List nearest city as well as state

[nudist tom 2]

I live in Florida which is a large area. It is very helpful to know the approximate city (or area) the person lives in in order to respond.

[Brian]

I see what you mean. 11 pages of Personal Ads for Florida! I definitely need to break out Florida into smaller areas.

Any suggestions as to a smart breakdown?
Miami and Area
Tampa and Area
Rest of Florida?

- Drew :paw:

[ricmun]

On the old site the members usually gave there location by city or town or general area, I think this system worked, it let you know how far someone was from you and if it was possible to easily meet.

[Brian]

On the old site the members usually gave there location by city or town or general area, I think this system worked, it let you know how far someone was from you and if it was possible to easily meet. I am pretty sure we have the same areas setup as the old site ricmun. You might be thinking of another site? I think the solution for Florida (let's hear it for so many members from Florida!!) is break down the single state-wide area into smaller areas - 11 pages of ads is too many to wade through, and too far to travel.

But I need help Floridians, what would be a logical breakdown into smaller areas for Florida?

- Drew :paw:

[Herculoid Poirot]

At over 1 million square kilometers (+400,000 square miles) Ontario is more six times the size of Florida, albeit with abnout 70% of its population. We have 12 pages of ads!

If i were to break it down (and correct me if I'm wrong fellow Ontarians) I'd say

Northern Ontario (including Thunder Bay and Sudbury)
Central Ontario (including Barrie and Peterborough)
Eastern Ontario (including Ottawa and Kingston)
GTA (Greater Toronto Area - including Mississauga and Oshawa)
Southwestern Ontario (inlcuding Windsor and London)
Golden Horseshoe (including Kitchener, Hamilton, Niagara Falls)

[Brian]

You know what? I actually had a breakdown of Ontario and the UK and some other areas scoped out for this new system, but it got lost in the shuffle. We do however have the system in place to make these changes. So I will be breaking out Ontario, and re-organizing the UK (based on feedback from UK members on the old site - remember that thread?) in the next couple of days.

And let me know about Florida you sun-lovers!

- Drew :paw:

[Brian]

Below is what I have in my notes. Feedback requested. Let me know if you suggest better break outs:

UK
Current:
UK- Southern GB
Ireland
Northern Ireland
UK-Wales
UK – Scotland and Northern GB
UK – London Area

Proposed:
Scotland
Wales
Ireland
North West England
North East England
Midlands
East Anglia
London
South East England
South West England

ONTARIO
Current:
Ontario

Proposed:
Ontario – Greater Toronto Area
Ontario – Ottawa
Ontario - South West
Ontario – East
Ontario – Rest of Ontario
(Herculoid Poirot's may be better)

WASHINGTON
Current:
Washington

Proposed:
Washington – Seattle and Area
Washington – Rest of state

OREGON
Current:
Oregon

Proposed:
Oregon – Portland and Area
Oregon – Rest of state

GEORGIA
Current:
Georgia

Proposed:
Georgia – Atlanta Area
Georgia – Rest of state

ALBERTA
Current:
Alberta

Proposed:
Alberta – Calgary
Alberta – Edmonton
Alberta - Rural

BRITISH COLUMBIA
Current:
BC

Proposed:
BC – Vancouver
BC – Victoria and Island
BC – Rest of BC

And now we are proposing FLORIDA be broken out.

Let me know what you think of these, and any other areas.

Keep in mind we don't want to break things out too much - a list of 4 ads in each small area is kindof useless. I think we want at least 10 or 20 ads in each area, and if it is less than that then maybe we have broken it out too far.

- Drew :paw:

[Brian]

I have take the liberty of renaming this thread since the topic has expanded somewhat.

- Drew :paw:

[ko50001]

I sure would love to know how far the person I am talking to is far from me, Cause everybody (I sure wont) would be interested to know how far he is going to travel for a date. I sure would not drive 50 miles to get laid.

[Stargazer1417]

Used to live in FL... Try the Panhandle, North Florida (Jacksonville, St. Augustine), Central Florida (Daytona, Orlando), West coast (Tampa, Largo) and South Florida. Just a few suggestions.

[Brian]

I sure would love to know how far the person I am talking to is far from me, Cause everybody (I sure wont) would be interested to know how far he is going to travel for a date. I sure would not drive 50 miles to get laid.

I hear ya. All (most) of the members being bisexual presents a unique problem... many of our members are paranoid about privacy. I know, because I get their panicked emails sometimes. So we can't go with anything like people setting a location on a googlemap or entering their zip/postal code - I am pretty sure that just won't work on a bi site.

So that is how we have the location system we have, as imperfect as it is.

- Drew :paw:

[fun2bhung]

Tallahassee, Florida

[DrBimind]

Then there are peeps like me who live on the border of 2 states, (IN & MI) which is called Michiana which is the South Bend and surrounding areas....:suave:

[LeeNorCal]

Drew-

For California, the "Other Areas" designation can mean 800 miles from one town to another. I'm sure those of us in California would like to have "Other Areas" broken down into "Northern", "Central" and "Southern".

[Tongueuboth]

Tampa/Brandon and can host love extra males for both of us. Sherry & Eddie

[VZR1800]

Midwest City, just east of Oklahoma City on I-40.

[chapear]

I agree about California, can we possibly break it down to at least 4 or 5 different areas?

[its just me]

what about breaking up into counties or Zip codes for the US...???? or is that too close ?????

[Brian]

The programmer is working on a system where a person with a personal ad will indicate where they are located (approximately - as detailed and accurately as they choose for their level of comfort - using either their postal code or placing a marker on a map, their choice). Then a searcher will search around a particular point of their choosing (their home, a hotel, whatever) and ads will be displayed by order of distance away.

We have hesitated to go this route in the past because of concerns people have about revealing their location, but over time it has become apparent to me that distance/location is very important to people searching the ads. Those who are sensitive to revealing their location can always enter a nearby postal code or select the next town over or whatever to protect their privacy. And a user's location will never be displayed on a map (except to the user themselves), just distance in miles or kilometres from the searcher.

THIS DOES NOT AFFECT USERS WHO DO NOT HAVE A PERSONAL AD - in that case we will continue to just ask users to indicate their broad geographical area (such as state) to promote and facilitate member interaction.

I previewed the new system last night and it is looking quite good. I hope to roll it out in a few weeks.

- Drew :paw:

[DrBimind]

Drew you have got to be the hardest working web master around...always making improvements and refereeing all the threads that go awry...where do you find the time and energy, LOL. THANK YOU very much for all your efforts for making this the best damn community site of any sort on the web...keep up the good work....a grateful fan of the site

[Brian]

Very kind words DrBi. Thanks so much. I am thrilled you like the site.

- Drew :paw:

[mnTIMIDguy]

Drew-....if it's not too late, could you break down Minnesota into two areas: 1. Within 10 minute drive to Timid's house. 2. Beyond 10 minute drive to Timid's house. Thank you.

[Tongueuboth]

We live In Tampa bay/Brandon we are both bi and always love an extra male/men to do the wife and I. clean up is on me LOL.. Hope to here from some friends in the area. Sherry & Eddie

[OralGiver]

Lakeview ohio,Indian lake............close to belfontaine ohio

[whispering]

Berkeley, and I can see San Francisco from here!

[curious44]

I like to maintain a reasonable amount of anonymity, we never know who's reading this stuff. For obvious reasons I don't want my family (other than my wife), business, civic and most social contacts to be aware of my personal activities. A zip code could pin point things a little too closely for my comfort but a general location gives folks an idea if you're close enough to be convenient. In my case "SE WI, and/or Kenosha area" is plenty. Even those in a very rural area can use the direction and distance to a city. For example "30 miles ESE from Rapid City SD".

[striker48192]

Dearborn , Michigan . Just outside Detroit

[BloodSugarSexMagic]

I live in Orlando but have traveled the whole state & the population seems mostly in 7 pockets (Clusterfucks? LOL):

Panhandle - Talahassee
Northeast - Jacksonville
West Coast/Tampa-FtMyers
Central FL - Gainesville / Orlando /
East Coast - Daytona / Cocoa Beach / Vero Beach
South FL- Boca Raton / Ft Lauderdale / Miami / Naples
FL Keys

[CurEUs_Male]

Drew,
Many other sites allow for distance calculations off of user postal/zip codes. Perhaps engineering something along that would allow for better 'within xx miles' references?

Al

[69luvr]

I live in Orlando but have traveled the whole state & the population seems mostly in 7 pockets (Clusterfucks? LOL):

Panhandle - Talahassee
Northeast - Jacksonville
West Coast/Tampa-FtMyers
Central FL - Gainesville / Orlando /
East Coast - Daytona / Cocoa Beach / Vero Beach
South FL- Boca Raton / Ft Lauderdale / Miami / Naples
FL Keys
I agree with this. Daytona and Orlando could be listed as one

[Bicurious81]

We live in Western mass, the surrounding cities are

SPringfield

Chicopee

amherst

holyoke

beltchertown

hadley

wilbraham

ludlow

eastlongmeadow

palmer

ware

west springfield

[HappyHedonic]

From micro to macro: Forestville => Santa Rosa => Sonoma County => San Francisco Bay Area => Northern California => California => USA => North America => Western Hemisphere => Earth

[Wizzee]

I'm in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and this state could be broken down in half, using Nashville as the border for the split. Otherwise, just use the four major cities: Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga, and Knoxville...

[curiousboi36360]

Dothan alabama

[BloodSugarSexMagic]

I was thinking that, Then I remembered that Florida is over 300 miles long & a lot of it is uninhabitable swamp.

Daytona is more in the "Space Coast" connection & I was grouping the east coast & west coast as separate since Orlando is close to equidistant from Daytona & Tampa.

Panhandle - Pensacola / Panama City / Talahassee
Northeast - Lake City / Gainesville / Jacksonville / St Augustine
Central FL - Ocala / Orlando / Winter Haven
Bay Area - Clearwater / Tampa / St Petersburg / Sarasota
Space Coast - Daytona / Cocoa Beach / Sebastian
Southwest Coast - Port Charlotte / Ft Myers / Naples
Southeast Coast - Vero Beach / Ft Pierce / Stuart
South FL - Jupiter / Boca Raton / Ft Lauderdale / Miami
Homestead & the Keys

Anyone in these areas can corroborate or dispute my splits but I think it's good.