FabSwingers.com forum: Whos near me is so wrong

By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago

Near me? Chichester for example according to whos near me is 20 miles away. Its actually double that.

Think the search thing may need some tweeking lol

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

It uses their current mobile location, which might be different to the place they write on their profile.

People are allowed to leave their home...

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By *lorious hole bs16Man
over a year ago

Bristol

That is it interesting. .A guy messaged me today suggesting I was nearby..turns out it is 40 miles away...neither of us have left the house. .

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By *aughty_amazonWoman
over a year ago

BRISTOL

I seem to appear in Chippenham and London!

I get phases of messages from people in Camden men saying I'm near....dunno if it's fab or my phone lol

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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago

"It uses their current mobile location, which might be different to the place they write on their profile.

People are allowed to leave their home..."

No it said that the lerson was in chichester which is 20 miles away. Chichester is double that from me

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By *oi_LucyCouple
over a year ago

Barbados

Mobile phones have various ways to work out your location, often used in combination:

1) GPS signal (requiring line of sight of the sky and the satellites)

2) What cell towers are nearby and you are connected to

3) Inferring your location from what might be near you, e.g. wifi hotspots, bluetooth devices, etc.

4) The IP address given to your phone by your ISP / telco

So if you are outside then generally you will get a GPS position fix and that will be very accurate, down to a few meters.

If you are inside a building though then one of the other options will most likely be used. The 4th one is the one that sometimes gives you odd results as sometimes is it not possible to accurately get a location from your IP address. Or you have a wifi signal indoor, but no cell reception. Sometime it might end up being the headquarters of the mobile company or similar (e.g. in Bristol, but showing up as in London).

Sometimes your phone will report a 'general' location then narrow it down as it gets further position readings. So you may be seen to hop about a bit as it works out your location.

-Matt

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By *icassolifelikeMan
over a year ago

Luton

If your phone location settings for Internet are disabled this will have an affect

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By *mmmMaybeCouple
over a year ago

West Wales

"It uses their current mobile location, which might be different to the place they write on their profile.

People are allowed to leave their home...

No it said that the lerson was in chichester which is 20 miles away. Chichester is double that from me"

They are on a mobile just cos they live on Chichester doesn't mean their feet are glued to the ground

;-)

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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago

"If your phone location settings for Internet are disabled this will have an affect "

Oh god now ive got to try and be techni al and work that out on my phones settings? Im doomed lol

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

We live near the coast and constantly get Near Me

From IOW

Yes it is 5 miles away ..if you own a boat

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

"It uses their current mobile location, which might be different to the place they write on their profile.

People are allowed to leave their home...

No it said that the lerson was in chichester which is 20 miles away. Chichester is double that from me"

But it only says that because that's what they have written on their profile. I was in London recently. Anyone who'd looked on who's near who was also in London would have seen me. Profile still says north east though.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

most people don't put their actual postcode in when setting up the profile..

that's why its always wrong

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By *tudmcmuffinMan
over a year ago

Swindon

I messaged a fab friend once when who's near me said we we're within 5 miles...turned out she was in Denmark at the time

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By *heRainManMan
over a year ago

Warrington & Glasgow

"No it said that the lerson was in chichester which is 20 miles away. Chichester is double that from me"
No it didn't, Who's Near doesn't give you the location of the person, it gives the distance from their GPS location to yours! It may have told you that someone who's put a Chichester postcode on their profile was CURRENTLY 20 miles away. Presuming that you were in Reading at the time, they could have been in Farnborough, High Wycombe or Newbury.

"most people don't put their actual postcode in when setting up the profile.."
Who's Near doesn't use your profile's postcode.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

"No it said that the lerson was in chichester which is 20 miles away. Chichester is double that from meNo it didn't, Who's Near doesn't give you the location of the person, it gives the distance from their GPS location to yours! It may have told you that someone who's put a Chichester postcode on their profile was CURRENTLY 20 miles away. Presuming that you were in Reading at the time, they could have been in Farnborough, High Wycombe or Newbury.

most people don't put their actual postcode in when setting up the profile..Who's Near doesn't use your profile's postcode."

so how is it when people are on holiday, the distance is still as it would be if they were not?

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

Proberbly because that's the last place that they logged onto the site using *mobile internet*.

If you then use WiFi, sometimes it uses your last known location rather than your current location.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

When I'm on a train I pass thru loads of places...

And get messages all the way up from ppl who clicked on who's near!

Bless!

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

There is also an 'as the crow flies nature to it too' so I sometimes see people who are within a couple of miles but to get to them requires a 10 miles journey around the estuary

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By *oi_LucyCouple
over a year ago

Barbados

"When I'm on a train I pass thru loads of places...

And get messages all the way up from ppl who clicked on who's near!

Bless!"

Ha yeah... we get that. Vik will be at home and I'm on the train going from Bristol to London and she'll see messages coming in from people...bath, chippenham, swindon, reading, london... "Hi, I see you are near!".

I've never understood the one-liner "I see you are near!" messages. I live in a city, there are about 200,000 people within a mile of me. If your proximity is the sole feature you think of that would attract me to you then we are not likely to be compatible.

-Matt

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

I had one who said, he saw I was nearby, and would I like to meet... When I looked at his profile, it said 200+ miles away... What's up with that? Very strange

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

Also if you run through a VPN it could track your location as anywhere.

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By *aughty_amazonWoman
over a year ago

BRISTOL

I've never been to flipping chippenham lol

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By *oi_LucyCouple
over a year ago

Barbados

"I had one who said, he saw I was nearby, and would I like to meet... When I looked at his profile, it said 200+ miles away... What's up with that? Very strange

There are two potential distances shown on the Distance section of someone's profile when you are looking at fab on mobile.

1) icon of a house and a globe: distance to where their profile says they are

2) icon of a house and a mobile: distance to where they are on their mobile.

There is a chance that what happened above, is that the guy was 200 miles away from where his home is on his profile. And that happened to be near you. You were both on your phones, and he saw the 2nd icon above and it showed you were a few miles away as you were quite near. He sends you a message saying "Hey, you are nearby!" and puts his phone away. You check your phone some time later and see the message, and click his profile. At this point he might not been on the mobile and so you saw the first icon above indicating he (his profile home) is 200 miles away from you. As he was not on his phone at that exact time you checked, it didn't show the distance between both your mobiles.

Hope that makes sense!

-Matt

PS. Amazon: I've never been to Chippenham either! Gone though it enough times on the train... no idea what is actually there to stop for though

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