Module talk:Region/Data

Australian Aboriginal Flag
As discussed on Discord, we will be using the Australian Aboriginal Flag to represent the release territory of Australia going forward. We believe it is fitting to make this change on January 26th,.

Here are some reasons for the change, from my perspective:
 * 1) Thus far, every Australian that we've surveyed is in favor of the change.
 * 2) The flag is visually distinctive even at a small size and is less likely to be confused with the New Zealand flag.
 * 3) The flag is officially recognized as a Flag of Australia.
 * 4) The point us using flags is not to represent sovereignties, but actual physical locations that Zelda games are played in. Why not use the flag of the people who were in that region first?
 * 5) The Australian Blue Ensign has an association to colonialism and egregious human rights violations.

I've borrowed many of the above arguments from @VexIsRed, our most prolific Australian editor at the moment. Vex was the one to propose this initially and I saw no compelling reason not to accept their proposal.

I am not Australian, however. I invite Australians (particularly Aboriginal Australians) to weigh in. PhantomCaleb (talk) 15:18, 25 January 2023 (UTC)


 * I have been asked to provide some additional context: It is currently January 26 in Australia, which is officially known as "Australia Day". This day is challenged by and  as the date that commemorates the invasion of Indigenous land. It has a very different meaning for them as they did not cede their territories. It is also known as "Invasion Day" and "Survival Day", as acknowledgments of the history of colonialism following the landing of the  in 1788. TriforceTony (talk) 00:03, 26 January 2023 (UTC)


 * I am an Australian citizen, has been the flag since 1903 just about two years after our Federation, the  has only recently been purchased from a third-party artist, it was not commissioned by the government nor created by the government, it was only endorsed and recognised as an "Aboriginal" Flag, it is not "The" flag of Australia, you have the current flag of the U.S.A., which underneath an earlier variant of that flag, had people flying it as they invaded the Americas and stole land from the native Americans and the Mexicans, why is that flag still there and not a flag to recognise the native Americans, or the Mexicans? Although, why not use a flag to represent the first people in that region to begin with?


 * The same can be said for various countries Russia was not the first country in northern Asia/Europe it was the Kievan Rus, China wasn't either, the same goes for India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Germany, Poland, France, England, etc. What happened to the flag to represent the byzantine empire? Or the Greek empire? Therefore, this change makes no sense since the flag is not fitting to be used in place of.


 * This module is used within the Module:Game Rating module and therefore the Template:Game Rating template, this template shows the age ratings for each Legend of Zelda game per country and region, the Aboriginals do not have their own video game rating board, nor their own formal or federal government, therefore this is an incorrect supplementation of the Flag of Australia, The Australian Classification Board is a statutory-government body under the Australian Government that flies under the, If you believe otherwise then why is the Flag of The European Union which isn't a country and does not depict anyone that has been in that region first, exist on this wiki? Other than to represent sovereign nations and a sovereign nation group like the Module:Region was intended for?


 * Civilisations have existed for thousands of years, sure, flags have been used as far back as 2,400BC and possibly even before, but by this time civilisations have already existed for a very long time, you cannot represent the original people in that land because the original place that everyone came from and evolved from is still scientifically up for debate, so you're actually trying to represent the first people that migrated to said locations, and yet you cannot use a flag to recognise them, can you? Because they for certain didn't know what flags were because by the time they migrated there they didn't exist, so therefore you're misrepresenting them by not acknowledging them by only acknowledging their successors, even if you're trying not to mispresent them, that's what is happening because your intentions are not possible, this is possibly because again, Module:Region was only meant to represent sovereign countries as they are right now, and therefore it should stay that way because as soon as you go into trying to represent the first people in that region, sure it may be easy for countries like Australia, that doesn't mean you should only do it for Australia, this isn't all for one and none for all, this is just misrepresentation and causes more harm than intended.


 * You have only done this for Australian Flag, which makes it feel like you wanted to either attack our sovereignty or way of life or you just want to make a point towards the "anti-colonialism" and "anti-monarchiasm" of Australia rather than "representing physical locations of the first people there", before you just change the flag because of Australia Day which you mentioned is the reason why you did so, maybe plan this out for every country flag, before singling just one country out, because by doing this you misrepresent my country. Aeywoo (talk) 22:21, 20 December 2023 (UTC)
 * @Aeywoo Thank you for sharing your perspective on the matter.
 * As the original author of all the aforementioned modules I can assure you this change was made with full awareness of their intended uses.
 * May I suggest that we continue this discussion in the Discord thread? Wiki talk pages don't lend themselves particularly well to extensive dialogue. I think it would be for this best if we reserved this talk page for one-off comments and summarizing outcomes of the discussion on Discord. PhantomCaleb (talk) 23:59, 20 December 2023 (UTC)