To save time and reduce annoyance, could the initial Go Hunting screen default to the country in the user's profile rather than the current requirement to select a country from a long list? On the presumably rare occasion when the user wishes to select a country other than their own, this could be done using the breadcrumb trail at the top of the country page.
Go Hunting default country
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I think it'd be a nice feature - indeed, having a "hunt for books in this location" button *on* the profile-page might be even better. However, it would take some work; at the moment the profile location info doesn't map directly to the hunting pages, and I'm not sure how messy it would be to try and pick it up. [Having a feature where people could add a default hunting location to their profiles - and encouraging them to specify their own location, at least at the country level - might be a bit easier.]
I fear that there aren't spare resources for such a feature, though, at least not while there are still issues that need to be fixed. Solittletime's workaround would help; and any book that you've made release notes for can be used as a quick entry to the hunting pages too, via the link to the release zone.
I do think that the hunting pages themselves could be made more book-hunting-friendly; a map-by-location, for example, so people could look up "releases near me" instead of having to check individual towns. And having a special icon similar to the current OBCZ tags, for use with non-OBCZ book-swap locations - Little Free Libraries and other such spots - would put more "places where books are likely to be" on the map. And in the "if I won the lottery and could afford to hire programmers" category, some graphs showing releases vs. catches by location through time... not useful, perhaps, but I do love me some stats {rueful grin}.
Meanwhile, my own workarounds include adding explicit links to the hunting pages for my state ("For more releases in NH, click here" kind of thing), to encourage any finders to look further; they could click on the release zone, of course, but I figure the specific message might add a little nudge. And I try to release books at as many surrounding towns as I can in the course of each month, to keep lots of places on the hunting pages so any book-hunters (whether newbies or visiting-from-elsewhere BCers) will see some activity.
I fear that there aren't spare resources for such a feature, though, at least not while there are still issues that need to be fixed. Solittletime's workaround would help; and any book that you've made release notes for can be used as a quick entry to the hunting pages too, via the link to the release zone.
I do think that the hunting pages themselves could be made more book-hunting-friendly; a map-by-location, for example, so people could look up "releases near me" instead of having to check individual towns. And having a special icon similar to the current OBCZ tags, for use with non-OBCZ book-swap locations - Little Free Libraries and other such spots - would put more "places where books are likely to be" on the map. And in the "if I won the lottery and could afford to hire programmers" category, some graphs showing releases vs. catches by location through time... not useful, perhaps, but I do love me some stats {rueful grin}.
Meanwhile, my own workarounds include adding explicit links to the hunting pages for my state ("For more releases in NH, click here" kind of thing), to encourage any finders to look further; they could click on the release zone, of course, but I figure the specific message might add a little nudge. And I try to release books at as many surrounding towns as I can in the course of each month, to keep lots of places on the hunting pages so any book-hunters (whether newbies or visiting-from-elsewhere BCers) will see some activity.
at the moment the profile location info doesn't map directly to the hunting pages,
I hate to sound contrary, but I believe it does: I believe these functions use the same database. Changing one is changing the other.
That'd be good! I might be recalling a pre-the-last-major-site-revision situation, where (if my memory isn't failing me, which it very well might) the profile-location info was separate. If they do use the same lists, a direct hunt-from-one's-profile-location feature would be easier to implement - though I suspect it'd still be way down on the priority list!
