Let's Do Some Math

[klassenl]

I logged on for the first time in May 2001, I think I was within the first 1000 members (even before ClayJar). I looked just now that there's 67000+ members.

 

Jeremy has been a member since June 2000. Whether he's the earliest recorded member or not I don't know but it's a good place to start.

 

So.........

 

June 2000 to January 2005 ---> 4yrs 7months --->55 months

For easy figuring lets use 67750 members (I think this is accurate)

-this gives us an absolute average of-

1231 member per month plus or minus a few decimals.

 

BUT.....we all know that in the first two years there were maybe 1500 members, and the growth has been (for all the math guys) exponential.

 

I would like to see a graph of the number of members graphed against the time that GC.com has been accepting members. I know that GC.com wasn't the first place that caches were listed but it would give us a good indication of where we've been and where we are going.

 

Edit: Now if only more of those cachers would come to rural Manitoba.

 

LK

klassenl@yahoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.com

Edited January 22, 2005 by tak1

[+El Diablo]

I logged on for the first time in May 2001, I think I was within the first 1000 members (even before ClayJar).  I looked just now that there's 67000+ members. 

 

Actually the last I looked there were over 330,000 accounts on GC. I believe the number you are referring to is the number of members that are signed up for the forums.

 

El Diablo

Edited January 22, 2005 by El Diablo

[+Jennifer&Dean]

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=60549

I think this contains the info you are looking for. One of my favorite threads!

-J

[+Isonzo Karst]

Thanks for the link Jennifer&Dean. I hadn't see that - interesting stuff.

[klassenl]

There's a lot of techinical talk in that link..........but I like it.

 

LK

[+Poindexter]

tak1 Posted on Jan 22 2005, 05:02 PM

 

I logged on for the first time in May 2001, I think I was within the first 1000 members (even before ClayJar).

 

Actually, your number 8,480 (unless of course, you changed your user ID). Jeremy is number 3. I logged in in December of 2000 and am number 1,413. We are now up to 331,282. The growth of this "sport" is incredible.

Edited January 23, 2005 by Poindexter

[klassenl]

Poindexter wrote:

"Actually, your number 8,480 (unless of course, you changed your user ID). Jeremy is number 3. I logged in in December of 2000 and am number 1,413. We are now up to 331,282. The growth of this "sport" is incredible."

 

Indeed

 

Back then when you logged into the forums, below your name there was a #, mine was <1000, and as memory serves that # refered to when you registered. Again that was -the forums- not gc.com

 

LK

[+BigHank]

Poindexter,

 

How do you find out what number you are? I'd be curious to see what mine is, and also my son's, who started 'caching before me and is the one who got me into it.

 

thanks,

 

Hank

[+Poindexter]

Poindexter,

 

How do you find out what number you are? I'd be curious to see what mine is, and also my son's, who started 'caching before me and is the one who got me into it.

 

thanks,

 

Hank

It's the last number in the url of everyones profile page. You are number 30,196 as you see here in the link to your profile.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?id=30196

[Find Now, Log Later?]

... I logged in in December of 2000 and am number 1,413. We are now up to 331,282. The growth of this "sport" is incredible.

That it has been, but let's look at "the numbers" from another angle ... I think it is both interesting and informative tracking geocaching activity by following the usage numbers posted to the About Geocaching page. From my observations over the past year, the percentage of active accounts rarely seems to exceed 5% of the (current at the time of observation) total number of registered accounts. I can't recall ever noting activity exceeding 10% of the (then current) number of registered accounts.

 

A high percentage of registered accounts are now dormant and/or abandoned; I wouldn't be surprised if the number exceeds 50% of all registered accounts.

[+Night Stalker]

So I guess you need someone else to look at your profile page to find out this information since you can't access your own.

 

[+Poindexter]

So I guess you need someone else to look at your profile page to find out this information since you can't access your own.

 

Well, if your using IE and you have the status bar at the bottom of the browser (click "view" and select "status bar") just hover your mouse pointer over anyones user ID in the forums and you will see the link with the number at the end. This works on your own as well. But you can view your own profile. From the GC.com main page, click "my cache page", login if not already, and click the "stats" image. But it won't have the number in the url. Another way is to click on someone else's user ID and then just change the number in the url. If you want to know who was number 100, just change it to that number and refresh the page.

[+DaveA]

To the best of my knowledge anyone who has ever signed up at GC.com is still listed as a member. You can't "unsubscribe". As a result there is no way to use the number of registered members to determine actual growth in terms of participation in the sport.

 

Could be that 90% of those who have signed up are still active, could be that only 9% are. No way to determine that unless Jeremy or someone else with access to stats provides that info.

 

We would also have to know the percentage of people with multiple accounts. I have 3, for example. One I don't recall the username and probably haven't logged into for around 3 years. Another I could log into, but don't anymore (I created it temporarily after I couldn't get logged in with it due to not recalling the username or password and having changed email providers so I couldn't get the info emailed to me).

[+Night Stalker]

Thanks. That makes me the 56168 member. I feel like an old timer.

[+Poindexter]

DaveA Posted: Jan 23 2005, 11:24 AM 

 

As a result there is no way to use the number of registered members to determine actual growth in terms of participation in the sport.

 

Well, the membership has grown by 237 since my post last night at 9:11est How's that for growth!

[+cudlecub]

Geocaching is growing astronomically. You now find gps or gpsr (whatever your preferred term may ba) with geocaching functions. I don't think the manufacturers would invest the time or money on a function if they felt it wasn't something that was going to be something big for them.

 

Something I look at is how I got started. A friend of mine told me about it and took me out. I was instantly hooked. I've taken many of my friends out caching and have brought 3 others to get seriously involved in caching. As our numbers grow so does our outlet of word of mouth advertising for what we enjoy. So let's not just cache, let's talk cache to our friends.

[+larsl]

I've taken many of my friends out caching and have brought 3 others to get seriously involved in caching. As our numbers grow so does our outlet of word of mouth advertising for what we enjoy. So let's not just cache, let's talk cache to our friends.

Why do you want more people geocaching? Are you sure that would be a good thing?