COTM vs. Favorites

[JimandLinda]

Should the new and existing BOD consider discontinuing the COTM through the WGA in lieu of the Favorites rating from Groundspeak?

I am curious, since the cache nominations have slowed considerably. I know the existing subcommittee did alot of work on COTM, but, in your opinion, is it still needed?

[TyeDyeSkyGuy]

Thank you for your question.

We worked very hard and took all opinions into account when re-working the COTM and COTY, and though everyones requests weren’t feasible, we hope we made it better for all.

My vote is yes, we should keep it. We have made it a more fair contest, based it on population density, and hopefully gotten rid of sock puppet voting for good. All these changes, and many more, make it a great place to showcase our favorite caches. Besides, where else are you going to get a cool new ribbon to hang from your cache page? 😆

[zuma]

I am not sure it was ever actually “needed,” so it is probably not “needed” now. But it is fun, and it does serve the purpose of highlighting some of the best caches that we have in Wisconsin. A secondary purpose of the COTM program is to attract membership.

The reworking of the COTM was one of our successes of the past year. The membership committee was empowered to review the process and make a recommendation for changes, and they did a fantastic job. Then the board approved their ideas, and the web committee implemented most of their proposed changes, except for one change that could not be easily done. Many thanks to the Membership Committee for their strong work on this project last year.

I might also mention that several members of the Membership Committee that worked on this project are running for board this go around. Current members of the web committee is as follows:

Scrappy Scout — Chair
Cache_boppin_BunnyFuFu
kansas64
mizfit
TyeDyeSkyGuy
uws22
zuma
Cheeto
Labrat

Thanks for the question.

zuma

[Barry Butrymowicz]

Now that the COTM has been reworked, I think it is more useful tool and should be kept. Granted it could still be a popularity contest, but with the new regulations it is a great part of the WGA.

I have not played a whole lot with the favorites on GC yet but think that the 1:10 ratio is way too high. So far we have only put a favorite on about 1:200

[Northwoods Tom]

As a new candidate for the board, I would be against removing the COTM.

New to the WGA, it was one of the first features that drew me into this web site and association. The WGA is doing a good job of attracting infrequent cachers or individuals who may have left for a variety of reasons related to “life happens”.

I’m infrequent because of my Island home location. When I get to the mainland, I want the geocaching experience to be special; great location, interesting history, you name it. Sure I like to build the numbers when getting close to a milestone with a park and grab, but I really “seek” those interesting caches. COTM helps me find those rewarding locations as does the new favorites feature. Time can be short for this activity for many reasons in many different households. This is a feature that helps families make the experience more valuable and keeps them interested.

“Thank You” Web Committee For The Work!

[The Crippler]

Thank you for the question jimandlinda.
I do not get too passionate about too many things regarding geocaching and the WGA but the Cache of the Month was one of those things. I have a few caches out there that my daughter and I put a lot of effort into that we thought were worthy of cache of the month. We also have done many caches that we thought were worthy of cache of the month as well. When we would finally get nominated, we would usually lose out to the latest “flavor of the day” or to cachers whose popularity had more to do with the win than the cache. We also took great issue with the emails we would get each month asking for our votes. We believed that if our nominated cache was truly worthy of COTM that no politicing would be necessary as the cache should stand on its own.

The new changes have made the playing fields a little more level in my opinion. Yes, I have still seen some issues but overall I believe more quality caches are being nominated. I like the fact that I can consider caches in the four geographic areas that I primarily cache in and look to the nominations each month for new caches I can visit.

So far, I am not a fan of the favorites thing. I have given out 2 or 3 of my 300+ favorites because I guess I have go back and rate ones I have already done. I will do this only if I come across the page in searches and it ticks my memory but to actively search is beyond my patience. I have given out one favorite to a cache that was the best during a 20 cache run on a particular day but was it an outstanding cache? I don’t know…

[AuntieNae]

I have seen the COTM as a way to highlight great caches and a way to promote the WGA. While the new favorites rating system may now highlight the great caches, it does not promote the WGA. With the amount of work that went into revising the COTM process, I think the concerns about the process have been resolved. At this time, I would support keeping the WGA COTM program.

[Averith]

Thanks for the question!

I have to be honest here, I really haven’t done much with the either the old COTM or the new and improved COTM. That being said I know a lot of people have put a great deal of effort into improving the whole process and I feel that it is a valuable asset to the WGA and should be continued.

[uws22]

I think that expanding COTM was a great step in recognizing more of the great caches this state has to offer. I think switching to the geocaching.com version wouldn’t adequately recognize these caches. What number of “favorite” votes would be required before it gets recognized? Do it as a percentage of finders to votes? It just seems a little too diluted. Some may argue we’ve already diluted it too much already with the regional award, but considering the number of caches we have in the state, I believe more than just 12 per year deserve to get recognized.

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