[Idea] If you don't want to see huge flags taking space over actual drawings in the Canvas, pick the biggest flag that you can find to deface.

As long as a lot of people are doing that, the ones templating larger flags will be forced to reduce their layouts and give more room for actual drawings.


[Reasoning] When it comes to country flags, I think that the immense majority of the users can be split into four groups:

  1. The ones who don't want to see country flags at all.
  2. The ones who are OK with smaller flags, but don't want to see larger ones.
  3. The ones who want to see a specific large flag taking a huge chunk of space.
  4. The ones who want to see the whole canvas burning, like the void.

I'm myself firmly rooted into #1, but this idea is a compromise between #1, #2 and #4.

Typically #3 uses numbers (and/or bots) to seize a huge chunk of the canvas to their flags. Well, let's use numbers against it then. As long as #1, #2 and #4 are trying to wreck the same flag, we win.


[inb4]

But what about identity flags?

Not a problem. They're typically bands instead of thick squares, and people drawing them are fairly accommodating.

But what about [insert another thing]

Even if [thing] is a problem, it's probably minor in comparison with huge country flags.

What should be the template?

None. We don't need one, as long as everyone is working against the same large flag.

Just draw something of your choice over the flag, preferably over its iconic features.

But I'm not creative enough for that!

No matter how shitty your drawing is, it's probably still way more original than a country flag. So don't feel discouraged.

That said, you can always help someone else with their drawing. Or plop in some text. Or just void.

Why are you posting this now, you bloody Slowpoke?

I wish that I thought about this before Canvas 2024. But better later than never. (And better early by a year for Canvas 2025.)


EDIT: addressing on general grounds some whining from group #3 (the ones who want to see a specific large flag taking a huge chunk of the canvas space).

You do realise that this sort of "war against the largest flag" should benefit even you, as long as the biggest flag is not the one you're working with, right? Even for you, this makes the canvas a more even level field. Let us not forget that you love to cover other flags with your own.

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[–] 1 point 2 years ago (7 children)

could we incorporate artwork over the flag like it happened with the Australian flag?

spoilerI really wish I'm not mistaking it for the New Zeland Flag

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  • [+] [S] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (6 children)
  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (5 children)

    So you want to protect artwork on a flag but not the flag itself? I guess my ultimate question is why do you care so much about defacing any (larger) flags on the canvas if they don't even take up that much space with just the flag parts alone.

    Like, you want to respect people's drawings that they spend hours working on while defacing other people's drawings that they spend hours on just because you don't like the "country-based identity that benefits the government" these latter drawings supposedly represent.

    I really don't mean to offend you, I just want to understand where you're coming from with this.

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  • [+] [S] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)
  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

    Those drawings are typically more elaborated than “me maeks flag”. As such, their artistic value is (for me) higher.

    That might be true, but depending on the flag I'd say that the whole act of adapting it into pixel art bears artistic value enough to say that the people responsible don't just blindly copy a template.

    nationalistic symbol

    I believe that most people (I even want to say almost everyone) drawing their country's flag on the canvas don't do it because they're a nationalists or they want to force the flag (as a representation of a country and all the connotations it may have) onto other people.

    That goes back to the point I made earlier about the two types of communities; defending the "purity" of the flag and not allowing anyone to draw on it is more akin to forcing the flag onto people I think, while allowing people to more or less "deface" the flag with their own drawings (while still respecting other people's drawings i.e. the flag itself) is much more inviting and arguably in the spirit of the whole event.

    this sort of “you did it and I undid it” is part of the game.

    I guess I just want everyone to get along and work together, rather than against each other. Reddit's r/place was a battlefield where only the biggest communities even had a chance of maintaining their works; I just want Lemmy canvas to be a bit more relaxed, that's all.

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  • [+] [S] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)
  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    Our Holy Symbol

    Again, I think that you're focusing way too hard on there being some sort of deeper meaning to people drawing a country flag. Maybe you're right and those people are nationalists who try to propagate some idea that their country is somehow better than yours by drawing a bigger flag. Why do you care so much?

    the actual spirit being to mirror human social interactions in something inconsequential

    I guess you could say it like that, although I would disagree that there are no consequences, most people just choose to ignore them because they don't affect them personally in any way.

    I don't think we'll find common ground here, but that's totally fine. It's been nice talking about it anyway; I just hope everything I said made sense^^

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