Building a Community

[JarlWolf]

IP geolocation is pretty easy. You should know everybody's IPs, BU. Pushing those into one of those free geolocators from Bing or Google or whatever will tell you the location of their ISP. It won't tell you their house, but it'll give you the general province or state.

Unless they use proxies, which can disguise country and general location. I currently use 3, I forget which is the one I am using currently. But even so, what BUncle said.

[Buster's Uncle]

So, I'm asking about the feasibility of making a map that members may choose to go stick a pin in - perhaps with a couple of fields available that no one has to fill in if they don't want.  I KNOW it's doable - how HARD to do?

[Valka]

Talk to warpus at CFC. He made a map to track the Yeti that's being sent around the world (a project started by contre - to send a stuffed Yeti named Bumbles around the world, taking a picture or two at each stop, and sending it on to the next person; the pictures get posted in the Tavern section of OT there).


As for saying where I'm from... I've never seen any reason to hide that. It's actually helped diffused an argument (or a half dozen) when people realize I'm Canadian and therefore don't understand a lot of political, historical, and pop culture references that are US-centric.


So... I'm in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. If you look at the map, you'll see the cities of Edmonton and Calgary in the province of Alberta. Red Deer is exactly halfway between those two. We're a Prairie city, just 90 minutes away from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, and 2 hours away from the mountains themselves.

[Buster's Uncle]

Are we talking about something more elegant than downloading a map, marking it and reposting?  That would be the simplest thing to do, I guess - I was thinking of some sort of .html thingy installed as a forum function members could access, but that would certainly be workable, provided the map was in a format everyone could open and save...


(Nunavut?  When was the territory renamed?)

[Valka]

I don't know how warpus' map works. It's supposed to track where the Yeti is, and each stop along the way should have a picture associated with it. You'd have to ask him (best thing would be to PM him at CFC). Even if the kind of map he's using for the Yeti project isn't suitable for here, he might be able to point you to some other kinds of mapping sources.


According to Wikipedia, Nunavut became its own territory on April 1, 1999. I remember the hoopla about it, but hadn't recalled just when it happened.

[Buster's Uncle]

I once had a hoser tell me Canada ran the Queen off a long time ago.  I didn't argue with a native, but I did google it at the next opportunity and am still a-boogle that someone could be more ignorant of their own country than a yank.

Nunavut is a new one by me, though.

[Valka]

There are lots of people who see the Queen as useless, and resent every time any of the Royal Family comes for a visit (since it costs $$$$$$ for security, diplomatic gifts, causes inconvenience for the public when certain roadways and buildings are off-limits for the duration of the visit - ran into that one myself when Princess Margaret came to Red Deer for a short visit back in the '80s; security wouldn't let me go into the public library to return a book).


But it's important we keep the Monarchy, since it's the Governor-General who does the royal assent on the bills that get passed, and also (s)he is a necessary part of the checks and balances that prevent the prime minister from becoming too much of a despot. We don't have any mechanism to impeach a PM who does something illegal (or really immoral).


I'm guessing the person you talked to was confused about the repatriation of the Constitution in 1982.

[Buster's Uncle]

I'm guessing the person I talked to was confused.

[JarlWolf]

There are lots of people who see the Queen as useless, and resent every time any of the Royal Family comes for a visit (since it costs $$$$$$ for security, diplomatic gifts, causes inconvenience for the public when certain roadways and buildings are off-limits for the duration of the visit - ran into that one myself when Princess Margaret came to Red Deer for a short visit back in the '80s; security wouldn't let me go into the public library to return a book).


But it's important we keep the Monarchy, since it's the Governor-General who does the royal assent on the bills that get passed, and also (s)he is a necessary part of the checks and balances that prevent the prime minister from becoming too much of a despot. We don't have any mechanism to impeach a PM who does something illegal (or really immoral).


I'm guessing the person you talked to was confused about the repatriation of the Constitution in 1982.

Why not just reform your government to be more efficient and remove such outdated nonsense? Follow our example, we showered our royal family with gifts: sure, they were made out of lead and went straight through their lungs and chest, but we were pretty generous. 

(I joke of course. From what I hear your country follows a Parliament system: meaning nothing gets done.)

[Valka]

How I personally feel about the Royal Family is this: I wish William could take over directly from Elizabeth because I lost all respect for Charles many years ago. However, it doesn't make any difference at all to Canadians' daily lives. The Governor General is more relevant to us.


Our current government actually does a lot. Mind you, not much of it is beneficial to regular people, and it's infuriating to anyone who is capable of actually thinking beyond the end of the current mandate.

[JarlWolf]

The monarchy is relatively powerless in actual government though isn't it?

I'm a simpleton when it comes to politics. If a system is just bloated and not progressing, or even despotic/over bureaucratic and corrupt im the type of guy who'll just boot down the door, start shooting and worry about democracy later. Once a government stagnates, or comes to the point they aren't doing their job and when change is needed, but the system isn't allowing it, forcive measure can be taken. I have a feeling there is going to be similar action in my own nation soon, given at how bought the elections are. Of course, that is just my opinion, but I've been right before so who knows.

Edit: Note, not saying I am a terrorist. There is a difference between a democratic government with proper process, and a stagnated circus that gets nothing done.

Plus, I doubt Canada is nowhere near as corrupt- or dangerous and violent- as my country is.

[Valka]

The Royal Family hasn't had anything to do with our government for a long time now that isn't strictly ceremonial. The Queen is our formal head of state, but her representative, the Governor-General, is the person who takes care of the Royal Assent part of passing bills and the formalities of dropping the writ for elections. They can also veto shenanigans like proroguing Parliament, although they don't usually do that. Thing is, the Governor-General is appointed by the Prime Minister, so it's a rare time when the GG will go against his/her wishes (yes, we've had a female Prime Minister...).


We haven't had very many political assassinations in our history. The last time was in 1970, when the FLQ (a militant separatist group in Quebec) kidnapped a couple of politicians and killed one of them. The only other one I recall knowing about was back in 1885, when Louis Riel was hanged. Some would consider him a traitor who deserved to be hanged (because he led a rebellion to secure recognition and fair treatment for the Metis people), but others consider that he was unjustly executed.

[JarlWolf]

I'm not even going to touch my nation's history. Possibly one of the bloodiest in the whole world to be honest.

[ariete]

I'm not even going to touch my nation's history. Possibly one of the bloodiest in the whole world to be honest.

surely, expecially when it was communist 

[Geo]

I'm not even going to touch my nation's history. Possibly one of the bloodiest in the whole world to be honest.

I bet China will even contest that. 
"We are the bloodiest! No, we are!"

Do you really expect a civil war to erupt, or more territories making an attempt to secede from central authority in Moskou somewhere in the next decade?
Besides a commie cell, and a gang of extremists going on a killing spree back in my teenage years, I can't recall (political) terrorism happening here in Belgium.