-6

Some Stack Exchange sites seem to be more sensitive to country and sometimes states in countries like the US. I think Workplace.SE and Law.SE are two of them.

Here are two sample question, and lots more exist (ad nauseam?): Is it better to have a 10 year gap or a bad reference? and Side-stepping age discrimination with graduation year.

Please require a country tag for all questions on the site. Or at least all questions that originate on Workplace.SE.

3
  • Why not address those questions that get closed as duplicate? How can we control new posters to research before posting for questions with answers that clearly respond to their question BEFORE we worry about a country tag?
    – Solar Mike
    Jul 22, 2019 at 7:42
  • @Mike - I think that's a different problem. For your observation, we've been trying to get Stack Exchange to improve duplicate finding and closing area for years. They refuse to do so. Asking for it is like wishing for a Unicorn. This suggestion addresses the information gap in questions; specifically, the missing legal jurisdiction.
    – user25792
    Jul 23, 2019 at 21:53
  • @Mike - And it was not lost on me my comment in Is it better to have a 10 year gap or a bad reference? was deleted. Country and possibly state information would have allowed a more targeted answer. I find it despicable the moderators on this site delete comments to promote their views and shape questions to conform to their answers like below. The quality of leadership on the Stack Exchange network is so low it is embarrassing.
    – user25792
    Jul 23, 2019 at 21:56

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
7

Disagree.

While we have a good case for using country tags when applicable since we are a global network, that doesn't mean we should always require them.

There have been suggestions to make the location tags more visible towards both question askers and other users:

But beyond this, it makes no sense to make them obligatory, even if we could which is far from certain. There are plenty of questions that are cross-cultural or that are specific to a particular region of the world without being location specific. In the same vein a lot of US questions make no sense without specifying a state while that concept doesn't apply for most of the rest of the world. Not everything is a localised issue here.

6
  • 1
    "... it makes no sense to make them obligatory..." - Huh? What use cases are you studying? Workplace.SE are full of comments like "What country are you located in?" For questions that don't require a location, it is simply an extraneous data point that can be ignored.
    – user25792
    Jul 22, 2019 at 7:00
  • @jww Perhaps the majority of our questions would benefit from or should require a country tag to be answered effectively. But you are ignoring a large minority set where a country tag is pointless or would cause confusion (see the link I addd about localised issues). Enforcing a country is a solution that offers a minor benefit to a problem with an easy workaround (close the question and get OP to clarify then reopen) while it would cause significant problems to other questions where no workaround would exist (as you wouldn't be able to have questions without country tags).
    – Lilienthal Mod
    Jul 22, 2019 at 11:54
  • 1
    That was real clever... Removing my comment from Is it better to have a 10 year gap or a bad reference? to prove your point that country codes are not needed. I stand by the comment that depending on the country, the candidate can provide the lone narrative because employers cannot release some information. Moderation here is such a joke...
    – user25792
    Jul 23, 2019 at 17:28
  • @jww Your comment there was removed because you were trying to answer the question in it which is not what the comment space is for. Notice how the comment from John asking the OP what country he is in is still up. If you have issues with the moderation team we encourage you to discuss those here or on The Workplace Chat or to reach out to the SE team if you feel that's warranted.
    – Lilienthal Mod
    Jul 24, 2019 at 7:00
  • 1
    I did not attempt to answer in the comment. I did not have enough information to provide an answer. Your moderation skills are a joke. They are no better than your ability to identify and fix problems. Keep manipulating to fulfill your goals...
    – user25792
    Jul 24, 2019 at 7:04
  • Just about every question on this site requires people to know the culture, or regional context in order to answer. The status quo is just to assume US or UK and answer accordingly. As you said, this is a site with an international audience. The status quo is does not reflect that, however, which makes your reasoning here contradictory.
    – Cypher
    Dec 6, 2019 at 20:52

You must log in to answer this question.