-Astoria- wrote:but that'd be a bit too repetitive.
correct.
Trotterdam wrote:If you're posting somewhere that allows [img] tags, you can just use those (no need for offsite image sharing sites, you can just link to the NationStates server directly), although it doesn't let you resize the flag to fit the environment.
I think you realize the major drawback to this but I will complete the list
1) The size of the image will not fit inline with the text and would completely break the entire formatting of the factbook
2) The flag would not update when the user updates the flag as each flag upload URL is unique and this image link would break anytime the nation changes its flag in the future
3) The image link would also break if the nation CTE's, and would not restore itself if the nation refounded
4) The flag would not scale with the text around it
5) The flag would not natively link to the nations page
Using gameside tags like [nation] are powerful as they will always adapt to the game. If the URL's change in game the tag updates to address them. The nations flag changes, the tag updates it. Thats why its imperative that a [nation] or similar tag is used.
Comfed wrote:I think I read somewhere that a similar tag, [nation=noname] was implemented, and deleted shortly after because people were using it to spam.
I'm not sure what context it could be used to spam as the size of the flag while using the [nation] tag is approximately 20x12 pixels. If "noname" was being used simply to return the flag as a way to overcome issue #2 above but returning a full size image of the flag then perhaps that could be a concern but thats not what the request is for here. The request is for the [nation] tag to have an option to display the flag only
In the exact size it currently displays inline with the text when using the standard [nation] tag. I'm not really sure what concern there would be with it being used in place of an [img] tag since we already have an [img] tag and a [url] tag that can put any arbitrary image and link together gameside as is. Having an option in the [nation] tag that displays only the flag image doesn't provide a capability that didn't already exist from a 'spam' perspective it just provides a way for formatting to stand the test of time.
If the spam concern is to do with notifications in factbooks or specifically RMB messages - i dont see how its really a concern as its not really any different than the current [nation] tag but you could make it a [flag] tag instead and have no notifications on flag tag and make it such that the flag tag could only be used in Factbooks, not on the RMB. Future developments could have [flag=tiny] [flag=small] [flag=default] where tiny = 20x12, small = 50x30 and default = 107x71 with transparent space filling out those max dimensions if the flag is of an off-ratio.