Member Residence Map

[Layne Bracy]

One idea to help build community is to create a map of member's residences. I imagine a map of the 50 states with the number of members in each state, clickable to show the list of names in each state. For western states, clicking on the state would also show a detail of the county map, with the number of members in each county, each county then clickable to show the names.

John might script so that whenever anyone logs a new peak, they are prompted to select their state and county of residence.

This could be combined with the team concept, putting members in the same area on a team - e.g. Boulder, Jefferson1, Jefferson, 2, Adams-Weld-Larimer, etc.

Just a couple thoughts that came to me climbing Mt Hope in foul weather this morning!

[Jeremy Hakes]

It would be kind of cool... kind of like the google maps BIG page, where it shows all the peaks in a quad. And then when you scroll over it, instead of peak info, it'd have the member info (where you can navigate to from the main page anyway).

This would likely only work for those who have entered their home coords...

[BigRob]

I think the residence map would also be helpful for last minute hook ups and finding climbing partners in general. I live in Cortez, the only people I know that climb I work with (at Shiprock Hospital). I'm always looking for people to climb with. Which means I go solo often, that has it's highpoints too.

On the other hand I like being with people of simialar abilities and motivation. I do think it would be cool to scroll across the map and have icons that indicate who lives where.

[RyanSchilling]

Wouldn't there be a privacy issue with this? On the whole, I'd trust people at LoJ with this information, but I'd still hesitate to have my home coordinates posted publicly. If this were to be implemented, there'd need to be a way for those who've input their coordinates to opt out.

[Jeremy Hakes]

Wouldn't there be a privacy issue with this? On the whole, I'd trust people at LoJ with this information, but I'd still hesitate to have my home coordinates posted publicly. If this were to be implemented, there'd need to be a way for those who've input their coordinates to opt out.

Opting in/out would be ok. As far as privacy - have you ever googled yourself or done a search on your name on dexonline.com? A surprising amount of info is already publicly available (just look at your mailbox recently for all the crap you almost certainly didn't sign up for)....

[Layne Bracy]

Good points about privacy.

My idea for the map is to show the county of residence and nothing more.

Incidentally, if you have entered home coordinates on LOJ, they are available to the public directly or indirectly through some of the distance-based features on the site.

One option is to round your home coordinates off to the nearest 10th or 100th of a degree, rather than giving a full 4 decimal places. That way, your stalker can get to your neighborhood but won't know where your bedroom is!

[John Kirk]

Rounding as Layne suggests is probably a good option. Not sure if Teams implementation will have much to do with home coords since some areas/states can be sparse in members and I don't want to exclude anyone.

[DSunwall]

Google maps came up with a deal where you can correct the location of your house. Search for your address, most likely it will be one or two houses off on the map, you can correct this so anyone else searching will find your house. I left mine in the middle of the street. But, with an address, anyone can find you and look in your back yard. Google did recently launch a new satellite that can photograph an area the size of Texas every day.

In Live.com you can right click on any house or building and it will show the address, that is often off as well, check yours.

[BigRob]

Even if it just showed the town or county it would be helpful. It takes me 6 or 7 hours or more to get to Denver/Boulder so I wouldn't try to hook up with someone living there on the spur of the moment. On the other hand I could PM someone in Durango or Telluride and meet them in an hour or so.