The Aquiline Comment Country Flags plugin affords a commenter on a GeneratePress blog the option to affix a country flag to the right of their name in the comment header. A new, optional field is added below the existing fields in the Comment submit form. The commenter is presented with an alphabetical list of the countries which the site administrator has enabled in the plugin settings panel.
The plugin requires the active parent theme to be GeneratePress v3.1.0 or later, since it relies on a custom action hook introduced with that version. The commenter’s selection is “remembered” in the same way as the name and email, i.e., through use of a cookie. The flag images are in the public domain, and are provided by Flagpedia.net. That site works closely with Wikimedia Commons to maintain an up-to-date, worldwide store of “official” flags.
In cases where a visitor to the site is unfamiliar with a displayed flag, and a pointer such as a mouse is available, they can hover over the flag to reveal the country name. A long press on the flag in some mobile browsers, e.g. Android Chrome, has been seen to produce a popup with the country name at the top.
One limitation is that the Country selection and flag display are not available to logged-in users. Since such users’ metadata (name and email) are handled internally by WordPress, it was decided that support for the Country field in this case would be unduly complex. The logged-in user would just need to log out, then revisit the blog to make their flag selection.
Enabling the flag display via explicit user selection, rather than via IP-based geolocation, has several advantages. It affords greater privacy, and is immune to “false” readings that could occur when a VPN or proxy is in use. Also, a commenter (e.g. someone working abroad) may choose to identify with a country other than that from which their internet connection originates.
Credits
- Flag Images: Flagpedia.net
- License: Public Domain