by Lori » Tue Apr 21, 2009 08:22 pm
I would like to make a suggestion that we as a community (the admins really) do one of two things…Either come out loud and clear proclaiming this site dedicated to insurance querys regarding insurance in the US and the USA only…OR add another discussion topic for ‘’ALL" questions regarding insurance OUTSIDE the US…Then we mods can dump all of those threads in that area…and anyone with the knowledge about that particular country can answer those questions…
I’m sick to death of seeing threads with answers that ‘might’ fit an insurance question regarding India…or might not..and visa versa, questions that pertain to India/Canada where-ever (maybe) with a US answer…I’m not even confident we have a solid knowledge base for other countrys but I do know I don’t know anything about insurance laws in other countrys and doubt many do…
Please I beg you before I jump from the next high rise I’m see…Please address this GROWING problem….(sorry but geeeeeeeeeze this is driving me nuts!!)
I’m sick to death of seeing threads with answers that ‘might’ fit an insurance question regarding India…or might not..and visa versa, questions that pertain to India/Canada where-ever (maybe) with a US answer…I’m not even confident we have a solid knowledge base for other countrys but I do know I don’t know anything about insurance laws in other countrys and doubt many do…
Please I beg you before I jump from the next high rise I’m see…Please address this GROWING problem….(sorry but geeeeeeeeeze this is driving me nuts!!)
Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 08:57 pm Post Subject:
I have to agree with you!
Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 09:20 pm Post Subject:
I would tend to disagree. I think either the OP should make it clear what country the question is about or the person responding should ask if it makes a difference. That is, I don't see a question about something that occured in India, Canada, etc is any different then a question about something that happened in Arizona, Maine or any other state.
I think grouping them into a forum just for that country amounts to deleting them.
Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 12:47 am Post Subject:
The fact of the matter is that there are different insurance regulations, rules, and practices in many countries. I would hate to give someone advice on how to handle a claim or how to select a type of insurance if it proved to be completely incorrect. I think there are many similarities, and insurance agents of other countries can take a lot away from our Insurance Agent Forum. The best practices and suggestions can be used in almost any business model or place.
I think a separate forum would be absolutely acceptable, but perhaps make it an International Specific Question forum which doesn't make our friends from other countries think that they need to stay in their own forum. If any of us, I know I sure don't, have any experience with the types of questions posted in the International forum...they can contribute.
Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 01:36 am Post Subject:
Well, since Moderator Lori has make it clear that this form is mainly for US insurance queries, i think i will have to leave this forum, as i am not from US, and not sure about US insurance pratices and rules.
Instead this forum is in an excellent idea to provides helps on people who need queries about their insurance. In fact, in my country, i did not even find one of such useful forum to discuss about insurance queries. I can see there are some different insurance rules & practices in my country compared with US. I did learn a lot from here.
Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 04:52 am Post Subject:
I think we can introduce the idea that the poster has to state his/her state of residence at the time of posting. This, IMO, would solve many issues.
We often face challenges in answering the poster since we are not aware of their residential status and need to ask back everytime. The insurance laws vary widely even within the states. Hence, if the posters volunteer this information while making post we can then directly provide them with the information based on that geographical location
Thanks,
Rupert
Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 06:26 am Post Subject:
OK PEOPLE!!! CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG??? That line (or some variation thereof) is in lots of movies, but my favorite is Jack Nicholson in "Mars Attacks." Anyone? Anyone?
OK, down to biz. I can appreciate all of the comments in this thread, which in and of itself is kind of unusual. We need to get some of the other biggies in here with us for their input, too.
There should be a simple middle ground here. I can see both sides of the argument. Lori's comment:
Either come out loud and clear proclaiming this site dedicated to insurance querys regarding insurance in the US and the USA only…OR add another discussion topic for ‘’ALL" questions regarding insurance OUTSIDE the US…Then we mods can dump all of those threads in that area…and anyone with the knowledge about that particular country can answer those questions…
I absolutely understand the frustration of not knowing where a person is posting from. So much of what we do is location-dependent it's hard to give accurate information without knowing what state a person is in, much less a country. What do I know about car insurance in India? Not a damn thing! :D I'm in Oregon, the only thing I know about India is what I read/see/hear and that I would love to travel there someday. But establishing a separate area, to me, seems a little drastic and ostracizing. I enjoy learning about laws and info from everywhere, and I'm pretty good at discerning where a post is coming from and know when to stay out of the way.
On the other hand, Chris' comment is right on target and I completely agree:
The fact of the matter is that there are different insurance regulations, rules, and practices in many countries. I would hate to give someone advice on how to handle a claim or how to select a type of insurance if it proved to be completely incorrect.
So, me has an idea, and it's not that complicated. I'm sure that lakemen and his web henchmen can fix this pretty easily. OK guys- time to start playing with some HTML and code!
Simply add a couple of things to the registration process for step one. Put in a drop-down menu asking for country, and if the USA is selected, add a secondary drop-down to allow a state to be chosen.
Next, under the Poster's screen name in a post, link the info from the drop-down menus that selected the area of residence and plop them right there. The information being requested is innocent- no one cares who knows what country/state you live in (unless you're some outcast of society on the run).
Does this make sense? Now, you'll hear that this is a "really complicated web site change, and we'll blah blah blah." Baloney. This is one of the easier fixes. I work with web geeks all day and this ain't a biggie. I hear them moan constantly about the changes we ask for, and with a little pressure I had a blog completely redesigned/widget-ed/RSS'd/linked/you name it in about two hours. Now, blogs are simple, but you get the drift. Our website is layers-deep, and our geeks got the entire SITE redesigned and employed in a week. That's a freak of nature right there is what it is.
SO- if you're with me, let's get lakemen in on this and see what the other heavy-hitters in the forum think. Lori- since you started this, whaddya think?
InsTeacher 8)
Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 07:47 am Post Subject:
Well, am not a techie hence wouldn’t understand the intricacies of the codes. But I'd like to share my concern in this regard.
Now, even if we ask the members to provide their location they might well choose USA instead of their own country. It won’t be hard to find a suitable location to post in the sign-in form either. How would we protect ourselves from being faked in such cases?
However, since I’ve given the disclaimer at the opening of my post of not being a technical person, hopefully this proposal would operate fine with little technical help.
Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 09:03 am Post Subject:
Hi,
IMO some of the queries are target-oriented and can be classified as per the location of the posters. Rest of them are general and apply to all nations.
There's no denying the fact that any discussion regarding a specific situation experienced by a user in the US could help another user based in India/Canada at times.
But the question is- should the professionals comment regarding a situation of which they do not have any specialized knowledge?
For instance, I was brought up in India..but I'm not aware of their industry updates now. So, I won't be too eager to convey my views regarding someone's experiences over there. At the most I might give him a clue or two..so that he could match it up to his industry conditions and develop an idea!
What do you guys think?
ArindamSenIndies
Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 10:07 am Post Subject:
Hey Arindam
it is the fact that laws pertaining to all the countries related to insurance are principally same but when it comes to the details it differs.
But when any specific question comes regarding the technical jargon then surely the specialist from that region can only help.
But in general a person who is from India/US/Canada is also capable (equally) of answering the questions pertaining to any other country when the question is really a 'general' category.
So let us wait what our 'mod' takes decision about it.
Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 12:04 pm Post Subject:
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