Hello U.S. Other Countries are here too!

The BBQ Pit
81

[QUOTE=ThirdCultureKid]
But wasn’t there a pile-up on a poster a while back (I think it was Nava, who got into trouble for always mentioning s/he was from Spain? There were a whole bunch of comments about how people were being freakin’ driven nuts by it, and that scared me. As a non-US poster myself, I try to make it clear where I’m coming from and where my cultural biases are but damn, that pile-up was far-out.

So damned if you assume people know where you’re from and don’t mention it, which leads to misunderstandings, and damned if you don’t, in which case people are frightfully annoyed at you.
[/QUOTE]

I don’t remember that pile-on but I wouldn’t doubt it. That said, according to What Exit?'s stats, about forty percent of our traffic comes from outside the United States and if what you said happened, she’s the only person I know of that’s got piled on for it. Other prolific posters that’re either well known as being foreign, like **jjimm ** and The Loaded Dog, or not a part of the dominant American culture, like **Askia ** and Anaamika, don’t get dogpiled for referencing their culture but they don’t make it a central part of their posting history, either.

Anyone who constantly brings up the same thing over and over and over again, in a number of topics that aren’t even necessarily related, is going to annoy a lot of people. At least one poster, Reeder, was banned in part for it, I believe, but his one-trick pony was Bush, not his heritage.

82

I think the thread referenced by the OP was mainly an example of someone not thinking. Even if we were all in the US, the answer about NA beer would be answered at the state or possibly even county level. Young people of limited experience tend to phrase their questions that way.

I love it when European and Canadian posters join in the employment law related threads asserting rights and benefits completely foreign to the US workplace. Actually, I welcome the comparative perspective, but we all need to see and identify it as such.

Regarding the contact numbers, my vote is to get an international number. If you just need a warm body in the US, there’s probably somebody in the international students office who can serve that role. But if no one has your family’s overseas number while you are lying in a coma somewhere, that’s bad news. The complexity of an emergency affecting an international student is great enough that it would make sense to plan ahead and get both kinds of numbers.

83

[QUOTE=ThirdCultureKid]
But wasn’t there a pile-up on a poster a while back (I think it was Nava, who got into trouble for always mentioning s/he was from Spain? There were a whole bunch of comments about how people were being freakin’ driven nuts by it, and that scared me. As a non-US poster myself, I try to make it clear where I’m coming from and where my cultural biases are but damn, that pile-up was far-out.
[/QUOTE]
Didn’t notice you’d already mentioned this - it was the incident I was talking about a few posts later - yes, that happened. I think it happened because a bunch of people already had their knickers in a massive twist over some other incident (that I think arose out of something Nava said appearing way too blunt for everybody’s liking) - once everybody was outraged, they started looking for other reasons to be upset and they siezed upon the fact that Nava had often geographically tagged her comments (quite reasonably, IMO) with phrases like “here in Spain…”

84

I was going to reply to the OP with a withering insult of Canada, but they get a pass this week, because of this.

85

[QUOTE=Key Lime Guy]
I was going to reply to the OP with a withering insult of Canada, but they get a pass this week, because of this.
[/QUOTE]

Ahhh, Don Cherry. One of our national heroes. :wink:

ETA: Or did you mean the fact that we have hockey broadcasts in HD up here in the frozen tundra? :wink:

86

[QUOTE=Key Lime Guy]
I was going to reply to the OP with a withering insult of Canada
[/QUOTE]
That’s OK, I’ll fill in for you.

Barry Melrose wears ugly-ass suits.

87

[QUOTE=Aesiron]
Other prolific posters that’re either well known as being foreign, like **jjimm ** and The Loaded Dog, or not a part of the dominant American culture, like **Askia ** and Anaamika, don’t get dogpiled for referencing their culture but they don’t make it a central part of their posting history, either.
[/QUOTE]

Thank Christ for that. Every day I log on to the Dope, for the last six years, I’m half expecting to have been pitted with, “TLD, will you SHUT THE FUCK UP about being Australian? We know, already!” Problem is, I find myself mentioning my Australian-ness more often than I would like, but it’s difficult not to sometimes, because there’s usually a need to clarify, especially as my interests tend to draw me towards threads where local difference need to be specified - ie, a cute kitten pic is a cute kitten pic wherever in the world it’s taken, but threads on things like traffic law, railways, booze, and travel tend to demand clarification on locality. I even get down to semantic games with things like replacing, “well, in Australia…” with “in my local jurisdiction…” Hopefully I needn’t bother. Just paranoid of being “the Australian guy” to the exclusion of all else.

BTW, I do (mildly) agree with the OP. I think it was OTT, and I respect my American friends’ right to post local stuff to their heart’s content, but it doesn’t kill people to hit the few keystrokes: “in the US…” or similar. I’m happy in a way to “travel to America” daily, and I still find it amusing that this kid from Sydney can hear terms like “DFW”, “Twin Cities”, “Socal” etc and mentally absorb them instantly like a local. It’s great to be a part of that. But it’s taken time to learn what things like a “401 plan” are, and it often could have been made easier by a simple two or three word explanation for the rest of us.

One thing I am immensely grateful to the US doper community for, though, is the fact that this is the only place on the internet that I know of where I can type rapidfire Commonwealth English without having to stop and translate, and knowing some clueless person will be asking for definitions every other sentence. Sure, I might translate for some Australianisms I judge to be sufficiently obscure, but I can “take the lift to the ground floor to get a cheque out of the boot” for all it’s worth. And that is refreshing after some places I’ve been to on this here intarweb.

88

[QUOTE=Mangetout]
Yes, of course we can point to examples where rights are abused or trampled (I think it actually happens everywhere, to some extent) - but that’s not really what I’m talking about - it was more a case of someone appearing to be under the impression that foreign visitors would only have rights if they were granted by the USA on entry, whereas in fact the USA, as a UN member state, is supposed to recognise that they already have basic human rights - the rights aren’t handed out as a hospitality package .
[/QUOTE]

Well, not since the Patriot Act. Foreigners are subject to confiscation on American soil.

89

[QUOTE=GorillaMan]
Nothing, at least nothing obvious, defines the message board as ‘American’.
[/QUOTE]

I disagree. While it’s obviously not exclusively used by people from the United States or limited to topics related to the US, one needn’t lurk for very long at all to learn about the Chicago Reader or realize that most of the posters are from somewhere in the US.

[QUOTE=GorillaMan]
Comparing it to the Daily Mirror website doesn’t hold water. If I was posting on the Chicago Reader’s main site, assuming it has a message board (I’ve never been there so I wouldn’t know), then fair enough, because it’s an online outlet of a regional physical entity. This place isn’t, we all buy our membership the same as each other. Assume that I’m from the USA just because I don’t say ‘just outside Ipswitch, in Ingerland, that’s in the UK, Europe’ in every post, and I feel perfectly entitled to think you’re a bit ignorant.
[/QUOTE]

I’m referring to the content of the DM’s message board, not just the fact that it obviously belongs to a UK paper. For that reason I believe the comparison is sound. I don’t see how you could spend any time reading here at all without inferring the location of the “average” poster. Of course that’s not true at every board, but it is here, and here is where the rant is.

There are a lot of good points made in this thread about how difficult it can be to conduct international affairs with US entities. I just don’t see the need for a Pit rant. The OP of the other thread could have been more specific, the OP of this one could have just ignored the oversight and used some freaking context clues, and I could have gotten a pony for my birthday. Let’s start with the easiest thing first?

90

[QUOTE=Leaffan]
Ya know, it’s been bugging me for some time now, but I never had the courage to speak up. I know this is a Chicago based newspaper running this, but clearly the audience is international, although certainly slanted towards English-speaking countries.

If I post something pertaining to my specific geographical laws and regulations I will fucking state where I’m from and what I’m contesting.

Yet 99% of the time posts from U.S. citizens will contain no location information and moronic questions like “Can I buy NA beer if I’m under 21?”

Fuck off. Yes. In most countries in the world. Get your head out of your ass and post something that makes sense globally, since that’s who your audience is. Fucking introverted dicks.

BTW I love the US. I’m just pissed at the centric dipshits who don’t believe other countries or laws exist.

Bye.
[/QUOTE]

Scoff It’s not like Canada is a real country anyway.

91

[QUOTE=Jamaika a jamaikaiaké]
Yes, but sometimes people in the US don’t say what state they are in, even when it it relevant (eg, buying NA beer if under 21.).
[/QUOTE]

Yes, one of my Pet Peeves. Someone will ask a semi-legal question, not mention where there live, and under location have something cutesy listed.

I’ll point out that our British posters sometimes also assume we know they are asking about British stuff when they post.

I, for one, welcome our foriegn overlords. :stuck_out_tongue:

92

[QUOTE=Zoe]
Can’t the Europeans be satisfied that we all want to save up our money and travel there, but the more we save, the more they inflate their damned Euros! I would curse you all, but it takes too many languages except for GorillaMan!

(Curse you, GM)
[/QUOTE]

Yeah, yeah! How do they expect us to be all cosmopolitan like when we can’t afford to visit any other countries? :frowning:

93

[QUOTE=What Exit?]

[Quote=AdmiralCrunch]
I think the OP would have a point if the specific example weren’t so crystal clear. The OP can’t figure out that someone asking about NA beer for people under 21 on a US based board is posting from the US? And he/she has the temerity to call that person a moron? The question doesn’t make any sense if the person is posting from Canada, or France, or Mexico. State and County would have helped, but country is just redundant here
[/quote]

Except it was a great example of where it would have been better if the Op mentioned his State at least.
[/QUOTE]

That’s why I said it in my post. And that has nothing to do with the OP’s “other countries exist” pit. Learn to read.

By the way, I, like Leaffan, don’t really care about the main issue. It just pisses me off that What Exit? bothered to rebut my comments without actually reading them.

94

Might come as a surprise to few, but I’m a SPANIARD, though I live for the most part, currently, in the DOM REP and also spent 'bout fifteen years STATESIDE – which only cost me two alimonies and a child-support. No complaints about the latter must say. Best thing I’ve ever done – with some American help, granted :wink:

Still and all, matters not, for wherever I am, I sure as shiite HATE BUSH AND HIS ACOLYTES. Yet another surprise, I’m sure.

There. Pile-on and make this thread about all about me. After all, I bet I’ve got at least a decade (or two) on Nava in being a Spaniard. So let her be and concentrate on moi.

Bout time time I beat Lib to one of these friendly Pit ‘gatherings’ and garnered all the attention. So please send some hatred my way. Lots of it rather.

Gracias. :stuck_out_tongue:

'nite kids.

95

PS-Contact number 1-800-CRE-MATE

96

[QUOTE=Wheeljack]
I don’t see how you could spend any time reading here at all without inferring the location of the “average” poster.
[/QUOTE]

That depends on whether or not ‘inferring’ actually means assuming each poster is American unless you see evidence to the contrary. Which seems to be the implication.

97

[QUOTE=AdmiralCrunch]
That’s why I said it in my post. And that has nothing to do with the OP’s “other countries exist” pit. Learn to read.

By the way, I, like Leaffan, don’t really care about the main issue. It just pisses me off that What Exit? bothered to rebut my comments without actually reading them.
[/QUOTE]

Yeah, Yeah, you know what …

Shit, sorry, I didn’t read your entire post, I fired back a retort based on the first few sentences. My apologies, I look like and feel like a twit.

Jim

98

[QUOTE=Swallowed My Cellphone]
We can’t tell you unless you become one of us.
[/QUOTE]

Also, speak not to the outworlder of the Horton.

99

[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers]
Also, speak not to the outworlder of the Horton.
[/QUOTE]
[Carl from the Simpsons]

Shhhut-up!

[/Carl]

100

[QUOTE=TheLoadedDog]
I might translate for some Australianisms I judge to be sufficiently obscure, but I can “take the lift to the ground floor to get a cheque out of the boot” for all it’s worth. And that is refreshing after some places I’ve been to on this here intarweb.
[/QUOTE]

I think I am a little more confused as to why you keep your checks in the trunk of the car. Is this an Australian thing? :wink: