Please make location mandatory

[JSWolf]

Please make location mandatory. The problem is that a lot of people ask for help and some of the answers are specific to location. By knowing where someone is, it make helping out that much easier.

It would be really good if when someone was registering, that location has to be filled in to finish registering.

[darryl]

I agree it would be useful, and see some utility in making it a more prominent part of the signup process. However, I don't see any sense in making it compulsory.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Please make location mandatory. The problem is that a lot of people ask for help and some of the answers are specific to location. By knowing where someone is, it make helping out that much easier.

It would be really good if when someone was registering, that location has to be filled in to finish registering.

Jon, seriously? What's to keep people from having a location that doesn't reflect their current reality? Sheesh!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by issybird

Jon, seriously? What's to keep people from having a location that doesn't reflect their current reality? Sheesh!

I know you don't have to put in real information, but if its there and you have to put something in, more people will fill it in correctly. Then it make it easier if these people have a question where the answer is location specific.

[DiapDealer]

Many people who join never ask location-specific questions. I see no reason whatsoever to force people to make a decision about whether to lie or tell the truth about something they may not be comfortable divulging.

I almost never glance at a member's location, myself, anyway. Same for their devices.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Many people who join never ask location-specific questions. I see no reason whatsoever to force people to make a decision about whether to lie or tell the truth about something they may not be comfortable divulging.

I almost never glance at a member's location, myself, anyway. Same for their devices.

I have no problem with what people put in the location field. They can leave it blank, name the street on which they live (which I wouldn't advise for reasons of privacy), or simply state that they reside on a world that orbits an unremarkable star in one of the more unfashionable arms of the Milky Way galaxy. But I occasionally look at that field if it's relevant to their post. As for the device field; if you don't list your devices, how will you know who is the better person?

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I have no problem with what people put in the location field. They can leave it blank, name the street on which they live (which I wouldn't advise for reasons of privacy), or simply state that they reside on a world that orbits an unremarkable star in one of the more unfashionable arms of the Milky Way galaxy. But I occasionally look at that field if it's relevant to their post.

Even if you put in a town, it wouldn't even always narrow it down!

Let's say that I lived in Amsterdam.

Would that be the capital of the Netherlands?
Or that island near Spitsbergen, or in the Indian Ocean?
Or maybe even in the US (California, Georgia, Idah, Misssouri, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virigina all have an Amsterdam).
Canada and South-Afrika could also be valid.

Naturally, my town is known all over the world (from Japan to the US, they come here!)

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

As for the device field; if you don't list your devices, how will you know who is the better person?

...says the guy with the expensive devices

[issybird]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

As for the device field; if you don't list your devices, how will you know who is the better person?

Now, Tom, there are good people on both sides. But if they don't list their devices, how will you know where they stand in the great Kobo v. Kindle confrontation?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by issybird

Now, Tom, there are good people on both sides. But if they don't list their devices, how will you know where they stand in the great Kobo v. Kindle confrontation?

You mean the great Ectaco Jetbook Color vs the rest of the world battle is done?

[PandathePanda]

But any place is real, If a site ask where I live, 99.9995% of the time I give a fake address. And there is enough Address Generators out there to fool most software.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by PandathePanda

But any place is real, If a site ask where I live, 99.9995% of the time I give a fake address. And there is enough Address Generators out there to fool most software.

Little tip: if you put your real name, any mail sent will go to someone else. Thank you for giving a stranger your personal information. Even if the person puts return to sender, you have still given them a ton of information.
This information may or may not be limited to shopping, free samples, if you have children, if you drink and your credit score.
When I called the post office, I was told put any first class mail return to sender. Person does not live here.
Anything with name or current resident was mine. It took 6 months to get the crap to quit coming in. I called all the companies that sent catalogs.
No I don't want wine or children's books or a ton of cheap party stuff.

[bookaho!ic]

Originally Posted by issybird

Now, Tom, there are good people on both sides. But if they don't list their devices, how will you know where they stand in the great Kobo v. Kindle confrontation?

Always kobo all the way

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Little tip: if you put your real name, any mail sent will go to someone else. Thank you for giving a stranger your personal information. Even if the person puts return to sender, you have still given them a ton of information.
This information may or may not be limited to shopping, free samples, if you have children, if you drink and your credit score.
When I called the post office, I was told put any first class mail return to sender. Person does not live here.
Anything with name or current resident was mine. It took 6 months to get the crap to quit coming in. I called all the companies that sent catalogs.
No I don't want wine or children's books or a ton of cheap party stuff.

Our postal codes are 4 numbers and two letters. A lot of people that don't want to enter their adddress, give the postal code 1234AB and house number 123. That's enough to uniquely identify a house.

Turns out that's an actual postal code with house number! They get disconnected from phone, internet, gas, water, electricity every once in a while (people who don't want to play their bills give false addresses). As it is a corner house, the house now has another house number so, the problems have decreased (though it can take several years before the old address is gone from all databases...)

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Our postal codes are 4 numbers and two letters. A lot of people that don't want to enter their adddress, give the postal code 1234AB and house number 123. That's enough to uniquely identify a house.

Turns out that's an actual postal code with house number! They get disconnected from phone, internet, gas, water, electricity every once in a while (people who don't want to play their bills give false addresses). As it is a corner house, the house now has another house number so, the problems have decreased (though it can take several years before the old address is gone from all databases...)

My parents had that problem in the 1970s. It wasn't the address, it was the name. Guy in town had the same name as my dad. First name, middle initial, last name.
One time the state even tried to collect sales tax from my parents. I think it took mom 3 months to straighten that mess out.

We now have zip+4. The zip is a big area. The +4 is either 3 or 6 houses.