Could there be a way to list where we live?

[Ann M.]

J.R. even better, there are sites where for one flat rate set-up fee for color & design allow the shirts to be created on demand, thus requiring no stocking of items with a bigger variety of colors & shirt styles. Since I'm a smaller built person, the average club or manufacturers t-shirt looks like box on me or could be worn as a nightshirt

 

[rich c]

Rich, Court used to have a pale "donate" link after the first post of every new thread but he said it didn't help much. However, an actual button that appears with each page might be more effective. Court's been concerned that ads detract from the site and forum and might imply some implicit brand bias although he is very careful to be fair with all brands and models when doing his reviews.

What do you think of the idea of an EBR t-shirt with some cute phrase?

Not the cute little saying please. J.R. Maybe start a thread to get a consensus for design, colors and price people are willing to pay. That's funny. We'd be lucky to get two from the entire group to agree. I'm a founding member of two clubs, and joined a third artist's group. The artist's group was impossible to get 2 out of 50 to agree about anything! The artist group did use CafePress as a fund raiser. Create the artwork, and they will sell it on anything from tote bags to hoodies. We just used our logo, and we got a check every month. That was a few years ago, no idea if they are the best or even if they do that program any longer.

 

[Ann M.]

Yes, CafePress, nice setup. And agreed, nothing too hokey ; I should've said "clever" instead.

 

[christob]

Not the cute little saying please. J.R. Maybe start a thread to get a consensus for design, colors and price people are willing to pay. That's funny. We'd be lucky to get two from the entire group to agree.

You're so right! There's actually already another forum thread here with dozens of clever/cute/witty sayings (ie, about ebikes, or ebiking vs. cars, etc.) submitted by forum users...

 

[Athena]

Why not add it in the signature?

 

[christob]

Why not add it in the signature?

That's another easy way to share the info, though every viewing member must also have their Preference turned on to see other members signatures…

 

[PowerMe]

Here's an easy-peasy idea that will cost $0.

1. Make a new dedicated thread or "sub-forum" called "Members by Geography" for each region of the U.S. as well as International.

2. Then, make a separate thread for each geographical area ("Northeast US" Southeast US, Central US, Southwest US, Northwest US, Alaska/Hawaii) and within each regional area have a topic or thread for each state within that region.

3. Members can choose to add their name and specific location info (by State) if they want, into the appropriate state sub-category.

4. Someone who is looking for new ebike buddies who lives in the same area or state can go to the sub-category for their state and see who, if anyone, is listed there.

5. Instead of trying to find people nearby by looking at people's signature lines or profile info, members can instead just go to the geographical thread/sub-thread and look there to see who is in their same area.


This way it's an opt-in choice and because no software changes are needed, it's no cost to EBF.

 

[christob]

@PowerMe I agree that would be simple and especially helpful for folks who want to find other members in a given area (such as "I wonder if there are potential bike buddies near me".)
Though I don't know that it will help much with the original question/proposal by rich c at the start of this thread -- I interpreted his idea as aimed at the situation of members reading Forum posts/questions, and wanting/needing to know (right there in the forum postings) the poster's location in order to better evaluate the question (by contemplating geographic/region-specific factors) -- hopefully allowing the reader to create a better response to the post, with awareness of where the poster resides.)

 

[Ann M.]

@PowerMe, in theory what you suggest is a possibility; however, the lists would get cluttered in a hurry and slow for someone to browse.

I just found what I was looking for on pedelecs.co.uk; it uses a Google Maps location feature paired with their special setup. I'm contacting them to see what was involved to create their system

 

[christob]

It looks like a fill-in-the-blank on the profile. There's a blank that says "Location."

That is where I filled in my "Arlington, VA"---which I believe is what you saw when you hovered over my avatar. (As well as changing the setting in my profile to make that info visible to others.)

 

[AlanDB]

It does not appear to do that @ebikemom; however, only staff can change the settings or location for a member.

Now, that is something that needs to be fixed in the forum software. You admin's don't need to or shouldn't want to be bothered with details like that. There are many valid reasons a member might need to change their location. (errors, moving, changing degree of specificity, etc.)

 

[Ann M.]

@AlanDB, we cannot alter that part of the forum software and with the problems we've had with spammers it is no big deal to verify if someone's request is legit and do the change. There is a matter of personal safety when we start publicizing where people are located. It's different when you want to update billing info somewhere or credit card info that is never seen by the public (or isn't supposed to be )

 

[Ann M.]

@mrgold35, I am negligent for not letting you know how much your .gif was appreciated. First a, "What!!!" then a laugh. There are days...(I think everyone could relate to)

 

[J.R.]

@Ann M.

Anyone can change their own location. See account details.

 

[AlanDB]

@Ann M.

Anyone can change their own location. See account details.

You are right ... you can just type over what is there and click "Save". That makes more sense.

 

[ebikemom]

I added a location--should show up as Pacific Northwest.

 

[Brandy M]

Hey everyone, we made it so you can add a location if they go to their account settings. Click your name at the top right of this page, and you should land here:

 

[Mr. Coffee]

On a related note...

I have noticed that a few people have inadvertently posted either photos or links (mainly Google Maps routes) that someone could use to figure out where they live. Now we are all a happy family here but I personally worry that many of us may be inadvertently advertising where we are storing a valuable and easily stolen item worth many thousands of dollars.

So I'd make a few constructive suggestions:

• Be very careful posting photos from your home. In particular, avoid having street or road signs in the background.
• If you must post Google Maps links, Strava or ridewithgps routes, make sure they don't start or end at your home address.
• Be a little bit paranoid about posting your location.

On a related note, I'm going to a deep learning conference next week. One very exciting field of research is the ability of deep learning systems to figure out the location a photo was taken -- right now this is a research topic, but I'd guess you'd be able to do it for free on a Google service in the scarily near future:

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8404530/
https://www.theverge.com/2016/2/25/11112594/google-new-deep-learning-image-location-planet

 

[ebikemom]

Very good points, Mr. Coffee! I did post a photo of my commute, but had it start from a location (a local high school) that isn't my home. Maybe that was still too close.

 

[Barry S]

Good advice. My start and end points on Relive or a YT video are in the vicinity of home and work but never the actual place.