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So I'm in the UK, but I do home improvement too. But, over here, building codes are different, you'd not want to mess around with our 230V power, and even simple things like paint are quite different.

On the other hand the basics of how buildings are constructed are the same - despite the language differences, wall-board works the same here.

How do we plan to cover these differences on the site? By geography-specific tags?

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  • Actually 110V can be more dangerous, for once you have twice the Amps and furthermore, you are pulled into the conductor, while 200V is a little more pushing you off it.
    – txwikinger
    Jul 22, 2010 at 23:08
  • Actually, the often repeated mantra that amperage is more important than voltage isn't correct when it comes to human electrocution. Assuming 1MΩ (average human body resistance), only 0.11mA can flow at 110V - the rest becomes heat. At 230V, this is 0.23mA.
    – Fahad Sadah
    Oct 19, 2010 at 18:14
  • Quite irrelevant when you remember that both, across the chest, will kill.
    – Fahad Sadah
    Oct 19, 2010 at 18:14

5 Answers 5

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If it is an item that is specific to your area, you could tag it with a UK/Canada/USA/Country tag.

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  • where do you draw the line. Continent, country, state, regaion, city. I think this would be hard to manage and there would be too many tags.
    – mohlsen
    Jul 22, 2010 at 13:14
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    Good idea, but a lot of askers aren't tagging so or even mentioning it in their questions, resulting in comments asking for location information. And, historically on the 'net, it is US posters who will tend to forget this the most, leading to a perceived Americanisation of the forum.
    – staticsan
    Feb 25, 2011 at 3:40
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Not only are building codes different, but so is terminology (drywall vs plaster board etc), so there will need to be a glossary / dictionary maintained so that people can 'translate' terms...

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    That's a jolly good plan. Do we have anything about here that can serve to start the glossary? I don't think that's a standard stackexchange feature, but it bleedin' well should be.
    – Jeremy McGee
    Jul 21, 2010 at 20:36
  • Glossaries have been created within meta sites: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/40353/…
    – Robert Cartaino
    Jul 22, 2010 at 0:20
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Maybe have a tag called "location-specific" so people know right off the bat. If we just had a tag for the region, we could have SO many tags by state / city / country / continent showing up and that would be a nightmare.

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Let's try to be as regionally agnostic as possible. Where regulations may apply (construction permits, electrical codes etc), one should mention that, but no one should feel obligated to specify specific requirements for various regions.

Perhaps the best way to handle this would be to have a series of Community Wiki questions where we compile links to various regions' building codes and requirements, and then all other posts can just refer to those (i.e. "check the [regulations] tag for information on building codes that may apply to your region").

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This problem is universal. I'm a member of a dutch diy forum. And we sometimes get questions from people from Belgium (similar language different regulations) which require different answers if regulations are part of the solution.

A possible solution would be to introduce country tags (possibly with a country flag/symbol). To avoid problems.

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