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What Do You Want To Ask Your Fellow Geocachers?


Jeremy

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After 4 years, it's about time we figure out who is actually geocaching. I personally have some generic questions every survey asks (like age), but is there any particular question you'd want to ask the community if you could?

 

For example

 

What brand of GPS do you use?

How many in your family go geocaching?

 

What caches do you prefer (check each)?

1) Traditional

2) Multicache

... etc.

 

Do you have any kids? If so, what are their ages?

 

How often do you go geocaching?

At least:

once a day

once a week

once a month

once a year

 

And a couple of open-ended questions.

 

I want to keep the survey relatively short, so we'll have to whittle down to the most pressing questions.

 

Thanks!

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I am interested in how many cache as a family as compared to people who cache with friends and people who cache alone. My impression has been that there are quite a few families that cache and then quite a few that go alone. I am curious to see what the majority is (if there is one).

 

Neat idea. I think some basic information on the characteristics of cachers would be interesting and potentially useful as as well.

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Have you cached outside your home turf? How did those caches compare to those back home?

 

Have you attended any events? How many? What did you think of them?

 

Has time spent geocaching taken away from the time spent at another recreational activity in your life? If so, what did you used to spend your time doing?

Edited by wimseyguy
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Why do you geocache?

- for the exercise

- for the sense of adventure / thrill of the hunt

- for the trinkets

- to give me a goal for hiking

- because I had this GPSr-thingy and wanted to do something with it

 

Do you belong to a local geocaching organization? Why / why not?

 

What is the right difficulty level for you? (circle one) 1 2 3 4 5

 

What is the right terrain level for you? (circle one) 1 2 3 4 5

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I assume basic demographic info (age, location, income, education, gender, etc.) will be included. It would be very helpful for potential sponsors (like Jeep, Rodale, Magellan, and others) to know who they are reaching.

 

Questions like "how would you rate the quality of cache in your area" needs to be tied to the responder's location (ZIP or something) so you could see if there is some consistency in the replies you get.

 

How about "On a scale of 1 to 10, rate you cache reviewer" with the same ability to tie it to the responder's location.

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All these questions are about what we want... How about a few about what we don't want? I'm sure some cachers aren't picky, but there are some things they can't stand...

 

things like.. what urks you/pet peeves... what don't you want to see as swag.... Stuff like that... if we don't point out what's wrong, we don't know to correct something.

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This is a good idea

My question(s):

 

Have you ever talked somebody into geocaching who never knew about it before?

 

Did you help to mentor a new cacher?

 

Do you know how many licks it takes to get to the center of a TootsiePop?

 

How many long distance caches have you done?? ie outside a 100mi radius.

 

Have you cached in foreign countries?

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Do you have a specific cache type that you actively avoid? (yes/no or list of types)

 

What is your average daily/weekly/monthly amount of time spent geocaching (including time in field, prep work, planning, logging, etc)?

 

Open-ended: Why are you/are you not a premium member?

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Do you know how many licks it takes to get to the center of a TootsiePop?

 

328, and yes, I know personally, not by word of mouth.

BTW - Tootsie Pops do come pacakged sometimes with a lickemeter... Every time you take a lick, you push the button and it counts for you.

 

 

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

 

 

How bout a simple question about what else people do with their GPSes/similar to caching... IE, do you benchmark/letterbox?

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I like this idea!

What I want to know about other cachers would be a what type of cache do you like type list. Kinda like:

Rate the following distances from 1-10, with 10 being "I would do that" and 1 being an "I wouldn't bother":

Distance:

About 500 ft from parking

About 0.20 mi from parking

About 0.50 mi from parking

About 0.75 mi from parking

About 1 mi from parking

About 3 miles from parking

About 5 miles from parking

About 10 miles from parking

About 15 mile from parking

Over 15 miles from the nearest parking area

 

And do the same for cache types as well.

Micro

Regular sized

Puzzle- simple

Puzzle- hard

Multi step- about 5 steps

Multi step- about 10 steps

letterbox hybrid

Unknown

Offset

Other style

 

Just an idea. The Great Falls group has a similar survey going on right now.

-Jennifer

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Occupation:

 

Technical/IT

Military

Professional (Dr/Lawyer)

Healthcare worker

Clerical

Environmental (Forest Ranger, Forester, Guide, Naturalist, etc..)

Blue collar (manufacturing, construction, etc...)

Financial (Accountant, Broker, Actuary, etc..)

Sciences (archeaologist, astronomer, physicist)

Law enforcement/fire fighter

Government worker

Middle management/executive

Self employed/business owner

Retail/Hosptality (sales clerk, coincierge, store manager)

Education (teacher, principal, tutor)

Other

 

Or if it had to be broken down into fewer categories:

IT/Technical

Military/Law Enforcement

Environmental (Forest Ranger, Forester, Guide, Naturalist, etc...)

Education

Healthcare

White collar (office worker, clerical, management, executive, etc...)

Blue collar (construction, manufacturing, etc...).

Other

 

Also age, other outdoors activities they participate in, single/married.

Edited by briansnat
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A couple of questions that I am curious about are....

 

When you plan a vacation do you include Geocaching &/or benchmark hunting? Y or N

 

How important is caching/benchmarking on your vacation, on a scale of 1 thru 10.___

 

What is the favorite cache you have found?

 

What is the favorite benchmark that you have found?

 

Thank you Jeremy for this idea of a survey. I think it might reveal quite a lot of interesting facts & maybe surprise us all.

 

Shirley~

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There are some good survey apps out there. Due to our privacy policy I have to be very carefult about how I use the data. I will, however, aggregate the responses so you guys can see what it looks like.

Jeremy -

 

I have a survey programming business and would enjoy the chance to discuss programming/hosting your survey in exchange for the exposure.

 

I won't bore everyone with details of capabilities, but I'm sure I can meet the need for what you're trying to do as far as collecting responses and reporting results back (internally and externally).

 

Feel free to contact me off-forum to discuss if you're interested.

 

Kevin

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I love numbers... so I hope that publishing some breakdowns and percentages will not be against the privacy policy.

 

I would like to know how well educated the average geocacher is

 

And, as you know Jeremy, a survey is only as good as the sample of the population you poll. That is why I'll volunteer (for travel expenses) to travel the world for 3 weeks to attend as many geo events as I can and collect survey information. Pretty good deal huh? :o

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I suggest:

 

How did you first find out about geocaching that got you to try it? From:

- A personal friend

- A co-worker

- A relative

- Another internet site

- Searching the internet

- I found a cache

- I found cachers caching

 

Age

- 1 - 10

- 11 - 20

- 21 - 30

(whatever groupings would be interesting)

 

Sex

- F

- M

 

Highest level of education

- Gradeschool

- Highschool

- College/University

- Post-graduate degree

 

Rate what's fun for you - not necessarily the time, but the attractiveness

(You get 100 points to use, put all 100 in one category or deal them out according to your interests.)

___ Finding geocaches

___ Making and managing geocaches

___ The forums

___ Meeting, partying, and geocaching with people at geocaching events

___ Benchmark hunting

 

example:

60

20

3

15

2

 

(If the numbers don't add to 100, normalize them with the analysis software :o )

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This is a great sport/hobby that virtually anyone can participate in for relatively free. I have spent a ton of money on geocaching in terms of clothes (boots, gc.c gear, MiGO gear), software, hardware (GPSr's) backpacks, PDA's etc. That's the great thing, you can spend as much or as little as you like.

 

So I would like to know how much money people estimate they have spent since they started geocaching.

 

I also like the time spent being involved in some sort of geocaching activity each week whether its caching, or time spent online or preparing caches.

 

How about, if there are local geocaching groups in peoples areas and if they belong to them.

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This one is very important to me: (along the lines of a personality test)

 

To what degree do you consider yourself a geocacher from a historical perspective? Check all that apply.

 

A) I have always been a geocacher. I hid caches before I even discovered geocaching.

 

B ) Geocaching appeals to me from a lifelong fascination with discovery, exploration, and treasure.

 

C) When I discovered geocaching, I went on a hunt as soon as possible.

 

D) Eh, it's something to do.

 

(or something along those lines)

 

SNOOGAV.jpg

Edited by Snoogans
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I am interested in how many cache as a family as compared to people who cache with friends and people who cache alone. My impression has been that there are quite a few families that cache and then quite a few that go alone. I am curious to see what the majority is (if there is one).

I do all three of these, so reflect that for some of us.

 

:o I would like to know personality type: Type A, B, or C.

:lol: I would like to know why this comes up suddenly.

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Do you regularly cache with a dog?

Would you appreciate detailed classes on how to properly close tupperware containers?

why don't you hide caches?

Do you like long hikes in the woods or urban parks?

Do you mind getting your feet wet?

Are you a combat Veteran?

Were you a Boy Scout?

Do you eat cherries, raspberrys, apples etc. you come across growing in the woods?

Do you give the thumb/finger on chin salute to strangers you meet in the woods?

why don't you log DNF's?

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Do you know how many licks it takes to get to the center of a TootsiePop?

 

328, and yes, I know personally, not by word of mouth.

BTW - Tootsie Pops do come pacakged sometimes with a lickemeter... Every time you take a lick, you push the button and it counts for you.

off-topic!

 

uh... how about.... (in some random grouping sort of order)

 

do you prefer caches that take scenic routes, provide good photo ops, etc?

preference to urban caches?

do you prefer caches that take you in water?

 

how do you avoid muggles?

do you encounter muggles often?

how many muggles have you told about geocaching?

 

do you have a signature item?

would you consider your cache trades fair? (take something $2, leave something $2)

 

what is your standard attire for geocaching?

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do you use the forums?

 

which ones ?

 

how often to you log on

 

- more than 2 times per day?

- once a day

- once a week -

- once a month -

 

or whatever time frames you decide you want -

 

so many say that only a fraction of us use the forums - lets see - would like to correlate that with age also as someone has aid there are more youngsters

 

also a correltation to use of forums and cache experience - let's make that length of time registered?

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No doubt all good suggestions Jeremy, but just a bit of advice from one of the cardinal rules of survey design and development:

 

Plan ahead and think HARD what it is you want each bit of info for, how you plan to use it. Easy to let the questions get out of hand, better to keep the survey as short and clear cut as possible. IOW, don't ask, unless you have a very good reason/need for the info. Sure, some info might be mildly interesting to know, but better to keep it short and simple and get the data you reeeeeealy need/want, than to simply ask a myriad of questions with no real plan for why you're asking nor what you'll do with the data.

 

Just a thought.

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do you use the forums?

 

how often to you log on

 

How about how often you log off. I'm always on it unless the server gets whacky, ok that's most of the time! :lol:

 

OK Good point - how often you go to the forum web pages and read and/or write one or more forum entries.

 

how is that for precise? Maybe too precise for this context but you are correct because I don't log off either.

 

although for some reason it made me log in today - it was running VERY slowly with errors so maybe that has something to do with it.

 

edit - that just proves globalgirl's comments above doesn't it?

 

:o

Edited by CompuCash
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Average monthly cache expenses (account for fuel, meals, supplies, park fees, etc.)

 

Average number of trips per month just for caching

 

Average time spent on dedicated trips for caching

 

Average mileage per trip

 

How would you describe the variety of caches in your area? (Give ranges)

 

How would you describe the number of caches in your area? (Give range) (wihin 5 miles, 10 miles, 50 miles)

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I'd like to figure out how much money we actually spend on average so we can use the # of caches in an area to the economic activit generated by cachers.

 

This in turn can be used to negotiate with lawmakers to endorse caching because we can point to the actual economic impact geocaching has. As they say money talks, bulls*** walks.

 

That's probably beyond the scope of this survey, but at least one economist stepped up the plate to figure this out with help from this site. That opportunity maybe be gone but others will come along.

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