Default units is US ... causes confusion with non-US signatures

[MMUK]

The default units for Fuelly is US Gallons. This is fine for people coming from the USA, but confusing for people coming from elsewhere.

In the few months that I've had a fuelly account & forum signature, I've been asked 3 times 'why does your signature say 71mpg when your page says 60mpg', and it's starting to get a bit irritating. This happens because people don't realise that they have to set a cookie for the default units.

So could I make the following suggestion:

* If a signature link is followed, and the user has no units cookie, the page be displayed with a warning 'set your units'.

This could be made more intelligent by considering the top level domain or using geotagging (for example, if their ISP domain is .ca, then it should default to metric units, if the ISP domain is .uk then to imperial, etc). Similarly if the ISP top level domain is .com or .net, then the geotagging country could be used to identify the appropriate units.

[MMUK]

Additionally, it says 'Avg UK MPG', so wouldn't it make sense for it to say 'Avg US MPG' instead of 'Avg MPG'? I don't think US Gallons are used anywhere outside the US (& maybe south America) in any case?

The trouble is that 'Avg MPG' is misleading outside the US since it doesn't specify which size of gallon it's talking about.

[pb]

Yeah, I think we can come up with a rule to cover this situation. Maybe something along the lines of: if a user hasn't seen Fuelly before and their first page is a car profile—we set the viewing units for that page to the units most appropriate for that car.

The warning is a good idea too, but I think it interferes with people looking at the stats.

I hear you on UK vs. US MPG but 70% of our visitors (and even more of our members) are from the US. While it's true that only the US uses US MPG, it's also true that only the UK uses UK MPG. And if we go on sheer numbers, most people visiting the site are going to be expecting the US version.

[MMUK]

>While it's true that only the US uses US MPG, it's also true that only the UK uses UK MPG.

Yes, exactly so. But I think if the info boxes were to say 'Avg US MPG' & 'Avg UK MPG' (as appropriate) that'd be easy enough for both countries to understand since the size of gallon would be explicitly stated.

[pb]

Yep, that makes sense. But only a fraction of visitors have the potential to be confused. I think if we make the change I talked about—switching display units for first-time visitors based on the vehicle they're viewing—that will clear up the confusion for that group.

[Gamefreak]

Canada also uses UK MPG.

[pb]

Is that very widespread Gamefreak? The Canadian OEE seems to list everything in L/100km.

[DTMAce]

I spend a lot of time in Canada myself. I know the majority over there that I have encountered are all using L/100KM.

I have yet to see a UK gallon thing at all during my time there.

[seabird81]

Canada used UK weights and measurements until 1970 so many of us educated in the imperial system still think mpg pounds and feet.

[MMUK]

It's a little like the UK in fact - we've been going metric incredibly slowly & painfully. It's crazy that we use litres for buying fuel, but MPG for fuel consumption!

It just takes a very long time to get people to use the new units exclusively. The new unit tends to get used formally, and the old unit gets used informally.