+CheekyBrit Posted October 19, 2021 Share Posted October 19, 2021 This topic is about geo-anthropomorphizing counties. Finding the county with the most hides, most finds, most favorite points, most D/T loops... I have been competing on behalf of my county against other counties. This is quite a passive set of games to play, but it motivates me to put out high quality caches that bring in people and favorite points. This is almost completely powered by the stat crunching of project-gc.com within their Sidenote: Geocaching is fun on its own and getting competitive on the numbers game isn't necessary. But I'm a nerd and love numbers, so for the sake of curiosity, here we go. Breaking it down into separate games: Most caches https://project-gc.com/Statistics/CachesPerArea?country=United+States®ion=Idaho&submit=Filter The caches per area is easy to influence, but I don't focus on this one too hard - quality over quantity and all. But look how Bannock county only needs 3 more to beat Gen county and snag rank 11. Juicy stuff. If you want, you can get nitty gritty stats and look at which county had the most hidden within them each year (or any date range for that matter). Most favorite points can be found fairly easily within the FP per area tab. It'd be pretty cool to compare against all 3143 counties but that takes a bit more compiling than I'm ready to do. D/T loops: It was a goal of mine to make the whole fizzy chart available in Bannock County Idaho where I live and I finally accomplished that (genuine ratings). There aren't too many counties that have a full fizzy. It is hard to compute and figure D/T coverage for counties; if you run a username with few finds through map D/T matrix then individually check the D/T's not shown you get a good idea. Below is Ada county, the best in Idaho in almost every metric. Finds per county eludes me at the moment. I could make a separate bookmark list for each county and then look at logs over time and chart them against each other possibly... So whaddayathink? Am I the only one who geeks out over these county vs county numbers? 1 1 1 Quote Link to comment
+CheekyBrit Posted October 19, 2021 Author Share Posted October 19, 2021 I forgot to mention, another county project I'm working on is making every hidden date available in Bannock County. This'll help locals fill their charts. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 J 0 0 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 2 2 2 F 2 2 2 0 2 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 M 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 A 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 M 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 J 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 J 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 A 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 S 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 O 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 N 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 D 2 0 0 2 2 2 0 2 2 2 0 2 The red squares are hidden dates not available in Bannock county OR any of the surrounding counties. There used to be a list of 34 of those dates but I've been chipping away at it. Almost all of my caches have been deployed on days that needed a cache. It is hard to fill the Christmas window since I'm almost always holidaying out of state with family, but I'm working on the rest of the calendar. Again, I'm making sure not to sacrifice quality for quantity. 1 1 Quote Link to comment
Moun10Bike Posted October 19, 2021 Share Posted October 19, 2021 Rooting for Bonner, Boundary, and Kootenai here! How about favorites per cache as a metric (rather than just total favorites)? 3 Quote Link to comment
+Shawna426 Posted October 19, 2021 Share Posted October 19, 2021 Ooh, stats are fun! I just learned that my county (Deschutes, Oregon) is in first place, with over 50% more caches than the second-place county. However, we have only half as many favorite points as the top placer, and are in 4th place in that regard. I'm guessing because we have lots of empty space, so LOTS of geo-art and power trails with boring micros. We do have fun caches, of course, just in proportion to more urban locations, that's my guess. Using these numbers, it looks like the ratio of FP/caches is: Deschutes - 4.90 Clackamas - 13.75 Jackson - 3.29 Lane - 6.49 Multnomah - 17.42 Without doing all of them, Multnomah is the winner by quite a stretch, and Deschutes is no longer looking as good. I might have to plan a road trip. :-) 2 1 Quote Link to comment
+CheekyBrit Posted October 21, 2021 Author Share Posted October 21, 2021 On 10/19/2021 at 10:48 AM, Moun10Bike said: How about favorites per cache as a metric (rather than just total favorites)? That, is a fantastic question. Here is what I drummed up for the counties in Idaho: County # hides # Favorite points Favorite % Nez Perce 270 2195 812.96% Ada 1647 9314 565.51% Fremont 213 1061 498.12% Boundary 151 742 491.39% Minidoka 65 318 489.23% Clark 35 163 465.71% Canyon 683 2847 416.84% Shoshone 222 914 411.71% Kootenai 1286 5287 411.12% Bonner 620 2518 406.13% Teton 62 244 393.55% Butte 276 980 355.07% Latah 290 1024 353.10% Bannock 495 1742 351.92% Twin Falls 984 3241 329.37% Madison 135 419 310.37% Idaho 289 857 296.54% Bonneville 537 1547 288.08% Bear Lake 133 363 272.93% Power 218 575 263.76% Oneida 230 594 258.26% Lemhi 67 171 255.22% Elmore 1352 3044 225.15% Benewah 76 171 225.00% Clearwater 169 376 222.49% Valley 320 645 201.56% Payette 131 257 196.18% Blaine 308 559 181.49% Custer 235 425 180.85% Franklin 133 233 175.19% Jerome 450 772 171.56% Bingham 722 1205 166.90% Adams 123 205 166.67% Cassia 372 601 161.56% Caribou 253 382 150.99% Jefferson 94 133 141.49% Gooding 359 406 113.09% Boise 524 575 109.73% Lewis 64 66 103.13% Owyhee 2302 1762 76.54% Gem 497 354 71.23% Washington 415 213 51.33% Lincoln 382 172 45.03% Camas 168 72 42.86% 1 1 Quote Link to comment
+Lynx Humble Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 2 hours ago, CheekyBrit said: That, is a fantastic question. Here is what I drummed up for the counties in Idaho: County # hides # Favorite points Favorite % Nez Perce 270 2195 812.96% Ada 1647 9314 565.51% Fremont 213 1061 498.12% Boundary 151 742 491.39% Minidoka 65 318 489.23% Clark 35 163 465.71% Canyon 683 2847 416.84% Shoshone 222 914 411.71% Kootenai 1286 5287 411.12% Bonner 620 2518 406.13% Teton 62 244 393.55% Butte 276 980 355.07% Latah 290 1024 353.10% Bannock 495 1742 351.92% Twin Falls 984 3241 329.37% Madison 135 419 310.37% Idaho 289 857 296.54% Bonneville 537 1547 288.08% Bear Lake 133 363 272.93% Power 218 575 263.76% Oneida 230 594 258.26% Lemhi 67 171 255.22% Elmore 1352 3044 225.15% Benewah 76 171 225.00% Clearwater 169 376 222.49% Valley 320 645 201.56% Payette 131 257 196.18% Blaine 308 559 181.49% Custer 235 425 180.85% Franklin 133 233 175.19% Jerome 450 772 171.56% Bingham 722 1205 166.90% Adams 123 205 166.67% Cassia 372 601 161.56% Caribou 253 382 150.99% Jefferson 94 133 141.49% Gooding 359 406 113.09% Boise 524 575 109.73% Lewis 64 66 103.13% Owyhee 2302 1762 76.54% Gem 497 354 71.23% Washington 415 213 51.33% Lincoln 382 172 45.03% Camas 168 72 42.86% Hum didn't know it was possible a cache with 813% FP. I guess there are a lot of Platinum Member in Idaho than have the special privilege to gives 10 FP per cache instead of the regular Premium Member 1 FP. You meant 8,13 FP/cache 2 Quote Link to comment
+thebruce0 Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 I hadn't thought of comparing county stats; I like this... Quote Link to comment
+Shawna426 Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 I freaked out at first when my stats (for Oregon, above) resulted in more FPs than caches, but then I realized it's not per FINDS, it's per actual CACHE in that county. So if there are 100 caches, but each one has been found 100 times, that's 10,000 overall finds, so even at a 10% rate of awarding favorites, that's 1,000 FPs, a 1000% FP "rate." It's still a relevant statistic if you want to see which counties have the "best" caches, and likely means that folks visiting from other locations awarded more favorites in that county than they did at home, at least for a certain period of time, but it's not mathematically impossible to have way more FPs than actual caches, though it WOULD be highly suspect if a cache had more FPs than times it had ever been found. 1 1 Quote Link to comment
+CheekyBrit Posted October 21, 2021 Author Share Posted October 21, 2021 (edited) 14 hours ago, Lynx Humble said: You meant 8,13 FP/cache You got me. Sadly I don't yet know of an efficient way to mass obtain the number of finds per county. Until then, favorite points per cache is the best we have. But certainly, favorite points per find is THE golden metric and that would have an absolute cap of 100% Favorite points in an area / total number of caches in that same area has no upper bound limit. This is a very aggregate way of looking at things and isn't quite the full package stat we're looking for. On a totally different note, you used a comma in 8,13 instead of a decimal point - that is so cool. Is that a mainland Europe thing? I know there are a lot of cultural variations in numbers, even algebraic numbers and it is cool to come upon an example. Being from one area and living in another I get all kinds of mixed up and sometimes forget what is British and what is American. Edited October 21, 2021 by CheekyBrit Quote Link to comment
+Astromusiker Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 1 hour ago, CheekyBrit said: On a totally different note, you used a comma in 8,13 instead of a decimal point - that is so cool. Is that a mainland Europe thing? I know there are a lot of cultural variations in numbers, even algebraic numbers and it is cool to come upon an example. Being from one area and living in another I get all kinds of mixed up and sometimes forget what is British and what is American. Sorry for getting off topic, but you can have a look at this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_separator#Usage_worldwide 1 Quote Link to comment
+Lynx Humble Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, CheekyBrit said: On a totally different note, you used a comma in 8,13 instead of a decimal point - that is so cool. Is that a mainland Europe thing? I know there are a lot of cultural variations in numbers, even algebraic numbers and it is cool to come upon an example. Being from one area and living in another I get all kinds of mixed up and sometimes forget what is British and what is American. I am originally from Québec so from Astromusiker link : Canada (when using French) use comma but now I work in Nova Scotia so Excel spreadsheet can gets tricky. On topic : Here the data for Nova Scotia. Kings is winning at 6,1 FP/cache because of a prolific CO with a lot of pretty nice cache. Lunenburg is 2nd at 5,2 FP/cache only because the oldest geocache in Canada is in that county. Halifax has the most cache because it's the capital and also the county size is so ridiculously big. Edited October 21, 2021 by Lynx Humble Add NS data 1 Quote Link to comment
+thebruce0 Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 One point that was just brought to my attention - the total caches list does not include archived caches, but the favourite points list does, so the average FP per cache isn't quite accurate, and could be quite off depending on which caches in a county were archived... But there isn't a filter to add to remove archived caches from FP list. 1 Quote Link to comment
+barefootjeff Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 (edited) 4 hours ago, Shawna426 said: if you want to see which counties have the "best" caches, and likely means that folks visiting from other locations awarded more favorites in that county than they did at home, at least for a certain period of time, but it's not mathematically impossible to have way more FPs than actual caches I'm not convinced a county with the highest FPs/cache ratio has the best caches. In my state (NSW, Australia), the county (here they're Local Government Areas) with the highest number of FPs is the City of Sydney which encompasses the central business district and surrounding inner city suburbs: yet that county is well down the list of the number of caches with currently 143: The reason it has so many FPs per cache is simply because it's the heart of the tourist precinct around Sydney harbour and caches there get far more finds, and hence on average far more FPs, than caches in regional and rural parts of the state. Whether that means those are the "best" caches in the state depends on how you define best, but for someone like me who grew up in Sydney and for whom the harbour and attractions like the bridge and opera house are just the everyday backdrop, let's just say I was a bit underwhelmed when I went there after highly favourited caches in the Cache Carnival promotion a couple of years back. To me, some of the best caches I've done have only had a handful of finds and hence a handful of FPs so they rank poorly on any comparions made against those popular tourist caches that get thousands of finds and hundreds of FPs. 3 hours ago, CheekyBrit said: Favorite points in an area / total number of caches in that same area has no upper bound limit. This is a very aggregate way of looking at things and isn't quite the full package stat we're looking for. There's a problem here taking the ratio of Project GC's Caches Per Area and FPs Per Area as, if you look at the fine print at the top of those two pages, the caches per area doesn't include archived caches but the FPs per area does. Edit - I see thebruce0 just pointed that out while I was writing this. Edited October 21, 2021 by barefootjeff 1 Quote Link to comment
+thebruce0 Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 6 minutes ago, barefootjeff said: I'm not convinced a county with the highest FPs/cache ratio has the best caches. Correct; same problem just searching by FP counts. New geocaches that don't have the visits (or FPs) yet, or rarely visited amazing geocaches won't affect the stats very much. It's just one of the factors to keep in mind when do stats analysis like this. As well as the fact that only PM users can add FPs. Yet another stat that could help gauge a region is the distribution of FPs across its geocaches. Is it a lot spread fairly evenly, or are they chunked up together amongst a few spectacular caches while the rest have none or a handful? Quote Link to comment
+CheekyBrit Posted October 21, 2021 Author Share Posted October 21, 2021 I have helped tangent this thread into the favorite points rabbit hole. A fascinating topic that has been had elsewhere and even further complicated by many great caches not getting visitors and in turn, no favorite points, like remote mountainous caches or boat required ones... GAH I digress again. Back to competing areas against one another and bettering your own county as best you can, We haven't considered attribute chart filling yet. I have put out the only wireless beacon cache Bannock County has ever known, as well as a handful of the only rock climbing equipment caches. Scuba is on my list but it is hard to find a sustainable, non draining by August location. There are no scuba caches anywhere near us and that is the only wireless beacon cache I can find for several counties. Anyone else built caches specifically around rare attributes? Quote Link to comment
+barefootjeff Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 17 minutes ago, CheekyBrit said: We haven't considered attribute chart filling yet. I have put out the only wireless beacon cache Bannock County has ever known, as well as a handful of the only rock climbing equipment caches. Scuba is on my list but it is hard to find a sustainable, non draining by August location. There are no scuba caches anywhere near us and that is the only wireless beacon cache I can find for several counties. Anyone else built caches specifically around rare attributes? Last year I hid a cache (GC8V8WA) that has the Abandoned Structure Nearby attribute as it's about what appears to be an old stone jetty whose purpose remains a mystery: It's one of only two caches in my region with that attribute, the other being an abandoned road bridge. I didn't hide the cache just to use that attribute though, adding the attribute was almost an afterthought when I realised just before I submitted it that the jetty qualified for it. 1 Quote Link to comment
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