Sorting 'users near me?'

December 31, 2007 5:04 PM

Is it possible to sort or filter 'users near me' by fields besides distance? Such as 'number of comments/favorites/posts' or 'since last activity' or anything else, really.
posted by empath to Feature Requests at 5:04 PM (14 comments total)

Such as 'age,' 'gender,' and 'marital status,' you mean?
posted by bingo at 6:22 PM on December 31, 2007

Such as a/s/l, you mean?
posted by shakespeherian at 6:31 PM on December 31, 2007

I think he wants to filter out sockpuppets and rarely used accounts. Makes sense, at least to me.
posted by MadamM at 6:44 PM on December 31, 2007

For instance, the person geographically nearest me has one comment. There's also a person like that on empath's list. And probably on most other people's nearest users list.
posted by MadamM at 6:48 PM on December 31, 2007

Yeah, i've got 200+ users near me and a big chunk of them rarely, if ever, post, or are dead accounts. I was actually just curious how many members who are actually active are nearby after looking at a recent local meet-up thread.
posted by empath at 7:07 PM on December 31, 2007

There are only three users.
posted by blacklite at 8:18 PM on December 31, 2007 [1 favorite]

I would love to have at least one user show up on my "nearby user" list. Even if that person if three hours away in Mexico City. But I would feel less lonely.

Is it possible to have a default of at least ten users shown no matter how far away they actually are?
posted by mosessis at 8:33 PM on December 31, 2007 [2 favorites]

I agree with mosessis. It would be nice to see some people listed nearby. Usually (although Cairo is an obvious exception) in areas with fewer MeFites that can also suggest less population density, which probably also means a willingnes to go further to meet someone new. Contrariwise, if you are in NYC you probably don't want a radius greater than 5-10 miles, or else your list is retarded.
posted by Deathalicious at 8:37 PM on December 31, 2007

Well, if you're in NYC, you know everyone already anyway.

Speaking of which, let's have a meetup tomorrow.

Just kidding.
posted by bingo at 10:33 PM on December 31, 2007

As mosessis and Deathalicious demonstrate, perhaps having a user-definable distance criteria would be a good first step. I'd also like to see some kind of "This account is inactive" status to be added one year after the last post/comment, similar to the "This account is disabled" marker. Those inactive accounts would be filtered out of the nearby lists and such (as, I assume, the disabled accounts are). The inactive status would be lifted simply by the act of commenting (maybe even favoriting?), requiring no admin action.
posted by Rock Steady at 9:06 AM on January 1, 2008

Is it possible to have a default of at least ten users shown no matter how far away they actually are?

In the grand scheme of things, in a relative way, all things considered, Hadjiboy down in Hyderabad is pretty darn close. Have you got a spare blanket, brother?
posted by Meatbomb at 1:47 AM on January 2, 2008

I'm curious...what IS the default distance for nearby users? I'm about 65 miles from Indianapolis, yet there's only one user listed as being nearby.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:33 AM on January 2, 2008

perhaps having a user-definable distance criteria would be a good first step

Not user definable, but rather, a standard of say, the ten closest users, no matter how far away they are.
posted by milestogo at 6:47 AM on January 2, 2008

I was going to suggest that this was a great idea based on the fact that I didn't think that hardly any of the users around me were current commenters, but a quick more-close look at their histories indicate that this isn't true, which is a bit of a surprise.

Still, I like it. Though instead of "This account is inactive" I would have it labeled "This account has not been used in more than a year" (or something of the sort) to stave off the inevetiable questions the admins will get if they implement this.
posted by quin at 7:32 AM on January 2, 2008