Ideas for this site

[CandyApple]

1. We should have a moving/travel forum where people can ask questions specific to the process of moving or visiting places on vacation. city-data gets those kinds of questions all the time, and I think we will too once this site grows more. It would be nice to have one central place to put those questions.

2. We need a city profiles section, but with different info than city-data. Of course it should have user submitted pics, but we should also have reviews and stuff. You could list the web address/mailing address/phone number for the chamber of commerce. You could have pertinent laws (users could suggest which kinds to include, like home schooling laws, alcohol laws, etc.) for the town, and a link to laws affecting the whole state (minimum wage, etc.), and a link to federal laws, too.

One thing that I keep trying to figure out about places is what kind of flora it has, ie- are there woods in/near the city? Just palm trees, or shade trees, too? I can't always tell from the pictures. Does it have a swimmable body of water (and not just a pool)? I know the piney woods region of Texas has forests, but other parts do too, and I can't figure out which ones!

So something describing what kind of flora/fuana is in the area would be good. Anyone else have ideas for what we should include?

3. We should have the cities list not just by state, but we should also organize them by region (in Texas that would be piney woods, gulf coast, etc.).

4. We should make the database of profiles searchable. You input info, it spits out a list. (If you do this, then it would be helpful to include the stuff city-data does, too, for ease of searching. census.gov has a lot of info.)

5. The reviews/photos idea- I'm thinking users could read a person's whole review, or check out specific subjects and get the portions of people's reviews that deal with that subject. Of course, that's just one way to do it. I'm thinking the best way right now would be to let people write reviews however they want, see how it works, and then figure out what organization system would work best.

For the photos- have it automatically notify uploaders of wether their pics got posted. Also, as some people like to remain anonymous, you could let them create an alias that their pics are posted under so that people don't see their user name. For those that choose to use their username, you could have a list of their uploaded pics in their profile. Also, when someone looks at a pic you could have a "find all pics by this user" button.

On city-data, the random photos thing was cool, but it's annoying that it doesn't list the city they were taken in. If you do a random photo thing, please list the city!
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I'd be willing to help with this if I know how. Just tell me what you'd like done and I'll see if I can do it. Maybe I can learn something new doing this!

[CandyApple]

Another thing you could add to city profiles: The web address for the local newspaper(s) of that town. You could also have info on getting around town (public transport, etc.).

Oh, I found a website that seems to list government sites for every city in the U.S. It's easy to navigate, too: http://www.citytown.info/index.htm It even has stuff on Canada.

Edit to add: Oh, hey, here's something that lists newspapers! But it's only for Texas: Go to http://www.destinationtexas.cc/ and click on publications. It has a list of magazines and newspapers that are online.

[Pensypat]

Originally Posted by CandyApple

Another thing you could add to city profiles: The web address for the local newspaper(s) of that town. You could also have info on getting around town (public transport, etc.).

Oh, I found a website that seems to list government sites for every city in the U.S. It's easy to navigate, too: http://www.citytown.info/index.htm It even has stuff on Canada.

Edit to add: Oh, hey, here's something that lists newspapers! But it's only for Texas: Go to http://www.destinationtexas.cc/ and click on publications. It has a list of magazines and newspapers that are online.

This is what I use when I am looking for newspapers from other cities or states... http://newslink.org/

[Admin]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will keep them in mind.

[Admin]

Originally Posted by CandyApple

1. We should have a moving/travel forum where people can ask questions specific to the process of moving or visiting places on vacation. city-data gets those kinds of questions all the time, and I think we will too once this site grows more. It would be nice to have one central place to put those questions.

This has now been added.

[Sekretgardengal]

Great ideas!!!!