[317070]

National flags and languages are not a 1:1 map. Some flags have multiple languages, and some languages have multiple flags.

And that can be "close enough", until you for example serve English speaking people in Ireland the Union Jack. Both languages and flags can be sensitive topics in certain parts of the world.

[yorwba]

Also, often the country and language settings need to be independently modifiable, e.g. for pricing vs. product description.

[brigandish]

Agreed. The symbol for pricing could surely be the actual symbol though (€$¥£ etc).

[yorwba]

It's not just about the currency, but also the value of the price. To use an example I have on my table right now, German newspapers and magazines usually target Austria and Switzerland as secondary markets and have different prices for each of them. So an issue that's 3.95 € in Germany can be 4.30 € in Austria and 6.30 CHF in Switzerland. Even though Germans and Austrians use the same currency, they don't pay the same price.

[brigandish]

Why conflate the choice of language with the choice of currency? If there's a need to differentiate by those countries, give them that choice. If not, don't.

Or you could display everything in Korean to those with a Korean IP even though in some cases it will happen to be an Austrian who'd be thankful to see a German flag (or any flag!) on the screen to help them change the language. Then they can worry about the currency.

[account42]

Same for country and date/time/number formats.

[sundarurfriend]

In fact, the first external link in TFA is to a whole website [http://www.flagsarenotlanguages.com/blog/why-flags-do-not-re...] apparently dedicated to this.

[brigandish]

First example is English:

> How will users from these countries react to an English, British or American flag?

I stopped reading right there because no one cares. If you have users that care then provide them with choices, just don't let them get stuck wandering around a page in Russian or Greek or whatever because you thought someone might be offended by a flag. Perhaps they're offended by crappy websites with no obvious way to change the language? I know I am, show me any flag from any part of the former British empire and let me get on with what I was doing.

[brigandish]

If anyone in Ireland is offended at the use of a Union Jack to signify the button for English language then they need to grow up. Fast.

[names_are_hard]

I don't know much about Ireland, maybe it's not that sensitive an issue there. So how about this: what's the correct flag to show for Arabic in Israel?

Last time I fiddled with some automated kiosk at Ben Gurion airport I noticed they used a Jordanian flag for Arabic. That's an interesting choice, because if I had to guess most of the people choosing Arabic at that kiosk would not choose that as their flag.

[brigandish]

They're not choosing their flag, they're choosing a language.

[duskwuff]

So have another example: if you were to translate your application into Tibetan (for some reason), what flag would you use for it?

(The Tibetan flag is literally illegal to display in Tibet, as the Chinese government considers it a symbol of the separatist movement. So you probably don't want to use that...)

[brigandish]

I'd show them a picture of the Dalai Lama's face. Would that cause trouble? For whom?