GeoNames Forum

Hello,

I've tried to use big geonames dump on my travel site to display sightseens and it works just fine in some places (Paris for example), but in some places, like in US cities, map looks full of markers.

I thought I can delete such things as buildings from database, but it will delete such sightseens as The White House. I wonder is there any smart way to delete objects which will not be interesting for travelers? I'd like to keep sightseens like Great Wall, Niagara Falls, The White House, Statue Of Liberty etc.

If there is no way to do it, can you please tell me where can I get database of sightseens?

Thanks.

Hi Alexey

You could use the number of alternate names for a feature and only delete those with no alterate names.

Cheers

Marc

marc wrote:

Hi Alexey

You could use the number of alternate names for a feature and only delete those with no alterate names.

Cheers

Marc

Thanks Marc. It sounds like a good idea, but a lot of sightseeings do not have any alternate names. For exmple, The White House (4140704) doesn't have alternames and it will be deleted.

Maybe there is some other similar way too keep popular sightseeings in database and remove buildings, schools etc?

Hi,

Sorry to intervene,

I met this problem too with sections of populated places which are also industrial areas. A solution would be to add bit flags (everybody wants to add something) for touristic, industrial etc. as an extension of featureClass and featureCode. Pro: easy to implement and downwards compatible. Contra: hard to design in a way that will satisfy all different kind of needs.

Regards,

Fred

There is also a simple tagging system implemented. This allow multidimensional categorization.

Marc

I don't understand which tags you mean and where they can be found since I only know the ftrClass and ftrCode.

Every GeoNames user can tag places with the map interface. There is a link called 'tag' on the info window balloon.
This tagging system could be used as a multidimensional categorization system. The tags are searchable and included in the daily dump.

Hi Marc,

I see, I have always overlooked this file. However, won't it lead to parallel descriptions like 'touristic' in many languages without pre-categorization?

Cheers,

Fred

Tags are not a panacea, I fully agree. I have something in mind like the featureCodes but where multiple codes are allowed. The downside of the featureCodes is that only one code is allowed and a lot of categorizations are orthogonal. They are independent from each other and a toponym can be one or more. The tagging approach allows to express this unrelatedness, I think it is the same concept you describe with bit flags.

Marc