Forum Map/Google mashup

[tanjive]

I thought it might be nice if a map was available where forum persons could pin their location to. Would not need to be very exact say city level. Therefore, if you are by chance visiting an area you know who you could PM for information in the locality. I thought it might save people random postings. It would also allow people to see their nearby forum buddies and perhaps increase greater social interaction offline.

You cannot even search for people by the location field in the profile. This might be a small quick fix. Though this might not be that helpful as there are those witty people out there who are round the bend, climbing walls or kissing the floor, sky or whatever else. :rolleyes:

Not sure if this is possible technically on the forum itself. Google maps might be an alternative with links to it from the forum sie.

Does anyone think this is doable?

Does anyone think it is a good idea?

[ducasi]

Its certainly do-able. Just a simple matter of programming.

Think it's a good idea too.

Anyone know google maps well enough?

[David Bailey]

Ummm... dunno really, I'm not sure if exposing that much information is necessarily a good thing, privacy-wise. Yes, I know it's available now anyway, but putting it all in one place is a different matter.

I think you should ask people's permission before doing that sort of data-mining exercise, to ensure the information is all voluntary.

[tanjive]

Ummm... dunno really, I'm not sure if exposing that much information is necessarily a good thing, privacy-wise. Yes, I know it's available now anyway, but putting it all in one place is a different matter.

I think you should ask people's permission before doing that sort of data-mining exercise, to ensure the information is all voluntary.

Who's is mining? It is voluntary to add your location to the map. As i deliberately said to add people by city, general region. I did not say "hey everyone put your home address here".

If you wanted to contact your local forumite in order to share lifts to local venues of interest. How else would you find someone except by provedence they happen to put the same town on their profile which is seen in a post? Not everyone posts 24/7 like you do. You can always turn down/not respond to a PM should someone send you one anyway. Any nuisance mailers can be blocked and rightly. I would have thought any benefits outweigh any privacy issue. It is like your profile picture not mandatory. It certainly is helpful though and I wish more people did. Particularly if they are certainly as forthright with their opinions as you.

[Brian Doolan]

Who's is mining? It is voluntary to add your location to the map. As i deliberately said to add people by city, general region. I did not say "hey everyone put your home address here".

Particularly if they are certainly as forthright with their opinions as you.

:yeah: :D :D :D

[Lory]

I like the idea :nice:

[StokeBloke]

I'm kind of screwed privacy-wise if you're talking about location :whistle: Although I do frequently get asked where my forum name came from :eek:

[bigdjiver]

Have a sticky (searchable) thread called introductions for anybody willing to be contacted in this way, giving their postal area?

[David Bailey]

Who's is mining? It is voluntary to add your location to the map. As i deliberately said to add people by city, general region. I did not say "hey everyone put your home address here".
Oh right - sorry, I misunderstood how it'd work. I assumed it would be an extraction of data rather than a contribution system. My bad, apologies.


It is like your profile picture not mandatory. It certainly is helpful though and I wish more people did.
Heh, we've had that debate too... :wink:


Particularly if they are certainly as forthright with their opinions as you.
:confused: Don't understand your point?

[knightengale]

I know a few sites that have done this before. Using google. Don't know how easy it is to set up Add Google Maps to Your Website (http://www.google.com/apis/maps/gallery/mapsAPIProducts.html#utm_source=maps_home)
Is the google information.


:nice:

[Paul F]

How about we go even more crazy and create a GoogleEarth file with GPS values of everyones location.

That way you can load up Google Earth, create a display layer called "Forum Bods" and then you can zoom in on someones house :D

Maybe even give them some sound conservatory extension advice :nice:

[Gadget]

Maybe even give them some sound conservatory extension advice :nice:
:wink: na - I do that for a living.

It would probably be better if the venues were on the map and people could attach themselves to a venue. (/multiple venues)

[DavidY]

I've seen an application which seems to be called VBGoogleMap on another vBulletin forum.

It looks like you add yourself by zooming in the map and clicking on it, or typing in your latitude & longitude if you know it.

Don't think it's very searchable though.

[tanjive]

Heh, we've had that debate too... :wink:


Still wondering why your funny, aviable forum mates are not good enough like your facebook friends.

[David Bailey]

Still wondering why your funny, aviable forum mates are not good enough like your facebook friends.
:confused:

[Ghost]

Have a sticky (searchable) thread called introductions for anybody willing to be contacted in this way, giving their postal area?



It would probably be better if the venues were on the map and people could attach themselves to a venue. (/multiple venues)
Or have a sticky (searchable) thread called introductions for anybody willing to be contacted in this way, giving their venue (/multiple venues)?

I remember when I joined trying to figure our how to search for people who had "Greenwich" listed under "Regular Venues" in their details :confused:

"Bad artists copy. Great artists steal" ~ Pablo Picasso :innocent:

[Ghost]

Roughly how many MJ venues / areas / franchises are there in the UK?

Just wondering if several polls in a similar format to the recent DJ you enjoy threads would work. If it was alphabetical you could scan it quickly. People could re-vote to reflect changes in venues or if they decided they wanted more privacy etc.

If there's literally thousands of venues, then by area might work - pm the person for more information. Still gives a certain degree of privacy. There's a big difference between
"I go to Ceroc Kent"
and
"I go to Bromley"

although neither are currently true :na:

Maybe use
CEROC - Links (http://ceroc.com/ceroc_links_uk.html)

[David Bailey]

Roughly how many MJ venues / areas / franchises are there in the UK?
From here (http://www.modernjive.com/all.html), I'd estimate that there are about 200-250 organisations in the UK doing MJ (!), running about 750 venues.

Blimey, that's a lot of venues... :eek:

[tanjive]

I think you miss the point. It does not matter how many venues are local or how often you go to the same one. You can go for years to one local venue and still not find a forumite there even if there are loads. Especially if they do not give a picture or a location (which only possibly might) let you know and that you have a reason to look up their profile.

If people were voluntarily on a map you can tell a persons local relative to you. This is useful if say you wanted to arrange a weekender or workshop with a person you might not otherwise be aware of.

DJ - nice facebook picture got the clue now.

[David Bailey]

I'm a bit sceptical, to be honest, but then I never really got this whole "forumite socialising" thing anyway.


DJ - nice facebook picture got the clue now.
Errr, yeah. Or, possibly, not.

[Isis]

Although I do frequently get asked where my forum name came from :eek:

So where did your forum name come from? :confused:

[Gadget]

So where did your forum name come from? :confused:

He used to work below decks on steam liners; shovelling coal into the furnace to keep them puffing along between Liverpool and New York. :whistle:

[Isis]

He used to work below decks on steam liners; shovelling coal into the furnace to keep them puffing along between Liverpool and New York. :whistle:

Thanks for clearing that up before I had a sleepless night wondering about it. :flower:

[tanjive]

I have found a very simple solution to this.

BuddyMapping: Create your own Maps! (http://www.buddymapping.com)

It only took five minutes to create a map. It does need an email address to set up. I thought it would be good to have a map created linked to the forum admin email, titled "CerocScotlandForum". Any forum member can go to the site and any a dot with their forum id as a name.

People can optionally add a picture or facebook. webpage link to their location.

There is no overhead or waiting for the administrator to add the user to the map. People can also remove or move their locations.

It would be good if a forum moderator kept an eye on it though.

A link from the forum to the site could be added to the User CP to encourage use.

Any problems with this?

[bigdjiver]

I tried ...


I'm sorry, but something went wrong .... :confused::sad::tears:

[Steven666]

*stuff*

Your from Southamton as it says so in your profile. That's down South! :clap:

Though I know what you mean. My sister is currently in Plymouth and should I be going down there, I would like to know where's best to go. Though if that occassion came about, I would just ask in a thread! :wink:

[tanjive]

I tried ...

:confused::sad::tears:


I am not sure what you tried. There is no forum map at the moment. I am saying it would be good if the forum admin created one linked to that email. That way it is not created to any particular forum user. So if a user leaves for whatever reason, there should be someone to carry the map on. Any links within the forum to any map (if/when created) need to be made by the site developer.

If you are the forum admin/developer and what to find out more than PM me. The map site seemed really straight forward.

[bigdjiver]

I am not sure what you tried. There is no forum map at the moment. I am saying it would be good if the forum admin created one linked to that email. That way it is not created to any particular forum user. So if a user leaves for whatever reason, there should be someone to carry the map on. Any links within the forum to any map (if/when created) need to be made by the site developer.

If you are the forum admin/developer and what to find out more than PM me. The map site seemed really straight forward.I tried to create a map, the basic purpose of the site. I got an error message. That did not fill me with confidence. It might be just me, or my PC.

[dep]

I too like the idea of having the facility to search for location.
It could be done by county, or nearest city or post code.

Could the registration process encourage new Forumites to insert a location into their profile?

[David Bailey]

Could the registration process encourage new Forumites to insert a location into their profile?
I'm not sure how this could be "encouraged"? Also, I'm not sure it should be - some people don't want others to know where they live.

[tanjive]

I'm not sure how this could be "encouraged"? Also, I'm not sure it should be - some people don't want others to know where they live.

First off it would be opt in not compulsory. No one has to do it, like they do not need to ahem add a picture DJ.

Second as they add their own icon to the map you can place it as close to home as you like. The centre of a ringroad for instance. It is hardly giving away your home address.

[David Bailey]

First off it would be opt in not compulsory. No one has to do it, like they do not need to ahem add a picture DJ.
So, again, how would it be "encouraged"? Because there's already a location whatsit people can fill in - I don't understand what else you're proposing in addition?

[ducasi]

So, again, how would it be "encouraged"? Because there's already a location whatsit people can fill in - I don't understand what else you're proposing in addition?
tanjive is proposing using BuddyMapping. dep is asking for encouraged filling-in of the location field.

[dep]

only 19 of the 61 new registrants since January have given a location.

[David Bailey]

only 19 of the 61 new registrants since January have given a location.
That's their privilege, surely.

For me, it would be mildly interesting to see a map of forumite density - for that matter, it'd be interesting to see a map of MJ-er density - but it's not something I really care about.

[ducasi]

For me, it would be mildly interesting to see a map of forumite density - for that matter, it'd be interesting to see a map of MJ-er density - but it's not something I really care about.
Where are the densest forumite and MJ'ers? That would make a good poll!