Country of origin

[smudge]

Ab Ed - have you thought any more about my previous suggestions for including the user's country of origin?

[Hgrove]

Yes, I think it would be helpful when writing a reply.

[JjP]

But why? Does Internet have countries?

[AB Editor]

Thanks for the suggestion. We will take it into consideration.

[JjP]

Are you serious, AB Editor? If so, please also include user's hair colour because sometimes I am not sure if I should post a link to a site for blond hairs or for dark hairs.

To be serious, if user wants to say where he/she lives it is enough to include it into the question. In 99% questions country of origin doesn't matter.

[Robinia]

Agree with you smudge!

Disagree Jjp. For example - one of my favourite categories is Gardening & when users are asking for advice it's better (& quicker) if I have their location.

The bird watchers amongst us recently spent a lot of time trying to identify a bird until we discovered the AB'er was in India!

[JjP]

noddy, this only means that users should be more specific when they ask a question.

[SteveD]

I agree with Smudge.  I disagree with Jjp. How many times do we see Travel questions such as "How long does it take to fly to Egypt?"  FROM WHERE!!

Of course, users should be more specific when they ask a question, but very often they're not.  Posting a question automatically adds the poster's name and a date to it.  User profiles could surely be modified to show their country as well.

[JjP]

It will not change anything. Even if there will be a way to put country of origin, how will you know that user sending question: How long does it take to fly to Egypt? wants to fly from country of origin not from another place?

When user wants to ask a question, nothing will substitute thinking. It is simple, question How long does it take to fly to Egypt? is just not complete.

I have another not complete question:
What is the difference between sparrow?
Tell me, SteveD, what information would you like to include into information about user to complete that question?

[SteveD]

Jjp,

Your 1st paragraph: I think that if a poster is resident in the UK and wants to know how long it would take to fly from New York to Egypt, for example, they would say so. However, I have seen many questions where the poster has assumed that everybody knows where they are.

Your 2nd paragraph: I agree with you entirely but many people don't seem to think like this.  It is in these cases that an indication of their location could be useful.

Your 3rd paragraph: Nothing will stop questions like this; they are unlikely to get anything like a constructive answer and may well be deleted by AB Ed. 

If knowing the poster's location could help those of us who try to give good answers, where is the problem (assuming that it is not too technically difficult for AB Ed and Team)?  Obviously it wouldn't make any difference for a large proportion of the questions but for many, it would.

[smudge]

Thank you for all your positive contributions to my question to AB Ed. Much appreciated.

I think it is patently obvious why we would 'all' benefit from knowing the user's country of origin, especially on shopping where people ask where they can buy this or that. For instance, what's the point of recommending John Lewis, B&Q, Bon Marshe or Peacocks, etc., if they don't have these stores in their countries.

AB Ed - Thank you for looking into this - would be nice to see this facility on AB in the near future.

[Marsh]

I agree with smudge, provided the questioner is happy for this information to be disclosed.  I can't see why anyone wouldn't be happy but should consent be assumed?  If the facility could be added it should be easy (I hope) to ask for a new joiner's consent and withhold the information if requested.  But how would you deal with asking existing ABers?

[smudge]

Thank you Marsh & everyone.

Perhaps there could be a facility somewhere on the 'Login Details' for Users to insert their country of origin? Or somewhere on 'My Profile', whichever is easiest for the AB Tech's.

[smudge]

* I mean enter Country of origin on Register/Sign In.