Allow users to specify their location in their profile
Problem: It is extremely difficult to find other Wikimedians who are in my area. I want to be able to easily contact Wikimedians in my area, organize meetups, and collaborate on geographically-relevant topics.
Proposed solution: Add a "Location" field that you can optionally fill out as part of your user profile. The value of the field could be a particular coordinate or OpenStreetMap feature. Users could configure it to be viewable to anyone or only other users in their area to maintain privacy.Users could then view a map of all users who have shared their location around the world.
I have some concern about the potential for abuse here... If we have a field, then that field can be requested, meaning that ppl can do automated querying against it, and even if we allow for only limited accuracy, it might still come back to haunt users in ways they might not expect. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 23:33, 26 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I mean, people can do automated querying against userboxes that specify location... You can even infer where someone lives by looking at their editing history. Yes this is more convenient, but idk, make it so that you have to be authenticated in order to query it or don't make it public API endpoint. I'd argue the benefits are going to far outweigh the possible consequences for most users. We should add a warning then explaining possible implications of revealing your location. IDK, I just want to make my life and other's lives easier without requiring us to add a stupid userbox and then search through categories to find people. Lectrician1 (talk) 05:51, 27 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
In Translatewiki there is a feature to change / set up their location. However there is a way for people to spam or discriminate people base on their country of origin / location, which is not good considering the racist nature of people. Thingofme (talk) 11:56, 29 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Keep in mind that if someone decides to use this search feature, they can claim to be in some specific area, and find everyone in that area. The system doesn't actually know where you are, only where you claim you are. Even IP addresses can be modified by using open proxies. Animal lover 666 (talk) 21:40, 2 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
IMO, if we want to add support for this in MediaWiki itself (rather than e.g. using templates), then implementing it in the preferences (alongside language and gender, i.e. "How do you prefer to be described?") would make the most sense. Changing the default data model of user profile pages to contain structured data feels like a larger and less tractable project. --Waldyrious (talk) 05:08, 13 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose The potential for abuse of this through doxxing is too high. Yes it is optional however if a younger user who didn't know the potential risk associated with revealing their location added their location there could be some big issues. We should not be giving people an option to add their location unless they add it in text themself. ― Blaze WolfTalkBlaze Wolf#654523:20, 10 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose I see no good reason to encourage people to reveal private informations; people interested in doing it can edit the user page and use idoneous templates. CaféBuzz (talk) 10:26, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support I have been the target of wiki threats of violence. It happens that I have enough support to also share my location. This is not for everyone but the solution is building better support not becoming more compliant victims. Bluerasberry (talk)14:52, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Indeed we're not a social network, but community is the crucial ingredient in what made the movement successful. We already have support for indicating our gender / how we prefer to be addressed. Location feels like a natural extension of that. Waldyrious (talk) 22:40, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose There are ways to do that without adding any new feature. If you want to meet wikimedians in your area, the best is to contact the local chapter. Ruthven(msg)15:40, 15 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose. Wikipedians who want to declare their location in a public manner have ways to do this. To do so as proposed would not keep abusers away from this information, since they can fake their location. Animal lover 666 (talk) 09:20, 16 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support Lectrician1 (talk) 23:02, 10 February 2023 (UTC)
Neutral Useful feature, but I can see how this feature could be abused. --SHB2000 (talk | contribs) 23:02, 10 February 2023 (UTC)
Oppose The potential for abuse of this through doxxing is too high. Yes it is optional however if a younger user who didn't know the potential risk associated with revealing their location added their location there could be some big issues. We should not be giving people an option to add their location unless they add it in text themself. ― Blaze WolfTalkBlaze Wolf#6545 23:20, 10 February 2023 (UTC)
Strong oppose Per Blaze Wolf and Pppery QuickQuokka [talk • contribs] 17:07, 12 February 2023 (UTC)
