Sorted by sovereign States

This begins with User:Huaiwei's edit to move Hong Kong and Macao under the PRC [1], (and Greenland under Denmark [2] on the list of national airlines). While I don't entirely agree with it, for consistent sake I moved all non-sovereign entities (e.g. Guam, Cayman Islands, Faroe Islands) to their corresponding sovereign States. Comments and opinion are welcome on whether they should be sorted by country (the general sense of the meaning of "country"), or by sovereign States, as it is at the time being. See also talk:list of national airlines#Sorted by sovereign States. — Instantnood 10:15, July 29, 2005 (UTC)

Meanwhile if there is any dependent territory which is not generally part of their corresponding sovereign States, please modify it accordingly (e.g. the Cayman Islands is not listed under "United Kingdom" but "Overseas territories of the United Kingdom"). — Instantnood 10:20, July 29, 2005 (UTC)

The most important thing surely is the ease of finding the country (however you define it). The majority of users wouldn't know how to find a country through its sovereign state, but would expect to see it listed in the area it belongs. Ardfern 19:05, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

I noticed most of these edits on this list, except for Hong Kong and Macao, were undone, but grouping under sovereign states is still an ongoing event being done by user:Huaiwei on other lists by countries. — Instantnood 07:42, 21 September 2005 (UTC) (modified 17:11, 23 September 2005 (UTC))

I agree, they should be listed under their soverign state, with a heading for the country/area itself. --File:Ottawa flag.png Spinboy 17:03, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

I'm fine with both ways, as long as it's a community consensus, and is applied to all current lists by country on Wikipedia (with the title renamed from ..by country to ..by sovereign state if necessary). — Instantnood 17:11, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Quite curious, but was there concensus to undo what was done before whereby entities were grouped according to sovereign state? --Huaiwei 17:28, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Perhaps not.. but that's obviously a norm, if not unwritten conventions, for lists by countries (note: countries ? sovereign states) on Wikipedia to be presented in this way, until some started targeting at Hong Kong and Macao. — Instantnood 17:39, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

"unwritten conventions"? Seems like a paradox in itself.--Huaiwei 18:17, 23 September 2005.