+chapterbook Posted December 21, 2022 Share Posted December 21, 2022 (edited) Before the benchmark purge, I am looking for users with the most benchmark logs, particularly with numbers in the thousands. Not found logs, but logs in general. So far I know of: shorbird = 11,553 AZcachemeister = 4,658 VagabondsWV = 4,601 kayakbird = 4,278 seventhings = 4,277 seadog129 = 4,106 Me & Bucky = 4,062 wister6813 = 3,998 Ernmark = 3,424 PFF = 2,522 Skyboy01 = 2,426 ArtMan = 2,354 mloser = 2,251 CallawayMT = 1,960 2/3 Marine = 1,913 edexter = 1,832 Supercheeseburger = 1,812 NorthWes = 1,685 topflitejr1 = 1,562 magtfplanner = 1,484 2oldfarts (the rockhounders) = 1,465 sillywillie = 1,456 Team Geo-Clarks = 1,317 southpawaz = 1,308 Ragfoot = 1,282 foxtrot_xray = 1,271 bvrballs = 1,261 Harry Dolphin = 1,243 TerraViators = 1,200 finds, unknown total AZTech = 1,078 GeoBama123 = 1,071 Papa-Bear-NYC = 1,036 Please let me know if you know of anybody else with substantial benchmark logs like the ones above. Edited January 4, 2023 by chapterbook 2 1 1 Quote Link to comment
Bill93 Posted December 22, 2022 Share Posted December 22, 2022 695 for me on GC. About 450 of them were reportable and reported to NGS, which I consider to be the more important number. 1 1 Quote Link to comment
2oldfarts (the rockhounders) Posted December 23, 2022 Share Posted December 23, 2022 I am wondering why you would like to know this? I mean there are many who have enjoyed finding benchmarks as well as geocaches. Klemmer comes to mind and Me and Bucky who is one of those who has logged thousands of caches as well as many benchmarks. But, anyone who has found and enjoyed the finding and logging benchmarks will be sad to not to be able to log anymore of them. If you can bring them all some semblance of hope or an alternative, we would all like to know. Thank you for your time. Sincerely Shirley, half of 2oldfarts (the rockhounders) 2 Quote Link to comment
+chapterbook Posted December 23, 2022 Author Share Posted December 23, 2022 Since I learned about the benchmark purge on December 4th (all but hidden in a Geocaching email), I have been working on saving as much of these priceless logs and pictures as I can before they're all wiped from the face of the earth. There have been many challenges to this, and while I will be nowhere close to my goal, I've saved the data from tens of thousands of benchmarks so far. Unfortunately, this is not for a benchmarking alternative, it is just a means of preserving twenty years worth of data. While I have hardly searched for benchmarks intentionally, I am deeply saddened by the decision to just wipe as much data as there is from Geocaching.com. I could understand migrating or grandfathering the features, but quite frankly I find it atrocious to completely erase 234,292 (and counting) recovered logs. It's not fair to anybody, especially considering the timeframe they've given. The most efficient way to preserve these logs and pictures is to source users with the most logs, in the thousands and or hundreds. I've come across many users with tons of benchmark logs, and I have major respect for the effort everyone's put into this over the past two decades. 1 1 1 1 Quote Link to comment
2oldfarts (the rockhounders) Posted December 23, 2022 Share Posted December 23, 2022 Thank you very much for your reply and what you are doing and why. May God bless you. Shirley~ 2 Quote Link to comment
kayakbird Posted December 26, 2022 Share Posted December 26, 2022 chapterbook & all, My Excel tabulation (which I would share with direct e-mail contact) has just over 4400 PID's logged to Geocache through 25 July 2014; with maybe another 20 in field books. 4376 recovered to NGS. kayakbird 2 Quote Link to comment
+edexter Posted December 26, 2022 Share Posted December 26, 2022 (edited) Papa-Bear-NYC logged 578 benchmarks on the GC data base and likely thousands more on the NGS site. His extensive notes, descriptions and photographs, especially of historic marks such as his efforts on the Eastern Oblique Arc were certainly inspiring to me and other Benchmarkers. edexter Edited December 27, 2022 by edexter spelling 3 Quote Link to comment
+chapterbook Posted December 27, 2022 Author Share Posted December 27, 2022 Hi all, thank you for your comments and contributions thus far. With your help, I have successfully backed up the data from Bill93, Klemmer, Me & Bucky, kayakbird, and Papa-Bear-NYC, as I continue backing up as many users as possible. 1 Quote Link to comment
Blue Canoe Posted December 27, 2022 Share Posted December 27, 2022 I have never posted on these forums on the past (despite finding benchmarks for years), but felt that this topic was important enough to speak up. I can remember a few more users not listed above that have significant, detailed logs (1000+): CallawayMT AZcachemeister southpawaz 2/3 Marine I can also recall some users that have fewer logs (in the hundreds), but collected clear, methodical (and useful) data: bvrballs heelerpack - Includes detailed logs of stations in very remote parts of Wyoming that are seldom visited. I also fall into this latter category with only around 250-300 logs (all of stations on the island of Oahu, HI), but with detailed descriptions and photos. -Blue Canoe 2 Quote Link to comment
kayakbird Posted December 28, 2022 Share Posted December 28, 2022 TillaMurphs had some of the best photo spreads. kayakbird (MEL on NGS recoveries) 2 Quote Link to comment
+chapterbook Posted December 29, 2022 Author Share Posted December 29, 2022 Thank you Blue Canoe and kayakbird for your latest comments. I have now successfully backed up the data from CallawayMT, AZcachemeister, southpawaz, 2/3 Marine, bvrballs, heelerpack, TillaMurphs, and of course, Blue Canoe. 2 Quote Link to comment
Bill93 Posted December 29, 2022 Share Posted December 29, 2022 Anyone have an educated guess of how much storage the entire set of logs and pictures requires? 2 Quote Link to comment
2oldfarts (the rockhounders) Posted December 29, 2022 Share Posted December 29, 2022 Maybe chapterbook would know? 1 Quote Link to comment
+chapterbook Posted December 29, 2022 Author Share Posted December 29, 2022 So far, my "benchmarks" folder containing all benchmark pages as PDFs and all their individual images saved comes to 148GB spread over 525,079 files. Bill, your folder comes out to ~0.97GB over 4,464 files. Other examples include: AZcachemeister = 6.80GB - 30,452 files kayakbird = 4.34GB - 18,379 files seventhings = 8.01GB - 31,377 files Quote Link to comment
+chapterbook Posted December 29, 2022 Author Share Posted December 29, 2022 As far as the entire database goes, the only number I can somewhat estimate for is the 234,334 recovered logs figure. If I were to somehow save every single recovered log using the method I'm using now, it would be at least around 800GB but more realistically around a terabyte, since non-recovered logs are included. Quote Link to comment
2oldfarts (the rockhounders) Posted December 30, 2022 Share Posted December 30, 2022 So, does that mean that they are totally on your computer/s now and you can view them without it taking you back to GC to view them. The file that I have on my computer only takes me back to GC to view the files, which will not be there after they delete Benchmarking from their site?... Just wondering. My other half that would have known such things, died in January 2019, so now I know nothing about what will happen now. 1 Quote Link to comment
+chapterbook Posted December 31, 2022 Author Share Posted December 31, 2022 I am sorry to hear about your loss. You are correct that all the PDFs and individual images are saved locally to my computer, so they can be viewed at anytime, anywhere, virtually forever. Once things settle down for me in a couple months or so, I can send any amount of files anybody would like for any reason. They aren't too pretty organizationally, as typically one folder contains 100 PDFs, then all unsorted images associated with those 100 are in with them. It isn't all bad though, since the filenames are based on an image's title when applicable. This would make for doable PID sorting if you have the time and cross reference the PDFs. 1 1 Quote Link to comment
+Harry Dolphin Posted December 31, 2022 Share Posted December 31, 2022 Quite surprised that I made Top 25! I really wanted to find one named Harry. BR0400 in Georgia, My namesake! But I could not find it. Andy Bear and I went benchmarking with Papa-Bear-NYC once in the Palisades, NJ. 2 Quote Link to comment
topflitejr1 Posted January 2, 2023 Share Posted January 2, 2023 For what it's worth, I've got 1,100 Finds. Had a blast finding and logging them in 7 States. I'd hoped to find some in at least the 48 contiguous States after I officially retire. 2 Quote Link to comment
wister6813 Posted January 2, 2023 Share Posted January 2, 2023 First off, let me say I have enjoyed looking for geodetic control points over the last 18 years. I've been to many locations that I otherwise would have never visited unless it was to look for a benchmark. I will also note I've never looked for a geocache. That activity never interested me in the slightest. Besides the hobby aspect, I managed to learn a bit about surveying along the way that I was able to apply during my professional career. So a few numbers... Groundspeak says I have 3999 logs; 2237 found, 803 not found, 700 destroyed, and 259 notes. But that isn't the full picture since those totals don't include the reference and azimuth marks, and any marks in the NSRS that are not included in Groundspeak's snap shot. These were found in 22 states, and one Canadian province. All of the founds and not founds, and maybe 100 of the destroyed, were also submitted to the NGS for inclusion in the NSRS database. From the beginning I've always submitted logs to the NGS. So the Groundspeak logs don't reflect all my activity. In 2012 I started using the NGS DSWorld program for submissions. In 2014, on the suggestion of DSWorld's developer, I've also submitted logs and photos for the nonpublished reference and azimuth marks. DSWorld made photo submission easy (and maintains a log of all submissions), so there have been about 1500 photos submitted over the last 10 years. HH2 positions can also be submitted through DSWorld, and there have been around 1300 sets of HH2 coordinates submitted, either individually or as a group. DSWorld was also used to submit county corrections, and stamping information. All in all I'm somewhere around 4500 unique points that I have looked for since my first mark (JX1157) in June 2004. I plan to continue looking for marks, and submitting to the NGS, after this portion of Groundspeak is removed. Thanks to everyone for their stories, advice, expertise and occasional chuckle. It will be missed! 1 2 Quote Link to comment
+chapterbook Posted January 3, 2023 Author Share Posted January 3, 2023 Hi everyone, thanks once again both for your contributions to benchmarking and for the comments you've posted. I don't know the time benchmarking will be terminated, but by tonight I will have backed up all the data from everyone in the list above and those who commented. As it sits right now, before I resume archiving, my main benchmark directory folder is at 273GB worth of PDFs and images. They are spread over almost a million files, 941,878 to be exact. For redundancy purposes, the mass majority of what I've saved locally has also been saved to the Wayback Machine. Not everything saves due to errors, but tens of thousands of complete benchmark pages are publicly available there and those will remain so long as the Wayback Machine is there. I am sorry for the loss of benchmarking via GC, but for those who continue, I wish you all the best of luck moving forward. 2 Quote Link to comment
+Michaelcycle Posted January 4, 2023 Share Posted January 4, 2023 Great work, chapterbook, thanks for your efforts. 3 Quote Link to comment
+Hynz Posted January 4, 2023 Share Posted January 4, 2023 15 hours ago, chapterbook said: the mass majority of what I've saved locally has also been saved to the Wayback Machine I'm curious how to access it on that site. Quote Link to comment
+chapterbook Posted January 4, 2023 Author Share Posted January 4, 2023 Hi Hynz, if you go to the Wayback Machine's website, you can use the search feature with "https://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=". You enter the PID after the equal sign, and if the page was saved, then it will show you the number of times it has been saved. Click on any one of them and it'll load the page in a very similar way to how it originally was. 1 Quote Link to comment
+Ernmark Posted January 4, 2023 Share Posted January 4, 2023 Thanks for your work chapterbook - I went through my logs and grabbed the top dozen of so of my favorite logs, but I'm sure I missed many many more. I also tried to grab some of the forum topics in case they go away as there was so much interesting & historical information regarding marks from all over the country! 1 Quote Link to comment
+Benchmark Blasterz Posted January 4, 2023 Share Posted January 4, 2023 On 1/3/2023 at 12:04 PM, chapterbook said: GC, but for those who continue, I wish you all the best of luck moving forward. 1 Quote Link to comment
+Benchmark Blasterz Posted January 4, 2023 Share Posted January 4, 2023 Hi chapterbook. Just saw this thread - we (benchmark blasterz) have 3238 finds. Don’t know if you were able to archive ours, but if so, we’d love to download them ourselves. We will keep tracking our finds with GSAK and keep all our photos separately as it is. Thanks. 1 Quote Link to comment
+Ernmark Posted January 5, 2023 Share Posted January 5, 2023 Chapterbook - I'd be interested as well when you're ready. Again, thanks for saving as much of our benchmarking history as you did! As others have said here & on the GC 'bad news thread' - there was a lot of useful, edifying, & entertaining information! ...and some fantastic pictures! 1 Quote Link to comment
+frex3wv Posted February 1, 2023 Share Posted February 1, 2023 On 12/21/2022 at 2:08 AM, chapterbook said: Before the benchmark purge, I am looking for users with the most benchmark logs, particularly with numbers in the thousands. Not found logs, but logs in general. So far I know of: shorbird = 11,553 AZcachemeister = 4,658 VagabondsWV = 4,601 kayakbird = 4,278 seventhings = 4,277 seadog129 = 4,106 Me & Bucky = 4,062 wister6813 = 3,998 Ernmark = 3,424 PFF = 2,522 Skyboy01 = 2,426 ArtMan = 2,354 mloser = 2,251 CallawayMT = 1,960 2/3 Marine = 1,913 edexter = 1,832 Supercheeseburger = 1,812 NorthWes = 1,685 topflitejr1 = 1,562 magtfplanner = 1,484 2oldfarts (the rockhounders) = 1,465 sillywillie = 1,456 Team Geo-Clarks = 1,317 southpawaz = 1,308 Ragfoot = 1,282 foxtrot_xray = 1,271 bvrballs = 1,261 Harry Dolphin = 1,243 TerraViators = 1,200 finds, unknown total AZTech = 1,078 GeoBama123 = 1,071 Papa-Bear-NYC = 1,036 Please let me know if you know of anybody else with substantial benchmark logs like the ones above. If anyone on the list above considers themselves super tech/computer savvy - please send me a quick msg - I may have some interesting info for you! Quote Link to comment
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