User location indicated on the Dashboard
bodawei
June 11, 2010 at 03:57 AM posted in General DiscussionOn the Dashboard, top right hand corner, there is a box with user information including 'IP location'. Mine is incorrect, and others have noted the same. There has also been discussion about what purpose this serves, but I think that is a 'design' question rather than a bug. The bug is that our information is incorrect. I am not sure of the implications, but I saw once a post by Hank showing where the customers are - if you rely on this data source then you a re getting an incorrect picture of where your customers are. For your information you are, in my case, about 3,000 km off the mark.
bodawei
June 11, 2010 at 06:31 AM
Catherine, I don't use a VPN.
And one of the other users reporting the same kind of problem, xiao_liang, lives in Britain. So it is not a VPN matter, for us anyway.
catherinem
June 12, 2010 at 02:45 AM
Just thought I'd ask as a lot of us based here in the Mainland use VPNs. Will look into where the data for IP locations is coming from and see why some people's IP locations are registering incorrectly.
bodawei
July 08, 2010 at 05:42 AMI thought I would raise awareness of the User Group 'Technical Problems on the Site' with a Hot Tip.
The Group is now effectively invisible to new users or anyone that has not specifically signed up for this Group. In fact as a frequent user (and my name is actually used in vain in the introductory blurb), I just spent about five minutes trying to find it. I do have a memory like a sieve, but as that is an essential feature of a Chinese learner, it should not disqualify users. (If you remembered how many times you have learnt something you would give up.)
Hot Tip: Choose any of the top ten users of the site. Go to their List of Groups. Expand the List of Groups. Scan down until you find Technical Difficulties on the Site. Yes, frequent users are most likely to be engaged in this conversation.
PS. Apparently (according to the 'IP address' on my Dashboard) I am now located in Chatswood NSW - cool, plenty of Chinese restaurants. Before that I was located in Cairns, North Queensland. And before that Beijing, PRC. They seek him here, they seek him there... hee hee. Any techie minded person like to explain what is going on with ChinesePod's version of Pin the Tail on the Donkey? :)