Member location
 

I've noticed many members don't include their home locale in their profiles. It should be required, or at least recommemded. I don't know how many times I'm in a TMobile conversation and turns out its about TMoUK and not TMoUSA. Also, local customs and practices can help give perspective and stop people from assuming all of the time.

So please, unless you must be secretive, list your home location in your profile. I'd like to know who's from the Telecom Corridor in the North Central Texas/DFW, Texas area, or who's near Silicon Valley or Dubai. Without it, it seems that everyone is American, and that can't be possible. I'm sure there are Brits, Canadians, Mexicans, Spainiards, etc. Let's make it known, please.

Re: Member location
 

oh the wonders of free speech :) - or not free speech etc etc :)

But i know what you mean, tis kinda annoying when someone says "Will it work with T-Mobile" .... and you can't tell where they are from :(

Re: Member location
 

Wouldn't it be cool if Maemo.org was a social network, and therefore one's Maemo (N810 or N900 at the moment) device could give the live location, fed right from the device's GPS...

...whoops, wrong thread ;)

Re: Member location
 

We thought about that on Symbian Freak, but not everyone was for it. But a home listing could be a city or geographic region, even. Just not only a country. What is USA? Alaska or Florida? It would only draw users together. I know there are lots of Silicon Valley and Telecom Corridor/DFWites here, but most of us hide our location.

Re: Member location
 

Aw come on, that was an easy in for you to propose a new idea ;)

Maemo.org prefence panel
- Location
-- *Display Location: Yes/No
-- Type: Manual, Link to device (this would be a WRT-like widget/panel on the Maemo device)
-- Display: Coordinates, City/State (Province)/Region, State (Province)/Region, Region, Use Device's Saved Landmarks

*Upon clicking this, the person would be greeted with a prompt in their web browser asking them to download a WRT/widget/preference applet which would connect to the user's device. Bonus points for integrating with Ovi Maps on the device.

The more Maemo (as a site) and be a seamless experience to the devices and services, the better it would be for all folks.

And think about it, there could be *another* thread here based simply on location tags. Could make for some interesting meetup possiblities (online-offline mashups).

---
But yea, I get the core idea; it would help in some instances to see location.

Re: Member location
 

tmo Location awareness has been under discussion... may even be in Brainstorm (can't recall offhand).

I don't put my location in my profile but make a real effort to add qualifiers to international issues and companies, eg, T-Mobile US vs UK, et al. Does that work?

Re: Member location
 

Well, the N900 already optionally reveals device location via IM services, though I believe it's simply a status update, not XEP-0080. (I'd love to be wrong.) An XMPP-based location system probably wouldn't be too horrible to integrate into maemo.org.

(On the other hand, I had to disable IM location updating on my N900. It would run for hours without getting a lock, killing the battery. Perhaps if you never venture indoors it works better.)

Re: Member location
 

Well you see, next step after getting the location piece meshed with the devices & users, would be the idea of having a profile app/panel on one's device where things like company, etc. would be placed. And then web services and social networks would (like twitter, flickr and others) ask to be authenticated against your device to display this data.

Hard as all beans to code I'm sure, but definitely the meshing point that many mobile forums should have.

Re: Member location
 

i think that disclosing personal information should be up to the individual. I do nolt support the OP's idea about making it required. That goes for any personal information.

I've belonged to forums where it was required that you used your real name. The reasoning behind it was that people would think twice before getting into word-fights as..as we know...once it's on the internet it's there forever...and now with your name.

Re: Member location
 

Yea, sorry been around too long. Seen what happens when people know what city you live in.