How Many Benchmarks Have You Found?

[+WYlostinMA]

I'm sure the topic has been discussed before but I want to know how many benchmarks people have found, I don't seem to have alot of luck, but I'll keep on trying. I only have 9, but I was wondering, who has the most?

Edited April 1, 2005 by WYlostinMA

[evenfall]

I think you can keep track of this and other statistics, here:

 

http://www.holoscenes.com/special/geocac/n...tats_indiv.html

 

Rob

[ArtMan]

That very useful table only charts benchmark reports to the National Geodetic Survey.

 

If you are looking for a leader board for logs filed with Geocaching.com, I'm afraid you will look in vain. It's a feature that some people would like, while other non-competitive participants do just fine without.

 

If you're a programmer and can figure a way of extracting the data from Geocaching.com (which may violate the site's terms of use?), feel free to try.

 

There was a recent thread noting the likely top benchmarker, but it's too early in the morning for me to remember who it was. The number of benchmark finds was in four figures, though.

 

Note, though, that while it's satisfying to find a benchmark, it can be more time consuming and possibly more challenging to assure yourself that a benchmark is no longer there.

 

-ArtMan-

[+2oldfarts (the rockhounders)]

I remembered who it was that everyone thought were the top couple of benchies here on Geocaching.com.....

 

1) 'Me & Bucky'

2101 benchmarks

(2612 logs pertaining to benchmarks total.)

1887 caches

 

2) 'seventhings'

1072 benchmarks

(1775 logs pertaining to benchmarks total.)

no caches

 

& then you have a someone who only has 404 benchmark finds, 460 logs pertaining to benchmarks total & 103 caches -- us -- 2oldfarts...

 

We have a long way to go to catch up with Me & Bucky, but it sure is a lot of fun trying, even though we know we don't have a chance.

 

Shirley~

 

Edited because it is so early in the morning.

Edited April 1, 2005 by 2oldfarts (the rockhounders)

[+ddnutzy]

I'm from Sturbridge Ma. and if you want , maybe you can go benchmark hunting with me some weekend in the near future. There are still a few interesting bm's around the springfield area to be found.

Dave Aho

[+Harry Dolphin]

I think you can keep track of this and other statistics, here:

 

http://www.holoscenes.com/special/geocac/n...tats_indiv.html

 

Rob

I have logged 70 benchmarks found on geocaching.com. 25 recoveries reported to NGS. And I'm not on that list at all! I'm waiting for the April update. The whacked-out (oops) wonderful people here conviced me that I should report to NGS, and Cheryl and Deb have very gracious and helpful. So 24 of the recoveries have been posted within the last month or so.

 

Quoting ArtMan

Note, though, that while it's satisfying to find a benchmark, it can be more time consuming and possibly more challenging to assure yourself that a benchmark is no longer there.

 

Some are very obvious. And I will list some as destroyed on geocaching.com. KV4013 is very obviously long gone. With that evidence, GPS would list it as 'not found'. Ah, well.

 

Then, again, as holograph showed me, even easy benchmarks are not always that easy to find. At least, for me. KV7117.

Edited April 1, 2005 by Harry Dolphin

[holograph]

Then, again, as holograph showed me, even easy benchmarks are not always that easy to find.  At least, for me.  KV7117.

You know, when I went looking for that one, I had to park a couple of blocks up the street, and lugged my measuring wheel and clipboard with me, but forgot to bring the GPS! The description wasn't really all that helpful (what the heck did they mean by "inlet"?). I stood there puzzling about what they were describing, and then looked down at my feet and saw that I was standing on top of it! Dumb luck.

[+Klemmer]

Only 68 benchmarks FINDS so far. Working on getting them into NGS (when appropriate). Still working on finding more!! Be aware that the "benchmarks" number on GC.com is FINDS only! The holoscenes site above (which by the way is great!) is counting NGS REPORTS (Find and Not Found), except Destroyed reports (as explained on the site FAQ). I wish GC.com counted Not Founds. I would have another 60 - 80 or so!

 

Also have 468 geocaches.

Edited April 2, 2005 by Klemmer & TeddyBearMama

[+maconart]

I think you can keep track of this and other statistics, here:

 

http://www.holoscenes.com/special/geocac/n...tats_indiv.html

 

Rob

I don't know who updates this chart but I now have 90 benchmarks and the chart only reflects 19. So I believe the numbers are much greater than the chart shows.

[+maconart]

Man I need to read before I fire off. I have reported that number "19" to the NGS. I spoke with a gentleman in St. Louis that had 700. But he did not chase geachaches, only benchmarks.

[evenfall]

To be clear, Holograph is keeping track of NGS oriented Bench Mark Statistics on his site. The statistics he lists and formats are current with NGS supplied data, based on the day he retrieved it. I do not believe he is tracking benchmark hunting as a game. Perhaps he can let us in on his mission statement for that site.

 

As to gaming statistics for Benchmark hunting, I am unclear if there is any third party keeping a complete updated track. Some hunters have volunteered their own informational stats in various threads in this forum.

 

I am not sure that the geocaching site supplies comparative statistics beyond keeping each user's tally. There have been past discussions regarding the way Geocaching could provide these desired statistics, but to date, Geocaching has not altered it's way of doing business with the Benchmark hunters. I am aware that there are third party sites which keep some statistical information for geocaching, I however do not know where to send you to look at them. I came across them while browsing, and they were not that interesting to me, so I didn't keep track of them. If I knew where they were, I could not speak to how accurate or up to date they keep their information.

 

If anyone has any leads to statistical keeping information or websites, maybe they will forward the info to this thread so those interested can look it over. Perhaps we can arrive at a consensus over what we may like to see, and present the idea to Jeremy over on his Geocaching website forum. Perhaps a template or idea can be developed from there.

 

Good Luck,

 

Rob

[holograph]

To be clear,  Holograph is keeping track of NGS oriented Bench Mark Statistics on his site. The statistics he lists and formats are current with NGS supplied data, based on the day he retrieved it. I do not believe he is tracking benchmark hunting as a game.  Perhaps he can let us in on his mission statement for that site.

 

Mission statement? To have some fun!

 

I've considered capturing Geocaching statistics, which I could do for the couple hundred people I know about (the ones already listed on my statistics page), but I haven't discovered an efficient way to find the people who don't report to the NGS.

 

I don't think geocaching.com would appreciate a robot sucking bandwidth off their site searching for all the benchmarks that have been logged, and who logged them.

[holograph]

OK, you guys convinced me. The statistics page now includes the Geocaching.com benchmark log counts and ranking. Click on the column headings to sort the list.

 

Note that I can't retrieve a breakdown of the Geocaching.com counts into found, not found, notes, or destroyed. The statistics are simply the count of all logs.

 

I only have counts for the geocachers I originally identified via NGS datasheets, and a few other well-known benchmarkers such as 2oldfarts (the rockhounders). If anyone isn't on the list who wants to be, let me know your Geocaching.com user name and I'll make sure you get added.

[+BuckBrooke]

That's really slick!

[+2oldfarts (the rockhounders)]

OK, you guys convinced me.  The statistics page now includes the Geocaching.com benchmark log counts and ranking.  Click on the column headings to sort the list.

 

Note that I can't retrieve a breakdown of the Geocaching.com counts into found, not found, notes, or destroyed.  The statistics are simply the count of all logs.

 

I only have counts for the geocachers I originally identified via NGS datasheets, and a few other well-known benchmarkers such as 2oldfarts (the rockhounders).  If anyone isn't on the list who wants to be, let me know your Geocaching.com user name and I'll make sure you get added.

holograph,

 

Your page is great! Thank you for including some of the Geocaching stats for ones who have not done the NGS thing. That lets us know that there are actually others out there that are more addicted than us.

 

Thank you very much for putting this together, very interesting....

 

Look at Happy Cycler! & a few others that we haven't heard from lately!

 

Shirley~

[GH55]

It is great to get these counts. I have one reservation, more as it pertains to NGS recovery reporting than Geocahing. That is, the focus on increasing one's numbers may drive people to take the low hanging fruit and discourage the potentially more rewarding and useful activity of finding the "Not Found" stations and stations which have not been recovered in decades.

 

In addition, we see intersection stations being recovered, both on Geocaching and in NGS reporting, that are, in fact, destroyed. For example: MG0680 0n Geocaching

 

and

 

MG0680 Datasheet.

 

Verifying those stations takes more time than driving by and seeing a church, or a tower, or what have you near the published coordinates. Numbers driven competition may further encourage the careless "recovery" of destroyed marks.

 

Still , it is interseting to see the counts.

Edited April 8, 2005 by GH55

[+rogbarn]

OK, you guys convinced me. The statistics page now includes the Geocaching.com benchmark log counts and ranking. Click on the column headings to sort the list.

 

Note that I can't retrieve a breakdown of the Geocaching.com counts into found, not found, notes, or destroyed. The statistics are simply the count of all logs.

 

I only have counts for the geocachers I originally identified via NGS datasheets, and a few other well-known benchmarkers such as 2oldfarts (the rockhounders). If anyone isn't on the list who wants to be, let me know your Geocaching.com user name and I'll make sure you get added.

I think the GC count is of finds only, not a count of all logs. Also, my stats page shows 163 NGS Benchmark finds. But your page shows me with 240. Uh?

[+Black Dog Trackers]

rogbarn -

 

240 is your log count, as holograph said, not the found count.

 

This is the same kind of count as on NGS.

Edited April 8, 2005 by Black Dog Trackers

[+rogbarn]

rogbarn -

 

240 is your log count, as holograph said, not the found count.

 

This is the same kind of count as on NGS.

Thanks. I just figured it out. I thought he was just going in and getting the benchmark find count from the stats page. Instead, he's going thru all benchmark logs. It makes a big difference. But then, that's the point, isn't it?

 

I wonder if WaldenRun is around. He has the highest finds that I know of that isn't on the list.

 

As much as I love the numbers, I also totally agree with GH55 concerning the effect that this has on possible careless reporting to the NGS. Nice comment.

[holograph]

I thought he was just going in and getting the benchmark find count from the stats page.  Instead, he's going thru all benchmark logs.

Not quite that invasive! That would take forever. You can get a quick count of all logs for a user by doing a benchmark search by user name. The first page of the results gives the total number of logs for the user. Easy to do by hand, if you are so inclined.

 

If you look at a user's profile, you only see their "found" count, unlike the benchmark search results which shows all log entries, not just finds.

 

PS: I too have been worried about the negative aspects of the statistics. That's why I was eager to get Geocaching counts, not just NGS counts, and to count all kinds of reports, not just finds. That eases the pressure off of making NGS reports, and completely eliminates any incentive to make false "found" claims.

Edited April 8, 2005 by holograph

[evenfall]

Holograph,

 

I appreciate your "right minded" thinking about this, It is nice to see that you considered how you could help ease the Greed or as GH55 said, the Low Hanging Fruit passions. And thanks for making the numbers available, It looks you have managed to do what many people have been wanting. Now do you have any magic up your sleeve that will give them Pocket Queries for benchmarks? :-D

 

Rob

[+ddnutzy]

rogbarn -

 

240 is your log count, as holograph said, not the found count.

 

This is the same kind of count as on NGS.

Thanks. I just figured it out. I thought he was just going in and getting the benchmark find count from the stats page. Instead, he's going thru all benchmark logs. It makes a big difference. But then, that's the point, isn't it?

 

I wonder if WaldenRun is around. He has the highest finds that I know of that isn't on the list.

 

As much as I love the numbers, I also totally agree with GH55 concerning the effect that this has on possible careless reporting to the NGS. Nice comment.

Roger,

Waldenrun is still alive and kicking. I was with him last Sunday. He has 2142 caches, 834 BM's and 1008 TB's. Not to shabby without a gps for most of them.

Dave

[+PFF]

Great statistics site! However, it proves what my wife has been telling me......that I spend too much time on this hobby! [grin]

 

Paul