Community Wishlist Survey 2020/Archive/Show user's current location on maps
Show user's current location on maps
We won't be working on the existing maps stack this year
- Problem: On Wikivoyage, when using mapframe embedded maps, it is difficult for the user to find their current real-life location on the map.
- Who would benefit: Users using Wikivoyage while traveling, especially mobile users.
- Proposed solution: Provide an option, maybe an icon to click, to indicate the user's current location.
- More comments: This is an obvious feature which users expect, and not having it makes the maps significantly less useful.
- Phabricator tickets: T208713
- Proposer: Mx. Granger (talk) 23:35, 1 November 2019 (UTC)
Discussion
- Weak support. I'm not a big fan of geo-tracking and I don't really use mobile devices but this is definitely a hi-value feature for travelers to opt into. Even as someone who wouldn't use a Wikivoyage smartphone app while traveling, I can tell this is something that would be very handy. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 19:40, 2 November 2019 (UTC)
- This looks useful. I regularly use a local public transport apps which have similar features, and I can easily see nearby bus or tram stops; it would be very useful to find nearby museums or cafes when exploring a strange city. It would also encourage readers to keep the Wikivoyage page open when they walk to a location, rather than switching to a map app. Users can configure geo-tracking on their phone to allow or not allow a particular browser to get locations information, and the wiki could have a preference to opt out for readers who have logged in. AlasdairW (talk) 00:05, 5 November 2019 (UTC)
- This has been desired by User:Traveler100 for a while. I support. SelfieCity (talk) 12:55, 9 November 2019 (UTC)
- A must for a site about locations. Most users of the web are today from mobile devices, this is an expected function. Also not having this forces the use of other mapping applications. --Traveler100 (talk) 05:57, 10 November 2019 (UTC)
- Mx. Granger, thank you for submitting this proposal! Our infrastructure team is currently discussing options to switch out the maps frontend and backend to a different technology stack, which would be more robust and easier to maintain. If we can make that work, then it could take care of many of the concerns expressed in this proposal. It will be at least several months until we'll know for sure what the decision will be, so for this year's wishlist, we're not going to take on any possible commitments to working on the existing maps stack. We apologize for any disappoint, and thank you again for submitting this proposal. --IFried (WMF) (talk) 01:46, 20 November 2019 (UTC)