Top hiders and finders for physical caches??

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Team737
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Top hiders and finders for physical caches??

Post by Team737 » 24 February 22 8:01 pm

I hadn't really noticed this part of the homepage until relatively recently - then thought - cool.... it would be nice to see the GA leaderboard, then for a minute was seriously impressed with the find/hide counts, until further investigation showed it was basically almost entirely locationless hides/finds.
Without getting into too much argy-bargy about the merits (and lack of) of locationless caches (at least how they seem to stand at present), is it possible to perhaps show a physical leaderboard?
ie - caches requiring attendance at a ground zero, virtuals included.
By all means show a locationless leaderboard, but a geocache leaderboard would be cool too.

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Now_To_Morrow
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Re: Top hiders and finders for physical caches??

Post by Now_To_Morrow » 25 February 22 7:51 am

I'd love to see that also, for both hides and finds.

Sol de Lune
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Re: Top hiders and finders for physical caches??

Post by Sol de Lune » 25 February 22 10:51 am

Yeah, lets do that. Great idea.

While we are at it, lets also do a dragonZone leaderboard for unique finds only. I know this has been spoken about before and I'll say it again, there should be no issue with cachers finding a moveable cache more than once, however they should not be awarded dragonZone points for every find after the first one, regardless of where they find it again. Find it once, get the dragonZone points, find it again (no problems with that if a cacher wants to find it again), but no dragonZone points awarded.

There are cachers not playing in the dragonZone field now because of the reluctance to stop the awarding of dragonZone points on multiply finds of moveables. It is time for the dragonZone game to evolve and change this.

We need to get people playing again. Awarding dragonZone points for multi finds on moveables over and over is not helping.

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caughtatwork
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Re: Top hiders and finders for physical caches??

Post by caughtatwork » 25 February 22 1:07 pm

https://geocaching.com.au/dashboard/au/
This shows a Dashboard for finds where the country is Australia (and then you can dive into various states).
As Locationless caches are not in Australia, they are excluded.

I will look to add a set of dZ tabs

As far as multiple finds on moveable caches, I have seen an occasional request to limit the finds on moveables but there is not wide spread community support for a change. If the community are behind that change, they need to come together and let the developers know. One person saying "heaps of people don't like this" doesn't carry the same weight as 50 people chiming in individually.

Team737
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Re: Top hiders and finders for physical caches??

Post by Team737 » 25 February 22 7:05 pm

caughtatwork wrote:
25 February 22 1:07 pm
https://geocaching.com.au/dashboard/au/
This shows a Dashboard for finds where the country is Australia (and then you can dive into various states).
As Locationless caches are not in Australia, they are excluded.
Great - thanks.... I'd vote for that to be on the frontpage, and bury the other one in the dashboard.... :)

Sol de Lune
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Re: Top hiders and finders for physical caches??

Post by Sol de Lune » 25 February 22 7:38 pm

Team737 wrote:
25 February 22 7:05 pm
caughtatwork wrote:
25 February 22 1:07 pm
https://geocaching.com.au/dashboard/au/
This shows a Dashboard for finds where the country is Australia (and then you can dive into various states).
As Locationless caches are not in Australia, they are excluded.
Great - thanks.... I'd vote for that to be on the frontpage, and bury the other one in the dashboard.... :)
I agree, lets switch it up for a bit. Swap them around so we don't see all the locationless finds and hides and use the Dashboard in the link instead.

We could also look at moving the 'Upcoming Events' from the top of that page to bottom so the 'New Caches', 'Awaiting First to Find' and 'Most Recommended' are at the top. Being able to select the area you want to view (e.g. All, NSW, VIC etc) will be easier as it's at top of the page. When it's at the bottom, it's the old out of sight, out of mind scenario.

Of course I don't know how hard that format is to change, but hopefully it wouldn't too much work....

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Now_To_Morrow
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Re: Top hiders and finders for physical caches??

Post by Now_To_Morrow » 25 February 22 7:39 pm

caughtatwork wrote:
25 February 22 1:07 pm
If the community are behind that change, they need to come together and let the developers know. One person saying "heaps of people don't like this" doesn't carry the same weight as 50 people chiming in individually.
Poll time?
I don't know how to create one here and don't have Facebook to do one.
I agree with what SDL said.

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Re: Top hiders and finders for physical caches??

Post by Luckyl10n » 26 February 22 7:07 pm

Great to see some discussion happening and happy to add my 2 bobs worth.

Firstly, locationless. From my observations the current plethora of locationless caches in their current form started as a result of Covid and provided a nice way to keep caching, particularly during lockdown. They also allow cachers in more remote areas to participate in the game when there isn't much physical caching available in their area. I still sit down on a rainy day and log the odd locationless or two, but not to the extent I did during various lockdowns. The dashboard solution regarding stats seems like it will be useful in resolving the issue raised.

Secondly, multiple logs on moveables. I don't have an issue with moveables being logged as found and moved more than once, cachers have been doing this since before dragonZone became part of the game. My personal approach is to post a 'note' then a 'moved' log where I find and move a moveable I have previously found. I do this as it is my preference not to inflate my stats with multiple finds on the same cache. I do have one duplicate, a locationless, from early in my caching history where I found and logged a second (but different) ACT survey marker which I haven't deleted because it has been part of my stats for so long before I located it.

I do have an issue with second and subsequent moves on moveables attracting dZ points. The issue really came to the fore for me when I noticed during game periods where dZ points were multiplied for short periods of time, batches of moveables were circulating between a small group of cachers in an apparent attempt to harvest points. I have heard reasons for this such as the lack of local caches etc, but I could make the same argument as I have around 100 local GCA caches here in the ACT, many of which are in more inaccessible locations. Further, if that was really the case, then why not find and log other cache types more than once? Instead, I enjoyed planning caching trips to areas where I could expect to find larger numbers of GCA caches during the game period than I could by staying at home. I know this option isn't available to everyone, but I'm sure it isn't a barrier to everybody either. I note that dZ multiplier weeks/weekends seem to have gone the way of the dinosaurs and I suspect this particular issue may well be the reason. Perhaps we could get a dZ leaderboard which excludes multiple finds?

I would also like to acknowledge the efforts of the administrators to level the playing field during game periods so that all cachers (except perhaps the really remote) have a relatively equal chance of reaching the podium. This isn't always easy and no doubt from time to time their best efforts won't please everybody, but I also note that when this happens, respectful communication and discussion is far more likely to produce an outcome everybody can live with than whingeing and complaining after the event.

I would encourage others to put their contributions forward on these topics so we can reach a consensus and keep our local game board moving onward and upward!

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caughtatwork
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Re: Top hiders and finders for physical caches??

Post by caughtatwork » 28 February 22 12:33 pm

As a temporary measure I've set the dashboard for Australia as the leaderboard on the front page. Updated once a day when the first person visits the page.

GCA was set up to be all caches, all the time with no discrimination. Locationless caches have been put down in the past by quite a few people, yet when Covid hit and lockdowns were necessary, some of the former naysayers were finders of Locationless geocaches. Excluding something that doesn't interest you to the detriment of some who it is interesting too seems to be a little step backwards.

Will people now ask to exclude Virtuals as they are not a real geocache? Or History as they have no physical container? What about moveables as they can be found multiple times?

Anyway, as I say, temporarily updated and I'll see what happens.

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oldfella
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Re: Top hiders and finders for physical caches??

Post by oldfella » 28 February 22 4:31 pm

Does not bother me what is shown on the leader board. Some of us are big into locationless and I personally, due to where I live, do not have access to many unfound, by me, GCA hides due to distance I have to travel in QLD but I have placed hundreds of GCA physical hides for the benefit of the travelling GCA Geocacher as the locals are not into GCA. I have a Geoart that has only been found by 3 interstate Geocachers.

QLD is not big into GCA but I attempt to do my bit to advance the cause of GCA. I find most of my GCA hides when I travel through NSW and Victoria once a year. What pleases one is more than likely not going to please another. i am happy with my contribution and that is all that matters to me at the moment. I appreciate what C@W and the Admins do for GCA.

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caughtatwork
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Re: Top hiders and finders for physical caches??

Post by caughtatwork » 01 March 22 9:44 am

Excellent point.

I'll look to add both. All and Australia only.

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oldfella
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Re: Top hiders and finders for physical caches??

Post by oldfella » 01 March 22 3:50 pm

Thank you.

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whitewebbs
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Re: Top hiders and finders for physical caches??

Post by whitewebbs » 02 March 22 11:31 am

I see locationless stats have changed on the front page of GCA (which I support) thanks for that. Tassie stats seem ok. No need to check. Edited comment

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