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Ziptastic: Isn't a zipcode enough?

daspecster.github.com

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Re: Ziptastic: Isn't a zipcode enough?

#41

Post by elliottcarlson »

nodesocket wrote: post #23
joshaidan wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just about to say the same thing. I also noticed it doesn't ask you for the name on card. I'd suggest using PayPal or Google Checkout with the whole trust issue.

Really bad. Use PayPal for donations.

Don't ever label anything as a donation via PayPal unless you have the actual documentation to back this up. Depending on your situation, your account can be locked when failing to provide the information, and worse, to be able to unlock it you have to refund the monies received and then ask for it again via a different method - if you can get it unlocked.

Re: Ziptastic: Isn't a zipcode enough?

#42

Post by ben1040 »

jellicle wrote: post #25

If you're going to do this, do the whole enchilada: zip code + person's name ought to give you their whole address for 99% of the population (hint: voter records). Well, 95%, considering such records are often out of date. The problem is this will likely spook many people - "how does this website know my street address?"

>The problem is this will likely spook many people - "how does this website know my street address?"

I requested a car insurance quote from Progressive, and the first form in the process asked for my name and street address. After that, it gave me a list of the vehicles I owned and asked which one was I inquiring about.

I know that these are public records, but it still seemed a little creepy to me.

Re: Ziptastic: Isn't a zipcode enough?

#44

Post by drivebyacct2 »

orblivion wrote: post #24
asnyder wrote: post #2

Unfortunately in some cases a zipcode is in fact not enough, as it's possible for a zipcode to spread across multiple towns. However, if you have a full 9 digit zipcode then you can in fact always determine. However, even if you can't always determine this information exactly, a zipcode should be enough to pre-populate these fields for you most of the time, and in those rare cases which they don't a choice can be pre…

You could always have the city state and country pop up as separate, pre-filled input boxes once the zip code is entered, so the user has a chance to correct it.

Or even just pop up all the possible options. Still an immense and very much appreciated speedup.

Re: Ziptastic: Isn't a zipcode enough?

#45

Post by rmc »

I'm not sure if this is supposed to be USA-only or not. It seems to ask for 'country', so I assume it's aimed at the whole world.

And here's where reality disagrees with your simple organisation.

* First "zip code" is mostly an American term, "post code" is used in other anglosphere countries.

* Not all countries have "everyone is in a city" model, this seems to happen in the USA, where 'city' is often an administrative division, and you can have a city of 1,000 people. "County" would be used in Ireland & UK.

* In some places Country = State, e.g. Ireland. The law & Consitution there consistantly refers to 'Irish State'. Likewise the European Union has 27 member states. Each State is a Country. (Some States (e.g. UK) are made up of several countries).

* Some places don't have post codes (or zip codes) at all. (e.g. Ireland).

Addresses are hard.

Re: Ziptastic: Isn't a zipcode enough?

#46

Post by drivebyacct2 »

tedyoung wrote: post #17

I just love it when people create projects to solve problems that have already been solved before. 5 minutes of web searching would have told you: * The USPS already has this information * ZIP codes are not precise enough to provide a single city/town result (in fact, many web sites already get this wrong). * ZIP+4 codes will give you block-level detail, but I doubt more than a few percent of people know what their +…

What a poor attitude.

Re: Ziptastic: Isn't a zipcode enough?

#47

Post by daspecster »

joshstrange wrote: post #33

I went ahead and setup http://ZiptasticAPI.com/ instead of using GET you just add the Zip code to the url ex: http://ZiptasticAPI.com/40504 all the code is on github https://github.com/joshstrange/Ziptastic I just wanted something a little cleaner and without using GET.

Feel free to fork it on github!

Re: Ziptastic: Isn't a zipcode enough?

#48

Post by rmc »

nodesocket wrote: post #23
joshaidan wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just about to say the same thing. I also noticed it doesn't ask you for the name on card. I'd suggest using PayPal or Google Checkout with the whole trust issue.

Really bad. Use PayPal for donations.

To avoid the PayPal/Donation problem, why not sell something, e.g. API docs. You pay €X and the author will send you a HTML file of the API docs. One-time, once-only price.

Then you have something you sold and you can use the money for hosting, avoiding 'donation' entirely.

Re: Ziptastic: Isn't a zipcode enough?

#49

Post by talmand »

lubujackson wrote: post #27

My big pet peeve is when they ask you what type of credit card you're using, when that is easily determined by the first four digits of the CC number. Thankfully, more and more web sites are figuring this out.

I've never understood why that information is required at all in the first place. I can see the usefulness of showing which credit cards the site accepts but to force the visitor to choose one seems wasteful.

Re: Ziptastic: Isn't a zipcode enough?

#50

Post by k33n »

daspecster wrote: post #9
k33n wrote: post #6

The problem with this service and smaller services like it is that they are very likely to go offline with no warning.

Well, one nice thing is that you can fork it on github and setup your own API server. My main goal is to change how forms on the internet are filled out and to reduce the barrier of entry for people trying to give company/people money or information.

Ah, good point, I suppose an organization could just run this internally.
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