A global reach....

[The Revolting Man]

I was struck this week by the global reach of this group. I know it's the world wide web and all but there are still a lot of localities represented here.

Of course we know that Followinghim and his are in New Zealand. There have been a number of posts from Australia lately. I seem to remember some posts from England. I have just learned there are some folks here from Hungary. I know in the past we've had posts from Brazil and somewhere in Asia. There is a gentlemen in Thailand who posts periodically. Apparently there a few people from the colonies as well.

Any body know of any other exotic locales represented here? We need a map with pinpoints showing all of these places or something.

 

[FollowingHim]

There are several plugins for XenForo which would allow users locations to be displayed on a map (only the locations of people who choose to willingly share their location). So we could quite practically add such a map, if people would find it useful. I'd be concerned about privacy, so I would only add something that people could choose to share their location on or choose to remain hidden, and that allowed people to just specify a country or a city rather than their actual address.

 

[Joleneakamama]

Our town is so small, I got slightly freaked out once when shortly after we moved here I walked into the general store, and had someone I had never met greet me by name!

The good news is most people I know already know how I feel about biblically styled families.

It is neat how many countries are represented here in this online family of believers.

 

[julieb]

I would love a map Samuel. Could we have a World one and a USA one? I have thought about making a simple one myself many times. Nothing specific like you said for privacy reasons, but something with Country and region or state would be nice. I vote for it!

 

[FollowingHim]

The plugins I have seen offer a single world map you can zoom in to anywhere you like, like Google Maps. So one map but it would do all you suggest and more (could zoom in on Europe instead for instance).

 

[mystic]

FH, when a supplied address is no more specific than a postal code (and maybe less so), do the plugins highlight the entire relevant area or do they drop a pin at an arbitrary point in its middle? The latter approach has been common in digital maps but can also be problematic.

I see that Google Maps now does the former, highlighting and placing a bounding box, sans pin, around areas such as postal codes, cities, and countries.

 

[FollowingHim]

From what I have seen, pins are used. Which is not ideal, but can be explained with a comment on the page that markers are not people's actual locations, just somewhere roughly near them.

 

[SonoLumen]

I am surprised you aren't using Google Analytics. Someone should look into installing it. It has a comprehensive panel that will help give you insight into all types of user statistics.

 

[FollowingHim]

Google Analytics is free because it is essentially spyware - if we install it Google will know everyone who visits the site and record this. That is not desirable for a site dealing with sensitive personal issues regarding a form of marriage that is officially repressed around the world... This is why we don't have Facebok like buttons either - they're spyware too. Best to err on the side of caution.

 

[NetWatchR]

 

[aineo]

How well this would fit as your avatar.

 

[NetWatchR]

Heh. True.... hmmmmm.