Question:
Should we make "Location in 'User Profile'" mandatory to new users??

Please comment

Choices:
Yes.
No
What is a location?

 

While location can and should be made mandatory - City, Country or at least Country; device details like Make and Model, if possible, could be made optional, but highly recommended. This At-A-Glance appraisal of user's posts will only help make a their interaction with the forum a bit more objective.

thanks Asrar, scores (numbers) are low... but all votes towards YES

I am sure knowing the country will be an advantage when we give our recommendations. Sometimes there are services or special arrangement that covers a particular area in addition, it gives us a hint on which communication protocol is available.

A drop list of countries will be an ideal solution for both existing and new. Moreover, it will help us to know more statistical info on who visit PPCD and hence gives us a better projection on how or where should we be moving.

Right Saad,

but dropdown will restrict to the country only... but might help for the stats purpose

In that case, can add one more field for City etc...

quote:

Originally posted by Saravana Kumar Paulraj:

In that case, can add one more field for City etc...

Saad is right about the drop down list for country and its great potential on statistical analysis. While countries can be all populated on the drop list from day one, this may not be possible for the Cities, though. However, if the site's design permists city list to be populated by the users, and always indexed alphabetically, (i.e. "Your city not listed already?", "Add it". Once added, it then becomes available for other users to pick.)

City is not imporant as the country. Let's hope the country drop list will be done, and that will be a great improvement to our site. City field is not that significant, we can leave that as a text field since there are so many cities. In addition, some people move in two contries, so it will always be a good idea to put your original country from the drop list and the visiting country in the city TEXT field.

As for the Add city, I have some issues since we will end having so many names for one city. For example, you will end having the following names for Ras Al Khaimah City:

• Ras Al Khaimah
• RAK
• Ras Al Khaymah
• and many more

The country drop list will be the most important step we can make!!!

P.S.
This should be done for new users as well as existing. For new users it is staight forward, for existing, after a log on, the site should automatically direct them to the profile page requesting them to choose a country from the drop list (in case the spelling of the country does not match that of the drop list)

I rest my case

I quite like it when it also displays a little country flag as an extra incentive to populate the field.

Also a tag or quote line could be used to fill out make model etc if introduced.

rgds

Steve

Making it mandatory would be like forcing users to do something which some might not be comfortable in doing ( for whatever reason). NOTHING should be mandatory, that makes the whole forum concept less user friendly. Thats one of the main reasons why we don't ask users to register with us just to browse our forums

But yes, we could add a sticky and make a suggestion regarding the same...

Docc.

Our intentions are for the best of our readers. Making the country field mandatory is not forcing On the other hand, we are requiring our registered users to log in using their e-mails Why that is not considered forcing when provide e-mail addresses, while providing country filed is considered force

PPCD will never ever use any e-mail address for span or other marketing tool. What harm could it bring to the user if he/she provides us with a better picture of his/her situations? We want the country field to help in two reasons

Improve our advice and recommendation and suggestions to our forum members

Better know our members and know where are they from. This will let us (editors/admin) provide articles and materials that apply for different regions rather than assuming or guessing from where our members/readers are.

Frankly speaking, I C no harm / force / delay / invasion of privacy / or any disadvantage for making it mandatory and drop list. However I can go on and on to say what advantage it will bring to the user. It is just two extra clicks during registration that need to be done only once! There is delay, inconvenience whatsoever.

Just to add one more thing, most people tend to like their country/countryman.(I am not saying that is right or wrong) Knowing the member is from your own country will make the member feel closer. It might not be a good indicator, but this is life and you see similar examples of what I am saying everywhere, right

Having more members close to other members is just another plus of a successful forum, where people care for each other besides technical support. That should distinguish us from other forums.

It truly makes me happy when we see all people wishing our Docc the best of luck in one post, and share our deepest condolences when a president or Shaikh dies. Feel happy when all welcome a new contributing editor “Steve”, feel sad when a hurricane hits New Orleans. IMO this is how we should be different than others.

Sorry if I was a little bit carried out, but it really hurts sometimes