File talk:Continental models.gif

"Australia" should probably be relabelled "Australasia" - "Australia" at its widest definition covers only mainland Australia and Tasmania. (unsigned edit by 110.32.150.157, September 16, 2010)

Indeed. Or, better still, relabel it "Oceania". The name "Australia" today never applies to the Pacific. Nobody would say that New Zealand or Papua New Guinea, for example, are part of Australia. Aridd (talk) 10:44, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

Subtle bias?

Why is frame 4 of the gif shown for 4500 ms while the rest are shown for 4000 ms? That seems odd... 67.166.35.150 (talk) 00:34, 22 September 2011 (UTC)

Must be racism.--86.6.234.40 (talk) 23:13, 14 October 2011 (UTC)

Pacific islands

Why are the various islands of the Pacific colored the same as the Australian continent? They aren't part of it or any other continent. While they may be treated along with Australia in geography courses, I don't think they are actually ever considered to be part of the same continent. --Khajidha (talk) 18:26, 5 December 2011 (UTC)

You're quite right; it's absurd. Nobody ever considers that Tonga or New Zealand or PNG are "part of Australia". If one wants a common term to distinguish them from other regions, the habitual term would be "Oceania". Aridd (talk) 10:00, 6 December 2011 (UTC)

I've now restored the version which uses the name "Oceania". If Corticopious still disagrees, we can take it to moderation, but the file's edit history combined with this talk page make it clear there's a consensus against the incorrect use of "Australia". Aridd (talk) 10:10, 6 December 2011 (UTC)

Further, see the article Australia (continent), which explains: New Zealand is not on the same continental shelf and so is not part of the continent of Australia but is part of the submerged continent Zealandia. Zealandia and Australia together are part of the wider region known as Oceania or Australasia.
The article on Australasia seems to suggest that word "Australasia" usually refers either to Australia and New Zealand alone, or to Australia, New Zealand and Melanesia, excluding the Polynesian and Micronesian islands.
The article on Oceania reminds us: In the geopolitical conception used by the United Nations, International Olympic Committee, and many atlases, Oceania includes Australia and the nations of the Pacific from Papua New Guinea east, but not the Malay Archipelago or Indonesian New Guinea.
Therefore I would humbly suggest that the term we're looking for on this map is "Oceania". To label Fiji or Tonga as "part of Australia" is quite patently wrong, by any definition. Aridd (talk) 10:21, 6 December 2011 (UTC)

You actually took the exact opposite course as what I was suggesting. Now the name on the map doesn't match the text of the article it is being used in. In the continent article the continents are named following general English language conventions as: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. Why not change the name back to Australia and just leave the islands uncolored? I really don't understand this urge to have every little speck of dust island be listed as "part of" a continent. In my conception, no island is considered part of a continent only associated with it out of convenience. --Khajidha (talk) 19:29, 7 December 2011 (UTC)

The map is actually used in several articles on several language versions of Wikipedia. And it depends on your definition of a "continent"; the word is used with several meanings. As the article "Continent" notes, for instance, "The terms Oceania or Australasia are sometimes substituted for Australia to denote a continent encompassing the Australian mainland and various islands of the Pacific Ocean not part of other continents. For example, the Atlas of Canada names Oceania,[14] as does the model taught in Italy, Greece[20] and in Latin America, Spain and Portugal." It depends whether you mean "continent" in a geopolitical or purely geological sense; both meanings are common (one being more dominant than the other in certain countries). In any case, it was urgent to correct the map one way or another, since it was blatantly wrong. What exactly should figure on the map is up for further discussion - as long as we all agree that the previous version (which labelled Fiji, Tonga and Samoa as part of Australia) was unacceptable. Aridd (talk) 12:55, 9 December 2011 (UTC)

Country outlines

Why does this map have them? If they are to stay, shouldn't the country outlines in Africa be updated to include South Sudan? --Khajidha (talk) 20:27, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

Mediation has been requested

These continued mutual reverts are getting us nowhere... And since it seems the issue is not going to be discussed on the talk page, I've requested mediation, here. Aridd (talk) 00:30, 17 December 2011 (UTC)