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Comment by xfax | Hacker News Reader

Great effort!

Unfortunately, you're likely to get a bunch of requests for changes since there are a bunch of places where geo-political boundaries are murky at best.

For example, your map for India (https://github.com/djaiss/mapsicon/blob/master/asia/in/1024....) shows the boundary as the line of control with Pakistan and China, instead of the boundary which India claims (based on pre-war demarcations, http://www.mapsofindia.com/images2/india-map.jpg)

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Oh man I know. I really struggled for some maps... should I include them or not? It depends on the current world policy, if the world is at peace or at war.

Anyway, for most countries, it's still ok :-)

It'd be a fun project to change political boundaries, location names (Sea of Japan / East Sea), and map orientation (who is at the center?) based on each visitor's geolocation.

The world: according to you.

That's just going to end with one-continent maps for most people.

Google maps already does that. [1]

[1] http://www.menasborders.com/menasborders/news/article/871/Go...

If someone uses that map of India in any application or project targeting India, it is bound to attract a sea of protests. I didn't even know about the existence of this map till college and Google. Overwhelming majority of Indians don't know about your map and would likely see it as justifying Pakistani aggression.

The British Library did an amazing exhibition of maps over history with their role in politics and propaganda a while back. My favourite was a bit of middles ages bravado that was about 3x3m, with meticulous detail, showing one country having completely swallowed another, this was was sent to the king of that country as a warning. The book of the exhibition is still available, I highly recommend it. http://www.bl.uk/magnificentmaps/

Rule #1 of maps:

There are no unpolitical maps.

Simple solution to such requests: tell them to fork.

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