Hi, all, I'll wait a few more days for people to weigh in with opinions, but my personal preference is not to do this for the primary reason that I don't want to create splinter groups in what I think is a cohesive, international community. Or give the appearance that certain areas of this site are only for certain people.
Certainly, some process and product issues differ outside of the US. But the same can be said probably for every country and even within the US. (US cottage business laws vary by state and sometimes even within municipalities within a state.) So an "international" splice may not be that meaningful - what is "international" to one person is not "international" to another. Additionally, I think those in the US have a lot to learn from those in other countries, so I'd love those "international" dialogues to be front and center, mingled with everything else on this site, so that everyone feels comfortable viewing and participating in those discussions.
What I would like to see more of is people starting these types of forum discussions. There are plenty of places to do this already, and if the title and tags reflect that the issue is one unique to a region or country, that will help signal to others in that area (or who would like to know more about that area) to read the post.
The bigger issue to me right now is that there are very few people contributing new forum content to the site. Yet, everyone is welcome to do so, and has been since site inception. So rather than spawning new areas that may remain unfilled/inactive, I'd prefer to create new areas once there's evidence (from activity on the site) that those areas would actually be utilized.
My two cents . . . if there's a groundswell of support for this area after a few more days, I'll consider adding it. But so far the reaction seems mixed to me.