Dani and I had a discussion about this. Some forums display member locations in the thread posts. DaniWeb only discloses location when viewing a member profile.

Dani's take: People may form biases based on user location, but we should poll the members and let them decide.

My take: It may bring members closer together by chance to interact in the real world (offline!). Additionally, it would be nice to know where our friends are coming from.

We would like to know your opinions.

I voted yes, but I really don't have a strong opinion one way or another.

[j-k]
With my luck I would find that all the people living near me would hate me lol
[/j-k]

I vote no. I feel that even if it's just on a subconscious level, people form biased opinions of people based on where they're located. The whole point of an online community is to be able to interact with others who share your interests in a way that is impossible / would never happen in the real world due to location, socioeconomic differences, etc. People might subconsciously feel certain posts are more / less truthful, helpful, accurate etc. based on living in New York versus Iraq, for example. For that reason, I vote that location should be disclosed to members by visiting their profile, but it should not be emphasized as it would be if it were right there in the postbit.

Just think how much people around here care about their reputation! Post after post about "my rep went up" or "how do I get rep?" all because of little green boxes that mean hardly anything and are just supposed to be there for "fun" in the postbit. Now, think what that might do to one's location if it were posted right there smack next to one's reputation! Is location really all that important to people in an online community?

I agree with Dani ... but I would have liked to know the location of people I help or the people whome I am helped. And I can do it by seeing their profiles.

I have to say no, the location could cause some bias. Dani is right that rep, title and all the rest already cause some tension in some posters. Having location an option is the best idea.

However, these polls never generate very many responses. It would be nice if there were more interested parties out there...

>people form biased opinions of people based on where they're located.
Perhaps, but it's more likely that one would form a biased opinion based on one poorly worded post, a first impression in the Introduction forum, or any number of trivial things that occur often. I think the entire issue is silly. Isolating one example to censor out of many in the same category serves no purpose.

Has anyone ever complained about it? The very act of mentioning biased opinions based on location brings it to the forefront where almost everyone wouldn't even consider it otherwise. This is a prime example of some random guy walking up and raising a nonexistent issue.

To me it doesnt matter if someone thinks bad about just because of the country I belong to then its their problem not mine, I am here to enjoy and do my job to the best of my ability. I help members regardless of their nationality but I do see where Dani is comming from and that in itself has a very strong argument. At the end of the day Daniweb is a forum to exchange ideas, help others and make new friends regardless of wether a person is an African or an American.

whats to stop one from been untruthful about their place of orgion? Surely if one knows that he's from Iraq and going to get less rep, he's / she's not gonna say that they are from there are they! C'mon guys I'm right!

Has for the vote, I'm not going too. To me putting a place in the world onto a form post is just another object to distract my from replying to the post I am replying to!

I don´t see why anyone would feel as if they have to lie about their location. And why would someone from Iraq get less rep than anybody else?

What are you driving at, Acidburn?

I'm not driving at anything. I just have a feeling that if we all disclose out locations someone somewhere will have a so called racism point to make about that country! I've seen it before, you've seen it before in black and white people! Sorry I just see this situation like that...

Someone comming from Iraq ...that was just an example! I'm just saying that if someone doesnt like a country better than someone else it could play a role in deciding whose post means more ... a personal view...

Sorry