(Topic ID: 160362)

City Names Discussion! East Coast Clarification Needed!

By LaughingOtter

7 years ago



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    #1 7 years ago

    Hello again!

    Well, after confirming more than 6500 Pinside locations via Google, the issue of city names continues to rear its ugly head.

    I've done more than a hundred locations where Google calls the city name something different than what the locals call it. I always go with the local identification if they call it. Quite a few of these places have an active website and/or FB page and you can always get the city name from that.

    Then there's the problem of the wrong city being chosen.
    Spokane Valley is about fifteen miles west of Spokane proper in Washington, USA.
    West Des Moines is separate from Des Moines in Iowa, USA.
    North Providence is separate from Providence in Massachusetts, USA.
    East Syracuse is separate from Syracuse in New York, USA.
    South St. Paul is is separate from St. Paul in Minnesota, USA.
    I think you get the idea. Fortunately, we're gonna sort that sorted out too!

    Now for that East Coast argument...
    There are many city names in the Northeast that end in 'Township'. Or not. Which has led to a LOT of duplicates.
    So what do you dudes call areas like that? Cranberry Township in Pennsylvania, Little Egg Harbor Township in New Jersey (no kidding, that place really exists!)...

    AND THE REAL BIGGIE...
    The Arcade. Look that up on our Pin Map. Two results, one reporting Brighton, the other Brighton Township. 17 games. I haven't the heart to kill either location record. A lot of work went into reporting each location and a lot of the games, and yet it's obviously a duplicate.
    What do I do?

    I may have suggested a city alias database before. Might be time to get that underway so we can associate more than one city name to one city ID.

    I'm also pushing for a suburb name field in the address database. Because Fremont is to Seattle what Islington is to London what Dix-Septieme is to Paris. And because Google can tell us that about 80% of the time. And you should be able to search that way too.

    More to follow!

    And I'll be a Pinside representative at the NW Gameroom Show June 3-5th! Look for the fez! Or the trenchcoat and fedora! Or the Ghostbusters field gear!
    Steve

    #3 7 years ago

    I thought as much. Thanks for that! Thomas Bros. maps are good for that as well, at least inside of the USA.

    The point of using Google in the first place was that it could tell us if the place was permanently closed. Any sufficiently large location map has that problem. There are more than 500 locations on the PinMap that are in fact permanently closed. Plus Google can tell you the operating hours about 50% of the time, which is an extra for us as we can inform people that a place they found is in fact still open for the day.

    So, what do you think about the East Coast problem?

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