Some of us have discovered the new 'People Near Me' feature that HealthUnlocked (HU) have been experimenting with for the last couple of months. The inaugural HU website included a similar feature for 10 months, which even showed approximately where you lived on a street map. That feature disappeared mid 2013 when the site was upgraded. It's been much missed by many of the early members, because it enabled people trying to answer questions know what country a person lived in and you could immediately reply with relevant information for that country, perhaps even recommending good local CLL specialists. Re-establishing this feature was also considered to be a useful feature for members wanting to meet others with the same rare health condition; they could send a PM to members nearby to see if there was any interest in meeting up.
Following feedback from community administrators, HU have now released the final version in which ]Everyone is now opted out by defaultand must add a postcode (or ZIP code for Americans) to see who's near them.
PLEASE, please take the time to at least update what country you live in; Treatments and trials vary so much around the world and our volunteers waste so much of their time and often that of people they are trying to help, just because we lack this critical information.
You can update your country (and ZIP/Postcode if you don't mind others knowing approximately where you live) by selecting 'Profile' when you select your username from the green menu bar and then clicking on the 'Edit' box to the far right of your banner picture or via: healthunlocked.com/profile/...
There's a degree of randomness added to the location information so other members will not be able to find out exactly where you live. Also, depending on how your ISP connects you to the Internet, the answer may be way out. In the trial period, I found I had 'neighbours' that were actually a thousand or more kilometres away...
Neil
Written by
AussieNeil
Administrator
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This is a good step forward (or backward if you remember this from before). I have akways thiught it helps with the response for the same reasons as Neil quotes. I agree with his comments, I dont think sharing country gives too kuch away.
Personally, I have a reason why I do not want to be pinpointed (read mother in her 80s I do not wish to worry) so I'm going to try a partial postcode. Will add to this later today if it works.
Hmmm A step in the right direction even if it is backwards to a facility that used to exist.
I personally preferred the old system of a map display and would love the c hoice of seeing the distance in miles as I am old fashioned and still work in old money.
Hi Neil, when I add my country details (Ireland) it wont let me save unless I insert a postcode / zipcode. We dont have such codes in Ireland. I tried to input a county but it was rejected! Help. I think it would be fantastic to be able to touchbase with other Irish SLL/CLLr's.
Glad you like the idea. I'll raise your difficulty in the Admin group (no one has mentioned your country's lack of location codes yet) and see what the developers can come up with. They may have to assign a special code like '0000' or '9999' for use in countries that don't have them.
I don't know how useful this feature will actually be, because given the opportunity to opt in, most people can't be bothered. We can only hope that other Irish CLLers are like you and would like to meet a fellow countryman with their same health interest. (Actually to give HU credit, they initially had planned to make it opt in by default (for the reason I mentioned above), but there are now some HU groups that support members with a fragile mental state that for good reason are concerned about being stalked, even with the ability to disguise who you really are by choosing a username unlike your real name. So they wisely decided to make the default 'opt out'.
That doesn't stop anyone else reading this from entering their country - PLEASE!!
Try it now! HU have just modified this feature so that members in countries that don't use post codes can now select a city instead. Based on the country you choose you'll be prompted to add either a postcode / ZIP code or city.
HU have just modified this feature so that members in countries that don't use post codes can now select a city instead. Based on the country you choose, you'll be prompted to add either a postcode / ZIP code or city. (And there's nothing to stop you using a city far away from you in your county if you value your privacy but don't mind people knowing what country you're from.)
Please consider adding your country into your profile, even if you don't want to be involved in the people near me feature. It does make it much easier for responders to your questions to provide you with more helpful replies.
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