GeoNames Forum

Hi,

I just searched for the city "Schlagwitz" in Germany and noticed something odd. There are two entries that does not look right to me and my hunch tells me that one of these are wrong and should be deleted.

If you look at the history for both of them:

http://www.geonames.org/2838945/schlagwitz.html
http://www.geonames.org/2838946/schlagwitz.html

You will find it is the same user "nga" who last touched both cities, and last modification timestamps are almost identical:

2838945 history: 2012-09-06 10:53:25.739
2838946 history: 2012-09-06 10:53:25.883

Being that fast to modify two cities, could lead one to think that "nga" is a bot or an extremely fast person on the keyboard.

The distance between these to entries are less than 10 km apart:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/51.23188,+13.05974/51.18287,+13.09577/@51.1791212,13.0441951,12z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m9!4m8!1m3!2m2!1d13.05974!2d51.23188!1m3!2m2!1d13.09577!2d51.18287

Can someone verify whether:

a) is user "nga" a bot?

b) is one of these entries incorrect and should be deleted and if this is indeed true

c) which one is correct?

Thanks.

both entries look correct to me.
nga stands for 'national geospatial intelligence agency' and is the US army. It is a monthly update job with data from the nga. The German government has not yet releases any open geo data and we have to use US data instead. It will hopefully change soon, since Germany is the last larger European country which does not publish open official data, the German parliament has decided last year to change this, but so far nothing has happened.

Marc

Good day,
Thanks a lot for the effort to maintain the site and provide data for free.

Some how data from nga make multiple names below incorrect, even with English name. As my account not yet have needed level to edit, could you please help to revert the change for them? (Note: there are more incorrect names but I not yet have time now to list them)

And if possible, thee last changes need to be reversed to make names consistent.

Thank you for your attention.

https://www.geonames.org/1580541/
5 2020-06-09 22:59:59.987 nga name:Hội An>Feifu

https://www.geonames.org/1591538/
3 2020-06-09 23:10:29.201 nga name:Bắc Kạn>Bak Kan

https://www.geonames.org/1591474/
3 2020-06-09 23:10:22.617 nga name:Bạc Liêu>Bak Lieu

https://www.geonames.org/1591449/
3 2020-06-09 23:10:20.446 nga name:Bắc Ninh>Bak Ninh

https://www.geonames.org/1587923/
3 2020-06-09 23:07:06.592 nga name:Biên Hòa>Bia Hoa

https://www.geonames.org/1585660/
1 2013-05-07 09:51:08.016 nga name:Châu Ðốc>Cho Dok

https://www.geonames.org/1583992/
6 2013-08-09 19:24:29.502 bbc name:Turan>Da Nang
5 2011-03-06 09:52:35.307 nga name:Ðà Nẵng>Turan altnames:[Да Нанг Đà Nẵng 岘港 xian gang Danang danan 峴港ダナン]

https://www.geonames.org/1582436/
3 2014-06-04 21:06:23.359 nga name:Dồng Xoài>Don Luan movement 3.646 km

https://www.geonames.org/1581047/
3 2020-06-09 23:00:33.78 nga name:Hà Tĩnh>Ha Tin

https://www.geonames.org/1581326/
4 2020-06-09 23:00:44.368 nga name:Hải Dương>Hai dzung

https://www.geonames.org/1580830/
3 2020-06-09 23:00:23.057 nga name:Hòa Bình>Hoa Bin

https://www.geonames.org/1580410/
6 2020-06-09 22:59:48.033 nga name:Hạ Long>Hon Goi

https://www.geonames.org/1580142/
2 2020-06-09 22:59:40.1 nga name:Hưng Yên>Hong-Yen

https://www.geonames.org/1583477/
5 2013-06-29 19:50:12.815 denis.arnaud name:Ðiện Biên Phủ>Dien Bien Phu

https://www.geonames.org/1581130/
12 2013-07-01 11:37:45.046 denis.arnaud name:Hà Nội>Hanoi

https://www.geonames.org/1566083/
22 2013-06-29 23:31:05.909 denis.arnaud name:Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh>Ho Chi Minh City

The Hoi An change to Feifu looks wrong. The others look ok. The main name is an internationally used name, not the local name. Internationally users prefer to have the variant without accents or diacritics.

Best Regards

Marc

Thank you for providing the point of view about international name.

Follow the line, internationally users prefer to have the variant without accents or diacritics. Then the names should be as little variant as possible. So the names mentioned in previous post should be as below, not as what they are now, which may bey the way someone is pronouncing them.

I would like to provide another point of view. The purpose of information system is to help people to understand more about a thing, this case is a place. Then the name should be local one so that people can recognize that thing/place when they see the name again. If they want to know about international name or how to pronounce it, they can choose the place to see detail, which geonames system is doing great. The good example for this purpose is the https://www.openstreetmap.org/ site.

Code:

 Local name  Should be   Not as now
 Hội An      Hoi An      Feifu
 Bắc Kạn     Bac Kan     Bak Kan
 Bạc Liêu    Bac Lieu    Bak Lieu
 Bắc Ninh    Bac Ninh    Bak Ninh
 Biên Hòa    Bien Hoa    Bia Hoa
 Châu Ðốc    Chau Doc    Cho Dok
 Ðà Nẵng     Da Nang     Turan
 Dồng Xoài   Dong Xoai   Don Luan
 Hà Tĩnh     Ha Tinh     Ha Tin
 Hải Dương   Hai Duong   Hai dzung
 Hòa Bình    Hoa Binh    Hoa Bin
 Hạ Long     Ha Long     Hon Goi
 Hưng Yên    Hung Yen    Hong-Yen

Great day to you,

Hai Lang