Best way for members to find other members that are geographically close?

[Mobo]

My site is for a World War I aerial combat game (not a computer game) and I have members from all over the world. Many of them would like to find other people to play against that live near by. What would be the best way to make it so members on the site can find each other if they live near by?

Thanks for your thoughts and help,

Keith

[kevcj]

Allow your members to create social groups, allow images to be uploaded for the groups avatar, and sort the groups in ABC order. When you setup the social groups in the control panel, there is a "Social Group Categories" - add some categories, such as nation, state, region. You can sort groups in ABC order my editing the link in the navbar and making it look like this - sitename.com/forum/group.php?do=grouplist&order=asc&sort=name

In each members profile is a "Location" field - add that to the view members list and make it searchable

vbulletin admin control panel - left column - User Profile Fields - User Profile Field Manager - edit location -
Field Searchable on Members List - yes
Show on Members List - yes
Click save at the bottom of the page

When members register, make the location field required. That is also in the user profile field manager.

Those are the first three things that came to mind.

To protect your members privacy, deny guest access to members profiles and social groups.

[Mobo]

Thanks for the ideas. I do allow them to create social groups and I have Location on the member list, but it is not searchable yet. I'll change that.

I think the social groups might just be the way to go, but how should I promote it so member actually know it's there? As it is now, very few people find the two that I created to try and get people to use that feature (not for locating each other though).

Would it be possible to create a separate social groups system just for locating people? That way I could put a Locate Player link in the navbar directly to it. This would allow me to keep the normal groups for other things related to the game.

Again, thanks for the ideas!

[kevcj]

Originally Posted by Mobo

I think the social groups might just be the way to go, but how should I promote it so member actually know it's there?

Edit the welcome email and the welcome private message - include a link to the social groups and a description as to what its for.

If your site has a new member introduction section, add a sticky thread with details about the social groups.

You could also add a link to the social groups in your signature with something like - "connect with people in your area."

That will be four different places where members will see information about the social groups.

[Mobo]

Hey kevcj, just wanted to let you know I did use these ideas and the social groups are doing pretty good. One of the limitations was that while people were able to join the group for their country, they could still not tell who was close by. I ended up figuring up a way to have the Location details from their profile show up as their title only in the social group pages.

Thanks for the ideas and getting me pointed in the right direction.