Where is everyone? An information gathering topic

[Samwise]

Hi,

With regards to the new topics that sydney has started about trying to work out how far people would be willing to travel, I think it would help if we actually had a clear idea where people from our forum were actually located.

To that end I've created this *. STH forum members geographical locations Google map: GB view and global view. Anyone who views the map, logged into a Google account, should be able to edit it.

Can I suggest that those people willing to reveal their location to aid in planning, please edit the map and add a pin at their rough geographical location (e.g. if you live in Cambridge, a pin on Cambridge would be good enough) named after their forum username. It doesn't need to be highly accurate, down to the house.

Can I also suggest that if you just want to share your location, you use the default red colour pin but if you are willing to travel to attend a meet, you make your pin a blue colour - like the one I've added for me.

No idea if this will work, but figured it would be useful info to have for event planning. I'll disable it later if it doesn't catch on ...

[sydney]

Great idea!
Adding myself now.
If anyone wants to be added but doesn't have a google account then let me know and I'll add a pin and your name (or not).

[Arcadian]

Have marked myself too (Leicester - though I do spend quite a lot of time working/staying in the North too e.g. Brighouse, Blackpool, North Wales).

This could turn out be a really useful tool, so I hope all members with an interest in attending meets participate in the mapping project.

[flaxcottage]

Done.

This is well-cool.

[Prime]

Ok I've managed to add myself, but can't work how to change the fecking colour from red to blue, it's not obvious.

Cheers.

Phill.

[flibble]

Ok I've managed to add myself, but can't work how to change the fecking colour from red to blue, it's not obvious.

Cheers.

Phill.

Click on edit, find your name in the drop down list, as you wiggle your mouse over it, a paint pot icon appears, that lets you change it.

Joys of undiscoverable UI, I think it's the default style these days.

[Prime]

Right i changed it

Scarey thing that becomes apparent from that map is that Samwise may actually be closer to some of our Dutch forum members than to Sydney & CMcDougall

Cheers,

Phill.

[tricky]

Added, that was quicker than BITD

[aerworuld]

okie dokie, pin added for me. Could somebody make my pin blue though? i think i may have broken something important as mine is determined to be white....

Stuart

[1024MAK]

I'm not sure what the is going on, but the map keeps wanting to auto style and set the pin colours based the data

Is this happening to anyone else? Or am I in my own mad Google map madness?

Mark

[1024MAK]

okie dokie, pin added for me. Could somebody make my pin blue though? i think i may have broken something important as mine is determined to be white....

@ Stuart - I think I have recoloured you. Let me know if I have been successful

If not the instructions are in a post between Prime's two posts above

Mark

[aerworuld]

okie dokie, pin added for me. Could somebody make my pin blue though? i think i may have broken something important as mine is determined to be white....

@ Stuart - I think I have recoloured you. Let me know if I have been successful

If not the instructions are in a post between Prime's two posts above

Mark

Thanks Mark; i am now blue

i did try to do it that way myself but i couldn't get it to do it without changing the colour of the other white marker as well

[sweh]

Hmm, I added my home location in New York but this seems to ruin the map for everyone (it tries to center the map to fit all the points in) so I removed that and added where I stay when I'm back home (e.g. for this Christmas).

[oss003]

Ok and one oversea marker added ....

Greetings
Kees

[dangardner]

Ok and one oversea marker added ....

And another, but not as far away as you.

[CMcDougall]

change the fecking colour

Phill, think your marker should be in Ireland

mine done now, after remembering my google password from 5+ yrs ago

.... also changed my name from Point19

[ptheta]

Added the second Basingstoke pin.

I have so little free time these days, having a young baby, but I'd certainly consider attending a meet if it wasn't too far away and there was plenty of notice.

Paul.

[roland]

Second Dutch pin is placed in the south of the Netherlands. Mine is red although I'm willing to travel for about 200km.

I'm looking forward to see some Belgium, German and French pins...

[paulv]

A third pin in the East Midlands

Paul

[steve3000]

Located myself (after recovering my long-lost google password...)

[Multiwizard]

Third Dutch pin is placed in the middle of the Netherlands...

If I get (financially) the opportunity to go to a gathering, I sure try to be there...

[woolly_axolotl]

First pin west of Taunton. Nice to see someone in Weston though. Right on my 'andsome!

[Samwise]

Excellent to see this idea appears to be working - I didn't have anyone around to test, so I just published it right before I left the office and crossed my fingers. lol

I see we have two incongruous pins in there - 1024MAK and SPhilMainwaring, were yours intentionally set to purple and yellow, respectively?

Looking at this map after just a day, does anyone else think Bletchley Park looks like it might be a nice venue for a more southerly meetup?

P.S. You can alter the level of zoom it opens up by changing the z= variable in the URL. Annoyingly, there doesn't seem to be a way to get it to store the centre of the map to be a specific point.

[mjforbes]

I'm looking forward to see some Belgium, German and French pins...

My two pins added - home (Southsea) and second home (Falaise, France) added (as I spend roughly half of the time in each). Perhaps I should have stuck myself mid-channel?

Matt.
(France at the moment)

[Prime]

Looking at this map after just a day, does anyone else think Bletchley Park looks like it might be a nice venue for a more southerly meetup?

Certainly suits me as it's only about an hour's drive from Coventry, would look to be pretty convenient for Arcadian, Paulv and PhilYoung too.

Cheers.

Phill.

[Arcadian]

Yeah. Bletchley Park has (or at least had - it's been a while since I've been there) a reasonably-sized room that they would hire out to businesses for meetings etc. Reckon it would be ideal for a User Gp meet ...

[denni505]

pined myself leeds bramley

[Arcadian]

^^ you should come to the next Halifax ABug meetup in January!

[1024MAK]

I see we have two incongruous pins in there - 1024MAK and SPhilMainwaring, were yours intentionally set to purple and yellow, respectively?

For me, yep . I'm limited when in terms of dates (part of my job is working lots of weekends) and also events in the north of the country are usually far from me. So I selected "magenta" as halfway between red and blue.

Looking at this map after just a day, does anyone else think Bletchley Park looks like it might be a nice venue for a more southerly meetup?

Yes . It's only 2h 39m / 127 miles from me by road (said Google). Shame the rail service in this direction is rubbish with 4 trains taking about 4 hours mainly due to having to go via Brum or London .

If there is a southerly meet up (or any other southerly events), the more notice that is given, the earlier I can arm twist my manager in granting me leave .

Mark

[Samwise]

Alright, I've wasted some time fiddling and I think I've been able to update the URL in the first post with a view that will start with the focus on a zoomed out view of Great Britain. That means other folk can put in their pins even if they live a lot further away, without stretching the default view. It wasn't very helpful when it was defaulting to zooming into the north sea ...

@sweh, I think this means you should be able to add a pin for New York now, if you want ...

Let me know if there are any issues.

Sam.