Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/List of national flags of sovereign states/archive1

List of national flags of sovereign states

Featured list candidates/List of national flags of sovereign states/archive1

Nominator(s): ―Howard • 🌽³³ 17:40, 15 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It seems that you have no identity unless you have a flag.
— Alfred Znamierowski

I am nominating this for featured list because I have spent a lot of time making it and adding all the sources which I believe are reliable in this case. I have attempted to include all relevant information on every flag of every sovereign state of the world, including an image, a description, a date, a designer, and an aspect ratio. I have received much positive feedback (and even a barnstar) for this endeavor, so I feel confident in sending this as my first featured list nomination. ―Howard • 🌽³³ 17:40, 15 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Airship

The article has almost 900 citations and over 218kb of content. With that in mind, the lead is far too short: I would expect three paragraphs. As it stands, the prose is still a little clunky, but I think that would improve with increased detail.
"In vexillology, Polish vexillologist Alfred Znamierowski defines" little repetitive, why is the definition specific to vexillology?
" governments have used them to promote and create bonds within the country, motivate patriotism" what non-patriotic bonds have been promoted/created?
See MOS:ANDOR
Please provide specific page numbers for the relevant sentences in the sources you cite, as readers should not have to hunt through forty-page articles for verification; considering the current citation format, {{rp}} would probably be best.
Given the emphasis in "Background and definitions" on flags symbolising and representing various things, I am surprised that the descriptions seem to actively steer away from describing them, and instead focus (very robotically) on the colour/layout arrangements. Can you explain this choice?

Otherwise, great work. Ping me when you've replied to/dealt with the above. ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 11:14, 16 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@AirshipJungleman29:

(This is my first FLC nomination I'm not exactly sure how the process works but I'll try my best to reply to all your comments)

I'm not exactly sure what is supposed to be put in the lead that isn't already included in the Background and definitions (B&D) section. Would you prefer if I just removed the section header so that "Background and definitions" forms a part of the lead?
I've removed the Znamierowski definition. It should have been cut out a while ago.
Switched to just "and". I think it means the same thing in this case.
I'm not sure which sources you are talking about here. Could you give an example or two?
I've considered adding a "symbolism" column previously. But it might not be a good idea considering that many flags have complicated or even disputed symbolisms which would be better explained in its respective article (we only have limited space in the columns). Layout descriptions are objective and can be explained (relatively) straightforwardly. It isn't necessarily impossible, but we can't have both a layout description and a symbolic description without making the list very bloated. Since you do feel surprised by B&D not mentioning general layouts of flags, should I include a passage relating to this?

Thank you for the feedback, I hope to receive more in the future. ―Howard • 🌽³³ 12:37, 16 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I didn't realize you would nominate this so quickly but it's great work! The references column is way too big, it's 8 citations wide! I'd suggest merging these into the description column, but there are also way too many references in general. Like you could just say the books in the bibliography are general references without 200 footnotes to each one. Is there anything specifically taken from these books that aren't already in another reference anyway? I mean, there are a lot of flag books and sites out there so this feels like Wikipedia:Citation overkill especially since they aren't available online through the GBooks link. Reywas92^Talk 14:02, 16 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wait you can just do that on wikipedia? Just add a general bibliography instead of citing the books every time? ―Howard • 🌽³³ 17:02, 16 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Citing_sources#General_references - although that mentions "underdeveloped articles", I think it's different for lists, particularly here when there are other citations that maintain "text–source integrity". I wrote these FLs a long time ago but I used them in United_States_Secretary_of_Transportation#References and List_of_governors_of_Indiana#References. You can also put a broadly used citation in the column header like in List of counties in Washington, or just list related books in a bibliography without calling them references. I know doing these wouldn't include the specific page numbers, but it appears a lot cleaner and it's not like it would be hard to find the relevant verification if you had the book in hand with a TOC or index. Reywas92^Talk 18:23, 16 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

In this case, I have cited at least two books (Znamierowski encyclopedia and DK guide) and two websites (CIA World Factbook and Whitney Smith's flag articles on Britannica) for every entry on the UN countries list (excluding citing the World Factbook for State of Palestine). How should I go about mentioning these citations broadly? Should I include the link to the list of flag articles that Whitney Smith wrote for EB and the CIA's flag profile directory? ―Howard • 🌽³³ 19:13, 16 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If I am understanding this correctly, here is what the "general" citation would look like.

Refs.^[1]

References

^
The following sources are cited for every entry in the list of UN member states and observer states (The World Factbook is not cited in the entry for the State of Palestine):
"Flags of the World". The World Factbook. 2024. Archived from the original on 2024-09-16. Retrieved 2024-09-16.
Smith, Whitney. "Primary Contributions". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 2024-09-16. Retrieved 2024-09-16.
Znamierowski, Alfred (2020-09-20). The World Encyclopedia of Flags: An Illustrated Guide to International Flags, Banners, Standards and Ensigns. Anness Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7548-3480-9.
Mumford, Simon, ed. (2021-11-16). Complete Flags of the World: The Ultimate Pocket Guide (7th ed.). Dorling Kindersley Publishing, Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-241-52356-8.

―Howard • 🌽³³ 19:36, 16 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

[1] The following sources are cited for every entry in the list of UN member states and observer states (The World Factbook is not cited in the entry for the State of Palestine):
"Flags of the World". The World Factbook. 2024. Archived from the original on 2024-09-16. Retrieved 2024-09-16.
Smith, Whitney. "Primary Contributions". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 2024-09-16. Retrieved 2024-09-16.
Znamierowski, Alfred (2020-09-20). The World Encyclopedia of Flags: An Illustrated Guide to International Flags, Banners, Standards and Ensigns. Anness Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7548-3480-9.
Mumford, Simon, ed. (2021-11-16). Complete Flags of the World: The Ultimate Pocket Guide (7th ed.). Dorling Kindersley Publishing, Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-241-52356-8.

[2] "Flags of the World". The World Factbook. 2024. Archived from the original on 2024-09-16. Retrieved 2024-09-16.

[3] Smith, Whitney. "Primary Contributions". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 2024-09-16. Retrieved 2024-09-16.

[4] Znamierowski, Alfred (2020-09-20). The World Encyclopedia of Flags: An Illustrated Guide to International Flags, Banners, Standards and Ensigns. Anness Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7548-3480-9.

[5] Mumford, Simon, ed. (2021-11-16). Complete Flags of the World: The Ultimate Pocket Guide (7th ed.). Dorling Kindersley Publishing, Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-241-52356-8.

[1]