The Melee Player Locator Project

OkamiBW · Feb 24, 2013

Hey everyone,

So, I've decided to see if we can make others in the smash community easier to find. This project's aim is to have a record of all known player locations in the world! The website I plan to use to make this work allows for people to search player names as well as see the player population density in whatever city/state/region/country they might wish to view.

Those who wish to be placed on the map, please post in the thread. In addition, if individual community leaders wish to post a list of their smashers to add them to the list, that will work too. If anyone does not wish to be on the map, please let one of the admins or I know. I would love it if this gained some steam and we had several hundred...perhaps even 1,000+ smashers recorded. So please tell your friends about this project and direct them to the thread!

All I need are the cities and states/provinces (or countries, should your country not have states or provinces). Try to be somewhat specific in the case that your region has multiple cities with the same name (such as Ashland, OR; Ashland, MA; Ashland, AL; etc.). The location must be mappable by the Google Maps engine.

Without further ado, I present to you the following:

Melee Player Locator

Feel free to give suggestions in this thread btw!

Map Editor Admin:
-Jolteon
-Oksas
-Daze

Special Thanks to:
-Juggleguy

Here is my location and format I would appreciate you guys to use:
Dana Point, CA (USA)

List of players on map:

Canada
`dazrin - Richmond, BC
KFCawesome - North Vancouver, BC
KrIsP! - Toronto, Ontario
Shiny Mewtwo - Toronto, Ontario

USA
A-1 - Norwalk, CA
Anand - Cambridge, MA
Bl@ckChris - Greensboro, NC
blu link - Westwood, NJ
Bones0 - Jarrettsville, MD
BoscoMan - Century City, CA
ComboFest - Irvine, CA
Doll666 - North Hollywood, CA/Corpus Christi, TX
fatman667 - San Diego, CA
Gem - Tempe, AZ
Hope - Fremont, CA
iRobinhoood - Yonkers, NY
Max - La Jolla, CA
MonkUnit - Eau Claire, WI
Okami - Dana Point, CA
Oksas - Tucson, AZ
Rude - Charlotte, NC
Sadface - Raleigh, NC
standardtoaster - Eau Claire, WI
Swann - Raleigh, NC
Turok - La Jolla, CA
Wieners - Winnetka, CA

United Kingdom
Jolteon - London, UK

Less cleaned up but more up to date version of the LIST OF PLAYERS ON MAP:

Jolteon · Feb 24, 2013

Added:

~~Turok - La Jolla, CA~~
~~Doll666 - North Hollywood, CA/Corpus Christi, TX~~
~~A-1 - Norwalk, CA~~

oksas · Feb 24, 2013

fp! props to all logged in trolls!

`dazrin · Feb 24, 2013

'murrica

faakkk yeaaaaaaaa

Onomanic · Feb 24, 2013

blu link - Westwood, NJ

KrIsP! · Feb 24, 2013

why not just check the members of each face book group? toronto anyways.

OkamiBW · Feb 24, 2013

The main reason I want people to post here is basically to give their consent to be on the public locator. I don't want anyone to get upset that they were put on the map when they didn't wish to be put on.

iRobinhoood · Feb 24, 2013

Yonkers, NY (USA)

airok · Feb 24, 2013

Airok - Turok - Timothy
San Francisco and, Lajolla(UCSD), Sandiego , California

Cherished Doll · Feb 24, 2013

Doll666- North Hollywood, CA/Corpus Christi, TX

A-1 · Feb 24, 2013

Norwalk, CA. (USA)

Wieners · Feb 24, 2013

Wieners - Winnetka, CA

goateeguy · Feb 24, 2013

Gem-Tempe, AZ

I don't think trying to get every smasher recorded through one smashboards thread will work. I would suggest trying to make contact with individual local communities (i.e. Norcal, Tucson, Chicago, Chile) and asking each one to produce their own list of their own members for you to compile into the master list. That way only one member of the community has to get the word about your project, but they can produce a more comprehensive list of active smashers based on their own personal knowledge of the scene than if you were to go onto the group Facebook pages and request the consent of each individual.

With regard to privacy issues, gamer tags exist specifically for that reason, so that a player can have a name that people know all over the place but a name which doesn't correspond with any important personal information. If all you ask for is gamer tag and location that's not a violation of privacy at all. Therefore I see no problem with having one local community leader create a comprehensive list of the local community by himself (or more likely with the help of a few other people) without having to consult every member prior to submitting their names. You can still use this thread in the event that a community leader forgets someone and that player want to add him/herself, but if every member had to add their names individually you would not get a list that represents the smash community to any significant degree.

Phoenix~Lament · Feb 24, 2013

Max
La Jolla (San Diego), CA

OkamiBW · Feb 24, 2013

I'm going to put you down as Max-SoCal because it's a common name in the smash community that people use.

~BoscoMan~ · Feb 24, 2013

Boscoman Century City, CA (USA)

Shiny Mewtwo aka Jigglysir · Feb 24, 2013

Shiny Mewtwo - Toronto, Ontario, Canada

standardtoaster · Feb 24, 2013

Eau Claire, Wisconsin

Anand · Feb 24, 2013

goateeguy said:
With regard to privacy issues, gamer tags exist specifically for that reason, so that a player can have a name that people know all over the place but a name which doesn't correspond with any important personal information. If all you ask for is gamer tag and location that's not a violation of privacy at all.

I totally disagree with this. There are a lot of people who have tags that they use on other sites (or their tags contain their real names), so for example, someone who trolls on Reddit as "goateeguy" might not want a determined Reddit user to Google "goateeguy" and find out where he lives (because the Smash Player Locator comes up on the results). Even discounting that, a lot of people who only use Smashboards still don't want their location tied to their tags. This is especially a concern for Smashboards, which makes a serious attempt to be a safe haven for little kids (see: censoring, site policy, etc), whether justified or not.)

I'm glad OkamiBW is being careful to respect people's privacy.

ComboFest · Feb 24, 2013

ComboFest / ComboCity CA

goateeguy · Feb 24, 2013

Anand said:
There are a lot of people who have tags that they use on other sites (or their tags contain their real names), so for example, someone who trolls on Reddit as "goateeguy" might not want a determined Reddit user to Google "goateeguy" and find out where he lives (because the Smash Player Locator comes up on the results).

If you're trolling on Reddit, why would you use the same name as you use for other more serious business? Besides, gamer tags aren't necessarily our smashboards names, as in my case (it's Gem). What does it give someone to know a gamer tag and a location that goes with it? I don't have a hope in heck of finding "Anand" in "Cambridge, MA" despite knowing a name and a city. It's not your legal name so there's nothing whatsoever attached to it outside the smash community.

Bl@ckChris · Feb 24, 2013

Greensboro, NC

Rude · Feb 24, 2013

Charlotte, NC

Swann · Feb 24, 2013

Raleigh, NC

KFCawesome · Feb 24, 2013

North Vancouver, BC, Canada

Bones0 · Feb 24, 2013

OkamiBW said:
I'm going to put you down as Max-SoCal because it's a common name in the smash community that people use.

This method of identifying people will NOT work. As an ex-mod on the SSBPD, I spent the majority of my time dealing with getting names right from all the John Doe's that entered one tournament and never entered another ever again. Nicknames are duplicated, nicknames get changed, one individual will want to be identified for two different locations (during school vs. break), and people don't want to be tracked by random people on the internet by their nickname. I don't know what system would be the most efficient, but you need to have some sort of user IDs. You could start with something like simply using SmashBoard ID #s, but not everyone uses SmashBoards (especially with FaceBook pages on the rise), and not everyone that has a SmashBoards account still uses that nickname (if they ever did). You might also just want to start a list with #000001 and going from there for each new player added.

I would highly suggest getting some form of ID #s established so that when people go to look at a heatmap of Melee players, they see a bunch of points for players near them, and players can determine what appears when their bubble is clicked and the popup comes up. So for instance, someone moves to Jarrettsville, MD and goes to this locator to see who is near them. They see one point that is entirely anonymous. They click the bubble, and it pops up with: "Nickname: Bones0, Location: Jarrettsville, MD, SmashBoards profile: Bones0," etc. You should ONLY put in information that other players have given you. So maybe some player is fine with you putting his cell # and email, while others may only want to link to their SmashBoards or FaceBook. Someone who doesn't provide any sort of contact information at all should not be placed on the Melee finder because they simply become pointless clutter. What good is it to see that you have a Melee player near you if there's no way of knowing who they are or how to contact them? The vast majority of players are fine with at least giving their tag anyway, so I don't see this as a real big issue. No one should be able to search for a username to figure out someone's location though. How would that ever be useful aside from stalking? The main way this sort of project will be used is for players to find people near them by manually zooming in on the map and looking at the nearby player indicators. Then they click on the closest few and contact them via the means laid out from the popups. Searching through a master list of users doesn't assist that goal at all, and it makes people think twice about being represented on the map at all.

If you wanted to really streamline this whole process, you could get a website set up with a script that just takes input from people and automatically adds them to the map (spam prevention will obviously be needed, but it shouldn't be terribly difficult to separate spam players from real ones). Just send them to a form that looks like this:

ID#:
*Nickname:
*Location:
Actual Name:
Email:
SmashBoards:
FaceBook:
Twitter:
Phone:
*Games: 64 [_] -- Melee [_] -- Brawl [_] -- Project M [_] -- Other [_]: __________
Times of the year available: _/_/_ to _/_/_
Active:

Example of a filled out form:

ID#: 000001
*Nickname: Bones0
*Location: Jarrettsville, MD
Actual Name: Kevin
Email:
SmashBoards: Bones0
FaceBook:
Twitter:
Phone:
*Games: 64 [_] -- Melee [X] -- Brawl [_] -- Project M [_] -- Other [_]: __________
Times of the year available (if not always): _/_/_ to _/_/_
Active: Yes (last confirmed 1/1/13)

One more important thing is in reference to the last thing on the form that says "Active". I remember when the original Smash Player Finder was around and I wanted to see if anyone was near me. I found a few people who were nearby (1 hour by my standards, sadly), but when I went to PM them or contact them however I could, they either didn't response or responded back with "I stopped playing years ago, sorry." Simply getting an email from everyone would allow you to send an annual confirmation that the player is still active (along with confirming the rest of their profile is still accurate). Players who don't reply can have their profile changed to say "Active: No", and those that reply saying they are inactive can specify whether they want to be displayed at all anymore and still receive the annual activity monitoring.

I think the ultimate goal is to get something like this integrated into SmashBoards. They're already working on integrating some sort of Elo rating, and this is right up that alley in terms of trying to encompass the entire community.

Sadface · Feb 24, 2013

Raleigh, NC, USA.

fatman667 · Feb 24, 2013

San Diego, CA, U.S.A.

Translucent · Feb 24, 2013

Hope- Fremont, CA

Anand · Feb 24, 2013

goateeguy said:
If you're trolling on Reddit, why would you use the same name as you use for other more serious business? Besides, gamer tags aren't necessarily our smashboards names, as in my case (it's Gem). What does it give someone to know a gamer tag and a location that goes with it? I don't have a hope in heck of finding "Anand" in "Cambridge, MA" despite knowing a name and a city. It's not your legal name so there's nothing whatsoever attached to it outside the smash community.

five minutes later:
(excised by request)

Anyway, my point is that it's already relatively simple to find this sort of information from basically anyone, regardless of whether they have a pseudonym, so let's not make it even easier. While you've said that you don't really care about your information online, some people are more careful and nervous about this than others, so let's respect that and stick to the policy of not putting anyone's information up without their explicit consent.

We could still do this pretty efficiently by, say, posting in each regional Facebook group saying "like or comment on this with the word 'yes' if you are okay with being included" (so we'd still get consent from everyone, but it would get a lot more people than by requiring them to post in this thread).

OkamiBW · Feb 24, 2013

Perhaps what I can do is just use the name Max until another "Max" wishes to be added. At which point, I'll start assigning numbers, such as Max-001, Max-002, etc.

Another way that might make this possible is to just use everyone's smashboards name rather than any other name people might wish to use. So someone like Ken wouldn't be just Ken, but SephirothKen, because for all intents and purposes, you can't duplicate a smashboards name (easily) without making it look like trolling.

In addition, perhaps I can link everyone's smashboards page to the names in the first post.

Without having a dedicated site that costs money and has some sort of engine to run all of the things possible, it seems like that would be the best way for the time being.

What do you guys think?

Oh yes, and on the privacy thing. The problem I have with the Facebook "Liking" system to provide consent is that that "consent" gets buried under newer posts and we end up losing the post.

Bones0 · Feb 24, 2013

If you really wanted to get your point across, you should have just posted the information and made him complain about it.

Damn, I really wish I had troll face emoticon at this point in time. Oh well, this will have to do.

OkamiBW said:
Perhaps what I can do is just use the name Max until another "Max" wishes to be added. At which point, I'll start assigning numbers, such as Max-001, Max-002, etc.

Another way that might make this possible is to just use everyone's smashboards name rather than any other name people might wish to use. So someone like Ken wouldn't be just Ken, but SephirothKen, because for all intents and purposes, you can't duplicate a smashboards name (easily) without making it look like trolling.

In addition, perhaps I can link everyone's smashboards page to the names in the first post.

Without having a dedicated site that costs money and has some sort of engine to run all of the things possible, it seems like that would be the best way for the time being.

What do you guys think?

Like I said, I would advise against relying on nicknames being different. Sure, you can append "-00x" to peoples' names, but then what if Max decides to go by a different nickname? He'll forever be referenced as Max on the player finder even if he becomes known in his region by some other name. I agree with your decision to not go balls-deep with a dedicated site just for the project, but only because SmashBoards can fill that role in the future, not because I don't think it's necessary. So for the time being, I'd just recommend going by SmashBoards usernames. There's more than enough names already given out in Player Finder threads in the regional forums. Depending on how easily you can add people (how DO you add people, btw?), you could get several hundreds in a day. It'd obviously take a while longer if you decide to figure out which players are active or inactive (though I believe that it's worth doing; if it's integrated into SmashBoards we can just relegate activity to when they last logged in). Is there also no way to link to SmashBoards profiles on the map itself? I clicked the little orange logo in the upper right, and the example they had showed a bunch of stuff besides just an address listed in the popup bubbles.

Anand · Feb 24, 2013

I wanted to be careful not to cross a line (and get an infraction point, oh no!). It would also be particularly hypocritical, since I'm trying to defend privacy. Btw, Okami, feel free to add me to the map.
Although, actually, maybe the infraction system isn't working yet on the new Smashboards, so everyone should get all their trolling in now while the time is right.

OkamiBW · Feb 24, 2013

Basically, one of the 4 of us goes onto the edit website and types in the location and the name, clicks Update Map, and then Save.

Let me look into it. Perhaps I can link to them on the map itself.

Okay, I think I got it working. So like for example, I believe I was able to link my name to my URL. Would someone mind checking that while I start changing all the names to the smashboards names?

OkamiBW · Feb 24, 2013

Hold tight, somehow stuff got messed up. I'll see if I can fix it.

Edit: Fixed.

J.Shadows · Feb 24, 2013

J666 Van Nuys California

Juggleguy · Feb 24, 2013

Okami, you should really look into an easier way to collect all this data.

Appoint regional leaders and have them ask players in their Facebook group to locate themselves on their region's designated Google Map. Then use XML to merge all the Google Maps into one giant, consolidated World Google Map of the Melee players from all regions.

For example, I asked everyone in the Michigan Melee community to locate themselves on our state map, and it only took three days to come up with this many players:

I just don't think you'll get an adequate volume of players to participate by trying to reach out to everyone yourself. Regional leaders would not only split up the workload, but also be more effective in encouraging locals to do this in the first place.

OkamiBW · Feb 24, 2013

Juggleguy said:
Okami, you should really look into an easier way to collect all this data.

Appoint regional leaders and have them ask players in their Facebook group to locate themselves on their region's designated Google Map. Then use XML to merge all the Google Maps into one giant, consolidated World Google Map of all the Melee players in the country.

For example, I asked everyone in the Michigan Melee community to locate themselves on our state map, and it only took three days to come up with this many players:

I just don't think you'll get an adequate volume of players to participate by trying to reach out to everyone yourself. Regional leaders would not only split up the workload, but also be more effective in encouraging locals to do this in the first place.

Alright. My only concern is how to avoid privacy issues, I suppose.

Edit: And now that I'm thinking about it...it's hard to link to each players page unless regional leaders are super motivated.

Swampler · Feb 24, 2013

Danville, CA
Swampler

Juggleguy · Feb 24, 2013

Privacy is a non-issue with the Google Maps method I described, because nobody has to put themselves on the map if they don't want to. If they do, then they consent to disclosing that information. Besides, it's a bit ridiculous to suggest that a simple non-identifiable gamertag and broad city location is a violation of privacy.

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