[Adam]

I'm happy to announce that today I've added a feature to the forum which I think we should have had a long time ago: a country field, and country flags in your profile! The new field is a dropdown, which means it will be very uniform.

Please note that this is a supplement to the "location" field which is currently displayed in the postbit. You can use the location field to indicate state, city, or province, while the country field to indicate country. Also note that while the location field is entirely optional, the new country field will be required for all new users, and all current users will be asked to select a country upon editing your forum profile.

This new field will expand site functionality and enhance your profile in the following ways:

1. You can now search for people living in the same area directly from the members list
2. Your flag and country will now be shown in the profile
3. Your flag will be shown in the member list
4. Mass e-mail targeted at a specific region can now be sent, and international users won't find any more annoying messages in their inboxes (not that we send any )

In the future, I'll consider using the country field in the postbit instead of location. Your thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Please see the attached screenshots on details on where your flag will be shown.

Edit- I was going to post a link to your profile edit page here, but since the flag field is required, you've already added your flag if you're reading this thread!

What if my "country" isn't listed?
Answer: I can add it if you supply a 32x20px gif file of the flag, complete with a 1px solid black border on all sides.

Enjoy!!

Attached Images

   

Adam
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Last edited by Adam; 07-26-2009 at 01:27 PM. Reason: Updated!

[Ash]

Another nice addition to PF!
Thanks Adam.
Great idea.

Very nice addition!

Is it OK to use the Country field as my home-country, and the Location field for my current location?

[rawr]

Bah humbug.

Requiring that new field was a pain. It took me about 5 goes to get it to stick and I couldn't read any threads until I had it working. VB seems to have a problem with Opera and cookies or something.

Also: suddenly blitzing your whole existing user population with that requirement probably wasn't a good idea.

[fishy]

Hi Adam,

I noticed that East Timor was not on the list (My current place of residence). East Timor (officially timor-Leste) is a relatively new country (since 2002) and is missing on many of the standardised country list. I hope it can be added?
Thanks!
sorry; flag image from wikipedia won't show"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_East_Timor.svg"

[Class A]

This new field will expand site functionality and enhance your profile in the following ways:
...

I like it.
Thanks, Adam!

[SteveM]

I like it too! Thanks!

[J.Scott]

It took me three attempts before I realized that the site was not 'down' again but that I had to chose a flag or I could not read any forum page.

I must be simple. :ugh:

[Adam]

Hi Adam,

I noticed that East Timor was not on the list (My current place of residence). East Timor (officially timor-Leste) is a relatively new country (since 2002) and is missing on many of the standardised country list. I hope it can be added?
Thanks!
sorry; flag image from wikipedia won't show"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_East_Timor.svg"

When I added the flag modification, I promised myself that the odds of new countries popping up were low. Guess I'm already wrong!

I've now added your flag and configured it in your profile- check it!

[Alfisti]

You really need a 'none' or 'no' option. You're also in for a shit storm regarding places that think they are countries but are not and vice versa.

[k100d]

You really need a 'none' or 'no' option. You're also in for a shit storm regarding places that think they are countries but are not and vice versa.

seconded, not everyone wants to say ... and try to avoid political arguments

Adam, what country are we talking about actually? Country which one is a citizen of? Country where one resides at the moment? Country of permanent residence? Country of one's dreams?

[Bart]

seconded, not everyone wants to say ... and try to avoid political arguments

"Thirded" is this even a word?

In the meantime, I have adopted Antiguabarbuda

I am not sure in this day and age, that it is a great idea to nationalize ourselves any more than we are forced to already...

I can't see what purpose it serves... except maybe to let me know who my enemy of the week is. And with my country that is an ever changing


Please Adam, consider giving us an opt out, or better yet an opt in.

As a citizen of the world... "I am he, as you are she, as you are we, and we are all together"

A rose is a rose in Iran, China or Guatemala

[Adam]

I'll think about it. It's more of a coding problem than anything at the moment; considering how discrete the field is (only in your profile page and on the member list; not even in the postbit) and considering than all of you have a location listed in your profile, I don't see how adding a field as broad as 'country' could hurt, let alone more than the current/old field.

As far as places that people think are countries- I'll take care of that on my own.

Perhaps I'll also consider adding the EU in general to the list, as I'm sure a lot of people would like that too. An opt-out option would then perhaps be a flag with 3 question marks, or something like that.

@emr- up to you.

Purpose- for fun, for uniformity, for the marketplace. I don't see why you guys insist on making such a big deal out of this. It's a cool addition that makes a lot of things easier.