Larry Gilbert
9 things Larry Gilbert thinks 43 Places should do…
Most recent entries…
43 Places
should
link with Jott
Since check-ins are no longer available, I can’t think of a good reason for linking with Jott anymore.
43 Places
should
bring back check-ins
–3 cheers
Check-ins eliminated? And Robot Co-op developers openly indicating a future phase-out of groups?
I thought 43 Places was a social site, but it seems like the number of social features is actually shrinking. I don’t get it…?
43 Places
should
add something like a "checkin_place" method to the API
Probably moot now that the check-in feature is being completely eliminated from 43 Places. But I can dream.
43 Places
should
improve the performance of their web service API
There’s a web service API? Where where where??
<excited, almost maniacal look>
43 Places
should
link with Jott
Jott is a service (currently free) that transcribes short voice messages to text via a U.S. toll-free number.
Jott has a public API for linking it with other Web services. Might be fun to use it for things like doing a place check-in.
43 Places
should
retool place names and AKAs to reduce confusion with inattentive English speakers
–1 cheer
The current state of affairs with place names on 43 Places goes something like this:
Large areas (e.g. countries) are named with their English names, and other languages are relegated to the AKA names.
Small areas (e.g. cities) are named according to the local language, and the English names are relegated to the AKAs.
This causes confusion with English speakers (the majority of 43 Places users?) who are inattentive when searching for a city. They enter a name like “Moscow,” and when the results fail to show “Moscow” in the biggest, boldest type, they assume they must add a new place.
I realize there is a tradeoff here between ease of implementation and meeting users’ expectations. But when it causes repeated confusion and the attendant clean-up work, I think it is time to rethink the feature and find a better way.
My idea: instead of one “primary” name and one “AKA” name for each place, allow one or more names for each place. Each name would actually be a composite type: a string, a Boolean for “official” vs. “AKA,” and a language identifier. When a user searches for a place, names in that user’s language would be given highest prominence in results.
(Yes, that’s complicated, but it’s just one idea. Surely there are other solutions that would be simpler than this but not overly simple as it is now.)
43 Places
should not
remove the groups feature
What is the argument in favor of this? It seems a shame to lose this feature.
43 Places
should
allow neighborhood- or city-wide events to be posted to neighborhoods or cities
At this writing, 43 Places allows events to be attached only to specific destinations (businesses, venues, etc.). Attempting to attach an event to a wider area such as a neighborhood or city results in a prompt asking you to search for a specific destination within that neighborhood or city.
If this suggestion were implemented, major events that really do span a whole neighborhood or city could be posted in a sensible way.
Larry Gilbert thinks 22 things should not be done…