Favorite points statistics from 2024

[+Max and 99]

I've been reading some of the forum threads about favorite points: suggestions to give us more points, asking for reasons why people don't give away their favorite points,  etc. It seems the thread most relevant is 5 years old so I am starting a new one. 

In a recent email (and blog post) from geocaching, they provided some statistics from last year.

 

2024 Geocaching: a year in review

 

The favorite points caught my attention: 

 

Edited January 9 by Max and 99

[+barefootjeff]

24 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

The favorite points caught my attention: 

 

Yes, at first glance it looks like only about 10% of the available FPs were awarded. I found myself in the opposite situation a few times last year, when I resorted to grabbing FPs I'd given to long-archived caches with long-gone COs in order to give them to new finds that really deserved an FP but I had none available and little prospect of quickly finding another 10 mundane caches to earn one. But I've noticed that quite a few newer PM players, ones with a few hundred finds and who exclusively use the app, have never given out any FPs and probably don't even know what they are. I wonder how many of those 33,489,508 available FPs belong to cachers like that or the here-today-gone-tomorrow newbie PM who only finds a small handful of caches then disappears, as there seem to be a lot of those about now too. The other stat, that the average cacher found 48 caches in 2024, makes me think that might be the case, since my 190 finds for the year puts me a long way at the back of the pack compared to just about all the active cachers I know.

 

Even though I'm just about always in a state of FP famine, I wouldn't like to see the method of allocating them change as the 1 FP for every 10 finds feels close to the sweet spot. When there was that FP hand-out a couple of years ago at the start of the Wheel of Challenges promotion, a lot of FPs were given to caches that probablly wouldn't have earnt them under normal circumstances, including on some of my hides.

[+Goldenwattle]

I think it's a good comment about beginners not knowing about favourite points. However too many caches these days don't warrant a favourite point either. Masses of micros.

[+barefootjeff]

25 minutes ago, Goldenwattle said:

However too many caches these days don't warrant a favourite point either. Masses of micros.

 

That's the Catch 22, though, isn't? Without those masses of micros, how do you make enough finds to get the FPs to award to the really good caches? More and more I find myself doing caches that the owner has put a lot of effort into and really deserve an FP, but I don't have enough available FPs to do that and there aren't masses of micros anywhere around here to build up my stock.

Edited January 9 by barefootjeff

[+CAVinoGal]

4 hours ago, Max and 99 said:

The favorite points caught my attention: 

 

3 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

Yes, at first glance it looks like only about 10% of the available FPs were awarded.

 

I was surprised to see that there were so many unawarded favorite points...but after thinking on it more, and reading the comments here in this thread, it sorta makes sense.  I have been earned 301 favorite points on the 3000+ caches I have found - I have 67 points yet available to award.  However, last year's personal stats summary said I have given out as many fav points as I had earned, and I think I'm at about the same this year, though I haven't got my summary yet.  When I first started caching, I wasn't aware of the "favorites" thing (or maybe it WASN'T a thing yet?)  I just accumulated points.  I have gone back to some memorable finds from my early years and given a favorite point, and I'm inclined to be more generous with them now, but it still needs to be a GOOD cache to get a favorite from me!!