I am a curious person, and I could not count the number of times someone has shared something about their personal life on these boards that interested me and made me wonder: “where is this person from?”
So of course I scroll back up to look at their “Location” field only to see something exceedingly clever - perhaps it says “Over Yonder”, “Sommerfield Street”, or “In Your Head”. As my curiosity deflates I invariably think to myself,
“Ah yes, I see we have another comedian.”
This thread is an excellent example. In it, ExtraKun mentions multiple times the “quaint laws of his/her country”, and the first reply questions which country this is. He or she replies, conveniently neglecting that portion of the comment.
ExtraKun, I am not singling you out - well, yes I am, but I intend to pit all the Dopers who engage in this practice equally. I am an equal opportunity pitter.
Now yes, I understand that many times it is not germaine to the discussion at all - but very frequently, it at least can provide some insight into a factor that, believe it or not, can influence one’s perspective on things.
I also realize this is a community where people are extremely guarding of their privacy. I understand and respect that as well - but would it really kill you to name the city, state, or even country that you live in? Inquisitive minds want to know!
I had a straightforward location tag for a long time, but got fed up with it being ignored. The final straw was some snippy reply along the lines of “Obviously you’ve never been to England”. After that, I decided on a compromise, on something vague but easily-googleable.
My location says Thalassas as a personal joke but also because I move a lot and I’m too lazy to change it.
I’ve read the board from a dozen different countries. When I signed up I was in Brazil, lived in Philly. Right now I’m in Costa Rica. I’m from Spain, specifically an area called Navarra, but I claim two different places as “my hometown”: one is where I was born and most of Dad’s family lives, the other is where I grew up and where Mom and the bros live. Not enough space for all that, you know
Rig, I’m from Florida. St. Petersburg, to be exact. But you’d have guessed that as soon as I started posting about dumbass politicans and more nut jobs per capita than the rest of the U.S.
By the by, L.A. is a biiiiiig county. What area are you in?
Rigamarole
I guess I’m one of those Dopers to whom you refer.
Still, it’s an old joke (at least around here) that Bostonians are so priggish, stuffy, snooty, etc that “even the owls say whom”.
I’m actually in L.A. proper. When I first moved here, I was a bit confused about it because people would ask me, “what city do you live in?” and I was just getting familiar with places like Santa Monica, Pasadena, etc. and thought I should have a city too, but as far as I knew my address was simply “Los Angeles”. Turned out I was right. It’s just plain old L.A.
The only time it bothers me is when someone asks a legal question in GQ, the answer varies depending on the OP’s state, and he neglects to mention it. Otherwise, meh.
One can often pick up on a foreign poster’s country when they use words not common in the U.S.
Basically, I really don’t care all that much, and that’s coming from someone with a listed location that narrows me down even more than yours.
Geesh, I can’t even get hit by a general pitting. ::mutter:: I agree with you though, I like knowing where people are from, helps add perspective to what they say, also makes answering questions about insurance and such easier.
I guess I just don’t get the whole “I won’t tell anyone my name or where I’m from” thing. But then, I’m originally from the midwest where we’ll talk to anyone about anything.
Personally I generally try and be evasive about my ‘true’ identity and can understand why other folks do as well. I was on a spanish board a few years ago and had all my info on the board…and had some rather nasty things happen when people ‘looked me up’.
I would agree that it’s nice to know where people are, but of course there’s no guarantee that what they put in their profile is honest. And even if it is, that only gives you part of the picture. I honestly am in Nebraska, but what does that tell you? Am I on a big 'ole ranch in Western Nebraska? Am I in a mid-size city in Central Nebraska? Am in in the Omaha metro area? Cuz all of those things could easily give a different perspective or flavor.
And this might not be a fair assumption, but if most people see I’m in Nebraska, do they assume I’ve never been anywhere? Lived other places? Cuz that wouldn’t be true. Would they assume I’m a Republican? Cuz that wouldn’t be true.
I think that my point ultimately would be that I agree an accurate location is a nice if limited shorthand, and only really gives you perspective based on your own experience and assumptions.
I worded that badly, knowing someones location can give you some insight, but I do agree that it is far from a complete picture of that person. Apologies if I left the impression that I thought someones location would give you a deep insight into their psyche.
Funny enough, I had this same thought in the MPSIMS thread “We just had a 4.1 Earthquake” or some such title. When I read that this morning, I realized there was no mention of the area.
Of course, then I realized I’d actually met the OP at a Dopefest, so I kinda knew where he was posting from. (But others in that thread presumably did NOT know where the earthquake really was.)
There’s someone around here whose location is “on your face” and I always want to yell GET OFF!!! when I read it. Ha!
Yeah, you can tell they’re not in the US, but that’s not very specific. There are many places that aren’t in the US.
I wouldn’t really call it a pittable offense, but I do wish more people would use the location spot for their locations. Smartass comments can go in the posts!
At least, if you’re going to make lots of references in your post to “in my country”, you could make it clear what country you live in.
