So Who Visits Geocaching.com?

[+Team Rampant Lion]

I have a funky toy at work that is essentially the Neilson rating equivalent of the web. Since we played around with an idea for a geocache competition (which unfortunately has not moved far along - still working on it), I have all the demographics stats for geocaching.com.

 

So who do you think visits geocaching.com?

 

So here's the challenge, whoever is closest to picking the demographic profile of the geocaching.com visitor and attends Skully & Mulders event for StayFloopy's 3000th, I'll buy a beer (or two). Here are the categories:

 

1). What gender are this website's users? (pick male versus female)

 

2). How old are this website's users? (pick the single largest group)

18 - 24

25 - 34

35 - 44

45 - 54

55 +

 

3). How much do households visiting this website earn? (pick single largest group)

<$30K

$30 - 60K

$60 - 100K

$100-150K

>$150K

 

4). Where does this websites visitors come from? (pick top three states)

 

Good luck!

 

PS - The average visitor to geocaching.com spends 19.35 minutes per visit.

[+briansnat]

I have a funky toy at work that is essentially the Neilson rating equivalent of the web. Since we played around with an idea for a geocache competition (which unfortunately has not moved far along - still working on it), I have all the demographics stats for geocaching.com.

 

So who do you think visits geocaching.com?

 

So here's the challenge, whoever is closest to picking the demographic profile of the geocaching.com visitor and attends Skully & Mulders event for StayFloopy's 3000th, I'll buy a beer (or two). Here are the categories:

 

Good luck!

 

PS - The average visitor to geocaching.com spends 19.35 minutes per visit.

1). What gender are this website's users? (pick male versus female) Male

 

2). How old are this website's users? (pick the single largest group)

18 - 24

25 - 34

35 - 44 X

45 - 54

55 +

 

3). How much do households visiting this website earn? (pick single largest group)

<$30K

$30 - 60K

$60 - 100KX

$100-150K

>$150K

 

4). Where does this websites visitors come from? (pick top three states)

California

Texas

Florida...or Washington...guess I'll go with Florida

[+Team DEMP]

1). What gender are this website's users? (pick male versus female): Male

 

2). How old are this website's users? (pick the single largest group): 25 - 34

 

3). How much do households visiting this website earn? (pick single largest group): $30 - 60K Since there's a lot of folks from the midwest and the south

 

4). Where does this websites visitors come from? (pick top three states): CA, NY, NJ

 

Edit: Removed the QUOTE from the original post and colored the answers.

Edited September 10, 2004 by Team DEMP

[+retphoto]

Here are the categories:

 

1). What gender are this website's users? (pick male versus female) MALE

 

2). How old are this website's users? (pick the single largest group)

18 - 24

25 - 34

35 - 44

45 - 54

55 + 55 plus....!

 

3). How much do households visiting this website earn? (pick single largest group)

<$30K

$30 - 60K comfortable....

$60 - 100K

$100-150K

>$150K

 

4). Where does this websites visitors come from? (pick top three states)

Washington, Califoronia and Pennsylvania

Good luck!

 

PS - The average visitor to geocaching.com spends 19.35 minutes per visit.

Here are the categories:

 

1). What gender are this website's users? (pick male versus female) MALE

 

2). How old are this website's users? (pick the single largest group)

18 - 24

25 - 34

35 - 44

45 - 54

55 + 55 plus....!

 

3). How much do households visiting this website earn? (pick single largest group)

<$30K

$30 - 60K comfortable....

$60 - 100K

$100-150K

>$150K

 

4). Where does this websites visitors come from? (pick top three states)

Washington, Califoronia and Pennsylvania

Good luck!

 

PS - The average visitor to geocaching.com spends 19.35 minutes per visit.

[+JoiseyGirl]

1). What gender are this websit's users? (pick male v. female) female

 

2). How old are this website's users? (pick single largest group).

 

35 - 44 X

 

 

3). How much do households visiting this website earn?(pick single largest group)

 

$30 - $60K X

 

4). Where does this websites visitors come from? (pick top three states)

 

New Hampshire

New Jersey

Florida

[avroair]

MALE

35-44

$60 - 100K

California

Oregon

Washington

[+JMBella]

1) Male

2) 35 - 44

3) <$30

4) NJ, CA, TN

[+Riddlers]

1). What gender male

 

2). How old are this website's users?

55 +

 

3). How much do households visiting this website earn? $30 - 60K

 

4). Where (pick top three states)

Washington, Oregon, Pennsylvania

[+Team Bam Bam]

Male

35-44y/o

$60-100k

NJ, Calif., Texas

[+Skully & Mulder et al.]

MALE

35-44

$60 - 100K

California

Oregon

Washington

When there are malt beverages at stake sometimes it just does not pay to go out on a limb - so I'll go with Avroair on this one (I know the reward is important to him - so I'm sure he did his reasearch). It's really kind of the way I went with Squealy's guess on the date of Floppy's 3000th find.

 

MALE

35-44

$60 - 100K

California

Oregon

Washington

[+BMSquared]

PS - The average visitor to geocaching.com spends 19.35 minutes per visit.

Does that average include Avroair and Brian Snat? Because according to my calculations... if Brian is on 24X7 and Avroair is presumably logged in on three different computers and a PDA, than the rest of us only spend about 45 seconds per visit.

 

Just an observation.

[avroair]

Does that average include Avroair

 

Why be average?!? Come on lucky answers, come to papa...

[+Team DEMP]

PS - The average visitor to geocaching.com spends 19.35 minutes per visit.

Does that average include Avroair and Brian Snat? Because according to my calculations... if Brian is on 24X7 and Avroair is presumably logged in on three different computers and a PDA, than the rest of us only spend about 45 seconds per visit.

 

Just an observation.

Actually, I spend very little time on geocaching.com. I do spend a lot of time at Groundspeak.com which is the forums. Unless they really meant both combined. All of the times spent at gc.com is printing cache pages or logging finds. I don't us gc.com to determine which caches to go after.

[+lakelady]

1.) Male; 2.) 45-54, 3.) 60-100K, 4.) NJ, CA and PA

[+macatac1961]

MALE

35-44

$60 - 100K

Ganymede,

Pluto and somewhere in the Kuiper Belt

.

[+lostinjersey]

1). What gender are this website's users? Male, with some cross dressers (myself, possibly BrianSnat included, if our abatars are any indication)

2). How old are this website's users? 35 - 44

3). How much do households visiting this website earn? 60-100K

4). Where does this websites visitors come from?

NJ, CA, I think are obvious as they are cache rich. I'll also include NY as well

Edited September 12, 2004 by Gwho

[+Team Rampant Lion]

Just an observation.

Actually, I spend very little time on geocaching.com. I do spend a lot of time at Groundspeak.com which is the forums. Unless they really meant both combined. All of the times spent at gc.com is printing cache pages or logging finds. I don't us gc.com to determine which caches to go after.

I'll see if I can pull up Groundspeak.com on Monday. If it has enough visitors, I'll open up a second challenge.

 

For this challenge, I'll announce the results two weeks from today (Sunday, September 26). That'll allow us all a week and a half to enjoy our identity crises before we show up at the Skully & Mulder Stay Floppy 3000th Event.

[+HartClimbs]

MALE

35-44

$60 - 100K

California

Oregon

Washington

When there are malt beverages at stake sometimes it just does not pay to go out on a limb - so I'll go with Avroair on this one (I know the reward is important to him - so I'm sure he did his reasearch). It's really kind of the way I went with Squealy's guess on the date of Floppy's 3000th find.

 

MALE

35-44

$60 - 100K

California

Oregon

Washington

I'm with Helmut on this and would bet Avro's done his homework.

 

Does this mean that if we're right - we have to split a beer three ways?

[+JMBella]

MALE

35-44

$60 - 100K

California

Oregon

Washington

When there are malt beverages at stake sometimes it just does not pay to go out on a limb - so I'll go with Avroair on this one (I know the reward is important to him - so I'm sure he did his reasearch). It's really kind of the way I went with Squealy's guess on the date of Floppy's 3000th find.

 

MALE

35-44

$60 - 100K

California

Oregon

Washington

I'm with Helmut on this and would bet Avro's done his homework.

 

Does this mean that if we're right - we have to split a beer three ways?

Yes, but you each get your own straw.

[+JMBella]

So what's the answers?

[+Team DEMP]

So what's the answers?

See the post just above - http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...ic=79774&st=0

 

2 weeks from today.

[+Skully & Mulder et al.]

So what's the answers? 

See the post just above - http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...ic=79774&st=0

 

2 weeks from today.

Joe is still worried about the spider.

[+JMBella]

So what's the answers? 

See the post just above - http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...ic=79774&st=0

 

2 weeks from today.

Joe is still worried about the spider.

It was BIG!

[+Team Rampant Lion]

I checked the stats again today and one major demographic had changed !

 

So I figure I better post the methodology so it's clear. It's a weekly report so I will average the reports for the month of August and first two weeks of September (6 weeks). That way we will have a good solid average. For each right answer - gender, age, income and each state (total = 3) - you will get one point. Potential total score = 6.

 

In case of a tie, we'll hold a footrace to my Wrecked Jeep cache. Whoever doesn't get eaten by the bear wins .

 

I'll post everyone's scores, Sunday, September 26th.

[+Tick Magnets]

male 35-44 60-100 ny nj fl

thats my guess!

[+Quoddy]

1. Male

 

2. 35-44

 

3. 60-100k

 

4. CA/TX/MI

[+Team Rampant Lion]

Here are the demographics:

 

GENDER

Male 55.86% WINNER

Female 44.14%

 

AGE

18-24 5.49%

25-34 16.34%

35-44 34.04% WINNER

45-54 13.82%

55+ 30.31%

 

INCOME

<30K 23.30%

30-60K 26.43%

60-100K 34.59% WINNER

100-150K 5.46%

>150K 10.22%

 

TOP 3 STATES

New York 10.78% WINNER

California 7.49% WINNER

Texas 6.59% WINNER

 

I will tally the scores and post them on Sunday as promised. In case of a tie, I will rank order the third state chosen (whichever are NOT in the top 3 above) and whoever chose the largest state in terms of visitor traffic will be our winner.

 

PS - Many of you chose NJ as one of your top three states. FYI - we account for only 0.83% of geocaching.com total visitor traffic.

Edited September 24, 2004 by Team Rampant Lion

[+briansnat]

TOP 3 STATES

New York 10.78% WINNER

California 7.49% WINNER

Texas 6.59% WINNER

 

New York? I'd have thought Cal would be the hands down winner. I figured the states with the most caches (Cal, Texas and FL) would generate the most visits. Guess I did pretty well, only missing NY and nailing the rest.

[+Mopar]

I don't really know how accurate any of that data is. In reality, I guess the topic should be "who visits geocaching.com AND filled out a survey and installed tracking software belonging to the company TRL works for".

The only company that could accurately compile those sorts of stats would be geocaching.com themselves. Since even they did not survey me on any of that info when I signed up, it's certainly not coming from them. I'd be curious to know just what company is involved here, and how many actual geocachers were tracked. My guess is a company like Alexa that aggregates web-browsing data of people using their toolbar. To me that means the data is probable skewed right from the start, since anyone smart enough not to install spyware is not in those stats. Yes? No?

[+Team Rampant Lion]

I don't really know how accurate any of that data is. In reality, I guess the topic should be "who visits geocaching.com AND filled out a survey and installed tracking software belonging to the company TRL works for".

The only company that could accurately compile those sorts of stats ...

Wow! What's with all that negative energy over a goofy challenge for a beer?

 

FYI - only the gender, age and income come from the Neilson type survey panel approach (approximately 2 million individuals participate). The location of orgin is electronically tracked so it is likely the MOST accurate information of the bunch. Remember that within each time frame a visitor is a vistor only ONCE, it doesn't matter if they visit 50 times. The only bias in the information is population bias - more people, more opportunity for visitors.

 

As a concerned fellow geocacher, I would recommend that you review your assumptions about the reality of the internet if you believe it takes special tracking software or spyware to figure all this out. Computers leave lots of trails and there are a lot of people out there watching what you are doing...

[+Mopar]

I don't really know how accurate any of that data is. In reality, I guess the topic should be "who visits geocaching.com AND filled out a survey and installed tracking software belonging to the company TRL works for".

The only company that could accurately compile those sorts of stats ...

Wow! What's with all that negative energy over a goofy challenge for a beer?

 

FYI - only the gender, age and income come from the Neilson type survey panel approach (approximately 2 million individuals participate). The location of orgin is electronically tracked so it is likely the MOST accurate information of the bunch. Remember that within each time frame a visitor is a vistor only ONCE, it doesn't matter if they visit 50 times. The only bias in the information is population bias - more people, more opportunity for visitors.

 

As a concerned fellow geocacher, I would recommend that you review your assumptions about the reality of the internet if you believe it takes special tracking software or spyware to figure all this out. Computers leave lots of trails and there are a lot of people out there watching what you are doing...

Naw, please don't confuse skepticism and concern for factual info with negativity.

As far as the survey panel, what percentage of those 2 million are geocachers. Of those, what percent live alone. Of THOSE, what percent never surf the internet from multiple locations or dynamic IP addresses? As far as the rest of the info goes:

I would suppose that geocachers in general are a bit more net savy then the general internet user. They are more likely to be aware of spyware and tracking cookies then the general public. I can say with certainty I am not the only cacher who blocks most cookies, who never connects to the net unless he is behind a firewall, and who often surfs from behind a proxy.

Please don't be concerned about my internet well-being. I am only as trackable as I allow. My firewall blacklists several thousand websites and my browser only accepts cookies from sites I trust.

[+Mopar]

TOP 3 STATES

    New York    10.78%      WINNER

    California      7.49%      WINNER

    Texas            6.59%      WINNER

 

PS - Many of you chose NJ as one of your top three states.  FYI - we account for only 0.83% of geocaching.com total visitor traffic.

Like this: anyone can see this info HAS to be wrong.

California has over 15,000 caches placed (as of Aug, when Buxley's was no longer able to compile stats); or over 15% of all the caches in the world.

Texas had close to 6,000, or 6% of the world's caches.

New York only about 3,700 caches at that time, or 3.8% of the caches in the world.

 

I find it pretty unlikely that despite CA having 4 times the amount of caches (a pretty good indicator of how many cachers there are in my book) as NY, you claim NY has 50% more active cachers then CA.

 

[uPDATE]

A PQ shows 105 new caches placed in CA in the last 7 days.

TX had 81 new caches

NY had 35.

 

Please, it's obvious your data is flawed.

Edited September 25, 2004 by Mopar

[+briansnat]

Please, it's obvious your data is flawed.

 

Who cares as long as I win.

[+Mopar]

Please, it's obvious your data is flawed.

 

Who cares as long as I win.

SHHHHH!!!!! I'm trying to fix it so you DO win, ya silly pixie!

[+Team Rampant Lion]

Please, it's obvious your data is flawed.

I'll let you in on a secret, the numbers have nothing to do with how many active geocachers there are or where caches are hidden. While active geocachers will count for the most visits, they will not represent the most visitors.

 

Since geocaching.com is involved in active promotional programs with Jeep, Backpacking magazine, the GPS manufacturers, and others; they are also using search terms such as "GPS" to draw people to the site; they are drawing a large number of people to investigate the site who are not active geocachers.

 

On top of that, we all know that we only geocache in our own state. Heaven forbid a New Yorker actually come to New Jersey.

[+Mxyzptlk]

On top of that, we all know that we only geocache in our own state.  Heaven forbid a New Yorker actually come to New Jersey.

I guess I'm a little unclear about how these stats are generated (not that I care too much, but I am a little curious). Are the stats generated from voluntary 'spyware' that is installed on users' computers?

Edited September 25, 2004 by Mxyzptlk

[+Crouching Hiker, Hidden Cache]

On top of that, we all know that we only geocache in our own state.  Heaven forbid a New Yorker actually come to New Jersey.

 

True, what kind of idiot would purposely leave NY to geocache in NJ. They have bears and rattlesnakes.... and Briansnat.

Edited September 25, 2004 by Crouching Hiker, Hidden Cache

[+Mxyzptlk]

On top of that, we all know that we only geocache in our own state.  Heaven forbid a New Yorker actually come to New Jersey.

 

True, what kind of idiot would purposely leave NY to geocache in NJ. They have bears and rattlesnakes.... and Briansnat.

I have cached in NY but I accessed the website in my home state of NJ to get the NY cache info. That leads me to believe the notion people caching in other states skewing the data towards states with less caches/cachers is a faulty assumption. BUT as TRL has mentioned there are many Geocaching promotions out there that drew non-cachers to the site which could easily be tracked and may have padded the numbers for states with less caches/cachers.

 

As Mopar mentioned the Geocaching community as a whole is probably more net-savy than the general public and is aware of (and counters) web tracking techniques.

Edited September 25, 2004 by Mxyzptlk

[+briansnat]

I'll let you in on a secret, the numbers have nothing to do with how many active geocachers there are or where caches are hidden.

 

I guess that's how New York snuck in. I figured visits from non geocachers would be minimal, so it would follow that the states with the most cache activity would have the most visitors. I forgot about the Jeep promotion and things like that.

[+Team Rampant Lion]

Here are are the final results. A total of 15 people made a guess and at the end of the tally we have a four way tie. Remember that a point each was provided for correct guesses on gender, age category, income category. One point for each of the top three states of origin was also awarded. Here are the scores:

 

briansnat 5

Gwho 5

TeamBamBam 5

Quoddy 5

avroair 4

HartClimbs 4

LakeLady 4

Skully & Mulder 4

Tick Magnets 4

JMBella 3

macatac1961 3

Team Demp 3

retphoto 2

JoiseyGirl 1

Riddlers 1

 

Rather than risk getting someone else's knickers in a twist about how results were determined , I have abandoned the tie breaker approach to determine a single winner. So I will buy a beer for all four of the top scoring individuals provided they show up at Skully & Mulder's October 5 event for StayFloppy.

 

Congratulations!

Edited September 26, 2004 by Team Rampant Lion

[+briansnat]

Make mine a Guinness!

[+Worf's Pack]

The reason NY has High numbers and NJ low . Is that NJ cachers do all their searching

while at work in NY.

[avroair]

dadgum it! I need to stop printing out the cache pages from work....