What proportion of your found caches are now archived?

[+Bunya]

Since we’ve had the two millionth active cache now published, and I saw it quoted that over three million had been published, I wondered what proportion of my found caches (caches found by me) were now archived.

To my surprise I found it was currently exactly one sixth.

I wondered how this compared with other finders.

Is your “now archived finds” ratio near this number of about 17% or is there a widely varying range?

Edited May 16, 2013 by Bunya

[+The_Incredibles_]

Around 12%. Interesting to see how many do get archived.

[+wmpastor]

The percent of a cacher's finds that are now archived will depend on how long they've been caching. If you're saying that about a third of all caches ever published have been archived, then someone who's been caching at an even pace for ten years will have about 20% of his or her finds now archived. A newer cacher like me may have 5% of their finds archived. Someone who cached actively for a year about ten years ago and then stopped may have almost a third of their finds now archived.

 

Also, the smaller your total number of finds, the more you're likely to vary from these estimated percentages. Of course, these "guestimates" assume that archiving practices have stayed fairly constant in the last ten years.

 

Edited May 16, 2013 by wmpastor

[Alvater]

I've cached a year and found 63 caches. I think 2 or 3 of them have been archived. + 2 I never logged so they are not in my founds.

[+stijnhommes]

Before I went on holiday I posted my stats on my profile. From my then 268 finds, exactly 14 were archived at the time: a total of 3,8%. I've been caching since August 2012. I think it not only depends on the time you've been caching, but also the age of the cache. The older they are, the bigger the chance they will get archived at some point.

[+Isonzo Karst]

Archived caches are 52.4% of my finds.

Haven't updated MyFinds query in couple of months, but I doubt that would change that number by an appreciable amount.

I cached most actively in 2005, with over 1000 finds that year, of those 75% are archived

Edited May 16, 2013 by Isonzo Karst

[+Harry Dolphin]

36% of my finds have been archived.

[+wimseyguy]

I've been caching for over 10 years. I just updated 'my finds' so that this answer would be as accurate as possible.

32% of my finds are now archived. This includes the .05% of my finds that are Locationless Caches.

[+bflentje]

I've been caching for over 10 years. I just updated 'my finds' so that this answer would be as accurate as possible.

32% of my finds are now archived. This includes the .05% of my finds that are Locationless Caches.

 

I think anyone caching over the 5 year mark with at least several hundred or a few thousand finds will probably see about a 33% archival rate. Mine's been hanging in that area for years.

[+wimseyguy]

I've been caching for over 10 years. I just updated 'my finds' so that this answer would be as accurate as possible.

32% of my finds are now archived. This includes the .05% of my finds that are Locationless Caches.

 

I think anyone caching over the 5 year mark with at least several hundred or a few thousand finds will probably see about a 33% archival rate. Mine's been hanging in that area for years.

 

Interesting point. I eliminated all finds prior to this date in 2008 and the percentage dropped to 18. I think you are onto something.

[+The A-Team]

I've been caching for a little over 4 years now, and my rate is 21%.

[+JBnW]

June will be the start of our 6th year, with a little over 1,000 finds. 16.8% of our finds are archived.

[+sparklefingers]

out of the 144 caches found 3 have been archived.

[+cerberus1]

Slowed down considerably now that hikes are few and out of 2475, 1079 are archived, or around 43%.

- Noticed many with that temp disable line through 'em, so maybe a few more added soon.

We had quite a few locationless too, which got zapped in one shot.

[+Maingray]

Slightly old data , but from 15,874 finds , 3176 (20.0 %) were archived. Caching since 2002.

Edited May 16, 2013 by Maingray

[+ExtremeNorthWales]

8.16% for me. Caching for under three years and with just 344 finds. Caches in the U.K, mostly in Hampshire and North Wales.

[+fizzymagic]

Over 11 years. 37.8%. It has been about that level as long as I can remember.

 

And it is pretty much what would be expected.

[+qtbluemoon]

Since we’ve had the two millionth active cache now published, and I saw it quoted that over three million had been published, I wondered what proportion of my found caches (caches found by me) were now archived.

To my surprise I found it was currently exactly one sixth.

I wondered how this compared with other finders.

Is your “now archived finds” ratio near this number of about 17% or is there a widely varying range?

 

This is a great question. Mine is lower than that, it's sitting at 7.4% right now (8/108). Most of my finds have been done this year, but 8 of my first 10 (back in 2008) are archived.

[+Kacher82]

12.7%, 90 out of 705. That includes 17 events.

[+captnemo]

Started caching in 2002 and in 11+ years I'm at 22%.

[+hukilaulau]

Caching about 9 years with about 3500 finds. About 31% are archived.

Here's something interesting: When I look at the 30 oldest physical caches I've found (all 2000 or 2001) only 3 of them have been archived!

Those 30 caches are in ten different states.

[+FunnyNose]

Caches found which are now archived: 5287 (44.8 %)

[+cwgrizz]

This is funny, because I had just thought about this yesterday as I was looking at my stats and thought about starting a thread. 15% for me.

[+gpsblake]

92 out of my first 100 caches found have been archived. I'm not going to count through 1,400 caches but a quick search shows at least half of them archived.

[+Don_J]

Before I went on holiday I posted my stats on my profile. From my then 268 finds, exactly 14 were archived at the time: a total of 3,8%. I've been caching since August 2012. I think it not only depends on the time you've been caching, but also the age of the cache. The older they are, the bigger the chance they will get archived at some point.

 

Actually, it's the opposite. There is a reason why the older caches have made it this long. Anyone who runs date based pocket queries will notice that the numbers returned for the older date ranges stay much more consistent than for the later ranges. It seems that caches placed after 2009 are getting archived at a faster rate than any others.

 

For me it's 6002 finds with 1776 archived for 29.4%

[+FunnyNose]

It seems that caches placed after 2009 are getting archived at a faster rate than any others.

 

Yup it seems like if a lame hide gets a few DNFs then the owner will just archive it without even checking on it.

[+Kacher82]

It seems that caches placed after 2009 are getting archived at a faster rate than any others.

 

Yup it seems like if a lame hide gets a few DNFs then the owner will just archive it without even checking on it.

It could also be that there are a lot more lame hides being placed, that don't last long.

 

I wonder if there's a way to find out what percentage of caches placed are still active a year later?

[+JL_HSTRE]

About 700 archived out of about 2500 Finds which is 28%.

 

If I exclude the nearby state park that has several hundred caches (they are all archived and changed each year for an annual event), it becomes 450 archived out of 2100 Finds, which brings it down to just over 21%.

[+JKMonkey]

0.0169491525423729% (1/59)

[+Walts Hunting]

28%

[+Jojogirl]

95 out of 234 are archived and I've been caching since early 2005.

[+TerraViators]

17.5%

[+Beach_hut]

We've been tracking this almost from day one, from when one of our early finds was archived immediately after we found it, after we reported the container was damaged. It was at 5% for a long while and has been slowly creeping upwards.

 

Now, after 4 years and a month, we are at 457/2191 for 20.8%. When you look at caches over 5 years old, for us that's 75/273 for 27.47%

[+Kacher82]

If I look at caches at least 5 years old, 17 out of 101 (just under 17%) are archived.

Edited May 17, 2013 by Kacher82

[+Sagefox]

After 11 1/2 years at just over a steady average of 500 finds per year we are at 44% archived.

[+Harry Dolphin]

It seems that caches placed after 2009 are getting archived at a faster rate than any others.

 

Yup it seems like if a lame hide gets a few DNFs then the owner will just archive it without even checking on it.

 

Yes. There seems to be a modern concept of throw-away caches. No maintenance ever considered. "Oh. It might be gone? Archive! Not going to bother."

[+Sagefox]

It seems that caches placed after 2009 are getting archived at a faster rate than any others.

 

Yup it seems like if a lame hide gets a few DNFs then the owner will just archive it without even checking on it.

 

Yes. There seems to be a modern concept of throw-away caches. No maintenance ever considered. "Oh. It might be gone? Archive! Not going to bother."

 

Statements like this always make me curious. Easy to say but can anyone devise a data search that actually shows this to be true and what the percentage of change is? There are soooooo many variables.

 

How was the "since 2009" statement arrived at?

 

Can a filter be devised for length of time a cache is active by year (or month) placed?

 

Out of curiosity I ran a filter of our approximately 2500 archived found caches over 11 1/2 years. Our cache find rate per year has been steady. There are 68 pages of caches archived through 2008 and only 7 1/2 pages for 2009 and later. This is an almost meaningless result since the earlier caches have so much more exposure and the time period is twice as long but that might be the extent of my GSAK familiarity.

[+NanCycle]

270 archived out of 1166 (not counting the locationless) for 23%

[+The Leprechauns]

Just over 56% of my 4802 finds are on caches that have since been archived. That appears to be the highest percentage of anyone who's posted to this thread.

 

Do I win something?

 

I attribute the high percentage to being a less active geocacher since 2009, in comparison to my pace of finds from 2002-2009.

[nonaeroterraqueous]

46%, unless I lost count or got confused along the way.

[+SwineFlew]

I am pushing at 24.1 % (608) of 2519 caches I found since 2009.

 

Anyone that does plenty of events will increase this count.

 

We got a group of cache owners that are playing the "padding" game for someone consecutive days streak. They are placing really lame caches knowing they wont last long there and once the property owner complain, they archived the cache. If they go missing, they archived it and place a new one. On the avg, most of the caches they are placing are only there for like 2 months and start over. Because of this...this does rank up my %.

[+Ringrat]

14.7%. Seems like I'm right in the range of everyone else.

[Mr.Yuck]

Just over 56% of my 4802 finds are on caches that have since been archived. That appears to be the highest percentage of anyone who's posted to this thread.

 

Do I win something?

 

I attribute the high percentage to being a less active geocacher since 2009, in comparison to my pace of finds from 2002-2009.

 

You win, I can only offer 48.78%. Slightly under 10 years. I was more active 2003-2008 or so, but not all that significantly. I actually had more finds in 2012 than 2011.

[+Roman!]

4.54%

[+Don_J]

It seems that caches placed after 2009 are getting archived at a faster rate than any others.

 

Yup it seems like if a lame hide gets a few DNFs then the owner will just archive it without even checking on it.

 

Yes. There seems to be a modern concept of throw-away caches. No maintenance ever considered. "Oh. It might be gone? Archive! Not going to bother."

 

Statements like this always make me curious. Easy to say but can anyone devise a data search that actually shows this to be true and what the percentage of change is? There are soooooo many variables.

 

How was the "since 2009" statement arrived at?

 

Can a filter be devised for length of time a cache is active by year (or month) placed?

 

Out of curiosity I ran a filter of our approximately 2500 archived found caches over 11 1/2 years. Our cache find rate per year has been steady. There are 68 pages of caches archived through 2008 and only 7 1/2 pages for 2009 and later. This is an almost meaningless result since the earlier caches have so much more exposure and the time period is twice as long but that might be the extent of my GSAK familiarity.

 

It is a simple observation. I have a series of 10 date based PQs that give me all active caches within 40 miles of my home, which run weekly. Every so often I adjust the dates so that the first 9 return as closest to 990 caches as possible, with the 10th giving me the rest. As caches get archived, the numbers in the PQs drop. As an example, PQ1 covers the dates of 6/00 to 10/06, that's 6 and a half years. PQ4 covers 8/09 to 7/10, PQ5 covers 7/10 to 4/11, PQ6 covers 4/11 to 11/11. As these run weekly, and caches are archived, PQs 4,5,6 each drop at almost twice the rate as PQ1.

 

I believe that geocaching hit the big time in in late 2009 and early 2010. Smartphones made it more accessible to what became part time or "fad" players, and at the same time, the "don't place a cache every 600' just because you can", guideline became relaxed. Caches came out of the woods and into the lamp posts. Caches started being placed for no other reason than to be found, and when they can't be found, the CO isn't playing anymore so a reviewer eventually archives. I also look at the caches that are archived each week in that 40 mile radius and I'd say 75% of them are by the reviewer because of lack of maintenance and communication from the cache owners.

[+Isonzo Karst]

Just over 56% of my 4802 finds are on caches that have since been archived. That appears to be the highest percentage of anyone who's posted to this thread.

 

Do I win something?

 

I attribute the high percentage to being a less active geocacher since 2009, in comparison to my pace of finds from 2002-2009.

 

Whatever it is you win, you just beat me out of it ;-)

 

I've slowed down on find rate as well.

 

Also, the great hurricane hit parade seasons of 2004 - 2005 (Charley, Frances, Ivan, Jeanne, Dennis, Katrina, Wilma) really wiped out a lot of caches

[+lamoracke]

Course, this # would be pretty high for folks who ONLY did one power trail, the first version of the E.T.

 

Either way, that is not me, mine is 26.4%.

[+Sagefox]

It is a simple observation... As these run weekly, and caches are archived, PQs 4,5,6 each drop at almost twice the rate as PQ1.

 

It is very interesting that you thought about archival rates and devised this PQ plan to track them. Curiosity is a fun trait to have.

 

Since you are tracking active caches only you are missing all the old ones that didn't last long. Junk caches were placed in the early years too. PQ 1 is tracking the survivors, those caches placed well enough to last a long time and presumably receiving community help to stay alive where the owners have gone dark.

 

A broad sampling that includes archived and active caches from each time period would be needed to get a truer picture of the rate of archival. A study such as this would need to be limited to a specific length of time, as in, what was the archival rate for the first two years from placement dates in order to include the later years.

 

I don't doubt your premise, though, that caches placed after 2008 have shorter average lives than those prior but I would not expect the life spans to be twice as short.

[+Mudfrog]

Started caching in 2002 and in 11+ years I'm at 22%.

 

Started caching early in 2002 as well and found that 43.89% have been archived. There are some variables of course but it is interesting to see, at first glance, that the areas i've cached have had roughly twice as many archived in the same period of time.

[+Don_J]

It is a simple observation... As these run weekly, and caches are archived, PQs 4,5,6 each drop at almost twice the rate as PQ1.

 

It is very interesting that you thought about archival rates and devised this PQ plan to track them. Curiosity is a fun trait to have.

 

Since you are tracking active caches only you are missing all the old ones that didn't last long. Junk caches were placed in the early years too. PQ 1 is tracking the survivors, those caches placed well enough to last a long time and presumably receiving community help to stay alive where the owners have gone dark.

 

A broad sampling that includes archived and active caches from each time period would be needed to get a truer picture of the rate of archival. A study such as this would need to be limited to a specific length of time, as in, what was the archival rate for the first two years from placement dates in order to include the later years.

 

I don't doubt your premise, though, that caches placed after 2008 have shorter average lives than those prior but I would not expect the life spans to be twice as short.

 

I appreciate you analysis. It does give me a better perspective on this. Note that my first post on the subject was in response to the idea that the older caches should be getting archived at a faster rate and I noted that they have been around this long for a reason. They are the survivors.

 

Also note that the PQ plan was devised, not by me, and to get all of the caches in a certain radius without overlap. With it came the observation that certain periods were losing caches at different rates than others.