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Where are you from?

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spec

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One of the great things about ETO is that you exchange posts with people from all over the world. You learn something about their culture and I find their English word usage intriguing.

But, in the majority of cases, a new poster will not include their location which, apart from the interest point of view, would be helpful to ETO members responding to questions. The time zone is important as is the person's country, for example, to know what component suppliers they can deal with. Often it helps with simple things like knowing what the local mains supply is.

I don't like making things mandatory in principle, but I suggest that making a person's location should be made mandatory on ETO, so that it shows below their avatar beside each post. I am not suggesting that their exact location be given- for obvious reasons a person might not want to be that specific- but just their general area: in the US: Texas, Ohio, Arizona, etc; in the UK: Scotland, Wales, East Anglia or ideally a county; in some cases just a country would be a great help: Nepal, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, etc.

spec
 
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Hi spec,
I totally agree with these comments. I find is particularly pointless asking questions like "where can I obtain xxxx" There's not much point I suggesting a supplier in the UK if the OP is located the other side of the world. I find that this also happens on other forums. On the "Model Engineers Workshop" forum you get people asking for help with electrical problems on machines. I many of these cases there could be a knowledgeable person close enough to the OP that to go to look at the problem. Another thing I find annoying is OPs not answering questions about there problem. Some times it takes many posts to even find out what the question really is.

Les.
 
Hi Les,
The problem of OPs, not giving enough information and subsequently not replying to questions does waste a lot of time and is frustrating. On the other hand, some questions are well put and definitive and normally, in these cases, the OP responds comprehensively to requests for more information. To me, these threads are the most interesting.

I do have a lot of sympathy for non natural English speakers trying to resolve an electronics problem though- it must be daunting and difficult for them to post a question on ETO.

spec
 
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Much of the problem comes from the standard advice given to younger persons, that they should never tell anyone online where they are or else the bad man will come and do naughty things to them.

There is of course a big difference between saying that you are at 23 Railway Cuttings, East Cheam, or that you are in London.

On the "Model Engineers Workshop" forum
I "lurk" there from time to time, but I am not registered.
I do however subscribe to MEW on paper.

JimB
 
I have always thought users should at least provide their country of origin. Otherwise, as Les mentioned, it's very difficult to provide them with resources that serve their location. The problem is that a lot of people, often from India, lie about their location because of the stereotypes that exist of the Indian people. It is important for us as a community to not allow stereotypes to affect our opinions or views of the members.

My suggestion for now would be that if you see a new member, welcome them to the forum and ask that they provide their country in their profile. That's probably the best we can do at this point.

Regards,
Matt
 
Maybe just requiring/obtaining their time zone would suffice. Could that be extracted (and displayed within the post) when the OP submits?

A somewhat broad range (eg., Brazil/Greenland, see https://www.timeanddate.com/time/map/), but better than nothing with respect to the most common point made above - availability of parts/assistance. And nothing prevents us from then asking "OK, -3UTC, are you in Brazil or Greenland?".

On that note, maybe the ETO site could provide a quickie map app that shows the countries within that time zone (should it be available), which would be :cool:.
 
I have always thought users should at least provide their country of origin. Otherwise, as Les mentioned, it's very difficult to provide them with resources that serve their location. The problem is that a lot of people, often from India, lie about their location because of the stereotypes that exist of the Indian people. It is important for us as a community to not allow stereotypes to affect our opinions or views of the members.

My suggestion for now would be that if you see a new member, welcome them to the forum and ask that they provide their country in their profile. That's probably the best we can do at this point.

Regards,
Matt
That is a good idea Matt.
New members really seem to appreciate a welcome message.
On some sites, Wikipedia for example, there are a series of welcome messages. Some seem to be sent by people and I think if not a bot will do the job.
I wonder if there could be some kind of semi automatic procedure on ETO where a new member's initial post is replied to with a standard welcome message and a request to state country of origin.

Cheers

Chuck
 
As in USA and UK, two peoples separated by a common language!:p
Max.
Hy Max,

Here in Britland, we more and more speak US, especially in the technical arena. One good example is schematics. In my day they were circuit diagrams. Spelling is going the same way, which I am very pleased about. This spelling thing really catches you out; for example with tags [COLOUR] just does not work, at least not in my experience.

As I said, I find the way that non natural English speakers explain things very interesting. My two favorites are Willen and Nikolai Petrenko- they have a very endearing way of putting things and they also have a great sense of humor.

spec
 
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My suggestion for now would be that if you see a new member, welcome them to the forum and ask that they provide their country in their profile.

As a side issue, we have the "Introduce yourself" sub-forum, I notice that a great number of those who post there very quickly disappear after 3 or 4 posts or are very soon banned for posting spam or trivial meaningless replies to other posts. They have little or no interest in electronics, they just want to make a noise on the forum.
When I see a first post of the type "Hello, I am very glad to be here", I just ignore it. I make the assumption (usually correct) that it is going no where.

JimB
 
How about this:

There is a standard template which anyone on ETO can access. Then the first member to get to an initial post from a new member simply inserts the new members handle into the template and signs with his own name, then job done. From that point on just post as before.

spec
 
As a side issue, we have the "Introduce yourself" sub-forum, I notice that a great number of those who post there very quickly disappear after 3 or 4 posts or are very soon banned for posting spam or trivial meaningless replies to other posts. They have little or no interest in electronics, they just want to make a noise on the forum.
When I see a first post of the type "Hello, I am very glad to be here", I just ignore it. I make the assumption (usually correct) that it is going no where.

JimB

As a matter of interest Jim, are there a load of nuisance posts that you have to deal with on ETO?

spec
 
Here in Britland, we more and more speak US, especially in the technical arena.

I am British by birth and spent the first half of my life growing up in UK.
Canada still uses British English spelling and also has gone metric, so there are some differences here also between us and the US..
Max.
 
As a matter of interest Jim, are there a load of nuisance posts that you have to deal with on ETO?
I would not say "loads", more a steady stream.
Some are blatant adverts for something in no way connected with electronics, jewellery, perfume, mobile phones, general consumer tat.
Quadcopters and drones have thrown up several per week recently.

There are also those who register here, quite innocuously, but set my spammer sensors into HiHi alarm. Usually one of us moderators ends up deleting and banning them within the following week or so.

JimB
 
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