[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #41442: Show nearby events in dashboard events widget in a per country basis

[WordPress Trac]

#41442: Show nearby events in dashboard events widget in a per country basis
----------------------------+------------------------------
 Reporter:  fernandot       |       Owner:
     Type:  enhancement     |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal          |   Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Administration  |     Version:  4.8
 Severity:  normal          |  Resolution:
 Keywords:                  |     Focuses:
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Changes (by iandunn):

 * focuses:  ui =>
 * version:  trunk => 4.8


Comment:

 If we make a change here, it'll likely be on the API side and wouldn't
 require any UI changes. I think adding any UI options to customize the
 range, etc would make it too cluttered and more complicated than necessary
 (for users and maintainers).

 We could add a Core filter and corresponding API request parameter to set
 a custom range, but I'm not convinced that that's worth the
 dev/maintenance time required.

 A better option would probably be to extend the current range to 450km (or
 whatever). With that, though, I worry that the signal-to-noise ratio would
 increase too much for the average user. The farther away the results are,
 the less relevant they are (in most cases). The less relevant they are,
 they less likely people are to pay attention to them.

 These are some of my thoughts from [https://wordpress.org/support/topic
 /needs-improvements-for-international-users/ an earlier discussion
 (comments 1, 2, 8, 9)]:

 > [country-based ranges] would work for some countries, but definitely
 wouldn’t for many others. Countries like Russia, Canada, and Mexico are
 too large for that to be practical. [So, if we added any kind of logic
 around countries, it'd have to work differently for differently countries.
 Given my other concerns, I feel like the extra complexity isn't
 justified.]

 > It’s important to keep in mind that the purpose of this widget isn’t to
 help insiders like us keep track of 100% of the events that we’re
 interested in; the purpose is to introduce new people to their local WP
 community. I don’t think the type of user that this was built for is
 likely to drive more than 4 hours for a WordCamp.
 >
 > I could be wrong about that, though; do you think the average WP user in
 [Spain] who has never heard of a WordCamp would drive 5 hours? 6? Keep in
 mind that, at that distance, they’d probably also need to pay for a hotel
 room, train/plane ticket, gas, etc.

 > It’s also not necessarily a bad thing if people don’t see any events
 within driving distance. When that happens, the widget displays a message
 encouraging them to organize a local event. [The Community team has
 historically decided to focus on local events, since those are the most
 accessible to people.]

 I think this is a good discussion to have, and I'd especially like to
 gather input from people who live in countries where this is a relevant
 issue (since I'm not personally affected by it, and therefore biased). At
 the moment, though, it seems like a situation where no solution is 100%
 perfect, and the pros of a change are outweighed by the cons.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/41442#comment:1>
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