Project: A geographical snapshot of the forum

CJ · Post by CJ » Mon Jul 21, 2008 1:40 am

Hi all,

Thanks to all those who PM'd me so far with this info. I've been having some fun with this map. Just so you know, general urban or county specs are fine. This won't be a high precision National Geographic map or anything; I just want to be able to provide y'all with an idea of the forum's spread. It's very low-tech stuff. I'm using a blank map. After all, the location information is available in the profiles of those members that have supplied such. Like I said, I just want to see which way the tides and currents of the little red dots flow.

Jaye,

I'm familiar with Frappr (the Richard Dawkins forum--of which I'm a member--uses it) but I wouldn't want to go that route on this forum as I find it reveals too much about a member's location.

Amélie,

Just remember that Hell (or Heaven) is as much in our minds, here below, as it is under our feet.

Again, thanks to all for your participation. Working on this map is a painstaking process (and quite the geography lesson for me) but I'm enjoying myself tremendously. I hope not to disappoint.

Love,
CJ

SilverLady(SO) · Post by **SilverLady(SO)** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 6:38 am

Hi, Jaye -

Thanks for the link, but I also see another huge down-side as it relates to the Forum, over and above what CJ just mentioned.

If CJ were to create a Frappr map so that our members can put their own 'dots on the map', that would require creating access for every member here to do so. We currently have 990 members, and most of them are still active in one way or another.

I think that what CJ proposes, that she puts the dots on the map for everyone and updates it accordingly, is the easiest way to accomplish the same thing.

One person having access? Or creating access for 990 people?

We'll take the path of least resistance.

((Hugs))

- SL

Absaroka · Post by **Absaroka** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 11:19 am

Somewhere, I think in Utah, is a little town called "Hell for Certain"

Nice idea CJ

Absaroka

Jenny Alice · Post by **Jenny Alice** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:36 pm

Sounds a most interesting idea. Most of our ladies are no doubt in the US. This one, however, is in Canberra, Australia. Thanks for the idea.

CJ · Post by CJ » Tue Aug 05, 2008 7:58 am

Hi all,

Just a little itty bitty note to let everyone know I'm still working on this. Halfway through the process, I discovered a much easier way to do this; I simply use the forum's "list" function on the "Members" page according to member location. Wish I'd thought of that sooner.

Love,
CJ

SilverLady(SO) · Post by **SilverLady(SO)** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 8:09 am

^ Who said you can't teach an old girl new tricks?!?

you, CJ!!

- SL

CJ · Post by CJ » Tue Aug 05, 2008 10:05 pm

Ah! but the real question, dear SilverLady, is: can you teach a new girl old tricks?

CJ

SilverLady(SO) · Post by **SilverLady(SO)** » Tue Aug 05, 2008 10:46 pm

Absolutely!!

- SL

Alana · Post by **Alana** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 1:16 am

Go for it, CJ! My location is no secret on this forum.

Alana

Diannna · Post by **Diannna** » Fri Aug 08, 2008 2:01 am

CJ,
Your too cool for doing this. Thank you. A PM sent to you regards my local.

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Fri Aug 08, 2008 2:41 am

I always used two locations seeing I have spent so long in Southern California over the past 15 years but for the purpose of this exercise I have changed it to my home town.

Please let us know when the map is finished I for one would be interested in the results.

Carla L · Post by **Carla L** » Fri Aug 08, 2008 3:30 pm

Grand Rapids Michigan here. No big secret.

JoAnnDallas · Post by **JoAnnDallas** » Fri Aug 08, 2008 10:36 pm

No big secret here LOL DALLAS, TX

CJ · Post by CJ » Tue Sep 02, 2008 11:37 am

Hi all,

Well, here you have it. This is the first version of the map. Remember, it's a work in progress. Right now, I have fairly reliable location info for just over 300 out of the 1000+ members of the forum. Hence, the map may not look like this in its final version. No need to seend me any more PMs for now, as I'm still going through the Members list... still not done with that yet.

The way it looks now, though, I think we can make a few generalizations:

- Membership is mostly American (surprised?).
- Membership is "Coastal," meaning that, though people are from all over the map, the highest concentration of members live in coastal areas (Washington state; California; southern U.S. coast; Florida; U.S. eastern seaboard; south of London, UK; coastal Australia).
- The major urban areas represented here: the Vancouver-Seattle corridor, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Dallas, Chicago, Washington (D.C.), New York City, the Montreal-Toronto corridor, and the London-Sussex area (U.K.).
- The SOs on the board, though few, are pretty evenly spread throughout the map.
- The members living the farthest north are in Alaska (not on the map) and the farthest south are in Melbourne, Australia.
- Taking the international date line as a reference, the members living the farthest west are in Hawaii and the farthest east are in Brisbane, Australia.
- Most members are located in English-speaking countries (Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Australia, and New-Zealand); the exceptions are Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, and Greece, amongst others.

There you go. I'll continue working on this until the map more faithfully reflects actual membership. Still, I don't know how accurate this will be, given that fully a third of the forum's members have no location info (and, again, that's fine, people!--no flood of PMs for now, please!).

I hope you enjoy this little "forum atlas."

Love,
CJ

P.S.
Sorry if the image is large (I know it's unpleasant having to saw back and forth with the scroll bars) but there was no other way to present this and still retain some detail.

JoAnnDallas · Post by **JoAnnDallas** » Tue Sep 02, 2008 1:17 pm

Where is Alaska? We have at lease two members up there