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I mean at least once a week we have people complaining their flag is not right, mine is about 50/50 since I sometimes use a proxy server, and frankly if someone does not want to list their location that's their business.

They're a neat idea, and it would be cool if people could select them but I think as is they don't work.

Through I am tempted to post from Taiwan and see what flag I get...

So far there have only been 4 users with issues, and accuracy is only about 99.5% so fewer complaints than expected. I think that the flags had a number of advantages - they let moderators/users see where someone is from so that they know if they should excuse poor quality english, they show users where people are from and therefore what edition of white dwarf, games day, or other localised product they are talking about and finally they help remind people that dakka has an international audience and encourages people when they see that users are clearly posting from halfway around the world. Dakka has historically had a very US-oriented discussion but since adding the flags there has been a surge in international registrations too. A huge number of users dont bother to set their location field or use it for other comments so relying on an opt-in method would not give the same advantages. Other people's opinions on the matter are welcome too.

As for posting from the R.O.C., the flag that shall not be named is indeed in the flags system (tw.gif), but I dont know if the IP detection stuff will return the glorious flag of the people's republic or Taiwan's flag

I like them. It really helps when people discuss gamestores, shopping, white dwarfs and the like.

Now if we could add state flags so I can stalk all the oregon players... Mwu Ha ha... *cough*

I also like them. I prefer to ignore "My flag" posts than have to type "What's your location?" every few months.

Yeah, especially when most people don't actually use the location thingy in their profile!

Hrm...how far is portland from Eureka Jezrael? 3-4 hours? I'm right down the coast from you in Humboldt county. How is your gaming community?

Portland is at the complete North opposite of Cali. Its like 6-7 hours to the Cali border. We have a pretty good growing wargames community. Two years ago there was a total of two stores carying 40k for the whole Metro area. Now there is seven. We have a local club that is pretty large called Ordo Fanacticus. And there seems to be a tournie at least every other month now.


Oh and on the topic, can we get the flags in the emoticons section. Is that possible?

CANADIAN PRIDE!

Jezrael wrote:Oh and on the topic, can we get the flags in the emoticons section. Is that possible?

Probably not as there are around 200 flags and they would completely overpower all the other emoticons in the listing. You can include the flag images in any post by using the following syntax as an image url...
http://www.dakkadakka.com/s/i/flags/COUNTRYCODE.gif
where COUNTRYCODE is the 2 letter ISO country code. 99% of the time you should be able to guess this (de for germany, us for USA, gb for UK, etc).

woah man hax.

The flags were annoying at first but I have grown to appreciate our intercontinental whatsits.

I think I will follow Jezreal's nod and slip a Canadian flag in my thinger.

My whatsit is only international. I feel so inadequate!

legoburner wrote:

As for posting from the R.O.C., the flag that shall not be named is indeed in the flags system (tw.gif), but I dont know if the IP detection stuff will return the glorious flag of the people's republic or Taiwan's flag

So Dakka does not have a one China policy?

It might if you happen to move and get busted.

Awesome! Thanks for the tip legoburner.

I like the flags. I think we should keep it that way.

Two requests re: Flags.

1) Can you put a tooltip so this poor Ami doesn't feel left out as to what flag that is?

2) Can you maybe put in a state flag (and don't forget the damn tooltips lol) so we know where people are from? I mean gak with my IP address you can see what street I'm on so narrowing it down to states shouldn't be difficult.

I am a IT guy so I know how easy it'd be to do this. So get crackin!

1) There already is ALT text which will show up in some browsers when you mouseover. If it doesnt for you, then right click, properties on a flag and it will say 'Made in XX' where XX is the 2 letter ISO country code which you can then google.

2) I dont have any good, tiny state flag images, the free IP detection software we use does not have any state detection capability and is inaccurate enough with countries that states might drive people insane There are also many large countries with big provinces/states/counties and I wouldnt want them to feel left out as well.

I like the flags. Its actually pretty funny to see someone try and explain why they have the Uzbekistani flag.

does your flag depend on your set time zone or is it an IP thing?

It's all IP. Check the Dakka FAQ (news and rumors forum) or the other posts on this topic here in this forum for more information.

I'd prefer to have it an option. That would please everybody.

Dal'yth Dude wrote:I'd prefer to have it an option. That would please everybody.

Except many people don't bother using the location features in their profile. The flag would be no different.


We feel the very small amount of people with the incorrect flags are worth the large amount of correct identifications, something we wouldn't necessarily have if people had the option to choose their flag.

Can we have a Dakka flag? lol

I think flags should stay and be automatic. It has been very useful.

It gives us instant demographics.

It is essential in trade threads, far better than when people in traders 'assumed' everyone else was from the USA. For a start its an instant reminder of the fact, it also allows us to self filter sale and buyer requests due to location.

@yakface: maybe people don't use the location for a reason. That's why I personally don't want the flags, but see why some people do want them.

Dal'yth Dude wrote:@yakface: maybe people don't use the location for a reason. That's why I personally don't want the flags, but see why some people do want them.

Why would people not want their country of origin known?
I can see people not wanting to have their personal home address listed, but I can think of nothing other than people who are paranoid about their privacy or have something to hide benefiting from not displaying their Country of origin.

Heck I am even paranoid about my privacy, but I think the flags are a great idea.

If a poster comes on the board and is rather incoherent, you can see their origin and be more understanding when responding to them knowing that english may not be their first language.

(Though I do see many brits here with horrendous spelling and sentence structure. Those people have no excuse other than being uneducated or idiots.)
IMO, the perks far outweigh any perceived drawbacks.

edit: looks ike my flag changed. Cool.

Hellfury wrote:

(Though I do see many brits here with horrendous spelling and sentence structure. Those people have no excuse other than being uneducated or idiots.)

And I am one of them. My spelling I put down to typos, and lots of them. I post in a verbose way and type very quickly.

As for sentence structure, sure it is bad, but posts are speech in text form, not documents per se. I am writing this as if I were 'saying' it to you.

It is true that educational standards in the Uk are dropping, precision in linguistics is not considered desirable and you would be suprised how many semi literate dolts rise so far including civil servants and other officials.

However this forum is not truly a place to snoop them out. As I said, many of us post speech not prose. So it reads differently to how it should. In my own case I do know how to write good english, after all I am a writer by profession.

I'm definitely in Australia, and definitely ain't got an Australian flag.

(why no, I didn't burn it)

I figured out we can get the best of both worlds potentially by allowing people to either set their flag or (by default) use 'autodetect'. This should solve most issues and give us a higher accuracy level than we have right now, but is open to abuse which might get annoying. I'll implement these changes but not until november due to the mass of other things I have to do first!

Hellfury wrote:

Why would people not want their country of origin known?
I can see people not wanting to have their personal home address listed, but I can think of nothing other than people who are paranoid about their privacy or have something to hide benefiting from not displaying their Country of origin.

Because they're tired of getting @#$ for having a Chinese flag even though they're not Chinese?

Just speculating here.

Orlanth wrote:

Hellfury wrote:

(Though I do see many brits here with horrendous spelling and sentence structure. Those people have no excuse other than being uneducated or idiots.)

And I am one of them. My spelling I put down to typos, and lots of them. I post in a verbose way and type very quickly.

As for sentence structure, sure it is bad, but posts are speech in text form, not documents per se. I am writing this as if I were 'saying' it to you.

I definitely wasn't talking about you, Orlanth.

I dont want to name names, but man, there are a few of the newer brit posters who...really type like chavs...