Editing Template talk:Flag list

Maybe it would be better to make the order free, so that the regions can be sorted by release date. Something like <nowiki>{{releasedate|region1=eu|date1=November 18, 2005|region2=us|date2=December 5, 2005}}</nowiki>. Would be better for games like [[Mario Smash Football]]. It could work with #switch-commands - {{User:Cobold/sig}} 16:17, 14 September 2008 (EDT)

The template I have transfered here with a few tweaks was sort of a rush. So there's room for improvements by observing how Wikipedia goes with the flow with their own piece. What do you mean exactly? {{User:RAP/sig}} [[Special:Contributions/RAP|I think there is a limitation with your concept, the flag images. How to insert them properly?]]

<pre>[[Image:{{#switch:{{{region1|}}}|eu=Flag of Europe|na=Flag of the United States|ja=Flag of Japan|au=Flag of Australia}}.png]]</pre>
I think it would work. I haven't tested it yet. - {{User:Cobold/sig}} 16:37, 14 September 2008 (EDT)

Ah, let's test it in the test room. Maybe yours. My test room is full of beta stuff to experiment, XP See [[User:RAP/test]] if you are curious enough to know what I'm doing. The last section, the updated interface from Game Sightings is in the process of making it to the final version, adding info there. :P Before I start going off-topic, let's test this concept rawr. {{User:RAP/sig}} [[Special:Contributions/RAP|Some people believe this wiki is corrupted. ;o]]

:I think I might have it. Check [[User:Stooben Rooben/Test|here]], and it turns out like [[User:Stooben Rooben/Test/Trial|this]]. {{User:Stooben Rooben/sig}} 16:54, 14 September 2008 (EDT)

The concept (Cobold's idea) you tested (SR) is not good as I felt, unless it had something that is better than the other version; the original concept doesn't repeatedly use the template repeatedly. Here's a piece of the example of how it normally looks like when used whole:

<pre>{{releasedate|JP=November 1, 2007|NA=November 12, 2007|EU=November 16, 2007|AUS=November 27, 2007}}</pre>

Basically it can be slotted in any order regardless within lack of repeation of the other concept. (See coding SR linked into, test and test template for details) {{User:RAP/sig}} [[Special:Contributions/RAP|Any comments or anything? XP School's tommorrow, :<]]

:Possibly take that back from that previous comment, SR had talked to me about this in my talk page, the concept is using just one template for all the entries. Should be good, wondering how it will work. ;) But it seems SR is still working on it. {{User:RAP/sig}} [[Special:Contributions/RAP|Gonna do the ironing.]]
If this concept is too bothersome, the current state of the template can be used, no problem with that. - {{User:Cobold/sig}} 17:36, 14 September 2008 (EDT)

Good job doing this, everyone! :) {{User:Wayoshi/sig}} 20:30, 14 September 2008 (EDT)

== N/A ==

N/A means not applicable, not "Not available." So, is it really wise to use it when you don't have information about a particular release date region?  It makes it seem like the title wasn't released instead of us just not having the info.  "???" Might be better.  {{User:Stumpers/sig}} 00:34, 16 September 2008 (EDT)
:True. I didn't think about that. You could also try "Unkown", rather than "???". {{User:Stooben Rooben/sig}} 00:39, 16 September 2008 (EDT)
::Either way. :) {{User:Stumpers/sig}} 10:39, 16 September 2008 (EDT)

== North America ==

Since Canada gets games the same as the United States does, it makes sense to bundle them together as North America in this template. I don't know what kind of flag we could use to represent the continent, though. -- [[User:Kamek at the disco|Kamek at the disco]] 03:26, 12 October 2008 (EDT)
:I don't really mind, and I'm Canadian aswell. Well, we can't have two flags in one, so I think we should leave it. {{User:Super-Yoshi/sig}}
::There was a proposal on the subject, and no one seemed to mind the USA covering the release dates for Canada as well. {{User:Stooben Rooben/sig}} 04:15, 12 October 2008 (EDT)
:::US/CAN release dates differed for [[Mario Super Sluggers|this game]], right? {{User:Time Q/sig}} 15:44, 12 October 2008 (EDT)
::::Fixed Time Q. {{User:Super-Yoshi/sig}}

== PNG to SVG? ==

We have [[:Category:Flags|PNG flags]]. {{SITENAME}} supports SVGs and there are SVG versions of the flags on Wikipedia:
#{{wp|File:Flag of South Africa.svg}}
#{{wp|File:Flag of Belgium.svg}}
#{{wp|File:Flag of Mexico.svg}}
#{{wp|File:Flag of Brazil.svg}}
#{{wp|File:Flag of the United Kingdom.svg}}
#{{wp|File:Flag of the Netherlands.svg}}
#{{wp|File:Flag of France.svg}}
#{{wp|File:Flag of Italy.svg}}
#{{wp|File:Flag of Germany.svg}}
#{{wp|File:Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg}}
#{{wp|File:Flag of Venezuela (state).svg}}
#{{wp|File:Flag of the United States.svg}}
#{{wp|File:Flag of Sweden.svg}}
#{{wp|File:Flag of the Republic of China.svg}}
#{{wp|File:Flag of Malaysia.svg}}
#{{wp|File:Flag of Honduras.svg}}
#{{wp|File:Flag of Hong Kong.svg}}
#{{wp|File:Flag of Europe.svg}}
#{{wp|File:Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg}}
#{{wp|File:Flag of Australia (converted).svg}}
#{{wp|File:Flag of Japan.svg}}
#{{wp|File:Flag of South Korea.svg}}
#{{wp|File:Flag of Spain.svg}}
The code can just easily shift the <code>.png</code> to <code>.svg</code>, generating redlinks all across the wiki, but will have all the generated redlinks on this template page, making this transition super easy. Should I go ahead and do that? --{{User:Wildgoosespeeder/sig}} 15:08, 2 September 2017 (EDT)
:Don't see why not. {{User:Baby Luigi/sig}} 15:11, 2 September 2017 (EDT)
::Is there any reason to make the switch? {{User:Time Turner/sig}} 15:12, 2 September 2017 (EDT)
:::SVGs scale better than PNGs, because they are vector graphics rather than raster graphics, making the flags appear sharper: [[File:Flag of UK.svg|25px]]SVG [[File:Flag of UK.png|25px]]PNG. --{{User:Wildgoosespeeder/sig}} 15:16, 2 September 2017 (EDT)
::::Fair enough. No objections from me. {{User:Time Turner/sig}} 15:17, 2 September 2017 (EDT)
:::::I will need to involve {{user|Henry Tucayo Clay}}, because some of these flags are used in [[The 'Shroom:Main Page|The 'Shroom]], so I am going to wait a little bit before I do this. --{{User:Wildgoosespeeder/sig}} 15:34, 2 September 2017 (EDT)
::::::Using the exact same file name and just changing the extension would pose no major problem. Sure, there will be many instances but nothing that can't be done. --{{User:Henry Tucayo Clay/sig}} 22:28, 3 September 2017 (EDT)
:::::::Digging into how the The 'Shroom operates with the flags so far, {{tem|ShroomMafia3}} needs to be updated as well as {{tem|{{PAGENAME}}}}. --{{User:Wildgoosespeeder/sig}} 15:54, 4 September 2017 (EDT)

==North America / Europe==
Should we specify that when release dates are applicable to North America and Europe as a whole, the wiki infobox defaults to listing them under the USA and EU flags? I was thinking about how the EU flag won't be truly applicable to the UK going forward, but the same thing can sort of be said of using the USA flag when a release date is also applicable to Canada and/or Mexico. The general idea is that the USA and EU flags apply to the whole continent or region unless individual countries are mentioned, which seems to have always been implicitly done for simplicity's sake but never formally written. Also, we haven't been fully adhering to the "''Australia -> Japan -> Europe -> North America''" time zone order when listing some recent simultaneous releases and have been listing "first" releases as either USA or Japan in these cases - we can follow {{wp|List of UTC time offsets|UTC time offsets}} or {{wp|List of time zones by country|country time zones}} for a better idea of how to list them properly. [[User:LinkTheLefty|LinkTheLefty]] ([[User talk:LinkTheLefty|talk]]) 09:11, February 2, 2020 (EST)

== Add Singapore ==

For Singaporean release dates {{unsigned|A Duck Goes Quack Quack}}

== Allow usage of this template as a generic "flag list" template ==
{{settled TPP}}
{{proposal outcome|passed|5-1-0|Allow usage as generic "flag list" template}}

The {{tem|Release}} template is in essence a simple list in which each item is some arbitrary text preceded with a region flag. It does not have any functionality specific to release dates. As such, it could be used wherever a flag list is needed. For example, the publisher field in the infobox of ''[[Mario is Missing! (Super Nintendo Entertainment System)|Mario is Missing!]]'' could be this:

{{flag list|USA|The Software Toolworks|Europe|Mindscape}}

<pre>{{release|USA|The Software Toolworks|Europe|Mindscape}}</pre>

However, because this template is named "Release", we typically don't use it for information unrelated to release dates. For example, when we needed a template for displaying serial numbers per region, we created the {{tem|Serials}} template, which has [https://www.mariowiki.com/Template:Serials?action=edit the exact same code source] as [https://www.mariowiki.com/Template:Release?action=edit the Release template]. Shall we create other templates (in our example, {{tem|Publishers}}) with the same copy-pasted source code every time a flag list would be useful for a specific use case?

To avoid that, I propose to replace all uses of {{tem|Serials}} with {{tem|Release}} and allow the use of {{tem|Release}} for any use case that requires a list of text items preceded with a region flag. We could additionally rename this template to a more generic name such as {{tem|Flag list}}; the name is open to discussion.

'''Proposer''': {{User|Jdtendo}}<br>
'''Deadline''': September 27, 2024, 23:59 GMT

===Support and rename to a more generic name===
#{{User|Jdtendo}} Primary choice.
#{{User|ThePowerPlayer}} Per [[MarioWiki:Once and only once]]. These are the same template, so keeping both versions would be too confusing when the functionality can be applied to a single template.
#{{User|Arend}} I had no idea we had made a separate template for the game serials in the first place! And it's 100% identical to a template we already have for years, to boot: these should definitely be merged. Renaming the merged template also allows it for broader usage (such as with different regional publishers, as this proposal brought up), which would be very useful across the board and won't have to include even more redundant duplicate templates.
#{{User|Power Flotzo}} Per all.
#{{User|Hewer}} Makes sense.
<s>#{{User|Super Mario RPG}} I've seen instances of this being used outside of just release dates, and this option makes it more universally applicable to listing things in different regions under a variety of circumstances, like publishers and serials. Per proposal.</s>

===Support and keep name "Release"===
#{{User|Jdtendo}} Secondary choice.

===Oppose: keep specific templates===

===Comments===