Stats and the numbers game.

[flannelman]

I have been reading some of the posts on the gs site, why I bother is beyond me, and have come to this conclusion, numbers are what you make of them.

I like looking at my stats because I have a hides to finds ratio that I would like to maintain. I like to see what I have done since I started caching and where I have been. I haven't really been burning it up either, only 69 finds in almost a year, but that is how I play the game.

I think the record attempt was cool. All the people that don't like it should just live with it. I don't like the Barry Bonds thing but I don't go around complaining about it.

I think pocket caches are a cool way to meet people. I have attended 3 events now and met a lot of cool cachers through pocket caches. I don't really care about logging them, but that is just me. I don't log coins or tb's that I don't take from caches cause I'm too lazy to. If you saw it at an event and want to log it, cool.

I just don't understand why so many people get bent out of shape over the way someone else plays the game when there is no competition between players and there is no reward other than the places you see.

I'm glad we have a great group of cachers here in Arkansas and can't wait till the next event so I can meet more of ya. Till then, see ya on the trails.

[Spice]

"You get out of it what you put into it"

My wife and I just started geocaching a couple of months ago. So far we have 10 finds and 2 hides.

We have not had the chance to go to an event, but we hope to. We want to meet other people who enjoy geocaching.

Even though we have only been doing this for a couple of months we already play the game the way it gives us the most enjoyment. There are times we want to go hiking and we will go look for some caches located on hiking trails.

We are already talking about spending a day together caching in Clarksville where there are several all in one area. We are hoping to take some fellow cachers with us and have lunch somewhere. This is a way for my wife and I to spend some time together and have some fun.

The numbers are not important to us, and I know some other cachers that I have met that feel the same way. In fact I met a couple yesterday that said they had been caching for a couple of years now and probably only had about 30 finds. I looked up their profile and noticed that they had only logged 1 find on gc.com. On the other hand, I know some that have some big numbers and set goals for themselves. I think that is fine too.

Like the quote at the top of my reply, I feel that geocaching is to each player whatever the player puts into it, or each player gets out of it what he or she wants to get out of it. To each his or her own.

We are still having a blast!

paris1time

Numbers can only have meaning to the person who has them anyway. What good does it do to compare my numbers to someone who started caching a year before me? Or to someone who is retired and can cache everyday?

What little attention I pay to my numbers is about two things: keeping a reasonable ratio between of hides to finds and personal achievement. In the later case if I cheat, I have cheated only myself and in the former it has no meaning at all.

[demonicangel]

AMEN!!!!!!!

Won't you all stand up and take a bow. You have said what I have been trying to say for a long time now. We are not competiting against each other. It's not like anyone is going to win a million dollars to be the first to find a million caches? I don't think so. So why is it any of anyone's business how someone else plays the game?

That's part of the fun of the game PLAY IT THE WAY YOU WANT TO PLAY!!!

If I want to go to a big city and find 200+ caches in one run... That's MY business.

If I want to hike out in the middle of no-where and take a week to just get to and find one cache... that's MY business.

Certain people that are throwing such a fit over this record run need to learn something that most of us learned in grade school, and that's to mind their own damn business.

[TheAlabamaRambler]

There is no control over numbers, no way to keep things even, so numbers are meaningless except as each individual sees his own.

I do a lot of group caching, with local friends and at events. Many times I don't even get out of the car. Sometimes friends sign the log with my name - I like that, but I don't log the cache as a find.

Sometimes I am at events with Pocket Caches, sometimes I hunt them, other times not, either way I rarely log them. But I might!

The thing is, once numbers take on some meaning besides how you track your history in this game, you are toast.

If you measure your performance against someone else's you're really in bad shape, because they aren't having the same experience you are - you may be doing 2-3 rated caches in a sparsely populated area while they are doing 1-1s in a heavily populated city.

You may think Pocket Caches lame, they may love them - either way you simply can't compare your number against anyone else and come up with a meaningful result.

In the time it takes you to find a cache that requires a five mile hike to get a single smilie I can get at least 10 micros.

Or the reverse - I cache on crutches and do most caching alone so that I don't make people wait on me - on a five-mile trail I may take all day getting one, while you're dancing in circles around me getting every one in the park!

Just no way to compare.

My suggestion is this - if you really care about your numbers, tend to them as you see fit, but don't ever worry about anyone else's!

Or, just log the special ones, ones the owner deserves praise for, or the ones that need maintenance - that's about all I log anymore.

Folks saying 'play your own game', while trying to control everyone else's is no good for anyone!

Ed

[flannelman]

Well said by all. I do always log my finds and dnf's. I like to give the cache hider the payment for placing the cache. I like to get good logs on the few caches that I have placed so far and I'm sure other cachers do too. To me it is a way to get to know my fellow cachers even if I never meet them in person.

I'm just glad everyone here is so nice.

I went to Pinnacle moutain today to hike and cache. We went up the east summit trail and were so beat by the time we got to the top that we forgot all about caching. Man what a great view!! Well worth the exhaustion!!


Cya on the trail.
Flannelman