Please Require Location for Registration

[kstuart]

Please require people who sign up for new accounts to fill in the LOCATION field.

In other words, make it a "required" field (should be a simple change).

Dozens and dozens of times, I am trying to help someone with a problem like " I have a problem with ABC " and I have to reply "what is your location".

Scott recently made an L615 report thread, but there is huge variation depending on the location of the viewer, i.e. which HD locals they receive.

We can respect people's privacy by allowing them to enter anything in the Location field ( " North Pole " ), but I think that most newbies will fill in the field accurately.

At this point, I cannot think of any other change to the site that is so small, yet will help many people.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Let me see what I can do.

 

[meStevo]

Required me to fill in location before I could even enter any of the forums

 

[bidger`]

Utter BS IMO.

 

[SatinKzo]

Not that mind my location showing, really nothing to hide and I could enter whatever I want, but I don't like that it is now a required field.

 

[n0qcu]

I do not like that it was very difficult to find a way to get to the page needed to do the required update.

 

[Hall]

And how useful is "Northern California" ? Kinda broad, ain't it ?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I have fixed it as it was forcing people to stop what they were doing an enter a location. It should only ask you now if you edit your profile.

 

[Derwin0]

And how useful is "Northern California" ? Kinda broad, ain't it ?

yeah, only 4 possible markets it could be.
Kinda defeats the complaint in his opening post.

 

[Jim S.]

It still tells him what wing dish the poster has if it's an HD question.

 

[gbjbany]

I asked for people to do this back in feb 2006 http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-ne...-all-posters-please-put-location-profile.html

Here's a post Scott added
"
(I got a few people PM me about this thread saying it was a violation of their privacy, when it's not.) "

 

[kstuart]

yeah, only 4 possible markets it could be.
Kinda defeats the complaint in his opening post.

If you read to the end, you will see that I stated:

We can respect people's privacy by allowing them to enter anything in the Location field ( " North Pole " ), but I think that most newbies will fill in the field accurately.

and newbies are the ones who just state " ABC is not working ! ".

( I would not post about locals without specifying the specific DMA, and I did not ask for anyone other than new members to be required to enter it. )

 

[Derwin0]

I did not ask for anyone other than new members to be required to enter it. )

The problem with requiring newbies to enter it, is that nothing is telling them they can lie about it. So they will think that it's an actual requirement to enter their real location.

And I don't think that rules for newbies should be any different than oldies.

 

[deaner]

Someone may decide to send me money since they know I am older and broke. If they do not have my address I should not expect to receive this financial support. joke

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I changed the prompt to say Enter Your Location (Not you exact address, just the general area your in is fine)

The info does come in handy when there are issues such as Spot beam problems and other failuers which could affect an area.

 

[LER]

I hope the spelling on the prompt is better than the above

 

[Frank Jr.]

I never had an issue letting everyone know where I am. If you do just put some general location. geez y'all

 

[Anole]

thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU !

. . . and thanks again! -

OMG, the first two questions I have to ask most newbies in the FTA section, when they request help, are:
- where ARE you?
- what is your equipment?


This is a help forum, and to help 'em, we need a clue where they are.
Hey, some are in Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, Australia, South America, or even Africa!
That's all fine, we'll help as best we can, but we can't read their minds!


And when technical discussions involve old-timers, and they are giving useful info, it'd sure help to know where they are, too! -

 

[Derwin0]

I changed the prompt to say Enter Your Location (Not you exact address, just the general area your in is fine)

The info does come in handy when there are issues such as Spot beam problems and other failuers which could affect an area.

That's Scott, that addresses my concern on the prompting for the info.