GeoNames Forum

In an effort to fight a recent wave of vandalism we have temporarily disabled all new users from making updates to the database. The instant update of the ws.geonames.org servers has also been disabled. The vandalism is caused by a computer game that links real world information from geonames with the game. Those vandals try to get an advantage in the game by altering geonames data.

Marc

Good Job! Nice to hear that database integrity is your no. 1 priority.
Does this wave of vandalism mean that the daily updates are affected too ?

The errors have made it into the free daily dump, for the premium subscription the wrong updates will be corrected. They are caused by a handful of users. Not all of the updates they did are completely wrong. They manipulate the attributes that give them many points in the game. Most of the errors have already been fixed, but it still needs some cleanup. Do you want to help with the cleanup?

Example: http://www.geonames.org/recent-changes/user/anonn/

Best

Marc

The developers of the game have changed their access to geonames and communicated the change to their users. Modifying geonames no longer leads to advantages in the game. We have therefore reenabled update rights for new users.

Best

Marc