File talk:United Nations (Member States and Territories).svg

Consistency of names, blue & grey

@Newfraferz87: I think we should discuss which entities get their own names and what blue and grey mean. I think blue should mean a member state of the UN. Anything blue should be listed under its (abbreviated) UN name. Anything grey should be something judged by the UN to have inadequate representation in the governing state, such as W.Sahara, American Samoa, Bermuda or Fr.Polynesia. Dots should only be for small member states, observer states (Vatican and Palestine), and invitee states (Cooks and Niue). Territories should IMO not get dots since this isn't a map on decolonization, though it wouldn't be a big deal if they did (maybe smaller grey dots?). If we do go that way, IMO it should only be the territories on the UN list of "Non-Self-Governing Territories" that should get a dot, not just a small distant possession like Kerguelen, Palmyra, the Kuriles, etc.

For example, Hawaii is currently labeled "United States" but Puerto Rico is labeled "Puerto Rico". Both are blue. That makes it look like Puerto Rico is a member state of the UN. Because PR is not considered a colony by the UN (because it's a commonwealth), IMO it should be "United States" like Hawaii. Same with the NMI. But USVI, Guam and AS are considered colonies by the UN, so IMO they should retain their names, but also be colored grey (like Western Sahara) so it's clear they're not member states. Similarly, Aruba and Curacao &c should just be "Netherlands" (and remain blue), Greenland and the Faroes should just be "Denmark", and the Channel Isles or Isle of Man should just be "United Kingdom" (and colored blue). All the British overseas territories would be grey, along with, what, 3 French territories, W.Sahara and Tokelau? (Yeah, I know the list isn't very consistent, but we're just reflecting the UN here.) Kwamikagami (對話) 05:04, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

Maybe this map should have small grey dots for territories the UN thinks should be decolonized (whether through indepedence or full assimilation into the possessor state), and the other map not, or vice versa. Or maybe all small countries/territories should have dots to make them visible, on any UN map. I'm starting to lean that way, but really it depends on what people want out of their map. Or the other map could be file:United Nations (Member States).svg without the small grey dots and this one could be United Nations (Member States and Territories) with the extra dots?

Here is the UN list of territories. It doesn't of course cover areas like East Turkestan or West Papua, but otherwise seems reasonable apart from the French territories. Wallis & Futuna were never on the list, I don't know why. St Pierre (which once was on the list) was absorbed into France but then expelled again, due to NAFTA, so that's an odd situation. Then there are a couple territories that were recently split off Guadeloupe but unlike Guadeloupe were not incorporated into France; maybe they're not on the list because they're so recent. Kwamikagami (對話) 22:15, 8 July 2022 (UTC)