Data Mining the BEAST Website

[Trailcamaddict]

I have been thinking of all the data we look for as hunters to get an edge on our quarry. It is a common theme that hunter pressure is one of the main factors in the areas we choose to hunt. That got me to thinking about the data we may be generating right here on this site without even knowing it.

For instance:

The live from the stand forum - I would be interested to know what days and times of the week most of the posts for this forum are entered. I suspect most BEAST members have schedules similar to other hunters and we could determine the best times (lowest pressure) times to be in the field from this information alone.

The kill zone forum - This could be used to tell us what areas of states or the country are the best places to hunt. You might even be able to gather info about the dates in relation to the weather / moon / rut timing etc.

I'm sure there are many other things that could be learned directly from the background "data" that this site contains.

Maybe one of the moderators have the ability to see some of these trends??

[headgear]

Advanced stats for deer, love it! Not sure the mods could do much so it would be a manual collection but we do have years and years of data that is for sure.

[Stanley]

Interesting for sure. It would take a huge chunk of time to collect and categorize all the information on the Beast. I like the idea but is too monumental of a project for me.

[Divergent]

Excellent idea...Would it be possible to create a daily, weekly, monthly poll? Each hunter could take notes on specified criteria and then answer accordingly. That would cut down on the workload for one person.
Example: answer these poll questions
Morning, midday, evening
Wind directions n,ne,e,se,s,sw,w,nw
Wind speed 0-5, 5-10,10-20, 20+
Sunny, overcast, rain, snow
Barometric pressure
Moon phases
Feeding times
Etc...etc

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[JoeRE]

I have had that wish myself involving a number of subjects. There is a ton of data on here on a wide range of topics. If there was a good trustworthy person with some programming skills it would not take very long at all. Basically very advanced 'search' functions. I don't know how to do it myself, just know its possible. No need to spend a bunch of hours manually searching and adding.

[phade]

Me and Moog do it for our hunting grounds using trail cams and sightings, with conditions mixed in.

Helped us to really pin point the date range of when to hit a doe bedding group, and gave us hints as to the general approaches bucks take to get into it. We believe that the time period we IDed is within a 4-5 day window of significant peak activity and is when the does in the group generally go into estrous or starts going into estrous.

Data mining and analytics is big money in the marketplace today and most certainly can be applied to hunting in some aspects.

[phade]

I have had that wish myself involving a number of subjects. There is a ton of data on here on a wide range of topics. If there was a good trustworthy person with some programming skills it would not take very long at all. Basically very advanced 'search' functions. I don't know how to do it myself, just know its possible. No need to spend a bunch of hours manually searching and adding.

Unfortunately, the past data here would need to be collected manually unless someone can text mine, and I don't think that'll return enough valid data points because the terms used are so common that they'd be used in general discussions.

Specific threads, like the kill date/time thread, etc. can be manually collected pretty easily.

What would be interesting to me would be encounters/kills of mature bucks based on time/date and attached to lattitude. Weather conditions would be another.

[Mike]

Someone should make a beast app that will organize the data and keep it anonymous

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[phade]

Someone should make a beast app that will organize the data and keep it anonymous

[ Post made via iPhone ]

Or just create a generic email address for members to send data points to. The receiver isn't likely going to know the email address to a particular username.

[obrion]

Writing the parser would be pretty much impossible with the previous posts. I mean there really isn't much to go off of without a standard format and the ability to validate the data retrieved. I guess I am saying it would be a job that would be done by hand.

[ Post made via Android ]