Flag

The **flag** is the small square of color used to identify a site within the federation. Every site has its own flag - a unique color generated from the site's domain name. Flags appear throughout the fedwiki interface wherever a site needs to be identified at a glance.

## How Flags Are Generated

Flags are generated algorithmically from the site's domain name - the same domain always produces the same color. This means you don't choose your flag; it is derived. The consistency is intentional: it makes flags reliable identity markers across different browsers, sessions, and devices. If you see the same color, it is the same site.

A single owner can have many sites, and each site gets its own distinct flag. Two sites owned by the same person will have different flags because they have different domain names. The flag represents the **site**, not the owner.

## Where Flags Appear

Flags appear in several places across the fedwiki interface: - **Page title bar** - the flag of the page's home site appears alongside the title, marking whose copy you are reading - **Twins panel** - flags identify each site that carries a copy of the current page - **Journal** - fork entries in the journal show the flag of the site being forked from - **Neighborhood** - the neighborhood panel shows flags for all sites currently in range

## Hovering and Clicking

**Hover** over a flag to see the full domain name of the site it represents. This is useful in the twins panel where several flags may appear together and you want to know which site is which without navigating away.

**Click** a flag to get closer to the site - navigating toward it and adding it to your lineup. Clicking a flag in the twins panel opens that site's copy of the page, allowing you to compare it with your own. Clicking the flag in a page title navigates to that site's Welcome Visitors page.

## Flags and Site Identity

Because flags are stable and algorithmically derived, they become recognisable over time. Regular readers of a neighborhood learn to associate colors with sites and authors - a particular shade of blue or green becomes shorthand for a familiar voice. This is informal but real: flags are the federation's equivalent of a byline, accumulated through repeated exposure rather than explicit labeling.

Flags also make attribution visible in the journal. When a page has been forked across several sites, the journal trail shows a sequence of flags - a visual history of where the content has traveled and which communities have adopted it.

## See - Twins and the Neighborhood - Fork and Fork Button - Journal