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The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.A summary of the conclusions reached follows.
The consensus result of this discussion is a uniform Keep by all participants. I hesitated to close this discussion as I am involved by having contributed to the article and having started this discussion. However, the article was meanwhile, for procedural reasons, renominated at AfD by someone (see below for the link), a discussion which was now closed as Snow keep by another editor, thereby making any further local discussions unnecessary. In order to avoid that even more time gets spent on this when the outcome is obvious I am hereby closing this basically just reflecting the consensus of that second AfD to here. (non-admin closure) --Matthiaspaul (talk) 22:03, 4 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
This article was AdD'ed two weeks ago with the outcome of "Merge" based on the fact that the "Keep" voters provided only one source discussing the topic in depth. After the merge someone changed the tag into a notability tag, which prompted me to research the topic and add a handful of WP:RS to the article, including some more reputable and independent sources discussing the topic in depth from various angles, so that we now have, in addition to the "Meduza" article, a "Watson" article, a "Spiegel" article, and "ex-press" article, and a 12 minutes "Rockwell" video, all going into quite some depth discussing the design of the flag and its designers, the inspirations which led to the design, the social media phenomenon around it, the symbolism, and some Novgorod background. In addition we have many reliable sources from reputable news outlets mentioning the flag at least in the passing, and finally we have a number of primary sources (which we can't use to show notability, but which are still useful to have for historical reference). Also, we have now articles about the topic in about 30 other language-entities of Wikipedia.
I think, although this is still a new topic, it already demonstrates sustained notability quite a bit beyond our notability threshold per WP:GNG. This topic won't vanish and even more contents will likely become available in the future. So, merging is, in my opinion, no longer necessary and we can keep and further develop the topic as a stand-alone article.
Merging also would not be desirable from an organizational / technical point of view as the "2022 anti-war protests in Russia" article is already at 165 KB at present, so that it is reaching a size where we would have to start thinking about identifying sub-topics to be split out into separate articles rather than to merge even more stuff into it.
There seem to be quite a number of further refs which are more than simple re-tweets, including news articles at Deutsche Welle, The Guardian, ABC News, CTV News, and including quotes from not only KK and others as parallel originators but also various protesters in different places, e.g. AZ for Freedom in Russia, NB protester at Bebelplatz, 'Valaria', etc. Yadsalohcin (talk) 06:50, 25 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Strongly oppose merge. The article is not adapted to be merged into it, there are sources, the flag is not used only in Russia and there are no consensus for merge.--Panam2014 (talk) 11:22, 25 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose merge. The page seems to have reached enough notability for staying in Wikipedia. All it needed was some time. SuperΨDro18:38, 2 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
Hello. I wanted to ask you, to please, stop recreating section "simlar flags" in the article about the White-blue-white flag. Articles about flags arent' supposed to have sections about similar or "identical flags". For example, here is a bunch of red and white flags from around the world, of which, non has a section about the ""simlar flags" in its articles:
Flag having huge similarities with other flags is normal and regular occurrence, and adding such information into articles about flags, usually fall under the "trivia" category, which is not welcomed on Wikipedia.
So please, stop.
Sincerelly, Artemis Andromeda (talk) 20:14, 28 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
It is my understanding that Wikipedia has no MOS for 'flag pages', thus other similar or related examples are neither mandated nor forbidden. The flags cited above are mostly historic and established flags of long-standing nations, thus presumably relatively well known among practitioners of the art. However, in its function as an encyclopedia, Wikipedia is not indended for specialist 'practitioners of the art' but has a more general target readership.
This flag, though, is new and -so far- unique within the category 'Flags introduced in 2022'. Last year's category lists 6 new flags, with most articles showing a number of 'other' flags, mostly to show historic development, even tho' the Afghanistan flag's section of historic flags of the country is somewhat generally titled 'Other flags'.
The general (non-specialist) reader might reasonably be interested to see other flags of various degrees of relatedness on this page- where else would they find such information? An arbitrary selection of flags and banners of previous peace organisations would seem excessive (but a section in 'see also - previous flags of peace organisations', linking to previous peace organisations which adopted flags), might be appropriate. A set of heraldic descriptions (white, a band azure, emblem xyz dexter) will hardly work for most readers but a small section of pictures seems well within the scope of an encyclopedia directed at the general reader.
I see that User:Panam2014 has seen fit to re-instate a (general) 'Other flags' section; I am minded to restrict things to 'other W-B-W flags', but for now I shall leave it for others to consider. Yadsalohcin (talk) 08:32, 29 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
AFAIK we don't have any guidelines if "foreign flags" should be listed in an article or not.
Personally, I'm not against listing some flags if they have a semantical relation to the article's topic, either because they are former flags of a country, variants of the current flag, flags in neighboring countries, gave some inspiration, etc.
Also, this article is somewhat special as the flag has no official name yet and we discuss it under a descriptive title "white-blue-white flag", so we should expect that readers searching for other white-blue-white flags will arrive at the article as well. In order to reduce their confusion, we should think about how to help them to find the information they are looking for as well.
Therefore, in my opinion, we should add a hatnote to deflect incoming searches for unrelated white-blue-white flags (like the Swiss canton Zug flag, the Finnish flag and possibly some Israelian flags) to their corresponding articles. In the "Similar flags" section, we should only show related flags, like the various white-blue-white Novgorod flags, the Belarusian white-red-white flag, and, well, also the Russian white-blue-red flag for comparison.
It makes little sense NOT to include the current official Russian flag in the gallery of flags inspiring the wbw flag. Obviously, it IS a modification of that flag.--Nø (talk) 14:18, 3 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I'm nominating this article for merging - it's a procedural nomination, given that the original outcome was support for a merge but discussion on this talk page is against such a merge. Personally, I support the article being kept as is, but for the sake of protocol and procedure any discussion should be done officially. Pleas feel free to comment on the AfD page. Grutness...wha?00:42, 4 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Your AfD can be found here for the community to comment on:
Information is being added to this article supported by sources that do not back up the information added. When adding sourced information to this article ensure that the sources used actually support what is being written here. WP:NPOV. WP:RS. The Impartial Truth (talk) 13:57, 8 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
There is no consensus required to removed information not added in good-faith. It is preferable that good-faith additions remain in the article pending consensus. The Impartial Truth (talk) 14:01, 8 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
The bold text was in quotations as if it were a quote.
''On 31 March 2022, the head of the Duma commission on foreign interference, Vasily Piskarev, appealed to the Prosecutor General's Office with a demand to ban the white-blue-white Russian flag as extremist, since "this symbolism is used in protests against the military operation in Ukraine not only in Russia, but also in other countries".[1]
The source article is entirely based on one telegram post by Piskarev which states -"I sent an appeal to the Prosecutor General's Office with a request to conduct an inspection and consider the possibility of recognizing as extremist materials promoting the white-blue-white "flag of Russia", which is actively used at provocative actions against the military special operation in Ukraine, the parliamentarian wrote in the Telegram channel."
The quote in bold is speculation by the author based off the telegram post. Wikipedia articles should be based on reliable, published sources, making sure that all majority and significant minority views that have appeared in those sources are covered (see Wikipedia:Neutral point of view). Editorial commentary is not fact. The accuracy of quoted material is paramount and the accuracy of quotations from living persons is especially sensitive. Partisan secondary sources should be viewed with suspicion as they may misquote or quote out of context. In such cases, look for neutral corroboration from another source. Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Quotations
@The Impartial Truth: Okay, I'm not really opposed to removing that part, though I think it could also be rephrased or maybe backed-up with other sources. My main concern, however, are the other statements that you removed without proper explanation. These are:
The white-blue-white flag was used at anti-war protests in (...) Yekaterinburg, Russia.[4][5][2]
In my opinion, these statements are sufficiently supported by the sources that are provided. Why do you think these need to be removed? — Ætoms[talk]15:41, 8 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
This is addressing source 4. I will work my way through all of them given time.
The white-blue-white flag was used at anti-war protests in (...) Yekaterinburg, Russia. Supported by sources 4,5,2 from the reflist according to your opinion. Translated from Russian to English by DeepL Translator. 4. “Green ribbons against military operations in Ukraine are hung on the streets of Yekaterinburg” This is the only mention in the entire article of the white-blue-white flag. It is a lone sentence between two paragraphs not attached to any pictures. Other protesters chose another symbol: a white-blue-white flag. This is not supported by any pictures, the rest of the article is about green ribbons. It's My City — News of Yekaterinburg, Russia and the world (itsmycity.ru) is not a well-established news outlet. News reporting from less-established outlets is generally considered less reliable for statements of fact. Itsmycity.ru is not just less-established but obscure. Human interest reporting is generally not as reliable as news reporting, and may not be subject to the same rigorous standards of fact-checking and accuracy (see junk food news). This statement of fact in the article does not meet any of the standards set in WP:RSWP:RELYWP:RELIABLEWP:RELIABILITY and should not be included.
Protest against Ukraine war That's what the white-blue-white flag is all about. Translated from Deutsch to English by DeepL Translator. The only mention in the entire article of Yekatarinburg, Russia is in the following block of text.
Since then, the flag has also been shown at a solidarity concert in Berlin or a demonstration in Yekatarinburg, Russia. In a message from activists, the flag is intended to symbolize peace and freedom of thought. White for peace, instead of red for war, blood and Soviet past.
This reads as if the author is unsure whether the solidarity concert in Berlin or at a demonstration in Yekatarinburg, Russia.
Resistance forms under a new white-blue-white flag. Translated from Deutsch to English by DeepL Translator. The only mention in the entire article of Yekatarinburg, Russia is in the following block of text.
The new colours are also appearing in Russia. In Yekaterinburg, for example, Opponents of Putin demonstrated against the war under the banner of the flag at the beginning of March.The police reacted with brutal harshness. Like almost everywhere in Russia. The dissidents advise their compatriots against open protests using the flag. It is not about a quick fall of the regime, it says on the website "whitebluewhite.info".
This is from a German daily newspaper with a circulation of 150,000 (see Badische Zeitung.) News reporting from less-established outlets is generally considered less reliable for statements of fact. Most newspapers also reprint items from news agencies such as Reuters, Interfax, Agence France-Presse, United Press International or the Associated Press, which are responsible for accuracy. The agency should be cited in addition to the newspaper that reprinted it. The article makes the claim that the new colors are appearing in Yekaterinburg, Russia without any evidence. Given the lack of supporting statements in the rest of the article and no further mention of Yekaterinburg this claim should not be taken as a statement of fact.WP:RSWP:RELYWP:RELIABLEWP:RELIABILITYThe Impartial Truth (talk) 18:50, 8 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I agree that source 4 is not the most reliable and that the statement should not only be based on that source. As for source 5, I think it actually says in German "Since then, the flag has for instance also been seen at a solidarity concert in Berlin or at a demonstration in Yekaterinburg"; "or" meaning that this is a non-exhaustive list of examples. It is also from the Kölnische Rundschau (not the Frankfurter Rundschau), and here "tabloid" refers to the newspaper format and has nothing to do with its style of journalism and reliability. As for source 2, I don't think your argument is very convincing. Just because it is a smaller newspaper does not necessarily mean that it has low journalistic standards.
I've been thinking about it and we could maybe rephrase the second statement to something along the lines of:
In addition, some media have reported that the flag has also been used by protesters in Yekaterinburg, Russia, although this claim has not been supported by any (photographic) evidence.[4][5][2]
Ætoms offers a sensible middle ground here- 3 relatively 'minor' but not necessarily unreliable sources report protests in Yekaterinburg including the flag, albeit without a photo, but making that clear in the text would seem to provide an acceptable summary. Yadsalohcin (talk) 23:22, 9 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Great, I've added the rephrased sentence to the article. I also re-added the sentence about the use as a symbol of opposition to the Putin regime, with two additional sources. @The Impartial Truth: since you haven't explained why you think this statement is problematic, I'm assuming you are okay with this. Feel free to further improve the sentences in the article, should this be necessary. — Ætoms[talk]13:09, 10 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I have no issue. I got the impression that media was reporting on the flag in Yekaterinburg based off what other media was reporting based off rumors. Circular journalism and confirmation bias. The Impartial Truth (talk) 12:27, 11 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I think it is irresponsible to report the flag being used in Yekaterinburg as a statement of fact. It could bring retaliation from Russian authorities with the current situation. The Impartial Truth (talk) 12:28, 11 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
References
^Пискарёв потребовал признать бело-сине-белый «флаг России» экстремистским [Piskarev demanded to recognize the white-blue-white "flag of Russia" as extremist]. Общество (Society). NEWS.ru (in Russian). АНО Информационно-аналитический центр "МедиаНьюс" (ANO Information and Analytical Center "MediaNews"). 2022-03-31. Archived from the original on 2022-03-31. Retrieved 2022-03-31.
^ abcKrökel, Ulrich (2022-03-30). "Putin-Gegner: Unter einer neuen weiß-blau-weißen Flagge formiert sich Widerstand" [Putin opponents: Resistance is forming under a new white-blue-white flag]. Badische Zeitung (in German). Archived from the original on 2022-03-30. Retrieved 2022-03-30. Im Exil formiert sich eine Anti-Putin-Opposition. Als Symbol tragen die Regimegegner eine weiß-blau-weiße Flagge. (…) Auch in Russland tauchen die neuen Farben auf. So demonstrierten in Jekaterinburg schon Anfang März Putin-Gegner im Zeichen der Flagge gegen den Krieg. [An anti-Putin opposition forms in exile. The opponents of the regime wear a white-blue-white flag as a symbol. (…) The new colors are also appearing in Russia. In Yekaterinburg, for example, opponents of Putin demonstrated against the war under the sign of the flag at the beginning of March.]
^Sygar, Michail (2022-03-21). "Russland ist ein gescheiterter Staat: Nächstes Jahr in Nowgorod – Auf nach Nowgorod: Das neue Russland braucht eine Flagge ohne Blut" [Russia is a failed state: Next year in Novgorod – To Novgorod: The new Russia needs a flag without blood]. Der Spiegel (in German). Archived from the original on 2022-03-22. Retrieved 2022-03-22. Schon wenige Tage nach der Invasion schrieben viele Russen in sozialen Medien, dass sich die weiß-blau-rote Trikolore diskreditiert habe und das neue Russland, das irgendwann nach Putin entstehen wird, eine neue Flagge brauche – ohne Blut darauf. Der rote Streifen solle daher durch einen zweiten weißen Streifen ersetzt werden: die Farbe des russischen Schnees und der Reue. [Just days after the invasion, many Russians wrote on social media that the white-blue-red tricolor had become discredited and that the new Russia that will emerge sometime after Putin needed a new flag – without blood on it. The red stripe is therefore to be replaced by a second white stripe: the color of Russian snow and of regret.]
^ abКучина [Kuchina], Дина [Dina] (2022-03-03). На улицах Екатеринбурга развешивают зеленые ленточки против военных действий в Украине [On the streets of Yekaterinburg hang green ribbons against military operations in Ukraine]. It's My City (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2022-03-25. Retrieved 2022-03-07. Другие протестующие выбирали еще один символ: бело-сине-белый флаг. [Other protesters chose another symbol: the white-blue-white flag.]
I believe some sources need to go. I'll discuss some here and the issues I have with them. There's one that needed to go immediately and any information here from it needed excised. All articles must strive for verifiable accuracy, citingreliable, authoritative sources.
derwesten.de does not meet standards for a reliable source. WP:REPUTABLE - Articles should be based on reliable, independent, published sources with a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy. WP:QUESTIONABLE - Questionable sources are those with a poor reputation for checking the facts or with no editorial oversight.[1]
I've created some issues with the ref list by removing unnecessary citations. None of these affected any text in the article. One was a foreign language website parroting what two English sources already stated. One was redundant, sole use was on a sentence that had adequate sources (3 others for one short factual sentence). The third had no relation to the statement it was attached to, there were other sources that backed up what was stated while this seemed to just be thrown on there for reasons unknown. I'm aware of the current cite errors and will fix them within the next 24 hours. Not done
I would like to stress that this article fits the requirements to be merged into others or even deleted. Unless editors here are able to share factual information opinions drawn from reports do not fit the standard of a human being, this article will not stand up to scrutiny. Sources listed require extra attention.e The Impartial Truth (talk) 05:32, 12 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
That's correct. This info has been in the article already until "The Impartial Truth" removed it. I have restored it, as it is (and was) well sourced. --Matthiaspaul (talk) 10:00, 17 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I've looked at @Matthiaspaul:'s edit and it is in fact well-sourced, and it simply can't be a coincidence. Even if it were a coincidence, there is no speculation in at least mentioning that similarity to the widely known white-red-white protest flag boosted its popularity, more than relatively unknown Novgorod. That section should be restored, and if these editors don't stop removing it, call a Wikipedia:Requests for comment or Wikipedia:Third opinion. "This is your opinion." is not a valid counterargument. -Vipz (talk) 14:40, 8 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Flag shape
What's the ratio of this flag? Is it 2:3? Is it 3:4? Is it various? Can we add it please?
This will be a continuing review of sources along with reasons they should stay, be reinstated or be stricken entirely.
1st one. [1] Major Wikipedia:Reliable sources issues. Wikipedia articles should be based on reliable, published sources, making sure that all majority and significant minority views that have appeared in those sources are covered (see Wikipedia:Neutral point of view). If no reliable sources can be found on a topic, Wikipedia should not have an article on it. *itsmycity.ru is does not meet this definition.
In Yekaterinburg, ribbons of green color are hung. So activists of the youth movement "Viasna" decided to express their protest against the introduction of troops into Ukraine. This is reported by Znak.com.
Italic text. Znak.com is not an existing website and it provides no result in archived searches.
(edit-conflict) Itsmycity might not be a top-notch source, but it is a suitable source for inclusion here. It is included here not to discuss green ribbons, but because it is a source documenting the usage of the white-blue-white flag in Yekaterinburg at an early stage, as is stated clearly in the provided quote.
Znak.com [ru] has nothing to do with that quote, but your assertion that Znak.com would be a non-existent website with no archived results showing up (implying that it would be some "fake news") is incorrect. Znak.com provides ten-thousands of hits in archive searches and existed since 2012 until 2022-03-04 when they stopped publishing due to growing suppression in Russia, see [1]. The article, Itsmycity was referring to can be found here [2].
Several of your other assertions further above and removals of valid contents from this and other articles are also problematic.
^Кучина [Kuchina], Дина [Dina] (2022-03-03). На улицах Екатеринбурга развешивают зеленые ленточки против военных действий в Украине [On the streets of Yekaterinburg hang green ribbons against military operations in Ukraine]. Политика [Politics]. Это мой город [It's My City] (in Russian). Russia. Archived from the original on 2022-03-25. Retrieved 2022-03-07. Другие протестующие выбирали еще один символ: бело-сине-белый флаг. [Other protesters chose another symbol: the white-blue-white flag.]
There's an unsourced section with recommended colors. How can there be; there's no regulating body for this flag? Should the section simply be removed?
(I guess white is white, and it would make sense to use the blue from the Russian flag.) Nø (talk) 08:39, 25 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I believe it should be removed as WP:OR, just like the recent "similar flags" was. The focus should be on this specific flag, and I don't think having that section is of much benefit. TylerBurden (talk) 18:22, 1 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Gallery
there's been a debate about the gallery, so which one is better?
I think it is far more important to showcase actual uses of the flag in question, rather than put undue emphasis on the current design of the Russian flag which is visible within the gallery anyway for the few people who would not know what it looks like. I also do not see how it is cluttered at all, the images are structured in the same way they are on any other coherent Wikipedia article. TylerBurden (talk) 17:43, 19 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]
take this picture
on the article, it takes up the space of 5 paragraphs (or if not, it does on my monitor), straining the article. plus the various pictures of protests are scattered throughout the article (3 in the article itself, 2 in the gallery), the reason I moved those images to the gallery was to streamline it. Great Mercian (talk) 18:44, 19 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Looks completely fine to me, and even if it didn't my solution would be to resize the images, not throw them down into a gallery while plastering the Russian flag in their place. TylerBurden (talk) 21:48, 21 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]
A bot will list this discussion on the requested moves current discussions subpage within an hour of this tag being placed. The discussion may be closed 7 days after being opened, if consensus has been reached (see the closing instructions). Please base arguments on article title policy, and keep discussion succinct and civil.
Oppose -- There could be many flags of various Russian opposition factions. "Blue-white-blue" makes it simply clear what it is... AnonMoos (talk) 14:54, 6 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support, but I'd suggest Blue-and-white Russian flag. Looking through the cited sources, I see this called a white-blue-white flag, a blue-and-white flag, and an antiwar flag. So possible titles that better fit the WP:CRITERIA of recognizability, naturalness, and precision are White-blue-white Russian flag, Blue-and-white Russian flag, and Russian antiwar flag, or variations of these. —MichaelZ.19:20, 6 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]