Notify users of new nearby competitions

[jbmertens]

I've had a couple questions about existence of such a thing recently.

This was a ccm idea, but probably fits better here.
cubing/ccm#108

• Asked for on 2016-02-23: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/wca-admin/unI4-E5ZaKg/7vXOG2YBCAAJ

[jfly]

Note: This would require asking users where they live (see #732). Would we also want different distance thresholds for different parts of the world? @pedrosino has been thinking about this stuff recently, what do you think?

[pedrosino]

I think we could use a fixed one. We'd have to figure out what is close for each country and then store it someway. Not worth the trouble, I think.

[TimMcMahon]

@jfly Could users nominate a country that they live in so that delegates in that Region can field questions/admin tasks?

[jfly]

Good idea, although it's probably worth mentioning at this point that we don't have a way to go from an iso2 country code to a list of delegates for that iso2 country code.

Also, "country" might be too big for certain places: being notified of every US competition is overwhelming, for instance.

[EvilPotato1216]

Basically, anything like country or delegate could be used to track down competitions near the user. The user could select a specific delegate and get notified about their new competitions.

[EvilPotato1216]

I also think the user could enter their own mile/km radius around them where the competition should happen for them to get a notification. The notification should be via email I think.

[EvilGnome6]

CubingUSA used to have such a feature (although it never seemed to work). They have optional fields for City/State you can add to your profile. The feature used a selectable range (100 miles, 500 miles, etc.) to receive notifications of new competitions.

I think adding something like this would be worth the effort. I would love to go to some competitions in neighboring States where I'm not the delegate but I never hear about them until it's too late. I also get complaints from people who miss my competition registration deadlines because they didn't hear about it in time.

[EvilPotato1216]

Yeah, looking back at this more than a year later, I think this could be in the profile edit area. Users could select a km radius or a specific delegate to be notified of their competitions. Whole new avenue of features for this one.

[timreyn]

I'm going to look into this. Some suggestions came up on the staff list related to #3797

My proposal: a user can create one or more Subscription, with the following parameters:

• Either within X km of (lat, lng), or all competitions in a country
• May limit to competitions with a particular event
• Optionally, automatically bookmark the competition when it's announced
• Optionally, email the user when the competition is announced

So, for example, I could subscribe to all competitions within 500km of my home, and also all competitions in the US with Fewest Moves.

[lgarron]

@timreyn, that sounds pretty fab!

My proposal: a user can create one or more Subscription, with the following parameters:

Supporting multiple would be very useful to me. :-D
I travel to Europe once or twice a year, and it would be useful to keep an eye out for adjacent competitions, especially if I can specify a date range!

As an additional step, it would also be nice to have a competition calendar. :-D #64

[saranshgrover]

@timreyn do you have plans on working/completing this?

[timreyn]

Sorry, this (and everything else cubing related) got deprioritized last year when COVID started.

I can add this back to my todo list, though there's still a decent amount more work on top of what I did last year.

[dunkOnIT]

@Jambrose777 From a data protection perspective, do you know what constraints would apply in the following cases:

1. Allowing the user to "subscribe" to competitions in a particular country
2. Allowing the user to "subscribe" to competitions in a certain radius of a set of coordinates (eg pin placed on a map)
3. Allowing the user to "subscribe" to competitions in a certain radius of a set of coordinates

[dunkOnIT]

Scoping note: Although this deals with competitions, it is ultimately storing data about the preferences of a user - which is in the scope of the User service, not the Competition service (which stores data about competitions)

[Jambrose777]

@Jambrose777 From a data protection perspective, do you know what constraints would apply in the following cases:

1. Allowing the user to "subscribe" to competitions in a particular country
2. Allowing the user to "subscribe" to competitions in a certain radius of a set of coordinates (eg pin placed on a map)
3. Allowing the user to "subscribe" to competitions in a certain radius of a set of coordinates

All that is fine. Users giving consent to use their data in specific ways is completely fine. We should allow them to unsubscribe at any time / remove that consent.