Available flags and countries on chess.com

Hello,

First of all sorry in case I'm posting this in the wrong place. This is my first time using this forums.

I can't help noticing something very surprising for me when you see the list of countries available here in chess.com (the country you set in your profile, I mean). I can see that Basque Country, Canary Islands, Catalonia, and Galicia are available. As far as I know, they are simply regions of Spain, and do not constitute and independent country or have special status such as some other regions in the world as Greenland or Faroe Islands to name a few. I know, however, that in all that regions, some kind of conflict exist between those who want to be independent and those who want to remain inside Spain. Specially evident for the cases of Basque Country and Catalonia. 

So basically, my question is: Is there any special reason for those "countries" to be eligible in chess.com? Is then chess.com indirectly supporting independence movements of those regions? Because as far as I can see, nothing similar happens with some other regions like "Quebec" in Canada where some kind of independence feeling also exist. 

Please do not get me wrong. It's not my intention to start any sort of political discussion here. I'm just curious about this fact and I would love if some admin could give me an answer to this.

Thanks in advance!  

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/community/countries-and-profile

The previous thread on this very topic was interesting. An attempt to explain was offered by CEO Erik but the thread ended up in flames anyway.

 Thanks for the information, I'll have a look at those posts.  

I find, however, some incoherence with the CEO answer, as I said other regions like Quebec in Canada also have similar independence feeling and it's not available to choose it in chess.com. So honestly, I find it hard to believe that they offer "as many options as reasonable".  This selective attitude make me think that perhaps there is something more behind. Hopefully I'm wrong, otherwise it would be very sad news.

I personally believe that chess.com should stick to official countries. Otherwise issues can arise with people feeling offended. Identity feeling are so wide that you simply can't cover them all, so you'll always end up discriminating somebody else, specially when there are confronted feelings like in these cases. Sticking to the official and widely accepted countries completely avoid this problem, and it is very easy to justify. Nobody should feel offended for that. After all, like it or not, but those regions are still Spain. And if those regions eventually separate from Spain, then add them here too. But right now I believe it's just controversial and unnecessary. 

Please note that I don't want to enter a discussion about if those regions should become independent or not, I'm focusing my point on the specific decision of chess.com to include them as available countries and why I think it's a mistake. Just to avoid any misunderstanding.  

The obvious answer is that one or more of the mods is a Catalonian separatist - I've seen far more "Catalonian" flags than any other non-country on here.

Hello,

I would like to re-open this topic, as the list of available countries is the same as described in the first post. For whatever reason, only non-countries in Spain (Catalonia, Canary Islands, Galicia, Basque Country) are there, but no others such as Bayern (Germany) or Quebec (Canada). Can somebody explain what's the reason for this?

The answer was given by the owner in the linked thread, who obviously didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition.

Sometimes the answer isn't what you want or like. When that happens, you ask the question again, hoping for a different answer. The owners/operators are allowed to be political, customers are not. That's how it works. If you dont like the answer, or you want to be political, take it someplace where the owners/operators dont have to listen to you. They are not in the business of listening to customer complaints.

I thought Spain encouraged autonomous communities and its legal basis for doing so was somewhat unique.  Has that changed?

You can see that the flag I have chosen is the Irish Tricolour because i live in County Down, Northern Ireland. Why is there not the option for others living in Northern Ireland to choose the flag of Northern Ireland ?

A**pain is different.

Thanks a lot for not answering my question and for answering questions I didn't ask. Next time you need to release your pent-up frustrations please do come preach again.

I don't know. Why is there not Northern Ireland? I see Scotland, England and Wales.

NI uses the Union Flag, so it is there.

There should be a flag for Kurdistan 

That's not correct. At least that's not how chess.com came up with its countries list. There are number of unusual countries listed.

As Erik explained a long time ago, they did what seemed reasonable. 

OK - I consider this post ended.

PS - Don't forget the homeland flag of the Umpaloompa's that Willie Wonka liberated and Charlie Bucket took under his protectorate in the fair country of Chocotopia Candy Land. This post has gone down the same tube as Agustus Gloop. Nighty night everyone.

Scottland, Wales, Catalonia, etc. all have their flags but not Quebec. It's really sad since we popularized the trend of voting for independence. It's almost a tragedy in my opinion. It would only be fair to add Quebec. In canadian clubs, a lot of people uses the "Martinique flag" instead, which is, ironically, also not a country but a region of France. I mean god damn. You ever heard of that place?. Did the developpers really forget Quebec THAT much? Or are we just denied because we voted for independence at only 49,4% in 1995? Was it not legitimate enought?

I don't want to be that guy, but it's just straight up common sense at this point. It's just fair

I request a stateless flag, maybe a black flag for anarchism. Even better, a black and gold flag for anarcho-capitalism. Maybe they should allow custom flags, and not be so statist about it.

I have been requesting myself for ages but Chess.com does not allow any new flags anymore which is a nonsense. Indeed, the flags of some regions with strong nationalism like Catalonia and the Basque Country have been allowed while others like the Quebec flag, which State almost became an independent country in 1995 was not allowed. I hope Chees.com will change his policy and go back to its old one where one could ask for a flag and get it.