[Danie Viljoen]

Cache sizes published in 2011:

Micro: 1337 (559 in 2010, 139% more than 2010)
Small: 604 (657 in 2010, 8% less than 2010)
Not chosen: 170 (134 in 2010, 27% more than 2010)
Regular: 144 (162 in 2010, 11% less than 2010)
Other: 112 (78 in 2010, 44% more than 2010)
Large: 23 (14 in 2010, 64% more than 2010)

The trend towards smaller caches continued, with 56% of all new caches in 2011 being micros. It is good, however, to see the increase in Large caches.

[Danie Viljoen]

Top cache planters for 2011:

1. GEO936: 114 new caches
2. NotBlonde: 75 new caches
3. louwtjievdw: 73 new caches
4. TechnoNut: 70 new caches
5. timmo1977: 66 new caches
6. Wazat: 57 new caches
7. HeinG: 49 new caches
8. Fish Eagle: 45 new caches
9. Happy Hunters SA: 42 new caches
10. MadSons: 41 new caches

A total of 335 cachers published 2390 new caches in South Africa during 2011, for an average of 7.1 cache/planter.

[Danie Viljoen]

Most Large caches published in 2011:
1. besem: 6
2. Zambesiboy: 5
3. The-Eaves: 2

Most Regular caches published in 2011:
1. TechnoNut: 6
2. Villiagegoers: 4
2. brianhfox: 4
2. Happy Hunters SA: 4
2. Joy-R-Us: 4

Most Small caches published in 2011:
1. TechnoNut: 21
2. SawaSawa: 19
3. Zambesiboy: 16
3. louwtjievdw: 16

Most Micros published in 2011:
1. GEO936: 81
2. NotBlonde: 65
2. timmo1977: 65

Most Multi-caches published in 2011:
1. TechnoNut: 5
2. iPajero: 3
2. Tara and John: 3
2. CapeDoc: 3

Most Earth caches published in 2011:
1. iPajero: 4
2. Bouts777: 2

Most Events published in 2011:
1. GEO936: 11
1. Wormgeocash: 11
3. TechnoNut: 6
4. gerhardoosMPsa: 5
4. Jors: 5

[Danie Viljoen]

Most active cachers in Africa in 2011:

1. iPajero: 2104 finds
2. MadSons: 1628 finds
3. B and C Inc: 1231 finds
4. rodnjoan: 1227 finds
5. Leon St: 1188 finds
6. Danie Viljoen: 1135 finds
7. Wazat: 1113 finds
8. NotBlonde: 1077 finds
9. BAKGAT: 1073 finds
10. Happy Hunters SA: 1057 finds

[Danie Viljoen]

Most difficult caches found in Africa in 2011:
The following cachers found the most caches with Difficulty and/or Terrain of at least 3:

1. iPajero: 270
2. AndyT1: 244
3. brianhfox: 233
4. Zambesiboy: 183
5. MadSons: 147

[Danie Viljoen]

Finds per province in 2011:

Gauteng: 41911 (40.6% of the total, 129% more than in 2010)
Western Cape: 28814 (27.9% of the total, 50% more than in 2010)
KZN: 12235 (11.8% of the total, 26% more than in 2010)
Free State: 5726 (5.5% of the total, 16% less than in 2010)
Eastern Cape: 5011 (4.9% of the total, 21% more than in 2010)
North West: 4060 (3.9% of the total, 160% more than in 2010)
Mpumalanga: 3383 (3.3% of the total, 12% less than in 2010)
Limpopo: 1322 (1.3% of the total, 12% more than in 2010)
Northern Cape: 804 (0.8% of the total, 27% more than in 2010)
Total: 103266 (58% more than in 2010)

[Danie Viljoen]

Most finds per province in 2011:
Gauteng:
1. MadSons: 1274
2. Leon St: 1037
3. rodnjoan: 1014

Western Cape:
1. AndyT1: 608
2. brianhfox: 601
3. Zambesiboy: 537

KZN:
1. hovelj: 472
2. TechnoNut: 414
3. zombieZA: 305

Free State:
1. Witelse: 196
2. BAKGAT: 170
3. ScottScott: 165

Eastern Cape:
1. Cacher-SA: 141
2. iPajero: 137
3. besem: 128

North West:
1. Thrips: 93
2. MadSons: 91
3. Happy Hunters SA: 74

Mpumalanga:
1. iPajero: 113
2. Bouts777: 101
3. B and C Inc: 93

Limpopo:
1. Leon St: 75
2. MadSons: 70
3. Farm girls and Dad: 65

Northern Cape:
1. Dr.Q and the Bandit: 31
2. iPajero: 27
3. Littleclan: 18

Rest of Africa:
1. iPajero: 82
2. MadSons: 66
3. KundH: 61

[Danie Viljoen]

Most found caches in Africa in 2011:

1. GC2GG2C Nobel Square, Cape Trio, Western Cape: 187 finds
2. GC2C5PN Makadi Bay, Team Heyder, Egypt: 155 finds
3. GC2AA8R SS: RMS Athens, paddawan, Western Cape: 151 finds
4. GCMYYZ Table Top Trove, Richter Family, Western Cape: 139 finds
5. GC2EE3W SS: De Visch, paddawan, Western Cape: 129 finds
6. GC2BCFP SS: Seafarer, paddawan, Western Cape: 117 finds
7. GC2JMX3 Gate to knowhere, fspirit, Western Cape: 115 finds
8. GC1956A Valley of the Kings, marzcz, Egypt: 114 finds
9. GC1DB1F Marracache, the Mailers, Morocco: 111 finds
9. GC2FX23 College of knowledge, jayyid sayyad, Egypt: 111 finds

[Danie Viljoen]

Number of new cachers in Africa, per year:


63% of all finds in South Africa in 2011 were made by cachers with less than one year experience.

This post has been edited by Danie Viljoen: 03 January 2012 - 04:20 AM

[Danie Viljoen]

Number of cachers in 2011:
6710 cachers found a total of 115950 caches in Africa during 2011.
If one defines an active cacher as one who has found at least 12 caches (1/month) during the previous year, then there are currently 1262 active cachers in Africa.

3373 cachers found a total of 103266 caches in South Africa during 2011. Average number of finds per cacher: 30.6
Of these, 1083 are active. Average number of finds per active cacher: 87.2

[Danie Viljoen]

Fastest 2000 finds in Africa:
1. iPajero: 243 days
2. MadSons: 291 days
3. Leon St: 702 days
4. Danie Viljoen: 754 days
5. gerhardoosMPsa: 931 days
6. rodnjoan: 1275 days
7. Antron: 1288 days
8. Wormgeocash: 1306 days
9. Wazat: 1366 days
10. Tricky Vicky & Mickey: 1532 days
11. cache-fan: 1665 days
12. cownchicken: 1757 days
13. Fish Eagle: 2059 days

[Danie Viljoen]

Fastest 1000 finds in Africa:
45 cachers have found at least 1000 African caches. The 10 fastest are:
1. iPajero: 20 days
2. MadSons: 93 days
3. Happy Hunters SA: 130 days
4. NotBlonde: 136 days
5. B and C Inc: 174 days
6. Wazat: 179 days
7. Leon St: 190 days
8. gerhardoosMPsa: 211 days
9. BAKGAT: 225 days
10. Danie Viljoen: 227 days

[Danie Viljoen]

Most finds in Africa:
1. iPajero: 5820
2. Tricky Vicky & Mickey: 2796
3. cownchicken: 2728
4. cache-fan: 2655
5. gerhardoosMPsa: 2646
6. Danie Viljoen: 2643
7. rodnjoan: 2353
8. Leon St: 2264
9. MadSons: 2220
10. Fish Eagle: 2144

[Danie Viljoen]

Top cache planters in Africa:
1. Fish Eagle: 228 caches
2. louwtjievdw: 212 caches
3. GEO936: 172 caches
4. CrystalFairy: 166 caches
5. Wazat: 160 caches
6. NotBlonde: 141 caches
7. iPajero: 125 caches
8. paddawan: 125 caches
9. dakardrix: 116 caches
10. SawaSawa: 111 caches

[Danie Viljoen]

Find statistics for Africa in 2011:
Total number of finds: 115950
Average number of finds/day: 317.7
Median number of finds/day: 209
Maximum number of finds: 6861 on Saturday, 23 July 2011
Minimum number of finds: 57 on Thursday, 23 June 2011
Sun: 26165 finds, 22.6% of total
Mon: 10832 finds, 9.3% of total
Tue: 11451 finds, 9.9% of total
Wed: 9994 finds, 8.6% of total
Thu: 9942 finds, 8.6% of total
Fri: 11688 finds, 10.1% of total
Sat: 35878 finds, 30.9% of total

[Danie Viljoen]

Frequency of log types during 2011:
Found it: 82.6%
DNF: 4.7%
Write note: 4.5%
Published: 2.0%
Attended: 1.2%
Owner Maintenance: 0.9%
Will Attend: 0.8%
Temporarily Disable Listing: 0.8%
Needs Maintenance: 0.7%
Archive: 0.5%
Enable Listing: 0.5%
Update Coordinates: 0.3%
Post Reviewer Nota: 0.2%
Needs Archived: 0.1%
Unarchive: 0.04%

[Danie Viljoen]

Municipalities with the most finds during 2011:
1. Pretoria: 18882 (855 active caches, including Metsweding)
2. Cape Town: 17776 (828 active caches)
3. West Rand: 9204 (348 active caches)
4. Johannesburg: 8715 (476 active caches)
5. Durban: 5971 (500 active caches)

At the other end of the spectrum we find Alfred Nzo, with 1 find on 1 cache.

[Danie Viljoen]

Most municipalities found:
The following cachers have a find in the most of the 52 district municipalities:
1. iPajero: 52
2. Tricky Vicky & Mickey: 45
3. gerhardoosMPsa: 44
4. Fish Eagle: 43
5. cownchicken: 40
5. Danie Viljoen: 40
5. B and C Inc: 40
5. CrystalFairy: 40
5. DiePienaars: 40
5. Hesamati: 40

[Wazat]

Wow Danie, that is great.... Still off my question, who had the most in a day? I have a feeling Gringer1 had it....

Also I get my total at 1111 for last year not 1113...

[Danie Viljoen]

Wazat, on 03 January 2012 - 11:10 AM, said:

who had the most in a day? I have a feeling Gringer1 had it....

According to my records, the cachers with the most finds for a single day are:
1. NotBlonde 2011-07-23: 659
2. Gringer1 2011-08-13: 649
3. Wazat 2011-08-13: 640
4. Wilduvo 2011-07-23: 618
5. Wormgeocash 2011-07-23: 616

[Wazat]

But GC has NB at 611? Something amiss with your stats.... I thought it looked a bit off... I expected Gringer tobe about 5 more than me... either i missed some of the GPS series or he really did do quite a few I had done before.

How about best weekend, best weekly and best monthly finds....

This post has been edited by Wazat: 03 January 2012 - 04:23 PM

[DamhuisClan]

Who has the most finds per day, excluding the GPS series?

[Danie Viljoen]

Wazat, on 03 January 2012 - 04:22 PM, said:

Something amiss with your stats...

Mmm, I found the problem, but it is not easy to solve. Some cachers, notably NotBlonde, have duplicate logs; in some cases even triplicate. I want my database to be as complete as possible, but for obvious reasons duplicate finds are a problem. I'll probably have to work through every duplicate and decide which log to delete.

[Danie Viljoen]

DamhuisClan, on 03 January 2012 - 09:23 PM, said:

Who has the most finds per day, excluding the GPS series?

Five cachers, all on the same day, 2011-03-26, found 144: BAKGAT, ScottScott, TechnoNut, Tinkerbell-GP and gerhardoosMPsa.
(I have not checked them for duplicates yet.)

[TechnoNut]

Danie Viljoen, on 04 January 2012 - 12:40 AM, said:

DamhuisClan, on 03 January 2012 - 09:23 PM, said:

Who has the most finds per day, excluding the GPS series?

Five cachers, all on the same day, 2011-03-26, found 144: BAKGAT, ScottScott, TechnoNut, Tinkerbell-GP and gerhardoosMPsa.
(I have not checked them for duplicates yet.)

Wazat was also in that group of madmen

That I reckon is still the SA Record for "Traditional / Conventional" (i.e. not Power Trail) caching.

[Wazat]

TechnoNut, on 04 January 2012 - 12:47 AM, said:

Danie Viljoen, on 04 January 2012 - 12:40 AM, said:

DamhuisClan, on 03 January 2012 - 09:23 PM, said:

Who has the most finds per day, excluding the GPS series?

Five cachers, all on the same day, 2011-03-26, found 144: BAKGAT, ScottScott, TechnoNut, Tinkerbell-GP and gerhardoosMPsa.
(I have not checked them for duplicates yet.)

Wazat was also in that group of madmen

That I reckon is still the SA Record for "Traditional / Conventional" (i.e. not Power Trail) caching.

So was Schemeri but we both had previous finds priorto that day. But even after returning just over a year later I still had to search for some of them that I had done. And no duplicates there. My personal tally for that day was 108. But that was a very different ball game to the GPS series as anyone who has done Oom Louwtjies caches can tell you..... I could hardly walk for the two days that followed. My feet were stuffed. Tinker bell and I still did a few the next two days but relaxing was more important than caching....
After the GPS series I was up early the next morning and still did a few more caches that day, good ones that put the caching for quality caches and not senseless micros back in my mindset.... If I never did them I probably would not have bothered again..... Although the 640 is a nice take for the day, they just didn't leave a sense of caching for what I see it.... Seeing places that are worth seeing, be it scenic, historical or interesting. Racking up numbers like that left me with a somewhat false sense of achievement.... It was as a team, and we find caches together and not as individuals.... Makes a huge difference. To me finding 40 caches in a day in Bloemfontein, alone and inclusive of a 600 km trip for the day, was much more worthy of 640 or 108.... All I can take out of the power trail and the 144 with the guys in Bloemfontein was the amazing team spirit we had, the friendships we built and the sense of shattering goals that we had set....

[Danie Viljoen]

Most finds logged in a single day:
This should be correct now; the duplicates have been removed.
1. Gringer1: 645 on 2011-08-13
2. Wazat: 640 on 2011-08-13

[Carbon Hunter]

Danie Viljoen, on 02 January 2012 - 10:53 PM, said:

Cache types published in 2011:

)
EarthCache: 15 (49 in 2010, 69% less than in 2010)
)

This big drop again fuels the anaecdotal evidence that cachers perceive EC's more difficult to publish.

Sad, but not entirely true. Come on people, let's change this again in 2012.

[Carbon Hunter]

Danie - I love these stats - thank you for your tireless and continuing effort - and what really surprises me - that while doing all this number crunching you still feature on na few of the "finders" lists

Could you run a few stats on the rest of africa (exclduing SA) to see who is finding/hiding caches (see if any familiar names pop up)? I know Hesamati and hennieventer have been travelling a bit - I'm sure there are others too.


Any ideas on cachers with the most countries in Africa cached in? Woudl this be possible? Perhaps some familiar visitors to events in the past?

[Danie Viljoen]

Most African Countries Found:
(Including South Africa)
1. pe3cek: 11 countries
1. La Kedi: 11 countries
1. kilronan: 11 countries
4. k3h5: 10 countries
5. Amarakana: 9 countries
6. Hesamati: 8 countries
6. Carbon Hunter: 8 countries
6. thozi: 8 countries
6. G_G_G: 8 countries
6. Alibabarhabarberbarbar: 8 countries
6. diveduo: 8 countries

[Danie Viljoen]

Most caches planted in Africa (excluding South Africa):
1. kokoscoot: 25
2. nam_gecko: 22
3. Dersachensucher: 21
4. jojo.van: 19
5. atorrigi: 17
6. greenmealie: 16
7. Col123: 15
8. anneremco: 14
9. Ducky and Mucky: 12
10. arthur974: 11
10. Carbon Hunter: 11
10. friedelfindus: 11

[cincol]

Carbon Hunter, on 04 January 2012 - 03:26 AM, said:

This big drop again fuels the anaecdotal evidence that cachers perceive EC's more difficult to publish.

Sad, but not entirely true. Come on people, let's change this again in 2012.

The reviewers have definitely become more pedantic in my opinion which in turn makes publishing more difficult. Especially that reason is why I have stopped publishing. eg: they require "proof of permission" for public accessible areas. This is crazy! Where do you get such permission from? The local authorities such as municipalities? Not worth the effort anymore.

[Danie Viljoen]

Most finds in a month (31 days):
1. iPajero: 1010 finds (This was actually done in 24 days; with no finds for the last week.)
2. MadSons: 823 finds
3. NotBlonde: 735 finds

[Danie Viljoen]

Most finds in a time period:
1 day: Gringer1: 645 finds
2 days: Wazat: 652 finds
3 days: Wazat: 652 finds
4 days: Wazat: 664 finds
5 days: Wazat: 664 finds
6 days: Wazat: 664 finds
1 week: iPajero: 693 finds
10 days: iPajero: 787 finds
2 weeks: iPajero: 921 finds
1 month: iPajero: 1010 finds
50 days: iPajero: 1243 finds
2 months: iPajero: 1398 finds
3 months: iPajero: 1442 finds
100 days: iPajero: 1459 finds
6 months: iPajero: 1520 finds
1 year: iPajero: 2261 finds
500 days: iPajero: 3019 finds
1000 days: iPajero: 4410 finds

iPajero has the most finds for any period longer than 6 days, except for the interval 317 - 336, where MadSons has more finds.

[Danie Viljoen]

Most finds received on own caches:
For 2011:
1. GEO936: 4725 finds (4.08% of all finds in Africa in 2011)
2. paddawan: 3792 finds (3.27% of all finds)
3. louwtjievdw: 3705 finds (3.20% of all finds)
4. NotBlonde: 2554 finds (2.20% of all finds)
5. timmo1977: 2254 finds (1.94% of all finds)
6. HeinG: 2089 finds (1.80% of all finds)
7. MadSons: 1696 finds (1.46% of all finds)
8. Wazat: 1471 finds (1.27% of all finds)
9. Leon St: 1468 finds (1.27% of all finds)
10. Happy Hunters SA: 1423 finds (1.23% of all finds)

For all time:
1. louwtjievdw: 8279 finds (2.54% of all finds in Africa)
2. CrystalFairy: 6625 finds (2.03% of all finds)
3. GEO936: 6157 finds (1.89% of all finds)
4. NotBlonde: 5628 finds (1.72% of all finds)
5. dakardrix: 5060 finds (1.55% of all finds)
6. paddawan: 5031 finds (1.54% of all finds)
7. Fish Eagle: 4838 finds (1.48% of all finds)
8. cache-fan: 4144 finds (1.27% of all finds)
9. Noddy: 3598 finds (1.10% of all finds)
10. HeinG: 3366 finds (1.03% of all finds)

[DamhuisClan]

Danie Viljoen, on 04 January 2012 - 12:28 AM, said:

Wazat, on 03 January 2012 - 04:22 PM, said:

Something amiss with your stats...

Mmm, I found the problem, but it is not easy to solve. Some cachers, notably NotBlonde, have duplicate logs; in some cases even triplicate. I want my database to be as complete as possible, but for obvious reasons duplicate finds are a problem. I'll probably have to work through every duplicate and decide which log to delete.

Danie:
If you are running Verison 8 of GSAK, all you need to do is delete all logs from the cache and then use the API to load all the logs back in again.
Quite easy

[Danie Viljoen]

DamhuisClan, on 05 January 2012 - 04:55 AM, said:

Danie Viljoen, on 04 January 2012 - 12:28 AM, said:

Wazat, on 03 January 2012 - 04:22 PM, said:

Something amiss with your stats...

Mmm, I found the problem, but it is not easy to solve. Some cachers, notably NotBlonde, have duplicate logs; in some cases even triplicate. I want my database to be as complete as possible, but for obvious reasons duplicate finds are a problem. I'll probably have to work through every duplicate and decide which log to delete.

Danie:
If you are running Verison 8 of GSAK, all you need to do is delete all logs from the cache and then use the API to load all the logs back in again.
Quite easy

Thanks for the hint, Anton. It is much easier than my own solution. It is actually quite interesting (and sometimes funny) to read some of these duplicate logs. They are often the type that gets written in the heat of the moment, and is then later replaced with a much tamer version.

This post has been edited by Danie Viljoen: 05 January 2012 - 05:07 AM

[Danie Viljoen]

Oldest active African cachers:
The following cachers have the longest interval between their first and last finds:
1. Jors: first cache: 2001/01/17 4002 days (11.0 years)
2. vklh: first cache: 2001/01/10 3887 days (10.6 years)
3. warthog: first cache: 2001/08/19 3789 days (10.4 years)
4. Goofster: first cache: 2001/12/29 3629 days (9.9 years)
5. Brick: first cache: 2001/10/06 3597 days (9.8 years)
6. Royfamily: first cache: 2001/12/06 3534 days (9.7 years)
7. natie: first cache: 2002/01/26 3532 days (9.7 years)
8. clifford: first cache: 2002/01/06 3527 days (9.7 years)
9. Tricky Vicky & Mickey: first cache: 2002/05/12 3522 days (9.6 years)
10. GuyHarwood: first cache: 2001/11/25 3508 days (9.6 years)

[Danie Viljoen]

Cachers who have found most of the 25 oldest active South African caches:
1. iPajero: 25
2. Tricky Vicky & Mickey: 20
3. cownchicken: 19
4. battlerat and pussycat: 13
5. Discombob: 12
5. Larks: 12
5. Stefanoodle: 12
8. besem: 11
8. gerhardoosMPsa: 11

[Danie Viljoen]

Cachers who have found most of the 25 highest active South African caches:
1. brianhfox: 5
1. hosta: 5
1. iPajero: 5
1. mysticopias: 5
5. iNokia: 4
5. nix1101: 4
7. gerhardoosMPsa: 3
7. tikili974: 3

[Danie Viljoen]

Most Difficulty/Terrain combinations found in Africa:
1. iPajero: 75
1. AndyT1: 75
3. cownchicken: 72
3. brianhfox: 72
5. Zambesiboy: 71
6. capeccr: 69
7. Noddy: 68
8. Tricky Vicky & Mickey: 64
8. gerhardoosMPsa: 64
8. RedGlobe: 64
8. The Huskies: 64
8. Henzz: 64
8. paddawan: 64

[Zambesiboy]

Danie - I have such huge respect for the stats you provide - truly amazing dedication - well done and thank-you.
All the best for 2012.

[DamhuisClan]

Danie Viljoen, on 05 January 2012 - 06:32 AM, said:

Cachers who have found most of the 25 oldest active South African caches:
1. iPajero: 25
2. Tricky Vicky & Mickey: 20
3. cownchicken: 19
4. battlerat and pussycat: 13
5. Discombob: 12
5. Larks: 12
5. Stefanoodle: 12
8. besem: 11
8. gerhardoosMPsa: 11

I am 'Activly' working on this list. This is part of my Geocaching bucket list. (See my profile)
I am also thinking of trying to get all 52 odd municipalities on my list by end of 2013. Hope I get to it.....

[Danie Viljoen]

Percentage of active South African caches found:
The following list shows the percentage of active caches found at the end of 2011, taking into account own caches:
1. iPajero 73.3%
2. Danie Viljoen 34.5%
3. gerhardoosMPsa 32.2%
4. MadSons 30.4%
5. Leon St 30.0%
6. cownchicken 29.6%
7. Tricky Vicky & Mickey 28.8%
8. Wazat 28.3%
9. rodnjoan 28.2%
10. cache-fan 27.1%
11. Antron 26.0%
12. Happy Hunters SA 25.6%
13. Wormgeocash 24.9%
14. B and C Inc 24.4%
15. Fish Eagle 23.2%
18. battlerat and pussycat 21.2%
19. Elsies 21.2%
24. Henzz 17.4%
27. NotBlonde 16.1%
28. Zambesiboy 16.1%
31. GlobalRat 14.2%
32. TechnoNut 14.0%
35. ScottScott 13.7%
36. Team_vdlo 13.5%
37. Jors 13.4%
38. AndyT1 13.3%
39. iNokia 13.2%
41. besem 12.8%
45. DamhuisClan 12.3%
49. tomtwogates 11.3%
59. CrystalFairy 10.3%
62. Hesamati 10.0%
66. the pooks 9.5%
67. GEO936 9.4%
69. louwtjievdw 9.2%
72. FlyingSyringe 9.0%
76. mr panda 8.5%
93. Cherokee.za 7.2%
94. CapeDoc 7.2%

[Danie Viljoen]

Log length over time:

The average length of all find logs is 234 characters, and the median is 135 (about 22 words). The median probably gives a better indication of the true trend, as it is less sensitive to the effect of the author badge chasers. Looking at the median it is obvious that cache finders write less and less. (The median of 2011 is only 35% of that of 2001.) Maybe it has something to do with the recent dramatic increase of new cachers who seem to favour a cryptic TFTC?
The reason for the big increase of the 2011 average is a large number of long cut & paste logs in the Gauteng Power Series.

[Danie Viljoen]

Percentage of DNFs:

This graph shows an interesting trend - the percentage of DNFs (relative to the number of finds) has decreased over time, to a point less than half of what it was in 2001. This means one of three things:

• Cachers search better
  
• Caches are maintained better
  
• Cachers are increasingly lazy to log DNFs

Personally I do not think it can be the first reason - it is a fact that 63% of finds in 2011 were made by cachers with less than one year experience.
My personal opinion (which may be wrong) is that the second possible reason is not true either - there are an increasing number of orphaned and badly maintained caches.

[besem]

Danie Viljoen, on 06 January 2012 - 03:10 AM, said:

Percentage of DNFs:

This graph shows an interesting trend - the percentage of DNFs (relative to the number of finds) has decreased over time, to a point less than half of what it was in 2001. This means one of three things:

• Cachers search better
  
• Caches are maintained better
  
• Cachers are increasingly lazy to log DNFs

Personally I do not think it can be the first reason - it is a fact that 63% of finds in 2011 were made by cachers with less than one year experience.
My personal opinion (which may be wrong) is that the second possible reason is not true either - there are an increasing number of orphaned and badly maintained caches.

Could also be simply that the newer caches are easier to find, i.e. a large number of <2* difficulty caches. You can probably check the trend of the average difficulty rating of caches over the years?

[Danie Viljoen]

besem, on 06 January 2012 - 03:37 AM, said:

Could also be simply that the newer caches are easier to find, i.e. a large number of <2* difficulty caches. You can probably check the trend of the average difficulty rating of caches over the years?

You have a point - there is indeed a trend towards more easy caches. (77% of all caches published in 2011 have D and T <= 2, vs. 57% in 2001.)

But I do not think this is the only reason...

I wonder what the correlation between difficulty and the probability of a DNF is? I'll leave this for another day...

This post has been edited by Danie Viljoen: 06 January 2012 - 04:09 AM

[Danie Viljoen]

Highest karma:
The following cachers (with more than 50 finds) have the highest karma in South Africa, i.e., the total number of finds on their own caches divided by their own finds:
1. louwtjievdw: 12.5
2. Wolkynou: 11.9
3. radebuddyz: 11.9
4. Eagle Claw 954: 11.5
5. geko4: 10.8
6. PikkeDis: 10.8
7. batdude1: 10.2
8. anlufu: 8.6
9. hawkdown: 8.5
10. Metro Nomad: 8.4

7.6% of all the cachers have a karma > 1; giving more than they take.

[Wazat]

Who has the highest caches in Africa.
Highest caches in each province and highest average over all their caches. If that makes sense.