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I am asking this question, because I feel that this is somewhat of an inherited problem in hardware recs.

Many questions have an answer , that might be more or less correct depending on the specific market ( read : geographical area ) where the question / answer person is located . same for price range .

Many questions here regard specific needs to buy hardware , and thus, are specific the the hardware that is available in the region of the buyer.

That , though, does not mean that the answer given is the correct one for everyone that will see this answer in the future , or in other words , the inherited problem that I am referring to is that almost no answer about recommendation can be an absolute answer ( not to mention the factor of time ... )

I am now working and living between China and Hong kong , where the famous abundance of electronics solutions and low prices allow me to see many other manufacturers / price ranges that I know will not be available to a certain OP ( for example from the US ) , or in fact - their names and existence would be probably unknown to the majority of users - but still - that does not mean they do not exist ..

So my specific question is : If I Know of a better solution / hardware than other answers , But I also know that this hardware will NOT be available in the region / price range of the OP - should I still answer it ? what about linking a foreign site ( in my case , Chinese ) to showcase some hardware option ?

one example can might be in this answer , or my comments on this one ( where my suggested model IS available in China / HK - but not in Australia ) but the truth is - that many other answers I just did not answered because I really do not know how to handle this situation ..

As a bonus question ( or just a thought ) - can a market/region base tag system help ?

( The question might be connected / similar to this one , but I am specifically asking how to handle this situation from the answering POV )

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If you are posting a recommendation, and the hardware pricing is limited to certain regions of the world, that needs to be made clear in the answer. With that, if the question mentions they are in a specific region of the world, the answers should be relevant to that region.

A question asking about hardware in Germany isn't assisted by pricing in South East Asia. Similarly, if you know of a regional place to get hardware that is dramatically discounted from what users see elsewhere in the world, saying "You can get it for X", when that is only true in a specific location, is not helpful.

If you are recommending a product, you should be able to point a user to a manufacturer or retailer's web page with pricing listed. This will help to show whether something is available regionally or globally.

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    I'd probably add that if the author of a question says that it needs to be available in one region, or that they live in one region, that you should always try to recommend a product accessible in that region.
    – Zizouz212
    Oct 11, 2015 at 20:08
  • @Zizouz212 - So would that mean that one should ignore all questions that are outside of ones region ? I agree that ( obviously ) an available manufacturer is preferred . But the important word you would need to clarify is "Available" , because the truth is that in today's world , everything can be ordered online from everywhere. Does a " foreign " website means you can not order the products ? in most cases you would be able to , paying with International credit card . So the definition of " available " is really important .
    – Obmerk Kronen
    Oct 12, 2015 at 1:57
  • @ObmerkKronen I wouldn't necessarily ignore, but I wouldn't encourage it.
    – Zizouz212
    Oct 12, 2015 at 1:58
  • @Zizouz212 so what about the region based tag system ? It would really help to filter those questions if that would be the recommended policy ...
    – Obmerk Kronen
    Oct 12, 2015 at 2:08
  • @ObmerkKronen, ask another meta question about region tags. I think that discussion would be too long (and important) for a comment thread.
    – Andy Mod
    Oct 12, 2015 at 15:52

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