Template talk:Usercat

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[edit] Geographical Association

The text "or are associated with" should be included as this assists proper classification of Wikipedians. I agree that there are categories for interests and ethnicities, but a user should be able to identify with more than one location. For example a student who is studying in another country should be able to categorise themselves according to both their "home" and "host" countries. Otherwise it would necessitate creating a parallel set of "ex-pat" categories. Furthermore it would be necessary for a Wikipedian to change their identity each time they move country even though they do not have to change their passport.--Vivenot 13:17, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

But "associated with" is so vague it renders all the location categories meaningless. It could refer to someone who's interested with the country, someone who's from the country, someone who was born in the country but never lived there, someone who has a nickname related to the country (like "Mexico Jim") even without having any interest, involvement, past, or lineage related to the country, and thousands of other possibilities, most of which are completely useless and uninformative. Instead of "or are associated with", why not change "lives in" to "currently or regularly lives in", since that covers both of the major areas the location templates should deal with: people who are in the location, and people who are often in the location (even if they're currently on vacation or away for a few years or whatnot). -Silence 20:01, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

In that case there should be two parallel sets of geographical user categories: one for current residency and the other for nationality. These are not covered by the current user categories. This would create a lot of work, which I am happy to assist with, but it would reconcile our positions on this subject. I welcome comments from other Wikipedians --Vivenot 09:56, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

"Lives in" or "regularly lives in" does nothing for emigrants. I have only lived 3 of the last 11 years in Trinidad - as you outline I should not be in that category. But I define myself as a Trini. In emigrant societies like those of the Caribbean there are people who stronly identify with the country/region/nationality even though they were not born there and have never lived there (especially true of Puerto Ricans). These categories grew out of lists that had two aims - building community and helping people find editors associated with an area. The top editors on Anglo-Caribbean topics are not in the Caribbean, and in several cases were not even born there, but there are still very much "Caribbean". I had a hard time adding myself to a category in a way that forced me to lie, but there is no user cat that I feel more of a need to be in. Guettarda 14:44, 10 February 2006 (UTC)