Meeting Locals over the Internet? 58
tjjuggle asks: "Why is so hard to do local communication on the internet? Suppose I want to find a group of random people to play soccer with tomorrow. Given that I live in a town of 50,000+ people, many of whom are online, there should be a way. For major metropolitan regions, Craigslist.org fills this gap, but it is no use to those of us who live outside of the San Francisco Bay Area. Has anyone developed a service like Craigslist which can be used throughout the country? I imagine a site that, given a zipcode, it could then tell you which users are signed up who live within 10-20miles of you. Does anyone know of other local communication mechanisms?" Even now, one of the best ways for local communications remains Instant Messaging, but you usually have to meet the person, first. Are there other community-oriented websites out there that can assist users in meeting other users who live nearby?
Great idea but (Score:4, Interesting)
I would have signed up for such a service, but after an atempted identity theft, I would probably think long and hard before participating in such a thing.
And I think such services would be hard to create on a national level given potential legal issues involved. A honeypot of litigation! (people suck like that.)
Re:Great idea but (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Great idea but (Score:3, Funny)
I'm in Portland and I just looked up my house (which I bought last year). Looks like I paid about 3K over the value assigned to my house.
Very cool tool though.
A list of people around you? (Score:3, Informative)
Not to mention your county assessment records (which are open by law).
meetup.com (Score:5, Informative)
I'm not sure if its exactly what you are looking for, but there are -tons- of topics, and I live in a relativly small city, and there are a few local meetups in the area of differant interests. It's a pretty cool service, and looks like it could grow into something quite cool.
Re:meetup.com (Score:2)
Also see Friendster [friendster.com]. Works great in cities like NYC or SF, probably less well in smaller cities. Whoever wrote it seems to think the UK is a lot smaller than it actually is, it's not smart enough to pick cities there, only the countr
Re:meetup.com (Score:2)
Is this legal?!?! (Score:4, Funny)
This sounds like a town where everyone is addicted to drugs.
Start one! (Score:1)
Keep people coming back for more information.
Put up a local news section, something about local schools for parents, etc.
Problems you might face: people not trusting you with an email address. Yea, but when it comes to word of mouth "yea, i trust this site" or "trust me, I know the guy that runs the site and hes really good about keeping stuff private"
Well just ideas.
have fun!
-Grump
Open Office (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Open Office (Score:1)
Yes, but my computer is an innee.
Japan (Score:1, Informative)
MeetUp does this (Score:1, Redundant)
You can search by zip code, topic, area, etc., add your own stuff, and it is apparently free.
Try Local2Me! (Score:4, Interesting)
http://www.local2me.com/ [local2me.com]
Here's the newspaper article:
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/bu
The website has a simple idea: one huge email list, filtered by location. People register their location (by ZIP code), and other optional information about themselves, when signing up. All email submissions go into a central database, then they are reflected only to those people who have chosen to receive them. It can also be filtered by age range and other categories, and multiple filters can be applied.
For instance, I have chosen to receive emails from everybody 10 or fewer miles away from me, and emails from people in my age range 20 or fewer miles away.
On the service, people swap recommendations all the time. The mailing list has helped me find a good veterinarian in the area!
Because of the publicity generated by the media coverage, this service is most popular in the San Francisco Bay Area, but it does have support for nationwide ZIP codes.
It could be better: I wish it had a browseable archive of postings that could be similarly filtered, instead of it being a simple email forwarder. That would make it easy to browse past answers to FAQ's. But, it is very good for what it does offer.
Local2Me has searchable web archives (Score:2, Interesting)
--Michael from Local2Me
meetup.com (Score:3, Informative)
Since then, not one has gone off - not enough people can be bothered to even VOTE on a place to meet up - let alone show up.
In a town of
Don't want to be an ad for anyone ... (Score:2, Interesting)
Personally, I'm a big fan of IRC. There are several IRC search engines out there. Make use of one, type in the name of the largest city near you and *presto* people from the local area galore. In fact, that's how I met my wife.
Re:Don't want to be an ad for anyone ... (Score:1)
Re:Don't want to be an ad for anyone ... (Score:1)
Meetup (Score:1, Redundant)
oh hell (Score:1)
looking for (18-21 year old) couple(s) to go salsa/tango/mambo dancing in the DFW area; beginners prefered, probably will take first set of dancing lessons at the end of may... looking for a learning experience. reply if interested.
Re:oh hell (Score:2)
(not in DFW area, sorry!)
And also for shut-ins (Score:2)
Re:And also for shut-ins (Score:1)
BBS (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:BBS (Score:2)
I miss the BBS's if for this alone.
This, and BRE. Barren Realms Elite rocked.
Some of the SysOp get-togethers we had were the best parties I've ever been to
~NBVB
1:2630/316
It has to be pointed out (Score:3, Insightful)
uh IRC? (Score:2)
Communities about some interest of your (Score:2)
Try joining some online community about some strong interest of your. If it is big enough sooner or later you'll get a meeting, and sooner or later one around your zone. Of course you should get active in this community, and this is a slow method, but you might get even close friend with this method.
Of course it also helps it you live in a nation smaller then the US, with a language different from the ones most spoken in the world, and you join a community in your language; I don't know how well it works
Screw websites... (Score:2)
alt.culture.$STATENAME (where $STATENAME is spelled out, like alt.culture.oregon).
$TLA.general (where $TLA is the largest airport in your area, ie pdx.general for Portland, aus.* is *NOT* Austin, TX but Australia).
for the UK... (Score:1)
However I'm not too sure how profitable it is..they're for sale [upmystreet.com]for money reasons...
IRC communities (Score:2, Insightful)
IRC *is* a great place to meet people with similar interests. If you're an extrovert, you'll simply love to meet people, and if you're an introvert, you'll need a helping hand but you'll find the variety of different people you'll [probably] never meet irl, on IRC.
I met the last person i dated through a community site (I then met her best friend, but thats another story
UpMyStreet Conversations (Score:3, Informative)
Sadly, NTK report [ntk.net] that they're in receivership. :-(
--
There is another way... (Score:2)
Sorry. (Score:1)
Craiglist in 22 metro areas (Score:3, Informative)
It sounds like the poster knows, but since I'm a longtime user (in three different cities) and supporter of Craigslist, I want to make sure it's clear to others, as well...Craigslist is currently set up in 22 metro areas, and continues to add more:
atlanta
austin
boston
chicago
dallas
denver
detroit
houston
los angeles
miami
minneapolis
new york
philadelphia
phoenix
portland
sacramento
san diego
seattle
wash, DC
london
toronto
vancouver
friendster.com (Score:1)
Why use a computer... (Score:2)
What better way to assure you never leave the house than to meet local people online. Try going to a bar or club, or look for local organizations and activities that interest you. Stop by the library or the YMCA and see what classes or intramural sports they have. The internet is a great place for meeting people in general, but there's really no substitute for actual human contact...
Friend of a Friend would be a start (Score:1)
I'm doing my own site for Birmingham, Alabama. (Score:2)
Unfortunately, the fact that the events are posted by anonymous users pretty much guarantees that many of them will be bogus, and the discussion boards... w
mailing lists! (Score:2)
I've been involved in local community group building for a number of years now, and particularly on-line. Search through Yahoo! groups [yahoo.com] for your town's name, and see if there are any local mailing lists.
Nothing relevant? Want to meet a bunch of people who are keen to get together randomly to play sports/games in your town of Tacoville? Start a list called "TacovilleSocialSport" and just wait a few weeks for the subscriptions to roll in. As you say, with a high enough population the odds do work for you. I
Re:mailing lists! (Score:2)
Ralf