I actually made use of Favorites this week!

[+KBLAST]

Lots of posts about positives and negatives for the favorites, but I haven't seen anyone discuss real life, practical use of the favorites.

 

I was heading to another town an hour away for an "impromptu" cache run yesterday. I noticed I was coming up on a milestone (1100) and thought that I may as well grab a few PnGs and then make a point to get something special for the milestone. I went to the area of the cache run, ran a quick PQ, then sorted by favorites. I couldn't do the multis, not enough time... Nope - no time for puzzles either... Ah! There's one! Oh, wait, high terrain in the snow. [] AHA! Finally, found a low terrain one, and the description looks cool! I'm so glad I did, because I would NEVER have stumbled on that cache 'accidentally'. It was worth the trip, became one of MY favorites, and I'm VERY thankful for the favorites feature!

 

I'd love to use this thread not for positives or negatives about the system (there are a few out there already) but to hear stories about practical, real life uses of the Favorites feature, either successful or unsuccessful!

[+FancoverFive]

Today was my birthday so I decided to find a special cache. I did a search of all caches within 50 miles of home (almost 10000!) that I hadn't found and sorted by favourites, and found that the supposed best cache was one around 20 miles away. Well, we set out, got to the cache, and it was brilliant. Like the OP, I'd never have known about it if not for favo(u)rites.

[+hydnsek]

Last week, during my holiday trip to New Mexico, I tried Favorites to discover the 'best' caches in the El Paso (TX) area. Worked great - found some good ones in town, as well as the superb Smiley Face series in the nearby New Mexico desert, which was a highlight of my trip.

[+fizzymagic]

I used favorites for the first time today. I generally ignore caches below about difficulty 2 unless they are high terrain, because there is so much chaff. But I did a query near me and sorted by favorite count and discovered some real gems. I did one of them this afternoon.

 

The favorites feature is the best thing since queries along a route! Thanks, Groundspeak!

[sdarken]

I just finished a week of vacation in a new state and use the favorites to locate an interesting cache as a destination for each day that I was able to get some caching time. It worked out very well. My only regret was not having enough time to visit all of the caches that sounded like fun.

 

The favorites feature was one of the best Christmas presents I received this year.

[+TrailGators]

I've been wanting this feature for years! It's already doing a great job capturing all the favorites that I used to add to a community favorites bookmarks list. I'm glad I will no longer have to maintain/update that list! This feature will really be useful once more people add their favorites! I added ~70 of mine! Thanks for adding this feature, Groundspeak!

[+Andromeda321]

I travel a lot so I like the favorites thing for a similar reason- sort the caches in a strange area by favorites and then know what caches to go out of my way for to make the experience a little more memorable. I haven't gone beyond the first page or so yet so I'm sure some less-frequently-visited favorite caches are unfortunately escaping my notice right now, but for "I'm in a random town" purposes this at least pushes you in the right direction.

 

I've also had fun with searching for caches in a state (or country!) and sorting it by favorites just to see what comes up. Not inherently practical but I'm planning a few road trips based on the results.

[+kwcahart]

Same here. I'm going thru McAlester, OK Tuesday night. I won't have much time to cache so I did a search, then sorted the search by the favorites. I found one that I am going to make time to find. Good feature. Now, if they would just let me search with a "not found by 'username'", I would really be happy.

[+addisonbr]

Now, if they would just let me search with a "not found by 'username'", I would really be happy.

Interesting - how would you use this?

[+Markwell]

Now, if they would just let me search with a "not found by 'username'", I would really be happy.

Interesting - how would you use this?

http://feedback.geocaching.com/forums/75775-geocaching-com/suggestions/1101439-compare-my-unfounds-with-those-of-a-friend?ref=title

[+MSwahoo & the Cache Hound Posse]

I travel for my job and I try to get a cache or two everywhere I go and having the ability to find the best of best with a few clicks on geocaching.com is a an awesome feature. I used the Favorites over the holidays to find some local caches (<50 miles) that I have overlooked. Also I believe it may improve the quality of geocaches placed as cachers are now rewarded by the community for placing good caches. Isn't it all about the numbers? The Favorites feature may be the best upgrade to the website I have seen in six plus years I have been involved in the activity. My only gripe is 10 caches for a feature point is too low maybe 50-75 caches for one feature point would have been better. KUDOS Groundspeak!

[+Castle Mischief]

I too have recently started using this as a basis for adding caches to my bucket list. So far, I've been pleased with the results.

 

Thanks, Groundspeak for adding this helpful tool.