Some suggestions:

1. People are often not comfortable advertising their physical location. If you could specify a rough location (e.g. a large circle on a map rather than a point marker) that might maximise the number of people prepared to do it.

2. I have seen a few of these databases rise and fall over the years, and the one thing that I always found was that information gets out of date. So I would do two things: a) show the "last updated" date on the player's location on the map and profile. b) periodically mail members with a "confirm my location" link so that even if they haven't moved, this date will stay recent. c) if players don't keep their profiles up to date, remove them from the map. Chances are they either don't live there any more or aren't playing.

3. Maybe a "gaming group" angle - so you can specify and club you are member of, or just people you regularly play with (doesn't have to be a club).

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Yes, I just used the first part of my postcode when I put my location on. If you even knew the postcode for the nearest city centre, people could use that instead.

Depressingly there's still no sign of any other Glasgow players (anyone nervous about the postcode should just stick in G1!) and yet my brother who has moved halfway around the world lives not too far from 3 players!

C'mon Weegies, make yourselves known!

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Thompson, Manitoba is LIKE Glasgow, in that it's northern, there's a lot of violence, a lot of poor people, and the local accent is often incomprehensible to outsiders...

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I did try using a few variants of the postcode but none of them were really close enough to indicate where I wanted it to show, largely because my postal town isn't the closest one to me. I had to specify my full postcode, which puts the map marker on my street (so not what I would call rough). I've not idea whether partial postcodes work well in other countries.

Maybe it's just my anal tendencies, but for some reason I think it's useful to distinguish between an accurate location and a fuzzy one. So I think just using a relatively wide semi-transparent circle is a good idea, even better if you can reposition it by dragging on the map. I also think adding a little reassuring note would be worth doing - something like "your postcode will never be displayed, it is only used to indicate your approximate location. if you prefer, you can specify a partial postcode." You could even have two separate fields, like "display location" and "map location", with the latter being a draggable marker that you initially set using your postcode, and both having short explanations underneath of where they will be used.

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Elsemore,

Loving the site and being able to view when peeps are to link up. Can I suggest a tournament/event section that can also link in with the map so people can view where events are. Maybe clicking on the map would take the viewer to a link of the event information.

Cheers
Aaron

Forget a "like" button, your comment deserves a "love" button! I must visit Thompson, Manitoba one day, sounds like I'll fit in well!

"Love button"... that sounds very wrong!

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Clickable links for more Epic goodness:

Life of Die Channel including Epic Podcasts and Battle Reports

Epic 40K Players Page on Facebook
Net Epic Evolution Rules
Net Epic War! Campaign Rules

You could make it an option for people to display their pin on the map. If you don't want to be publicly visible, turn the option off. Most folks have far more specific personal data floating around openly on the web anyway.

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-Vaaish

Elsmore - I know you're still in the testing phase, but it would be nice to see other game systems included as well. My reasoning is that you might find someone close to you that plays something that's been sitting on your shelf for years, collecting dust. One of the message boards I frequent has a "Find a Player" feature, but it's just a long thread - more games would make MiniWars a great tool for them.

As for location, I know that in the US, Zip Codes are very approximate, so there is no issue with putting in a zip and having someone show up on our doorstep. Well, unless you're the only person in your town or something.

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I'm on.

Must admit, a mini database is a good idea (years ago i decided to just download every mini i ever look at as a proxy so i can compare them in one big folder) but the problem i think you are going to encounter is that manufacturers are going to be loath to directly associate their creations with anything GW... It would just be a dream to wendy's lawyers.

Instead i think you should just try "by manufacturer" data bases of images. Make sure they add a constant scaling item (ruler?) in every pic. That would be very useful (and save me HD space ! )

While i'm throwing in my 2p. Rules hosting seems unnecessary. All the epic sites are now good an clear (EpicUK, NetEA and Netepic.) Much easier to navigate the epic world than 5 years ago !! Just link to them.

Make your data base (players and minis) your USP. You can't do everything.

Keep up the good work.