Location

The BBQ Pit
181

I agree with the OP, and have always felt the joke and blank locations miss the point completely.

I enjoy noting regionalisms. If I see somebody refer to soda as “pop” or “cola”, I’ll immediately check their location field to get a feel for where that regionalism is used. That kind of thing.

I can’t really begrudge anyone leaving the location blank, though I personally think that’s overly paranoid. Nobody here could identify me if they tried. (Technically, there is a single poster who could, but I trust her despite having never met or even spoken to her.) I’m probably more paranoid than any of you, but that doesn’t mean I can’t include a region of the country to give some context.

I don’t like joke locations at all. They’re all terribly unfunny, for one. But let’s say you really like your joke location. Is it still funny the 100th time? I know the sdmb community as a whole is seriously humor-impaired, with such embarassing crap like “death rays” and “for 20 minutes” passing as the height of wit, but even those with no sense of humor at all should be able to grasp that jokes quickly go stale. A static joke in your location field is at the very bottom of the funny meter.

I don’t like overly specific locations, or those that use abbreviations, because there’s a latent hostility in them. It is inarguable that some people won’t know where it is, and the more specific the location the more people will be left in the dark. The idea isn’t to identify exactly where you are – though again the convention of social retardation that permeates this board goes a long way toward explaining why people put in street names or obscure small towns – but rather to identify the general region you’re in.

I could put Connecticut in my location field, but I think New England is more immediately descriptive for more people, especially those not from the US.

I flat-out hate when people put coordinates in their location; that is overtly hostile. It is the perfect storm of “fuck you” and “I’m a total loser who couldn’t buy a friend”, and I hate being reminded that those are the tentpoles upon which this board rests.

I’d love it if the “Location” field were renamed “Region”, since that would better convey the field’s purpose. You could put in “White Plains” and say you’ve identified your location, but how the fuck is an Australian supposed to make any sense out of it? So much better would be something like “Greater New York”.

So I ask you all to fill out the location field not with “this is where I am” in mind, but rather “this is where people talk like this.” Short of that, just leave it blank.

182

tl;dr

(on a side note, if you find someone wisecracking on the location field as insulting, you should maybe get out more. Seriously.)

183

So, Ellis Dee, I presume you live in inland northern New South Wales, from your location? That’s what the Australians I know would think of first, reading that!

184

But what about after the 100th, or 1000th time? How is that not insulting? How is that funny or not sophomoric? And why the necessity to quote the whole nine-paragraph post immediately above for a one-line parenthetical reply? And why the parentheses?

From Ellis Dee’s tone and sense, your suggestion will be taken under advisement I’m sure. There’s a point of diminishing returns on helpfully describing a location and I don’t see how “New England” could be improved. I don’t imagine any Australians that read this board will experience any confusion, especially the ones you know.

185

Connecticut is a pretty small and obscure state, with no international claim to fame. Building attack helicopters and aircraft carriers is great and all, but it’s not even famous for it. And there isn’t even a single pro sports franchise since the Whale migrated south.

I figure that the majority of people have probably heard the name, but I wouldn’t expect the average European or Australian to place it on a map. (The saddest thing is that the average European could probably locate it better than the average American.)

I forget that there is a New England in Australia, but since this is a US-based board I’m comfortable not specifying my country. If this board were based in another country with the majority of posters not being American, I would set my location as “Northeastern US”

186

My location is completely accurate. I just don’t want to make it too easy.

Regards,
Shodan

187

I guess you have to keep it fresh.

188

I’m sure this bears repeating, but occasionally, what folks post in the location field isn’t intended as a joke. Rather, like in my case, it’s only to amuse one’s self or possibly those who know whatever in the hell you’re talking about.

And I must admit that I had no idea using things like coordinates was considered hostile. Consider my ignorance fought for another day. I’ll definitely make a note never to do that, but ain’t given up the exalted location I’m in now. So, pfft.

189

How do you feel about clever usernames? Because I laff my ass off each and every time I read yours.

190

Darn, you beat me to it.

LSD–who the heck died and made you the arbiter of exactly what level of specificity we should use in our location fields?

p.s. If someone from another country doesn’t know where Connecticut or White Plains is, they can just Google. You’ve heard of Google, right?

And if you’re reading “hostility” into people’s numerical location descriptions…wow. That’s just messed up.

191

Who the heck died and made you arbiter of what opinions I’m allowed to share?

Fair point, but at least usernames serve a purpose. Not to go off on a tangent, but I much prefer pun names that work as actual names over aliases that don’t. It’s very awkward to refer to users like Really Not All That Bright or Least Original User Name Ever without using acronyms, which is itself pretty awkward.

I’ve been using Ellis Dee for so long I don’t really even identify with the full name any more. I’m much more strongly identified with just “Ellis” or “ED”.

192

Just the fact that it pisses you off is enough to make me keep my joke location. If you don’t like it, walk east until your hat floats.

193

I don’t make any secret of where I live. Mine said Phoenix for years, but since the number of Phoenix dopers is still in the single-digits (RIP, Padeye), and we all pretty much know who we are, I thought a more relevant point of information is that I’m a huge Futurama fan. If you really want me to change it I’ll change it but . . . GOSH.

194

I’ve told you before Rysto get off the Dope while I’m paying you to work and sort out that Smith account,I dont want to have to come downstairs now.

195

http://bash.org/?258908
:smiley:

196

While we’re at it, can you merkins please put the state you’re living in,
I do not mean abject poverty smart arse, you know what I mean

I mean those abbrevs you use mean sweet fuck all to us Brits

197

[merkin]Which state is England?[/merkin]

198

I’ve been pondering this, and I’m still trying to figure out what the hell “latent hostility” you’re talking about with respect to abbreviations. If I put “CA” as my location (sorry, Chowder :)), am I showing “latent hostility”?

199

Hehe, this thread is so absurd, but interesting psychologically. I wonder if an internet anthropologist is out there scrutinizing what we read into this ‘location’ field. I kinda wish we had more fields that showed up with every post.

200

WA14 4HH