Wikipedia:Top 10 myths about the Wikipedia Syria war map

This page applies to all detailed war maps on Wikipedia. Try Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history for discussion about how these maps work. For a list of such maps, see Category:War map templates.

Here are the top 10 myths about the Wikipedia Syria war map.

The Wikipedia map gives me life & motivates me to carry on the fight! class=notpageimage| . Myth 1: You can help your favorite side by editing the map to exaggerate their territorial control. Fighters on the ground are not looking at the Wikipedia map. You will not help them a bit. You will just succeed in getting yourself blocked for point of view pushing.

Myth 2: if I find a news report that says a town is held by some faction, I can just make the change on the map. Not necessarily. The source has to be reliable for that specific edit (see rules of map).

class=notpageimage| . Myth 3: The map is great and everyone likes it. The article ancestor of the map (List of areas currently held by Syrian opposition) was deleted a week after it was created. The map was deleted an hour after it was added (inside an article) for the first time with the edit summary “absolutely not”. It was deleted again with the edit summary “not even remotely practical; no consensus to use it”. After this, it was deleted a total of 5 times. The associated template was nominated for deletion in 2014 and the associated article was nominated for deletion in 2015. Finally, a prominent arbitrator (and top 100 Wikipedians with the most edits) once commented on the map by writing: “It looks awful... The legend is overcomplicated, there are blinking gifs, I can't figure out what's what. There seems to be some sort of floating image in the center of the map; I don't know what it is. How is this map good? And that's not even taking into account the matter of sourcing, which is not up to snuff with WP:RS.” All this reminds us not to take anything for granted and to keep in mind that the map will stay on Wikipedia only as long as we respect the rules.

Jimmy Wales Jimmy Wales In Wikipedia, we don’t copy from online maps. Online maps copy from us! class=notpageimage| . Myth 4: if I see a good map online that has different colors from our map, I can just make the change on our map. Copying from maps is ”strictly prohibited” (see Wikipedia:Top 10 reasons why copying from maps is strictly prohibited on the Wikipedia Syria war map).

Myth 5: The map cannot be deleted simply because a user’s request for an update on the talk page was not fulfilled. The infamous user:SyrianObserver2015 tried exactly this and ended up being indefinitely blocked for it! He first nominated the map for deletion. After the failure of his nomination, he came back to the talk page and started threatening editors by saying that if they don’t make the edits he wants them to make on the map, he will nominate it for deletion again. Then he threatens again by saying: “I am very close to nominating this map again.” And again by saying: “So you can start to change or you can see your map nominated for deletion every week untill it is gone.”

Reliable source 1 Use to edit Reliable source 2 Synthesis Synthesize! class=notpageimage| . Myth 6: If I find 2 reliable sources about a town saying different things then I can choose to use the one I like the most. No. Both sources should be taken into account and synthesized.

“I’m a military base icon. Do I really look like a phallic symbol?!” "I'm not what you think I am! Shame on you!" "I'm an icon for contested towns. I have nothing to do with Las Vegas!" "I don't know why you are looking at me!" class=notpageimage| . Myth 7: The map has nothing to do with sex or Las Vegas. A prolific editor in the area of Syria war once commented after seeing the first version of the map that it had more flashing lights than the city of Las Vegas and that the military base icon looked like a phallic symbol!

Myth 8: I am allowed to push my point of view as long as I do not break the WP:1RR rule. Item 3 of the Rules for editing the map says that “WP:POV pushing and intentional misinterpretation of sources will not be tolerated. If you are not sure about what the source is saying (or its reliability), post it on the talk page first so that it would be discussed.”

We have full control over New York City! class=notpageimage| . Myth 9: If a reliable media writes: “… army source said troops took Hollywood village…” then I can mark Hollywood village as troops held. In this case, the reliable media is not confirming the news. It is only the word of the army, which is not reliable. Therefore, Hollywood should not be marked as troops held.

A lot of people A lot of people A lot of people A lot of people 2004 census population Small village Large city class=notpageimage| . Myth 10: Town size on map is based on the appreciation of the editor in terms of the actual size of the town. Dot size for cities & towns is based on the population number in the 2004 official census (see here for more details).