User:Tradedia

The creation of these Wikipedia maps was in reaction to the unreliability of existing online war maps. See the section below for an illustration of this unreliability. Our war maps have gained a worldwide reputation for reliability and quality. They have been used by many media organizations. For example, our Template:Russo-Ukrainian War detailed map is being used in March and April 2022 by a leading French newspaper, Le Parisien. Also, the same map was used on the state-owned news TV network, France 24 in March 2022.

Timeline of online Syria war map makers’ fails

This does not include the bias of the map maker (which is the attempt to overstate the gains of the side it prefers or understate the gains of the side it opposes). These cases are considered routine and everyone is aware of them. A “fail” is defined by a map maker overstating the gains of the side it opposes or understating the gains of the side it prefers. These instances show that the map maker is simply incompetent (as opposed to biased). We also define as a “fail”, instances where a map maker copies from another map. I only include well known map makers.

• 12 September 2014 – Pro-gov Peto Lucem had the area around Al-Tulaysiyah marked as rebel held (
  you can read all about it in the archives of a talk page
  ). However, I was able to find a source that showed that in reality it was gov held. We informed Peto Lucem of his mistake and he corrected it.
• 8 December 2014 – Pro-opp DeSyracuse map had many towns around the strategic Abu al-Duhur airbase marked wrong for a while. He marked them under gov control when they were attacked by the gov but then did not take into account the fact that it was a hit and run attack and that gov troops left them a day later. See
  here
  for details.
• 8 December 2014 – Pro-opp DeSyracuse’s map dated 8 December 2014 uses a pro-gov source (al-Baath brigades) for a pro-gov update in the al-Safira area. (see
  here
  for where this was pointed out to the Wikipedia community).
• 8 January 2015 – Pro-opp DeSyracuse’s map dated 8-january-2015 shows Kafr Shams gov-held. This was before the large gov offensive (beginning February). So we know it was wrong since one of the gov offensive’s objectives was to capture Kafr Shams. (see
  here
  for where this was pointed out to the Wikipedia community).
• 13 March 2015 – DeSyracuse
  admits that his main source
  … is the Wikipedia map!
• April 2015 – Pro- opposition
  here and here
  .
• 20 June 2015 – Al Masdar started a new map obviously based on copying the Wikipedia map without even giving us credit! When looking at the map, we can clearly recognize that they are using our template map: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Syria_location_map3.svg. They are also using the same kind of dots for towns and the same exact colors. They also have the same border posts with similar icon shape (not a standard shape, so they clearly copied it from us). So they obviously started by copying (literally print screen) our map then made modifications to it. (see
  here
  for where this was pointed out to the Wikipedia community).
• 30 August 2015 – Pro-opp DeSyracuse had the town of Mahajjah gov-held for many months. However, the town was rebel-held as indicated by all news sources, such as SOHR, Iran Press TV, Bosnjo, FSA website… For more details, see
  here
  .
• 8 September 2015 – Pro-gov Islamic World News had the town of Sabsaba rebel-held. However, a commenter to the map noted that the two major media reporting on the war had indicated it was gov held. (see
  here
  for where this was pointed out to the Wikipedia community).
• 4 October 2015 – Pro-gov Islamic World News had a land connection between Beit Jin area and Quneitra. However, a commenter to the map noted that: “According to maps from rebels themselves (that SF, Jaish Islam put out) there is no land connection between Beit Jin area and Quneitra.” The next day, Islamic World News corrects his map.
• 15 December 2016 – IHS map in BBC (considered reliable) has its layover displaced relative to the background in the north-east direction by a significant margin (about 1.5 km). Therefore, none of what the map shows is accurate. For more details, see here.

Favorite Commons pictures

• Category: Map_icons
• Category: Railway line (Bahnstrecke BSicon)
• Category: Dam locator

Favorite templates & code

• Wikipedia:Line-break handling
• Help:Section#Table of contents (TOC)
• View traffic an article received each day in a given month since Dec 2007.
• Template:Location map+
• Category:Dynamic_map_templates
• Ibn Battuta map templates
• User talk:Newsboy39#Inkscape lesson
• Template:Outdent
• Special:WhatLinksHere

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