Site Idea ..

[Grant R]

OK, what do people think of this idea : somewhere within the site, there could be a map (plan view) of the world. Detailed / Not Detailed , Large / Small , whatever really.
The end idea being, we mark all of the members locations on the map and as the site grows, it will be a wicked way of seeing the ' AquariumAdvice member locations '
Also, for people non-USA like me, it'd be good to see where in America you all are. My geography of America is quite poor !!

As I say, just an idea.

 

[fishfreek]

Moved to The Lounge to get additional feedback from members.

 

[Guest]

Sounds kinda cool to me. Would it be hard to do?

 

[reefrunner69]

I have to agree, I like the idea, but not sure of it's feasibility. Might need some computer gurus to sound off here as well.

 

[Grant R]

I don't think it'd be too hard to conjeur up really, if you could find a decent & suitable map image.

 

[reefrunner69]

I think a map image would be easy to come up with, but the question of how interactive it is, is a computer thing. It wouldn' be too hard for a admin or mod to add a mark to a jpeg image, but that wasn't exactly what I was thinking. (Don't ask, I'm not real sure myself what I was thinking ) But it might be impracticle. As the meber base increases, it would become a full time thing for one of us to be adding a mark to a map. For it to happen automatically upon membership....well that will take some programing, I think.

 

[Grant R]

I was thinking more along the lines of the more regular posters being added eiither by :

a) request
b) admins choice.
c) on once a certain amount of posts are reached ... and so on.

Could a once a week / fortnightly update work perhaps ? I just thought theres not many websites with this idea (think i've seen one) in three years of surfing the internet and with the right thought, probably could be done.

 

[fishfreek]

There was something in development by the software development group that wrote this forum software a few months back. I just checked on the status and it appears like the project was either abandoned or was placed on the back burner. I have requested an update on the status.

The overall interface of this visitor map is not the best and at this moment the only thing I know of that is out there is not compatible with our site

Given that I am not a programming wiz I would not know the first place to start in writting something of this nature.

I will keep this in my head when i am looking for other enhancments that are released. Until then the best I can do is ask that everyone fill in the location field on their profile.

 

[michealprater]

sounds like a really neat idea to me, but it also sounds difficult.

 

[nikki]

map

I think it would be cool, if you wish I can ask someone at my school how to do it.

 

[Grant R]

That decision lies with FishFreek or ReefRunner69 I think.

 

[fishfreek]

Ok, me and sunsplash have been thinking about this some.

If I was to write this I would have to toss the idea of a graphical map. I am just not that good at programming to get a location to auto place on a map image.

I could see me being able to write something that would take the locations from the profile and then count them up by state or country if its international. THen clicking on the state would list the member names that had that state as their location.

The only problem with that would be that the locations would have to be fixed. I could maybe work it so it took a full state name or the abbreviation.

Right now we have 181 members out of 360 that even have a location listed. So to get a good accurate list all members would have to disclose their location.

Of course if someone wants to work on writing a graphic map they can go right ahead as far as I am concerned. It would need to interface with PHP and mysql database if it as to use the location table.

If there is interested in what I described above I will try to develop this before the years close

 

[Grant R]

Sounds good to me.
Best of luck.

 

[fishfreek]

Ok grant I did some more thinking about this on the way into work this AM.

This is what I have come up with. I think it will work very nicly.

We use the Location information in the profiles. This will require that all exisiting members be kind enough to put at a minimum their state or country info into the profile.

Then have a page that is layed out with a flat image of the world. People can click on a content to get an image of that contentent I will use the US as an example. You would click on the US and you would be taken to a 800x600 image of the US with the states outlined and labled. Next to the state name would be the number of members in that state. You could then click on the state name to get a list of the members and their location that match that particular state.

The member name could be a link to their profile.

Now, I can write this but it will take a little bit before I get started on it. If anyone want to take this on pleas PM me and I can get you links to this forum software so you can develop it. I also plan on posting this request with some forum developers that I know about. If there is interest they will take this request and run with it to write something up jiffy quick.

 

[robertmarda]

I think this would be neat too! A visual picture can be very useful for those who like to see where in the world everyone lives.

 

[Grant R]

Nice one fishfreek.

And if anyone tries to pinch the idea, I'll be the one sueing for copyright !!

with some of the funds going towards AquariumAdvice.com of course .

 

[fishfreek]

Well grant when its written I would like to release it out for the rest of the web community to be able to make use of it. Unlike retail software most of the stuff developed for the web is called 'open source' or GPL. This allows people to obtain and use software for free.

Hey you cant knock that can ya? In fact the bulk of this site is made up of open source programs. I am proud to say the ONLY thing that was not free on this site was the chat script.

In advance of me working on this I made the Location field a required field. So all new members must have this filled out. All existing members who have a blank location will have to enter a location if/when they edit their profile.

Examples of prefered location format is (Virginia, Staunton VA, VA USA) This should work for everyone global. If your in a country that does not have states then you could just fill out UK or Engaland or Rome Italy.

When the map is complete there will be a spot for all the unknown locations to go. So if someone fills the location field out incorrectly or puts fake info then they will be listed in this unknowns listing.

 

[Grant R]

Can't wait to see this, I'm more than glad that the idea entered my head ! I still think it'll be a great & fun addition to the already best aquarium site on the net. 8)

 

[alrmc4]

stumbled across this thread is this still in the works?

 

[fishfreek]

At this point its not in development. I got busy with other items and never moved forward on developing this.