Sections:-
General
Finder Ranking Table
Placed statistics
Owner Ranking Table
Top 10 Statistics
Statistics enhancement history
Possible future enhancements
How the statistics are produced
It is my intention to make weekly updates to the statistics page and the awards data file, though obviously this won't happen those weeks when I'm on holiday. As at October 2012 this is more often on a Wednesday but could easily be on another day depending on my circumstances.
These statistics are based on the Church Micro bookmark lists (see home page). If the cache isn't listed there, then I won't be taking it into account. If you think there's a cache missing from any list please take this up with Andy33.
Feedback is welcome. Thoughtful criticism and constructive suggestions will be responded to and may result in me changing/enhancing the page. (A list of suggested enhancements is included at the bottom of this page.) No promises though! Please contact me through my profile BaSHful.
Why your statistics are not correct
Hopefully this won't be the case for you. However, my database updates are driven by pocket queries and these have limitations beyond my control. A PQ only contains the last five logs. There are two situations where a problem can arise. The first is when a cache is logged more than five times in a day (which does happen!). The second is when there is a delay in the cache being added to its bookmark list and please bear in mind that Andy33 is only human, very busy and also occasionally goes on holiday like the rest of us.
Since upgrading to GSAK v8 I have the ability to get missing logs. On 1st December 2011 I ran this for the first time and it completed four and a bit hours later having added 3995 logs. I now run the 'Refresh cache data' utility weekly to capture the last 30 logs but, even so, there may be very rare circumstances where I lose a log.
For example, on 5th January 2013, the date it was published, Church Micro 3189...Wilbarston had 55 finders! Once this was brought to my attention I was able to use the "Get recent logs..." API to capture all the missing logs for this cache. Note: there are now limits as to the maximum number of logs that can be retrieved per hour which effectively prevent the use of the API across all caches.
Another situation is where an existing cache changes its name and joins the series. I need to be informed of this so that I can manually run the "Get recent logs..." API to capture the earliest logs.
If you notice that any of your statistics are are incorrect then, in the first instance, I would ask you to be patient. If the following week your statistics are still wrong then please contact me and I will see what can be done to sort it out.
Name Changes
Prior to 15th January 2013, if you changed your caching name it would result in your statistics being split. Since then the new program uses your unique "Member ID" and should take any name changes in its stride. The name displayed on the web page is taken from the most recent log and should therefore be up-to-date.
Unique finds
Should you log the same cache as found more than once (not that I think you would!) then it only counts as one.
Excluded caches
GC1CT4F - Church micro-St Martha`s is not part of the series, solely because The Roos did not obtain a number from sadexploration! This could have been easily and quickly rectified but after a period of many months, once it became apparent that nothing was going to be done by the Roos, I took it upon myself, with sadexploration's agreement, to create an official one, Church Micro 1036...St Martha’s
Removed caches
15th March 2011
For reasons unknown the owner of GC1JPNZ
and GC1KWAN has decided to remove these
two caches from the Church Micro series. They were at one time numbers 400 and 401.
Andy33 has removed them from the bookmark list and I have removed them from my
GSAK database. Anyone who logged these caches will have seen their count reduce slightly.
Minimum requirement
The minimum number of caches you need to find to be listed in the main table is steadily increasing over time. The table lists exactly the top 500, so you will need to keep on finding Church Micros if you wish to stay in the top section.
Cache owners
Being the owner of a Church Micro caches does not
increase your finder count.
Warning: While I consider it extremely unlikely,
should I discover that any owner has stooped to inflating their find count by logging their
own caches as found, I will remove them completely from these statistics.
However, see the note about adopted caches, just below.
Adopted caches
It is absolutely OK to adopt a cache subsequent to finding it. In this situation your find of the cache still counts and it will count towards your owner count too. I find it hard to imagine anyone adopting a cache they had not found, but should this occur, then, obviously, it won't count towards your found total.
Ranking order
The primary sort, as you would expect, is on number of unique finds in the series. Within each subset of people on the same number of finds I have sorted by the 'last find' date. I.e. You are ranked higher if the have achieved the same number of finds by an earlier date. If you achieved the same number of finds on the same date then the person who started later get the higher ranking on the grounds that they've achieved their finds quicker. If you're tied on all three criteria then I reackon you're working as a team! You'll be listed in reverse order of member ID. However, you do get the same ranking.
For these I am indebted to Sean of the Flookfinders.
The eagle eyed amongst you that have been paying attention will have noticed that the chart shows a Church Micro published in October 2007, which is before Church Micro 1...Earlswood was published. The cache is question is Church Micro #850...East Worldham - St Mary’s which was published on 2nd October 2007 under a different name and subsequently converted to a Church Micro in around September 2008.
Minimum requirement
Nominally the table is of the top 50. However, I also include everyone below 50 who have the same number as #50.
Ranking order
The primary sort order is on the number of active caches owned. Within that you'll be listed in reverse order of member ID.
For these I am indebted to Sean of the Flookfinders.
05/02/2013
In the top/common section added a line to show the total number of different cachers
who have placed one or more caches in the series.
Also corrected minor bug - format of date the statistics were generated now dd/mm/yyyy.
15/01/2013
Complete re-write of the statistics generating program to correct two fundamental flaws
and to improve the range of data presented.
21/10/2012
Addition of "Placed statistics" web page
01/10/2012
The Finder Ranking Table is brought in line with the awards.
I.e. Owned caches no longer count towards your found total.
09/02/2012
Enhanced to generate the data file that tells you the county a Church Micro cache is in.
14/08/2011
Enhanced to generate the data file that drives the awards.
August 2008
First release of the statistics.
There is no guarantee that any of the following will come to fruition. However, if the inclination strikes and I have a bit of spare time, these are the ideas I've had or have had suggested to me. Please indicate your support (or objection!) for any of the ideas mentioned. The order in which they are listed is indicative of the order they might be attempted but, again, no guarantee....
Please feel free to make additional suggestions. I will consider them. I may add them to the list. They might even get built some day.
From Factotem: Add the owner name to the table of "Church Micros with Most Favourite Points".
From Woking Wonders: It might me interesting to plot the popularity in CM finds over time. To avoid a graph that grows too steeply you would probably need to divide by the number of CM placed at that point.
From Woking Wonders: A second top ten favourites table based on the percentage of finders that award a fav point.
All the data required to produce the statistics is held in a GSAK database. The database is primarily populated by Pocket Queries run against all the bookmark lists for the series. This ensures I add new caches to the database automatically the next time a PQ runs after Andy33 has added any new caches to the relevant bookmark list.
I run the "Refresh cache data" API weekly to capture the last 30 logs for all caches that are not archived. This can take a long time to run but mostly ensures I have captured all the found logs.
Rarely, and only when an issue has been identified, I run the "Get recent logs" API to capture all logs for a specific cache.
The above is all about capturing the data required to produce the statistics. Below I set out the process of creating the web page you see.
I start by running a GSAK macro to extract two CSV files: the first of cache data and the second of all unique found logs. I then run separate macros to produce the 'Placed' and 'Miscellaneous' statistics. (All of these courtesy of Sean of the Flookfinders.)
These files are the (main) inputs to a bespoke java program (written by me) which actually produces the html file you see. This program also produces the file from which the awards are generated and the file showing what county every cache is in.
Inevitably this is somewhat of a simplification but does cover all the main points.