How would you like a "Gamers Seeking Gamers" system to work?

[Umbran]

Not unless your coders code it that way... they can build the functionality right into enworld if they want.

Yes, which is why my next sentence says, "...unless you want to provide your own tool for users to look it up."

I think that while Morrus may be able to get some coders on this, I think we should expect their time will be at a premium. How much time should they spend on this?

Do you argue that many users won't want to obfuscate for privacy? The extra accuracy that lat/long provides is only as reliable as the data people enter into the system - GIGO. Why have them spend time on such a tool if people will enter inaccurate data anyway?

 

[Scribble]

Do you argue that many users won't want to obfuscate for privacy? The extra accuracy that lat/long provides is only as reliable as the data people enter into the system - GIGO. Why have them spend time on such a tool if people will enter inaccurate data anyway?

He asked for a way to do it that is better then zip code (which not all countries have) my response is since the various distance checkers use lat/long in the end anyway, that's something EVERYONE has in common.

I don't argue that people are most likely not going to want to give their exact location out to the internet at large, but just because you're using lat/long for the calculations doesn't mean you have to give your precise location, just let it show a "zone" like if I enter my location as an address in Philly, it would mark me as a resident of Philadelphia, or south Philadelphia, or whatever zones you want. (And preferably as detailed as the particular user wants.)




Also I think it would be cool if you DID have a way to notify people in the area that you were running say a pickup game or something... Like if you had some free time and wanted to run a game at a store or something, you could toss out a notify message to either your "friend list" or gamers in the area at large saying game at x hour at x location. (Tie it into twitter and facebook and the smartphone apps. )

 

[scruffygrognard]

A game finder that is based off of ZIP code would be ideal... especially if you can search for a RPG by ZIP code.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

So our options so far seem to be:

1) Postal/Zip Code. Problematic part here is obtaining the data for different places.

2) Keywords. Search by country, state/county/province, town. Then perhaps a "distance from" that location.

3) Lat/long. Oviously the most accurate way to do it, but I'm not clear on how that works. Do people need to know their latitude and longitude for this to work? Because I certainly don't know mine! It sounds like that would be a barrier to entry; people could find out that info, but will they bother? Is there some easy way to determine lat/long (assuming you don't have a GPS device)?

"Distance from" your profile location would be essential to me. I live on a state border and find it a pain to find players when state is the primary search factor as I always have to think of both states. Some people in my area might even be willing to come from a third nearby state depending upon where in the metro area they work and I could have missed out in the past by not considering the third state.

Is there a capability to store secure data in your profile? If so, people could put as much of their address information into their profile to feed into the distance calculation. This could be as little as a postal code or as much as their full address. That should cover the issue of international users and those concerned about privacy.

 

[Morrus]

Is there a capability to store secure data in your profile?

Not at all. That's why we use PayPal rather than storing credit card details. Our server isn't set up for security (except for the basic level needed to run a website).

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Lat/long. Oviously the most accurate way to do it, but I'm not clear on how that works. Do people need to know their latitude and longitude for this to work? Because I certainly don't know mine! It sounds like that would be a barrier to entry; people could find out that info, but will they bother? Is there some easy way to determine lat/long (assuming you don't have a GPS device)?

Looks like Google Maps will do it for you. I just put the map on my hometown, clicked on a location on the map near my house, then right-clicked choosing "What's Here?" When I did the lat/long coordinates appeared in the search bar.

 

[Janx]

quick background, I am a software architect who has spend considerable time designing and developing web applications. The gist is, I could make this tool or any of the other social networking tools out there, so my points are based on actually knowing how to make it happen.

Location:
managing location is the developer's problem to solve, be it by zip code, gps or other. The user will enter their address, and the code will resolve where they are. A user's real concern will be the availability of that data to others. Should it be obfuscated, completely hidden? If it is hidden, can another user still triangulate where the person is, by changing their own address until they zero in on an area?

I would assume the user will have settings to control what is visibly shared (full address, city/zip, state/country). The user might also be able to check the level of precision (get location by address/gps, or by city/zip).

Once that's ironed out, the tool can then be used to tell you "who's in your area" with the user setting a radius or some such or common city/state/country.



meetup.com sounds like a site to study for more ideas. Also look for parallels in apps like facebook and dating sites. Yes, dating sites.

Dating sites ask a series of questions about what your interests are. Imagine a series of check boxes on the names of games and gaming styles. From there, it is really is to get a list of gamers with matches, and to then filter that down to "nearby gamers" in the code.

Once you have that done, it's pretty easy to run that query for a new user (so he can see candidates right away) and to send an email alert for existing members of the new user who matches.

from there, you've got a tool to help gamers find other gamers, but they've still got to manage all that via email. Having tools like meetup.com does for managing events and such would smooth out the process. Tying that into other web tools for online RPing, or play by post would be some nice extensions.

 

[Morrus]

quick background, I am a software architect who has spend considerable time designing and developing web applications. The gist is, I could make this tool or any of the other social networking tools out there, so my points are based on actually knowing how to make it happen.

Would you like to make some money? And make EN World even cooler than it already is?

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

Not at all. That's why we use PayPal rather than storing credit card details. Our server isn't set up for security (except for the basic level needed to run a website).

Even so, if you could program the conversion to lat/long based on information entered, each person could choose how much of their address to enter. Or you could limit address info to City, State, Postal Code, Country and have the conversion feed off Postal Code first or city/country if no postal code is provided.

The key to me is still "distance from." Every site that I've used successfully to locate people with similar interests has this feature.

 

[Morrus]

Even so, if you could program the conversion to lat/long based on information entered, each person could choose how much of their address to enter. Or you could limit address info to City, State, Postal Code, Country and have the conversion feed off Postal Code first or city/country if no postal code is provided.

Or the user could enter a fake - but close enough - address.