Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Wikipedia had wrong Vatican flag for years – now incorrect flags are everywhere

catholicnewsagency.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–159 of 159 posts

Re: Wikipedia had wrong Vatican flag for years – now incorrect flags are everywhere

#151

Post by [deleted] »

kevinmchugh wrote: post #49
dheera wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the punishment companies get for not providing their official logos for download in an easy format without fuss. If you have a startup, have a "media kit" page with all of this stuff. Logos for black and white backgrounds in open vector and raster formats, founder photos, bios, company intros, product photos, video clips of your product that you're okay with media cutting up and using.

If you want it to be usable on Wikipedia, how do you assign the IP?

[deleted]

Re: Wikipedia had wrong Vatican flag for years – now incorrect flags are everywhere

#152

Post by meinersbur »

The article uses the USA flag as an example of how to precisely specify a flag, but the USA is one of the countries which does NOT define its flag in any precise manner, to the point that different US agencies use different flags (Most noticeably varying in color).

https://youtu.be/BRNrrj03akw ("This is the American Flag." by Tapakapa)

Re: Wikipedia had wrong Vatican flag for years – now incorrect flags are everywhere

#153

Post by encody »

meinersbur wrote: post #152

The article uses the USA flag as an example of how to precisely specify a flag, but the USA is one of the countries which does NOT define its flag in any precise manner, to the point that different US agencies use different flags (Most noticeably varying in color). https://youtu.be/BRNrrj03akw ("This is the American Flag." by Tapakapa)

I don't know if you were trying to use it as a source for your claim, but the video you linked does describe and link to the exact textile color specification from the US government.

http://everyspec.com/FED_SPECS/F/DDD-F-416F_49205/

I'm not a vexillologist, just watched the video, so idk.

Re: Wikipedia had wrong Vatican flag for years – now incorrect flags are everywhere

#154

Post by meinersbur »

encody wrote: post #153
meinersbur wrote: post #152

The article uses the USA flag as an example of how to precisely specify a flag, but the USA is one of the countries which does NOT define its flag in any precise manner, to the point that different US agencies use different flags (Most noticeably varying in color). https://youtu.be/BRNrrj03akw ("This is the American Flag." by Tapakapa)

I don't know if you were trying to use it as a source for your claim, but the video you linked does describe and link to the exact textile color specification from the US government. http://everyspec.com/FED_SPECS/F/DDD-F-416F_49205/ I'm not a vexillologist, just watched the video, so idk.

For textiles, but not print or computer screens. Also, it is a GSA guideline for use by US government agencies themselves only (along with quality standards when the federal government purchases things from private vendors such as chocolate [1], but it does not define what can be sold as chocolate and what not, the FDA would define that [2]).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Specification_for_Cand...

[2] https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidan...

Re: Wikipedia had wrong Vatican flag for years – now incorrect flags are everywhere

#155

Post by ummonk »

MayeulC wrote: post #137
ummonk wrote: post #64

They also have a really wrong shade of saffron for the Indian flag, even though the Wiki article on the flag correctly specifies the colors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_India#Colours Can't really blame them though, since the Indian government does the same. https://www.india.gov.in/india-glance/national-symbols

Seems like there is an edit war, or at least a discussion, on the file at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File_talk:Flag_of_India.s... I imagine the other will be changed once there is a consensus, but it seems they're having trouble getting a definitive answer from the government.

Interesting - the Wikimedia Commons file is what I'd consider "correct", but the Wikipedia file that links to it is not: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_India.svg

I guess the edit war would need to be conclusively resolved before the Wikipedia page is update to reflect it? Wikipedia proceduralism is always confusing to me.

Re: Wikipedia had wrong Vatican flag for years – now incorrect flags are everywhere

#156

Post by wolverine876 »

teddyh wrote: post #146
wolverine876 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your experience is much different than mine. It has been so often a waste of time that I've given up editing (or reading) Wikipedia.

Links or it didn’t happen. I would be more charitable if it wasn’t for the fact that 99% of all claims of misdeeds on Wikipedia never give any links, or even sufficient details to find the offending edits.

It happens regardless of whether you agree. I also saw it many times in situations I wasn't involved in.

I generally support the need for evidence, but I have only so much time. And I saw many, many instances of this behavior.

Re: Wikipedia had wrong Vatican flag for years – now incorrect flags are everywhere

#157

Post by acqq »

varenc wrote: post #116
lolinder wrote: post #54

This feels like the author jumped to the conclusion that Wikipedia was at fault because it's a common enough story and sounded good, but it doesn't add up. See addaon's comment for an explanation of why heraldry here isn't as cut-and-dry as we're used to for, say, the US flag. But even aside from that, the author neglected to check the full edit history on the Wikipedia file: the very first version of the flag (25 No…

Adding more evidence to the pile, here's a red-tiara version on the Vatican's own website from a page last updated in 2001: https://www.vatican.va/news_services/press/documentazione/do... and the WaybackMachine confirms it's been there since at least Jan 2002: https://web.archive.org/web/20020112222602/http://www.vatica... edit: Also the very first version of Wikipedia's Vatican City flag uploaded in 2005 also had a…

Also, note the flag behind the Pope in this 1998 picture during his official visit:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36121563

Re: Wikipedia had wrong Vatican flag for years – now incorrect flags are everywhere

#158

Post by wolverine876 »

greenpeas wrote: post #150
wolverine876 wrote: post #72

Accuracy is hard. As with many things, the first 90% takes 10% of the time, the last 10% takes 90%. Wikipedia seems filled with misinformation (or BS). I could imagine an obvious reason, that these volunteers with limited expertise and facility with the information (i.e., they aren't experts in the field who know all the sources well) write what they know. Also, it is up to Wikipedia's standard de facto , and most pe…

> the first 90% takes 10% of the time, the last 10% takes 90%. Is the second part of that statement necessary?

Yes. Of the last 10%, 5% could require 29% of the time, and 5% could require 61%.

Re: Wikipedia had wrong Vatican flag for years – now incorrect flags are everywhere

#159

Post by teddyh »

wolverine876 wrote: post #156
teddyh wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Links or it didn’t happen. I would be more charitable if it wasn’t for the fact that 99% of all claims of misdeeds on Wikipedia never give any links, or even sufficient details to find the offending edits.

It happens regardless of whether you agree. I also saw it many times in situations I wasn't involved in. I generally support the need for evidence, but I have only so much time. And I saw many, many instances of this behavior.

Links or it didn’t happen.
Post reply on HN