User talk:Alexandre Koriakine

Proposal to integrate Wikimapia with Wikipedia

Alexandre, you can communicate with my on my talk page if you wish. Basically, I would like you to integrate Wikimapia with Wikipedia. How it would work: When contributors draw their rectangles around places, landmarks, etc., the info. box that comes up inviting them to write a note about the landmark should feature a Wikipedia article about it, if there is one. If there isn't one, writing a note for a place on Wikimapia would automatically create such an article on Wikipedia. You could talk to User:Fred Bauder, who runs the Wikinfo project, which uses special software to incorporate Wikipedia articles into its own structure. David Cannon 22:09, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

• I don't particularly like the notion that an article would be created in Wikipedia when a bounding box is created in Wikimapia, at least at this stage. My concern is one about article notability. There are no controls on notability in Wikimapia, nor (it could be argued) should there be; noteworthy here is the comment on a related blog that folks in India are adding their home information to Wikimapia. I personally have added things that I wouldn't want to see appearing in Wikipedia as articles (residential addresses .. no names .. and gas stations, for instance). I believe that creation of object references in Wikipedia and Wikimapia should be left separate right now, but that the interlinkage between the two be made as easy and bidirectional as possible. --User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 01:40, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

Yes, it's not good for adding indian homes to Wikipedia, but there are still many places which might be in Wikipedia. I propose there will be a link, create an article in Wikipedia wich redirect from Wikimapia place to Wikipedia NEW ARTICLE EDIT PAGE (maybe for all or for registered users) with some information from Wikipedia (for example if place has no description - the system won't let you automatically create Wikipedia article, etc.. ). What are your thoughts? Alexandre Koriakine 08:05, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

I think Wikimapia is a great concept. Integration with Wikipedia would maximize its usefulness by connecting landmarks with well-written and verified information. It would also allow Wikimapia to "ride" on Wikipedia's popularity. David Cannon 22:09, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

• I agree with all of what David has said in this preceding passage. --User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 01:42, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

Wikimapia regisration

Functions suggestions are welcome.

What is ready:

• registration
• move/resize works (you must be a 3-day user), with moves history
• article locking

To do:

• tracking users/anonymous for: obj creation, article changes, place move/resize, comments
• some supplementary statistics for users
• blocking unwanted users
• simple place delete for reg. users
• discussion under user profile

To know:

• is there a possibility for Wikipedia admins to ban vandals? How we could implement it in Wikimapia.
• any suggestions on admin functions - welcome.

--AK

Thanks! Yes, administrators on Wikipedia have the power to ban vandals and troublemakers (by blocking their user name or IP address). They also have the power to delete pages and to "protect" pages from being edited by unregistered users (semi-protection) or by non-administrators (full protection). (This power is used in the case of repeated vandalism). Above Administrators are Bureaucrats, who have the power to create administrators (but normally only after a vote to approve them). We also have Arbitrators (appointed by the Wikimedia Foundation) to handle cases where administrators are alleged to have misused their powers. There are also a small number of Stewards, who are able to exercise administrator/bureaucrat powers on all Wikimedia projects (Administrators and Bureaucrats, by contrast, are chosen for only specific projects. In my own case, for example, I am an Administrator on the English language Wikipedia. I also edit other language projects and other Wikimedia projects (such as Wikiquote) from time to time, but as an ordinary user, not as an administrator. When I edit the English Wikipedia, several tabs appear at the top of the page that do not appear when I edit other projects).

Generally speaking, users who have proved themselves trustworthy get "nominated", and a week-long referendum follows. If there are no, or very few, serious complaints voiced against the candidate, he or she is almost always approved.

Wikimapia does not need an identical system, but as the project grows, you will need some way to empower trusted users to exercise certain powers that it would not be wise to give to just anybody.

For your information:

• Wikipedia:Administrators - this explains the powers that administrators have, and the restrictions they are expected to obey. It also has information about other user levels.
• Wikipedia:Requests for adminship - This shows the process by which we decide whether or not a user can be trusted with administrative powers.
• Wikipedia:List of administrators - this list is self-explanatory.

I hope this helps. David Cannon 22:52, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

Approving Wikipedian users to Wikimapia (write under here Wikimapian username)

Please approve "harishua"

I've just registered. I found the instruction to use the above words:-) David Cannon 23:28, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I've done it. Alexandre Koriakine 07:28, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

Thanks! David Cannon 09:33, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

Approve Mosesofmason --Mosesofmason 12:08, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

Approve kessler --Kessler 16:57, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

Approve OlivierAuber--Olivier Auber 17:12, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

OK! Alexandre Koriakine 18:19, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

thanks Alexandre--Olivier Auber

Approve vijaygirish2001.

Wikipedian user not found, please provide Wikipedian username - or link to Wikipedia user page.Alexandre Koriakine 18:19, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

approve shaji

Approve jodamiller

hi Approve shanmukhanand

Please approve shibulona

Approve aaho

Approve ceyockey --User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 01:21, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

Approve Bronx, please Bronx 05:09, 11 October 2006 (UTC) APPROVE kschandran

Approve PaddyMalone, Thanks Paddy

Approve palani12kumar

approve harshadod

Approve anindya_56

Approve ahadiputra

Approve Munira

Approve nejron With respect, nejron 13:52, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

Approve bruce89, bruce89 21:34, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

himasaram: Himasaram 01:26, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Approve Chairboy - CHAIRBOY (☎) 02:03, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Pls Approve lynnseck lynnseck 03:30, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Approve Moorlock -Moorlock 01:28, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

Approve tonyjose Tonyjose 18:10, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

Approve Sigmoid Wilderns 21:54, 12 November 2006 (CET)

Approve Gabrielseed 13 November 2006

Approve alnowras

Approve wferranini

Delete function still not working

Just a quick comment on your delete function. I tried to delete a couple of placed that were totally unsuitable and/or superfluous (e.g., one building had not one but two rectangles around it, with identical information in both). I found that the correct question screens came up (e.g., ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO DELETE THIS PLACE?), but that after I confirmed it, the place was still there. This happened several times. Is this a bug, or is it something that hasn't been made available yet? David Cannon 23:06, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing it, will be finished today. Alexandre Koriakine 08:12, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

Now if you try to delete, then it will be shown that the place will be deleted in 12 hours, with a link for cancellation.Alexandre Koriakine 14:44, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

Preview function would be useful

following from "Delete function stil not working" thread

Do you have a caching system in place that provides a lag between creation and writing to a more permanent store? The reason why I ask is that I created a Place, then a few minutes later was able to delete it without a lag. As object references become more complex, you should consider introduction of a Preview function that allows the editor to see how the final entry will appear prior to committing the edit; this would be useful right now, in fact, because there is a difference between the edit view and the saved view as the edit view has the 4-corner bounding box handles which are not present in the saved view ... fine-tuning the bounding box is useful for tagging 'small' closely spaced objects. --User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 01:52, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

Yes, there's an "upcoming mode". Usually you may delete within 3 hours your place without delay. (In menu you choose upcoming mode, the new places are yellow colored). Alexandre Koriakine 08:00, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

Why not including a real wiki in the Wikimapia FAQ window?

It would allow registred users to edit usefull infos for other users (and stop using wikipedia as FAQ ;-)...--Olivier Auber 15:22, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

Olivier, at this time we don't have functionality for the Wiki window (you're right, in the future it's good to make a kind of this Wiki FAQ window), and why not using Wikipedia. We a not using it as a FAQ, we are using it to be in contact with Wikipedians. Alexandre Koriakine 08:18, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

Private residences; colour-coding hotspots (a proposal)

Hi there! I'm a little unsure about this. A number of people have been hotspotting private houses - e.g. "Peter's house", "My place", etc. Such labels are meaningless to the public and they only serve to clutter the map. Should they be deleted? Also, some people have been hotspotting street names. That seems superfluous to me, because anyone who wants to find the name of the street can select "Hybrid" view. David Cannon 00:07, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

Hello there :) We understand the page clutters with private places, that's why we included devision private/public. We have idea to make another layer for private or show them with low priority. It's a next step and it will be done. Alexandre Koriakine 08:09, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

Hotspots with street names should, indeed, be deleted as this is in many cases superfluous information; usually it means the user doesn't realize the hybrid mode will give you this information. However, in cases where an alternative valid street name is given, or where the street name is missing from hybrid mode, that hotspot annotation should be retained. This would be one feedback mechanism to Google Earth, thereby potentially enriching their byways reference map. As far as personalized places go, I feel that 'ephemera' should be discouraged from the map. Thus "Peter's house" would be a no-no, but "37 Chunk Lane" would be ok. By 'ephemera' I mean information that might easily and frequently change over the life of a given structure. For instance, I have added a couple of gasoline stations, but I've labeled these as "gasoline station" and in the description labeled as (for instance) "owned by Exxon as of 2006-10-10"; the fact that a gasoline station was on a particular spot is important from subsequent use, environmental and demographic perspectives, but the fact it was owned by a particular company is an ephemera. Likewise with family names associated with personal homes; the fact that a personal home of address X is the identity of a particular building is important from the various perspectives, but the identity of the owner is an ephemera, relevant only to personal geneaological research except in those rare cases where the person-site association is particularly notable (e.g. person X murdered by serial killer Y at place Z or persons a,b,c,d all died of cholera and they were all within walking distance of well g [from a classic epidemological study in London]). --User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 22:13, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

• By the way, I do understand that the 'person residing in a building = ephemera' perspective is very much a rootless modern Western one and though relatively representative of the majority of contributors to these resources does not necessarily reflect the perspective of the majority of people on the planet. --User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 23:22, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

As I don't understand the whole "private place" business at all (luckily there will be a separate layer for it), adresses seem less disturbing than ephemera based on mere vanity. There is, however, another thing about hybrid mode: a lot of regions have street-level photos but no corresponding maps (like here in Lithuania). saimhe 14:23, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

I think in that case it's perfectly reasonable to add street name tags to overcome the deficit. I took a look at centeral Lithuania and was surprised (though I should not have been) that the level of aerial photographic resolution was the same as for the continental United States (available down to z=18 but not available for z=19). --User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 21:57, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

I would also like to make a proposal about a colour-code for hotspots. At the moment, you have white rectangles for approved places and yellow rectangles for upcoming places. How about expanding the system to have different colours for different kinds of places (e.g. red rectangle for government buildings, blue for churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, etc., green for cultural institutions like libraries and museums, purple for shops, orange for famous monuments, and so on. Alongside the UPCOMING PLACES link could be tabs for all these different kinds of places, giving users the option to show only one kind of place, or any combination of places, so they can easily find what they are looking for. Just a thought.

I agree that's a good idea. As for Google Earth we think to make different icons for different types, then for Google Earth and Browser Wikimapia it will be good to change color (and for private it will be a kind of light gray). Again, it's a good adia, just we have to see if it will be looking good with many colors on the map. Alexandre Koriakine 08:09, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

Also, could users have some way to enter an "edit summary" like what we have on wikipedia? That would allow users to explain what they have done and why - e.g., why they have deleted a place or changed its description. David Cannon 00:07, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

We are working on it :) Alexandre Koriakine 08:09, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

To share my view on this whole ephemera question, I really don't see the point of these "I live here" places, especially when the sorry bastard doesn't mention even a nickname, but I do feel that Wikimapia should in fact be personal. By personal, I mean having lots of information that would be considered irrelevant or ephemeral by commercial informational maps. Street names in themselves are superfluous, but marking a street up named as itself, and describing its aesthetics as seen by one, or a short (true) anecdote that makes it interesting is the very lifeblood of such a system. I do think though that the dating of ephemera is vital. (Like, "As of autumn 2006, there is a rude inscription done in spray on the southern wall.") Wilderns 12 November 2006

Your biographical article

Hi there! I've created a biographical article for you - just a stub, two sentences - on Wikipedia. Perhaps you'd like to check it for accuracy, and add some information to it. David Cannon 22:54, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

Thank you, if you think it must be, then it must be. I'll add more info.

Great! David Cannon 13:35, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

Template and logo

Hello again. I created Template:Wikimapia by merging two other templates and fiddling around with the syntax. Just one thing bothers me: the image appears to be the Wikimapia logo, not a public domain image, and some other administrators do not approve of using company logos in templates.

There are two ways to solve the problem: (1) you could edit the image page (Image:WikiMapia2-logo-en.png) and explicitly give permission, as the copyright owner, for the image to be used in the template and on any page which uses the template, or (2) we could change the image to one that is in the public domain, has something to do with maps, but isn't the Wikimapia logo. Please let me know which option you prefer. David Cannon 13:41, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

We will think about the situation. Also we wanted to discuss with you some questions about Wikimapia policy - I will ask you later. Alexandre Koriakine 17:58, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

Any time:-) As a temporary solution to the image problme, I have uploaded an image I designed myself (it shows a world map) which is somewhat similar to the Wikimapia logo, but not the same. This solution is only temporary, and satisfies the public domain requirement for template images.

Wikimapia discussion, etc

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by. Yes, I am indeed in New Zealand. [You can see my house here] - directly opposite the one with the swimming pool. Yes, we have sharks off the coast; there have been some shark deaths, but they are not common. Yes, I think our nature is our greatest asset; spots of natural beauty are never far away. No, I've never read the book you mentioned - but I'll have to look it up now!David Cannon 13:10, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

The book is very interesting read, they are moving along 37 parallel to find captain Grant (they cross South America, Australia,New Zealand) and written by Joules Verne. (Still trying to find the sw. pool).

Thanks, I'll have to get a copy of the book! I'll temporarily hotspot my house (as a private place), so that you can see it. It can be deleted tomorrow (nothing wrong with private places, seeing that your're working on software to hide them, but for privacy reasons I don't want my own house hotspotted. But I'll do it temporarily, for you:-)David Cannon 13:10, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Oh, I see what your problem was! I must have been half asleep - I've entered the code for a place that's nowhere near where I live! I've corrected it now, and my house is now hotspotted too:-) correct link is here. David Cannon 13:10, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Now, concerning the matters you wrote about.

1. What do you think if we have a place with some information (approved place), say, in 10 sentences. Then we show to user a button 'Create a new ************ Wikipedia article ' pointing to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=*************&action=edit with already generated text from ***********? What do you think?

I think that's a great idea, which will ease the cross-referencing of the two projects. I'm looking forward to it.

2. Also is there now a real necessity that we must choose a 'licence' for the project? Probably a kind of http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ or http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/? Just wondering must we think about this more closely?

I don't know how the law stands in Russia, but in many other countries (including mine), there could be legal complications for people wishing to use Wikimapia images on their websites if there is no license. In New Zealand, I have never heard of such laws being enforced, but adopting a licensing system would avoid any potential problems.

What do you mean by Wikimapia images? You meant with places? I have to check if it's corresponding with Google Map TOS. We can give permission from Wikimapia, but we don't own satellite imagery.

Yes, I mean places - maps. You have allowed people to put a portion of a Wikimapia map on their webpage - so some form of licensing would be appropriate. I'm no lawyer, but I think giving permission from wikimapia should be sufficient, as Wikimapia already has permission to use the imagery. David Cannon 13:10, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

I also have a couple of questions of my own.

1. I'm pleased to see the box linking hotspots to Wikipedia articles. Would it be possible to add a second box, to link famous monuments to that structure's own website?

Could you explain a little bit more? A monuments in Wikidepia?

No, on Wikimapia. For example, if I create a place on Wikimapia for, say, New Zealand's parliament building, there's a box allowing me to enter a link to the corresponding Wikipedia article. Could we have a second box for the parliament building's own website?David Cannon 13:10, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

2. I tried to hotspot some Fijian islands, but kept getting the error message that I could not create a new place at that zoom level - I must zoom in closer. But (a) I wanted to hotspot the whole island, and (b) there was no image or map at a closer zoom level. Is it intended to be that way?

I forgot to make this for approved users.

I see. I'll look forward to it.David Cannon 13:10, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Cheers! David Cannon 00:51, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia link from Wikimapia

I noticed some new functionality -- an attempt to add a linking function to Wikipedia -- which isn't at the moment working exactly correctly. However, when I went to the Wikimapia Blog to see if there was a notice of the change there which would provide a feedback opportunity, I didn't see any mention of it. I'd like to post comments mostly to the Wikimapia blog if they regard Wikimapia functionality ... it would be helpful to keep the Wikimapia blog assiduously up to date by posting new comments to it when changes to Wikimapia are made. I know that can be a lot of work, but I think you'll find the effort pays off in the end. Regards ... --User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 01:37, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Thanks Ceyockey. We write about funtionality when it's done in correct way. I will write about some new features, but they are still under construction.

"which isn't at the moment working exactly correctly" - what was not working correctly, could you tell me?Alexandre Koriakine 10:14, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Problem with parentheses

I'm looking at the "Wikipedia Link" field. Links in general work ok; for instance, I've added a bi-directional reference for Mount Cuba Astronomical Observatory. The type of link I've found so far that does not work is that which contains parentheses. For instance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Georges_Bridge_%28Delaware%29 or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Georges_Bridge_(Delaware); both of these yield error messages ('given link is incorrect'). The same error is thrown if the url is "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St. Georges Bridge (Delaware)". Hope this helps. --User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 23:50, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Problem with ampersands

Another problem I found is in the use of ampersands (&). The link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesapeake_%26_Delaware_Canal_Bridge works but the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesapeake_&_Delaware_Canal_Bridge does not; the latter is directly representative of the Wikipedia article title. --User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 00:03, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

I see, the correction will be uploaded soon.

Problem with commas

It also appears that there are problems in urls with commas in them, which are also common. For instance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton%2C_Delaware is a working URL, but neither http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton,_Delaware nor "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton, Delaware" are supported. --User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 21:58, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, I read the URL specification at Wikipedia, so some characters are not wikipedia links. I am not sure that "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton, Delaware" must be acceptable (at lease in wikipedia link field). I thought about links there. Must be revised, though.

Problem with #

Wikipedia uses the '#' intra-page bookmark link liberally as a way to jump directly to specfic sections of articles. The Wikimapia link to Wikipedia does not accept links in the format http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episcopal_Diocese_of_Delaware#New_Castle_County (for example); http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episcopal_Diocese_of_Delaware is a valid link for Wikimapia, though. --User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 02:28, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Problem with apostrophes

Links with apostrophes are not accepted in the link field; for instance, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald's is not accepted as a valid link. --User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 02:41, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Okay, Ceyockey. Will be fixed! Thanks for pointing it. Alexandre Koriakine 08:40, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Launch in new browser window and some other proposals

Currently available feature of putting wikipedia link in placemark is very useful and will also help bring more users to wikipedia, showing the wikipedia link in box more prominantly will help further. Following changes can be done for enhancing it further.

• Clicking on wikipedia link should launch a new browser page instead of opening it in current wikimapia page.
• In future we can have another search filter criteria for showing only 'wikipedia linked boxes'
• Do you think wikimapia should allow usage of '[[]]' tag (wikipedia internal link tag) for linking the words there in description to corresponding wikipedia pages (putting full url beside the word will clutter the description).

Thanks. Vjdchauhan 05:39, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

I think yes to all your notes. Alexandre Koriakine 09:00, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

Places disappearing

Hi there! A few days ago, I marked some places on and around the Fijian island of Taveuni (here). They appeared for several days, then disappeared yesterday. Did somebody delete them? I didn't see them listed for deletion, so I'm just wondering. David Cannon 21:13, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

Hello. I expect they were already normal places (not upcoming)? Now I see: Ringgold Isles, Somosomo, Labasa, Vanua levu. I will look at deleted places (I see only one deleted place where with your typing: This should be deleted as a ship is mobile. It is only temporarily at this location, and may be gone by now). I will check database to see more (there's z Zero meridian, so it's possible that it need to be checked).

UPDATE: yes, it's a trouble of -179 to 179 longitude, I'll check this, at this moment places are shown. Have you seen Matrix 3? Same here. But what with Somosomo village? Is it correctly marked?

Amazing isles! I hope to visit this part of the world: Australia, NZ, Nearest islands.Alexandre Koriakine 07:54, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Yes, Somosomo village is correctly marked. The Ringgold Islands, Labasa, and Vanua Levu are all correctly marked also. I marked some other places on the same island (including the Matei airfield in the far north and the Bouma Waterfalls on the east coast), as well as 3 nearby islands - but they have disappeared.

No, I haven't seen Matrix 3 yet. I will try to see it as soon as I can find some time!

I hope you can visit my country! I look forward to welcoming you here! David Cannon 10:23, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Latest: You've fixed it! All the places that vanished have now reappeared. Thanks! David Cannon 10:27, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

More disappearances

Hello again! I think the area around Fiji is still problematic. In the last couple of days, I created about seven places in the Lau Islands ((here)). I don't think anybody voted to delete them, but only one of them is still there. They were upcoming places, not confirmed, but if nobody voted to delete them, why have they vanished? Is it the same problem as before? Sorry to bother you. BTW, I've voted in favour of your bot request :-) David Cannon 09:37, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Hello. No it's not a bother, it's necessary. We have to check some formulas, it's math. Thanks for the bot, I expect I did everything correctly. Could you tell me one thing - you've seen them in UPCOMING and they dissapared.. I just recreated obj cache and they've been to NORMAL. So it's a problem of moving from cache, I expect. Alexandre Koriakine 10:10, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Oh I see! That could explain it. One curious thing, though: it never seems to happen with places I create in New Zealand, but it's happened a number of times with places I've created in Fiji. David Cannon 11:08, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

It's close to 179 -179 coordinates. By the way, what do you think, http://wikimapia.org/#y=-18077979&x=-178857422&z=8&l=0&m=a&v=2&show=/1479813/ (Matei Airfield is the only airport on the island of Taveuni, off the coast of Vanua Levu) is places like this have to be in Wikipedia, or they need more info? Alexandre Koriakine 11:17, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Matei Airfield (little information, etc.)

Hello again. You asked: By the way, what do you think, http://wikimapia.org/#y=-18077979&x=-178857422&z=8&l=0&m=a&v=2&show=/1479813/ (Matei Airfield is the only airport on the island of Taveuni, off the coast of Vanua Levu) is places like this have to be in Wikipedia, or they need more info? Um, the prevailing policy on Wikipedia allows extremely short articles, called stubs, which other users may expand later. The only rules are that they must be about notable topics, and must be tagged with a "stub" template, inviting users to expand the article. An airfield is considered notable; on the other hand, a corner store would not be. The information about Matei Airfield, in this case, is quite sufficient to begin a stub. David Cannon 12:28, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

I think all new articles will have STUP sign, and.. usually grocery stores don't have more than once sentence. Users will decide to post or not this article, and Wikipedia admins will delete it if the article is bad. (I go to the sweeming pool.. eh, lucky you, I expect you have visited a lot of isles!) Alexandre Koriakine 12:38, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Geo-Templates

Thanks for pointing them out. Yes, those templates are protected, but as an administrator, I can modify them quite easily, to include a wikimapia link. I'll get around to it in the next day or two. I'm excited about all the new developments. David Cannon 12:41, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Thank, David. Thank for appreciation! We are trying to do our best.Alexandre Koriakine 22:52, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

How many delete votes required to delete a non upcoming place

I have seen (in India) several hugely oversized private houses marked and they were typically marked when the place was having low resolution imagery and also at that time upcoming place feature was not there. Now when I try deleting them, it simply takes the request but nothing happens (pls note I haven't logged-in as a registered user in the system). Example of such places can be see at Jhansi at Wikimapia (check the bigger boxes) Vjdchauhan 13:43, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

my wikimapia login name is vikichauhan. Thanks, Vjdchauhan 04:48, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

Thanks,I already went to your talk and saw your perly, I raised it. What about how many - delete votes must be from 5 to 10 percents of place views (2 weeks info). But, you now may delete bad places. Alexandre Koriakine 08:25, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

UTF-8 in links to wikipedia proposal

Hi, there is one little detail that nags me - you cannot add URLs in UTF-8 as the wikipedia link, wikimapia complains about invalid link. You can still use %-escape codes, but it looks ugly (especially for non-latin script wikipediæ, such as Russian). See http://www.wikimapia.org/#y=48133333&x=17116666&z=10&l=0&m=a&show=/83221/ (link added by me) for an example. Otherwise, keep up the good work :-) rado 18:50, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

I see, we used Wikipedia URL specification. However, we may replace the showing part of the link! http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Help:URL Alexandre Koriakine 20:01, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

UPDATE - I think I solved this. It shows (and saves) UTF8 link, but give browser Wikipedia standart URL.Alexandre Koriakine 21:24, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Don't forget that often people want just to paste URL as seen on Wikipedia. While Mozilla shows URL escaped, IE or Opera show (and copy) them directly in UTF-8, and wikimapia complains about incorrect wikipedia link. I think you should relax the link validity check (and allow all properly formed UTF-8 strings after the wiki/ URL part). rado 16:45, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Okay, I see now and mostly relaxed it. Alexandre Koriakine 08:32, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

Vertical rectangle vs Rotated rectangle box

Till the functionality of allowing different types of box shape is implemented can we have the functionality of rotating the rectangular box as most of the places are typically rectangular in shape but may not be perfectly aligned vertically, allowing rotated rectangle will help a lot esp in places like India where wikimapia is used heavily (one of the reason is absence of detailed map). Thanks. Vjdchauhan 06:38, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

The rectangle is simplest solution. Rotation is not possible, polygons will be ok for that. Anyhow polygons are for the future, because now we have to focus on some really required functions. We can do polygons now, but it won't help the project on a current state, and it will introduce more complexity. Alexandre Koriakine 22:41, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

Deleting added pictures?

Will we eventually have the ability to remove and/or review pictures that have been added to place information pages? I know that there are some images that are inappropriate that should be removed. Thanks! --Matt510 02:30, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

Easy, by registered user. :) Alexandre Koriakine 22:41, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

Open pre-voting permanent boxes for voting

In places (esp cities) which were already having high resolution imagery before voting system have been put in place people have misused place marks in very great numbers and for famous monuments/bildings one ended up with multiple box (see number of permanent placemerks over Taj Mahal in Agra at Tajmahal at Wikimapia), and people like me who want to delete such boxes are not able to delete such frequently visited boxes. Can this be done if possile, i.e. open all the permanent boxes for voting which were created before voting system was put in place, I know I am asking too much but if done it will help in having Wikimapia with very accurately marked places and will also clear lot of mess. Thanks and regards. Vjdchauhan 12:13, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for info, but mostly it's a problem of famous places, this problem could be done by high ranked users like you (just to delete this place, it's possible, only 12 hours pending cancellation and it will be deleted). I cleared Tajmahal by myself. Thanks Vjdchauhan, but we won't turn all places to upcoming, because only of 0.1% wrong placed. Many people now have the power to delete bad places just with a click, a moth will pass, everything will be fine, I think. Alexandre Koriakine 12:21, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

I am able to delete some boxes but they still need (even with enhanced user privilege) more than one delete request and for the some incorrectly/improperly marked palces (e.g. see Aligarh at Wikimapia where its low resolution imagery and all boxes are highly oversized) I am not able to delete them even after repeated delete requests them same was true for some unwanted boxes on Taj Mahal.
I am not sure whether 'only 0.1% incorrectly marked places' data is correct for pre-voting days boxes. I don't think Wikimapians will clear all incorrectly marked permanent places (that too in a shorter time frame like a month), they can at max clean the incorrectly marked (permanent) public places and is it ok with Wikimapia to have tens of thousands of boxes per city (see Most described cities at Wikimapia), I think most of these boxes belong to pre-voting days (in fact I was not requesting for opening per-voting days boxes all at once, it could have been done phase wise say day/week wise).
Alexandre what is your opinion on Tens of thousands of boxes per city.
Regards, Vjdchauhan 09:45, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

I'll check this, but there's 12 hours delay, maybe you forgot it? We will think about this closely, we will try to make as easy as possible to clear bad tagging. Alexandre Koriakine 10:52, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

I am not sure what '12 hous delay means' but for sure I try to delete the places in example almost once a day for 2-3 days and then give up. Vjdchauhan 11:24, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

I will investigate this problem.Alexandre Koriakine 11:43, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

How frequently Google Earth updates its satellite imagery

Do we have this data about how frequently does Google Earth updates its satellite imagery to cover newer areas (e.g. over past 6 months or so I have seen only one (prominent) update of Indian cities and now most of smaller Indian cities (apart from earlier bigger cities) are too having high resolution imagery still large tracts of (including some smaller cities/towns and most of rural area) is not covered with High resolution imagery. Regards, Vjdchauhan 09:55, 8 November 2006 (UTC).

I think from time to time, not faster than once per 1-2 years. Say, Vjdchauhan, why people in India sometimes call their homes like Temple?Alexandre Koriakine 10:50, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

Regarding Temple question, can you cite an example. Vjdchauhan 12:49, 8 November 2006 (UTC).

Cross-linking hotspots

I found that the system has a pretty clever way of determining the ideal view (center, zoom) of a certain hotspot. (In search view, or the upcoming places waiting for review on the bottom of articles, etc.) However, I didn't find a way to easily extract this link from the system. What I mean is that when I click on a hotspot, it should give me a URL I can post into other articles as a link. At least. What would be even better is an integrated hyperlink system like that of Wikipedia, where I could link to a hotspot by a unique hash based on location and name, or a serial id, or anything like that. Wilderns 12 November 2006

Admins of nl.wikipedia.org deleted all links to Wikimapia

See http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overleg_gebruiker:Siebrand#Links_to_Wikimapia With respect, nejron 17:28, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

Nejron, Thank you for pointing it. We can't do nothing in this sad situation. NL:WP admins can decide to remove links crosslinked by other people, but I don't think they had consensus in that situation and this broke the Wikipedia rules. As NL admins saying NL:WP is independent from other Wikipedia. Maybe this is the case for Wikipedia bureaucrats. Best Wishes. Alexandre Koriakine 10:01, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

I've checked now, we have almost 200 links to nl.wikipedia.org and nl.wikipedia.org has zero links to Wikimapia. Great work NL:WP.Alexandre Koriakine 10:13, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

Licensing

That's really great news! I look forward to seeing it. David Cannon 09:39, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

Possible abuse - How to deal with?

There is something I noticed these days. I have been playing around with Budapest, adding locations, fixing broken data or misplaced hotspots, and adding descriptions to hotspots that lacked one before. What I found quite sad is that almost nobody votes on Upcoming places whatsoever. A quite large and locally well-known place can hang around for a week without getting a single vote, yes or no. (I mean, it would take, like 1 minute to scan the local upcoming list and vote for them.)

I found a few rather stupid Upcoming places, like this: Csomád utca(hu) - saying in the description "This is Csobán street". For one, the street name is there in the hybrid mode, and for two, the hotspot doesn't come near to covering the street. Another one is hamed hanin lakasa(hu) - name and description both stating that this is Hamed Hanin's flat, however the hotspot covers over 10 buildings and around 3 streets.

And this is where the possible abuse comes in, that I did vote No for both these places, and in a few days there were ranks of Yes votes passed on them, 2 for Csobán street, and 4 for Hamed Hanin. What I suspect is that the creator of these hotspots registered under multiple names and voted for himself to push their stupidity through. I mean, in such short time compared to the normal pace on Budapest wikimapia, and such stupid and useless places to boot (with absolutely no votes on normal, useful places just next to the stupid one), one just jumps to such conclusions.

What is Wikimapia policy for this? Is such conduct vandalism? What can a user do in such a case (How to report to authorities? Are there any authorities? Is there a ban system on Wikimapia? Can you check for clone users by IP?)

- Wilderns