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Information on the location of the question asker (country tag) is important for answering many questions on this site. And, unfortunately, needing to continuously ask new users for their location can get annoying after a while. That having been said, there has been some troubling behavior in this regard recently. Here are some guidelines to follow when confronted with a question from a new user that has no country tag.

1. First, ask yourself: Does this particular question need a country tag? Some questions are universal and really don't need it (e.g. debt reduction strategies). On the other hand, questions that touch on taxation, laws, or regulations often do need it.

2. Are there location clues in the text of the question? If the question uses U.S.-specific terms such as "1099", "401K", or "IRS", you don't need to ask the OP; tag it united-states. Similarly, for "CRA", "RRSP", or "TFSA", tag it canada. See "HMRC" or "ISA"? Tag it united-kingdom.

And so on. Yet, remain mindful that ambiguity is possible. Tag only when confident.

3. When you do need to ask, do so respectfully. It is unreasonable for us to expect every new user to automatically know that a country tag is expected. The fact that they didn't include it doesn't say anything about their attitude or intelligence; it only means that they are a new user. Insulting the OP and/or insulting every person of a particular nationality is clearly against the StackExchange rules and should never be tolerated. Belittling an OP does not teach them to ask better questions; it only teaches them that this community is full of jerks and that they are not welcome here.

4. If it is not clear which country the question is about, do not edit the question with a guess (unless you have evidence for the country; see #2). You may or may not be right with your guess, but guessing wrong confuses the OP, and if the OP comes back and edits the question with the right country, any answers that have already come in will be instantly invalidated.

Instead, if you want to write a good answer that is country-specific, make sure you specify in your answer that it is valid only for a particular country. Just be aware that if the correct country is known later, your answer might get downvotes.

5. Alternatively, if the question cannot be answered without country information, voting to close as either "unclear what you are asking" or "too broad" is acceptable.

Any feedback you may have to improve these guidelines is welcome.

Information on the location of the question asker (country tag) is important for answering many questions on this site. And, unfortunately, needing to continuously ask new users for their location can get annoying after a while. That having been said, there has been some troubling behavior in this regard recently. Here are some guidelines to follow when confronted with a question from a new user that has no country tag.

1. First, ask yourself: Does this particular question need a country tag? Some questions are universal and really don't need it (e.g. debt reduction strategies). On the other hand, questions that touch on taxation, laws, or regulations often do need it.

2. Are there location clues in the text of the question? If the question uses U.S.-specific terms such as "1099", "401K", or "IRS", you don't need to ask the OP; tag it united-states. Similarly, for "CRA", "RRSP", or "TFSA", tag it canada. See "HMRC" or "ISA"? Tag it united-kingdom.

And so on. Yet, remain mindful that ambiguity is possible. Tag only when confident.

Another clue might be found in the user's profile. The user may have already provided his or her location in the user profile. Before asking the user for their location, click on the username and check the profile. If you see a location listed there, just add the tag.

3. When you do need to ask, do so respectfully. It is unreasonable for us to expect every new user to automatically know that a country tag is expected. The fact that they didn't include it doesn't say anything about their attitude or intelligence; it only means that they are a new user. Insulting the OP and/or insulting every person of a particular nationality is clearly against the StackExchange rules and should never be tolerated. Belittling an OP does not teach them to ask better questions; it only teaches them that this community is full of jerks and that they are not welcome here.

4. If it is not clear which country the question is about, do not edit the question with a guess (unless you have evidence for the country; see #2). You may or may not be right with your guess, but guessing wrong confuses the OP, and if the OP comes back and edits the question with the right country, any answers that have already come in will be instantly invalidated.

Instead, if you want to write a good answer that is country-specific, make sure you specify in your answer that it is valid only for a particular country. Just be aware that if the correct country is known later, your answer might get downvotes.

5. Alternatively, if the question cannot be answered without country information, voting to close as either "unclear what you are asking" or "too broad" is acceptable.

Any feedback you may have to improve these guidelines is welcome.

I recognize that information on the location of the question asker (country tag) is important for answering many questions on this site. And I also recognize that needing to ask new users for their location can get annoying after a while. That having been said, I've seen some behavior that troubles me in this regard, so I'd like to propose some guidelines to follow when confronted with a question from a new user that has no country tag.

1. First, ask yourself: Does this particular question need a country tag? Some questions are universal and really don't need it (e.g. debt reduction strategies). On the other hand, questions that touch on taxation, laws, or regulations often do need it.

2. Are there location clues in the text of the question? If the question uses U.S.-specific terms such as "1099", "401K", or "IRS", you don't need to ask the OP; tag it united-states. Similarly, for "CRA", "RRSP", or "TFSA", tag it canada. See "HMRC" or "ISA"? Tag it united-kingdom.

And so on. Yet, remain mindful that ambiguity is possible. Tag only when confident.

3. When you do need to ask, do so respectfully. It is unreasonable for us to expect every new user to automatically know that a country tag is expected. The fact that they didn't include it doesn't say anything about their attitude or intelligence; it only means that they are a new user. Insulting the OP and/or insulting every person of a particular nationality is clearly against the StackExchange rules and should never be tolerated. Belittling an OP does not teach them to ask better questions; it only teaches them that this community is full of jerks and that they are not welcome here.

4. If it is not clear which country the question is about, do not edit the question with a guess (unless you have evidence for the country; see #2). You may or may not be right with your guess, but guessing wrong confuses the OP, and if the OP comes back and edits the question with the right country, any answers that have already come in will be instantly invalidated.

Instead, if you want to write a good answer that is country-specific, make sure you specify in your answer that it is valid only for a particular country. Just be aware that if the correct country is known later, your answer might get downvotes.

5. Alternatively, if the question cannot be answered without country information, voting to close as either "unclear what you are asking" or "too broad" is acceptable.

I welcome any feedback you may have to improve these guidelines.

Information on the location of the question asker (country tag) is important for answering many questions on this site. And, unfortunately, needing to continuously ask new users for their location can get annoying after a while. That having been said, there has been some troubling behavior in this regard recently. Here are some guidelines to follow when confronted with a question from a new user that has no country tag.

1. First, ask yourself: Does this particular question need a country tag? Some questions are universal and really don't need it (e.g. debt reduction strategies). On the other hand, questions that touch on taxation, laws, or regulations often do need it.

2. Are there location clues in the text of the question? If the question uses U.S.-specific terms such as "1099", "401K", or "IRS", you don't need to ask the OP; tag it united-states. Similarly, for "CRA", "RRSP", or "TFSA", tag it canada. See "HMRC" or "ISA"? Tag it united-kingdom.

And so on. Yet, remain mindful that ambiguity is possible. Tag only when confident.

3. When you do need to ask, do so respectfully. It is unreasonable for us to expect every new user to automatically know that a country tag is expected. The fact that they didn't include it doesn't say anything about their attitude or intelligence; it only means that they are a new user. Insulting the OP and/or insulting every person of a particular nationality is clearly against the StackExchange rules and should never be tolerated. Belittling an OP does not teach them to ask better questions; it only teaches them that this community is full of jerks and that they are not welcome here.

4. If it is not clear which country the question is about, do not edit the question with a guess (unless you have evidence for the country; see #2). You may or may not be right with your guess, but guessing wrong confuses the OP, and if the OP comes back and edits the question with the right country, any answers that have already come in will be instantly invalidated.

Instead, if you want to write a good answer that is country-specific, make sure you specify in your answer that it is valid only for a particular country. Just be aware that if the correct country is known later, your answer might get downvotes.

5. Alternatively, if the question cannot be answered without country information, voting to close as either "unclear what you are asking" or "too broad" is acceptable.

Any feedback you may have to improve these guidelines is welcome.

I recognize that information on the location of the question asker (country tag) is important for answering many questions on this site. And I also recognize that needing to ask new users for their location can get annoying after a while. That having been said, I've seen some behavior that troubles me in this regard, so I'd like to propose some guidelines to follow when confronted with a question from a new user that has no country tag.

1. First, ask yourself: Does this particular question need a country tag? Some questions are universal and really don't need it (e.g. debt reduction strategies). On the other hand, questions that touch on taxation, laws, or regulations often do need it.

2. Are there location clues in the text of the question? If the question uses U.S.-specific terms such as "1099", "401K", or "IRS", you don't need to ask the OP; tag it united-states. Similarly, for "CRA", "RRSP", or "TFSA", tag it canada. See "HMRC" or "ISA"? Tag it united-kingdom.

And so on. Yet, remain mindful that ambiguity is possible. Tag only when confident.

3. When you do need to ask, do so respectfully. It is unreasonable for us to expect every new user to automatically know that a country tag is expected. The fact that they didn't include it doesn't say anything about their attitude or intelligence; it only means that they are a new user. Insulting the OP and/or insulting every person of a particular nationality is clearly against the StackExchange rules and should never be tolerated. Belittling an OP does not teach them to ask better questions; it only teaches them that this community is full of jerks and that they are not welcome here.

4. Is guessing a country okay? I'm not sure the answer to this one. I don't see the site statistics, but I would guess that the majority of visitors to the site are from the U.S. Therefore, if you add united-states to every untagged question, you might be correct the majority of the time. Is this acceptable?

My gut says no, but think about this: if you add united-states and the OP comes back and edits the question to include the correct tag, we've accomplished our goal of having the question tagged correctly. If the OP never comes back to correct the tag, then I guess it doesn't matter that the question is tagged incorrectly, because the question will still be answerable in its current form, and the OP hasn't come back to see answers that don't apply to him or her. I personally do not add a country tag without some type of evidence as to where the OP is actually from. (See #2)

5. Alternatively, if the question cannot be answered without country information, voting to close as either "unclear what you are asking" or "too broad" is acceptable.

I welcome any feedback you may have to improve these guidelines.

I recognize that information on the location of the question asker (country tag) is important for answering many questions on this site. And I also recognize that needing to ask new users for their location can get annoying after a while. That having been said, I've seen some behavior that troubles me in this regard, so I'd like to propose some guidelines to follow when confronted with a question from a new user that has no country tag.

1. First, ask yourself: Does this particular question need a country tag? Some questions are universal and really don't need it (e.g. debt reduction strategies). On the other hand, questions that touch on taxation, laws, or regulations often do need it.

2. Are there location clues in the text of the question? If the question uses U.S.-specific terms such as "1099", "401K", or "IRS", you don't need to ask the OP; tag it united-states. Similarly, for "CRA", "RRSP", or "TFSA", tag it canada. See "HMRC" or "ISA"? Tag it united-kingdom.

And so on. Yet, remain mindful that ambiguity is possible. Tag only when confident.

3. When you do need to ask, do so respectfully. It is unreasonable for us to expect every new user to automatically know that a country tag is expected. The fact that they didn't include it doesn't say anything about their attitude or intelligence; it only means that they are a new user. Insulting the OP and/or insulting every person of a particular nationality is clearly against the StackExchange rules and should never be tolerated. Belittling an OP does not teach them to ask better questions; it only teaches them that this community is full of jerks and that they are not welcome here.

4. If it is not clear which country the question is about, do not edit the question with a guess (unless you have evidence for the country; see #2). You may or may not be right with your guess, but guessing wrong confuses the OP, and if the OP comes back and edits the question with the right country, any answers that have already come in will be instantly invalidated.

Instead, if you want to write a good answer that is country-specific, make sure you specify in your answer that it is valid only for a particular country. Just be aware that if the correct country is known later, your answer might get downvotes.

5. Alternatively, if the question cannot be answered without country information, voting to close as either "unclear what you are asking" or "too broad" is acceptable.

I welcome any feedback you may have to improve these guidelines.