Favorite Points For Cache Owners

[cheviac72]

I don’t have a lot of hides but the trend is certainly apparent, that non-traditional caches get a far better reception. My top ten list has a traditional on top, but it’s a monkey hide with a view!

[Team Deejay]

Part of the issue with favorite points is that the number of favorites is somewhat proportional to the number of finds. The percentage method discussed above is much better. To make examination of this MUCH easier, go to http://www.project-gc.com and look at the Percentage favorites instead of the number of favorites, or better yet, use theL ower bound of Wilson score confidence interval for a Bernoulli parameter (for you statistics jocks out there). In Wisconsin, here are the “Total favorites” Top Ten:

Covert Cache -#1
Dr.Evermore&Lady Eleanor -#2
Pike Powder Hike – #3
Boom, Boom, Boom – #4
Dickeyville Grotto – #5
Cache Across America – Wisconsin – #6
X-Wing Fighter – #7
Sophia Lives here – #8
What the CLUCK? – #9
1335 The Goonies: One Eye Willy’s Pirate Ship – #10

Here is the percentage top ten:

Take a Deep Breath – #1
American Literature: Final Exam – #2
Pop goes the cache… – #3
Am I Shrinking? – #4
What Gomer Said – #5
TARDIS / The Key to Time Travel – #6
No Tools Required – #7
The Beautiful Smith Park – #8
Bank Heist – #9
The Old Man | Gets All Strung Out – #10

Finally, here is the “Wilson” top ten, which takes into account the uncertainty related to caches with a very small number of finds:

Take a Deep Breath – #1
American Literature: Final Exam – #2
Am I Shrinking? – #3
Pop goes the cache… – #4
What Gomer Said – #5
Wisconsin Ornithology: American Crow – #6
No Tools Required – #7
TARDIS / The Key to Time Travel – #8
Bank Heist – #9
Quicksand Swamp – #10

Note that the two caches which fell off the list are numbers 14 and 16 in the Wilson list, so basically, the percentage stat is almost the same as the more complicated statistical analysis. Similarly the two caches missing from the percentage list in the Wilson list are #11 and 23. Note that of the 12 caches in this list, 6 are traditionals, 3 are mysteries, and 3 are multis.

The only problem with the Project GC site is that you can’t download from it. (I’m sure this is a TOU issue with the Geocaching API). Calculating these numbers for a lot of caches is difficult with GSAK, as one usually doesn’t have all the logs, plus, it is not easy to determine which logs are Premium members. There is a macro that will calculate percentage based on total logs, but obviously that is not the same thing.

What I have taken to doing is taking my PQ and turning it into a bookmark list (download to GSAK, then use the add to bookmark function), then using project GC to analyze the bookmark list. then I just pick the ones I want from the website and map a route to go find them. Essentially, this is “Find the best caches where I am going” instead of “Pick the best cache around and then go find it”, but it works for me.

[Trekkin and Birdin]

Dave, A friend just pointed us to project-gc and I haven’t done more than save the bookmark. He’s into D/T statistics and we like those too, but aren’t so narrowly focused. Thanks for showing another way we can put that site to use in a way that really suits our tastes.

[Team Black-Cat]

One other problem with trying to figure out favorites using statistics is the fact that a lot of caches that existed before favorite points were introduced are probably missing a lot of points.
Cool stats, Dave.

[BeccaDay]

I have been surprised by the cachers who said that they didn’t go back and give favorite points to the caches before the point system started. I suppose I haven’t been around as long but I was excited to go through my finds and dole out the favorite points. But I think you’re right that the older caches aren’t awarded favorite points from many of the past finders.

Not all who wander are lost. -J.R.R. Tolkien

[Trekkin and Birdin]

I think we’ve finally caught up our favorite points to our finds before favorites. Another factor with the older ones is that there are many people who were once active cachers, and now they aren’t. Others who have ebbed away and given up premium membership. I’ve seen more than one log on a good cache that said “I’d give this a favorite point if I were still PMO.”

[Trekkin and Birdin]

Guess I can’t delete a post…meant to start a new topic.

[The Goldie Diggers]

I just checked and I have 80 hides with at least 10 favorite points. Mine are equally distributed. When I put out caches I usually do them in series. I usually prepare up to a year ahead of time. Being a big music fan I use the idea of an artist putting out an album. I try to make each cache container fit the theme of the cache and each cache in the series all connect together. The bottom line for me is that each hide is something you remember. In other words when you see the name of the cache you remember exactly what it was. I think the container itself is the #1 reason for favorite points. Secondly are caches with a physical challenge, people really remember anything with water involved. The other big factor I see in my hides with the highest favorite points, is if it is a one of a kind cache. Something people have never seen. My top point cache is a short but unique multi. The next several are very unigue traditionals.

[youngins3]

After looking at it I have 10 caches with fav points. Wisconsin, likes me… They really like me!!!!! I started off my hiding spectrum with the pattented PNG hides. Just to get me feet wet and se where things went from there. I will say one of those made the favs list. So thank you mom and Dad for that. I did get many for my Cemetary caches. A few for the Cy Young award series I started. I would say that the more unique or the more speacial someone finds a cache that tends to get a fav point. Also reputation goes a far way in that process.

[Pawn-of-Chaos]

Of my caches, we have:

2 Letterbox Hybrids, 3 Earth Caches, 3 Traditionals & 1 Multi

PoC

[Smashing Ground]

I usually favorite Webcams,Wherigos,old caches that are still maintained and Earth Caches and Virtuals while on vacation.
my top 10-note the difficulty levels.

[marc_54140]

My hides: 7 puzzles, 3 traditionals

My finds: 7 virtuals, 1 puzzle, 2 traditionals (121 to 309 points)

Up the finds to the top 100 (from 31 to 309 points):
72 virtuals, 5 puzzles, 19 traditionals, 2 multis, 1 earth, 1 letterbox

[peach107]

8 – EC’s, 1 – puzzle, 1 – multi

[Sloughfoot]

Interesting thing statistics.
Our top ten with FAV points have a total of 274 points.
7 are traditionals, 2 are multis and 1 is a virtual.

Our top three point getters are caches that we adopted from The Lil Otter. They were good then and are still good. I wonder how many points those three would have if FAV points would have been around since 2002 when some of them were placed.

Mrs Sandlanders brings up a good point about the percentages. I didn’t know that you could use the pull down on the cache page to show the percentage.

The cache of ours with the best percentage is GC4RW9R “Upper Dells SNA” which is at 100% right now with 3 finds and 3 FAV points. All three of the finders have contributed to this forum. Thanks folks it is sure to accumulate more FAV points as the weather warms up this spring.

[sevencards]

Living out away from all the “cache dense” areas, here is my list:

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