Cache of the Month

[-cheeto-]

My COTM breakdown…

The negative:
I liken Cache O’ the Month to one of those informal polls on so many websites we see. Take the actual voting results with a grain of salt. It didn’t take me long to understand it’s a popularity contest.

The positive:
I think the most important aspect of COTM as it is right now is it gives geocachers (and most importantly members of the WGA) the ability to highlight and recognize a great cache or series of caches that they really enjoyed and for a wider audience to see that recognition. It’s a much wider audience than a forum post. And the “runner ups” and winners are all being tracked in a handy bookmark list. I am one of the lucky ones to have had a cache nominated and I could care less if it ever won but I really really cared that it was nominated and felt honored.

I say have fun with the voting and know that it’s not really meant to be that serious and let’s continue to make great nominations and reward all those creative cache hiders so they continue to give us fun things to do when were not at work.

-cheeto-

[thepharmgirl]

Agreed. A toast to fun. 😀

[Jeremy]

@seldom|seen wrote:

I don’t know specifically how you’d set up the system to do this and by what time and area constraints caches would be evaluated, perhaps it’s all too complicated to pull off, but it is an idea worth exploring and since i haven’t heard or seem anything on the subject for over a year…. consider this a bump.

I’ve seen a link to this on a couple MN caches:

http://www.ratethiscache.com

I think there might be other similar services? These are sort of like the puzzle checkers… something most puzzle cache owners want to have, but for some reason geocaching.com doesn’t provide this functionality.

[beadelake crew]

@Jeremy wrote:

@seldom|seen wrote:

I don’t know specifically how you’d set up the system to do this and by what time and area constraints caches would be evaluated, perhaps it’s all too complicated to pull off, but it is an idea worth exploring and since i haven’t heard or seem anything on the subject for over a year…. consider this a bump.

I’ve seen a link to this on a couple MN caches:

http://www.ratethiscache.com

I think there might be other similar services? These are sort of like the puzzle checkers… something most puzzle cache owners want to have, but for some reason geocaching.com doesn’t provide this functionality.

I use this on all my caches. It lets me know if I should change anything or if a cache is not as good as I think it is.

http://www.keenpeople.com/index.php?option=com … &Itemid=86

I have one cache that was in a kiddie park and people felt like they were being looked at as stalker. It is a great park so I placed the cache outside the park and it solve the problem

[seldom|seen]

@Team Deejay wrote:

I’m not sure who indicated that there was a “ranking” system in the works for geocaching.com, but I can tell you that this is not true at this time. The last time I saw it discussed, the issue of people using the rating system to attack people or pad votes for their friends caches made the topic something that GS thought was better left alone. I personally would have liked such a system, but I understand their thinking.

Maybe I misspoke. The last time and followed a thread on GC.com about the subject, there was an indication that there would be “some” form of cache evaluation added when the system was upgraded.

Every ranking system will be subject to miss-use, just as the current COTM system is. I’m suggesting that by taking out the nomination and listing of caches that are ranked highly, no one would knowingly pad someone else’s caches for the sole purpose of winning the COTM. The process of determining the COTM or COTY would happen behind the scenes.

Of course everything is subjective and very probably not that many people would be inclined to rank every cache they did. But, I think if I came back from a trip where I did 30-40 caches and 2 or 3 of them really stood out for one reason of another, I’d probably be inclined to click a few extra buttons after I logged them.

Without thinking it through, some ranking categories might be : Overall Experience, Effort to Find, Recommendable, Creativeness, Memorable. Really, what would it take to click on a few extra buttons? Less time than it takes me to log a find, that’s for sure.

I understand that this is probably not going to happen, but I so wish there were more to go on that T/D rankings and logs. One cacher’s “easiest one of the day” can be another’s “that was the worst cache I have ever done”, just as one cacher’s 4/4 can be another cacher’s 2/2. Rankings by other criteria might at least indicate whether it was worth going after that 4/4. not all of us go caching for EVERY cache out there.

I think any form of additional information would be useful, regardless of how many people actually used it and that lots of caches would have skewed results until enough people voted to balance out the votes of anybody with axes to grind. Attributes help, certainly, but even they are not always an indication of what you are in for.

Maybe i just need to add my own “rate this cache” to my caches.

At least it’s worth talking through again. I might have to dig up that old thread…

[Team Black-Cat]

I’ve seen the COTM graphic on some of the winning caches, but I would like to know if there is a COTM nomination graphic? As some have stated, nominations are probably more useful than a list of winners, so seeing that on a cache page might be useful.

[Lostby7]

Putting it plainly, COTM is lame. I don’t know how many times I have had people email me to vote for a cache I have never even seen. Ya I’m gonna vote for your cache when I haven’t even seen it 🙄 ……I trust peoples favorite bookmarks way ahead of COTM in terms of a reliable source of worthy caches.

[zuma]

@Team Black-Cat wrote:

I’ve seen the COTM graphic on some of the winning caches, but I would like to know if there is a COTM nomination graphic? As some have stated, nominations are probably more useful than a list of winners, so seeing that on a cache page might be useful.

Hi TBC,

That is not done at this time, though it is an idea deserving of consideration. However, there is a bookmark list that includes all honorable mentions.

z

[Team Black-Cat]

Yep, I saw that Z. Thanks. I made a PQ and took a look on the map and was a little suprised that it fit pretty well with the cache density map that I posted. I did the same with the winning caches and it didn’t match up quite as well.

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