Location, Location, Location

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Iron John

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We've all seen the posts. Perhaps a new member introduction or someone's cry for help.

Inevitably one of the quick responses that appear in the thread reads along the lines of "where do you live"?

Often the justification for this is something like "well, it's so we can tell him or her where to buy stuff".

Friends, in an Internet age that is a pretty barren excuse. No one directs folks to the General Store on the Main Street of their town. They are directed to links. Or Google.

I understand that there are a lot of well-meaning, friendly members on this forum that mean well. It sure is nice to know where everyone is from, and it is doubly nice to tout about one's 'friends' that are scattered across the globe.

It's kind of a HAM radio thing. But this is not HAM radio.

The purpose of this thread is to remind folks that the dynamics of this go-kart forum are a lot different than most of the other forums that are out there.

The difference is that we attract kids, and parents of kids.

Many people are very careful of relationships with imaginary Internet friends when their kids are involved. I don't think I need to elaborate.

This is a public, searchable forum that appears in Google's results. Think about the implications of that for folks cautious about creeps whose reason for living is to stalk or otherwise harm people researched on the Internet.

Someone will reply "well, there are no secrets, they can look at your IP address". No one on this forum can see a member's IP address, except for the site admins.

This poor argument is rendered even more barren by the fact that just because some information is out there on all of us does not mean that individuals are not motivated to make it harder for the miscreants.

Is there anyone here who thinks the lock on a door would keep out a determined thief? Of course not. Do we not still lock our doors? I rest my case.

My ask is that we all not be so quick on the trigger is outright asking for or attempting to shame people into disclosing their location information.

When you do, you can chase away the kids and the parents of the kids. No forum thrives that chases people away.
 

RobertD

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Chancer, that was a terrible excuse for spelling, grammar, and forming a cohesive sentence! You can do better.

Moving on...

Here's the deal -- I agree with the OP in general.

Though I WOULD like to know where someone's from, simply because it's fun and helpful. I like thinking of "oh that's the guy from Philly" or, "that's the kid out in Australia". It helps makes this place a little less anonymous. That's cool!

However, agreed with the OP that THIS IS A FAMILY FRIENDLY PLACE and I get it, badgering someone about their location isn't needed. There is a nice way to do it, and there's a jerk way to do it. If someone can't use the nice way, DON'T CHOOSE TO USE THE JERK WAY. DON'T BE THE JERK.

If I could triple capitalize that I would.
 

Iron John

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You assume a lot of facts not in evidence.

Go-karts - and go-kart forums - are a magnet for parents and kids.

There are parents who come here for help getting a go-kart running. They are not here for camaraderie, they are here to find out how to get the motor started. There are kids who come here who don't know a carburetor from a spark plug. "What did you find out about your kart, son?" "Well, this creepy dude wants to know where we live."

My suggestion again, was simple: let's not pepper people for information they have chosen not to disclose. It's a politeness, and it is a recognition that this is a family-centric place and not just a bunch of old people with their hobby.

There will still be plenty of room for good old boy friendships.

:cheers2:

---------- Post added at 07:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:53 PM ----------

Chancer, that was a terrible excuse for spelling, grammar, and forming a cohesive sentence! You can do better.

Moving on...

Here's the deal -- I agree with the OP in general.

Though I WOULD like to know where someone's from, simply because it's fun and helpful. I like thinking of "oh that's the guy from Philly" or, "that's the kid out in Australia". It helps makes this place a little less anonymous. That's cool!

However, agreed with the OP that THIS IS A FAMILY FRIENDLY PLACE and I get it, badgering someone about their location isn't needed. There is a nice way to do it, and there's a jerk way to do it. If someone can't use the nice way, DON'T CHOOSE TO USE THE JERK WAY. DON'T BE THE JERK.

If I could triple capitalize that I would.

Well said, and in fact the way you framed this helps me articulate one component of the point I was trying to make.

I agree that it is fun for all of us to know where everyone is from.

But people don't come here to make it fun for us. They come here to get the answers they need for themselves.

Anything we do to make it uncomfortable for them makes it less likely that they will stick around, or return.

There's still a lot of fun to be had for those in the core group that just enjoy the heck out of this site.
 

itsid

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I remember asking a fellow user to remove a pic of her daughter because he had not only filled his location properly but also had his full name posted in here...

you know why!

But as long as people are posting hundreds and thousands of pics on fakebooth on a daily basis publicly for everyone to see (incl full name and gps accurate locations) ...
this forum is the least of their security issues ;)

Anyways, we don't need to know anyone's address or full name or something.
We ask for a general idea of a location.

Since sometimes that IS indeed helpfull.

Not as often as you might think at times.. but not as unimportant as a handfull of others think either..

Reality is in fact in between both extremes (as it always is ;))
See my location for example..

you can trace me down to a region with 12-14mio people,
far from a security concern..
what you'll NEVER see is my face.. or the face of any of my relatives.
but even IF you can track one of maybe five pics on the internet down
(which in itself is quite a task)
you'll still have a hard time to connect the dots.

Now... location...
It's a bit frustrating when you get a very basic question like:
"where to buy a kart engine" and it takes two fricking pages of suggesting predators from HF and even ebay yadda yadda.. just to get to know that that member is NOT from the US (as assumed because of this forum being what it is.. mostly american)
but a poor bloak sitting in the middle of INDIA

Man would it'd be too bad to say "Location: India"
I mean that's barely more accurate than saying "Location: planet earth" going by the number of people living there...
but it's incredibly usefull to NOT suggest HF for four and a half days.

Take OzFab.. he's -as his name suggests now- from the magical island of Oz.
And as such he can source parts from HongKong much easier than from the US.

Some (especially americans) fall by the same assumption:
"everyone's from the US as well"

You know how terribly it is for me to read someone going on and on about numbers without specifying his units of measurement?!

My kart 's roughly 42 long and 24 wide weighing about 320 and my engine has 12 torques....

WHAT? white mice?

A glimpse at his location and I can make a plausible assumption it's inches and pounds
without it can be whatever fog you want.

So yeah, it's handy at times.. it's helpfull at best..
and if used properly (say country..and state where applicable)
it's far from being dangerous as well.

A city can be nice (and with some metropoles... nothing to be concerned of either)
but that's not even what we're asking for 99.999% of the time.

We just don't want the Indian guy to book a flight to Canada to buy from pincess auto ;)

'sid
 

RobertD

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Sid, I agree, but I think the OP is discussing more about the "Why should someone be harassed if they don't provide the info". It's more of the manner in which it's asked for rather than the logic behind why we are asking. At least that how I'm understanding it. Either way, we're going to continue to ask for it, of course. And we're going to keep doing a good job to REMEMBER THIS IS A FAMILY PLACE.
 

Iron John

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Itsid, I agree that there are a million reasons why it is nice from many people's perspective (including yours) to know where people live, but I am coming at this from a different direction.

The fact that there are other ways to track someone down doesn't invalidate my point. That said, I am not trying to argue you or anyone else off your own opinion.

I am trying to make the case that each individual person has their own reasons for coming here. For example, some dad who googles 'go-kart clutch' and is directed here - this person only wants help for his problem; hopefully he will stick around - it is arrogant of us to assume that we must know where that guy lives just because we are regulars here.

And face it, we have all seen threads here where members have gotten pretty in-your-face about questioning newbs as to where they live. I am simply suggesting that we be more respectful of other people's use case for coming here for help. This is a family forum, and many, many families do not like to advertise their location to strangers on the internet, Facebook or no Facebook.
 

itsid

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Itsid, I agree that there are a million reasons why it is nice from many people's perspective (including yours) to know where people live, but I am coming at this from a different direction.
...

Sure.. but coming from one direction or another isn't much of an issue if you're finally meeting up in the middle eventually ;)

I totally agree that sometimes the discussion is nerve wreckingly overheated for an "omg... wtfc" topic like that.
The thing is, some are just stubborn with their opinions.
And if two of those meet...
(You know who 'those' are right ;))
Ah well.. we've seen that.

Anyways if both parties understand and accept that there IS validity at least in parts of their opponents standpoint we can make progress in that regard.
And the tone will heat up less quickly ..

I don't think there's something wrong with asking for a location (in a decent manner!)
And I don't think there's something wrong when the new guy in town kindly replies "I'd rather not" or "not yet anyways"

it's when this short and harmless conversation is prolonged (by third parties more often than not) hitting either the askee or the asked with THEIR additional comments and oppinions.

Check those threads you're referring to, I bet you see that just before everything goes haywire, there is one "Oh no.. not that again"

'sid

PS great.. now I have Living Colour's "Love rears it's ugly head" playing in my head on endless loop... where's my iPod??
 
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