Category Proposal: Dog Friendly Stores

[+ibycus]

There are some stores, that will allow dogs in to shop with their owners. Some of these aren't pet stores, and I've never seen one that is actually posted that they do allow dogs (only places post that don't allow dogs). It would be nice to have a category for stores (other than pet stores) that allow dogs to enter.

 

Specifics:

Must not be posted "No Dogs allowed" (even though some places posted as no dogs actually allow dogs, it seems unwise to include such places in a listing)

Must not be a pet store (pretty sure that just about every pet store everywhere allows dogs... Although if there are regions where not many do allow dogs, it would be good to include those that do...)

Must allow dogs.

 

What do you think? Has anyone proposed it yet (I did a search, but came up empty)

[+Anonymous']

I like this idea, and i'm sure other pet owners would like it too. Take your animal shopping with you is an interesting experience.

[+ibycus]

Can anyone think of some good variables for this one?

 

Obviously name of store/chain is an important one. Type of store (Hardware, Gardening, grocery?, antiques (oh I can picture the damage tails might cause)). Street Address of store...

 

Anything else?

[rescue557]

Petsmart, Petco, etc. Both major chain stores that allow leashed pets. I vote yes, but we need some way to designate the name of the store into pre-set name categories.

[+ibycus]

I wonder if we'd want to include petstores in the category. At least around here, pretty much *all* petstores allow leashed pets (well dogs anyways... Don't know if I'd want to bring a leashed guinea pig anywhere, allowed or not ) . Are there other areas in the world where this isn't so common? (in such an area, I'd imagine that you would want petstores listed)

 

Is the name that critical? My feeling is that for the most part, once we eliminate the petstores from the category, most of what would be left would be the 'small' independent stores anyways. I suppose the category admin could keep an eye on that kind of thing though anyways, and ask for name standardization before approval (maybe a list on the category page first to eliminate some of the headaches).

 

Another thing to consider is that large chain stores typically have the same policy across the whole chain, so the chances that someone might need/want to search for them is lower.

[+ibycus]

bump!

 

Surely someone else must have *some* comments, one way or the other.

 

Do you like the idea? What variable would you include?

[Jeremy]

I like the idea but not as a category. It isn't a specific object or place but just something that is pet friendly. This seems to be more like an attribute for a waymark than something that warrants its own category.

[+ibycus]

Strange, must have missed the reply notification on this one...

 

Trying to think what it would be an attribute on as far as existing categories go. Can you recommend a category that this would make a good attribute for? I agree its kind of general, but I'm not sure how something like this might best fit in.

 

Most categories that I've seen so far are either dogs would almost certainly be allowed, or dogs definitely wouldn't be allowed, so not a lot of point as putting it in as a variable (alternatively, not really somewhere you'd likely actually want to know that you could visit with your dog)

 

I think just through the sample bias element here you'd likely mostly get 'unlikely' places where dogs are allowed (I wouldn't want to make too strict of a definition of unlikely, as unlikely in one area might be average everyday in another).

[+tozainamboku]

Strange, must have missed the reply notification on this one...

 

Trying to think what it would be an attribute on as far as existing categories go. Can you recommend a category that this would make a good attribute for? I agree its kind of general, but I'm not sure how something like this might best fit in.

 

Most categories that I've seen so far are either dogs would almost certainly be allowed, or dogs definitely wouldn't be allowed, so not a lot of point as putting it in as a variable (alternatively, not really somewhere you'd likely actually want to know that you could visit with your dog)

 

I think just through the sample bias element here you'd likely mostly get 'unlikely' places where dogs are allowed (I wouldn't want to make too strict of a definition of unlikely, as unlikely in one area might be average everyday in another).

I made a suggestion in another thread for meta-categories and included dog-friendly places as a meta-category. The idea for a meta-categories are for categories that might be thought of more as attributes (dog-friendly, long hike, handicap accessible, etc.) They would work something like bookmark lists where the waymark would already exist in another category and meta-category would just be a list of waymarks with this attribute.

[Jeremy]

This will most likely get lost here in the proposal area, but I was thinking there would be a massive master attribute list. Category managers could choose those attributes that fit within their category and waymark submitters could choose from this list. As a result any "Pet friendly" waymark, no matter what the category, would have this attribute assigned to it.

 

It sort of works that way now. Some cache types, like event caches, have different attributes than traditional caches. We have a master attribute list and assign each cache type with a specialized list that is more appropriate than a master list.

 

I don't have the best grasp of a metacategory, except the idea that it is a bookmark list for waymark categories. An attribute would be at the waymark level so a cafe may be dog friendly but other cafes aren't.

 

HTH.

[Jeremy]

I'll also add that this is different from folksonomies like you see on Flickr, since some names can overlap between different users. I do think folksonomies have their place but there needs to be some more structured attributes for better filtering and searching. In fact waymark categories have additional keywords for better searching. It's funny that a keyword search for categories using "cat" will get you off leash dog areas.

[+ibycus]

I like this idea.

 

Do you think it might make sense if people setting up the waymark (rather than the category managers) had the option to add extra attributes to the waymark or maybe a way for them to automagically 'recommend' category attributes to the managers? (possibly even extend this to the people logging the waymark).

 

I'm thinking that as a category manager, it might be difficult to know in advance all of the attributes that might apply to the category, and then as a waymark owner, again I might not think of something that might be important to someone logging the waymark.

(or conversely deciding which variable definitely don't apply might be difficult too)

 

Obviously one could always e-mail the category/waymark owner, but I've a feeling that most people probably wouldn't think to.

Edited November 21, 2005 by ibycus

[+meandmydogs]

I would love to see waymarks of dog friendly stores/locations. meandmydogs. aka kim

[J.A.R.S.]

I would definitely want to know about stores/pubs/public places that allow dogs. We have a store (non-pet shop) in my town, an all-year garden/home center, that allows leashed dogs. It's a great place to socialize and to teach the dog how to behave in public places. I would very much like to see a Dog Friendly Stores and Public Places sub-category under the "Pet-Friendly Places" category. I also favor not including pet stores. I think it's a given or a very very good chance that a pet store will allow my dog to visit.