Not using favourites

February 3, 2011

Favourites have been around for some time now and there have been a lot of discussions on the subject but I have not seen any discussion on not making use of the ability to assign favourites to caches.

I will admit that I have not doled out any of my available favourite points as yet and am unconvinced that this feature is of any real value since the ratio is 1 favourite for every 10 cache finds.

I just can't think of 400+ favourite caches that I have found.

Do those that use them feel any obligation to try to use all of their allotted points? Maybe not, but will this be more compelling for newer cachers with fewer finds?

20.7k · February 3, 2011

Like you, I am not excited about ranking a decade of old finds to find the top ten percent, just to flag them as 'faves'.I'll flag future ones, but I'm not sure that I will stick to ten percent of finds, either. I'll flag the ones that I really enjoyed at that moment, regardless of teh reason.

February 3, 2011

I have not applied many of my favorites votes at all. For one thing, I'm having trouble remembering the details of caches I found several years ago, and as I have become less able to make longer hikes more of my finds do not rise to the level where I believe a favorite vote is applicable. Of course, my yardstick is my personal opinion and is not the same as that used by others.

There is no nagging feeling that I need to use them all.

2.8k · February 3, 2011

I have assigned about 150 of my 190 or so Favorite points. I did go back through my Found It list, and tried to do a good job of rememebring which caches were which (and I think I succeeded for the most part).

I don't feel the need to dole out the remain 40 or so points I have.

1.2k · February 3, 2011

Luckily I already had a favorites bookmark list. I still have 70 lying around, but that's okay with me.

One thing I think can help for those who are hesitant to use them is to go their profile and click on their found geocaches. Then sort by favorites. The top ones will be on the first few pages. Award favorite points to the ones you remember liking. Sure there will be some that you really enjoyed that may have no favorites, but this method will probably cover a majority of the ones you enjoyed.

Edited February 3, 2011 by IkeHurley13

February 3, 2011

Well, I don't have as many finds or available favorites as some people do. But I found that when looking over my found caches the best ones, the ones I've now marked as favorite, immediately jumped out at me. The ones that I couldn't remember much about obviously did not impress me.

February 3, 2011

I didn't have a whole ton of favorite points to throw out, but I've only used them in cases that i really did enjoy a cache and would consider it one that i would highly recommend to someone new to geocaching in the area.

If we are expected to use them all, you end up with fake favorites. And i keep some stashed away, because who knows? I might come across a cache that I really enjoy and it deserves a favorite, and i have none left. So, I have to wait until i log another 5-10 to award that cache what it deserves.

5.2k · February 3, 2011

I also had a bookmark list of Favorite caches, and a good memory, so it made it easy to use about 136 of my 1186 favPoints. There's probably a few other older ones I've missed, but I'm not worried; I'm sure others have Fav'd them.

I don't feel any need to even attempt to use the remaining 1050 points. :blink:

6.5k · February 3, 2011

I'm with lil devil. My personal faves list was a 2% solution, and included a number of events and archived caches. After going through that to assign fave points to the caches I could, I still have a backlog of 900+ that I am probably not going to use.

Perhaps there is a market for them on Ebay? :laughing:

February 3, 2011

We've only been in to it for a couple of years and only have about 225 finds. We are in no big numbers hurry. We hit a few here and hit a few there, mostly combined with other activities and goals. Riding, hiking, exploring, dog walking etc. Having said that it was not hard to remember or pick our favorites. We picked them based on our experience with the cache so they may not all be "the best" ones we found but for the most part they are. I will admit we had no problem immediately picking most of our favorites but did use up all the points eventually when we probably could have reserved some. We took the attitude that we will rate our top (twenty) at the time and as we hit more deserving ones we will drop off the bottom ones. We have since decided to not let ourselves feel compelled to award them all. Maybe keep a top twenty for now. In reality, we have 225 favorites at this point. Every cache was way better than sitting in the house and watching Judge Judy.........

February 3, 2011

I have given out roughly half of the favorites I could. If I feel a cache warranted it, I'll award the point. If no point is warranted, IMO, none will be given. I do not feel obligated to use all my favorite points.

38.2k · February 3, 2011

The more people who use the feature the more useful it will be for everybody.

I don't think people necessarily need to use all of their favorite points. I went through all of my finds, picked out what I thought were the best and favorited them. At one point in the process it started to become harder remember the deserving caches. It was then I decided that if I have to think hard to recall a cache, it doesn't deserve a point. I'm left with about 1/3 of my points unused and I'm fine with that. I've given the deserving caches their due and have plenty left for future deserving finds.

3.2k · February 3, 2011

I have given out roughly half of the favorites I could. If I feel a cache warranted it, I'll award the point. If no point is warranted, IMO, none will be given. I do not feel obligated to use all my favorite points.

(+1) ... 5% is a good number for me too.

2k · February 3, 2011

I went through my list once or twice and still have 170 points. Cant remember them all and I think 10% is too high anyway, I am about at 6 or 7 percent and thats just fine.

February 3, 2011

We are brand new to geocaching (54 finds) so I easily able to go back and give a favorite point to my favorites. I didn't give away all my favorite points, but the ones I did give one to truley deserved it! I personally love this feature. I'm able to see which caches are awesome! My ultimate favorite... GC1Y60D!

February 3, 2011

Shame on you all.

1 out of 10 seems an ideal ratio for my favorite caches. Why? I'm very picky about what caches I go for, ya know, the whole quality vs. quantity trick. So tell me, are all of you in this thread in it for the numbers? Just curious.

18.9k · February 3, 2011

I have used roughly half of mine.

I am not going to hand out ALL of them just because I can. I am sticking to caches that I actually consider a favorite. Whether I found it 9 years ago or today.

I am planning on paging through all of my old finds yet again in case I missed one that deserves a fav vote on the first pass through.

2.5k · February 3, 2011

I have like 660 some favorite points to use. It is hard to think of the past caches that was my favs. I went and looked at some great ECs that I did and some older caches that I enjoyed. Just too many PnGs around my area. I will use my points when I go on my cache vaction trips and favor the ones that stick out to me on the trips.

38.2k · February 3, 2011

Shame on you all.

1 out of 10 seems an ideal ratio for my favorite caches. Why? I'm very picky about what caches I go for, ya know, the whole quality vs. quantity trick. So tell me, are all of you in this thread in it for the numbers? Just curious.

Yet as picky as you are, 90 percent of your finds still don't qualify as favorites. Sounds as if you'd better cut down on the numbers runs.

I have used roughly half of mine.

I am not going to hand out ALL of them just because I can. I am sticking to caches that I actually consider a favorite. Whether I found it 9 years ago or today.

I am planning on paging through all of my old finds yet again in case I missed one that deserves a fav vote on the first pass through.

I made a second run through and found a few I missed and decided that a few that really didn't deserve the vote, so I unfavorited them.

Edited February 3, 2011 by briansnat

1.4k · February 3, 2011

I have just over 900+ Favorite points and yes I use them for caches I believe are worthy of the point, and I think it is important becuse if I see a cache that has a few av points I make a point to go get that one.

Scubasonic

February 3, 2011

Trust me. I would use more if I could. I would say as the new favorites feature gets utilized I will find myself much closer to the 100% you mention.

Before, I was caching on a hunch or past logs. I'd say the new feature will be quite useful for me.

Yet as picky as you are, 90 percent of your finds still don't qualify as favorites. Sounds as if you'd better cut down on the numbers runs.

38.2k · February 3, 2011

Trust me. I would use more if I could. I would say as the new favorites feature gets utilized I will find myself much closer to the 100% you mention.

Before, I was caching on a hunch or past logs. I'd say the new feature will be quite useful for me.

Yet as picky as you are, 90 percent of your finds still don't qualify as favorites. Sounds as if you'd better cut down on the numbers runs.

When you favor something, it means you think it's better than the rest for some reason. Surely you can't say that all of your finds are of

equal quality in your eyes.

I doubt you're that much more picky than I am. I'm the antithesis of a numbers hound. Most of my finds are generally what I consider to be high quality, yet I can look through my finds and say that certain ones stand out from the others. Those get my favorites votes. It doesn't mean the other ones are not excellent caches. I simply limited my votes to those that stood out and didn't vote for the merely good.

Edited February 3, 2011 by briansnat

February 3, 2011

When you favor something, it means you think it's better than the rest for some reason. Surely you can't say that all of your finds are of equal quality in your eyes.

Not at all. I've found quite a few stinkers but I'm saying that the new feature will help me avoid these.

Most of my finds are generally what I consider to be high quality, yet I can look through my finds and say that certain ones stand out from the others. Those get my favorites votes. It doesn't mean the other ones are not excellent caches. I simply limited my votes to those that stood out and didn't vote for the merely good.

Couldn't agree more.

2.4k · February 3, 2011

Shame on you all.

1 out of 10 seems an ideal ratio for my favorite caches. Why? I'm very picky about what caches I go for, ya know, the whole quality vs. quantity trick. So tell me, are all of you in this thread in it for the numbers? Just curious.

shame on you for being judgemental about how other people cache and shaming them because they don't cache like you do.

2.4k · February 3, 2011

I went over the caches I've done in my head. Anything that stood out as being spectacular I went back and put a favorite on. Others I'll remember as I cache again in those areas, and I'll get them then.

I've got some 150 or so left. I don't have a problem with that. I may hit 5 great caches in one week and I know I'll have plenty to give to those deserving caches.

February 3, 2011

I have used all my votes, but I think I am in the minority.

Based on a random sampling of a few cachers in my area, I observe that most have cast zero votes, and one person cast about five.

I can't speak for their reasons.

9.4k · February 3, 2011

I wasn't planning on it, but I went through my list of finds to see how hard it would be to assign favorites. I picked out a few caches that I distinctly remember and awarded them a favorite point each. There were just too many to go through one by one. I'll stick with my plan of awarding favorites as I find them from this point forward.

February 3, 2011

I've still got some left, but Not too many. I don't go out and get tons of lame caches and then have such a big surplus of favorites points. If you elect to use your favorites points, but have a plethora (yeah I watched "three amigos" recently) of votes left to use, that is more a product of your caching style than anything. I had a personal favorites list that took care of older caches, but I haven't done so many that I couldn't remember them anyway.

6k · February 3, 2011

I went back and used about 20 of my 260 for some special caches that a local legend does but don't think I will use any more. I pretty much consider it a waste of time and can't see any real reason to do it.

7.9k · February 4, 2011

I'll come out of the closet to state that I have (so far)used exactly ZERO of my 690 favorites points.

A well-respected friend says he thinks many cachers would want know my favorite caches.

Another well-respected friend thinks the whole program is faulty, and only results in 'I'll do yours if you do mine.'

Personally I don't think the system was well planned out because it does nothing to allow me to eliminate caches that others think are really low-grade. Along the same line, your typical average cache will also get few (if any) points, and be left in the heap with the the really poor caches that nobody likes (except for the smiley they got for it).

We'll see how things go IF the capability to search (or create a PQ) based on the number of favorites points ever becomes a reality.

7.9k · February 4, 2011

I'll come out of the closet to state that I have (so far)used exactly ZERO of my 690 favorites points.

A well-respected friend says he thinks many cachers would want know my favorite caches.

Another well-respected friend thinks the whole program is faulty, and only results in 'I'll do yours if you do mine.'

Personally I don't think the system was well planned out because it does nothing to allow me to eliminate caches that others think are really low-grade. Along the same line, your typical average cache will also get few (if any) points, and be left in the heap with the the really poor caches that nobody likes (except for the smiley they got for it).

We'll see how things go IF the capability to search (or create a PQ) based on the number of favorites points ever becomes a reality.

Like the 'Friends' feature, and Wherigo, TPTB have a habit of producing these new features and abandoning them long before the full potential was even explored...let alone realized.

February 4, 2011

Haven't doled any out, won't be doling them out, and never pay attention to them on other pages or my own. I hide a given cache because I wanted to place that particular hide...not in any anticipation that some magic percentage of finders will vote for or against it, be wowwed by it or put to sleep by it. I hide what I'd like to find at that time in my caching life, usually. Equally, I try to not project any expectation of my own onto another's hides...if I hunt it and like it, I'll let the CO know in my log. If I hunt it and dont like it, I assume our tastes didn't match at that moment, and move on.

Edited February 5, 2011 by Keystone
Potty language removed by moderator.

3.8k · February 4, 2011

Shame on you all.

1 out of 10 seems an ideal ratio for my favorite caches. Why? I'm very picky about what caches I go for, ya know, the whole quality vs. quantity trick. So tell me, are all of you in this thread in it for the numbers? Just curious.

So what if I am into numbers?? You the judge?

I've been through all of my finds three times now and still can't find legit ways to unload my remaining 400 points.

3.8k · February 4, 2011

Haven't doled any out, won't be doling them out, and never pay attention to them on other pages or my own. I hide a given cache because I wanted to place that particular hide...not in any anticipation that some magic percentage of finders will vote for or against it, be wowwed by it or put to sleep by it. I hide what I'd like to find at that time in my caching life, usually. Equally, I try to not project any expectation of my own onto another's hides...if I hunt it and like it, I'll let the CO know in my log. If I hunt it and dont like it, I assume our tastes didn't match at that moment, and move on.

:rolleyes: Pu-lease.

Edited February 5, 2011 by Keystone
Potty language removed from quoted post

February 4, 2011

I didn't have that many to use to vote for favorites but after reading the comments on another topic about favorites I went back and removed my vote on a lot of them. The saying, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." made me realize what made a certain cache my favorite, and isn't going to meet the expectations or requirements of the next person.

February 4, 2011

With so few finds, it was easy for me to dole my points out. It's an imperfect system in many ways, but I think it's an improvement to the site.

Here's hoping they eventually appear as options in pocket queries and in GPX files* -- if I'm planning a trip I'd likely go a little out of my way just to find a cache with some favorite points.

*along with Personal Cache Notes. Pretty please?

Edited February 4, 2011 by JJnTJ

38.2k · February 4, 2011

I'll come out of the closet to state that I have (so far)used exactly ZERO of my 690 favorites points.

A well-respected friend says he thinks many cachers would want know my favorite caches.

Another well-respected friend thinks the whole program is faulty, and only results in 'I'll do yours if you do mine.'

Personally I don't think the system was well planned out because it does nothing to allow me to eliminate caches that others think are really low-grade. Along the same line, your typical average cache will also get few (if any) points, and be left in the heap with the the really poor caches that nobody likes (except for the smiley they got for it).

We'll see how things go IF the capability to search (or create a PQ) based on the number of favorites points ever becomes a reality.

It's the worst system imaginable, with the exception of nearly any other one I can think of. Any rating system will have its flaws.

I agree that it has the unfortunate effect of lumping many average and even above average caches with the poor ones, but it does enable us to identify the caches that other cachers have a generally high opinion of. What we do with that information is up to us.

As far as the you do me and I'll do yours, I've seen no evidence of it. At least nobody has approached me, nor have I approached anybody else with regards to allocating favorites. I don't doubt that it will happen somewhere. I've already heard of people soliciting votes. But overall I think that will be fairly rare and most people will allocate their votes honestly.

I'm looking at the caches in my area that received more than a few votes and I don't think I've seen one that was undeserving.

In the end, the more people who use it, the more useful it will be. Wide use of favorites will mitigate any hanky-panky.

Edited February 5, 2011 by briansnat

15.3k · February 4, 2011

I didn't have that many to use to vote for favorites but after reading the comments on another topic about favorites I went back and removed my vote on a lot of them. The saying, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." made me realize what made a certain cache my favorite, and isn't going to meet the expectations or requirements of the next person.

In contrast, I vote for caches that are MY favorites, and I don't worry about whether they will be anyone else's favorites. I expect to disagree with the reasons others cast their favorites votes, and I expect others to disagree with the reasons I cast my favorites votes.

February 4, 2011

IMO you can only have 1 favorite. The same goes with "best" friends. Only one. If something were the "ultimate" there would never be anything better. You can only have 1 favorite food or 1 favorite cache. All of the others are "almost as good", but not quite. When I find the one cache that I think is better than any other I will ever find, I'll award a favorite point to it, until then, I'll look at the counter on my page. Besides, what good is seeing a "favorites" number if I can't see who used their point there? It means something more when I can put a name to a point. If I favorite my own cache, it's worthless to anyone else, but if someone comes allt he way here from hawaii and puts a favorite point on mine, then it means more.

38.2k · February 5, 2011

I didn't have that many to use to vote for favorites but after reading the comments on another topic about favorites I went back and removed my vote on a lot of them. The saying, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." made me realize what made a certain cache my favorite, and isn't going to meet the expectations or requirements of the next person.
In contrast, I vote for caches that are MY favorites, and I don't worry about whether they will be anyone else's favorites. I expect to disagree with the reasons others cast their favorites votes, and I expect others to disagree with the reasons I cast my favorites votes.

True, what others may think of the cache should be irrelevant. If it's one of MY favorites I should vote for it Beauty is indeed in the eyes of the beholder and if I think LPCs are the cat's pajamas, I'm going to favorite those regardless of what others may think about them. I know nothing of the requirements or the expectations of the next person so I'm doing no service by trying to anticipate them.

IMO you can only have 1 favorite.

You can have only 1 favorite, but you can have many favorites.

Edited February 5, 2011 by briansnat

1.8k · February 5, 2011

Besides, what good is seeing a "favorites" number if I can't see who used their point there? It means something more when I can put a name to a point.

You can see who spent a favorites point on a cache by clicking the icon on the cache page.

February 5, 2011

Besides, what good is seeing a "favorites" number if I can't see who used their point there? It means something more when I can put a name to a point.

You can see who spent a favorites point on a cache by clicking the icon on the cache page.

That's funny, I've tried that in the past, when they first came about and it never did anything. Now it does. I like it. Thanks for the tip, I never would have tried it again.

6.1k · February 5, 2011

I went back and rated a few caches as favorites, but I can't find them all. It's due to a combination of having a fuzzy memory, and crappy logs.

Edited February 5, 2011 by 4wheelin_fool

3.2k · February 5, 2011

Besides, what good is seeing a "favorites" number if I can't see who used their point there? It means something more when I can put a name to a point.

You can see who spent a favorites point on a cache by clicking the icon on the cache page.

It is not a good indicator anyway. Many of us who don't use the system have made our points available for others to use.

2.2k · February 5, 2011

I have only awarded about 38% of my Favorite points.

Having kept a bookmark list of "Best Caches" it was easy to go back and retroactively award points to the caches on that list which were eligible, including the Archived ones.

I had never done the math before, but after that it would appear my Favorite points have been awarded to about 3.5% of the caches I have found. That seems about right to me. Using up my Favorite points just because I have them would dilute my list too much.

Personally I would be happy with earning one point for every 20 finds.

February 6, 2011

The favorites system isn't perfect, but it's a decent start. Like probably most of the favorites users whose comments I've seen, I have awarded some but not all of my available points. I have 38 points available, but have only awarded 22 of them, or 5.8% of my finds. I like the idea of having some available if a particularly good cache comes along. I agree with many that 10% would be a bit high for actual favorites, but it's a good number to allow some leeway when awarding points to deserving caches.

I award my favorite points based solely on how much I liked a cache. I don't favorite them because someone else likes them...in fact, there are still no other favorites on some of the ones on my list.

I do still maintain a favorites bookmark list, with much more stringent criteria for inclusion: being not just unusually good caches, but rather being the best of the best I've ever found. That list only has 6 entries, or 1.6% of my finds. I'm going to retain that list for several reasons.

February 6, 2011

The favorites system isn't perfect, but it's a decent start. Like probably most of the favorites users whose comments I've seen, I have awarded some but not all of my available points. I have 38 points available, but have only awarded 22 of them, or 5.8% of my finds. I like the idea of having some available if a particularly good cache comes along. I agree with many that 10% would be a bit high for actual favorites, but it's a good number to allow some leeway when awarding points to deserving caches.

I award my favorite points based solely on how much I liked a cache. I don't favorite them because someone else likes them...in fact, there are still no other favorites on some of the ones on my list.

I do still maintain a favorites bookmark list, with much more stringent criteria for inclusion: being not just unusually good caches, but rather being the best of the best I've ever found. That list only has 6 entries, or 1.6% of my finds. I'm going to retain that list for several reasons.

I don't get it. Why if your favourite bookmark list only has 6 caches would you award 22 favourite points?

This, in my opinion, is one of the places where the system fails. People will feel that they should award more points than they really should because they are available. I would prefer maybe 1 point for every 50 or even 100 cache finds. This number would give a better representation of the best caches that are out there because you would be more selective in awarding points.

7.5k · February 6, 2011

This, in my opinion, is one of the places where the system fails. People will feel that they should award more points than they really should because they are available. I would prefer maybe 1 point for every 50 or even 100 cache finds. This number would give a better representation of the best caches that are out there because you would be more selective in awarding points.

I want to know about the above-average caches that are out there. Groundspeak's generous amount of favourite points allows people more leeway to vote for decent cache experiences as well as exceptional cache experiences. When I see a cache with one favourite vote I'm thinking that it's going to be at least a decent cache hide - perhaps a swag size cache on a nice trail. That's great with me. If I see multiple favorite votes it's probably a good cache hide. If it's a cache that's in the top ten favoured caches in the area it's probably unique or extreme (or a virtual in a tourist area). I'm quite happy with the 10% vote, it means more decent caches get recognition.

4.2k · February 6, 2011

I don't get it. Why if your favourite bookmark list only has 6 caches would you award 22 favourite points?

This, in my opinion, is one of the places where the system fails. People will feel that they should award more points than they really should because they are available. I would prefer maybe 1 point for every 50 or even 100 cache finds. This number would give a better representation of the best caches that are out there because you would be more selective in awarding points.

the system doesn't fail at all in the way you presented, most of us have all this points available because they were awarded retroactively and most of us do not go back, for various reasons, to award them to previous finds so we have high numbers at our disposal...i don't think anyone feels compelled to award them just to get rid of them

if you have $100 extra at the end of the month do you feel the need to go spend just for the sake of spending it, or you look for something that is worth it?

i'm sure that some of those just starting out now will feel at some point that they could have used more points and wished they were awarded 1 in 5

some are very picky on what caches to do, it is very possible that from 10 caches more than 1, in their view, would deserve a favorite point but there is nothing they can do because they have one only, so they go find 10 more caches and again more than 1 deserves a favorite point, and so on...so basically they will always be short of points to award

that for them would feel like the system failed

February 6, 2011

I'm not saying that anyone feels compelled to award them just to get rid of them.

nOk1a did not go back to find the 6 favourite caches, he had bookmarked them, but he did go back to award the other 16 caches that he awarded but had not bookmarked as favourites. Did he feel compelled to award them? Only he can answer that but if they were his favourites then why were they not included in his bookmark list?

Not using favourites

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