Last Tuesday, I got this itch to write a tool to help people find people in their area that like the same games they do. I released it this morning, and there's not a lot there yet - this sort of thing takes off by people using it.

So, anyway, go sign up if you like. You'll note the standard Forge poll questions (what three games have you most recently played, liked most, want to play.) They're there to keep this simple: all the sites like this I've seen before are way too complex.

So, here it is: http://findplay.anvilwerks.com. Feel free to leave me feedback here.

It looks like a beautiful idea.  But it won't let me sign up.  Application error (Rails) or something.

beingfrank wrote:
It looks like a beautiful idea.  But it won't let me sign up.  Application error (Rails) or something.

Does it cope with antipodean addresses?  'Cause I can see that it might not, and that would be a pity.

beingfrank wrote:
Does it cope with antipodean addresses?  'Cause I can see that it might not, and that would be a pity.

I signed up and it showed me nearby twunts (you know who you are), but it broke when I tried to edit my profile.  Other than that the awesomeness is blinding.

Also, you should consider adding a privacy/use statement. 

--Jason

Hi Clinton,

I couldn't even sign in...

could not connect to server: Connection refused
        Is the server running on host "localhost" and accepting
        TCP/IP connections on port 5432?

/app/controllers/player_controller.rb:25:in `new'
/app/controllers/player_controller.rb:25:in `register'

Ditto Chris' result, on WinXP, IE version 6.0.2900 and a bunch more numbers after that.  I am behind a corporate firewall, but am not filtered or proxied on standard http traffic.

James

Timeout::Error in Player#register
execution expired
/lib/freegeo.rb:9:in `lookup'
/app/models/player.rb:63:in `edit'
/app/controllers/player_controller.rb:27:in `register'

Same error as matthijs. Safari 2.0.1, Mac OS X 10.4.2, broadband (DSL).

It seems to be working much better now after some repair work (thank you guys for testing it.) I'm still a little worried about the geographic lookup scheme. I went with Google Maps, as that makes it much more useful for international people. However, this introduces the problem that the program can time out waiting for a response from Google Maps to translate your address into a longitude and latitude.

I could just locate people by Zip Code centroids, which would solve the problem, but mean that international people are screwed. Hrm.

Very cool ap and service, Clinton.

Is there a way for the user to control his geographical radius? It appears that 35 miles is the limit set here. (Why 35, by the way?). Can there be a drop down menu or something similar that sets the radius something like:

10 miles
25 miles
50 miles
75 miles
100 miles
200 miles

Some of us not near large metropolitan areas are willing to drive a bit farther for some fun on a weekend.

Matt wrote:
Is there a way for the user to control his geographical radius? It appears that 35 miles is the limit set here. (Why 35, by the way?).

It's working now.  Predictably enough, it shows me near... no body. :) 

(I live halfway to the frozen north; there's about 5 people up here who know about the forge - the other 5 people are two busy getting their sled teams ready for winter)

James

The ironic thing is, I think I'll probably already know all the Forgies in the area.

Still very cool little utility though. I'll have to check back occasionally, and spread the word.

I love it, thanks!

Quick question/suggestions:
Am I supposed to be seeing a googlemap of me and the other players' locations? because I'm not seeing it, just a list of names w/ profile info (but no location)
It would also be cool if you had a profile field called "Forge ID" so you could get a little sense of who people are and how they play by looking at their Forge posts

Hm. I'm getting an error: http 500 Internal Server Error. IE 6, WinXP 2.

Is this still working for other people? (This is my first attempt to access it.)

Clinton wrote:

beingfrank wrote:
Does it cope with antipodean addresses?  'Cause I can see that it might not, and that would be a pity.

I'm so baffled. Does it deal with people on the exact opposite side of the planet as you? I suppose it would. If Google Maps can deal with it, FindPlay can.

I'm currently getting:
Application error
Rails application failed to start properly

in Firefox on WinXP

The page won't load up for me either.

Clinton, do you have the source code kept in some directory that's not run off Rails? I was thinking I'd try hosting it on my Dreamhost or TextDrive accounts to see if I'd have more success that way. (Running Rails apps can be a mite tricky.)

Dev wrote:
Clinton, do you have the source code kept in some directory that's not run off Rails? I was thinking I'd try hosting it on my Dreamhost or TextDrive accounts to see if I'd have more success that way. (Running Rails apps can be a mite tricky.)

It worked just fine for me, other than having only one person in my area. Did you announce this only on the Forge, or on other gaming sites online?

This is really cool. Thanks for doing this, Clinton!

It doesn't look like there's any way to get a replacement password if you have forgotten yours. (Could I have been so silly? I'm not saying.)

I made link buttons!
<img src="http://www.lumpley.com/megweb/dolls/FindPlay1.gif"><br />
<img src="http://www.lumpley.com/megweb/dolls/FindPlay2.gif"><br />
<img src="http://www.lumpley.com/megweb/dolls/FindPlay3.gif"><br />
<img src="http://www.lumpley.com/megweb/dolls/FindPlay4.gif"><br />

Great idea Meguey! May I add:
[img]http://www.gheron.net/images/find-play.png[/img]

Darren wrote:
It doesn't look like there's any way to get a replacement password if you have forgotten yours. (Could I have been so silly? I'm not saying.)

I'm in now.  And I know about half the people on it, and one of them is in my weekly group.  But I guess I could snag more players for a second-a-week group if I ever get that ambitious.

Thanks for the tool, Clinton.

I'm in.  I'll try and spread the word a bit.

Hey, Clinton, is there/could there be a way to see who's around in other areas, so if people are visiting, they cound hook into a local scene?

is there/could there be a way to see who's around in other areas

O.K., I'm not sure why it did this, but this is the story.

I registered, and it logged me in; but knowing that I won't remember the password and there's no way I would find it again if I wrote it somewhere, I figured I'd get the browser to remember the password for me. So I logged out, and then went to log back in again. I get the login screen, type my e-mail address and password as requested, hit login, and I get--the login screen. Round and round I go, get back to the entry page, but I'm not logged in, it doesn't recognize my log-in, and that's pretty much all she wrote.

Win98, NS7.2

Maybe it won't let me log in because I mentioned OAD&D as one of the games I play....

--M. J. Young

NoMethodError in Player#register

:(

NoMethodError in Player#register

:(

oops, Firefox on Win XP

Sadly it does not cope with Australian (or New Zealand, for that matter) locations.  This is because Google Maps doesn't cover those countries, not because of anything Clinton did.  If you enter a location it can't handle, the no method error occurs (it may also occur for other things, but I know it occurs for that).

I don't know where else Google Maps doesn't cover, but they won't work either.

beingfrank wrote:
Sadly it does not cope with Australian (or New Zealand, for that matter) locations.  This is because Google Maps doesn't cover those countries, not because of anything Clinton did.  If you enter a location it can't handle, the no method error occurs (it may also occur for other things, but I know it occurs for that).

I don't know where else Google Maps doesn't cover, but they won't work either.

Clinton, you have done a wonderful thing.

Long-term wishlist:

• More profile Fields: aliases, homepage, IM, etc.
• More entries for Games Played, Favorite Games, Want to Play
• Incorporate a googlemap showing your area with markers for the people on your list; mouseover for player name
• Then enable a Search by Game feature that lets you refine the map to only people who have a specific game listed, with color-coded markers for whether they have it listed as a recent play, favorite play, or want to play

Then you can rule the world! (cue maniacal laughter)

Clinton,

Nice App, elegantly done. Good use of AJAX for the existing games list, it can be a bit unwieldy if the list is long though (say I type "The").

Also, if I try and jump straight into a subpage (from my history), but my session has expired, I get a debug page.

-Matt

M. wrote:
I get the login screen, type my e-mail address and password as requested, hit login, and I get--the login screen. Round and round I go, get back to the entry page, but I'm not logged in, it doesn't recognize my log-in, and that's pretty much all she wrote.

Way cool.  I'd also like to be able to find the nearest x people who have listed game y in their profiles.

I'm not surprised in the least that they don't cover the ass end of the world. Is there any way of circumventing this flaw? I'd really love to know if there is anybody anywhere near here.

Thanks,
Kirk

Can't sign up.  I get "Timeout:: Error in Player#Register".  WinXP w/ IE6 and Firefox 1.07.  I get this error on two separate computers.

Thanks, Julie. Indeed, adding findplay.anvilwerks.com to the list approved to allow cookies solved the problem immediately.

I wonder why it doesn't trigger the notification box? I've never had that happen before, that I'm aware.

Not surprisingly, there are no role players within 35 miles of me other than me.

--M. J. Young

Cool. Guess I started that Frappr for no reason, heh. Nice work, Clinton.

Samael wrote:
Can't sign up.  I get "Timeout:: Error in Player#Register".  WinXP w/ IE6 and Firefox 1.07.  I get this error on two separate computers.

Parsolamew wrote:

Samael wrote:
Can't sign up.  I get "Timeout:: Error in Player#Register".  WinXP w/ IE6 and Firefox 1.07.  I get this error on two separate computers.

Ditto on all counts. Is there a solution for this, or at least an explanation?
I've got the cookie-exception thing set as well.

Musing: Might it perhaps be enough for now to remove "geocoding" from the registration process, to allow successful registration and logins? That way, the site can develop a "culture of use" among the registrants. The additional location-finding functionality could (presumably) be added later. 

Dave wrote:
Musing: Might it perhaps be enough for now to remove "geocoding" from the registration process, to allow successful registration and logins? That way, the site can develop a "culture of use" among the registrants. The additional location-finding functionality could (presumably) be added later. 

NoMethodError in Player#register

WARNING:  You have a nil object when you probably didn't expect it!  Odds are you
want an instance of Array instead.

Look in the callstack to see where you're working with an object that could be nil.
Investigate your methods and make sure the object is what you expect!

/lib/freegeo.rb:16:in `lookup'
/app/models/player.rb:63:in `edit'
/app/controllers/player_controller.rb:27:in `register'

So, hey, I finally fixed FindPlay. It should kick ass for you now, hopefully. Happy Thanksgiving!

Is there anyway to delete a profile?
I created a second when I thought the first attempt had failed.

Also, it still needs more elegant error-handling.

Try entering "Newcastle, UK" - since there is more than one Newcastle, it crashes.

Darren wrote:
Also, it still needs more elegant error-handling.

Try entering "Newcastle, UK" - since there is more than one Newcastle, it crashes.

Clinton wrote:
So, hey, I finally fixed FindPlay. It should kick ass for you now, hopefully. Happy Thanksgiving!

Findplay works again!  However, people don't seem to know as the last time someone logged on, besides me, was about 50 days ago.  I hope they come back . . .