+1 for the flag option on the cars. I could care less on LFSW or these forums.

Quote from Tweaker :

+1 for [...] making sure people have their right flag/location.

So, for the sake of asking, how exactly do you make sure?
Demand legal proof of citizenship? Any "technical" way of doing it - IP location, credit card, etc - is not accurate by far and not to mention that a citizen of one country might be a resident of another country. The whole mechanics of it would just be downright absurd for a game. And LFS is a game, not an ethnic identity survey.

I thought the flag is just to show to other people where you live, not to tell people about your political mindsets or whether you're a nazi or homo sapiens. It just tells me whether you are american, finnish, polish, german etc.. It is just one small feature and I really see no harm in it. People can always look things very perspectively, make strange connections but I really couldn't care. It is everybody's own business what flag they want to show and what are the reasons for showing or not. I have my flag visible simply because I'm finnish. Everything related to being finnish, Finland or me is irrelevant. Only thing relevant is that I'm finnish and that's why the small pic on the top left of my posts.

Plus the fact that having those different flags shown really emphasize the fact that LFS is quite multinational or widespread, which isn't really bad thing

I had originally selected the UK flag, but was really pleased to see that all UK countries have their own seperate ones too. When someone asks me what nationality I am, I always say Scottish, not British (although I've had problems with online forms and stuff in the past when trying to enter that).
I've got nothing against any nation, I just like to see the range of nationalities that play LFS. The option to show the flag on the car would be nice too. It's also been good for identifying flags - I didn't know the Estonian flag until I started browsing these forums

But you shouldn't force people to display it if they don't want to. Not sure why you'd necessarily want to hide your flag, but you shouldn't be forced into anything.

Quote from Hyperactive :

I thought the flag is just to show to other people where you live, not to tell people about your political mindsets or whether you're a nazi or homo sapiens. It just tells me whether you are american, finnish, polish, german etc.. It is just one small feature and I really see no harm in it.

same here i dont get what all the fuzz is about really
i find it nice to learn a few flags ive never seen before (like djibouti) and to see how far lfs has spreaded all over the globe by now
and also to see how high the standard of english language education is all over the world these days

testing...who cares about flags...i dont

You guys happy with the black dot?

I thought it looked like a tyre

Anyway, why not just get rid of the flags altogether and make the location field mandatory? So it'd be like the flag system we have now, just with names of countries instead. Would that be better for those that don't want to display their flag?

Quote from Leifde :

I thought it looked like a tyre

It's a small globe.

Might aswell be a blue butt with something green comin' out..

Wow, the god must've listened to me Not bad! Doesn't look like a globe, but it's better than a "?"

There should be a flag for "earth" instead of "other".I think that would express them better.(those guys who use the "other").

Flags...

Some Fascist guy took my country flag and enslaved people with it for some years.

And if that wasn't enough then here comes the nationalists... independence blah blah... culture blah blah...

Now I can't weave my flag in my country because is the same thing as wearing a "I'm a fascist" T-Shirt.illepall

Flags sucks, but then why am I wearing my flag in the forum (you'll ask)? Well, it's not a crime to weave a spanish flag if you are out of Spain.

Yeah, I know it's stupid...

Quote from Hankstar :

but it's better than a "?"

i though a ? was quite suitable for you ... others

I'd prefer a little Earth sitting there peacefully.

Or a partially completed Death Star! Yeah!

It is a globe

I am English and very patriotic, just the way I am.

I am English, so English flag for me. But UK flag is great too. I have no dispute with Wales, Ireland or Scotland.

I work with a 2 welsh people, and have 4 or 5 welsh friends, I also have scottish friends and was taught by an Irish teacher, whom I have great respect for.

It is nice to know where people come from and it annoys when i see the other flag. OK, you have you reason, former leaders have maybe given your country a bad name, or your country is in a war at the moment, I dont know. But if people dont want to show where they are from, thats their choice.

But, I am very, very patriotic, in demo days, I made a St Georges cross XRT skin and drove around in that for ages, I used to have the St. Georges Cross has the background on my phone, I have the St Georges Flag in my room. I dont agree with alot of things that go on in my country, but I am English, that is who I am.

So, God bless you patriotic people, and fair play to those who's countrys have been ridiculed by power made dictators!

The Jolly Roger.

Arr!

Quote from xaotik :

So, for the sake of asking, how exactly do you make sure?
Demand legal proof of citizenship? Any "technical" way of doing it - IP location, credit card, etc - is not accurate by far and not to mention that a citizen of one country might be a resident of another country. The whole mechanics of it would just be downright absurd for a game. And LFS is a game, not an ethnic identity survey.

I am not saying it should be 'tracking' you down, but just make sure people at least use a flag that is relevant. I know one user on here that is living in the US, but is using the Philippines flag, I am sure he is proud of being filipino. Because with that in mind, if the flags were forced to know what location you are at, we'd then see people voting to have the flags removed period. Then again, that means users want control over their flag, so we are back to the first step here and how people set their country to "other". I don't see what's wrong with showing the flag for location, but if people don't want to show it beside their name, at least they have that choice. And there is the "Location" profile field one could always fill in if they wanted to be specific.

Quote from The General Lee :

OK, you have you reason, former leaders have maybe given your country a bad name, or your country is in a war at the moment, I dont know.

It's not always a case of shame - as has been illustrated in several posts above there are other more powerful motives to not adhere to a flag.

Also I think that most of the arguments and reactions in this thread came up because of the idea of "forcing" a country/flag selection on users - it's interesting to note that no one asked to have all flags removed.

Btw, thanks for the globe, Vic.

Bitchin' avatar xaotik :up:

Too bad it doesn't work if you have the "other" image blocked, or if you set your browser to not underline links

Thanks Hank, it was nigh time to reflect on the subject.

Quote from AndroidXP :

Too bad it doesn't work if you have the "other" image blocked, or if you set your browser to not underline links

Or if you have larger fonts, or if you don't use font antialiasing, or if you have a different font for sans-serif, or enforce serif fonts, or if you use custom stylesheets for the colours, or ... and the list goes on.

I still have your question mark cached, you never mentioned that one !

I just wanted to add this. I have noticed that some people on the forum have selected different flag to be shown instead of "their own". While it is meant as a joke, it is still a bit disrespectful towards the people of the nation in question. Just a thought...