I see posts on here all the time asking for help with legal, workplace, housing, or consumer rights issues, but the original poster leaves out where they live.
Since Lemmy is a global platform, an answer that is 100% accurate in the US might be totally wrong or useless in Canada, the UK, or the EU, or even between different US states. Something like tenant rights or consumer laws (like optometrist prescription rules) changes completely depending on jurisdiction. Without knowing where someone is, commenters either give bad advice based on their own country’s laws or waste time asking “Where are you located?” before they can even answer.
Obviously, privacy matters, and no one should feel forced to give away their exact city or dox themselves. Stating just a country, state, or province keeps you anonymous while giving people enough context to actually help.
Should communities encourage or require basic location tags for advice posts, or is there a better way to handle this?
Probably not. It is up to the poster to provide information as needed and to understand what should be provided.
That said, I’ve noticed that some people get downright nasty when asking for help but it isn’t exactly what they want to hear.