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?
The discussion could be relevant to more than just the original poster if other people with similar cases find the same thread later. If the OP is forced to state their jurisdiction, the discussion might be more focused, but potentially less useful to others.