stats. I try to visit the site as often as possible to see if there are any updates. Again, from my side, thank you for all the effort and time that you put into generating the stats. How can I see what the 10 or 15 oldest active caches in South Africa are? Is it possible to find it on Project GC?
+GlobalRat Posted March 22, 2017 Posted March 22, 2017 (edited) How can I see what the 10 or 15 oldest active caches in South Africa are? Is it possible to find it on Project GC? You can use GSAK to filter active caches and sort by placed on date Code Waypoint Name Placed State GC185 Sentinel View 2001.01.18 Western Cape GC1341 Eucaliptus 2001.04.02 Mpumalanga GC77E Cape Agulhas 2001.04.21 Western Cape GC840 Geocache 2001.04.29 Western Cape GC9ED MADIBA TRAIL Bloemfontein 2001.05.20 Free State GCE74 Magaliesberg 1(Maanhaarrand- North West Province) 2001.06.30 North West GC13FB Pretoria-East 001: 2001.07.29 Gauteng GC1656 Swartberg Pass 2001.08.11 Western Cape GC1BBA Blood, Sweat and Sandy Bay 2001.09.08 Western Cape GC20F6 LOGO 2001.09.12 Mpumalanga GC21FC Houtbay 2001.10.13 Western Cape GC22B1 N1 Sandriver - GMC001Z 2001.10.15 Free State GC250E N1 Stilfontein Blockhouse (GMC12Z) 2001.10.26 Free State GC2AC1 JOHANNESBURG SOUTH-1C 2001.11.15 Gauteng Also visible on GC.com by searching for all caches in South Africa and sorting by placed by Click here. You will find one anomaly, Before GPSr which has a dodgy Placed on date. Edited March 22, 2017 by GlobalRat
+Danie Viljoen Posted March 24, 2017 Posted March 24, 2017 Highest cache densities: Gauteng 1km radius: 41 caches around GC6ANHF Equestria - Altzheimers (The highest in South Africa) 5km radius: 246 caches around GC1818G Plumbago_Three 10km radius: 634 caches around GC2ZBVG Cul-de-sac: Waterkloof (Red = 1km, orange = 5km and brown = 10km) The red peak at the top is Pretoria and Centurion; the ridge below it is the West Rand, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni (Germiston)
+GlobalRat Posted March 24, 2017 Posted March 24, 2017 Mmm, it looks a lot like a dead frog! Heatmap still shows a heartbeat Started talking to yourself Danie
+GlobalRat Posted March 24, 2017 Posted March 24, 2017 the ridge below it is the West Rand, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni (Germiston) Some significant peaks there too, how do the densities along that ridge compare to the overall Gauteng figures above?
+Danie Viljoen Posted March 24, 2017 Posted March 24, 2017 the ridge below it is the West Rand, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni (Germiston) Some significant peaks there too, how do the densities along that ridge compare to the overall Gauteng figures above? At the same resolution (5km radius): West Rand: 150 caches around GC2YATY Johannesburg: 190 caches around GC4FZP8 Ekurhuleni: 154 caches around GC67WFT And for completeness, the other two Gauteng municipalities: Pretoria: 246 caches around GC1818G Sedibeng: 38 caches around GC3HGJK
+Danie Viljoen Posted March 27, 2017 Posted March 27, 2017 Highest cache densities: Mpumalanga 1km radius: 18 caches around GC21QAX Way to Go.... 5km radius: 99 caches around GC6DGW1 Parking with a view 10km radius: 139 caches around GC23P1J We Wonder.... (yellow = 10km radius, orange = 5km radius, red = 1km radius)
+GlobalRat Posted March 28, 2017 Posted March 28, 2017 Highest cache densities: Mpumalanga Considering all the open space in MP, surprising that there are so many "blank" areas.
+Danie Viljoen Posted March 28, 2017 Posted March 28, 2017 Highest cache densities: Free State 1km radius: 25 caches around GC3F8Y7 Naval Hill Nr.3 5km radius: 167 caches around GC3711R Hopwood Playground 10km radius: 244 caches around GC3FNZD LHP from the hill (yellow = 10km radius, orange = 5km, red = 1km)
+Danie Viljoen Posted March 29, 2017 Posted March 29, 2017 Fastest 1000 finds: 236 cachers have found 1000 or more caches in Africa. (Unfortunately I do not have the data for overseas finds.) The fastest of these were: 1. iPajero: 20 days 2. Spesbona: 40 days 3. MadSons: 93 days 4. tjoklits: 113 days 5. Panters: 125 days 6. Happy Hunters SA: 130 days 7. The Huskies: 145 days 8. bergbokkie: 157 days 9. GorNat: 167 days 10. SKATTIE@1: 168 days 11. B and C Inc: 174 days 12. Wazat: 182 days 13. JanMich: 186 days 14. Thedivespot: 189 days 15. Leon St: 190 days At the other end of the spectrum, Nish4 took 3605 days (9.9 years!) to get to 1000 finds! The average fastest 1000 finds is 2.3 years and the median is 1.8 years.
+Danie Viljoen Posted March 30, 2017 Posted March 30, 2017 Highest cache densities: North West 1km radius: 12 caches around GC184GP Longdrop 5km radius: 56 caches around GC5VNC3 Railway-channel 10km radius: 74 caches around GC5BA1Y VA52 Densest 1km radius Densest 5km and 10km radius
+ChrisDen Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 Cool stats. Hopefully the article in the GoSA newsletter is a regular column. Thanks Danie.
+Danie Viljoen Posted March 31, 2017 Posted March 31, 2017 Most Favourite Points in the past year It was pointed out to me that I forgot to include the new caches in my article in the latest GoSA newsletter. I hope the following list is correct! The following South African caches received the most new FPs during the year 7 March 2016 to 6 March 2017: 1. GC31WXR Table Mountain Travel Bug Hotel CapeDoc 66 FPs 2. GC5Y00Q Tardis family Behrens 57 FPs 3. GC691EB STAR TREK max beeks 45 FPs 4. GC5BWV4 UP PERISCOPE family Behrens 39 FPs 5. GC6K7A4 Red or Blue family Behrens 39 FPs 6. GC5D3BX The Vault Henzz 38 FPs 7. GC548HP Intersect 2.0 family Behrens 32 FPs 8. GC6K78M Governor's Ghost WC Geocachers. 31 FPs 9. GC6RJGA Minecraft Hero WC Geocachers. 31 FPs 10. GC60190 Signal the frog books his Licence family Behrens 28 FPs
+iPajero Posted April 1, 2017 Posted April 1, 2017 can you list the top 10 for South Africa and Africa as a whole? Thanks! Most new caches placed in South Africa in 2016: 1. Panters: 140 2. WC Geocachers.: 102 3. PieterM: 90 4. SKATTIE@1: 67 5. ChrisDen: 63 6. Boats007: 62 7. Monti's Adventure: 59 8. WÅLDO: 52 9. Sokkies73: 47 10. Dr 3S: 41 For the top 10 in Africa, see Part 10. Most caches placed in South Africa (all time): 1. PieterM: 343 2. TechnoNut: 336 3. Fish Eagle: 273 4. iPajero: 262 5. Wazat: 229 6. Panters: 226 7. SKATTIE@1: 226 8. GEO936: 216 9. die sousies: 213 10. Leon St: 203
+iPajero Posted April 1, 2017 Posted April 1, 2017 (edited) It would be interesting to see how many of the caches placed are still active.This refers to the topic most caches placed in South Africa (all time) Edited April 1, 2017 by iPajero
+TechnoNut Posted April 2, 2017 Posted April 2, 2017 It would be interesting to see how many of the caches placed are still active. This refers to the topic most caches placed in South Africa (all time) I analysed my GSAK Database (I have slightly higher numbers for most cachers than Danie) This is what I get (Danie's figures in the DV column). I also used Danie's order. Cachers that have placed a high number of event type caches will obviously have more archived caches than those who have not placed many event types.
+Danie Viljoen Posted April 3, 2017 Posted April 3, 2017 Highest cache densities: Limpopo 1km radius: 6 caches around GC3QMPY Springbokkie 5km radius: 20 caches around GC143XC The Palm Tree TB Rest Stop 10km radius: 36 caches around GC4N0VW Dalmada tree
+Danie Viljoen Posted April 4, 2017 Posted April 4, 2017 Fastest 2000 finds: 71 cachers have found 2000 or more caches in Africa. The fastest of these were: 1. iPajero 194 days 2. MadSons 303 days 3. Panters 359 days 4. bergbokkie 379 days 5. SKATTIE@1 432 days 6. The Huskies 455 days 7. Spesbona 457 days 8. GorNat 483 days 9. AdieA 560 days 10. ChrisDen 575 days 11. TechnoNut 617 days 12. Geelvink 626 days 13. JanMich 628 days 14. Mixs 661 days 15. rodnjoan 697 days The slowest 2000 finds (sy-chispa) took 2863 days (9.9 years). The average fastest 2000 finds is 3.3 years and the median is 2.9 years.
+Danie Viljoen Posted April 5, 2017 Posted April 5, 2017 Highest cache densities: Northern Cape 1km radius: 5 caches around GC3E0DP Oval Track Jan Kemp in Jan Kempdorp 5km radius: 16 caches around GC6K37Q Steam rolled through Kathu 10km radius: 20 caches around GC6AXYT kathu pan
+Danie Viljoen Posted April 6, 2017 Posted April 6, 2017 Fastest 3000 finds: 36 cachers have found 3000 or more caches in Africa. The fastest of these were: 1. iPajero 417 days 2. Panters 556 days 3. Spesbona 583 days 4. GorNat 836 days 5. SKATTIE@1 876 days 6. AdieA 933 days 7. ChrisDen 934 days The Huskies 934 days 9. bergbokkie 1044 days 10. JanMich 1111 days 11. TechnoNut 1178 days 12. Porky2 1208 days 13. rodnjoan 1229 days 14. terunkie 1303 days 15. Leon St 1313 days The slowest 3000 finds (Wildbirds) took 3405 days (9.3 years). The average fastest 3000 finds is 4.2 years and the median is 4 years. Fastest 4000 finds: 23 Cachers have found 4000 or more caches in Africa: 1. iPajero 674 days 2. Spesbona 1031 days 3. GorNat 1062 days 4. ChrisDen 1282 days 5. The Huskies 1422 days 6. SKATTIE@1 1569 days 7. rodnjoan 1678 days 8. bergbokkie 1681 days 9. terunkie 1751 days 10. TechnoNut 1790 days 11. PieterM 1916 days 12. Louise_Gerhard 2047 days 13. Leon St 2052 days 14. dolos 2170 days 15. Geelvink 2343 days 16. cownchicken 2387 days 17. Thrips 2398 days 18. Antron 2400 days 19. Henzz 2600 days 20. Wikkelgat 2615 days 21. Danie Viljoen 2635 days 22. HeinG 2816 days 23. Tricky Vicky & Mickey 4910 days The average and median fastest 4000 finds are both 5.6 years.
+Carbon Hunter Posted April 6, 2017 Author Posted April 6, 2017 The slowest 3000 finds (Wildbirds) took 3405 days (9.3 years). Watch out Wildbirds...... here I come..... one day .... perhaps........ maybe
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