Hello,
Sorry for the novel length, my answer won't be a constructive addition to the thread only my personal opinion developed and not replying to you would be rude.
My point of view is that personal information should not be made mandatory on the net, even if you don't lock it to a country list and users can input whatever they want.
Firstly it's not welcoming nor in the spirit of open community. Also, I may be paranoid but we hear so much about strange use of our data, do you really think no one else will wonder what is it for? (And we are no bird to tag geographically to make studies of ereader repartition or whatever.)
Secondly even if you get your wish it's entirely up to the user to be truthful or not. If you don't trust us to be complete in our help queries, something we are being proactive and invested in the success of, why would you trust us unruly users too input the truth in a personal field when it's a line in a boring process?
I also think your request, for the reason stated, is overkill; maybe because of my sensibility to efficacy versus efficiency.
Imagining you get your wish. You will need the forum to change the account creation process (that can be arcane depending on the forum) for all new users and to put in a request system for the existent ones to add the information, with restricting access until completed.
You will lose potential new users because of the internet culture that is biased toward anonymity, keeping private informations private and freedom (as in, against arbitrary demands for private informations).
You will need all the communication you can for the second category, the users who have already an account. You are campaigning for a change and you will need to raise awareness about your cause and fend of your opposition. It will be like a political campaign, at the scale of this forum.
To me it looks really resources heavy. Especially for something that will be used only in the help sub-forum, won't touch more than the minority asking for help, that has a geographical condition to their issues solutions and that are sloppy in their demands by not checking if there is an help request form.
I am somewhat peeved by your answer that come passive-aggressive to me. Or overly condescending and pitying, but that's worse.
When I say I won't give personal information that give my localisation, I am not sulking like a child. I am showing you my line in the sand because I stand against your opinion on this point. I see that as a way to give you feedback on your request for the forum, maybe starting a collaboration between the two sides of the debate so you can find a way to have your information without having to repeat your localisation question to anyone that comes to you for help and the users who which for privacy can have their wish too. We are all users and equals, you are demanding to change a public space, can you please listen to me without being dismissive?
To answer you, if I ask for help and whoever is kind enough to point to me they need my localisation for their answer,can't I ask for them to point me the multi-country help guide for my problem (in case of a popular bug that I worded differently, so it didn't pop in the search result) or for sources to find the solution for myself if they can't craft an multi country answer that could help future users?
Also, you totally ignored my idea of a form. Couldn't you give me your opinion? A debate/discussion/ideas exchange would be nice.
That snub added to your perceived passive-aggressiveness is really weird. Especially coming from someone who present themselves as a good Samaritan tired to not be able to help effectively because of a repeated information omission.
Still smarting and trying to contribute.