The OpenCaching NA 5th Anniversary Contest

[Bon Echo]

Well that sure was a fun way to spend a month! I managed to create 40 caches (10 types, 35 are OCNA-only, in 5 provinces and 2 states) and found 15 OCNA caches (8 types) plus 5 OC.de safari caches.

In regards to the entry form, I noticed that there's no entry for Hide an Unknown Cache so I put my one Unknown cache hide in the Hide a Quiz cache entry field, but for the sake of counting actions I considered them as separate (hide an unknown, hide a quiz cache). If "Find a letterbox" / "hide a letterbox" / "hide an unknown" / "hide a quiz cache" are considered as separate actions, I completed 22 different regular actions but only 19 is only the "hide a quiz" counts.

Thanks again to Dudley Grunt and Mr.Yuck for reviewing all the caches, organizing the contest, getting sponsors, hosting the event(s), and now the task of verifying all the entries. My entry is now complete, there's no way to indicate that on the form.

[Bon Echo]

Because I like statistics...here are some numbers from the contest.
But first the preamble: I pulled these numbers from the "Latest caches" and "Latest Logs" and they may be somewhat incomplete.Also, for the "logs", I wasn't able to pull out the log type or cache type, so it will be a bit less useful. Also, I looked at all caches hidden or logged from Aug 1 to Sept 1, expecting that most of the "September 1st" logs / publications were actually recorded before "August 31 12 pm EST" (the contest deadline) but after "Sept 1 00:00 UTC". This is by no means official, and I'm just a user of the site. Hopefully you enjoy seeing these numbers and can give "the community a collective high-five" for a job well-done hiding and finding caches during the month. Lets hope the momentum continues!

Number of users who created listing(s) during the contest period: 26
........Number of users who created 3 or more listings: 11

Number of users who logged a cache during the contest period: 50
........ [NOTE: this includes all log types, including logs on their own caches. I suspect most are Found It logs but couldn't easily do the stats on the types of logs)

Total logs recorded during the contest period: 335

Total users who created listing(s) and/or wrote logs: 61 (in otherword, the number of cachers who used the site last month)

Number of new listings created: 126 (this is approx an 8% increase in number of active caches)

New listings, by type:
BIT Cache 5 (a 3% increase in the total number of BIT caches)
Event 5
Guest Book 21 (a 38% increase in the total number of Guest Book caches, from 56 to 77)
Letterbox 2 (7% increase, from 30 to 32)
Moving 7 (24% increase, from 29 to 36)
MP3 (Podcache) 1 (33% increase, from 3 to 4)
Multicache 4 (12% increase, from 32 to 36)
Quiz 6 (a 20% increase, from 30 to 36)
Traditional 34 (8% increase, from 591 to 625)
Unknown type 6 (3% increase, from 45 to 51)
USB (Dead Drop) 2 (33% increase, from 6 to 8)
Virtual 24 (5% increase, from 466 to 490)
Webcam 9 (18% increase, from 49 to 58)

New listings, by location:

USA 85 (a 6% increase in the number of active caches in the USA)
Canada 41 (this means that the number of active OCNA caches has more than tripled in Canada, from 19 to 60 active listings)
[okay, I have to comment on this...not bad eh!]
[these precentages might be off a bit as my numbers are not quite adding up. But you get the point)

Maryland 22
North Carolina 22
New Mexico 10
Virginia 5
Tennessee 4
Ohio 3
Pennsylvania 3
Colorado 2
Minnesota 2
New York 2
North Dakota 2
Arizona 1
Georgia 1
Michigan 1
Montana 1
Nebraska 1
None (Locationless) 1
Utah 1
Washington 1

Ontario 20
Quebec 7
British Columbia 5
Alberta 4
Manitoba 3
New Brunswick 1
Saskatchewan 1

[DudleyGrunt]

Thanks, Bon! Some nice results!

[DudleyGrunt]

We're extending the deadline by 24 hours. New deadline for entries is Monday, September 7th, at 11:59 PM Eastern Standard time.

[Mr.Yuck]

It has been asked of us to post a list of the entrants, so people know their entry "went through". Absolutely, and if someone's didn't go through, we will hook you up.

Manville Possum Hunters
Danatisy
sfcchaz
TeamErnzer
Anteaus
tripman1
TermiteHunter
TeamStieney
rvstauff
Antihiro
dsvmusic
Atmospherium
Bon Echo
queensgrantmusic
ithink314
Memfis Mafia
Borst68
kingbee
Astronut42
GoinPostNet

[Mr.Yuck]

Well that sure was a fun way to spend a month! I managed to create 40 caches (10 types, 35 are OCNA-only, in 5 provinces and 2 states) and found 15 OCNA caches (8 types) plus 5 OC.de safari caches.

In regards to the entry form, I noticed that there's no entry for Hide an Unknown Cache so I put my one Unknown cache hide in the Hide a Quiz cache entry field, but for the sake of counting actions I considered them as separate (hide an unknown, hide a quiz cache). If "Find a letterbox" / "hide a letterbox" / "hide an unknown" / "hide a quiz cache" are considered as separate actions, I completed 22 different regular actions but only 19 is only the "hide a quiz" counts.

Thanks again to Dudley Grunt and Mr.Yuck for reviewing all the caches, organizing the contest, getting sponsors, hosting the event(s), and now the task of verifying all the entries. My entry is now complete, there's no way to indicate that on the form.

Yeah, we somehow left "hide an unknown" off the entry form, although it appears in the actions sheet. Doh! So those definitely count. I've only come across one other person who hid an unknown so far, in Quebec. We decided it would be too cheesy if we added the letterboxes on the hide/find side late in the month. We need a proofreader!!

[TermiteHunter]

Just a note about Drives Cache Closet here.

I won a $5 Gift Certificate in the Anniversary Contest.
Being the cheapskate I am I wanted to make the best of this Certificate and not spend more than I had (I know the idea behind any such offer is to get a larger purchase but like I said I'm cheap)
With shipping the most expensive thing available that I would be able to purchase on the site came out to $1 with .50c lost on the $5 certificate.
I made my selection of a single bison tube before the expiration date for redemption and submitted my purchase before Christmas.

Today I received my bison tube. SURPRISE, there were three tubes. At first I thought that it must have been a three pack deal I had overlooked but there was a hand written note on the invoice from David stating that he thought a gift certificate should be worth more than just one bison tube.
Also included was an envelope containing a business card and a Drives pathtag.

Many thanks to Drives for their support in the contest and their customer service. I rarely purchase anything cache related (I prefer to hand craft my containers) but should I find the need they have moved to the top of my list as a supplier