Why no location?

[hjl4]

Why is it every time I read a thread and try to help someone, and they have difficulty explaining exactly what they want to do, due to language barrier, no one fills in their location??

What, are you all afraid of ? Casting a shadow??

Will someone recognize you on the forum, and say to others how stupid you really are?? What gives?? This should be mandatory, at registration time, you must disclose your location.
Other people reading the post can help locally, with parts availability in your location etc...

 

[ZIGGY_DAN]

I disagree in some respects, it should be at a users discretion as to whether they want to discolse their location, i haven't filled mine in, because i feel that my location is irrelevant to anything i post in this forum, but i can agree that in some cicumstances a location could be helpful in recomending someone to a retailer or perhaps local elctricity standards etc.

Perhaps there should be a language bar for users to fill in their first language and then people might give a bit more lee-way in their spelling mistakes or badly worded posts. Some people may not live where their spoken language is so if i lived in france but spoke german, you might still not understand some of my posts.

 

[hjl4]

Some people may not live where their spoken language is so if i lived in france but spoke german, you might still not understand some of my posts.

Point well taken. So people should be more specific.

 

[hjl4]

Whooops wrong button.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I disagree in some respects, it should be at a users discretion as to whether they want to discolse their location, i haven't filled mine in, because i feel that my location is irrelevant to anything i post in this forum, but i can agree that in some cicumstances a location could be helpful in recomending someone to a retailer or perhaps local elctricity standards etc.

But a great many posts are related to the posters location, and I imagine many hundreds of posts (if not thousands) are wasted every month, simply because people don't have the simply courtesy to enter their location - even the continent would be better than nothing!.

Then you get those trying to be 'clever' and entering some stupid location!, which is even worse!.

 

[Rolf]

Simple solution.........

But a great many posts are related to the posters location, and I imagine many hundreds of posts (if not thousands) are wasted every month, simply because people don't have the simply courtesy to enter their location - even the continent would be better than nothing!.

Then you get those trying to be 'clever' and entering some stupid location!, which is even worse!.

Let us just agree to not respond to posters that don't have their location filled in. Problem solved.

 

[hjl4]

Is there something wrong with letting us know what country your from??

 

[AllVol]

Let us just agree to not respond to posters that don't have their location filled in. Problem solved.

That certainly identifies the other extreme. Now, to get to the middle, I like the continent idea. It's not that specific, but does give the reader a general idea of the poster's culture and language. It still maintains a modicum of privacy.

 

[HarveyH42]

Yeah, it is strange that a lot of people don't fill in the location. I'm proud of my country, and nothing to hide or be ashamed of. I've kind of noticed that the bulk of the no-location people, are also final-year project people, or homework people looking for a quick answer. These people don't usually return after getting shot down (do your own course work...). Of course, if somebody wanted to hide their location, just have to put in a bogus location, like Canada or UK.

For middle eastern countries, kind of a touchy area of the world right now. It shames me sometimes to see most of those visitors turned away as terrorists. It's such a small minority causing the problems, and the whole region and race suffers the contempt.

Perhaps technology makes some govenments a little uneasy (Cuba), and they try to keep tight control over the who's and what's.

The point is no location gives more information about the visitor, than a fake one. Seldom waste the time, if the post lacks simple, but important information.

 

[justDIY]

I have my country and state in my location bar - and I don't feel it puts my privacy in jeopardy at all. There's being safe and responsible online, and then there's just being paranoid. This forum is supposed to be an open community of hobbiests, why be so secretive about a general location.

Besides, the moderators of the forum know where we're all located anyway. I don't know if the admin has the geolocate plugin enabled, but it's pretty easy to find out a rather precise location just from your IP address (visible to all moderators). Same thing goes for hackers and crooks - not filling in your location bar doesn't slow them down at all.

 

[Rolf]

Is there something wrong with letting us know what country your from??

Most people know that US stands for United States (of America).

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I have my country and state in my location bar - and I don't feel it puts my privacy in jeopardy at all. There's being safe and responsible online, and then there's just being paranoid. This forum is supposed to be an open community of hobbiests, why be so secretive about a general location.

At least you've spelt your state out, instead of using obscure two letter initials - perhaps all Americans know what they mean?, but the rest of the world doesn't (with perhaps the exception of NY?).

 

[mechie]

Location litigation

... ... ... Besides, the moderators of the forum know where we're all located anyway ... ... ... .

And mods aren't hiding their locations, if giving a country location is too revealing then we aren't much of a community are we ?

I do think that making everyone give their location would be a bit 'Big Brother' though, even if it does make answering a question more difficult - if it is too dificult then don't answer them !

 

[Hero999]

There should be a separate section for first language, plenty of the people in my town are foreigners. Just people may live in an English speaking country it doesn't mean it's their first language.

 

[Rolf]

You Cant Win...........

At least you've spelt your state out, instead of using obscure two letter initials - perhaps all Americans know what they mean?, but the rest of the world doesn't (with perhaps the exception of NY?).

No matter how much you try to please everyone; it is impossible.
There are only room for 18 characters / spaces after "Location:" so no matter how accurate your location information is under your profile; it ends up being truncated if it exceeds the 18 space limit!

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

No matter how much you try to please everyone; it is impossible.
There are only room for 18 characters / spaces after "Location:" so no matter how accurate your location information is under your profile; it ends up being truncated if it exceeds the 18 space limit!

Yes, it used to be more than that, but the administrator reduced it.

Some 2 letter states you can guess at, but others I don't have a clue?.

 

[hjl4]

Quote:
Originally Posted by hjl4
Is there something wrong with letting us know what country your from??

Rolf Most people know that US stands for United States (of America).

So what does Uni stand for??

Don't tell me, I'm just joking.

 

[justDIY]

there's a plug-in for most forum softwares that places a National flag next to everyone's name, or some place in the information column. It uses the geo-ip database to find that information. Something like that might help reduce some of the mystery without invading anyone's privacy.

 

[TekNoir]

there's a plug-in for most forum softwares that places a National flag next to everyone's name, or some place in the information column. It uses the geo-ip database to find that information. Something like that might help reduce some of the mystery without invading anyone's privacy.

It would also give us more room to spell out our states/provinces since we could leave out abbreviated or full country names.

 

[justDIY]

It would also give us more room to spell out our states/provinces since we could leave out abbreviated or full country names.

good point - then the user could fill in their City and or State / Province if they wanted to share more, or leave it blank without leaving us all guessing.