New Idea: Geographic Identity

[Douglas Robinson]

I took a step into the round world recently taking a class in basic turning at the local Woodcraft. It turns out there is a local woodturning group and they try to team newbies up with others so that they can get some hands-on education. This got me thinking....

I log on to SMC every day, usually more than once/day. I recently met a local SMC'r, but he is moving to South Carolina. I just made contact with another and hope to meet face-to-face soon. So here is the idea...

What do you all think of creating a section here on the Creek that groups us by geographical location? I can think of a number of advantages:

1. A chance to interact face-to-face;

2. Someone to help with two-man (or woman) jobs;

3. Buying power - buying wood or supplies in greater quantities and splitting it between members;

4. Lending tools;

5. Selling tools to one another;

6. Help moving equipment/projects;

7. Teaching/learning new techniques

8. Lending library materials.

Doug-Fairfax,VA

[Lee DeRaud]

It shouldn't be a big deal, but...I have no clue how much of the functionality of the underlying software is out-of-the-box from vBulletin and how much has been (or can be) modified by Aaron et al. The two things I'd "fix" first are:
1. A way to search/sort the member list by something besides first name. The current member list is (IMHO) pretty much useless.
2. Including the location field in forum searches. (What part of "search entire post" doesn't the software understand? Example: a search on "Anaheim" should find all of my posts...it doesn't.)

Depending on how it's done, either one of these would let you get a list of Creekers in your area, or at least the ones who were willing to put their location in their profile.

[John Shuk]

I think the reasons you give are valid. I think though that if you stick around awhile you'll see that all of the things you envision already occur with the current setup. All you have to do is post a message like: ANY CREEKERS IN FAIRFAX, VA AREA? I think that to try to categorize might tend to seperate us more than bring us all together. We would all have a tendency to stick with our own. IMHO

[Lee DeRaud]

Doug-Fairfax,VADon't live there now, obviously, but graduated from W.T.Woodson a few (ok, many) years ago.

[Kevin Herber]

Don't live there now, obviously, but graduated from W.T.Woodson a few (ok, many) years ago.

Lee - It must have been a LONG time ago. Aren't they required to call it "W.T. Wood-child" now?

[Lee DeRaud]

Lee - It must have been a LONG time ago. Aren't they required to call it "W.T. Wood-child" now?Things may have changed there, but I doubt political correctness is one of northern Virginia's strong suits.:cool:

[Douglas Robinson]

I have been a member of the creek since the demise of Badger Pond. And I do try to pay attention to the posters in my area. But, the number of users keeps growing, and an easy resource would be useful. What about a newbie to the Creek? Wouldn't itbe nice if they could quickly find local SMC'rs? Anyway this is just a small thought of mine.

Lee: Woodson is still there and my wife's nephew is a sophmore there. And the COMMONWEALTH of Virginia is not at the forefront of political correctness. (e.g., the state sales tax on cigarettes is still one of the lowest in the nation.)

[Aaron Koehl]

Doug,

The ZIP code (and alternatively, longitude and latitude) fields are slated for this purpose. I added these to the User Profile page about a year ago and generated a cursory map of SMCers. Once the list of ZIP codes grows more (it's getting there), we will generate another map on where everyone is coming from.

One thing to note is that your ZIP code will never be visible to anyone else. However, we do plan to use it in a "find nearby creekers" search.

[Dave Harker]

If the zip code search only works by exact match, that won't help much.

If the zip code part of this software knows how to tell if one zip code is close (geographically) to another zip code, then it will be great.

For example, my town of about 70,000 people has 4 zip codes, with anyone in any of these zip codes only a 15 minute drive (max) from my house.

The ability to search "find anyone within 50 miles (or 25 miles, or xxx miles) from zip code ABCDE" would be great - just like the "find a car for sale" websites do.

edit -> All of this should be based on a setting in each person's profile: "Do I want to show up in a zip code search? Yes/No". And the zip code field should be optional. We don't want people not coming to this site because they are afraid of privacy issues.


Just musing...

Dave

[Aaron Koehl]

Dave,

It's not a ZIP code match:

The ZIP codes are matched to their geographic longitude and latitude (from a ZIP code database I have). From this, the distances are calculated to find those members within a particular radius.

The radius will be long enough that privacy issues shouldn't be an issue. (For instance, take a look at www.zabasearch.com (http://www.zabasearch.com/)). I'll have an option for members to opt out; however, the ZIP code is quite safe, and the most commonly used by retailers for this purpose. Additionally, only those who specify their ZIP codes themselves will be able to perform searches.

We have a commitment to the privacy of our members and we will never divulge or sell any data. In all likelihood, we will just divide the map into large regions, which will encompass several ZIP codes into one.

[Dale Thompson]

What's the big deal? As a major metropolitan area, Peshtigo WI has a zip code of 54157.253! :D OK - so we're NOT that big of a city! ;) I think that the whole state of Wisconsin only has ONE zip code. I think that it is 3-or something like that!! :) ;)

Dale T.