User talk:Alexandre Koriakine/Archive/2

Approving Wikipedians to WikiMapia

How I approve: If I see a contributions history of the user (or some other facts), I manually make high userlevel in WikiMapia. Usually I look at this page once ever two or three days. Alexandre Koriakine 02:02, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

(List your WikiMapia username below)

{deleted my previous deletion remarks and names listed for approval prior to 08:20, 20 May 2007 (UTC) since these have (presumably) already been considered for approval} W. Frank 14:07, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Please approve:

• cleverboy --Cleverboy68 08:22, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
• toohool --Toohool 01:26, 3 July 2007 (UTC)
• manu22 -- Siffar 15:51, 2 August 2007 (UTC)
• ab_18 -- Ab_18 09:15, 3 August 2007 (UTC)
• AlexTheMartian --AlexTheMartian | Talk 05:13, 6 August 2007 (UTC)
• delton -- Danski14^(talk) 18:22, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Comments and Questions

Proposal to integrate WikiMapia with Wikipedia

Alexandre, you can communicate with me 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)

Preview function would be useful

following on 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 include 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

I think there are cases where private residences can be useful. Foreign inmigrants in a big city may want to find important persons of their community. Some private homes act as boarding houses or religious services. They should be acceptable as long as properly explained and tagged. Mlatum 19:36, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

I'd love to see a filter for the private residences. I find them distracting but don't want to see them removed from wikimapia. On a more grand scale I also find the whole village/town/city mark ups distracting when I am looking at a smaller regions but fine for large scale viewing. Another candidate option for future filtering? --Affe 10:00, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

Couldn't private places just be stored for personal use? I mean they would only show up to a specific group of users. It wouldn't make sense for a private place that is only important to one or a few people to show up for everyone. Logictheo 14:54, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Private residences, if they are to be allowed (which I disagree with) need to be well defined. "Dave's House" is useless information to me, even if it clearly specifies who Dave is and his contact information. So if that is to be allowed, then a separate layer that can eliminate that would be perfect. However, the current "private" markup is unclear. For example, I add my Apartment or Condo building. It has a specified name, like "Somename Apartments" and provides information about the apartment building as a whole. Is this a "private residence"? Clearly it is, but it's still useful information.

What needs to be defined is whether or not the content is about a specific person or not. Information about the location or the business at that location is useful information. Information about the *individual person* at that location, in most cases, is not useful information. Don't separate "private" from public, separate individuals from non-individuals.

Otto42 19:19, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

On what was said just above, I still am partly unsure on what to do with apartment complexes. What about the difference between a new apartment development/structure that might be of importance to people (for example, new housing structures in a downtown area), and the average/ordinary apartment complex like in a suburban area? Which apartment complexes, if any, should I label as "Private"? I agree with what Otto42 stated above, but I would like to hear more comment on this. Also, having a distinction between what is "under construction" or in the planning process will help a lot. Right now people are limited to mostly just putting the status of future places in parenthesis in the title. --AlexTheMartian | Talk 08:24, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

The answer will vary from locality to locality. Remember that there is a map view and information added should not duplicate information in that overlay. However, for many localities - and, indeed, whole countries, mapping may be very sparse or entirely out of date. There, apartment complex information would be publicly useful (as opposed to PRIVATE) information. What's not yet built might be confusing and problematic - especially when folks don't come back and update their hotspots after a period. Just my opinion...Gaimhreadhan ^{(kiwiexile at DMOZ)} talk • 09:37, 6 August 2007 (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)

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)

there is a similar problem in Dhanbad, India Dhanbad at Wikimapia. Can someone please clean it up or i'll do it if you raise my rank... my wikimapia user id is utkarsh31.

thanks...

Cleaned most of the boxes. They will not be there after 12 hrs. Regards, Vjdchauhan 10:43, 22 November 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)

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)

Deleting places

Id there a REALLY quick way of deleting places? (Because now we have to wait like 8 days, don't we?) For exemple there is a place here: [1] that is labeled: "home of our beloved prof Pruchniewska" (I guess we dont want such places on Wikimapia but when I click on "delete" have to wait as I said 8 days. So is there a way or is it impossible? Joan M 16:34, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

I have taken the liberty of

1. Demoting your heading two levels
2. Moving your comments here

since, if you had used the search function on Firefox (CTRL-F) - you said you used Firefox in an earlier comment here - and searched on "delet" (case insensitive) you would have found the guidance you seek; if Alexandre Koriakine promotes you, you will be able to delete places quicker - it only takes me about 18 hours for example.

PS: I still have a good leather belt I bought in Gdansk more than 30 years ago! ...Gaimhreadhan^{(kiwiexile at DMOZ)} • 17:01, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the info but I knew it all along. What I was searching for was a really quicker method (I've already been promoted but it still takes too much time IMO). And I consider this place to be a potential problem- let's say somebody sees it and than writes and article saiyng that now people can freely show the locations of their teachers' homes. Joan M 19:42, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

i am registered user of wikimapia from jammu region of india. and have been actively trying to decluster by deleting uselessly marked places. while deleting the places, when i delet 2-3 places in close interval( of 1 min) it pop up a message saying :"You are doing too many things in a short span of time. Please wait for some time". Not waiting for a whole minute to delete the useless place does create problem as it places a constraint on the work i can. I request u to please look in this matter as it does demotivates at times from declustering thnx my wikimapia user name is bhrigushree PS how do we know of our rank in wikimapia rank tree.. Also plz do consider the proposal of more privileged user who can instantly delete the useless markings.the current wait of 14 hour is a major problem in declusttering (unsigned post by Bhrigushree:04:52, 25 June 2007 (UTC))

AFAIK it pops ups because the browser cannot process new instructions unless older actions have been registered with server. In short - your internet connection is either slow or laggy. Siffar 15:43, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Hi!, my nickname here is Occitino but in wikimapia is Occit, and i have been creating more than 4000 real places in whole Venezuela, and i consider me very responsible member while i'm adding the places, but, the piont is that i have the same problem commented here, in a venezuelan island named Tortuga, there is a wikimapia member and others unregistered members that are putting wrong places according to a blog about fantasy places in that uninhabitated zone, several wrong places!, and i have been deleting, deleting and deleting! this places every day but this bad wikimapians are more than me, they can cancel my corrections all time they want. How can i reduce this 8 days of waiting in order to have a quick solution of this serious problem?. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Occitino (talk • contribs) 22:47, 24 October 2007 (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

• Well I just resorted to "Zoom in" and then copy-paste from the location bar. Still wish there was a more elegant solution for this. :) Wilderns 17 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)

The article on German and Polish wikipedia was also deleted. :-( 2T 05:09, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

I wrote e-mail to Polish wikipedia with intervention in this topic. After some argumentation they restore this article :) Just try to convince them that wikimapia is not any more just a regulat web site - right now this is an amazing product of work of hundreds thousands of people and deserve on it's place in wikipedia --Varciasz 20:45, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

Thank you, Varciasz! Keep up the good work! ...Gaimhreadhan^{(kiwiexile at DMOZ)} • 22:23, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

Licensing

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

Source code, please

Hi, I am enquiring in regards to Wikimapia and for our possible usage of your source code. Please can you email me and I will ask, my email in enabled. frummer 16:13, 29 April 2007 (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 Csomád 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 Csomád 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

Thanks for your worry - if you are registered in Wikimapia, please, give me your username then your vote will have the power of two and some more function. They about your questions - yes we have some kind of protection, but working on more! All will be explained in FAQ soon. So just send me your wikimapia username. Alexandre Koriakine 23:37, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

I hope you regard my suggestion as practical, rather than authoritarian: Appoint volunteers to police particular Geographical blocks. I discovered a whole load of nonsense and mis-spellings in the Nelson, New Zealand area today (first time I've looked at your wonderful project) and scheduled some disruptive entries like "Home" "Burgle this" etc, but I'll lose interest in maintaining an area if a 30 strong gang of schoolkids comes in and simply outvotes me to keep an entry of "firebomb this tonight" located over my home...Gaimhreadhan^{(kiwiexile at DMOZ);} • 19:30, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

• Hi! My Wikimapia username is Sigmoid. Thanks. ;) Wilderns 18 November 2006

I have also been battling with vandals on the map of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Some users are adding fictional places, editing legitimate places with nonsense, and voting down legimate upcoming places. There has to be some way to "lock down" a place, much like a Wikipedia article, if it becomes the target of vandalism. Drm310 18:10, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the update

Hi there! Thanks for updating me on what's going on. I'm excited! Yes, I can see why you're being cautious about the bot. Personally, I don't think we'd ever go as far on EN as they did on NL - the Dutch Wikipedia (and also the German one, BTW) is dominated by a powerful "deletionist" lobby which excludes anything that doesn't fit a narrow criteria. On EN we're somewhat more inclusionist (I think), so the problem wouldn't be with the links to Wikimapia. I cannot see a problem with it at all, but I understand why you want to play it safe. Better safe than sorry!

No, I didn't feel the earthquake. The first I heard of it was from you! BTW, it's almost summer where I am.

I've been busy over the last couple of days annotating Wikimapia's map of Fiji. I've had to compile the information from multiple sources, as there are NO maps available that label ALL of Fiji's islands (between 322 and 844 - depending on how you define an island). From a combination of sources, I've been able to establish the identity of most of them and have edited Wikimapia accordingly. Very likely, Wikimapia will be THE FIRST resource in the world to have a comprehensive map of Fiji which doesn't omit all or most of the minor islands.

I hope you're having a great day! See you around, DavidDavid Cannon 11:43, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

New look of Wikimapia

Hi Alexander, since today morning I observed that user interface of Wikimapia has changed/simplified a lot. Apart from UI changes following are new changes that I observed.

• One can see '+' sign for Hospitals, 'H' sign for Hotels, there may be some other new signs as well can all this be put in Wikimapia faq as well.
• 'Search' option is simplified and the 'All' search gives the distance of 'Approved Place' from current view, can this be enhanced a bit to give State-District info as well for the places matching the search string. Also I observed when a placemark/city is searched the map view shifts to left and it reverts back on minimizing the search results window, it could be a distraction.
  

Simplified UI will help a lot. Regards Vjdchauhan 11:07, 3 February 2007 (UTC).

Thank you Vjdchauhan! Yes, we tried to simplify the user interface, you got the point. What about the distraction - the map shifts but the center of the map (cross) still the same. Where is the distraction? Thanks for your comments. Alexandre Koriakine 12:20, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Alexandre, the addition of the crosshairs to center the map was a brilliant idea. Very simple and very effective. It makes centering the map on a particular location so much easier. Drm310 18:14, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Disappearing places

Hi. Sorry to bother you , but last week I've added some upcoming ships in Burgas [2], Varna and this one [3] (again). Some of them had 1 "no" vote (I don't know why), some had 0 last time I've checked. Why were they deleted? Is there a way to restore them? - I'm tired thinking about adding all that info again. Pibwl ←« 18:08, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

Yes, it can be very annoying when all your work is vandalised. Don't give up! Maybe there will eventually be a system of ranking users so that your places are not deleted without a vote from responsible people...

(Since Wikimapia doesn't allow spaces or puctuation in users names, I'm WFrank, there). W. Frank 18:08, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

Comment system is the most useless feature of WikiMapia

A wiki is a website that allows visitors to add, remove, edit and change content, typically without the need for registration But how can I edit comments? in Wiki. Comment system is the feature that goes against the meaning of Wiki. Creator, if you have friend or someone who knows Vietnamese please go to Ho Chi Minh City and Ha Noi City (on wikimapia). You will see, at least 50% place is commented with rubbish, offensive, and coarse ideas. I and my friend spent a lot of time to erase it. But the vandal is faster than us, every one comment we erased, the vandal write 2. Again, please disable comment system. Or please make the comment system allow us to edit it please.Respectfully yours Magnifier 16:00, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

We think about this problem (mostly in Vietnam and some politically unsure areas), however people may delete the comment by pressing block icon. We think we may lower the press count (from 5 to 3) and also hide messages with 1 abuse vote Alexandre Koriakine 22:42, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

I absolutely concur!W. Frank 00:07, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Thank you very much.For both of your replying and work. Viva Wikimapia Magnifier 06:09, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Limit the number of article's and comment's characters. Why not?

Dear Alexander. After one week deal with vandal> I known that they offten use atricle and comment to complete their goals. I though why can't you limit the number of atricle's and comment's character. An atricle prove the info of the place, like a greetings,an atricle or a comment shouldn't to be too long. 1500 characters is just enough to an atricle, 500 characters is just enough to a comment. If visitor want more they can go to a wikipedia page ( follow the link on the atricle ). Respectfully yours Magnifier 13:08, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Polygons

Great job on the polygons - that is a welcome addition. It took a bit of practice for me at first, but I've figured it out and started to redraw some of the places I've entered. Thanks! Drm310 20:28, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

This addition is fairy hard-to-use Magnifier 08:44, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

I have written a basic how to at How To #6: Adding Polygons, hope it will be of help. --Matt510 00:37, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the tips, Matt! Your blog gotme started on my Nelson, New Zealand patch and I successfully delineated the Airport and Tahunanui Beach. However it will not let me edit either Founders Park or Miyazu Japanese Gardens - both places I created! Any ideas why?

I also notice that these articles no longer show my name on them....Gaimhreadhan^{(kiwiexile at DMOZ)} • 01:48, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Gaimhreadhan, did you solve the trouble with Founders Park or Miyazu Japanese Gardens? I see they are with polygons now. What was the problem?

Your fine software solved my problem, Alexandre (wink). I tried everything, re-starting my OS, logging in and out of my ISP and my Wikimapia account and nothing seemed to change. Then a few hours later I tried again and, lo and behold, I could edit the Park and Garden's shape. Maybe it takes a while to update your database.

I think I discovered that there is finite limit to the number of points you can plot to define the perimeter of a polygon when outlining the boundary of the City of Nelson in NZ. Is this a memory, algorithm or element number limit? If the latter it would be neat to have a countdown meter visible to tell you how many points you've got left to use...

I am facing the same problems with the limit, I was outlining the Afsluitdijk, but just before finishing this I came upon this problem. I cannot alter anything anymore of the poligon of the Afsluitdijk. Could someone help me with this? Arnout Steenhoek 13:34, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

Did you have any further thoughts about having neighbourhood guardians to `patrol' a particular neighbourhood with enhanced rights to instantly delete incitements to racial, religious or political violence, profanity and libels?

Just think of the publicity you'll be getting in the newspapers when, as a horrible but very real example, anti-abortionists set fire to a Surgeons home and incinerate his wife and 3 young children after his home is pinpointed on Wikimapia...Gaimhreadhan^{(kiwiexile at DMOZ)} • 22:38, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

I've created polygons, but now I need to edit one. When I try to do so, there is a red square surrounded by red triangles blocking the part I need to edit. Dragging the square and triangles aside moves the whole polygon, which I don't want to do. Is there a way to move this stuff out of the way or shut it off? Downstrike 04:39, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Please, give me the link, did you try to zoom in? I made this polygon move image smaller.Alexandre Koriakine 08:02, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Hi! What about some viewing features during polygon creation? It will be very usefull - for example for region borders creation. --Podarok 09:42, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

Possible Helpful Solution to Inappropriate/Spam Comments

Since there have been so many problems with the comments people leave (spam, inappropriate, violent, abusive, profane, etc.) I was wondering if a point system might be helpful (something similar to Digg or Slashdot). I have seen a number of my own comments that are now hidden for whatever reason, I have also seen perfectly fine comments hidden as well. But I have also seen lots of inappropriate comments hidden (which is a good thing). It seems that if you added a points type system you can make it so at a certain threshold (say 1 point) everyone could see it and if it falls below that it would be hidden. If it reached a certain value (say -5 points) it would be permanently deleted. You could also do it so if it got a lot of point it would move higher on the list. Just a thought there. --Matt510 07:09, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Protection

Is there any idea of protection of places like Mount Everest (lots of vandalism there)? Joan M 12:33, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

I see what you mean. Maybe a protection of areas for unregistered users. Tell me your username there. Alexandre Koriakine 16:13, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

It's JoanM (the same as on wikipedia but without a [Space (punctuation)|space] Joan M 04:45, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Full-protection ? Is there any idea of full ( not semi) protection of places like Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi? A lot of "registered" vandalism's still here. My team are working hard to keep it clean. Magnifier 10:09, 27 March 2007 (UTC).

I think this needs to be done. Alexandre Koriakine 19:09, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

WikiMapia logout broken

However many times I attempt to logout of Wikimapia (when using Vista Home Premium and Firefox 2.0.0.3) it is unsuccessful.

[I get the white pop-up that says "You have been logged out. CONTINUE" and my login name is no longer visible to the right of "Add place". However, the drop down menu option of "Profile" under the Menu "WikiMapia" still displays all my editing details together with the "logout" option. Even if I close the WikiMapia window and exit Firefox and re-start nobody else can use my computer without being taken as me - which is a bit of a security breach...]...Gaimhreadhan^{(kiwiexile at DMOZ)} • 16:35, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

This happends in Firefox, I didn't find a solution at this moment.Alexandre Koriakine 18:58, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

VANDALISM: Request for AdminShip

Dear Alexandre, I am Lily, a student and a WikiMapian. I was informed that you are the person in charge of WikiMapia users. I am sending you this message to request for your consideration and help.
You must have been informed about the WikiMapia's situation in areas of Vietnam. I know that you had made improvement on our places. We appreciate it very much. However, the chain of "abuse message - edit - abuse message -..." will never stop. I think it will be much easier if any of us can be provided the AdminShip.
I have joined WikiMapia since Ferbrary, 2007 with the user name "Lily". So far, I have edited over 1600 places. I have called for a campaign of "Let's keep WikiMapia useful" and it's been supported by many WikiMapians. You may see a topic in my personal blog via this link (unfortunately, it's written in Vietnamese): http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-QTo3xbkgbqcVU.5lSIsXKLRpmgY-?cq=1&p=2064 . You may find the attention of a quite number of users simply by counting their comments. You may check my user details in WikiMapia as well.
I am writing you this message to request for the AdminShip so that I can do more in "keeping WikiMapia useful". Your kind consideration will be very much appreciated. You may email me at Lily.usm@gmail.com. Hope to hear from you as soon as possible!
Best regards,
Lily —The preceding unsigned comments were added by 202.170.51.250 (talk) 17:23, 30 March 2007 (UTC).

Lily, I did it, if you know some trust people, you may tell me. What about situation in Vietnam - we are trying to solve the abuse problem, but currently we are focused on some new but necessary functions. However we are trying to make system protection against abusers (but that's not easy, for example there is one IP for many vietnamian users, so we cannot just simply ban this IP).Alexandre Koriakine 19:07, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Thank you very much for your kind consideration and support, Alexandre!
I realized changes in my user functions. However, may I have some more information/ instructions about all functions which are activated for those with adminship? I wish to use my account as effectively as possible.
About the protection against the abusers, we may consider a committee to review contents before they are accepted to be posted or commented to WikiMap places. It takes time and quite number of volunteers but I think it's worth. We are willing to do it.
Thanks for your continued support.
Hope to hear from you!!
Sincerely yours,
Lily

I'm one of Vietnamese who "keeping WikiMapia useful". I'm one of Lily's friend, too.

Wikimapia is one of the most great web to me. I can see everywhere in my country by it. I love my country so much, so I really, realyy want to make it fresh from bad imformations, as well as provide something useful.

But day by day, some bad people edits and comment more and more bad imformations. I still try my best to keep Wikimapia fresh. But I've waited so long for my account to be "power".

My account is MiakaAsakura, I became Wikimapian since 4 weeks ago and now I've created 137 places and edited more than 2500 places.

So now I write this comment to you to request for adminship. So that I can do more for our web.

I do not want to disturb you, but please answer me whenever you can.

My email: miaka259@yahoo.com

Hope to hear from you as soon as possible!

Best regards

Alexandre, after you finish the development of the new necessary WM functions, i think that a quick solution to these abuse and vandalism problems on the Asia Southeast is disable Edits and Add's functions to the unregistered users - only on the critical regions, if possible. This certainly goes to decrease the volume of daily vandalisms, making possible a one or two Local adminins watch the cities. And i really believe that the common users will not care about the function block, because the registration is very simple to anyone. Thank you for your great work! Naipe. Rbsnsnts 16:00, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks Naipe. We really develop some special functions, also we will discuss your propose. Tell me, for example, what function is better to have against vandals - a computer banning or something else?Alexandre Koriakine 21:40, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

I think a full-protection system for critical place ( historical place; memorial place... ) and a warn and banning system ( like wikipedia)just enough for dealing with vandalisms. However, two or more Local Admins is greatly needed for keep wikimapia "always useful" Magnifier 05:13, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks Alexandre and Naipe for your care about our problems.

I think the attendance of Local Admins is really need to Wikimapia, too. Miaka MiakaAsakura 06:42, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

It would be nice to appoint a local constable / constabulary for particular areas with quick delete and article protection powers.

Most areas of high vandalism also have a high incidence of Internet cafes so banning either IP's (pop round to another cafe) or users (quick - create another user ID) will probably be completely ineffective or lead to migraine. Remember that areas physically need to be eyeballed. One can't add a constables `beat' to any automated watchlist!

I volunteer to patrol the Nelson and Tasman Bays area of New Zealand....Gaimhreadhan^{(kiwiexile at DMOZ)} • 17:12, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

-I agree that we need local adminins to judge each case independently, according with your knowledge about the region and the language. As was said, a automated system is impracticable. But, i suggest more restrictions for unregistered users, because they make the most of problems and the majority part of them are sporadic and will not create accounts after accounts to continue the bad editions. The registered vandals still will appear, but in a minor number and the control will be possible. (i hope).

-About the utilization of local adminins, that Wikimapia's page will can help to organize, by the division of world map in listed directories: http://wikimapia.org/country/

(For example - Gaimhreadhan said above that he want patrol these NZ areas: Nelson and Tasman)

-I did observe that this page, in the lists of regions/cities places, show the newest places in the end. It help to watch the recent additions! (Is hard to do it on the normal page, in the middle of hundreds of older upcomming places in a large area). Would be useful if this page could include and order the editions too.

-Finally, i can patrol my country's state too. I have worked to keep this region free of bad places and currently i got success. (Okay, maybe for it has less than 2.000 places in 18.000 sq/miles). =) Thanks! Naipe. Rbsnsnts 02:00, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

Hi, I have been in Wikimapia for around a year now, I needed to know if I could be granted AdminShip. I generally do edits for places around Bombay/Mumbai and want to to volunteer to keep the region Wiki-Clean. Please could I be granted Admin-Ship. My Wikimapia User Id is KhalilSawant Khalil Sawant 12:10, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

I can help with some adminship for wikimapia. My nick in wikimapia - podarok. Can help with Ukrainian translation too. --Andriy Podanenko 10:37, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

Firefox

There are some upcoming places that I'm unable to vote for (or rather against) for example: http://wikimapia.org/#y=54790492&x=18423772&z=15&l=28&m=a&v=2 . Can it be a problem connected with Firefox? And is it possible to add polygons in Firefox? (I can only do it via IE) Regards. Joan M 14:40, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Firstly, greetings to Gdansk! I had a fine leather belt made there in the early '70's when I was visiting Solidarnosc and it lasted me 30 years since I grew too stout...
I have just visited the location above and voted successfully (wickedly, since it does seem to be some sort of car boot sale judging by the spy satellite) for deletion.
There are differences in behaviour between browsers, but many WikiMapians favour Firefox. I use Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-GB; rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070309 Firefox/2.0.0.3 myself.
I think polygons can only be added by a certain level of registered user. Here's an example of one I baked earlier (grin):

http://wikimapia.org/#y=-40905210&x=173171997&z=8&l=28&m=s&v=2

Keep warm! ...Gaimhreadhan^{(kiwiexile at DMOZ)} • 17:13, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

It could be that someone voted using your IP, then the system don't allow it.Alexandre Koriakine 19:08, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

So maybe something is wrong with my Firefox because I can't even see the polygons (I see them only in IE...) The same thing about adding them- it isn't a problem of level (I can add the polygons from the same account, but only via IE). Joan M 19:09, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

What is your version of Firefox and your OS? And maybe you have strange add-on? Or try to clear cache: CTRL-F5?Alexandre Koriakine 19:49, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

I use Firefox/2.0.0.3 on Windows XP Professional. About add-ons- I don't know the computer usage well enough to answer your question but still: some of my friends have the same problem (but only with Firefox- IE functions well and I haven't asked about Opera).
I also have 2 other questions:
do you consider creating some "meta-like" pages? (By "meta-like" I mean things like user and admin [if there will be some], protected places' lists and similar)?
And the second question is if you could clarify the system of ranking users (how many edits [or what else] are needed to have your level hightened and so on. Regards. Joan M 20:07, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

There will be special pages (and many of them), but we have to finish some necessary WikiMapia functions. Now there's no automatic user level-up to advanced user, so we make this manually by a request. Alexandre Koriakine 20:42, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

upload screenshot

kindly upload a screenshot of wikimapia website to wikimapia article in wikipedia, that is pending due to some copyright issue. thanks202.41.72.100 09:11, 3 April 2007 (UTC) without which the page looks very unfamiliar and hostile.202.41.72.100 09:12, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Can't help :( at this moment. We need to find a copyright free aerial image, and put rectangles on. Alexandre Koriakine 19:55, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

all you need is take an official written permission from google maps. and upload. its easy :) do it fast, grr.. 202.41.72.100 03:58, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

resizing places

Is there any way of resizing biggaer places (like this one: http://wikimapia.org/#y=51770000&x=19460000&z=12&l=28&m=a&v=2 - the big square in the middle shows Łódź but in fact the city is much bigger than there)? Joan M 12:02, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Considering the visualization limit to create places and resize edits -'level' 13 of approach - (I approve this size limit), my strategy is use the internet browser in full-screen and/or increase the resolution size of the monitor. (Have a bigger monitor, like +19inch, help too, where you can make squares until with 20km of vertical line...)-- Rbsnsnts 02:37, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

Measure distance and area: buttons

Are buttons (fit to screen and clear all point) really needed? We removed them, left cancel only.

I think those buttons are something useful, because it help to use the measure tool more quickly, without need close the tool and open again in menu every time that you think remake your measurement - about "clear all point" button. It is not a big problem, but, as i say, with this button this is more easy and practical. If this not cause other problems, it could be kept. Thanks. Rbsnsnts 02:01, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

The Idea is make a simple interface so that not-tech-geeks can easely work with site. That why we play with interface. Jack keeps saying that these two buttons probably distract users. :) Alexandre Koriakine 17:35, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

Translation of user interface from English

If you want to take part in the translation of the WikiMapia interface, you may follow this link to read instructions: http://wikimapiablog.blogspot.com/2007/04/localization-translation-of-user.html

These are the names of users that have already volunteered for the respective languages (named in English and ordered alphabetically):

Arabic: Amer Alobaidli

Armenian: Armatura

Belorussian: Pavel Zadorski

Chinese: Jin-Jun Liang

Dutch: Arnout Steenhoek

French: Koriakine, proofreading Louis-Marie P.

German: Joerg S., proofreading Michael T.

Greek: Waka, proofreading Niklas

Hebrew: Gabriel Seed

Malay: Praveen Rajan

Polish: Wojciech Szymski

Portuguese: Eduardo Pereira Habkost, Gustavo de Farias Costa Almeida

Punjabi: Mandeep

Romanian: Daniel Mahu

Russian: OK

Serbian: Nikola Smolenski

Spanish: Axaber

Tagalog: Elson Malaki

Turkish: Arnout Steenhoek, proofreading Sevgi Gülen

Ukrainian: Pavel Zadorski

Vietnamese: Magnifier

A Recommendation to Require Users to Login

So I have finally concluded that I think users must login in order to mark a place. I know this is just my opinion, but I personally feel this is a much needed step. I continue to come across numerous created places or edited places that are spam/pornographic/inappropriate/etc. I think the only way this can be eliminated is if users are required to register and login. This will be helpful because then if there are people that continue to abuse the system, they (or their IP) can be banned from making place makers or edits.
Anyone have any further thoughts on this? Alexandre? --Matt510 07:54, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

Matt, I do not think it's a good idea. We need something to do, but not limiting of information input.Alexandre Koriakine 17:30, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

My belief is that if someone is willing to contribute real information, they wouldn't mind registering but those that want to vandalize would want to remain autonomous. I understand that you don't want to limit the amount of info, but it seems like something needs to be devised to prevent all the vandalism going on. I don't know, this is a difficult subject, it just seems something has to change. Oh, and it seems like this would be really helpful for commenting as well as there is A LOT of comment spam/vandalism. --Matt510 22:51, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

Do you log somewhere the upcoming places that are deleted because of negative votes? If so, I would propose setting an IP based temp ban based on a large number of such deleted places (which would indicate a vandal) or alternatively on the ratio bad/good places (if you are concerned about shared IPs). I did notice that upcoming places with only neg. votes are deleted pretty quickly, but when the same person with the same silly (and personal) comments keeps adding "places" every morning and evening, it kind of gets to you. It's wasted time on our side, I think. — Daniel Mahu · talk · 14:20, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for suggestion, Mahu, you have the point.Alexandre Koriakine 22:28, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

Cleaning Up This Page

How would people feel if I went through and deleted some of the older sections that have been resolved? This page is getting very long and unruly and might benefit from a clean up. yes? no? --Matt510 07:56, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

The "archive" on the top of this page can receive the old and resolved sections, without deletion, like the first time that Koriakine did it. I think too that a discussion board-page can be very useful to other Wikimapia users (Not necessarily Wikipedia members). Rbsnsnts 16:54, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

We also need to remember that this is the talk page of a particular Wikipedia user: Alexandre Koriakine. I'm pretty sure that, in your particular case Matt, you will have already cleared this with Alexandre by e-mail and so have his authority to wield a broom. If this is not the case, perhaps you would outline your intentions below? W. Frank 17:19, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, Matt, I tried to archive unnecessary info. I left some useful topics intentionally. If something unimportant I missed to archive, I won't mind if you do it. Alexandre Koriakine 17:33, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

Fair enough, if I do anything, I will keep it to a minimum. How about the list of all the people that have requested to register? Can those be deleted since they are now users? --Matt510 22:48, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

cette question est destinée à monsieur Alexandre Koriakine

Je voudrais entrer en contact avec une personne ayant marqué un lieu sur Wikimapia. Comment dois-je procéder ? Merci pour votre réponse Isaac LEVI ALVARES (e.mail: satamker@yahoo.co.uk)

Salut! Plus d'info, s'il vous plait (quel lieu, pourquoi)! Alexandre Koriakine 18:11, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

le lieu est le village de VIRZOLI, aux Indes. Il est indiqué comme faisant partie de Murud, en réalité il est dans le taluka de Roha, district de Raigad.Je recherche donc la personne qui a marqué ce lieu sur Wikimapia. je pense que c'est la même personne qui a indiqué, dans le même village, "Omkar and Paras Kunde house". La famille de mon fils adoptif est originaire de ce village, où elle a vécut de temps immémoriaux et jusqu'à la fin du XXme siècle. je voudrais donc entrer en contact avec cette personne pour me documenter sur l'histoire du village. Merci d'avance.

Bon, je ne peux pas vous aider car cette personne a ete anonyme. Je vous conseille d'ecrire la message sur ce village et de laisser vos coordoonees. Alexandre Koriakine 16:24, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

WikiMapia statistics

Dear Alexander, wouldn't a statistical function be nice for cities, countries and users in terms of creations, added photographs and edits? Have you found already a translator for the languages Dutch and Turkish?

Arnout Steenhoek 13:20, 4 July 2007 (UTC) (busy at Wikimapia in especially De Pijp area of Amsterdam under the name Arnoutsteenhoek)

Hello Arnout! We are thinking about this and we will do. But at this moment we have to do a very-very important global functions update and it will take about 2 months. So after we will be surely making open statistics. What about Dutch and Turkish - there is no tranlator for them. Alexandre Koriakine 13:46, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

Communication between users

Il faudrait que les personnes qui désignent un lieu, font un commentaire ou apportent une modification, puissent être identifiées et que d'autres usagers de Wikimapia aient la possibilité d'entrer en contact, directement ou indirectement avec ces personnes. Isaac LEVI ALVARES (e.mail: satamker@yahoo.co.uk

Photograph management

I suggest that it is necessary, that a function of giving dates to the photographs will be implied, and maybe that the most recent picture comes first. Arnout Steenhoek 23:12, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

New Places in a location

One thing that would make it a lot easier for me to keep my area clean would be the ability to find the most recently added places closest to my current location. I can't seem to find a way to do that, although I thought it was there at one time. -Otto on Wikimapia -Otto42 19:28, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

This function will be implemented soon. There was only global last added places. Alexandre Koriakine 08:53, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

To see the recently added places just open some places on your city and click on this: Example e go to the last page to see the last additions: Example 02 / Rbsnsnts 15:26, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

Request for a blockade

Can you please ban or stop in any ohter way the user Czesio from vandalising wikimapia. He is mainly adding there stuff like "my 3 palms" etc. Moreover he also marks normal, good places for deletion (like a park or a church) and he is very impolite towards other users (so IMHO he is a vandal, more, he is a registered vandal!). So can I ask you to stop him? Regards Joan M 12:02, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Have you sent him a message referencing this page so he can put his point of view, Joan?

(I do sympathise with your efforts to fight vandalism and improve WikiMapia for all)...Gaimhreadhan^{(kiwiexile at DMOZ)} • 15:04, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I did give him this site's adress yesterday but I am not really sure if he speaks english (even the way he uses polish is 'quite' incorrect... well I don't want to offend him just stop him from vandalising others' work). Maybe I can show you all what he is doing by this example (maybe it isn't vary grave but still, it shows his typical behaviour):

http://wikimapia.org/#y=51405310&x=30055847&z=14&l=28&m=a&v=2

the city shown there is Prypeć in polish as anybody can check on polish wikipedia or even anywhere else on the net. As I am watching now every contribution of Czesio I saw today that he marked it (he did a typo in the name and it was "Pyrpeć" not "Prypeć") so I corrected the typo and added some description and interwiki to polish wikipedia. Now I found the typo reversed (eventhough he left it the correct way in the 'tags' section) and the interwiki removed. Joan M 19:01, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

I appreciate that you haven't had the time to find a more pertinent example, Joan, but the example you've given seems like it may just be carelessness/dyslexia rather than active vandalism. It may very difficuolt for Alexandre or others to act without a better example. Thanks once again for your time and efforts!...Gaimhreadhan^{(kiwiexile at DMOZ)} • 19:07, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the very fast reply. Unfortunately I am unable to provide evidence simply because Czesio has already deleted all the places I have been talking about (maybe Alexandre has something like history of deleted places in particular area- only then will it be visible). About Czesio's presumed dyslexia- maybe but he not only reversed the name, he also deleted the link to wikipedia (I presume we want Wikimapia to have interwikis to wikipedia, don't we?). Going back to evidence- I can copy the text of messages we wrote to each other but they are in polish and I don't want to translate them because I fear that I can be accused of trying to express my POV... But I still can give them if you find a neutral translator and, of course if it's needed. RegardsJoan M 19:22, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

That's all useful information, Joan which I imagine Alexandre will find useful - if he ever has the time to review it. As you will appreciate, it may be a systematic piece of programming additional features rather than an ad hoc response by Alexandre that is required in situations like this - such as community constables with greater privileges and powers...Gaimhreadhan^{(kiwiexile at DMOZ)} • 19:34, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Sorry that I am late in the conversation. Yes, we store deleted places and we didn't make undelete yet (we are busy with many other things, but I'll finally check it and recover them.) I blocked Czesio user. Alexandre Koriakine 20:54, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

It's good to know that those places can come back. Thank you very much Alexandre. Now I go back to adding places in Władysławowo :) Joan M 19:23, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Protection Request

Hello, I'm from Qatif, Saudi Arabia (WM account: RedhaMS). After reading the previous comments I felt was encouraged to post about a certain vandalism problem here. Even though I'll be speaking specifically about my city, this whole region is suffering from it, including Kuwait, Bahrain and UAE. There are probably other countries in other areas I haven't checked.
In local culture we have what is referred to as Hussainia where it is used to hold ceremonies such as weddings, funerals, and educational lectures. However they have been under persistent vandalisms against their original name titles and description. The vandalism is always in the form of edits by unregistered, and recently they are done on daily basis since I started fixing them regularly. So far I've counted over 25 Hussainias in this small city and all were vandalized. Few examples here, (all in Arabic though):
http://wikimapia.org/#y=26566660&x=50011359&z=18&l=0&m=s (literal t/l sample: house of weeping cows)
http://wikimapia.org/#y=26564088&x=50007067&z=18&l=0&m=s (literal t/l sample: the despicables' temple)
http://wikimapia.org/#y=26556723&x=50010801&z=18&l=0&m=s (literal t/l sample: goats' barn)
These are the ones that I dared to actually translate, some are extremely foul. In the last one you'll find two comments someone managed to pull out of saboteur(s). They claimed to be doing "it" for the "good" of the community (Google translator manages to convey the meaning somehow).
Now this is strictly my POV, please correct me in any case: WM is a MAP project, not a medium to express one's dissatisfaction with others for any reason. Is WM the right place to evaluate other people convictions? definitely not, this even applies to WikiPedia. For example a restaurant is a restaurant even if two disagreed on the food served being good or bad. That isn't enough excuse to change the title to "Garbage collecting point" (this one has been used too).
If I were to decide I'd choose to delete all of places. But they're bound to be re-added by someone's goodwill, and vandalism will continue. Honestly, IRL it doesn't bother us one bit whatever the others say, but what I'm seeking here is a Fair Use (don't we all?). If possible I wish to provide protection to what's considered sacred symbols in the area.
P.S. it may worths mentioning that, most if not all Saudi ISP use non-transparent proxies.
Sorry for writing such length, it felt necessary to explain the situation. Thank you for your time. RedhaMS 16:49, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Thank for the comment, we are revising all the system. "Garbage collecting point" may be good in comment, but not in title, you are right. At this time your are advanced user, so you have nmore power to control over it. Alexandre Koriakine 21:02, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Is it good for a comment? really didn't know comments could be lenient to this degree. It seems that I still lack experience. My gratitude for the quick reply and your trust. I'll make sure to put this privilege for a good use that fits WM's purpose. Thank you very much. RedhaMS 21:40, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Hello again. Is there a way or place one can properly report users to? I noticed that a certain registered user (telecom) has been actively rampaging through the area for a while. Activities include changing regions titles to irrelevant stuff, the vandalism mentioned earlier and overall being offensive toward others.

Previously I'd simply check a user profile for a list of their edits. However that doesn't seem to work now, the side-bar is empty (created places & comments are shown though). Did something change in the system?

I'm looking forward to see "trust system". Thank you for your hard work RedhaMS 11:46, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

message marqué comme un abus

J'avais ajouté le commentaire suivant au nom de lieu "Virzoli" aux Indes: "Virzoli was also called Satamba". Mon commentaire a été caché et remplacé par la phrase suivante: " ce message est marqué comme un abus". Par qui ? pourquoi ? (LEVI ALVARES) e.mail: mxsla@yahoo.co.uk)

Belarussian question

Sorry to bother you again Alexandre but I have anouther problem- WikiMapia doesn't take the belarussian wikipedia adresses (today I tried to resole the problem of 10 identical Mount Everest places by adding a description in as many languages as possible and I found out that it's impossible to add to its description the following adress: http://be-x-old.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%AD%D0%B2%D1%8D%D1%80%D1%8D%D1%81%D1%82 I keep getting the message that it isn't a real wikipedia site). Can it be mended? Regards. Joan M 19:38, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Rectangle vs Tilted Rectangle vs Polygon as place marks

As of now one can add a rectangular place mark and through it can create a polygon so as to represent the place more accurately. Is it possible to have Polygon directly as place marks, is the problem more because of how to find the center of the place mark to calculate distances or something else. If its not possible, then can we have option of having tilted rectangle as typically the place marks are rectangular in nature albeit not necessarily aligned to X-Y axis. Vjdchauhan 01:11, 30 July 2007 (UTC).

We are working hard on new system, where we will have only polygons (plus roads) to add and not rectanges. This will be finished wery soon. Alexandre Koriakine 06:30, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

Can't delete comment ?

Hi, Alexander.I have a question. Why can't we delete bad comment as fast as before ? Some comment have over 5 object vote (like here) but it's sill alive ( with a label:this message was marked as abusive, click to see...)

Another question. Can you block tscs he often leave very offensive comment agains my country. ( if you don't know Vietnamese you can see his avatar it's my country flag which he modified).

Sorry for my English skill. It's very bad

Magnifier 22:53, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

I like the new commenting system a lot. It makes sense to have the "this message marked as abusive..." after a certain number of negative votes, is there a certain number of negative votes that will remove the comment all together? Also, as a "privileged user" before we had more ability to remove a comment (I think 4 votes is what we had), but currently we only have one vote. It would be helpful for privileged users to be able to remove spam or inappropriate comments instantly (or more quickly). Thanks! --Matt510 08:15, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

I agree. Community constables are needed as on Citizendium. Until then, a privileged user should have 5 votes to combat obscenity and vandalism that will drive away some "Family orientated" advertisers and commercial sponsors. W. Frank ✉ 10:30, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, but there also will be a lot of changes with "trust system". Soon we will introduce many changes, working hard on them. Alexandre Koriakine 12:13, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the update Alexandre, as long as you guys have stuff in the works, I am happy, just wanted to make sure that wasn't over looked! :) --Matt510 07:44, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm glad to hear that and I hope you and your family are well. I am very sad to report that Gaimhreadhan is close to death now and has been ambulanced. W. Frank ✉ 15:32, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Wow, sorry to hear about Gaimhreadhan! --Matt510 07:44, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

That's is really sad news. Where can I read what's happening.Alexandre Koriakine 13:24, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Yes. I am quite upset. Here is where anyone can say some words:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:W._Frank#Condolences

Thank you for adding to the condolence section for User:Gaimhreadhan, Alexandre. I shall print out the condolences and bring them to his wife and children before the funeral. I don't speak Russian and neither do they so could I trouble you to give me an idea of what you wrote there, Please? W. Frank ✉  21:14, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Can't edit places ?

Hi Alexandre, Today I found in wikimapia many places like this link: http://wikimapia.org/#lat=21.051977&lon=105.887395&z=18&l=0&m=a&v=2&show=/4830527/vi/Doanh_tr%E1%BA%A1i_qu%C3%A2n_%C4%91%E1%BB%99i_nh%C3%A2n_d%C3%A2n

If you look at the bottom of this article, you will see some space-lines and characters like: "</textarea><! -- < /textarea> <! --". The characters makes a problem: After the last user who edited this information, NO ONE CAN EDIT IT ANYMORE.

It's very difficult to me that all the places are exactly, but their infomations are incorrectly or badly. Now I just can delete all the places and create new places. But the problem still not be solved.

On the other hands, all the places I found were edited by the user name "tscs". You can easily see that this user is voted "bad "by 23 users (only 6 "good"). I wonder if you can care about some users like him?

Alexandre, can you help me to solve this problem?

Best regards, MiakaAsakura 06:18, 26 September 2007 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by MiakaAsakura (talk • contribs) 06:12, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for this serious bug, I've corrected this! Alexandre Koriakine

About bad users - we just introduces the system, so we are starting to take care about this kind of users.Alexandre Koriakine

Changing my vote?

Hi, I previously voted no on a place, because it was badly entered, but after finding some more information, I edited it, but now I can't seem to change my vote to reflect the new situation. I think we really do need to be able to change votes, because the information for a place can and does change, and then our votes are out of date.

Also, a couple more questions:

• Have you decided on a license yet and will you let us have the data? I love the idea of Wikimapia, but I'm still feeling somewhat reluctant because I can't save a copy of the data I add, nor can I be sure that I will be able to access it in the future.
• Are there any plans to add a recent changes type of thing? I would love to be able to draw a rectangle over the area I'm familiar with and see the recent changes for that area. Sometimes it's hard to see upcoming places that others have added because there are already so many of my own upcoming places, and I also can't see if someone has vandalised a place without manually checking each one.

--Avxxv 20:42, 13 August 2007 (UTC) (also on Wikimapia)

Dear Koriakine,

I'm a Wikimapia user from Vietnam, and I'm really tired of the impolite and political comments of some other Vietnamese users. I understand that Wikimapia is supposed to be a map, no a political forum. However, some users, who called themselves Vichoco, are using Wikimapia as their own political forum. I hope you and the administration of Wikimapia can have some solution for this issue.

Thank you very much and have a nice day —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 192.195.230.50 (talk) 20:30, August 21, 2007 (UTC)

Снимок Троицка

Привет Александр, Вы загрузили в русскую Википедию эту красивую фотографию города Троицка. К сожалению, она пока без лицензии и находится под угрозой удаления. Вы не смогли бы добавить нужную лицензию? Заранее спасибо, --Ljowa 18:20, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Не смогу этого сделать, т.к. не имею необходимых данных.Alexandre Koriakine 19:18, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Жаль, но всё равно спасибо. --Ljowa 12:06, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Locking feature

Работает ли оно? И при каких условиях? ИМХО - штука полезная и уменьшит вандализм --Podarok 09:48, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

Working for unregistered users (also for 3 day waiting for all new users)Alexandre Koriakine

Polygons

Hi Alexandre!

Just a quick note to call your attention to a problem with irregular polygons. This feature was working perfectly until about five days ago, but seems to be malfunctioning at the moment. Whenever I try to add a green polygon, the red outline with four points appears, but when I try to add additional points, that doesn't work. As I said, this problem has only come up in the last week. Could you look into it? Thanks! David Cannon 00:11, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

Thank you David, Google changed their code. A surprise! We almost fixed this. Alexandre Koriakine

Great! The upcoming features are exciting too. Keep it up!David Cannon 23:26, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

Some new questions

Hi Alexandre! I have several new questions to ask you: 1. Today I found a very "interesting" edit war- here: http://wikimapia.org/#lat=49.81084&lon=23.998362&z=18&l=28&m=h Can you, being russian, decide which version is correct and protect it? 2. is there a general rule which name should we use in such cases? 3. will the search system be improved? (like when I search for Mount Everest I get everything but not the real thing- in order to find it, I have to type "Chomolungma"- I don't think everybody knows about that) 4. Do you know that there is a typo- in the "add another language" section- instead of "not translated yet" we get "not transAlated yet"? Regards Joan M 18:25, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Hello Joan! Easy - in russian card it must be in russian and in english card it must be in english. And this is a native and obvious rule. As for the search - it is a good one but we will do improvement later (before we have to finish our major TODO list). Thanks for the typo. Alexandre Koriakine 22:37, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Wikimapia.org not opening

Hi Alex ! As per your saying, you might have seen my contr list on both Wikipedia as well as wikimapia. Also I had translated the Hindi version of the wikimapia, that has been sent for the regeneration request. Now seen , it is opening. But after a while of opening, the message ` map loading on progress' in Hindi is seen for a much long timne, & not exactly opening, just a white screen. Can you please check it out, for hindi language. Also I tried to change the language & check, but all in vein, as no place to change the language, before opening of the page. Try the thing, on once changing the language to hiondi, then close the browser. Then again open it. Try this for 3-4 times, then u might face the problem I m facing. Kindly send me the reason & solution, if some setting is to be changed on my pc's. I can sedn you my mail add too:- ashishbhatnagar72 @ rediffmail . com Thanks a lot, dear.

--- —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ashishbhatnagar72 (talk • contribs) 12:41, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for the report, I corrected this error in Hindi translation!Alexandre Koriakine 18:24, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

This is not the Wikimapia user support forum

Alexandre, a request: can you please stop using Wikipedia pages for conducting your user support business for Wikimapia? I think people have made the same request repeatedly with respect to the article talk page Talk:Wikimapia, but it really applies here too. As you certainly know, Wikipedia is NOT a free web host. Thanks, Fut.Perf. ☼ 16:52, 6 November 2007 (UTC)