Wireframe: enquiry-location

The enquirer is both selecting the place, if any, associated with this enquiry, and the initial constraints on the place of the respondent's enquiry, where appropriate.

I consider, decide on, or change, the location properties of the enquiry.

I have built up a set of locations that are or have been used for my various enquiries. If the location has already been defined, I select it; if not, I go and define a new one for this enquiry.

If the place that the enquiry is centred around is defined as a Lat/Long point, I may also choose a maximum for distance of the respondent.

• enquiry basics
• forming enquiry
• define location

• Select the location from the list of defined locations
• If the selected location type is COORDS then
  • show field for maximum distance
• Button to submit changes → forming enquiry
• Link to cancel changes
  • → enquiry basics
  • → forming enquiry
  • → all locations to see more details of the locations

• enquiry-information
• location-information

• Explanation of how location settings work
• All the LocIDs, excluding ones that have passed their end date
• Current EnqLID
  • LocName
  • (potentially) EMaxDist
• EnqID
  • EnqName
  • EnqNote

• Button to submit:
  • if times are undefined, pop-up to ask if time is relevant
    • if yes, → Enquiry times
    • if no, set EnqTimes to 0 and → forming enquiry
• Link to return with no change → Forming enquiry
• link to → Define location if a new one wanted.

Note that when this page is invoked, the location should be set to “nowhere”, unless changed on this page.

The explanation may go something like this:

Many types of enquiry may depend on where you are or the other person is. It is only for living type enquiries that this is fundamental; for the other enquiry types you may want to focus the enquiry around a particular place, but it is also possible to imagine connecting remotely independently of where you are.

Maybe you envisage meeting face-to-face with another person. In this case, the enquiry location should be given as where you are, or expect to be, physically present. If you are expecting to be based or to live somewhere else, that other place can be the enquiry location. So, for instance, if you are planning to move somewhere, you may be looking for someone employment you there. Or you may be looking for someone to be helping you renovate a future, or holiday, home.

The location can be given either as a point on a map, or a country. The point about a country is that it is an entity that normally has a single set of rules about permission to live; regulations for say building or education; etc., so you may want to constrain your enquiry to a particular country. If you're thinking of more than one country, you can can have two or more similar enquiries.

If location is not significant to you, and the other person could be anywhere in the world, that may correspond either with them also having an enquiry where location is not significant, or with you being within their desired range of locations. You will need to decide whether to allow your location to be used in this way, or not. If you decide not, you can set your location for this enquiry to “nowhere”, and your enquiry will not correspond to another person's who has restricted their location. If you want to allow your location to be used, then you can choose your most suitable location, and set your allowed distance away to be “anywhere”.

This needs to be thought through quite carefully. At present, I think that a person keeps a set of locations, and can name them. What I was thinking of as “Anywhere” should indeed be called “nowhere”, and is always a possible location, meaning that it does not matter, as meeting in person is not important. Each enquiry is associated with a particular location for self: often simply “home” or “nowhere”. Statistics are given for how many people have answered proximity requirement.

If “my location” is mobile, proximity is always required, so no radio buttons, and max distance is given in smaller units. Anyway, maybe have a simple check box, when checked reveals a field for max distance?