is anything happening with the members nearby feature?

April 26, 2005 10:15 PM

As a follow-up to this post from last year, is anything happening with the members nearby feature being extended to cover people that don't have a zip code? If the latitude and longitude thing is too much work can we group people outside the US by country?
posted by mexican to Feature Requests at 10:15 PM (18 comments total)

You mexican er sumthin'?
posted by Witty at 11:22 PM on April 26, 2005

As a stopgap measure, I still think we should use the USPS foreign ZIP codes. Yes, the U.S. Postal Service gives a ZIP code to everywhere you can send mail, even other countries.
posted by grouse at 11:49 PM on April 26, 2005

You'll have to invade my country before I put an american post code in my profile.
posted by sebas at 11:52 PM on April 26, 2005

I know of stavros and a couple other users who live in my adopted neighborhood of southeast Asia. I would like to know who is in my area. I've been waiting for this international pony for a few years. I'm sure I'll continue to wait, but I would like an update, too.
posted by squirrel at 12:12 AM on April 27, 2005

Be careful what you ask for, sebas.

Judging from Matt's previous explanation it sound like nearness is already determined by latitude and longitude, so unless the reference currently in use for zip code to coordinate matching has data for the country-zip-code (which I doubt), then that's not a viable option. I'm also not so big on the idea of using a US zip code to represent the country in which I currently reside.

The reason I brought this question back up is because it seems that bugbread and I might be working for the same company in the same city. It got me wondering who else is nearby.
posted by mexican at 12:20 AM on April 27, 2005

I'm also not so big on the idea of using a US zip code to represent the country in which I currently reside.

And I'm not so big on using a Mexican "longitude and latitude" system to represent the country in which I currently reside.
posted by grouse at 12:36 AM on April 27, 2005

I have code to convert the whole system from zips to long/lat but haven't ever had the time to bite the bullet and try the conversion. It's a lot of data to get right so I've been hesitant, but it's doable.

I'm going to be spending a lot more time on MeFi this summer and will definitely add this to the list of fixes to roll out.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 12:45 AM on April 27, 2005

I know of stavros and a couple other users who live in my adopted neighborhood of southeast Asia.

Northeast Asia for me, but horseshoes and hand grenades, as they say.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 2:17 AM on April 27, 2005

mefites: andale! andale!
mathowie: manana...
posted by quonsar at 5:10 AM on April 27, 2005

I have code to convert the whole system from zips to long/lat but haven't ever had the time to bite the bullet and try the conversion. It's a lot of data to get right so I've been hesitant, but it's doable.

Are you generalizing the area and shape of zip codes, because they're not normalized in any sense of the word.

If you're looking for a quick solution, you may want to try the Topological Integrated Geographic Encoding and Reference file from the USPS. It relates any given zipcode (zip+4, for teh win) to a long/lat coordinate pair.

I don't recall specifically, but I think that CD is a shipped subscription database that is something like 99.00 a year. I'm working with old memory on that, however.
posted by thanotopsis at 5:22 AM on April 27, 2005

mefites: andale! andale!
mathowie: manana...
mefiosos: Mana Mana! doot dooo do-do doo!
posted by dabitch at 6:11 AM on April 27, 2005

*trots out tired cheer for the possibility of lat/long co-ordinates without any real hope*

*waits for timeistight to join in*
posted by dg at 6:22 AM on April 27, 2005

I'm going to be spending a lot more time on MeFi this summer...

Oh, really?
posted by mathowie's baby at 6:38 AM on April 27, 2005

yay!
posted by timeistight at 6:39 AM on April 27, 2005

I would also appreciate this pony.
posted by raedyn at 7:49 AM on April 27, 2005

Me too, since I do have a zip code in my profile but my page says no MeFians are near me. I know that isn't true!
posted by Lynsey at 10:12 AM on April 27, 2005

I live in the 19th sector of Paris, France (zip code 75019). For a long time I thought I had a whole bunch of Mefites near me. Then one day I realized they were in places like Plano, TX (zip code 75023). (Incidentally, that explained the mystery of why I regularly get email for jobs or alumni reunions in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.)

Then I got real excited and thought maybe I had the same zipcode as Paris, Texas. But no, in Texas, my zipcode is 120 miles from the Texas Paris (zipcode 75460). Oh well.
posted by Turtle at 10:53 AM on April 27, 2005

mexican : " The reason I brought this question back up is because it seems that bugbread and I might be working for the same company in the same city."

Whoa! The NTT spies, they are everywhere! ^_^
posted by Bugbread at 10:42 PM on April 27, 2005