Hello Arizona Geocaching Community,

I wanted to let the list know that I have created some Southwest geocaching
stats pages that I have been successfully updating every few days by using
primarily my own pocket queries alotted by gc.com along with a local access
database and gpx automation code. I have been testing this for about a month
now and for the most part it is working reliably.

Data is not sortable and you cannot run queries directly on the website as
you can at azgeocaching.com. This is provided as an additional resource for
Arizona (and eventually Southwest US) geocachers who may be interested in
the info provided, and is not meant to (and does not) replace the stats
provided by azgeocaching.com

The stats include a new concept called ChallengePoints (CPs). The idea is
that each cache is scored based on the effort required to log the cache. I
felt that a new way of ranking cache finds was sorely needed in addition to
the 1 point per cache system. I have also seen this sentiment expressed on
this list from time to time. More details about challenge points at:

http://www.deepsouthwest.com/geocaching/stats/aboutchallengepoints.html

Also included in these stats pages are: number of finds rankings, most
popular caches, most recent finds, etc. Lists are available for the entire
state of Arizona

http://www.deepsouthwest.com/geocaching/stats/arizonastats.html

and also for individual counties. I believe that the way the stats are
arranged will allow new people to be active in friendly cache-finding
competition, just choose the area and/or stat type you'd like to be
competitive in or watch, and bookmark the page, then check back from time to
time for updates. County, cache, and cacher stats at:

http://www.deepsouthwest.com/geocaching/stats/

I expect the pages will be updated at least once a week, sometimes more or
less often. Please notice that all counts are for unarchived caches of types
traditional, virtual, or multi-cache only. With this system and with the
limitations of the methods used for data extraction from GC.COM, when a
cache is archived, the point(s) given for a find are removed from a cacher's
total. (ie: archived caches are not tracked at this time)

I hope these pages prove to be interesting and useful to the community,
thanks,

noshdoo tsoh
southwest geocacher