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Comment by phkahler | Hacker News Reader

>> Of course, in 2008, pure investment banks largely failed.

Each US state is about the size of a European country, sometimes with similar population. That's one of the things that always comes up in polls of what surprised Europeans about the US when they visited - just how big it is.

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It's... still one country, though. And while I understand that Americans are very preoccupied with the difference between California and New Jersey, please understand that it's not that important (or obvious) to the rest of us.

The same can be said for England vs UK (or London vs England for that matter). I say that as an expat in London…

I suppose it's because the main issue is whether or not HN is "Silicon Valley", and so if you're in the UK (for example) you are not Silicon Valley regardless of if you are in NI, Scotland, Wales, or England.

In that case, may the poll should have been binary ? edit: typo

Actually, that's probably the reason - the poll was by binarynate not uknate.

I don't see how this poll determines this. I'm in LA but not silicon valley and had to pick California.

Then make your own poll that is split up how you like it. I see no problem splitting up large countries in polls like this. If only this poll did more of it. I'm not sure you have the knowledge to speak for "the rest of us" about how polls should be split up.

Fun fact: there's a program in Japan that interviews and follows foreigners. One of the first questions is "where do you come from". Most Americans answer with a state name.

I've watched some YouTubers do that. For the people that say "United States," a common very follow-up question is "where in the United states"?

That tracks with my own personal experience internationally: if I just say "the US," people ask for more specifics. So I now just respond with more specificity to start.

Here's the thing: when I answer to such a question that I'm French, I also do get the followup question "where in France?". (although if the question is "where do you come from" rather than "where are you from", I now answer that I come from Japan, which gets WTF looks and different followup questions (but I only do that outside Japan, where I live))

This isn't an experience unique to people from the US (see other comments). Would you consider saying "State Name, USA"?

My mistake, I see now the person I responded to may have meant that Americans say just the state. In the videos I've watched, and at least for myself, I usually hear it like you suggested: state + USA.

Indeed, that's what I meant. And for less known states, that's usually followed by an awkward silence until they do say US.

China and India has a bigger population, and China has a similar landmass as the US yet is just one option in this poll.

On the other hand, as of right now, China has 1 point and India 9. That combined is less than Poland, which has 15.

It makes sense to have finer granularity for the poll options people will actually choose.

It's 04:33 in the morning in China (in one of the timezones at least), makes sense.

China uses one timezone as far as I understand, so it's 5am for all of China atm.

China is currently has 7 points, 19 hours later. India is 72, Russia is 23, Vietnam 7, UK is 242. hmmm

People in India are asleep right now.

Is HN even accessible behind the great firewall?

HN has been blocked for more than a year now.

China also has relatively few people that simultaneously speak English well enough to read/post here while also having easy access to VPNs. If I had to take a guess I would bet there are more people that are Chinese first generation emigrants that live outside of China on HN than there are Chinese citizens that live inside China on HN.

Pretty much anyone who speaks English well enough to read/post here would have easy access to a VPN. Firewall is easy to hop, you just need to know that you want to.

No choices for Hong Kong or Macao.

There's less people from China and say, Russia, on this site than Minnesota. I think it's a bit weird but the detail works.

Not that weird. There are much more popular local websites in Russia at least.

You mind sharing any of them if they are similar to Hacker News in terms of content, comments and audience? I love browsing websites in languages I don't yet understand fully.

habr.com (habr.com/ru has much more content than English version).

By that logic China or Russia should also be listed with each single province or state

... especially India

Both Russia and India are federal countries, just like USA, so might be a good idea.

But where to draw the line? Switzerland is also federation...

lol, there are barely 60 people from India.

Yep. Russia's largest federal subject (Yakutiya) is a third the size of the entire US, and it's one of 85 subjects)

Should have at least listed the Special Administrative Regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau which have their own passports and currencies. I'm not going to vote for China since I am not allowed to enter 95% of it without a visa.

If you’re going by geographic area Australia should definitely be split up by state.

Big, but relatively unpopulated. Even California would rank together with Poland.

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