Wikipedia:WikiProject Maps/Conventions/Disputed areas

This page documents the recommended convention for disputed areas as displayed on Wikipedia's locator maps (2012 scheme). This guidelines is portable to other backgrounds. It is separated from the locator maps page due to the specific, dense and tense issue of disputed areas, requiring a dedicated explanations.

Introduction (60%)
Disputed areas (introduction, generalities and purpose) are a frequent cartographic items as well as highly troublesome subjects within the wikipedian community. This convention is proposed to avoid time-consuming edition wars and time-wasting discussions upon the symbology of maps displaying disputed areas. This convention is proposed with a cartographic perspective: borders are artificial human creations, temporary, and not really important and are thus to downplay.

Usage (where & how): First, this convention is usually used to handle diverging positions on locator maps. In this case, we DOWNPLAY these disputed areas, simply noticing their existence with some soft symbology (see #Convention just below). As for the location maps, we keep neighbor countries visible.

The second case is for encyclopedic articles whose title is clearly ABOUT these disputed areas/borders, a country's territorial claims, or a conflict because of these claims. In this case and this case only, we ENLIGHTEN these disputed areas, and we notice clearly in the article that these claims are unilateral claims different from any factual control or internationally recognized situation.

Given we are focusing on a country A, there are 2 types of disputed areas: If A thus have diplomatic conflict with several entities,
 * Lands [rational]
 * controlled by A but claimed by other(s), or
 * controlled by other(s) but claimed by A.

[proposal]
 * Maritime areas and islands [rational]

First, it is important to state that toponyms doesn't imply possession. The Indian Ocean is NOT the property of the India, but simply "the Sea we cross to get to India", similarly, the English Channel simply mean it's the channel sailors cross to get to England. Indeed, territories always has different names from different observers, with many name changes across time, based on which associated items sounded the most relevant to travelers. Thus, we have Yellow River, the Pacific, the Mediterranean (medi: middle + terran : land = the sea between the lands), the English Channel, the Indian Ocean,... Also, Wikipedia being a centralized encyclopedia with various points of view, we simply use the “Search engine test” to see which term is the most used online in modern English language. Simply. When this test says that the “Sea of Japan” is more frequent in English language than East Sea, then we use the former. This Sea is NOT the possession of Japan, and it is NOT implied by that name, but simply semantically associated to the Japanese archipelago.
 * Disputed toponymes

Where (to find): these maps can be found on commons, in the category Location_maps_(2008_standard).

Convention

 * See WikiProject Maps/Conventions/Locator maps (blank) and Commons:Category:SVG_locator_maps_(location_map_scheme).

Motivations
This disputed areas convention focus on ...

History and current work
Maps involving countries with territorial disputes have been for years de facto edition wars hot spots for nationalism sensibilities and sentiments of all sides to face off on Wikipedia. The Sino-Indian border, the Status of Taiwan, the South China Sea and others are problematic topics to cover. Smart symbology and clear messaging on their limited meaning is important to reduce editing wars. Most notably, our maps reports announced claims and de facto control, while we do not judge on the legitimacy of those respective claims or controls.
 * History


 * Interesting innovations
 * [to rewrite]

In 2012, unrolled Commons:Category:SVG locator maps (location map scheme) which has since become the de facto best practice guideline for disputed areas. The symbology is quite mature now, the main point of concern is to explain and spread it to the parties involves with a clear message : the symbology we use is NOT a judgement on sovereignty claims and their legitimacy, it's simply a representation of various declared claims.
 * Leading place and status

Examples
See commons:Category:SVG locator maps (location map scheme) for more examples.
 * Toolbox

[to complete]
 * First working Examples

[to complete if need]
 * Basic usages