I welcome this change. I wonder what the actual resulting impact will be, however.
Why product managers overseeing any forum platform have not implemented something easy and obvious as account location metadata is something sociologists need to study.
All social platforms of the last decade rely on "engagement" and bots/trolls/fake accounts/etc contribute to that, both directly and in terms of posting inflammatory content that the masses then "engage" with.
This was a common-ish feature for a long time and major sites like 4chan have had it in one form or another I think for literally decades at this point.
one can imagine the influencers saying they X is lying or I fear for my safety and them the whole bandwagon joining in