File talk:Damascus districts and suburbs.svg

Quneitra province

According to SOHR, clashes have erupted in parts of the Quneitra DMZ. Also, what are the sources for the limits of ground control here? ~~ Lothar von Richthofen (talk) 18:12, 11 November 2012 (UTC)

For the boundaries, I based it on the main Syria map. I think it's safe to assume that areas between rebel held towns are controlled by rebels. However, I do think the limits can easily be debatable. Thanks for the link. I'll try to get that updated soon. --Futuretrillionaire (talk) 19:01, 11 November 2012 (UTC)

Okay, I've added the coloring for unclear for more places, including the demilitarized zone. --Futuretrillionaire (talk) 19:24, 11 November 2012 (UTC)

(Edit conflict) Not sure the red blob vs. green blob areal colouration is the best way to represent this conflict. With this war, it seems to be less about control of territory (like in Libya) and more about controlling individual towns and villages or operating guerilla-style in vaguely-defined hinterlands. The areal colouration worked for Libya because of its rather conventional front-based warfare: organised armies advancing and retreating can reasonably be assumed to control the swathes of territory behind them, except where uprisings are reported in areas behind the lines.

With Syria, it's different. Except (arguably) in places like Aleppo and Idlib province, rebels don't control swathes of territory from which they coordinate a unified military force. They control a cluster of villages here, a town there—often very tenuously. Offensives are normally launched on a city or town level—rarely do we see the large-scale offensives across vast parts of the country like in Libya. Part of this is due to the fact that Syria is quite small, but densely populated.

A lot of the maps that I see don't define areal government control vs. areal rebel control. They generally show a neutrally-coloured Syria with green splotches where rebel activity is high—government control is not explicitly delineated, because we really don't know where troops or police or shabbiha or what have you are actively maintaining control. Either that or they show it on a town-to-town basis, without noting who controls territory in between. ~~ Lothar von Richthofen (talk) 19:30, 11 November 2012 (UTC)

For many parts of Syria. That's definitely the case. But what this map made by the ISW:[1]? It clearly uses the words "rebel controlled".--Futuretrillionaire (talk) 20:09, 11 November 2012 (UTC)

Well, they also lack colouration for "government-controlled". They differentiate between rebels proper and Kurds as well. ~~ Lothar von Richthofen (talk) 00:29, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

Okay, yeah. I think you're right. I've changed this to a more generic map, without the coloring.--Futuretrillionaire (talk) 05:17, 1 January 2013 (UTC)

Whoooah there, that's not at all what I had in mind. I just had an issue with the extent of the red colouration. Without any colouring, the map is fairly useless—might as well just use a generic locator map. And now it's just a map of Damascus, so it's no longer the "southern front". I don't much like these Openstreetmap things—they're very cluttered and busy. ~~ Lothar von Richthofen (talk) 01:05, 2 January 2013 (UTC)

I do find the isw report reliable— Preceding unsigned comment added by Alhanuty (talk • contribs)

Great, but that is not even being discussed. ~~ Lothar von Richthofen (talk) 16:08, 3 January 2013 (UTC)

The map is not completely useless. It shows the locations of districts and suburbs often mentioned in the Damascus clashes article. Also, another reason why I changed it was the consistent edit-warring, making me more concerned about the accuracy of the map. --Futuretrillionaire (talk) 16:53, 3 January 2013 (UTC)

If by "edit warring" you mean Deonis 2012 making an utter mess of things per usual, then maybe. But one thick-headed disruptive editor shouldn't effect such a drastic change. ~~ Lothar von Richthofen (talk) 19:39, 3 January 2013 (UTC)

Agree with Lothar , why not retaking a map kind of the ISW one showing the bases and with territorial colours. The map would be more accurate than the last one --Amedjay (talk) 19:49, 3 January 2013 (UTC)