Thread:CGT dk/@comment-258494-20200117045944/@comment-258494-20200120172507

CGT dk wrote: Happy 2020,

As visualized on the National longevity recordholders page:

Given that all flags represents presentday countries (and borders), e.g. people born in the Austro-Hungarian, German, or Russian Empires, this should also apply to people from the Ottoman Empire, just as people from all the "new" sovereign countries are represented by the flags of today. CGT dk (talk) 23:40, January 17, 2020 (UTC) CGT dk, you are partially incorrect here, which means we need to discuss a few issues. There are several issues with "Flags". For one, geographic place of birth does not always represent the person's nationality (for example, sometimes people may have been born when their parents were on vacation). Second, national boundaries have changed in many instances. Augusta Holtz was German and born in Germany (but it's now geographic Poland). Third, the purpose for the flag varies: for example, a flag for "place of birth" represents where the person was born 110+ years ago, NOT the country they lived in today. Now, true, flags may also change over time, but I think to be practical, at the moment it may not matter how many stars were on the US flag in 1906 (45). But when a person's identity greatly conflicts with a flag (we don't want to put a Nazi Germany flag on any article), we have to make adjustments where the flag from that time may be offensive to most, or even just offensive to that particular person. Right now, Turkey still refuses to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. Why should Armenian Genocide survivors have their article improperly labelled with the flag of an Armenian Genocide denialist? They shouldn't have to bear that iniquity. Of course, there are other political controversies out there, and we all know that a Jewish person doesn't want a "Palestinian" flag on their article and vice versa. Flags on the Gerontology Wiki are primarily intended to be an easy visual cue, so when someone scans a list of supercentenarians, they can get an idea of where cases come from, who migrated, etc. But it's not a cut-and-dried, one-flag-fits-all formula to come up with flags for everyone. There is always going to be some controversies. We should ensure that the Gerontology Wiki editing tools make it easier to make adjustments for exceptions.