There may be many posts against but I am not sure that makes a majority of posters. The same argument is made over and over, wash, rinse, repeat.
I agree. There is a small number of people who have repeatedly and vocally objected and the majority who don't appear to see it as any great issue. People tend to be more vocal when objecting to something so it's wrong to take that as the simple measure of support or objection for something.
I'm still not convinced that the motives for the original objection were really genuine and not simply someone looking for *something* to try and distract attention from the 'activists' privacy debacle. What better way than pointing to what was perceived to be the source of criticism against them with a privacy claim in return? Some of the pointing to this seems more intended to try to embarrass me and "catch me in a lie" than be truly concerned with the issue in hand. Things that make you go "hmmn".
I'm also suspicious of people who are so adamant that revealing their identity would be so catastrophic and yet they do nothing else to protect it and don't seem concerned by other potential risks that are mentioned - as though a country flag was really the pinnacle of the issue. If I can search for someone's alias and find their email address from it then how sincere am I supposed to believe they really are? Hey, it's ExJW's - someone will object and criticize even if you give away free money.
Also, we still haven't had a good example of how someone's identity is supposed to be compromised if there was a little (and possibly incorrectly drawn) country flag next to someone's name or how lack of a flag prevents people plugging in one of the handful of countries that most people are from into things they have shared as being some critical missing piece that can't be guessed.
Ultimately, I have to offset against all the noise and protest of these few the benefits and what I believe will be better protections for everyone against people pretending to be who they are not. This is my biggest concern and I think a more real issue than someone's identity somehow being revealed due to non personally identifiable information.
While I could add opt-in or opt-out preferences these kind of things do tend to overcomplicate things more than the immediate feature itself and ends up having possibly 3 different types of accounts which complicates the code and generates support ("why do flags only appear next to some people but not others?" etc...). It also sets false expectations which removing the flags before has done.
Thank you to everyone who has shared their opinions and contributed to a sensible discussion. To the few who have felt the need to be insulting, I think you have shown your true colors and should know that insulting people rarely convinces them to agree with your viewpoint.