Wouldn't member directories by state be great?

[AK_Button_Mama]

I LOVE this idea.. you guys are so smart!

 

[Parson's Wife]

I think it helps...alot....
Buckyguy has something similar on his Okies thread...and it's a great way to follow up w/ folks.

I think Country, State or Province, then town

other than that...gets really busy.

Keep up the good work

 

[EliteTempleton]

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I like the thinking you and others are doing here. So far, this sounds really organized.

Some people prefer to be as anonymous online as possible, though, so I'm not sure making it a requirement to select a specific location before being allowed to write anything in the free-form area would be a good idea. It might make people uncomfortable.

If you really were set on having people have to choose something from the drop-down menu, you could always include an option other than a country or region that allows someone to remain "hidden." I'm trying to think of a good one- or two-word description that would be clever and vague, but at the moment, I'm stuck.

this would be much easier to explain if were were all sitting around a table! I've re-written my response a few times, just trying to be clear.

So um, forget what I said earlier, now hear this, lol.
None of them should be required.
Maybe add to the note that the location field is not searchable by other members so you might miss out on a local offer in the BST section? I donno

 

[PortageGirl]

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Ahhh,, I like! and none of it has to be required, people could enter none or just country, or just country and region. If a person sorted it on 'country' they'd just get em all.

There may be a way to specify on the engine so if sort by Country is chosen, it automatically then pics region as a secondary sort, then forum name or whatever... have to talk to the forum design peeps.

 

[PortageGirl]

Parson's Wife :

I think it helps...alot....
Buckyguy has something similar on his Okies thread...and it's a great way to follow up w/ folks.

I think Country, State or Province, then town

other than that...gets really busy.

Keep up the good work

I'm not too keen on saying town... I like N, NE, NW, C, S, SE, SW best and that can be hard coded in as a pull down, not ambigious at all.

Plus, there are so many TINY darn towns!!! much too specific. Saying Chicago or NYC is one thing, that could be a LOT of area, my little town and you could pretty much just start knocking on doors!


[edit] "Country Subdivision" is what I found as a general term for State, Province, Region etc​

 

[EliteTempleton]

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Yea Nifty mentioned paying a programmer, so I figured he could just have them improve the user list search as you described with a 'sort first on X then on Y' option.

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"Country Subdivision" I like it, and it's obvious when you click on the drop down what it means. I like this better then Region as a field name for that field.

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Ahhh,, I like! and none of it has to be required, people could enter none or just country, or just country and region. If a person sorted it on 'country' they'd just get em all.

I'm confused, did the post you quoted here from me fix your troubles listed/quoted above? Being none required, but first 3 as drop down only & last as Freeform?

Plus I *think* its easier to create the form as Drop down only or free form only, but then I'm not a forum site admin...

 

[EliteTempleton]

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You make both a good point and found a new problem...

What if I live near Chicago and search for Illinois & SE?

Wouldn't I miss this person because I made my search more granular then they filled in?

Yet we already decided we can't remove the location field as a freeform option?

Darn it! Oh well though I think with time this would work itself out. Like this person might post "why don't I come up for a search of my area?" and we would say, they are searching down farther then you filled in your info.

Or.... Someone might be looking for Chicago folks to buy from, and not have much luck by searching Illinois & SE so they broaden their search to just Illinois and find this person.

But...!

what about folks like PortageGirl? Nifty can you pay that programmer to be able to search multiple area's? Like say a person lived in NE Arizona. They would probably want to be able to search NE Arizona, NW New Mexico, SW Colorado, & SE Utah all at once...

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Wow, great discussion!

In general, anything can be done. It is just a matter of cost, time, and how important it is relative to other things on the to-do list.

I think this is a worthy project and will promote the community solidarity (that's a fancy way to say "way to get more chickens").

We can start relatively simple. Here is what I'm gathering from skimming through the replies:

I really like the idea of more than just a state selection! I think EliteTempleton had a great idea:

Country: USA
Region: Michigan
Section: SW

Location: Freeform

The "section" is fantastic because it gives a very relative idea. It doesn't have to be perfect, just relative! Even if there is debate on North vs. South (perfect example is NorCal vs. SoCal) someone can always select other sections or just do a region search.

If someone, say in west Colorado wants to see locals, they can also search East Nevada... I don't think that would be the end of the world.

Now, the problem is how to display all this granularity and mix it with other sections. Keep brainstorming on ways to display and maybe integrate this information in a helpful usable way.​

 

[PortageGirl]

I don't believe this is an ONLY situation.... if you go to the User list right now, try leaving the USERNAME blank, and sort on any one of the three options, see how it shows things. It can be quite useful, but just now, sorting on date of registration isn't always too useful for most of us. May be for the Admins though.

So, if there's a Country option, and you sort by Country, you can go to the USA section and yes, due to population numbers you'll get too many peeps in a crazy order. But if you sort by Country, you can go to the UK section, and there may be 100 (?) people... and if you sort by Suffolk (which if you are from Suffolk in England, you'll know that it makes sense), you may have only 10 or 20 people!!

BUT, if you sort on State or Region whatever it's named, (leaving the others blank or unspecified) it will bring up everything in chunks based on that field. and you can pull them out that way.

It may well be possible for the forum search engine to be set so if someone sorts based on 'state' or geo region or whatever it gets called, it can then be set to also do the next block as a secondary choice (C, N, NE, NW, S, SE, SW, etc) . I'd really have to see the forum options to say.

I don't think it's an actual programmer that's needed, it's usually an option available in the 'set up'. These people usually allow lots of options for sorting forum membership.

 

[BeckyLa]

Silly me......I just don't see the need. I use the Here Am I/Where Are You posts to find peeps close to me. I thought that's what it is for.....