^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Instructions for Editors

Keywords

Rules for filing keywords:

ADJECTIVES
Where a keyword is modified by an adjective, put the adjective after the noun if the noun is more significant.
If the adjective + noun are a commonly used pair, then it goes as two-word keyword (indian ocean, old glory).
BIRDS
      bird (colour)
      bird: <name>
      bird: <stance>
      bird: of paradise
BRITISH/AMERICAN SPELLING
If you have no favourite, check the existing keywords and pick the most used.
CANTON
Refers to a piece of the flag.
CONTINENTS
Don't use continents as keywords, except possibly on the main page of the country.
COUNTRY NAMES
Use country names only on the front page, index page, and any major page about that country. Remember if you include the country name in all 1000 municipal flag pages, this will list all 1000 pages together on the keywords. As a rule of thumb, try to restrict the use of country names (or even state, province, department, canton names) to a maximum of 25 uses. Any long list of subdivisions if better handled as an indexed list on the webpage, not the keyword page.
CRESCENTS
      Crescents come in many varieties.
          crescent: points up
          crescent: points to fly
          crescent: points to hoist

          crescents: 45 (az-muss1.gif, Musavat Party)
CROSSES
      Crosses are treated somewhat akin to stars. If nothing is indicated, the cross reaches all four sides, and the arms intersect in the centre of the field.
      Crosses generally don't have a default colour.

      cross: saint george <- default colour is red
      cross: formy
      cross: santiago
      cross: saltire
      cross: scandinavian

      If a flag has more than one cross, the number can be specified in a separate keyword:

      crosses: 50
DIACRITICALS
      Try to avoid accents and diacritics in the keywords - they mess up the alphabetization.
      At all times, keep the first four characters free of diacritics.
      Don't put the same keyword in twice (with and without diacritics) - it looks messy in the keyword pages.
DIFFERENCING KEYWORDS
If there are more than 25 entries with a given keyword, look out for a potential sub-keyword.
If there are less than 10 entries with a given potential sub-keyword, stay with the main keyword.
FIREARMS
firearm: <type> (rifle, machine gun, etc.)
FLAG
     For flags with flags.
     We also have quite a number of keywords containing 'flag'. Several of these would be better without 'flag' in them.
     Many keywords with '<adjective> flag' would be better as '<adjective>'. An exception to this is 'unidentified flag', *with* flag.
     A number of '<noun> flag' could similarly be improved to '<noun>' (or sometimes <adjective formed from noun>).
FLEUR-DE-LIS
With hyphens and 'i'.
HOUSEFLAGS
Use keyword 'house flag'.
LENGTH OF KEYWORDS
You have a maximum of 200 characters for keywords, so keep each keyword short - but don't abbreviate.
MAP
For flags with maps.
MAPLE LEAVES
      Maple leaves seem to be red by default.
      So the keywords seem to be:
      maple leaf (<colour>) if <colour> is non-red, and
      maple leaf if it is red or unknown.
MULTICOLOURED OBJECTS
      object: multicoloured
       unless it is
          object: fimbriated
NAMES OF ORGANISATIONS
Be as precise as possible - but beware of diacritics (and remember that everything is converted to lower case).
NO KEYWORD
      There must be at least one keyword on every page.
      For pages that should have no keyword, think about why, and put the reason why as keyword.
      Obsolete pages could have the keyword '@'
NUMERALS
      Non-leading numerals should be entered as numbers - that should sort nicer.
      Leading numerals should be avoided. If that's impossible, they should be spelled out.
       For numbers greater than 9, use:
     number: ###
PAN-isms
      Use a hyphen:
      pan-african
      pan-arab
      pan-american
      pan-slavic
      pan-turkish
      etc.
PEOPLE WHO WANT TO BECOME INDEPENDENT
independentist
PERSONAL NAMES
      Family name only
      or
      Family name (first name)
      or
      Name, number (of country) for royals and such

      Some personal names appear within company names. They should be left as they are - same probably goes for cultures without family names, e.g. Iceland.
PROPOSALS
proposal
and remember to give the page a fitting title
QUINAS
The 'quinas', the small blue shields with white dots on, are usually found in fives in Portuguese heraldry. For the time being, the presence of quinas can be detailed by the keyword 'quinas'.
If and when we get many of these, we should probably divide between 'quinas' and 'quinas: <number>', where number is different from 5.
RAINBOWS
If there is a rainbow arc, use the keyword 'rainbow'
If it is a multi-stripe/multi-colour flag, use the keyword 'rainbow flag'
RIFLE
firearm: rifle
SAINTS
      saint <this-or-that>
       except:
        -some toponyms ('santa catarina')
        -some French names (often hyphenated)
        -cross types, use 'cross: saint <this-or-that>'
SEVERAL ELEMENTS
      If there are several elements of a kind, e.g. 50 stars, use:
      stars: 50

      If the arrangement of the elements is special, you can use:
      stars: ring
SINGULAR/PLURAL
Use singular. See SEVERAL ELEMENTS for exceptions.
STARS
      Stars are 5-pointed if nothing else is mentioned.

      star: 4 points (white)
      star (green) <--- 5 points assumed
      star: 6 points (yellow)
      star: 6 points (yellow)

      If a flag has more than one star, the number can be specified in a separate keyword:

      stars: 50
UPPER/LOWER
      Keywords with 'upper ...' get sorted by 'upper', but the script deletes 'upper'.
      Use '... (upper)' instead.
      Similar case with 'lower'
YACHT
      yacht
       for flags showing a yacht
      yacht club
       for flags of such a club
      ensign: yacht
       for a variant national ensign used on yachts