Statistics Suggestion

[+Ma & Pa]

Our longest find streak was 275 days ending on December 26 last year when we left on a cruise. Before that we had no streak of any significant length. As the streak built, we would go regularly to the Statistics page to see how we were doing and to ensure that we hadn't made a mistake in logging dates.

 

We started a new streak on January 8 this year. We have no quick way of knowing the length of our current streak and if we have been logging the correct dates. Last week we went through our list of caches for the year and found that a date had been missed a month ago because of a mistake. It occurred to us that many cachers like to work on streaks and that many have much longer streaks than us and may have the same problem.

 

It would really be helpful if there was a category for the current streak.

[+kantear]

if you find a cache and then for some reason (like batteries die in the phone) you don't log it till after midnight ... on either the puter or the phone ... the date will roll forward on the dropdown. you can edit these to keep your logs correct.

 

what do you mean by "category" ... find streaks are listed on the stats page (that's as long as g.s. hasn't taken that away... oh wait ... you're a p.m. , so yes, stats page.

[+The A-Team]

find streaks are listed on the stats page

It only shows your longest streak, not your current streak (unless your current streak IS your longest streak). I think the OP is asking for a "Current streak" stat.

[+kantear]

find streaks are listed on the stats page

It only shows your longest streak, not your current streak (unless your current streak IS your longest streak). I think the OP is asking for a "Current streak" stat.

 

ah ... true

[+Ma & Pa]

find streaks are listed on the stats page

It only shows your longest streak, not your current streak (unless your current streak IS your longest streak). I think the OP is asking for a "Current streak" stat.

 

ah ... true

 

Yes That is what I was saying

 

I thought it was clear but I guess not. Everytime some one starts a new streak they would have no information

on the statistics page about the new streak until that streak passes the old record streak. If they make a mistake in logging, the new streak would not show up when they passed the previous record.

 

So I am requesting a new streak category on the stats page:

 

CURRENT STREAK

Edited August 7, 2012 by Ma & Pa

[+kantear]

+1

[AZcachemeister]

The stats page could use a lot of improvements and enhancements.

 

A LOT.

 

Even so, I'm not holding my breath for Groundspeak to provide them.

 

If you want all those fancy enhancements you will need to use the third-party sites or a GSAK macro.

[+Ma & Pa]

The stats page could use a lot of improvements and enhancements.

 

A LOT.

 

Even so, I'm not holding my breath for Groundspeak to provide them.

 

If you want all those fancy enhancements you will need to use the third-party sites or a GSAK macro.

 

I am not looking for fancy enhancements. I posted a simple suggestion in an area of the forum for posting suggestions. I am happy with the pleasure I get for my money from Groundspeak and I dont really want all the various stats that I can get elsewhere.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

The stats page could use a lot of improvements and enhancements.

 

A LOT.

 

Even so, I'm not holding my breath for Groundspeak to provide them.

 

If you want all those fancy enhancements you will need to use the third-party sites or a GSAK macro.

 

I am not looking for fancy enhancements. I posted a simple suggestion in an area of the forum for posting suggestions. I am happy with the pleasure I get for my money from Groundspeak and I dont really want all the various stats that I can get elsewhere.

 

You're also asking for an enhancement that is only really useful in cache rich environments and a continuous influx of new caches. In most places in the world there simply aren't enough caches for one to find a cache every day for more than a few days (especially if one has been playing the game for a couple of years), and many of those places are not in some remote part of Africa. A few years ago there was about a 4 month time span when there were only 5 new caches created within 20 miles of where I live, and I live in the third most populated state in the U.S.

[+Flash and Grubbly]

There are cachers who thrive on fulfilling stats like this - GSAK is great for tracking stats. If it were integrated to the site as standard for premium members, that would be brilliant!

[+Ma & Pa]

You're also asking for an enhancement that is only really useful in cache rich environments and a continuous influx of new caches. In most places in the world there simply aren't enough caches for one to find a cache every day for more than a few days (especially if one has been playing the game for a couple of years), and many of those places are not in some remote part of Africa. A few years ago there was about a 4 month time span when there were only 5 new caches created within 20 miles of where I live, and I live in the third most populated state in the U.S.

 

I really wonder if it is an enhancement that would be tough to produce. The Statistics page shows the longest streak. In order for that information to remain accurate, Groundspeak must be calculating the current streak daily to see if the cacher has exceeded their longest streak on record. If so, they would then replace the longest streak reported. So if the current streak is being calculated daily, it seems to me that it would be simple to post that information.

 

***

With regard to cache rich environments. I agree. We have been caching for 8.5 years and are approaching 13000 caches and there are still some close by to find, but we are in a cache rich area. See map

 

http://www.geocaching.com/map/default.aspx?lat=46.092583&lng=-64.792583

 

We are retired and obsessed so our cache a day can be a cache in town which we find in conjunction with a walk. It can be a series an hour from home where we spend the day hiking, or it can be multi day caching trip to PEI or other locations.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

You're also asking for an enhancement that is only really useful in cache rich environments and a continuous influx of new caches. In most places in the world there simply aren't enough caches for one to find a cache every day for more than a few days (especially if one has been playing the game for a couple of years), and many of those places are not in some remote part of Africa. A few years ago there was about a 4 month time span when there were only 5 new caches created within 20 miles of where I live, and I live in the third most populated state in the U.S.

 

I really wonder if it is an enhancement that would be tough to produce. The Statistics page shows the longest streak. In order for that information to remain accurate, Groundspeak must be calculating the current streak daily to see if the cacher has exceeded their longest streak on record. If so, they would then replace the longest streak reported. So if the current streak is being calculated daily, it seems to me that it would be simple to post that information.

 

Although I'm a software developer with 30 or so years of experience and have done a fair amount of GIS application development, I'm reluctant to predict the difficultly of how a particular feature would be to implement simply because I don't have access to the GS code or system architecture. I suspect that the current streak is not calculated daily (and stored somewhere) but that the cache streak is calculated on the fly (which is likely a fairly compute intensive operation). If the current streak were calculated daily, it would have to be some sort of daily batch statistics gathering process that would iterate through every user, calculate the stats, then store them somewhere so that they could be quickly rendered when a user hits their Statistics page. The alternative is to calculate stats on the fly *only* when a user requests the Statistics page. I suspect that the number of hits on the Stats page is a small fraction of the number of users. That said, determining the current streak on the fly would not be that difficult in theory. However, the statistics page as we see it now is based off codes that Groundspeak got from a third party site, and sometimes trying to figure out how to change someone elses code can be more difficult than writing it from scratch. Finally, there have been quite a few features that have been requested, accepted by GS, and even been told "it's coming in the next release" yet we never seem to see it. In other words, just because it might seem like a simple thing to do, that doesn't always mean it will be quick to be implemented.

 

***

With regard to cache rich environments. I agree. We have been caching for 8.5 years and are approaching 13000 caches and there are still some close by to find, but we are in a cache rich area. See map

 

http://www.geocaching.com/map/default.aspx?lat=46.092583&lng=-64.792583

 

We are retired and obsessed so our cache a day can be a cache in town which we find in conjunction with a walk. It can be a series an hour from home where we spend the day hiking, or it can be multi day caching trip to PEI or other locations.

 

A few years ago I was somewhat of, what some people call a "radius slave" (a term I really dislike). After a couple of years of caching I got to the point where I had found every cache within 15 miles of home. Since I work full time, and also have family obligations that effectively eliminated the possibility of finding a cache during a lunch break, before and even after work on weekdays. If I do a query on the number of caches within 30 miles of my home town I get a total of 1244. Last yearm, I did some stat collecting on the number of caches in different countries. At the time GS recognized 248 distinct "countries". Only about 30 of them had more than 1200 caches. As you might imagine, maintaining a cache streak while living in one of the 200 sparsest countries would be quite difficult.

[+Ma & Pa]

Thanks for the info.

[+timbee&suebee]

Our longest find streak was 275 days ending on December 26 last year when we left on a cruise. Before that we had no streak of any significant length. As the streak built, we would go regularly to the Statistics page to see how we were doing and to ensure that we hadn't made a mistake in logging dates.

 

We started a new streak on January 8 this year. We have no quick way of knowing the length of our current streak and if we have been logging the correct dates. Last week we went through our list of caches for the year and found that a date had been missed a month ago because of a mistake. It occurred to us that many cachers like to work on streaks and that many have much longer streaks than us and may have the same problem.

 

It would really be helpful if there was a category for the current streak.

 

We had a similar situation - though not as many days as you. Now we are not sure how many days we have been in a row unless we keep track of it on a calendar. I agree that a "current streak" would be a great addition to the statistics page.

[+Ma & Pa]

I really wonder if it is an enhancement that would be tough to produce. The Statistics page shows the longest streak. In order for that information to remain accurate, Groundspeak must be calculating the current streak daily to see if the cacher has exceeded their longest streak on record. If so, they would then replace the longest streak reported. So if the current streak is being calculated daily, it seems to me that it would be simple to post that information.

 

Although I'm a software developer with 30 or so years of experience and have done a fair amount of GIS application development, I'm reluctant to predict the difficultly of how a particular feature would be to implement simply because I don't have access to the GS code or system architecture. I suspect that the current streak is not calculated daily (and stored somewhere) but that the cache streak is calculated on the fly (which is likely a fairly compute intensive operation). If the current streak were calculated daily, it would have to be some sort of daily batch statistics gathering process that would iterate through every user, calculate the stats, then store them somewhere so that they could be quickly rendered when a user hits their Statistics page. The alternative is to calculate stats on the fly *only* when a user requests the Statistics page. I suspect that the number of hits on the Stats page is a small fraction of the number of users. That said, determining the current streak on the fly would not be that difficult in theory. However, the statistics page as we see it now is based off codes that Groundspeak got from a third party site, and sometimes trying to figure out how to change someone elses code can be more difficult than writing it from scratch. Finally, there have been quite a few features that have been requested, accepted by GS, and even been told "it's coming in the next release" yet we never seem to see it. In other words, just because it might seem like a simple thing to do, that doesn't always mean it will be quick to be implemented.

 

 

I have been thinking of this since I read the response. I know virtually nothing about programming so I cannot discuss or argue any of it. Today we are at day 230 of our current streak. In 46 days we will have a new longest streak. If our stats immediately reflect the new record then it is evidence that they are keeping track of our current streak. And if so, I assume there should be nothing stopping the inclusion of current streak in the statistics page.

 

If your current streak is your longest streak, I would think that everyday the number of days shown will be increasing by 1, which also would be evidence that they are keeping track of your current streak.

 

Well I guess I will have to keep manual tabs of my current streak for the next 46 days.

[AZcachemeister]

For me, at least, the only reason I need to know the length of my longest streak (current or otherwise), is to fulfill the requirement for a challenge cache.

I have yet to see a challenge that specifies you must currently be in the streak that you are claiming as qualification, and I have my doubts that such a challenge would be published...but crazier things have happened!

 

So, effectively, if your longest streak isn't long enough, and you are not in your longest streak...keep going!

 

To check for yourselves until a longest streak graph is added to the stats (yeah, right) visit THIS PAGE.

On the little calendar on the right, the bolded dates are days where you have logged one or more caches. If you see a non-bolded date, there is a gap and you will need to 'correct' one of your 'logged for the wrong date' finds.

 

How someone could 'log a cache for the wrong date' and suddenly need to 'correct the date' when they realize a streak is broken is beyond me.

[+Ma & Pa]

I really wonder if it is an enhancement that would be tough to produce. The Statistics page shows the longest streak. In order for that information to remain accurate, Groundspeak must be calculating the current streak daily to see if the cacher has exceeded their longest streak on record. If so, they would then replace the longest streak reported. So if the current streak is being calculated daily, it seems to me that it would be simple to post that information.

 

Although I'm a software developer with 30 or so years of experience and have done a fair amount of GIS application development, I'm reluctant to predict the difficultly of how a particular feature would be to implement simply because I don't have access to the GS code or system architecture. I suspect that the current streak is not calculated daily (and stored somewhere) but that the cache streak is calculated on the fly (which is likely a fairly compute intensive operation). If the current streak were calculated daily, it would have to be some sort of daily batch statistics gathering process that would iterate through every user, calculate the stats, then store them somewhere so that they could be quickly rendered when a user hits their Statistics page. The alternative is to calculate stats on the fly *only* when a user requests the Statistics page. I suspect that the number of hits on the Stats page is a small fraction of the number of users. That said, determining the current streak on the fly would not be that difficult in theory. However, the statistics page as we see it now is based off codes that Groundspeak got from a third party site, and sometimes trying to figure out how to change someone elses code can be more difficult than writing it from scratch. Finally, there have been quite a few features that have been requested, accepted by GS, and even been told "it's coming in the next release" yet we never seem to see it. In other words, just because it might seem like a simple thing to do, that doesn't always mean it will be quick to be implemented.

 

 

I have been thinking of this since I read the response. I know virtually nothing about programming so I cannot discuss or argue any of it. Today we are at day 230 of our current streak. In 46 days we will have a new longest streak. If our stats immediately reflect the new record then it is evidence that they are keeping track of our current streak. And if so, I assume there should be nothing stopping the inclusion of current streak in the statistics page.

 

If your current streak is your longest streak, I would think that everyday the number of days shown will be increasing by 1, which also would be evidence that they are keeping track of your current streak.

 

Well I guess I will have to keep manual tabs of my current streak for the next 46 days.

 

Well the day has arrived.

 

In summary I suggested that it would be nice if the stats page showed our current streak in addition to our longest streak. This would allow us to see how many more days would be needed to break the previous streak and would allow us to see if we made a mistake and perhpas logged a cache on the wrong day.

 

I thought that GS was perhaps keeping track of the information and would simply have to include the info on the stats page. Our previous streak was 275 days ending in December. Today our latest streak hit 276 days. After logging the cache, I immediately went to the stats page, clicked on update and our new longest streak appeared.

 

So it seems that GS is keeping track of everyone's current streak. it would be nice if they added that info to the stats page.

[AZcachemeister]

...and our new longest streak appeared.

 

So it seems that GS is keeping track of everyone's current streak. it would be nice if they added that info to the stats page.

 

Um, I think your longest streak (whether it is the current one or not) is shown. (The dates should provide a clue here.)

You exceeded your previous 'longest streak', so now your current streak is your longest streak.

 

It's your longest streak, whether it ended two years ago, or if you are still in it today.

[AZcachemeister]

P.S. Congratulations on exceeding your previous longest streak!

Keep off the cruise ships.

[+Ma & Pa]

...and our new longest streak appeared.

 

So it seems that GS is keeping track of everyone's current streak. it would be nice if they added that info to the stats page.

 

Um, I think your longest streak (whether it is the current one or not) is shown. (The dates should provide a clue here.)

You exceeded your previous 'longest streak', so now your current streak is your longest streak.

 

It's your longest streak, whether it ended two years ago, or if you are still in it today.

 

Yes I realize that the longest streak is shown and the dates of the longest streak are shown.

 

I started this thread with a suggestion that the current streak also be shown (i.e. if it is shorter than your longest streak) for the reasons I mention above. I thought that GS would be keeping track of the current streak and could easily post that info in the stats.

 

Someone responded that GS might not have that information on a daily basis and it might not be as simple as I thought to post the current streak in the stats. So today when my longest streak changed immediately, it indicates to me that GS has the current streak readily available.

[+The A-Team]

So today when my longest streak changed immediately, it indicates to me that GS has the current streak readily available.

It seems far more likely to me that the stats page recalculated your stats when you went to view it and displayed the newly-calculated result. After all, why store all that stat data and eat up storage space when you can just calculate it on-the-fly as needed?

 

Just to let you know, from what I can remember, the stats page updates on the following schedule (this is based on my experience and that of others in the forums):

-If another user views your stats page, the stats are updated at that time.

-If you view your own stats page, and you haven't viewed it in the past 24 hours, it will automatically update.

-If you view your own stats page, and you have viewed it within the past 24 hours, you'll be presented with an "Update My Statistics Now" button. You can click this to force an update. You have to wait at least 5 minutes before this button will become available again.

 

I'm guessing that you hadn't viewed your stats page for at least 24 hours before you checked on your new longest streak. When you then visited that page, it automatically updated at that time. It may have looked like it had already updated before that time, but it actually did it right when you visited the page.