Another forum I use has a symbol by each person's name, which is a tiny flag, letting you know where the person is from (or which random flag they've decided to choose in order to look cool or rebellious or something).

 

I like this idea, especially for this forum, since there are so many education-based questions, which would be easier to approach if we knew what kind of background the asker was from. For instance, if someone asks about engineering degrees and they're from the UK, and they get an answer from someone in the US, and both are assuming they're in the same country, things might get confusing.

 

It's also interesting to see where members are from at a glance

Isn't it dependent on what software the website is using for it's message board?

I know that TSR (The Student Room) has this feature, although note that TSR and SFN run on different forum software. vB, which SFN use, does not necessarily have this feature, although having said that it's quite possible they do.

 

More to the point, as you can see just below my post, it has a "Location:" field. As long as you complete this field in your profile it will display it with your posts. Sure, graphics are always quicker to scan than text, but the text is simple in that it is non obtrusive.

 

[edit] I agree with Klaynos (post below mine)!

And here was me expecting a thread about what naval flags signify or maybe semaphore...

We have the location option. You can see where I am from, look look:D

you mean i actually have to read, actual, real words?!?? damn i'm too lazy for that :0)

I have a folder of small flag images saved as PNG files. I am sure that we can figure out some kind of gizmo or doodad that can add them to people's profiles... if not then they could always be inserted into signatures with the img tag.