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		<title><![CDATA[Latest posts for the topic "How can I help ?"]]></title>
		<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/6.page</link>
		<description><![CDATA[Latest messages posted in the topic "How can I help ?"]]></description>
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			<item>
				<title>How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ Question :

How can I help geonames? What can I contribute?

Answer :

We need help in various areas :
<ul>

<li> <b>new data sources</b> : Check whether your country is releasing  <b>free</b> geo data and let us know.

<li> <b>Data correction and improvement</b> : Many coordinates in our datasources are rounded in our datasources and therefore not exact. You can use the edit functions of geonames to correct and improve data. http://www.geonames.org/recent-changes.html
If you are using geonames data on your website you can ask your users to correct errors and link back to the geonames edit page  http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/22.page

<li> We need help <b>translating</b> feature classes and feature codes : http://www.geonames.org/export/codes.html
As well as weather observations : http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/28.page

<li> You can help adding additional countries to our postal codes geo coding service :
http://www.geonames.org/export/free-geocoding.html
I your country is not yet supported you can help us <b>find a list of postal codes</b> for your country. We will then take care about geo referencing the postal codes. All we need is a list of postal codes and placenames.

<li> <b>metar weather parser in java</b> : We want to extract 'meaningful' information from the metar weather observation data. 
http://groups.google.com/group/geonames/browse_thread/thread/9fbf33ac601f2df3/3d2cd85925583ece?tvc=2#3d2cd85925583ece
you could also help in translating weather texts :
http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/28.page
</ul>

You can also support the project with a donation and help pay for the servers : http://www.geonames.org/donations.html

If you want to help just get in touch with us : info@geonames.org

Thank you.]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#40</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#40</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Fri, 3 Mar 2006 12:56:45]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ marc]]></author>
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				<title>How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ Above it says one can help correct the data by using the "edit" functions. I just registered and cannot see anything that would permit me to make corrections???]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#80</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#80</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Tue, 4 Apr 2006 09:26:26]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ Anonymous]]></author>
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				<title>Re:How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ The edit functions are on top of the google maps interface.

Use the search function to find the place where you live. Then click on the small balloon on the map. A new window will open over the map and in this window you have several edit functions available. Just click on one of the menus at the bottom of that window.
With the 'edit' function you can correct elevation, population and others. With the 'alternate names' you can correct spelling and add names for this place in other languages.
With the 'move' function you can correct the location of the place.

The most recent modifications are visible here :
http://www.geonames.org/recent-changes.html

Marc]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#81</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#81</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Tue, 4 Apr 2006 09:42:40]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ marc]]></author>
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				<title>Re:How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ Hi,

I'm miserably failing to understand how can I move a populated place.

I click on its marker, the info window shows up, I click on "Move", I close the info window (it's covering the right position), I click on the right position for that city, and then nothing.

On the left pane it says

move Cox
  1. point mouse to new location
  2. save new coordinates

How can I "save the new coordinates"?

Thank you for a great service!

Cheers,
]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#113</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#113</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Fri, 28 Apr 2006 16:38:41]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ Anonymous]]></author>
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			<item>
				<title>Re:How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ The code was broken. Thanks for letting us know about the problem.

Please try again, it is fixed now and should work.

Marc]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#114</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#114</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Fri, 28 Apr 2006 17:23:35]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ marc]]></author>
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				<title>Re:How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ Hi Marc,

It's working now. Thanks a lot!

Now, is there any way to change the name of an adm1?
In the gns database they have "Castilla-La Manacha" instead of "Castilla la Mancha" (extra hyphen and extra "a").

Is there any way to report such errors to your database?
]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#119</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#119</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Sat, 29 Apr 2006 08:14:59]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ Anonymous]]></author>
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				<title>Re:How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ Posting errors like this one here in the forum or in an email is fine. I will fix them. Thanks a lot.

Marc

Edit :
It is fixed now : http://www.geonames.org/search.html?q=Castilla+La+Mancha&country=]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#120</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#120</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Sat, 29 Apr 2006 08:22:52]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ marc]]></author>
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				<title>Re:How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ Hi Marc,

In the gns database they have "Cataluña" (translation to the Castilian of an official name) instead of "<b>Catalunya</b>", official name of this one country.
You can fix this error to your database?

Thank you Marc]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#294</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#294</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Sun, 25 Jun 2006 21:17:07]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ Anonymous]]></author>
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			<item>
				<title>Re:How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ It is changed :

http://www.geonames.org/search.html?q=catalunya

Marc]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#297</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#297</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Tue, 27 Jun 2006 08:31:30]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ marc]]></author>
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				<title>Re:How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ Thank you marc !

abat sise]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#299</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#299</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Tue, 27 Jun 2006 20:51:16]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ Anonymous]]></author>
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			<item>
				<title>Re:How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ Marc:

In the database they have valenciana instead País Valencià:
(http://www.geonames.org/search.html?q=Benicarl%C3%B3&country=)
and Islas Baleares instead of Illes Balears:
(http://www.geonames.org/search.html?q=Mallorca&country=)
You can fix this error?

Thank you

Vicent]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#364</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#364</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Mon, 10 Jul 2006 21:13:56]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ Anonymous]]></author>
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				<title>Re:How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ Thank you Vicent. It is fixed.

Marc]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#368</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#368</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Wed, 12 Jul 2006 07:28:03]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ marc]]></author>
			</item>
			<item>
				<title>Re:How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ Hi, I recently made (logged as zeman) couple of additions, movements and spelling corrections in and around Praha, Czechia. Although I see the changes in the list of recent changes and in the history of the places, the map does not reflect them. Even after emptying the cache and reloading. Any ideas why this might happen?

Thanks,
Dan]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#820</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#820</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Tue, 12 Sep 2006 18:05:52]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ Dan]]></author>
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			<item>
				<title>Re:How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ Hi Dan

It was a misconfiguration of a database connection. I am sorry about this. For load balancing some static database requests are served by an other server. Due to a misconfiguration the map view was served by the wrong server and you did not see your inserts and updates. Your changes are now also visible on the map view. 

Regards

Marc]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#821</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#821</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Tue, 12 Sep 2006 18:59:05]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ marc]]></author>
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				<title>Re:How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ Great, thank you!]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#822</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#822</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Tue, 12 Sep 2006 19:06:33]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ Dan]]></author>
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			<item>
				<title>Re:How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ Hey Marc,
Just wondering if you've checked http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lists_of_postal_codes recently?

They have a couple of countries there that are not currently supported.

Happy Turkey from the U.S of A!
javester]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#1179</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#1179</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Thu, 23 Nov 2006 03:07:55]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ javester]]></author>
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			<item>
				<title>Re:How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ Hi Javester

Thanks for the Turkey.

No, I haven't checked it. Do you think the lists are more or less complete? And do you have a particular country in mind? 

Regards

Marc]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#1190</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#1190</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Fri, 24 Nov 2006 17:38:31]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ marc]]></author>
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			<item>
				<title>Re:How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ Marc,

What about postal changes?  Specifically, adding latitudes and longitudes for locations that have empty latitudes and longitudes?

Carey]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#2190</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#2190</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Sat, 2 Jun 2007 01:51:48]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ Carey Gister]]></author>
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			<item>
				<title>Re:How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ Carey

We have started to add postal codes as alternate names with the pseudo iso language code 'post'. This makes sense if section of populated places have other names and other postal codes.
Otherwise you can send me an excel or other file and I directly update the database with it. A wiki-entry form is not yet implemented for the postal codes tables.

Marc]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#2215</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#2215</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Tue, 5 Jun 2007 19:21:17]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ marc]]></author>
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			<item>
				<title>Re:How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ Marc,

I think the altername name solution is excellent.

Do you know when it will be implemented?

Carey]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#2219</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#2219</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Tue, 5 Jun 2007 21:11:45]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ Carey Gister]]></author>
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			<item>
				<title>Re:How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ Hi Carey 

For some countries like France, Spain, Italy and Bulgaria we have already populated the alternate names with the data from the postal code database. Other countries will follow. Which country would you like to add data for?

Cheers

Marc]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#2228</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#2228</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Thu, 7 Jun 2007 21:12:22]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ marc]]></author>
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			<item>
				<title>Re:How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ Hi Marc, 

During last years our company (spbsoftwarehouse.com) released several products using geo data. We collected and developed our own database from many different web sources and we still continue to work on it. 

You will not believe but during last few months we were discussing with colleagues that it's great to create a site providing geo data for free and involve users in a "wiki" style to help filling this db. So I was very happy when found this site. Great job. Thank you! 

We'll be happy to help geonames. 


There are many different ideas in my mind at the moment but the simplest thing we could do is to invite our users to help with localization. 

Probably we could also integrate special module into our Spb Traveler that let mobile users to help with error correction and db extension. 

What options you have for data adding and editing?
]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#2538</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#2538</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Tue, 31 Jul 2007 17:40:04]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ Denis Khitrov]]></author>
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			<item>
				<title>Re:How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ Hi Denis

Welcome to GeoNames, glad to have you here. Localization of toponyms is an important aspect of the GeoNames project and it would be great to have your and your users help with it.

In addition to the edit functionality on this web site we have also web services for creating and updating places. Drop me a mail if you are interested in this : marc@geonames.org 

Regards

Marc]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#2555</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#2555</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Fri, 3 Aug 2007 07:32:47]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ marc]]></author>
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			<item>
				<title>Re:How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ Hi Marc,

Lately I very often used geonames.org  webservices and noticed a few strange behaviors:
<a href='http://o.gosselin.free.fr/Geonames1.jpg' target='_new' rel="nofollow">http://o.gosselin.free.fr/Geonames1.jpg</a>: CountryCode webservice failed on Serbia and Montenegro.
<a href='http://o.gosselin.free.fr/Geonames2.jpg' target='_new' rel="nofollow">http://o.gosselin.free.fr/Geonames2.jpg</a>: FindNearbyPlaceName webservice  failed on a few level-2 administrative areas returning a strange code. This behavior is found in other countries too.
<a href='http://o.gosselin.free.fr/Geonames3.jpg' target='_new' rel="nofollow">http://o.gosselin.free.fr/Geonames3.jpg</a>: FindNearbyPlaceName webservice  returns a level-2 administrative area name (Eure-et-Loir) not homogeneous with others. This behavior is found in other countries too.

I was ready to correct what can be corrected but unfortunately but I don't know where that can be done despite a few tries. Could you provide us with a <i>modus operandi</i> please?

If necessary you can use <a href="http://o.gosselin.free.fr/Projects/OverflownCountries/" target="_new" rel="nofollow">this mashup</a> and <a href="http://o.gosselin.free.fr/Projects/RoadTrip/" target="_new" rel="nofollow">this one</a> to test.

Regards.

Olivier.]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#3128</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#3128</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:08:13]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ olbibigo]]></author>
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			<item>
				<title>Re:How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ Hi Olivier

1. Montenegro is a rather new country and not yet included in the country polygon boundaries we are using. Do you know of recent freely available boundary information?

2. and 3. Christophe the GeoNames Ambassador to France has fixed a lot of problems with French administrative divisions. Could you check wether you still have this issues?

Cheers

Marc]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#3164</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#3164</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Mon, 24 Dec 2007 11:00:55]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ marc]]></author>
			</item>
			<item>
				<title>Re:How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ Hi,
    I think Mesa, AZ, USA has 2 duplicate entries in the database.

The two geonamesids are 5316163 and 5304391.

I tried to remove the 5316163 since it has no localized names, but it says I am not the owner of the name so I cannot do it.

Can you guys fix it?
Thanks!
]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#5099</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#5099</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:54:54]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ gio840av]]></author>
			</item>
			<item>
				<title>Re:How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ I have removed the entry.

Marc]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#5100</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#5100</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:09:01]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ marc]]></author>
			</item>
			<item>
				<title>Re:How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ My company has been using Geonames as one of our data sources for a while now, and we'd like to start actively submitting edits (fixing zero populations, adding/deleting aliases) to Geonames instead of trying to fix the problems on our end. How do we go about getting around the userlevel access problem?]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#6642</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#6642</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:24:21]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ IndeedJimmy]]></author>
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			<item>
				<title>Re:How can I help ?</title>
				<description><![CDATA[ Hi Jimmy

The 'userlevel' is actually not a problem as you call it, it is rather a feature to protect the database against vandalism (out of ignorance or worse).

I have increased your userlevel.

Best

Marc]]></description>
				<guid isPermaLink="true">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#6651</guid>
				<link>http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/25.page#6651</link>
				<pubDate><![CDATA[Sat, 14 Nov 2009 22:58:29]]> GMT</pubDate>
				<author><![CDATA[ marc]]></author>
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