Is it possible to search for members by location?

[Peabody]

I'm looking for anyone in Oklahoma.  But there's no search by location.  Could that be added, or would that be a privacy problem?

[golden_labels]

I am assuming that the search for such people is in line with what EEVblog forum is meant to be used for. In a manner obvious to me the entire thread makes no sense otherwise.

Ask in the general chat subforum for people in Oklahoma, explaining why their location matters to you. There are also boards for selling/buying/exchange, and work: work wanted, jobs. These already fill most of the needs, where specific location matters.

Other than that, regular users may advertise in their footers.


Interpreting your question directly, as written, instead of trying to help: I’m being seen as a privacy extremist and I’d not consider that kind of a feature to be infringing privacy.⁽¹⁾ But I can’t be so sure about the next step, where the data obtained is used. At this point I can’t imagine a use that wouldn’t be a problem one way or another. Falls in either of the three categories:

• Spam.
• Using forum as a data source e.g. for research.⁽²⁾
• A prelude to locating user data elsewhere.

Of course there also remains a problem of having to do geocoding on both ends. It’s not a matter of just searching for a text match in a database.

⁽¹⁾ If based on the “location” field, which people now freely file in with whatever they want.
⁽²⁾ While opinions may differ and I myself consider that acceptable use at a small scale, in this case the cost to the forum includes adding the feature. And that makes even me seeing that as unwanted.

[gnif]

There is no such feature, not will there ever be one as far as I am concerned. The fact that you even asked for such a feature is concerning to me from a privacy and security point of view.

[Peabody]

My question was nothing more than an attempt to connect with people in my area who do electronics projects.  I'm an old guy hobbyist, and as far as I have been able to find, there are no local hobbyist or EE clubs or groups involved in Arduino stuff or hardware projects in general.  I did participate in the Tulsa Open Source Hardware group, but it went defunct during covid.  All that's left is the Youtube channel, for which I provided several videos.  In any case, thank you for answering my question.

 

[golden_labels]

At this point I realized there is no thread on the forum where clubs, hackerspaces, makerspaces, etc. could announce their presence. That would come very handy in Peabody’s situation.


As for a more immediate solution: post in the general chat. Moderators may correct me, but I’m certain it’s not the unwelcome kind of advertisement. Same for your footer.

Consider checking the events section from time to time. If there is any event near you and one can expect it’s not merely a commercial show, may be worth going there. If you can, of course.⁽¹⁾ Try searching for hackerspaces and makerspace in your area too. Even if you do not wish to participate, they do have people to connect with or who can point to other contacts.

Is there no chance of you contacting former members of Tulsa Open Source Hardware and making it meet again?

⁽¹⁾ I’m a disabled person, so no worries: I do get that even something in one’s own city may be beyond reach.

[coromonadalix]

even if you had   location search,  some people did not defined their location in their avatar / profil  ....  kinda useless

[Peabody]

even if you had   location search,  some people did not defined their location in their avatar / profil  ....  kinda useless

Yes, but a lot of people do post their location in their profile, which is why I asked the question in the first place.  And in those cases that's public information.  So it seems to me that asking whether a search on that field existed, or could exist, shouldn't have prompted the response it got.  Anyway, the answer is a clear "no", so lets just drop it.