Favourites for hiding

[+akkatracker]

Just had an idea where a hider gets 1 favourite point for every 20 favourites on his/her caches.

This would be particularly good for people who are running out of favourites.

[+T.D.M.22]

Why? If you want more favorites, find more caches. I could potentially get 100 favorite points without leaving my city. Go do the ET Powertrail- That'll give you 200 points.

[+L0ne.R]

Just had an idea where a hider gets 1 favourite point for every 20 favourites on his/her caches.

This would be particularly good for people who are running out of favourites.

 

Interesting idea. Might encourage better caches.

I don't like to be stingy with my votes and will favour above-average good well-maintained caches in nice locations. Which means that I have run out of favourite votes. Took back some favourites from archived caches and already highly favoured caches so I can bestow some more worthy placements.

Edited January 3, 2013 by L0ne R

[+cerberus1]

My favorites are already a "Thank You!" to the CO for making a hide unique, fun. or above average. What more reward is needed?

 

If a basic member has forty favorites on his hide, he still wouldn't be able to accumulate any favorite points, simply because he's a basic member.

 

I still have over a hundred favorites banked. With so many of the newer hides placed in parking lots (and the like) to simply drive up numbers, I just don't see (at least in this area) many hides that warrant them.

Must be different elsewhere...

[+cerberus1]

Just a quick glance showed many with the most favorites (usually older hides - Mingo, Beverly...), are owned by basic members, who wouldn't be able to benefit from this idea.

[+Panther&Pine]

Just had an idea where a hider gets 1 favourite point for every 20 favourites on his/her caches.

This would be particularly good for people who are running out of favourites.

There are people who have this problem?

Humm, I feel so bad having 40 some odd favorite points I'm not using.

[+The A-Team]

Just had an idea where a hider gets 1 favourite point for every 20 favourites on his/her caches.

This would be particularly good for people who are running out of favourites.

There are people who have this problem?

My .02:

If someone is running out of Favourite Points, they need to revise their criteria for awarding FPs. You're given enough FPs to award to the top 10% of caches. If you choose to award FPs to the top 25% of caches you find, then you're going to run out.

[+niraD]

If someone is running out of Favourite Points, they need to revise their criteria for awarding FPs. You're given enough FPs to award to the top 10% of caches. If you choose to award FPs to the top 25% of caches you find, then you're going to run out.

+1

 

When the Favorites feature was first introduced, I started off giving Favorites points to only the very best caches. I had a LOT of Favorites points left. Then I recalibrated and started giving Favorites points to everything that was above average. I ran out of points about half-way through my list of finds. Then I recalibrated again and ended up giving most of my Favorites points, keeping just a few in reserve so I wouldn't have to worry about recovering Favorites points from lesser caches if I encountered a few exceptional caches in a row.

 

Go and do likewise.

 

I think changing the meaning of Favorites points now would be too disruptive. And anything that gives people significantly more Favorites points changes the meaning of Favorites points.

[+L0ne.R]

Just had an idea where a hider gets 1 favourite point for every 20 favourites on his/her caches.

This would be particularly good for people who are running out of favourites.

There are people who have this problem?

My .02:

If someone is running out of Favourite Points, they need to revise their criteria for awarding FPs. You're given enough FPs to award to the top 10% of caches. If you choose to award FPs to the top 25% of caches you find, then you're going to run out.

 

I tend to filter for favourite points, so these days I'm visiting a lot a decent caches that deserve recognition. In the beginning I hoarded my fav votes but not any more. As a cacher I want to know about the above-average decent caches where it's obvious the CO cares about providing a nice overall caching experience.

 

The last fav vote I gave went to a new CO who waited 2.5 years and found almost 300 caches before hiding this first cache. He picked a quiet urban trail that wound it's way past ponds and streams. He placed a winter-friendly hide. And used an authentic geocaching.com swag-size nalgene container. He included a logbook (not logsheet) plus writing implements and included an assortment of swag. Too me that's a cache I would highly recommend to other geocachers. Why hoard the fav votes when you can recommend very good active caches as well as great active caches plus reward and encourage COs who do a good job.

 

P.S. The point about non-premium COs is a good one. But the suggestion could apply to PM-COs only.

Edited January 3, 2013 by L0ne R

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

Just had an idea where a hider gets 1 favourite point for every 20 favourites on his/her caches.

This would be particularly good for people who are running out of favourites.

There are people who have this problem?

Humm, I feel so bad having 40 some odd favorite points I'm not using.

And us even more-so... I guess that we are stingy with awarding Fav Points, eh?

[+cerberus1]

I stopped looking at favorites as a "guide" to a fun caching experience almost immediately after they came into existance.

- We all play this hobby a different way and favorites show that.

There's a mini power trail about thirty miles away that has all guardrail hides on a twisty two-lane road with (very) limited parking. Ten favorites.

There's a CO North of me that has hides through mountain mazes, awesome views and waterfalls galore, yet has few favorites for the experience. He gets mine.

 

I tend to go by terrain to see hides that are to my liking.

[+akkatracker]

Thanks for your input

In Sydney there are a multitude of great caches and to me favourites are about awarding above the average caches, where the CO has put in effort.

 

About the basic member thing. This could be a way to allow Basic members to award favourite points.

 

Unlike niraD, I will favourite the cache if it shows me something cool, has nice camo or requires an effort to get to (not just if it's in my top ~10%)

For my all time favourites I bookmark them in my "More than Favourites list"

 

I also hunt caches with high favourites, thus meaning I don't want to find 20 Mint tins attached to rubbish bins to get 2 favourites to award the higher caches.

 

This new system would encourage cachers (like me) to place better caches that may be awarded favourite points to try and accumulate 20 favourites. Overall this will make there be more quality caches.

[+Ma & Pa]

OH BOY , SO I WOULD BE ABLE TO ADD MORE FAVORITES TO MY 1400 TOTAL

 

I was thinking of selling the ones I have

[+niraD]

I also hunt caches with high favourites, thus meaning I don't want to find 20 Mint tins attached to rubbish bins to get 2 favourites to award the higher caches.

Then your Favorites points can go to the best of the best caches in your area, the top 10% of the caches that have already received Favorites points from others. Your Favorites points can help the best of the best stand out from the ones that are merely good.

 

But I don't think it's worth changing the meaning of Favorites points now. And inflating the supply of Favorites points changes their meaning.

 

This new system would encourage cachers (like me) to place better caches that may be awarded favourite points to try and accumulate 20 favourites. Overall this will make there be more quality caches.

That's another thing... I don't think it's a good idea to create an external incentive (e.g., more Favorites points) for hiding a cache. One of the things I appreciate about Groundspeak is that they minimize the external incentives for hiding caches. Challenge Caches can't require cache ownership, breeder caches and "curse of the FTF" caches aren't allowed, etc. IMHO, this is a good thing. People should hide caches because they want to own and maintain a cache for the long term, not because they want some external reward.

[+akkatracker]

I also hunt caches with high favourites, thus meaning I don't want to find 20 Mint tins attached to rubbish bins to get 2 favourites to award the higher caches.

Then your Favorites points can go to the best of the best caches in your area, the top 10% of the caches that have already received Favorites points from others. Your Favorites points can help the best of the best stand out from the ones that are merely good.

 

But I don't think it's worth changing the meaning of Favorites points now. And inflating the supply of Favorites points changes their meaning.

 

This new system would encourage cachers (like me) to place better caches that may be awarded favourite points to try and accumulate 20 favourites. Overall this will make there be more quality caches.

That's another thing... I don't think it's a good idea to create an external incentive (e.g., more Favorites points) for hiding a cache. One of the things I appreciate about Groundspeak is that they minimize the external incentives for hiding caches. Challenge Caches can't require cache ownership, breeder caches and "curse of the FTF" caches aren't allowed, etc. IMHO, this is a good thing. People should hide caches because they want to own and maintain a cache for the long term, not because they want some external reward.

I accept your point, however the second bit: That's another thing... I don't think it's a good idea to create an external incentive (e.g., more Favorites points) for hiding a cache, may not actually encourage more caches to be hidden but rather the caches that are hidden will be better and provide a better experience.

[+The A-Team]

I accept your point, however the second bit: That's another thing... I don't think it's a good idea to create an external incentive (e.g., more Favorites points) for hiding a cache, may not actually encourage more caches to be hidden but rather the caches that are hidden will be better and provide a better experience.

That's how it would work in a perfect world, but that definitely wouldn't be how it would work in today's world. Based on past experience and the trends I'm seeing, I can guarantee and would wager a large sum of money on niraD's scenario being the one that would happen. Having a reward for hiding a cache would create a massive number of low-quality hides.

[+akkatracker]

I accept your point, however the second bit: That's another thing... I don't think it's a good idea to create an external incentive (e.g., more Favorites points) for hiding a cache, may not actually encourage more caches to be hidden but rather the caches that are hidden will be better and provide a better experience.

That's how it would work in a perfect world, but that definitely wouldn't be how it would work in today's world. Based on past experience and the trends I'm seeing, I can guarantee and would wager a large sum of money on niraD's scenario being the one that would happen. Having a reward for hiding a cache would create a massive number of low-quality hides.

But wouldn't low quality hides not receive favourites...

I do see where you're coming form though.

[+K13]

So, in your scenario if I place a E.T. Highway-type trail of crappy micro containers along some road across the Outback, I would "earn" bonus favorite points based on the ones I get for my Outback Powertrail? These certainly would not be the quality caches you envision. If it went like the ET highway, I would probably earn lots of favorite points and in the process vastly lower the average quality level of my caches.

 

I say we just leave it the way it is. If you want more points to award, earn them the old-fashioned way: find more caches.

[+L0ne.R]

I say we just leave it the way it is. If you want more points to award, earn them the old-fashioned way: find more caches.

 

Or, if you're running low, go through your list of favoured caches and remove your votes from those caches that have been archived. The Favorite List is a list of recommended caches ("...the point of Favorites is to recommend great caching experiences to others"). Since archived caches can no longer be visited there's no point recommending them anymore.

 

Addendum. I see you don't have any caches on your favourite list that have been archived. So the other option might be to remove a favourite point from some of the caches that already have over 10 favourite points. To me, anything with over 10 FPs is a highly recommended cache. So you may as well use your points on deserving caches with fewer points. I was also going to suggest finding a few dozen carpy caches but why aggravate yourself. Plus finding, for example, leaky micros in parking lots would probably only serve to encourage more leaky parking lot micros, since some COs insist that if people search for PL micros that means they like PL micros.

Edited January 4, 2013 by L0ne R

[+cerberus1]

I have a few archived hides favorited since,

"Geocaching Favorites is a simple way to track and share the caches that you enjoyed the most."

I enjoyed those hides the most and they keep my favorites. Notice to track is also listed...

 

- Which must be fine by Groundspeak, since they also say,

"There is nothing wrong with leaving a Favorite Point on an archived cache if you prefer it."

[+L0ne.R]

I have a few archived hides favorited since,

"Geocaching Favorites is a simple way to track and share the caches that you enjoyed the most."

I enjoyed those hides the most and they keep my favorites. Notice to track is also listed...

 

- Which must be fine by Groundspeak, since they also say,

"There is nothing wrong with leaving a Favorite Point on an archived cache if you prefer it."

 

You could set up a public bookmark list (that way the CO and others sees the list on the cache page) for archived caches that you really enjoyed.

And I agree, there's nothing wrong with leaving a Fav Point on an archived cache, but I feel rewarding and recommending good active caches is more useful to the community.

[+hzoi]

When the favorite points were added a couple years ago, I suddenly had a couple hundred to distribute. Other than a couple of archived caches, I stuck to active hides. Apparently I only gave away 180, since we have 4847 finds and 304 favorite points remaining. I'm fine with only listing 3.7% of our finds as our "favorites."

 

Looking back through my list, I see that several of the hides we added to our favorites list have since been archived. I feel zero urge to go back through and reclaim my favorites points. Unlikely, but if'n I ever run out of points, maybe I'll do it then.