Non Aussie/Nz Members

Yes, it should be their choice as to whether they want to join or not. They'd just need to consider that this is still a ANZFOL site, and there may be less relevant topics to them.

Indeed non-Australian/Kiwi members should be allowed to join! Just that this forum may have info more relevant to our geographical location than other places.

Yeah, I agree with the others. The focus of the group should be Oz/NZ but anyone who's interested should be allowed to join. Besides there's no failsafe way of telling if someone is or is not from Oz/NZ.

peterab wrote:Besides there's no failsafe way of telling if someone is or is not from Oz/NZ.

Yes there is - IP address location.

Yes, I think so, it would allow for a more expanded discussion base. They just have to realise most of the discussion would take place around Aussie issues, that's all.

Captain Zuloo wrote:

peterab wrote:Besides there's no failsafe way of telling if someone is or is not from Oz/NZ.

Yes there is - IP address location.

That only tells you where their ISP is located. I know heaps of people with US ISP's who are Aussie, I also know of people who maintain Aussie ISP's despite living in Europe and Asia. It's a guide but not failsafe. We already have one member who is Australian, but posts regularly from overseas. Using IP location as our guide would exclude him.

Indeed, however if you want to pinpoint exactly where a member is located, it is possible to determine that they are Australian even with an American IP address.

How? The last time I checked through the available IP location libraries and paid services, none of them guaranteed 100% accuracy. I needed that as the company I was working for (as a programmer) wanted to charge in different currencies depending on location, and different ammounts due to tax differences in the different currencies.

Even combining routing info and IP location was not 100% accurate. For example when I worked at IBM Wangaratta, all our IP traffic was routed first to Texas via our internal network. To any IP location attempt all IBM IP addresses appeared to be in Texas. They of course have offices all over the world.

It doesn't really matter anyway as the poll results appear to suggest we shouldn't do it anyway

I know somebody who works for IBM

*puts moderator hat on*

Geoff keep it on topic...

I welcome others, just as long as they accept disadvantage of their location (exclusion from prizes due to posting etc)

Well this would be like me going over to fbtb's forum and asking them if they think that any non USA members can join when it has members all over the world.

The only issue is as mentioned here already is the relevance of topics. However this is easy to overcome. Either the new members can discuss what is going on in their area/country in regards to sets so those who are from that region get a heads up or everyone here can ask those member's what new sets they have seen where they are.