Searching members list by city or state

[pinsonpa]

I'm one of many new people to the AC who is VERY happy to have stumbled across this place! I've only been here about a week and a half and can't think of much that I would change (bravo to William and all the staff, volunteer contributors, etc.):19:

One thing I thought of the other day (which may not been a new suggestion) is having a way to search the members list by city or state. I know that if I knew of a few members in my area I might be inclined to get their input on local fish stores or other places near me that carry quality fish, aquarium supplies, people that are willing to board sick fish, etc. Comparing notes of tap water quality, etc. might be nice too.

It's not a huge deal, but if it wasn't too hard to set up it might be something people would use. I know not everyone chooses to include their city and state (or country/providence) in their profiles, but for the ones that do it might be kinda cool.

Like anything, there are potential problems with this too so you'd have to look at the potential "cons" to make sure it's worth doing.

Just thinking out loud...this place is pretty darn solid "as is"

Thanks!

[Ellen4God]

Great suggestion. It's worth looking into.

[pinsonpa]

Thank you Ellen4God...By the way, grats on your Silver Activity Award!

[Tooch]

It's not a bad idea, IMO. I know when I needed to move my 280gal tank, one of the members who lived near me volunteered his assistance as well. And I know I've had at least a couple people send me pm's regarding local fish stores. Good idea!

BTW, Welcome to the site!

[sailor]

What a great idea. It could also make it easier for members to meet face to face if they wished.

[Tolley]

It's a good idea!

[RainMan]

Great idea....

I know a lot of forums I belong to have geo region topics. But, with the diversity of this site... it would take a lot of listings to cover the entire globe. :) It never really works either... because you have to go in an introduce yourself.

But, being the geek programmer that I am... it might be difficult because the location in your profile is free hand text.

[Tooch]

But, being the geek programmer that I am... it might be difficult because the location in your profile is free hand text.


Good point...

[pinsonpa]

That is a good point and it likely means we wouldn't be able to do it easily under the current method on entering profile information. Would it be possible to insert a new field under profile options and encourage people to re-enter their location?

There are A LOT of smart people in the A.C. and plenty of people who use more than one forum. Seems like a few new threads in the right places might get more people thinking about a possible solution.

Is there a way to sort thread titles alphabetically? If so, maybe we could have a place (similar to the "introduce yourself" section) for each country represented here. You'd click on your country and start a new thread with your State, then City in the title (or providence, etc.). If the treads were alphabetical you could scroll down to your state and all the cities represented from that state would be together since it's alphabetical. If your State or Country wasn't listed yet, you'd could start a new thread. If your city isn't listed then you'd start a new thread, etc. (again...just thinking out loud)

It's FAR from perfect and not everyone would use it, but it could be VERY useful to members and would at the very least be really cool to see how far the A.C. has spread!

By the way...just in the last 24 hours there have been 2 new members who had questions specific to their area.

There's got to be a way to do this, right?