International Geocaching Day, 2022 & The Record Attempt

[+TeamRabbitRun]

Anybody know how we did this past Saturday in the attempt to set the record of the MOST cachers making finds on a single day?

 

I did MY part!

[+Max and 99]

https://www.geocaching.com/blog/2022/08/geocaching-world-record-2022-2/

[+TeamRabbitRun]

3 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

https://www.geocaching.com/blog/2022/08/geocaching-world-record-2022-2/

 

 

Thanks, Max! I looked for some announcement, but must have missed it.

 

Too bad we didn't crack the old record. I wonder how well word was put out, in a format that most people were likely to ingest. So many people without email addresses on file! The app handles Push Notifications; maybe that's a thing to try for items of serious importance like a new world-record!  

[+Max and 99]

I was watching for a notification on the app, thinking that's how they'll let everyone know about it. This (pic) is where I also expected it to be, even if for only the week prior. 

To be fair, they did give an app notification on International Geocaching Day, but would that show up if you weren't using the app? And it's not advanced notice to help people plan ahead for that day. 

Just an observation. 

 

Edited August 23, 2022 by Max and 99

[+TeamRabbitRun]

I see you have that blue souvenir; I just checked my profile and I have it, too!

 

We DIDN'T set the record, but we got a pretty thing for simply showing up, in addition to the IGcD souvenir we got for simply showing up.

 

I see that the title isn't "Geocaching World Record 2022", it's listed as "Geocaching World Record ATTEMPT 2022".

 

I'm sorry, Groundspeak; if we didn't do it, we shouldn't get the trophy. Labeling it as an ATTEMPT is a little sad in my eyes.

[+Max and 99]

Related question: on my profile on the website I hid this souvenir. But it is not hidden in my app profile. It's been awhile so I cannot remember if this is the intended behavior. 

[+TeamRabbitRun]

24 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

Related question: on my profile on the website I hid this souvenir. But it is not hidden in my app profile. It's been awhile so I cannot remember if this is the intended behavior. 

 

Even if it does what you wanted it to do, could it be a synch issue? We know some things take a while to update in the app. Too much continual traffic, otherwise.

 

Log off/on?

[+Mineral2]

It's too bad we didn't break the record. However, it seems a bit disingenuous to still award the souvenir. 

[+GeoElmo6000]

5 minutes ago, Mineral2 said:

It's too bad we didn't break the record. However, it seems a bit disingenuous to still award the souvenir. 

 

As a society we give awards for trying, not for actually doing.  

[+Jayeffel]

I tried but my iPhone went out of service and I had no way to see coordinates, knew it was in a park but that is all. Garmin may would not have  helped  but since I did not try it I will not know for sure. Time constraints after all day meeting interfered some.

[+JL_HSTRE]

112K this year, compared to a record of 126K. How much of that is weather-related, as opposed to a decline in the overall popularity of geocaching?

[+KRON family]

I'm sure the weather played a role. However, I would like to know if the 2013 record is the sum of players who logged at least one cache with a given date on a given day - or just the sum of players who logged at least one cache with a given date on any other days? There are many players who postpone writing logs to the next weekend. Especially now that many foreign players are still in the US. Is there any possibility that in two weeks we will know that the record has been broken?

[+barefootjeff]

4 hours ago, JL_HSTRE said:

How much of that is weather-related, as opposed to a decline in the overall popularity of geocaching?

 

Surely the weather wasn't bad everywhere in the world on Saturday, was it? Here, at least, it was a pleasant sunny day for the event I attended.

[+colleda]

Missed this souvenir due to being in airports or on planes Sydney/Doha/Barcelona.

[+pluholo]

Is it somehow possible to get information about nationality distribution of the record day (in 2013) and actual "record attempt day"? To know where GC get more popular and the other way around ...

[+JL_HSTRE]

10 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

Surely the weather wasn't bad everywhere in the world on Saturday, was it?

 

I'm thinking particularly of the drought and heat in Europe.

 

14 hours ago, KRON family said:

I would like to know if the 2013 record is the sum of players who logged at least one cache with a given date on a given day - or just the sum of players who logged at least one cache with a given date on any other days? There are many players who postpone writing logs to the next weekend. Especially now that many foreign players are still in the US. Is there any possibility that in two weeks we will know that the record has been broken?

 

There will undoubtedly be more logs for Saturday in the coming weeks, but I doubt there are 24,000 people attending the anniversary celebration and GeoWoodstock from outside North America.

 

Additionally, apps are very common now for day-of logging, as opposed to back in 2013. I'm not sure the API even existed back then.

 

Edited August 24, 2022 by JL_HSTRE

[+Michaelcycle]

1 hour ago, JL_HSTRE said:

 

I'm thinking particularly of the drought and heat in Europe.

 

 

There will undoubtedly be more logs for Saturday in the coming weeks, but I doubt there are 24,000 people attending the anniversary celebration and GeoWoodstock from outside North America.

 

Additionally, apps are very common now for day-of logging, as opposed to back in 2013. I'm not sure the API even existed back then.

 

126K-112K=14K but your point is still valid.

[+Mudfrog]

I've never cared about souvenirs but I did want to help with trying to break the record. I believe I read about it in the newsletter email days before but as per usual, it didn't take me long to forget. Would have been nice if a reminder could have been sent out the day before or maybe even that morning.

 

Edited to add: Ooooppps, just reread the newsletter and see that it did come in the day before. No excuse, I goofed up with the dates. Oh well,,, 

Edited August 24, 2022 by Mudfrog

[+niraD]

4 hours ago, JL_HSTRE said:

Additionally, apps are very common now for day-of logging, as opposed to back in 2013. I'm not sure the API even existed back then.

The API was introduced in 2011. The first API-based app that I used was Neongeo. Before geocaching.com supported corrected coordinates for puzzle (and other) geocaches, Neongeo supported them via the Personal Cache Note.

 

Unfortunately, like many apps, Neongeo eventually became abandonware. And when Groundspeak changed the API in ways that were not backwards compatible, features of Neongeo stopped working. Eventually I had to switch to a different API-based app.

 

 

[+njsk8rdan]

23 hours ago, TeamRabbitRun said:

Anybody know how we did this past Saturday in the attempt to set the record of the MOST cachers making finds on a single day?

 

I did MY part!

Me too! I went out to a park that I've been scoping out on the map with the intent to get 8 so I could finally get to 200. I think I found 14.

23 hours ago, TeamRabbitRun said:

 

 

Thanks, Max! I looked for some announcement, but must have missed it.

 

Too bad we didn't crack the old record. I wonder how well word was put out, in a format that most people were likely to ingest. So many people without email addresses on file! The app handles Push Notifications; maybe that's a thing to try for items of serious importance like a new world-record!  

I actually heard about it from a coworker who knows I go geocaching. Apparently it was mentioned on the local news because we landed a mega event, GeoWoodstock XIX - 2023. I might have to attend that, the only other event I have attended was a CITO a few years ago. 

[+m0bean]

Does anybody know if we at least had the second highest day on Saturday?  Or I wonder where does 112k actually rank on the list of days with most active cachers, or if there is even a way to find out…

[+Jayeffel]

21 hours ago, Mudfrog said:

I've never cared about souvenirs but I did want to help with trying to break the record. I believe I read about it in the newsletter email days before but as per usual, it didn't take me long to forget. Would have been nice if a reminder could have been sent out the day before or maybe even that morning.

 

Edited to add: Ooooppps, just reread the newsletter and see that it did come in the day before. No excuse, I goofed up with the dates. Oh well,,, 

I do think I  had seen something about the Geocaching Day Souvenir but the date did not register to me; did not connect date and day. if it had maybe I would have put a bit more effort into looking! But I am still breathing and able to get around so all is not lost.

[+ChriBli]

On 8/24/2022 at 3:31 PM, Michaelcycle said:

126K-112K=14K but your point is still valid.

14K is around 10%. There are many cachers (at least around here) that are weeks, months, sometimes years behind with their online logging, even if they are not abroad. But even these cachers tend to be quicker to log their FTFs, so I'd imagine they would make sure to log at least one find from this day if they are aware of the record attempt. So I'm afraid the attempt definitely failed.

 

It's was a bold quest to try to break a record from 2013, which I believe was close to some kind of peak of worldwide geocaching activity, and especially from August when the "31 Days of Geocaching" was on. With that in mind, I think we did OK.

[+JL_HSTRE]

On 8/25/2022 at 11:33 AM, ChriBli said:

There are many cachers (at least around here) that are weeks, months, sometimes years behind with their online logging

 

How many cachers fall months behind logging and ever get around to logging?

 

If you fall far behind in logging you are soon to quit geocaching entirely, in my experience. 

[+thebruce0]

I only just got to logging the rest of my trip yesterday. I did it in chunks because I spend time on my logs, and ECs and Virtuals take even more time. So I just got to 8/20 yesterday.  How many others are even just a week or two behind?  It's been a busy summer

[+The Leprechauns]

I'm about 100 logs behind, according to my "Drafts" page.  Tonight I hope to log my finds from August 12th and August 13th, the weekend of GeoWoodstock in Abbotsford.  You can't just write "thanks for organizing the event" when there were thousands of people there, many activities and many feelings after waiting for two years to get there.  When logging, I like to recall and write about these good memories - like meeting @thebruce0 for the first time.

 

I have no idea whether there are others like us who haven't logged their International Geocaching Day finds.  I know I found many Adventures that day, so I'm already counted in the total because the finds post automatically.

[+cerberus1]

On 8/29/2022 at 8:17 AM, JL_HSTRE said:

How many cachers fall months behind logging and ever get around to logging?

If you fall far behind in logging you are soon to quit geocaching entirely, in my experience. 

 

There's a lot.    Really active folks.  One local friend travels regularly across the US, and hits other countries in-between.

They might be a few months behind numerous times, maybe depending on whether there's an interesting person in flight.

Started before us, has over 20,000 finds, almost 200 hides, and it doesn't look like there's any signs of quitting... 

[+Mineral2]

On 8/29/2022 at 7:17 AM, JL_HSTRE said:

 

How many cachers fall months behind logging and ever get around to logging?

 

If you fall far behind in logging you are soon to quit geocaching entirely, in my experience. 

@quadsinthemudd is a very active and prolific cacher. He's been known to log finds weeks to months and even years later in some cases after making the find. I know he's not the norm and we shouldn't expect enough people logging after this date to break the record. But it does happen.

[+CAVinoGal]

On 8/23/2022 at 12:15 PM, Mineral2 said:

It's too bad we didn't break the record. However, it seems a bit disingenuous to still award the souvenir. 

I agree, especially since we got a souvenir for finding a cache that day regardless if the record was broken or not...I got both the International Geocaching Day 2022 AND the World Record ATTEMPT souvenirs that day.  It would have been nice if the record had been broken, and we (hubby and I) participated by finding a cache that day specifically, but getting a souvenir for the attempt?  Guess we don't want to hurt anyone's self-esteem....

 

On 8/29/2022 at 5:17 AM, JL_HSTRE said:

On 8/25/2022 at 8:33 AM, ChriBli said:

There are many cachers (at least around here) that are weeks, months, sometimes years behind with their online logging

 

How many cachers fall months behind logging and ever get around to logging?

 

I can't imagine being that far behind in my logging....I typically do drafts in the field (except for FTF's, folks around here can get pretty upset if you don't log the FTF while you still have the container in hand!) and then complete the log and upload it when I get home, usually with a glass of wine after dinner, thinking back on the day.  Even when traveling, my computer (laptop) goes with me so the logs can get done while details are still fresh.

 

Then again, I'm not a high volume geocacher - 4 or 5 in a day is typical (unless we throw in an Adventure Lab), and a 10 or 12 cache day is unusual.  So logging our handful of caches each evening on the days we do go geocaching is not much, and it's not difficult to keep current.

[+barefootjeff]

1 hour ago, CAVinoGal said:

I can't imagine being that far behind in my logging....I typically do drafts in the field (except for FTF's, folks around here can get pretty upset if you don't log the FTF while you still have the container in hand!) and then complete the log and upload it when I get home, usually with a glass of wine after dinner, thinking back on the day.  Even when traveling, my computer (laptop) goes with me so the logs can get done while details are still fresh.

 

Then again, I'm not a high volume geocacher - 4 or 5 in a day is typical (unless we throw in an Adventure Lab), and a 10 or 12 cache day is unusual.  So logging our handful of caches each evening on the days we do go geocaching is not much, and it's not difficult to keep current.

 

The only time I've been more than a day behind in my logging was on my first trip to Lord Howe Island when I had no internet access for my entire time there. I'm an even lower volume cacher than you: so far this year I've had 42 caching days and on 21 of those I made just one find. My average finds per caching day this year is 3.1 but that's dominated by a few group outings when we visited a bunch of geoart series, the highest of those being 21 in a day (just shy of my all-time "best" day of 22). If I've done more than about half a dozen caches in a day I'll use the geocache_visits.txt file from the Garmin to generate drafts but that's mainly to get the find order correct and make sure I don't miss any that we did.

[+fuzziebear3]

Pretty much anytime I travel, I hold all logging until I get home.   No/Spotty internet if camping, no desire to try to type logs on a phone or a tablet, lack of desire/ability to do computer tasks while on vacation, and the fact that I do a lot of earthcaches which also require research and pictures and more.  I wait til I am home at my computer and it takes a couple days after that to get caught up.

 

[+thebruce0]

If I have over 100 caches found in a day or weekend, it can take time to get to, especially if those types of trips pile up (such as this summer with multiple trips and and multiple geocaching-heavy weeks and weekends).  Yes, a couple finds an evening would be very different...