I don’t want my map showing this farce of gulf of America. I’d like it to show the correct name, Gulf of Mexico. I’d like to change it back?
iPhone XR, iOS 16
Lawrence Finch wrote:
It’s not actually even the middle; the US “owns” less than half of the gulf; about 45%. The balance is divided between Mexico and Cuba (and a couple of small countries).
In the government's defence, the executive order clearly describes this, "rename as the “Gulf of America” the U.S. Continental Shelf area bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and extending to the seaward boundary with Mexico and Cuba in the area formerly named as the Gulf of Mexico."
This next sentence is interesting too, "The Secretary shall subsequently update the GNIS to reflect the renaming of the Gulf and remove all references to the Gulf of Mexico from the GNIS, consistent with applicable law."
You can lookup these features on the GNIS. This is clearly a US-centric database. It ignores the rest of the world. When I search for "Bay of Fundy", I get a result that is most definitely NOT the Bay of Fundy.
But of all the ultimate ironies here, if you check the actual continental shelf on the US government's own Continental Shelf project and compare that to the actual label position of "Gulf of America" on both Google Maps and Apple Maps, you can see that both Google and Apple have done it wrong. They are both labelling the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. By that I mean the actual label position is just outside of the boundary of the Gulf of America.
But of course, everyone is trying to make a political point by virtue signalling how much they don't like President Trump. That's a total waste of time. Anyone who has actually read the executive order, and can read a map, can make a strong geographic point that both Google and Apple have labelled the map incorrectly. Now this is not the Google Support Community, so I don't care about Google. How should it look in Apple Maps?
Well, we can start by looking at how the US government itself labels the map. Don't bother checking the GNIS. They have a note stating they haven't fixed it yet. But we can check that State Department site above. This is what their map looks like:
This is correct, folks! For all the trash talk of the US government, they actually can read their own laws and a map. Go figure.
But Apple needs our help. We can overlay the correct government map on top of Apple Maps to see the problem:
This is how it should be labelled on Apple Maps:
(This is just an example. My labels aren't correct either but I'm constrained by transparency and other labels. But this is the right idea.)
If anyone wants to file a bug report citing this correct geographical information, you have my full support.
Histrionic….possibly, but we’ve (the world in general) had consensus on the name of the gulf since the 17th century. I’m only matching the energy of the person who felt the need to arbitrarily change history because he thought he could.
ccarp21 wrote:
Histrionic….possibly, but we’ve (the world in general) had consensus on the name of the gulf since the 17th century. I’m only matching the energy of the person who felt the need to arbitrarily change history because he thought he could.
I know it’s satisfying to focus on the small stuff, but there are much bigger issues that than the label that appears on a map.
ccarp21 wrote:
Histrionic….possibly, but we’ve (the world in general) had consensus on the name of the gulf since the 17th century. I’m only matching the energy of the person who felt the need to arbitrarily change history because he thought he could.
Except that person isn't here to see what you have to say. Lots of bodies of water have different names depending on what country makes the map. This is such a trivial thing. And a distraction (intentional?) from the really important stuff.
Find an issue that actually matters and call you senators, your representatives and let them know how you feel.
ccarp21 wrote:
I’m only matching the energy of the person who felt the need to arbitrarily change history because he thought he could.
Whether or not you agree with the action, it's obvious that he could make this change. He ordered the change and it has been done. Nothing you can say or do will change that.
I'm not just trying to argue pedantically here. This is a user-to-user support forum for Apple products. Of all the people in the world, we have the most experience with people who disagree with the action of a specific powerful entity and feel the need to come to these forums to complain about it. We can't force the US government to change any more than we can force Apple to change. So why do people come here to complain? Do they think Apple will see and change its mind? Do they think US cabinet secretaries are trolling these forums to evaluate public opinion?
The most we can do is provide suggestions on how to have a better experience. In many cases, that means simply ignoring the things that you can't change and focusing on what is more directly meaningful. That works equally well for politics as it does Apple bugs and new features.
etresoft wrote:
ccarp21 wrote:
I’m only matching the energy of the person who felt the need to arbitrarily change history because he thought he could.
Whether or not you agree with the action, it's obvious that he could make this change. He ordered the change and it has been done. Nothing you can say or do will change that.
I'm not just trying to argue pedantically here. This is a user-to-user support forum for Apple products. Of all the people in the world, we have the most experience with people who disagree with the action of a specific powerful entity and feel the need to come to these forums to complain about it. We can't force the US government to change any more than we can force Apple to change. So why do people come here to complain? Do they think Apple will see and change its mind? Do they think US cabinet secretaries are trolling these forums to evaluate public opinion?
The most we can do is provide suggestions on how to have a better experience. In many cases, that means simply ignoring the things that you can't change and focusing on what is more directly meaningful. That works equally well for politics as it does Apple bugs and new features.
Perhaps a reminder of the Serenity Prayer:
God, give me grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.
Lawrence Finch wrote:
Perhaps a reminder of the Serenity Prayer:
The Serenity Prayer was written by Reinhold Niebuhr - a staunch anti-Communist. Niebuhr didn't like Joe McCarthy because he thought McCarthy wasn't effective enough at rooting out Communists.
I found all this when trying to find an opposite version of this quote. And I did, from a Communist. Angela Davis wrote:
I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.
So perhaps those who don't like this change should review their political affiliations. Or, more importantly, critically examine how they might go about materially changing the world by seizing the means of nomenclature.
So perhaps those who don't like this change should review their political affiliations.
Or simply vote. Take responsibility for your voting actions or even your non voting actions if that is the case. So tired of how easily people can be manipulated, whether that is through Social Media or sound bites. There is a lot to be concerned about and frankly if you are stuck on only this name change, then you are not paying attention. All I hear are excuses such as, I didn't know that was going to happen, or there was no one to vote for. If you are getting your news or voting advice from Social Media, shame on you.
Geography and history and who names what does matter to me. So do other things but I have a voice and choose to use it. I have ears and love to listen and my mind to sort out what matters to me. And what matters to me is for me what matters to you matters to you and as to what is more important is a personal decision. Thank you for sharing your opinion. Seems like we disagree but that’s ok. I wish you well.
It’s satisfying to have thoughts, feelings and opinions and share them. Little or small. I find focusing on things that stir my heart are always worth looking into to even when others don’t feel it’s important or significant. Our actions big or small matter. Thank you for reading and responding.
Ginns002 wrote:
I want to change my app back to the Gulf of Mexico. The president has NO right to rename geographical facts.
The president has no legal right to do over a hundred of the things that he has done anyway. This is probably the least of them.
brooklyntoMars wrote:
Censorship!
Of course. There are Terms of Use, and if you violate them your post may be removed. You agreed to that when you first created an account in Apple Support Communities.
brooklyntoMars wrote:
Not only that, Apple deleted the negative review of Apple Maps that I left on the app store complaining about the name change. Censorship!
Of course, as they will with anyone that is not capable of following rules. Here are some Terms & Conditions that you may want to review as you have already agreed to them.
Apple Support Communities Use Agreement - Apple Community
Legal - Apple Media Services - Apple
Legal - iCloud Terms & Conditions - Apple
If I may quote Kramer from Seinfeld: "Without rules, there's chaos". That actually explains a lot of the problems we are currently facing. We could only wish there was some censorship going on right now.
Or not be totally technologically challenged and get a VPN… my phone says Gulf of Mexico and will stay that way. Now if the international community as a whole wants to change it, then I would respect that, but one person doesn’t get to change the name of an international region 😂
I am disappointed that Apple is going along with the Gulf of Mexico name change. This type of thing could lead to other countries renaming places and the claiming them. Since when Apple start following rather than leading!
Seems that they’re only doing it for viewers from the USA. Those of us from the rest of the sane world (in my case, Canada) are seeing it as the properly named Gulf of Mexico that has been documented and accepted for centuries.
i want to switch my maps back to gulf of mexico
