IndianaGeocaching.com keeps trying to let you know what are really great caches in Indiana. We have tried to use the “Science” of favorite points and created a list that we update quarterly. Unfortunately that tends to discount some great quality caches that are new. As I think I have posted before, we use favorite points when we travel to find caches worth the time. As we have run the list of top caches in Indiana I have noticed a few things:
- Some cachers do campaign for favorite points- don’t know why, but it does happen.
- Some caches get favorite points because they are a challenge and the cache might not be memorable, but the journey is.
- Some caches get favorite points because they are near something memorable, like a large event.
- Some caches get favorite points because they are someone’s milestone
- Some caches get favorite points because of their longevity- i.e. the oldest cache
While I am a big proponent of using favorite points I really do think that if you only use that as your guide, you may miss out on some really good caches.
I bring this up because of two trips- one to Illinois to get “Beverly” the oldest cache in the state and the other a newer multicache in Indiana.
“Beverly” is in a nice little area in the suburbs of Chicago (you can stop at the Ikea in Woodfield during your trip). There are a number of caches in this area and with a focus on Beverly we almost missed a gem along the route. While walking out we passed by “I found WHAT at Beverly?” Sue and I decided to give it a try and frankly, while “Beverly” is historic, “I found WHAT at Beverly?” is hysterical and deserves many more than the 93 favorite points it has.
While 93 favorite points did cause us to pause and make the side trip, the next cache had virtually nothing of merit to make me want to find it. First it is new, nothing against new caches, but I’m not an FTF hound so I tend not to rush out. Next it was a multi cache, I’m not a big multi finder, and many times especially while traveling, will avoid them. This one is so well done, if I could, I would campaign to have Cecil give it as many favorite points as he could. The cache is “Zom-bie or not Zom-bie” and I would like to personally thank jaypit for making me aware of this cache. It is clever, it is well done, and with only 6 finds so far it has 4 favorite points! Beverly while having 405 favorite points, has over 1,300 finds. ”I found WHAT at Beverly?” has 93 favorite points and 199 finds.
So basically I’m thinking that while favorite points are a great way to find quality caches, perhaps with a little more work (one of the GSAK programmers could probably do this) taking favorite points and finds and doing something with math to find out the percentage of cachers who found the cache and gave it a favorite point, might be a better way to find the most awesome caches. Sadly, I don’t have the time, so I’ll probably keep it simple and just go with favorite points and be overjoyed when I stumble upon a marvelously unfavorited cache.
So what makes you give a cache a favorite point?
For me, favorite points are doled out based on my personal experience when finding the cache. One that I wish I could give 10 fave points to would be the Letterbox Cache “Vampire Empire” in Chicago (GC1A2T0). It currently has 88 FPs out of 192 finds (with 29 DNFs!). I have recommended this one to many people, and so far, none have been disappointed. This one is definitely all about the structure of the cache and the journey itself… when you locate the final, you may actually be a little let down that it’s over! LOL
My only complaint when it comes to FPs is that I believe we are granted too many. One for every 10th find seems a bit excessive (in my humble opinion). Maybe 7 or 8 years ago, when it was a real chore to get more than a few finds in a day, this calculation would have made sense. But right now, with a little over 3300 finds, we have 291 unused FPs sitting in our account. We are VERY stingy with how we dole them out, only awarding them to caches we would otherwise recommend verbally (so far, we’ve only “awarded” 39 of them). I’m not so sure everyone does this. Maybe if points were awarded for every 100th find, they’d be awarded with more forethought. Just one person’s opinion…
If you click on the favorite point it does give you the percentage, which is a better way…but still flawed.