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Geocaching Statistics


Danie Viljoen

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South African cache owners with the most finds on their caches:

 1. BoazRuthFields     22764 finds
 2. GEO936             20179 finds
 3. Leon St            19243 finds
 4. die sousies        18291 finds
 5. NotBlonde          15625 finds
 6. HeinG              14356 finds
 7. Louwtjie&Vroutjie  13588 finds
 8. SKATTIE@1          13565 finds
 9. pannie&medusae     13352 finds
10. Panters            12895 finds

Together these 10 cache owners have received 11.6% of all the find logs in South Africa.

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South African cache owners with the most finds on their caches during the past year:

 1. Panthera03      2728
 2. ChrisDen        2027
 3. BoazRuthFields  1945
 4. AdieA           1934
 5. Adventure_T     1792
 6. SpiderFinder    1737
 7. WeItZfAmIlY     1705
 8. Sokkies73       1593
 9. SKATTIE@1       1534
10. NeoNaartjies    1493

These 10 cache owners received 16.7% of all the find logs in South Africa during the past year.

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3 hours ago, Danie Viljoen said:

South African cache owners with the most finds on their caches during the past year:


 1. Panthera03      2728
 2. ChrisDen        2027
 3. BoazRuthFields  1945
 4. AdieA           1934
 5. Adventure_T     1792
 6. SpiderFinder    1737
 7. WeItZfAmIlY     1705
 8. Sokkies73       1593
 9. SKATTIE@1       1534
10. NeoNaartjies    1493

These 10 cache owners received 16.7% of all the find logs in South Africa during the past year.

Hi Danie, 

 

Question from our KZN FB page: "Does past year mean 2018 or so far this year?"

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South African cache owners with the highest average number of finds on their caches:

(I only considered cache owners with at least 10 caches.)

 1. McCuties    11 caches  1875	finds  170.5 finds/cache
 2. mr panda    20 caches  3247	finds  162.4 finds/cache
 3. j3caching   10 caches  1616	finds  161.6 finds/cache
 4. AndyT1      23 caches  3657	finds  159.0 finds/cache
 5. MeganZA     10 caches  1571	finds  157.1 finds/cache
 6. jonoafrica	40 caches  6151	finds  153.8 finds/cache
 7. Littleclan  12 caches  1790	finds  149.2 finds/cache
 8. Schmore     24 caches  3417	finds  142.4 finds/cache
 9. sy-chispa   38 caches  5271	finds  138.7 finds/cache
10. geko4       24 caches  3327	finds  138.6 finds/cache

 

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African cache owners with the most finds on their caches:

For all time, on African caches:

 1. GC Putte            71580
 2. luisftas            61325
 3. Oss to              51463
 4. Mendes&Freitas      50619
 5. togtog              39334
 6. ricardomariagoncas  32079
 7. cach-u-crew         29749
 8. _KIKERO             28638
 9. lacruz18            27704
10. Ballangen           26502
11. Cidinho & Lia       24553
12. BoazRuthFields      22755
13. GEO936              20630
14. Leon St             19229
15. die sousies         18285

The first 11 are all based in the Canary Islands and Madeira. The first 10 received 12% of all find logs in Africa.

 

For the year 10 June 2018 to 9 June 2019:

 1. GC Putte            14767
 2. Oss to              11878
 3. cach-u-crew          6985
 4. togtog               6866
 5. Mendes&Freitas       6545
 6. luisftas             5072
 7. Cidinho & Lia        4827
 8. _KIKERO              4723
 9. GeoMadeira           4293
10. hachri1965           3695
11. LaFleche974          3479
12. Carolina_Silva       3108
13. peter_55             3015
14. BongoUlli            2822
15. Panthera03           2728

The first South African comes in at no. 15. The first 10 received 17.7% of all the find logs in Africa for the year.

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Most caches found in Africa:

 1. iPajero        17990
 2. The Huskies     8083
 3. rodnjoan        7729
 4. Geelvink        6705
 5. cownchicken     6642
 6. GorNat          6639
 7. SKATTIE@1       6504
 8. Louise_Gerhard  6458
 9. terunkie        6358
10. ChrisDen        6336

Most caches found in South Africa:

 1. iPajero        17732
 2. The Huskies     7897
 3. rodnjoan        7659
 4. Geelvink        6705
 5. GorNat          6634
 6. SKATTIE@1       6504
 7. cownchicken     6495
 8. Louise_Gerhard  6424
 9. terunkie        6295
10. ChrisDen        6232

 

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Most African caches found (excluding South Africa):

 1. Mendes&Freitas  1971
 2. Radler!         1858
 3. keper           1775
 4. Humlos          1758
 5. TatiyPedro      1754
 6. Butyo           1748
 7. Cidinho & Lia   1741
 8. dandrade        1740
 9. Dríade          1737
10. tojoliveira     1733
11. Familiaornelas  1677
12. dameblanche     1673
13. cach-u-crew     1659
14. paulocasca      1645
15. RRV1982         1619

The South African cacher with the most finds in the rest of Africa is iPajero with 259, coming in at position 881.

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Most finds in each province:

Gauteng:      5373  rodnjoan
Western Cape: 5155  terunkie
KZN:          3784  iPajero
Eastern Cape: 3190  iPajero
Mpumalanga:   1281  iPajero
Free State:    832  iPajero
North West:    467  iPajero
Limpopo:       344  iPajero
Northern Cape: 241  iPajero

Not only is iPajero tops in 7 of the 9 provinces, they are no. 2 in Gauteng and no. 9 in the Western Cape!

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Most finds in Gauteng:

All time:

 1. rodnjoan          5373
 2. iPajero           4650
 3. Leon St           4058
 4. GorNat            3738 
 5. Geelvink          3707
 6. Louise_Gerhard    3648
 7. JanMich           3647
 8. dolos             3373
 9. Antron            3300
10. SpiderFinder      3265

The last 12 months:

 1. Eksteen            625
 2. Panters            568
 3. DivanOli4          487
 4. pieterix           486
 5. Andredj            484
 6. TEAM SCHUTTE       481
 7. za pienaar family  463
 8. ephyfer            449
 9. D_illigaf          415
10. rodnjoan           409

 

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Most finds in the Western Cape:

All time:

 1. terunkie                5155
 2. The Huskies             5025
 3. cownchicken             4619
 4. PieterM                 4029
 5. SKATTIE@1               3925
 6. Henzz                   3375
 7. Andredj                 3324
 8. pieterix	            3204
 9. iPajero                 2942
10. battlerat and pussycat  2862

The last 12 months:

 1. pieterix          499
 2. terunkie          430
 3. Andredj           382
 4. The Huskies       342
 5. Evolutionaries    284
 6. SKATTIE@1         260
 7. tjoklits          235
 8. ephyfer           216
 9. Fuzzyducktravels  213
10. Adventure_T       210

 

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Most finds in KZN:

All time:

 1. iPajero               3784
 2. TechnoNut             3091
 3. M²C²D                 2547
 4. Ninja Nano            2378
 5. Eagle Eyed            2366
 6. Geocaching Genie      2358
 7. Strong_Boy            2357
 8. Beetles and Bentleys  2285
 9. D_illigaf             2190
10. waydom                2070

The last 12 months:

 1. iPajero                924
 2. LL_cool_J              735
 3. Strong_Boy             673
 4. WeItZfAmIlY            392
 5. Geocaching Genie       373
    Ninja Nano             373
 7. Eagle Eyed             371 
 8. M²C²D                  364
 9. N00n3atall             336
10. WÅLDO                  335

 

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On 7/12/2019 at 1:11 PM, Danie Viljoen said:

Karma, part 1:

 

Of the 43356 unique cachers who have logged at least one cache in South Africa, only 2379 own at least one cache in South Africa. That is 5.5% (1 in 18).

I would assume that a good portion of them might be tourists?

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Karma, part 3:

Karma: The ratio between the total number of finds on one's owned caches to the total number of own finds. 

 

Per definition the 94.5% of South African cachers who do not own caches have a karma of 0. The cachers with the highest karma are:

 1. WeItZfAmIlY   153.5
 2. daanzena      104.1
 3. Schmore       100.9
 4. PikkeVis       80.3
 5. cenea10        69.9
 6. MovingHamster  65.2
 7. GoSA           55.5
 8. Peter Scholtz  51.6
 9. OLLIE.Q        51.4
10. die sousies    51.2

(I only considered cache owners with at least 10 finds)

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Statistics I would like to see, but it might be to much of a challenge...
With every event one tends to see the same Regulars and it is very seldom that one will see newbies attending events. In Cape Town it is the case. But then I see an increase of newbies finding my urban caches.
I have learned alot from senior cachers and cachers joining these ranks tend to stay long term committed cachers, join the various Facebook pages and become Regulars.
Would love to see the growth in members on the various GeoCaching Facebook pages compared the growth in cachers in the same timeframe or a year to year comparison....

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9 hours ago, Sokkies73 said:

Would love to see the growth in members on the various GeoCaching Facebook pages compared the growth in cachers in the same timeframe or a year to year comparison....

Two problems with this:

  • I am not a member of all the Geocaching Facebook pages 
  • I do not know of a way to retrospectively determine the number of members at any past date.
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14 hours ago, Sokkies73 said:

Would love to see the growth in members on the various GeoCaching Facebook pages compared the growth in cachers in the same timeframe or a year to year comparison....

 

I am somewhat skeptical about a strong correlation between membership of Facebook caching groups and cacher longevity. I am not saying I am a typical Facebook user, but I am currently subscribed to 25 groups (mostly not caching related), of which I actively read the postings of about 5 of them.

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Karma, part 4:

One problem with karma as it is defined is that it only works for cache owners (which, as we have seen, are only 5.5% of all the South African cachers.) What if we simply subtract the number of own finds from finds on owned caches? That should give one an indication from how far in the green (positive) or red (negative) you are:

    1. BoazRuthFields     20756
    2. GEO936             18604
    3. die sousies        17961
    4. NotBlonde          14071
    5. Leon St            13874
    6. Louwtjie&Vroutjie  11432
    7. SawaSawa           10831
    8. pannie&medusae     10375
    9. HeinG              10012
   10. CrystalFairy        9819
    .
    .
43347. JanMich	          -3059
43348. dolos	          -3080
43349. divmango	          -3103
43350. bergbokkie         -3424
43351. mart514            -3690
43352. pieterix           -3849
43353. GorNat             -4996
43354. terunkie           -5310
43355. iPajero            -5693
43356. rodnjoan	          -6328

This should not be seen as a shame list (especially the second half). The cachers at the bottom of this list are there because of their massively high find numbers.

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Karma is one of those stats that you can do only so much to improve.  Placing caches, even quality ones, only get you so far. 

Living in an active caching community, or an area visited by lots of tourists is of course ideal.

 

The other, more drastic step is of course to cache less, but who would want to do that. 

 

 

 

 

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4 hours ago, Sokkies73 said:

for the past three years I am among the top 3 in the country for finds on my caches, but my karma still looks crap. How do one improve your karma? 

 

Karma is the number of finds on your caches divided by your own finds. For a higher karma you will need more finds on your caches and/or fewer personal finds.

 

Personally I don’t worry too much about my karma, as long as it is more than 1.

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Centroid:

The centroid of all the active South African caches is currently at S30 04.064 E026 32.820, which is about 24km east of Trompsburg in the Free State. The closest active cache is GCZWR3  REALLY SideTracked - Landmeter Station, and the farthest active South African cache is GC4N80H  CROOKS CORNER.

 

I first calculated the centroid on 4 May 2015, when it was at S29 34.258 E026 32.820, 68km to the northeast of the current centroid. What this means is that relatively more new caches have been published in the Western Cape during the last 4 years than in the rest of the country.

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Cardinal caches:

  • As mentioned yesterday, GCZWR3  REALLY SideTracked - Landmeter Station is the cache closest to the centroid of all the active South African caches.
  • Northernmost cache: GC15MHT  Mapungubwe - Cinnamon Rock Bunting
  • East: GC4VXV0  Kosi Bay
  • South: GC1H9WR  2 Oceans
  • West: GC4J6P0  Gems of the West Coast

The following are the farthest from the centroid in each direction:

  • Northeast: GC4N80H  CROOKS CORNER
  • Southeast: GC1GW3K  Fraser Falls
  • Southwest: GC2HQR1  Kommetjieberg Ridge
  • Northwest: GC4JA4A  Kalahari Sands

The following cachers have found the most of these 9 cardinal caches:

1. The Huskies:           8
   iPajero:               8
3. ChrisDen:              7
4. mlornelh:              6
5. Henzz:                 5
   SKATTIE@1:             5
   TechnoNut:             5
   cownchicken:           5
9. Louise_Gerhard:        4
   PieterM:               4
   Team GBS:              4
   Tricky Vicky & Mickey: 4
   Danie Viljoen:         4

 

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Provincial centroids:

Gauteng: S25 59.129 E28 07.107 

Closest cache: GC86KXG  Stretch a Leg #13 Revived - Big Bird (North) 

Farthest cache: GC2FVNZ  Off the beaten track: 102.7 km

 

Western Cape: S33 50.988 E19 18.765 

Closest cache: GC1XEAZ  Klipbok 

Farthest cache: GC61MYH  Bloukranspas: 399.4 km

 

KZN: S29 33.338 E30 37.991 

Closest cache: GC2ZEXF  Lookout 

Farthest cache: GC4VXV0  Kosi Bay: 368.6 km

 

Eastern Cape: S33 29.089 E26 0.561 

Closest cache: GC38Y1W  Sidbury Sports Club 

Farthest cache: GC7EGJP  Whale Trail Vaalkrans: 513.1 km

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On 7/26/2019 at 2:12 PM, Danie Viljoen said:

Eastern Cape: S33 29.089 E26 0.561 

Closest cache: GC38Y1W  Sidbury Sports Club 

Farthest cache: GC7EGJP  Whale Trail Vaalkrans: 513.1 km

 

Hi Danie. 

It seems that GC7EGJP  Whale Trail Vaalkrans is wrongly identified as in the Eastern Cape.  Maybe a reviewer can fix that.

 

Those cardinal caches is surely something to put on the bucket list.  Hopefully one day we will get there.

 

Thanks for keeping the stats going.

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5 hours ago, Spesbona said:

It seems that GC7EGJP  Whale Trail Vaalkrans is wrongly identified as in the Eastern Cape. 

You are right.

The updated centroid for the Eastern Cape: S33 29.154 E26 0.611

Closest cache: GC38Y1W  Sidbury Sports Club

Farthest cache: GC12GZ9  Transkei View Cave: 479.6 km

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Provincial centroids, part 2:

Free State: S28 35.992 E27 00.711

Closest cache: GC58YH0  Dup Senior's First Hide!

Farthest cache: GCY1NM  Memel Escarpment: 279.2 km

 

North West: S26 13.880 E26 49.718

Closest cache: GC3DYCH  No. 1 for Ventersdorp :D

Farthest cache: GC2GY8W  Boetsap Falls: 303.9 km

 

Northern Cape: S29 35.413 E21 19.605

Closest cache: GC6EMTD  Kenhardt History #1

Farthest cache: GC4JA4A  Kalahari Sands: 552.0 km

Edited by Danie Viljoen
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Distance between caches:

Gauteng:       3488 active caches in   18176 square km:  2.45 km between caches
KZN:           2986 active caches in   94361 square km:  6.04 km between caches
Western Cape:  3917 active caches in  129462 square km:  6.18 km between caches
Eastern Cape:  2681 active caches in  168966 square km:  8.53 km between caches
Mpumalanga:     952 active caches in   76495 square km:  9.63 km between caches
North West:     474 active caches in  104882 square km: 15.98 km between caches
Free State:     566 active caches in   29825 square km: 16.27 km between caches
Limpopo:        356 active caches in  125754 square km: 20.20 km between caches
Northern Cape:  302 active caches in  372889 square km: 37.76 km between caches

South Africa: 15722 active caches in 1221037 square km:  9.47 km between caches

(The distance is calculated for even equidistant distribution of the caches over the given area.)

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Thanks for the new stats Danie! Do stats like number of finds, number of cachers who found at least a cache, number of active cachers (12+ cache finds a year) and total active caches also reflect a downward trend over the past few years?

I've definitely seen fewer new geocachers and many of our stalwarts have become interested in other hobbies and have drifted away from geocaching sadly. Another question, how many cachers placed geocaches in SA last year and how does that compare to previous years? Also, what is the trend in newbies placing caches (ie how many cachers hid there first geocache last year?)

Will be interesting to see a review of SA Geocaching similar to the Global one.

Thanks in advance! :D

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34 minutes ago, Delbadore said:

Do stats like number of finds, number of cachers who found at least a cache, number of active cachers (12+ cache finds a year) and total active caches also reflect a downward trend over the past few years?

Another question, how many cachers placed geocaches in SA last year and how does that compare to previous years? Also, what is the trend in newbies placing caches (ie how many cachers hid there first geocache last year?)

Will be interesting to see a review of SA Geocaching similar to the Global one.


Thanks for the feedback - I often wonder if anyone still reads this forum. I plan to address all these questions over the next two weeks.

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2019 Statistics, part 2: Finds

This one looks so bad that I had to check my numbers to convince myself it is true - during 2019 only 98434 caches were found in South Africa, 24% fewer than in 2018, and 50% fewer than the peak in 2016. Unless something drastic happens, we'll be in serious trouble within two to three years.

This gives an average of 269 finds per day (vs. 541 per day in 2016).

 

2019 Finds per year RSA.jpg

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That is a scary statistic if one is looking for constant growth. 

 

I do sometimes wonder if the gave us not better with fewer caches of good quality being find by people who are prepared to spend some  time looking for those caches.

 

To me there are too many easy 1.5/1.5 caches placed all over the place being found by people who just want to end the day with a big number of funds under the belt. 

 

PS - I really  enjoy these stats 

Edited by ChrisDen
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2019 Statistics, part 3: Finds per day

 

600552601_2019RSAFindsperDay.jpg.ce251e72967aa8450ed4515904ab20a1.jpg

The red dots are the number of finds for each day. (I extended the range slightly on both sides of the year to capture the year-end peak).

The green line is the running average over a week, to filter out the week-end peaks.

 

The best day of 2019 was 15 December, with 1203 finds.

On 9 August there were 1202 finds.

The worst day of 2019 was 17 May, with only 55 finds.

 

Looking at weekly averages, the best week was around 30 December, with 5181 finds, followed by peaks around 23 September, 9 August and 16 April.

The worst week was around 17 May, with 1036 finds.

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2019 Statistics, part 4: Most found RSA caches during 2019

 1. GC7B71M  Cape Light                                     Western Cape  241 finds
 2. GC707WR  Nobel Square 2.7                               Western Cape  238 finds
 3. GC7B84E  Cape Town / Table Mountain Virtual Reward      Western Cape  228 finds
 4. GC2D9WC  SS: Lusitania                                  Western Cape  183 finds
 5. GC37VF3  Tip of Africa                                  Western Cape  177 finds
 6. GC78HNP  Suspension Bridge                              Eastern Cape  169 finds
 7. GC74XWF  Turn Table                                     Western Cape  158 finds
 8. GCMYYZ   Table Top Trove                                Western Cape  155 finds
 9. GC7B8X0  Into 7th Heaven                                Western Cape  150 finds
10. GC7ZF72  Seven Sights                                   Western Cape  149 finds
11. GC6JCHV  V&A Waterfront: Bay Vista                      Western Cape  145 finds
12. GC31WXR  Table Mountain Travel Bug Hotel                Western Cape  139 finds
13. GC842TG  The LoveBug's Nest - CPT Int Airport TB Hotel  Western Cape  131 finds
14. GC892A2  Virtual Reward 2.0 - O. R. Tambo International Gauteng       130 finds
15. GC7CH1J  Welcome to Johannesburg, South Africa          Gauteng       125 finds
16. GC77E    Cape Agulhas                                   Western Cape  116 finds
17. GC8177C  Willis Walk = Penguins + Panorama              Western Cape  114 finds
18. GC19QVQ  Three Rondavels                                Mpumalanga    109 finds
19. GC7BA5A  kruger park excursion                          Mpumalanga    107 finds
20. GC2CG7X  Hiddingh Security TB Hotel                     Western Cape  106 finds

Once again Cape Town dominates the list, but we have a new winner - this is the first time that Cape Light tops the list.

The winner last year, Table Mountain Travel Bug Hotel, got 235 finds during 2018.

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2019 Statistics, part 5: Favourite Points

The following 10 South African caches had the most FPs at the end of 2019:

 1. GC31WXR  Table Mountain Travel Bug Hotel     The Huskies     Western Cape  City of Cape Town  620 FPs
 2. GC3WXRQ  MEGA SA 2012 -Voortrekker "Uitspan" dolos           Gauteng       City of Tshwane    191 FPs
 3. GC1ABZK  Table Mountain - Cape Town          spuzva          Western Cape  City of Cape Town  171 FPs
 4. GC2D9WC  SS: Lusitania                       BoazRuthFields  Western Cape  City of Cape Town  158 FPs
 5. GC2CG7X  Hiddingh Security TB Hotel          mr panda        Western Cape  City of Cape Town  130 FPs
 6. GCVDHN   Sailors' Star                       vespax          Western Cape  City of Cape Town  125 FPs
 7. GC1H9WR  2 Oceans                            Littleclan      Western Cape  Overberg           115 FPs
    GCMYYZ   Table Top Trove                     AndyT1          Western Cape  City of Cape Town  115 FPs
 9. GC6JCHV  V&A Waterfront: Bay Vista           SawaSawa        Western Cape  City of Cape Town  114 FPs
10. GC5BWV4  UP PERISCOPE                        family Behrens  Western Cape  City of Cape Town  111 FPs

 

Edited by Danie Viljoen
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3 hours ago, Danie Viljoen said:

The following 10 South African caches gained the most FPs during 2019:

I think there's a problem somewhere as Team DJ's Puzzle Quest #4 was only found once in 2019. It could have only gained one FP in the year (or a few I guess retroactively by finders later)? I checked a few in the list and it seems to be the total favourite points earned, not those earned in 2019?   

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18 hours ago, Delbadore said:

I think there's a problem somewhere as Team DJ's Puzzle Quest #4 was only found once in 2019

 

There are a number of problems which complicate the statistics of Favourite Points. One of them is that there is no record of when and where a FP has been logged. I can not go back and figure out which caches had how many FP's at a specific time in the past. Another problem is that it is quite a lengthy process to update the FPs of the full database - it takes 3 days. For that reason I take a snapshot at year-end and save it for future use. (Because it takes so long I can also never be 100% sure that it is up to date, because by the time I reach the end the first caches may have new FPs that I will miss.)

 

I checked the FP numbers of the TeamDJ* caches. I am fairly certain about the numbers for the end of 2019, and the calculations are correct, but the FP numbers for the end of 2018 definitely do not look complete. Unless somebody else has a snapshot at the end of 2018, there is unfortunately nothing I can do to correct it. (I deleted the incorrect part of the posting.)

 

Edited by Danie Viljoen
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