Geocaching Statistics and Moving Home Location

[+Zargonians]

We are now full-time RVers, so don't technically have a "Home" base, so we have never changed our home location in geocaching.com.  The longest we stay in any one place is Florida for four months every year.  We are originally from Alabama.  If we change our home coordinates to our Florida winter home, how does that affect our statistics; i.e., finds furthest from home, distance to finds, etc.  Does it automatically readjust all of our finds stats to match the new location, or will it pick up from the date we change our home coordinates.  Also will it change our state standings?  Thanks for any help you can give!

[+niraD]

1 hour ago, Zargonians said:

We are now full-time RVers, so don't technically have a "Home" base, so we have never changed our home location in geocaching.com.  The longest we stay in any one place is Florida for four months every year.  We are originally from Alabama.  If we change our home coordinates to our Florida winter home, how does that affect our statistics; i.e., finds furthest from home, distance to finds, etc.  Does it automatically readjust all of our finds stats to match the new location, or will it pick up from the date we change our home coordinates.  Also will it change our state standings?  Thanks for any help you can give!

If you change your home coordinates, then all your home-based stats will change to use your new home location, even for finds that occurred before the change. Although another option is to simply remove your home coordinates. I'm not sure, but my guess is that removing your home coordinates would remove your home-based stats.

 

For reference, see the Help Center article Edit Home Location.

[+Max and 99]

Another option is to lock the caches that have special meaning to you. For example, you can lock the Farthest from Home cache so it won't keep changing. I hope this is right. I rarely look at stats and I'm going by memory.

[+niraD]

6 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

Another option is to lock the caches that have special meaning to you. For example, you can lock the Farthest from Home cache so it won't keep changing. I hope this is right. I rarely look at stats and I'm going by memory.

Milestones can be edited, but I don't see any way to edit home location statistics.

[+Max and 99]

1 minute ago, niraD said:

Milestones can be edited, but I don't see any way to edit home location statistics.

Thank you for clarifying.

[+Zargonians]

Thanks for the link to setting the home coordinates.  That was not quite the answer to the question I asked though.  If I do change my home coordinates, will all of my statistics change as well; i.e., finds furthest from home and distance to finds.  This could mess up some challenges we are working on.  

[+niraD]

17 minutes ago, Zargonians said:

Thanks for the link to setting the home coordinates.  That was not quite the answer to the question I asked though.  If I do change my home coordinates, will all of my statistics change as well; i.e., finds furthest from home and distance to finds.  This could mess up some challenges we are working on.  

If you go to your statistics page and scroll down to the  My Home Location Statistics section, then if you click on the "?" icon on the right of the heading, a pop-up appears that reads:

 

"Cache find statistics related to your Home Location. Updating your Home Location in profile settings will modify these results when stats are generated."

 

So yes, all those statistics will be updated when you update your home location coordinates.

[+K13]

Of you change the starting point of a measurement, obviously the endpoints will change. When you change the home location, the farthest point away will change proportionately.

[+Zargonians]

 

On 8/16/2019 at 7:05 PM, niraD said:

If you go to your statistics page and scroll down to the  My Home Location Statistics section, then if you click on the "?" icon on the right of the heading, a pop-up appears that reads:

 

"Cache find statistics related to your Home Location. Updating your Home Location in profile settings will modify these results when stats are generated."

 

So yes, all those statistics will be updated when you update your home location coordinates.

Thank you!  Did not know that.  Now to decide if we should change it or not!

[+Lynx Humble]

1 hour ago, Zargonians said:

 

Thank you!  Did not know that.  Now to decide if we should change it or not!

I prefer to change my home coordinates so I know how far I am from nearby cache even if it changed some stats. For your old challenge qualification you can change it temporarily when you qualify.

[+Zargonians]

15 hours ago, Lynx Humble said:

I prefer to change my home coordinates so I know how far I am from nearby cache even if it changed some stats. For your old challenge qualification you can change it temporarily when you qualify.

Ah!  Great idea!  Thanks for that...wouldn't have thought of doing that!

 

[+TeamRabbitRun]

Well, as a software developer, I would have designed it differently.

If you have a stat "how far is this from home", it's only meaningful when you're talking about where 'home' was on that day.

 

It's like saying "In first grade I had to walk five miles to school every day"  (I know, I know, uphill, both ways...)

Later on, you move to a house across the street from the school and you have to change your schpiel to "In first grade I had to walk across the street to school every day" because that's where you live NOW.

 

That distance shouldn't be a real-time calculation; it should be saved with the log so it reflects the distance when you logged it.

 

 

[+niraD]

1 hour ago, TeamRabbitRun said:

That distance shouldn't be a real-time calculation; it should be saved with the log so it reflects the distance when you logged it.

Members are free to record whatever stats they want in their logs: distance from one's current home, distance hiked, distance driven, current D/T ratings, member's opinion of what the D/T ratings should have been, etc., etc., etc.

 

But the system wasn't designed to track all those stats for each and every Find. The system was designed to track where the caches are located, which ones have been found (and when), and where one's "home" location is. Everything else is calculated based on those things.

[+TeamRabbitRun]

19 minutes ago, niraD said:

Members are free to record whatever stats they want in their logs: distance from one's current home, distance hiked, distance driven, current D/T ratings, member's opinion of what the D/T ratings should have been, etc., etc., etc.

 

But the system wasn't designed to track all those stats for each and every Find. The system was designed to track where the caches are located, which ones have been found (and when), and where one's "home" location is. Everything else is calculated based on those things.

 

Yes, that's how it was designed.

My opinion is that that's a poor design point. I can't think of a situation where that would mean something historically if you change the home location.

 

That doesn't mean there couldn't be a good use for it; just that I can't think of one.  Anyone?

[+papu66]

3 hours ago, TeamRabbitRun said:

 

 

That distance shouldn't be a real-time calculation; it should be saved with the log so it reflects the distance when you logged it.

 

 

 

So if you log a cache that you visited a year ago, you should remember to change your location to where you were then. And if you make a mistake in your home coordinates, then you need to delete all your logs henceforth, and redo everything.

 

I would think it would be easier if there was a list of all your history home coordinates and the date you moved. Then the real time calculation could just check pick the appropriate home location from that list according to log date. I think for most people that list would not be very long. I have changed my location maybe 5 times in 4 years.

[+TeamRabbitRun]

1 hour ago, papu66 said:

 

So if you log a cache that you visited a year ago, you should remember to change your location to where you were then. And if you make a mistake in your home coordinates, then you need to delete all your logs henceforth, and redo everything.

 

I would think it would be easier if there was a list of all your history home coordinates and the date you moved. Then the real time calculation could just check pick the appropriate home location from that list according to log date. I think for most people that list would not be very long. I have changed my location maybe 5 times in 4 years.

 

You are 100% correct. That would be the way to do it.

[+hzoi]

We don't quite move around as often as y'all, but we do uproot every couple years.  So far we've had two home locations in Germany, two in Virginia, one or two in Alabama (can't remember if I switched them for my four month stint in Huntsville), one in Oklahoma, and one in Texas.

 

That skews any of our stats that are based on home location (e.g., nearest/farthest find, finds by direction, finds by distance) for most statistics generators, like project-gc, mygeocachingprofile, and the native geocaching.com stats - so we don't really pay attention to those.

 

If I need to get a real picture of what they would be, I can use GSAK and the FindStatGen macro, as FSG can generate stats based on a history of home coordinates, and I update home coordinates every time we move to a new address.  But given that you move around more often, this may not be a practical solution for you.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

On 8/19/2019 at 6:26 PM, TeamRabbitRun said:

 

You are 100% correct. That would be the way to do it.

 

And you're talking about persisting location and a date for every user account and if it's all user editable (I'm going to temporarily move to South Dakota to meet a challenge) it just opens things up for those that like to game the system.   IMHO, the benefits just wouldn't justify the resources it would take implement.  I actually have two home locations (I own two homes) but can't think of a good reason to use my second home location unless I want to place a cache near that location (about 85 miles from my primary home).  

[+Zargonians]

On 8/20/2019 at 4:16 AM, hzoi said:

We don't quite move around as often as y'all, but we do uproot every couple years.  So far we've had two home locations in Germany, two in Virginia, one or two in Alabama (can't remember if I switched them for my four month stint in Huntsville), one in Oklahoma, and one in Texas.

 

That skews any of our stats that are based on home location (e.g., nearest/farthest find, finds by direction, finds by distance) for most statistics generators, like project-gc, mygeocachingprofile, and the native geocaching.com stats - so we don't really pay attention to those.

 

If I need to get a real picture of what they would be, I can use GSAK and the FindStatGen macro, as FSG can generate stats based on a history of home coordinates, and I update home coordinates every time we move to a new address.  But given that you move around more often, this may not be a practical solution for you.

Thank you!  Yes, I suppose we are unique in that we move pretty much weekly, except for four months in one place in the winter.  I could leave the home coordinates as they have always been since we began geocaching, but then I won't get notifications of new caches where we are at the moment.  I didn't reaize that FindStatGen can generate stats based on history of home coordinates.  Will have to try that out!  Thanks for your input!

[+Isonzo Karst]

1 hour ago, Zargonians said:

I could leave the home coordinates as they have always been since we began geocaching, but then I won't get notifications of new caches where we are at the moment.

 

You set your notifications to whatever coords you want, without regard to where your home coords are. 

There's coords field in the form LINKY