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"In my neck of the woods" "Around here" "Where I live" -- How about an actual location?

dbostedo

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Except I don’t have a “usually” ski place!

Unless you count Colorado... where I do not live, nor skied more than half my days...( the only thing significant about Colorado is I ski there practically every season for the past 20 years, even if it’s only a few days. But then, the same can almost be said about Vermont — though only if you throw NH into it)
The usual problem is when people say things like "around here" in posts and don't have any reference. As long as you're avoiding that, I suppose it doesn't matter where people are. Still nice to know though, just out of general curiosity - maybe at least a region would be good, like Northeast, or Mid-A, or the South,, etc.
 

Ski&ride

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The usual problem is when people say things like "around here" in posts and don't have any reference. As long as you're avoiding that, I suppose it doesn't matter where people are. Still nice to know though, just out of general curiosity - maybe at least a region would be good, like Northeast, or Mid-A, or the South,, etc.
A better way than to say ”around here” is to say “around (region/state/city) where I live”. It’s just a couple extra words which gives a more meaningful location context than just where one lives.

But on many posts, it doesn’t matter exactly WHERE one lives. Just a report of one’s personal experience, which is anecdotal at best. Doesn’t have any meaningful implication to the region/state one lives, only applicable to one’s particular neighborhood hangout.

Example, there’re several parks I frequented since lockdown. One has crowds congregating with almost complete disregard to social distancing. A different park, everyone wears mask on the trail. Some even look at me with disapproval as I biked pass without mask on the other side of the wide trail, a good 10‘ away! On the other end of the spectrum, a couple of the parks I went to, people were extremely respectful of each other’s space. They would step off the trail to let others pass. All of them within 10 mile of each other. So if I were talking about people’s behaviors in one of the parks, it’s entirely UN-representative of “around here” of where I live!
 

dbostedo

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So if I were talking about people’s behaviors in one of the parks, it’s entirely UN-representative of “around here” of where I live!
Sure... but you just telling those stories about the variation between parks around where you live has me wondering where that is. Natural curiosity for more info I guess.
 

Ski&ride

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Sure... but you just telling those stories about the variation between parks around where you live has me wondering where that is. Natural curiosity for more info I guess.
It’s natural to be curious. But it’s much less “natural” to satisfy such curiosity of strangers lacking compelling justification.

I’m no more willing to satisfy your curiosity in revealing where those parks are than revealing my bank account balance (not even to the order of magnitude). I would expect you understand and accept the latter. So I hope you accept the former as well.

Part of withholding “additional information” has to do with such information serve more as a distraction rather than clarification. People have a tendency to draw conclusion where data does not support. The more “additional information”, the more they THINK their conclusion are valid. When in reality the additional information neither add nor subtract. I prefer not help creating any illusion of “information” when none were actually relevant.
 

Doug Briggs

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I have to specify the state my county is in and sometimes the state my town is in as the county and town names are popular.

I had to schedule a Comcast service call for a client which I did by calling them. I received texts saying the tech would be there shortly so I drove to the client's location. Then I got a text saying the tech was on site. I hadn't seen them so I called Comcast and asked. It turns out, despite having been identified by account number when making the appointment that the tech was in Breckenridge, TX, not Breckenridge, CO. Clearly it was a foul up on Comcast's part but how did they misconstrue TX for CO when the client has NO business locations in TX?

I jokingly asked the tech when he reached out by phone wondering where I was whether he'd been dispatched from CO or TX.
 

dbostedo

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I’m no more willing to satisfy your curiosity in revealing where those parks are than revealing my bank account balance (not even to the order of magnitude). I would expect you understand and accept the latter. So I hope you accept the former as well.
I accept it because it's not my choice. It's yours - you're obviously free to not share that information.

I, personally, think it's not big deal at all to share it. And I don't view it as remotely comparable to a bank account question though. This is a online forum/community that inherently draws in people from "all over" as it were. Wanting to understand where, a bit more specifically, "all over" is, isn't unreasonable.

If no one at all shared their location info in any degree, I'd be pushing to change that. If it's just a few folks that are uncomfortable with it, then it's no big deal.
 

Doug Briggs

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Location makes a huge difference. For instance, if I say 'Use a 1 and 2 bevel for hard snow conditions' that advise may makes sense for a CO skier but would be laughable for a NE skier. The true meaning of 'hard snow conditions' is miles apart between the Rockies and NE.

And speaking of location, a pet peeve of mine is having the Rockies equated to West Coast. It's only off by a few hundred to a thousand miles. ;)
 

Ski&ride

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I guess for us outside the USA it soon becomes clear that if we don't make it clear we are talking about a separate country it can cause confusion.
Exactly!

There’s so much assumed!

Sure, this is a US centric board. Even Canadians has to identify themselves and constantly make it explicit. Outside of this continent? You’d better be including a byline on every post, or you’d be misunderstood and called out for spouting bad information!

There’re other “assumed” behavior too. “Where do you usually ski” is one such. So those of us who don’t have a “usual place” we go to ski are left adrift... occasionally accused of being vague!
 
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pchewn

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Slim

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And for the people who DO put a location, please be fairly clear.
If you put the city, add the state/province/equivalent and country.
There are too many cities with similar names, or people simply might not know your town.

Same with nicknames/descriptors for locations, please make sure they are understood by people from all over the world.
 

NZRob

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And for the people who DO put a location, please be fairly clear.
If you put the city, add the state/province/equivalent and country.
There are too many cities with similar names, or people simply might not know your town.

Same with nicknames/descriptors for locations, please make sure they are understood by people from all over the world.

We wouldn't want to mistake Wellington, Florida with Wellington, New Zealand would we :)
 

James

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There’s at least 26 towns called ‘Berlin’ in the US. I’ve been to four of them.

 

dbostedo

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There’s at least 26 towns called ‘Berlin’ in the US. I’ve been to four of them.

This list is interesting:


Some surprisingly common ones (to me), like Lebanon, Clinton, and Bristol.
 

KingGrump

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Back in the early '90s, I was hitching a ride up to the VT house midweek with couple of Mamie's colleagues. Mamie was to drive up on Friday after work.
I was sitting in the back when the driver bragged about skiing the black runs at Davos. First thing that came to my mind was Davos, Switzerland. Yeah, must have been pretty neat skiing with the jet set and whatnot. Then I look over to the pair of 185 rentals skis and some crappy rear entry boot he bought along in the back of the car. I thought, nah, something is rotten in the state of Denmark. (Have to remember back then, real men don't ski on anything shorter than 205.)

Racked my brain trying to reconcile the discrepancies. Then a vague memory of a conversation I had with a friend in the early '80s surfaced with the name Big Vanilla at Davos. So I said, "I heard Big Vanilla is a really nice area." That started a hour long monologue on his adventures at Big Vanilla.

Mamie's brother was hanging out at the house that week. We wrote their obit at Stratton the next day. :ogcool:
 

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