Some Ideas I Had Options

[Coomer]

This morning I had some ideas for the site that I figured I'd share and get your guys' input on.

• Zip-Code Based Member Search
  You guys(in the US...sorry everyone else...but the normal location search will be coming back soon) would be able to input your five-digit zip code. Once enough people input their zip codes, I'd release the search function, which runs on a query that I created a while ago at work that calculates how far zipcodes are from each other. So you could login, then go to the page, choose how big of a radius you'd like to find people within, choose ordering options(member name, registration date, distance from yourself, etc.), and then you could find people close to you.
  
• Member Ranking System
  My second idea revolved around the idea that having everyone(except management) being an "Enthusiast" is boring. I thought about past attempts we'd made in trying to figure out a ranking system, and today I realized that maybe members could be ranked on a gear system. For example, if someone has under 30 posts or something, their label could be "1st Gear." 30 and over but under 150 could be "2nd Gear," etc. Looking at it now, it seems kind of dumb to me, but I'm curious as to what you guys think, or if you could suggest something else for this.

So let me know what you think.

[Consynx]

if a ranking was done like that about knowledge or something, then i think somehow OT topics should be excluded

as for the zip code that is an awesome idea, but have you ever though about the map-like idea that gt4oc has?
i used that map for the hatch GB, very helpful.