Show HN: Churches + The Internet

Re:Show HN: Churches + The Internet by thejteam on Friday November 30, 2012 @09:25AM (#4853330)

What software do you use to compute distances? The distances it gives are "as the crow flies" rather than driving distances. Specifically, I live near a large bay with one bridge across it about 50 miles from me. A city on the opposite side of the bay from me is listed as being 20 miles away. Ditto for a city on the opposite side of a river with only a bridge. This isn't the first place I've seen it, just wondering where you get the distances.

Also, how do you sort? I kind of expected a sort by distance or denomination or even alphabetical, but I couldn't figure out the order.

Nice service though! I found a few churches near me I didn't even know existed, and I've been in the area 15 years.

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Re:Show HN: Churches + The Internet by glennericksen on Friday November 30, 2012 @02:03PM (#4854826)

We use a combination of geospatial features from our database (MongoDB) and linear algebra to compute the distances on a coordinate grid. Admittedly this isn't a flawless approach, and cases like yours reveal some of the weaknesses. Certainly open to suggestions on a better way :)

With regards to ordering of results, it is mostly by distance, with some outliers. Definitely an area we are working on improving.

Thanks for the kind words.

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Re:Show HN: Churches + The Internet by jdavid on Tuesday December 04, 2012 @04:11PM (#4873288)

you could sort by zipcode.

more similar zipcodes should be closer together.

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