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copied!<p>There's a difference between smart defaults and the ability of users to override them. In big apps I've worked on, I've assumed the user's locale from browser settings, geolocation, etc. -- but always given users a way to easily switch.</p> <p>I don't know how else one would do that. Not giving users a chance to correct your assumptions is deeply problematic, because you're going to get it wrong some of the time.</p> <p>ADDITION:</p> <p>I think your problem here is that while you can edit your locale settings, if they look basically identical to the default, there's no way for an application developer to tell if you left it as-is intentionally, or because you don't know how or why to change it.</p> <p>I suggest honoring users' localization settings, <em>except</em> if the setting is the overwhelming default, which users may not change. For example, I believe the great majority (90+%) of users with an <code>en-us</code> setting geolocated in Vietnam would almost always be better served by seeing Vietnamese content, rather than US English content, as long as there's a trivial way to switch locales. On the flip side, if a user geolocated in the US has a Vietnamese setting, by all means give him or her Vietnamese content.</p> <p>Is this irritating for US-English users in Vietnam? Sure. But it's also the greatest good for the greatest number, and helps ensure that average non-technical users get the best real-world experience. Until we can hold a gun to users' heads and force them to honestly declare their language/culture preferences before turning on a computer, we're going to need heuristics like this.</p>

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