Release 20 — Explore Users

Release 20

Release 20 ships a major new feature: Explore Users! If you are a verified user, then you can search for users to connect with or invite them to clubs that you mange.

A core problem

I moved to Michigan in 2022 and as part of that move, it required me to rebuild a social network. That means I used a lot of the platforms available to try and meet people. One of the core problems is that when your club is small like my photography club, then how do you grow your groups to have more members?

In other social media / event sites, you have to wait for people to come to you. In my personal experience that has not worked out great having open access platforms as they attrack bots, spammers, etc. My thought was that an organizer should be able to search for people to invite to their group.

The lookingforgroup.social solution

1. Users can search for clubs (groups) in their area and request to join.
2. Managers (organizers) can search for people in their area to invite to the club to discuss becoming a member.

Proposal

Verified users can currently explore and discover clubs near them on the map, but not other users. A verified user who wants to grow their club, or simply meet people with shared interests/availability nearby, has no way to find them. The Explore feature's architecture (map, filters, hide/clear, area-of-influence radius) already exists for clubs and this same approach can be used for users.

Security considerations

• Users have to opt-in to be searchable. That is one of ideals of the lookingforgroup.social way is that a user is not automatically enabled for a feature unless it is really important.
• Only verified users can search for other users. The idea here is a user that has gone through the verification process and has had their identification confirmed by a security representative. Since it only takes an e-mail to get an account on lookingforgroup.social , this extra step of verification is to make sure that a human created the account and is not a bot, scammer, or AI scraping data.
• The lookingforgroup.social server will only return searchable users within a 10mi radius of the verified user's account location. Even if a verified user hands off their credentials to a bot the area of influence limitations make for a less interesting target because fewer records are available. Additionally, the location data for the user is 'fuzzed' so it will be a general area returned and not an exact location to further limit leaking personal information. There is a still a risk that is listed on the 'Searchable' toggle that in low population density areas that your location will become evident if there is only one home in the area.

A scenario

I wrote this tool with a primary use case in mind: Tabletop games! I know that making friends as an adult is hard. The phrase "Looking for Group" and "LFG" are the common terms for people joining games online, so I borrowed that for getting together in the real world too.

I really enjoy playing tabletop games, but during the work week I do not want to add the 40 minutes of driving on top of sitting down for a 3 hour board game. Seriously, the drive-time after work is what prevents me from doing a lot of the social events in town because there are only so many hours in the day. If I am going to do things before or after work, I need them to be in my neighborhood.

Take action

1. Create an account: its free. Yes, you have to provide your e-mail. No, your e-mail is not sold to spammers it is only used for login and communications that you opt-in for.
2. "Looking for Group" in your neighborhood is easy by visiting the "Explore" area and checking out the existing clubs.
3. Didn't find what you are looking for? Then create a club in your neighborhood describing what you're looking to do. It doesn't have to be a tabletop gaming club it can be anything that interests you: Games - Roleplaying or D&D, Cards or Euchre, Boardgames, Videogames; Watch Parties - Anime, College Football, Horror Movies; Athletics - walking, cycling, running. There is no risk. You can disband a club if it isn't working out. You are in control of who you let into your club and can remove anyone that isn't welcome.
4. Didn't get any notifications that peopled wanted to join? Then get a verified account and use the 'Explore Users' feature to invite individuals. They probably didn't notice when you created a new club in their area.

What next?

If it has been awhile since you've visited the site, it might be time to revisit and see if any new clubs have popped up in your area.

If you've been on the fence about trying out the app, give it a shot.

lookingforgroup.social was created to get people connected in the real world. We need community leaders (a.k.a. club managers) to form clubs and we need users to enable that 'Searchable' toggle. Let everyone know you're ready to be social!

Head over to lookingforgroup.social and check it out.