When you browse for WarmShowers hosts on a map and hover on a host marker (red Balloon), it shows the name and location (city, state). When you click on the balloon, it shows the same with the street address.
In this case, the location is already obvious as it is on a map. I suggest to include the responsiveness of the host in the initial display of name and city, state, so that if a host is unresponsive, on can move on without clicking. It can also be included in the popup when you click on the red balloon so that if the response is low, you need not go any further. At present the responsiveness is shown only when the full profile is visible.
If possible, also include the availability in the same display.
Thanks
Those are great suggestions! I can see how that would be immediately helpful to members who are traveling and looking for hosts.
I opened a ticket on github for this issue. Follow the link to see it:
https://github.com/warmshowers/Warmshowers.org/issues/423
That said, as an all volunteer organization it will take "a while" to get around to making these changes.
Mark
OK, Thanks
Don't we already have github requests for implementing some kind of smart filtering?
ie: if a map or list search gives greater than X results then filter out hosts with less than 50% response rate or who have not logged in within the past month (I think it would be useful to see this implemented regardless of the number of results) this would separate the wheat from the chaff. A pop up could advise when filtering is being applied and the default filter settings could be manipulated with an advanced search.
I am not sure if such filtering should be applied as a normal way of browsing.
It will be best to provide such filtering via an advanced or parametrized search screen to improve on a default search.
E.g., I am accessing my local library catalog where if I search for a book title, the results are cluttered with similar sounding titles by "enhancing" the default search with a fuzzy search. On complaining, the vendor advised to enable the exact search option on the advanced search screen. That is inconvenient to do for each search, especially when the library does not have the title in the first place.
I believe that a default search should not be manipulated in any way. It will actually raise more questions from the hidden and unexpected enhancements.
I would have to disagree. I would not want to imagine an internet where search engines did not provide algorithms to push more useful results to the top.
My concern is primarily with the list search which if it was just purely randomised it would still produce better results than it currently is (where it has a tendency to push members less likely to host to the top of the list) - when this went to github it was mentioned by someone that this might be useful also for map searches with a lot of results (with regards to limiting bandwidth and processor impact) which is why I mentioned a filtering mechanism after a certain number of results (say >25) have been returned. With a notice and a tick box in the map it could easily be switched off for those interested in finding members who have not logged in for over 1 month or not responded to the majority of requests received.
I would like to see WS make it easier for guests to find genuine hosts by making searches smarter like other hospex sites I have been involved in. The top 10-12 hosts in my city have a combined response rate of about 12% no matter how woeful their response rates are they will continue to appear at the top of the list. After nearly 6 years on WS, dozens of guests and a 100% response rate I appear about 30 places down - I doubt there are more than 4-5 people interested in hosting above me.
I think providing a randomly ordered list filtered by some modifiable criteria of responsiveness and last login date would provide a good mix of old and new hosts and allow all members genuinely interested in hosting to get a share of requests in popular and highy populated destinations.