A suggestion.

[Gibbo2286]

I often read posts and think 'if I knew whereabouts the poster lived I might be able to pop round and help/advise.' but frequently there is no location listed in the user profile.

I wonder if it would be possible to persuade users to add, say, just the first three digits of their postcode in their profile.

[CitroJim]

Good thinking indeed Gibbo In fact for a good while now the location is a mandatory field that must be completed when a prospective new member registers... As is what cars they drive.

Not only is it useful in such cases as you suggest but it also helps we admins and mods weed out fraudsters and spammers... We have ways of determining that you are actually where you say you're from

If you say you're in Bognor Regis but our tools say you're in Peking then you're out on your ear... Unless you can explain the discrepancy...

[white exec]

...or four digits, if your "first half" runs to four. A really good idea.