It's definitely subjective. Case in point, I think the Seychelles' flag is great where as New Brunswick's is quite messy if still decent. The latter is helped by not going overboard on colors, though I think it'd be more cohesive if the ship followed the pattern that the lion and the water followed (single-colored design on single-colored background). The lion is yellow on red and the water is white on blue, but the ship is all over the place with red flags and a white, outlined sail.
Reddit has already showed how much it cares about its users. We've tried going private, we've tried going restricted, we've tried going NSFW, we've tried spamming John Oliver posts, we've tried asking nicely in open letters, and Reddit has consistently given its community the middle finger in every single situation. And now that we've seen the admins change rules, remove mods, ban users, and break privacy laws, the plan is to just do the exact same thing they did before in the hopes that it'll work this time?
If a blackout on the platform was going to get Reddit to change its mind, that would've happened already. The time to induce change was two weeks ago, when the protests had lots of momentum. But it didn't work, and trying to make another stand now is going to be even less effective.
I still think that the best move is to leave Reddit for alternatives like /kbin, Lemmy, and Squabbles. Thankfully, some of the comments on the /r/ModCoord announcement are also saying this. Instead of desperately trying to cling to a platform that doesn't care about you, go somewhere else.
I'm definitely not advocating for changing the flag. If a flag is distinct and loved by the people it represents, then changing it would likely do more harm than good. That being said, I think the original flag is an overly counterchanged mess that looks decent only in the context of the mostly bad competition.
Maybe make the green a bit darker. I get that you're going for grass and a river, but that's conveyed with any green, and I think a dark green would go a lot better with the lighter blue.
As another commenter mentioned, the river would be better as a simple diagonal stripe. You don't need a complicated river shape to convey a river.
This may be limited by your drawing skill, but I think the emblem should be more complex. Right now, it's in this area where it's not simple enough (i.e., it's not just a flat, one-color shield) to match with the rest of the flag but it's not complex enough to really feel like an emblem. It stands out but doesn't quite have the complexity to warrant it, if that makes any sense.
The emblem might be better off in the middle, left, or upper left. Symbols on flags tend to go there instead of on the right, where it'll be flapping in the wind more.
Very interesting flag. I think it'd look better with a simpler color scheme on the device and a bit more variety to the background, but it definitely has a pretty distinctive icon.
Glad you like it! I made a whole set of redesigns for about all of the U.S state & territorial flags, some of which I've already posted here and on vexillology@kbin.social.
The new green and the emblem on the left are definitely improvements. While I get wanting to convey an island, I think you could still do that with a more geometric shape. Maybe a stripe that splits into a circle or diamond in the middle. If you're going to have a line going diagonally across the flag, I think it's best to have it be simple and geometric.
I agree: migrating a community is really challenging. I'm a subreddit moderator myself, and when we were initially discussing this stuff, there was a lot of doubt because of how daunting the task is. Mods from other subs see the challenges as reason to not even try. However, I think it's important that people at least make the attempt given the current state of Reddit.
Something that I think people should keep in mind is that this stuff is gradual and doesn't have to happen all at once, especially since the alternatives aren't fully polished yet. Even just establishing a small, active community outside of Reddit (like people have been doing with all these fediverse communities) is a big win.
Some of the best things we can do right now are
providing feedback and suggestions for alternatives
making sure alternatives are approachable (/m/quickstart is great)
simply being active and providing stuff to do here
100% agree. I don't have pine trees on all my New England flag redesigns (just New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Maine), but I might make versions where all of them do, maybe with the same pine tree design.
Most of the symbolism is taken from the original flag. The left part is a simplified version of the Crossland banner (used by Marylanders who supported the Confederacy in the U.S. Civil War), and the right part is a simplified version of Lord Baltimore's banner (used by those who supported the Union). Together, they represent the reconciliation of Marylanders following the Civil War. Unique to this redesign, the right part also has seven stripes, symbolizing Maryland's status as the 7th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.