I really hate to do this but I have a slight issue.
I have on occasions played the "Mash" games and whenever I play the subject "Northern Ireland" many of the questions refer to the Irish Republic.
I know that in the whole scale of things it is not that important but as a resident of Northern Ireland it is a bit of a peeve with me.
Again sorry to moan.

Thanks for the feedback-- there's a catch with our Northern Ireland subcategory in that it's buried a bit deeper in our general Ireland Geography section, and some of the quizzes inside seem to pertain to both. I've pushed this towards our Geography editors to see what we can do to fix this up a bit, but we have to bear in mind that it will likely mean 'Northern Ireland' has a few less quizzes.

Which is a coincidence for anyone who plays the TRIC Authoring game right now.

There were only two quizzes that had a mix, so I've moved them to the more general "Ireland" subcategory.

I'm a little confused though - I remember putting a whole series of Northern Ireland quizzes online about a year or so ago, and can't seem to find them. I'm going to have to search a little deeper, I think.

Mixed Ireland General?

http://www.funtrivia.com/ql.cfm?cat=19764

OK, I'm not going crazy. They're in General -> Mixed -> Mixed UK -> Mixed Northern Ireland.

So, anyone looking for more Northern Ireland quizzes to play, there's a nice sized category for you.

Which leads me to think that the Northern Ireland quizzes that are currently a subset of Ireland in the Geography category, should really be a subset of UK. And there should be some more links in there so people can find everything.

I'd appreciate some weighing in by any Northern Irish players - would you look under Ireland, or would you look under UK, for quizzes? Which is the most useful and respectful categorization?

agony, Scotland and Wales have their own country category. So should Northern Ireland.
Thanks

Agony - Thanks you for agreeing with me on this matter. I tried to post a Northern Ireland based quiz under UK but the editor of the quiz insisted that it should be placed in the Ireland category. As far as I was taught the definition of the UK is "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".

Thank you for all the work going into sorting this trivial issue out.

It seems clear to me that Northern Ireland quizzes should be in the UK category. It is a matter of sovereign states, not geography.
Otherwise you would have to reclassify any quizzes about the Indonesian province on the island of New Guinea under Papua New Guinea instead of Indonesia.
Might as well classify Alaska in the Canada category while you're at it ;-)

OK, this has been really helpful.

I may approach this slightly differently in the General category than in Geography because they were set up differently initially, but I agree that whatever we did with Scotland and Wales, is what we should do with Northern Ireland.

I'll try to get to this tomorrow.

I really respect mega44's sensitivity on the subject, but equally many of us on the site who also live in the North of Ireland feel passionately about our identity as Irish nationalists. We live - sadly - in a divided society, and the half of our society (give or take a couple of percentage points either way) who are nationalists identify strongly with Ireland (and most definitely not with the UK).

I appreciate that Funtrivia isn't the United Nations and can't be expected to draw subtle diplomatic lines around political/cultural sensitivities, but it should at least appreciate that the 'peeve' mega44 refers to in his original post cuts both ways.

In checking my own quizzes I've just realised that my 2010 quiz 'Belfast: A "Who's Who?" of the Troubles' was recategorised in 2016 to 'UK Government'. CHANGE IT BACK (please!). In answer to the question posed by agony, I would NEVER look for an Irish quiz (North or South) under 'UK'.

Is it a reasonable and practical compromise for quiz writers covering the North of Ireland to be asked where they want their quiz to be categorised (UK or Ireland), or to request a recategorisation if they feel there's a problem?

Northern Ireland is part of the UK. You can't change facts to suit your personal beliefs. Quizzes about the geography of Northern Ireland belong in a sub category under the general heading of UK along with the other constituent nations.

If the quiz covers the whole of the island of Ireland, I'd expect to find it under Ireland, with an introduction which makes it clear that it covers both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

A link to quizzes about the ROI on the Northern Ireland page would seem to be a good idea.

Rossian's response encapsulates the whole issue of a lack of respect - of British people telling Irish people what the 'facts' are about their identity as a nation. The North of Ireland is part of Ireland - that's as much a fact to me as the contrary is a 'fact' to Rossian. Of course one difference between us is that I live there.

As an Irish nationalist I endeavour to respect the cultural values and beliefs of unionists in the North of Ireland who feel themselves to be British, or feel 'Northern Ireland' to be part of the 'UK'. The tournament - VIP Quiz - that I run tries to encapsulate that respect. My suggestion about allowing authors to request the categorisation for their quiz that feels most appropriate to them was an attempt to put that respect into action. The response to that from Rossian is as disrespectful and boorish as the attempt by some editors a few years ago (unsuccessful, thankfully) to insist that North of Ireland nationalists should have the union jack logo on their profile page!

There are precious few (and diminishing) 'facts' about nation status these days. Is Kosovo part of Serbia or an independent state? Is the Crimea part of Ukraine or Russia? Ossetia? Catalonia? The list could go on. Funtrivia needn't embroil itself in these complexities, but it seems reasonable to respect the sensitivities on both sides of disputed nationhood, and see how (manageably) they can be accommodated.

This is not a forum for political debate. I do not consider I was 'boorish' in stating that Northern Ireland is recognised as being part of the UK. The country in which we both live is called the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

OK, it seems that the question isn't closed yet.

The reason I asked, initially, was that I don't want to step on any more toes than necessary. So it's important that all sides be heard from.

We'd be fools to think that this isn't a contentious issue, though, and the last thing needed here is a heated political debate around placement of quizzes. I think the best way to keep things civil is for anyone commenting to make their own case without attacking the case put forward by anyone else.

And I might as well say right here and now that whatever we end up doing, someone is going to be unhappy about it. Many years of people who know a lot more about the issues than I do, working for a perfect solution, have failed to come up with one, and so I certainly won't be solving the issue here.

So, we won't be able to make everyone happy, but we can at least let everyone have their say.

My initial response to dsimpy's suggestion was "how can that work?", but the more I think about it the more I like it. I wonder if it could be tried?

A problem that I see with this, as an editor, is that some years down the road, another editor who wasn't in on this conversation (or one with a short memory) will see what appears to be a quiz in the "wrong" place and simply move it to the perceived "right" place. This would be done in the course of "housekeeping" and would have no malicious intent, simply a desire to keep things tidy by keeping quizzes on the same subject in the same place.

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Spanishliz (Editor in Movies, Geography, Brain Teasers and Crosswords)

This discussion was about the Geography category, but there are other categories with national/regional subcategories too.

In as far as they maybe have not done so far, I suggest that the editors of the various categories with national/regional subcategories (Geography, History, Literature, People, General Knowledge...) confer with each other about the correct manner of categorizing.
After all, when Northern Ireland is put under UK in Geography, it seems logical to do the same in for instance General Knowledge.

My suggestion IS a genuine attempt to make every quiz writer of North of Ireland/Northern Ireland quizzes happy.

I fully understand and support mega44's wish for his quizzes not to be categorised under Ireland if he prefers UK and/or Northern Ireland. I simply want the same consideration (and it is about respect) to be extended to quiz writers from the North of Ireland who want their quizzes categorised under Ireland.

How about another idea? What if we put Northern Ireland as its own subcategory in Geography and then placed a link in both the UK and the Ireland category?

I think there are good arguments for it to be seen in either place and there are very viable and good Geography quizzes possible both for the island of Ireland (comprising both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland) as well as some that treat Northern Ireland in its UK context.

For other categories - such as Government - the assignment of Northern Ireland is usually a more clear-cut case. Geographically, it really is both UK and Ireland and maybe the best way would be to take a neutral stance.

Is FT going to include East Timor under Indonesia now, just because Indonesian nationalists think it should be part of Indonesia?

A sensible solution would be to to have the quizzes under UK unless they are geographic quizzes covering the whole of the island of Ireland, which I think is what others are proposing as well.

Why not have a British Isles category? It could cover both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland as well as England, Scotland and Wales. It could also include a more general United Kingdom section, for quizzes which covered one or more of the constituent parts of the UK; and also an island of Ireland category for quizzes which cover both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The British Isles would also be the right place to look for quizzes on both the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, which don't belong under the UK.

I'm with Wesley on his idea, mainly.

Just to show I am allowed a little say in here....I was born in Northern Ireland, my father was Southern Irish, My mother Spanish and I was educated in England and Canada.

I usually refer to myself as British (sometimes it is easier) and hold a British Passport but may hold an Irish Passport if I wish.

I have many friends from N.Ireland, went to school there and consider themselves Irish, which they are.

If England,Scoland, Wales, Ireland (Republic of) are going to have their own sections then why not Northern Ireland

Peace and Happiness to all.

I have no problem with Northern Ireland being part of the geographical island of Ireland. My intention was not to bring the political issues of Northern Ireland to the fore (God knows we who live here have had enough of that).

But my point was that if there is a category called "Northern Ireland" it should be for Northern |Ireland. .

I have no problem with the "Ireland" category including Northern Ireland.

|I am just trying to keep to the facts and not opinions.

Regards