How to Make Street Address Optional

Thanks, Guust.

Moving forward, you guys need to start thinking about usability. We shouldn’t need all this back-and-forth. You need to have two versions of your website/forum/documentation:
– One version for developers
– One version for low-tech people like me

A lot of software companies do this. They just make a special section of their site for developers.

For now, I can say that GD is positioned as being built by developers for developers and it is severely limiting your sales. But, it is what it is, and you can’t please everybody. I have a lot of respect for what the GD team has built.

Building in every possible option for every possible mutation would slow the software down, and make sites too slow. That is why the GD software is built to cater for 99% of users that use it with addresses, but the system allows customization if you have special requirements.

You’re obviously getting emotional and defensive here. I’ve probably caught you at a bad time. Perhaps at some stage when budget permits, you guys might consider hiring a customer support rep who enjoys dealing with inquiries from people like me. That way, you can be free to focus on coding.

Non location based listings shouldn’t be too much of a stretch for you guys. It’s not a wildly exotic requirement and is definitely larger than 1%. It may be only 1% right now because you are branded as a map-based plugin suite. If you were to rebrand GD as an overall directory plugin family, you would get a lot more people finding it who are seeking a non address based listing option.

Perhaps moving all non location related functionality into an add-on is a way to avoid the bloat you are referring to?

Anyhow, for this particular project, I’m throwing in the towel and giving up on GD. It’s just too hard for me and I don’t have the budget to hire a developer to walk me through everything.

Instead, I’m going to go for a combination of a BuddyPress dating/community theme, related plugins and WP Events Manager. I think this will be able to achieve much of what I want without any coding.

I’ll be coming back to GD for another project which will basically just use everything for what it’s designed for. I’ll be part of the 99% then and we’ll get along fine.

Hi Guust,

Thank you for highlighting that again and bringing it to my attention.

GD might be useful in this way for non location based listings that are websites or other items.

However, I’m thinking that GD is probably not going to work well for a directory of professionals because the user profile and the listing will be separate entities and will confuse site visitors.

It might make more sense to use BuddyPress, customize the profile fields and add ability to filter searches on the BP Members page. However, the only thing missing will be the ability to allow the user to pay for their profile featured. But, that’s another discussion.

I noticed that the Kleo BP theme supports GD.
http://themeforest.net/item/kleo-next-level-wordpress-theme/6776630

This might offer a solution for people seeking to show both location-based listings via GD and a searchable directory of professional profiles via BP.

I think there’s a job here for somebody who can see these options and use cases from a business owner’s point of view and create some kind of guide for low-tech people like me. Currently, all your content is focused on features rather than use cases. It would be a hassle to do, but it might save you from having to deal with inquiries like mine later on.

Hi Guust,

I cannot see any reason why all the professional’s information cannot be contained in the listing, and why you would have or need a separate profile.

Yes, this is what I want to avoid.

So, if I use only BuddyPress, then I can have a searchable directory of professionals like this:
http://seventhqueen.com/themes/kleo/get-connected-vertical-form/

I want to use BP because of its social functionality. And, I want to use GD because of its ability to allow featured listings. However, if I use BP + GD, then the professionals will have both a GD listing and a BP profile. The GD listing was posted and is owned by the BP user profile. This would be confusing in the case of a site about professionals.

However, in the case of non-humans (places, websites, software packages, etc.), then having GD + BP would make sense. Because then we can enjoy the social aspects of BP and interact regarding the GD listings.

However, please correct me if I am missing something.

…we are here to assist you in understanding how GD can be applied to your business case, so you can decide if GD can work for you. That’s no hassle at all, and that’s why we are here.

Thank you very much. So, what would you recommend for the following business case?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Domain (purchased): 99Yogis.com

Tagline: “Connecting Yogis Worldwide”

Target Audience:

1. Yoga practitioners of all levels want to do the following:
– Find the ideal yoga teacher
– Find a yoga event (classes, workshops, teacher trainings, retreats, etc.)
– Book and pay for an event

2. Yoga teachers want to do the following:
– Attract more fans/followers
– Gain more exposure and traffic to their website
– Get more attendees to their events

Navigation:
Header navigation provides these choices:
– Teachers (no address, but does have Country, State, City)
– Classes (standard GD event listing style)
– Workshops (standard GD event listing style)
– Teacher Training (standard GD event listing style)
– Retreats (standard GD event listing style)

Teacher Search Filters:
– Country
– State
– City
– Yoga styles taught
– Yoga practices taught
– Teaching language
– Private lessons available
etc.

Event Search Filters:
– Country
– State
– City
– Yoga styles taught
– Yoga practices taught
– Teaching language
– Shower available
etc.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks, Guust.

Not being able to book and pay for an event is a deal breaker.

I’ll be looking around for other alternatives…
Might come back to GD if I can’t find anything better…

Any thoughts on possibly integrating GD with one of the top event plugins?

Hi Guust,

Thank you for the explanation.

Where can I see a demo of Geodirectory Events Add-on?

I have tried http://wpgeo.directory/events/ but it doesn’t seem to have any events in the system.

Or you can try it for yourself at http://wptry.it/try-geodirectory/