Would This Be Doable?

[Panhead John]

Something that might be of interest to some of us…..I’ve always been curious as to how many members we have in each state and the various countries. I know that a while back we used to have a map showing the member locations by zip code/city? Not sure, but I did find that it wasn’t really that accurate, some members mentioned that they weren’t included. The map was also a little hard to read and didn’t show any numbers of members. I might be wrong as to details of the map, some of it is a little fuzzy to me, it hasn’t been up in a while. Would it be possible to just have an alphabetized list of states/countries and then the total number of members in each state/country? Something like…..


Alabama-78
Alaska-11
and so on. [whatever the numbers might be].

I ain’t no computer surgeon so I don’t know if this would be relatively easy to do, or if it would be a major PITA. Once the list is compiled could it be updated every month or two, to remain accurate? If this would be doable, I think it would be pretty interesting. The list could be viewed….maybe under the Pitmaster Statistics channel? This could also be helpful if anyone wanted to plan a MeatUp somewhere, they’d be able to see how many members are in their general region. Anyway, just a thought.

[dpearce]

Another site I'm a member of (Pinside.com) has something like this. It's an interactive map that starts out at the state level, then can be zoomed in or out (for other countries). If you zoom out, it labels states and countries with "pins" sometimes a cluster of pins depending on how many people have their profile enabled. As you zoom in, it places markers on the maps more accurately based on towns/cities/zip codes.

You can then click them for more information, pictures, their bio, you can see their for sale or want to buy posts, lots of things really.

All of this is voluntary, and only accessible by members. And members who don't wish to be identified by location simply leave that feature off in their profiles.

Oh, and you have to be a verified member. So for AR, I'd guess trial members (and the general public) would not be able to use that feature.

I have no idea what plugin (I'm assuming it's a plugin) they're using, or if they wrote that themselves.

EDIT: It kinda sounds like a lot of work! But these days, who knows, could be something right out of the box.

[Panhead John]

Yeah, some of that sounds a little bit like what we had. I was thinking with just the “numbers” of members in each state, that would be more accurate, no one would have to “opt in”. And a lot less work for someone to put together. I found it to be a little cumbersome to use…..and you’d have to do a lot of work to find out the number of members in your state. I don’t believe we listed the total number of members in each state

[Alan Brice]

IIRC the last idea got abandoned over privacy respects.
I have given enough info on this site a blind man that cannot hear could easily find my address. He could just sniff out the "Q" trail.

[Michael_in_TX]

For my conferences we do something like this. The logic is straightforward.....for those in the United States, we take their postal code and for outside the US, we use their Country.

SELECT attendee_State, COUNT(*) AS attendee_Count
FROM tbl_Attendees
GROUP BY attendee_State
ORDER by attendee_Count DESC;

(Cool....I still got it!)

We've never had any opposition as it is effectively anonymous. Although, some gamify it with stuff like "Find the one guy from Idaho!"

(I did have to convince my programmer to list Guam under United States rather than Other Countries one time lol.)

[Donw]

I could be wrong but I think it was removed before because of concerns raised by some members. State or Province levels might be okay but beyond that maybe not.

[GolfGeezer]

Mr. SQL! Shyte, even I can read that. Thanks for the flashback.

[Alan Brice]

Sorry Donw shoulda read everythang before I posted, only then I fergit whut I was gonna post. Guess it wusn't important anyway.

[WI Bubba]

Putting it together the first time shouldn't be too difficult. Keeping it up to date is where it turns into a monster.

That's why I nominate Panhead John to be the Mod of Maps, and update his user name to Panhead MoM.

He can keep the map up to date with names, location, number of posts, last post date, cookers owned, most used cooker, birthdays, anniversaries, favorite hobby, prefer beans in chili (Y/N), and some other stuff I'm sure I'm forgetting.

It would give him something to do between his fast food, and wing reviews we all find so riveting.

[Panhead John]

NO MAP numbnuts, just a state by state list of total members in that state. 🤓

[Alan Brice]

LOL! You Guys are killin me!

[MBMorgan]

With access to the Pit's underlying database, it should be pretty easy to implement. Keeping it up to date would basically require zero effort as long as users can set their own mapping preferences somewhere in the "My Membership" options (done correctly, this should also allow each user to address their own privacy concerns).

Much like what you currently get when selecting "Recent Posts", what you would see on the map would be the result of a pre-programmed (albeit fairly complex) query run against the database.

In the end, the real question is whether the benefit of implementing the membership map would justify the cost of doing so.

EDIT: I should add that, whether the results are to be presented on a map or as a list/report, the underlying database query logic is basically the same. If the Pit's UI capabilities already include built-in mapping functionality in addition to simply presenting results as a list, the level of effort isn't likely to be a whole lot different.

[Huskee]

We can check with RayJ (raywjohnson) about this. You're right, we did have that zoom in/out pin map of member locations, but we received complaints that it might violate privacy, even though it did not show any member data and was only accurate to city/town level, not even streets, and certainly not address. Sigh.

[Panhead John]

Thanks Huskee Or, if people wanted a map, it would need to be pretty big. But……maybe a map with ONLY the name of the state…..no cities, zip codes, etc. Then just show the number of members in that state, below or next to the name? Nobody could possibly have any privacy concerns about that…..

[MBMorgan]

Thanks Huskee Or, if people wanted a map, it would need to be pretty big.

But… to scale 😎:

[Panhead John]

I’m ok with Texas being the 2nd biggest state, but I sure hope we don’t annex Canada! I’d hate to drop to 3rd place….🥸

[DavidNorcross]

I think this would be fun for sure.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

The Membership Map ... - Pitmaster Club

I have no clue why people complained about this, it had a pin with a number of members roughly in each city/county type area. Wasn't specific at all, and no names... I liked it. I liked knowing there was 2 folks in my area and I had no clue who they were and hoped to randomly cross 'em one day.

[RAYMBO]

As the person that built the map, I only set the pins on zip codes. So you could see how many members were in the same zip code. Nothing on the map identified any members private information. The pins were centered on the zip code only.

The reason it was removed was that the boss did not want the map data to reveal how many members there are. So adding a direct list with states + counts would probably not be given the ok. No harm in asking.

And the map could easily be changed to just the state level, instead of a pin, just show the count over each state.

Michael_in_TX The force is strong with you. But, that query will not work perfectly as a great many members do not have address info. The only required field is the zip code. So a little PHP scripting on the results of the query to compile zip codes down to states would be required. Still easy to do.

MBMorgan is correct. Once in place, no extra work or effort would be needed to keep it up to date.

PS: to answer the original question, yes, this is very doable.

[Finster]

I'm curious to know why showing the number of members would be problematic.
Not judging, just genuinely curious. You don't know what you don't know.

[dpearce]

Yeah, I can understand the privacy concerns. Pinside is a little different as there are a number of pinball collectors, restorers, and sellers, so even though it's voluntary, most of the people who are listed there typically are selling or trading machines/parts. Plus they use that feature to track machines nearby in order to send people offers to buy or trade. Sometimes it's nice to switch a machine or two and get something different to play once in a while.

[RAYMBO]

I wish I could provide a good answer to this. I cannot. For various reasons.

[Finster]

I believe that DaveD "s recent move has swelled the ranks of Delaware members to a whopping total of 4. (I think)

[Huskee]

I just noticed your Location, made me chuckle.

[Donw]

And Maryland probably should be broken into at least 2 regions. Heck, we require most Marylander in other regions to pay an entrance fee (Toll) to visit us on the Eastern Shore. 😉

[Purc]

If showing the total numbers are a problem, what about percentages of members per state?