GeoNames Forum

Hi Marc,

I wanted to ask for some new feature codes but I saw that the discussion did not continue since 2007.
I don't know if you're waiting for someone to ask so I'll just give it a try:

- fuel station, pub/cafe, supermarket (already mentioned in the earlier discussion)
- fire station
- relay station (and/or transformer)
- tramway station
- tramway stop
- lightrail station ? (perhaps a lightrail is too close to a railroad to add a new feature code.)
- lightrail stop ?

Regards,

Hi Marc,

In fact, I wonder most IF the features will be changed, because the discussion was still pending. Otherwise I will just use consequent prefixes for these objects that I have avoided for so far.

regards,

Hi Fred

There already are too many feature codes and I only want to add new ones if they really make sense (= they are useful to many users) and if there really are entries for the feature code. I don't want to add new feature codes and in the end we have only one or two records for the code or we have similar codes and it is not clear to everybody what the difference is.

Several items on your list are of general interest (fuel station, tram station, supermarket, etc) and I also think it would be possible to contact the data owners (for tram stations for instance). Some of them will probably have data and be ready to share it. Do you have data for some of them?

Marc

Hi Marc

Thank for your answer. This makes me understand things better.

I don't know how many items I can add, I think that I can add all dutch tram stations but not for other countries, except occasionally. I will certainly not be able to supply many fuel stations and supermarkets because I depend on data from wikipedia.

If there are too many feature codes than I would like to take a closer look at some of them. For instance, triangular stations do not make sense when shown on google maps, although there are thousands of them.

There are also many types of mills and the differentation is arbitrary, like a sawmill or sugarmill (categorized by production) and a windmill or watermill (categorized by engine). In fact the mill covers all of them already in a better way.

S.ML
Regards,

Oops, I must have typed a combination that submits the message.

S.TRIG - 5475 (strangely cluttered on the map)

These could be mill (powered by wind or water (sounds like feng shui)):
S.ML - 691
S.MLWND - 245
S.MLWTR - 85
S.MLSW - 104

And these I don't know (factories?):
S.MLSG - 181
S.MLSGQ - 22
S.MLM - 8
S.MLO - 4

Regards,

Hi Fred

Thanks. A generic 'Mill' featurecode is certainly sufficient. We could add the other info as tag. For other feature codes we nearly no entries at all I think we should also just delete the entries if there is no more generic code that could be used. It is not very useful to have only one or two entries of something (Ex: language school).

As for the new featurecodes you mentioned. Which ones should we add? For fuel stations or supermarkets it could be possible to use other large sources. Do the large petrol companies have international listings of stations? We have to be careful with wikipedia, because it is only called 'the free Encyclopedia'. In reality it is not free, the license is rather restrictive. It depends which data is used and how it is used to decide whether it is allowed. It is a pity that they did not choose a free license, it would have been a far more useful project with an open and free license.

Marc

Hi Marc,

This is the list that I finally made up in order to improve and further balance the feature codes:

L.REP 0 (L.REP -> remove) republic
L.QCKS 1 (L.QCKS -> T.SAND) quicksand
R.CSWYQ 0 (R.CSWYQ -> remove) former causeway
R.STKR 1 (R.STKR -> R.TRL) stock route
S.CCL 5 (S.CCL -> S.SCHC) centre(s) for continueus learning
S.CTRA 3 (S.CTRA -> S.STNB) atomic research
S.DAMQ 1 (S.DAMQ -> S.DAM) ruined dam
S.NOV 2 (S.NOV -> S.SCH) novitiate
S.OBSR 2 (S.OBSR -> S.OBR) radio observatory
S.RSGNL 39 (R.RSGNL -> remove) rail signal
S.SCHD 2 (S.SCHD -> S.FCL) driving school
S.SCHL 5 (S.SCHL -> S.SCHC) language school
S.SCHN 2 (S.SCHN -> S.SCHC) maritime school
S.SECP 2 (S.SECP -> S.SCHC) State Exam Prep Centre
S.SPLY 1 (S.SPLY -> S.DAM) spillway
S.STNW 3 (S.STNW -> S.FCL) whaling station
S.TWO 3 (S.TWO -> S.OFC) Temp Work Office
S.UNIO 0 (S.UNIO -> remove) postgrad & MBA
S.UNIP 3 (S.UNIP -> S.UNIV) preparation school
S.WEIR 14 (S.WEIR -> S.DAM) small dam
V.FRSTF 1 (V.FRSTF -> V.FRST) fossilized forest
Besides the number of occurences I have also evaluated whether feature codes can be covered by others or are very important.

The number of feature codes can be further reduced by merging single/plural cases:
H.BAY 44224 bay
H.BAYS 5
H.FJD 1812 fjord
H.FJDS 4
H.LGN 1998 lagoon
H.LGNS 9
R.TNL 902 tunnel
R.TNLS 1
S.PYR 20 pyramide
S.PYRS 3
T.CRQ 353 cirque
T.CRQS 7
T.PAN 1638 pan
T.PANS 41
T.PT 57487 point
T.PTS 16

S.ESTB 0 banana plantation
S.ESTC 0 cotton
S.ESTO 407 olive
S.ESTR 401 rubber
S.ESTSG 80 sugar
S.ESTSL 1 sisal
S.ESTT 174 tea
I would recommend to set these features to "Plantation" (S.PL) with tags, like you proposed for mills.

S.MFG 1024 manufactory(ies)
S.MFGB 19 brewery
S.MFGC 25 cannery
S.MFGCU 1 copperworks
S.MFGLM 3 limekiln
S.MFGM 1 munitions
S.MFGPH 23 phosphate
S.MFGQ 8 abandoned
S.MFGSG 35 sugar
I would recommend to set these features to S.MFG with tags but to keep S.MFGQ.

S.ML 680 mill(s)
S.MLM 8 ore
S.MLO 4 olive
S.MLSG 181 sugar
S.MLSGQ 22 sugar, abandoned
S.MLSW 104 saw
S.MLWND 1161 wind
S.MLWTR 89 water
Turning everything into S.ML with tags seems perfect.

S.MN 37378 mine(s)
S.MNAU 59 gold
S.MNC 120 coal
S.MNCR 12 chrome
S.MNCU 19 copper
S.MNDT 0 diatomite
S.MNFE 17 iron
S.MNN 6 salt
S.MNNI 3 nickel
S.MNPB 5 lead
S.MNPL 2 0 placer mine(s)
S.MNQ 282 abandoned mine
S.MNQR 193 quarry
S.MNSN 1 tin
I would recommend to set these features to S.MN with tags but to keep S.MNQ and S.MNQR.

Recommended feature codes:
pub, supermarket, fuel station, tram stop/station
S.RES Residential building(s) Multiple residential units with shared entrance, stairs and/or elevators
S.OFC Office building(s) Building(s) with one or more companies where paperwork is carried out
S.SHOP Shop(s) Retail company(-ies) where consumer goods are sold and/or repaired

It is true that I don't have much data for these items but on the other hand these categories are the most likely to be added manually by web users. But it is also true that information for these items is very hard to obtain on a large scale and it may take a long time. I hope that you know how to decide wisely...

Regards,

Hi Fred

Sorry for the delay. We are still looking into this cleanup issue and it will probably take some more time.

Best

Marc

Hi Marc,

I already noticed that it is very busy here, in fact I'm sorry for throwing up so many questions. Of course I wouldn't mind to handle the list of smaller updates when it becomes clear if there will be any changes.

Regards,

Fred

Hi Marc,

I didn't realize that tag must be edited by their creator. This makes me sceptic about the use of tags for this purpose because it would involve that this part of the information can no longer be maintained by the community. My initial problem with mills was that their descriptions are not mutually exclusive but maybe it's better to leave it like that.

I had expected more people to drop into this discussion but I can imagine that the postal codes are a bigger hit.

Regards,

I found my way to this discussion when I searched in vain for an appropriate feature code to use for fire stations, the geographic locations of which (in my opinion) can have significant value in map searches.

In other words, I had assumed there would be at least some demand among users for locating fire stations on a map.

It also seems probable that authoritative data sources should exist for fire stations, in case of any major dispute among, um, geonames editors, I guess.

I have no particular association with fire stations, I just use it as an example to express my interest in advancing the issue of feature code maintenance. Perhaps so that Fred Kuijper won't feel so alone

I look forward to seeing this topic debated.

Clyde

As I reacquaint myself with GeoNames, I wonder if by any chance any feature code(s) have been added for "fire station" since my original posting?

I have become careful with adding new featurecodes. Many of the new feature codes we had to delete again after some time for lack of sufficient data. If you have a datasource that covers at least an entire country with near 100% of all fire stations then it would be different or if you are really dedicated to spend tons of hours adding fire stations. Don't expect others to add them if you don't.

Best

Marc