Tools

Revision as of 11:25, 22 May 2012

Wikimapia gives an opportunity not only to use its data but also to improve it. When you first decide to add or edit an object you start using tools. This manual aimed to help you exploring all functions that Wikimapia can offer you for changing the map.

Editing the map

Adding places

Adding places to Wikimapia is what makes it happen; the cornerstone of a wiki that attempts to describe the entire Earth is that all places in it are based entirely on user input. Any user can contribute to Wikimapia. Below are some hints and suggestions to get you started on Wikimapia. But not all things are permitted; unwelcome and unhelpful additions will be deleted.

Add a place

Adding a place is easy; just select 'add a place' and a red polygon tool will appear. Read below how to make a proper polygon.

Polygons

A polygon is a multi-sided shape that can be used to define a place in detail. Polygons are made up of sides and points. There is a limitation on the number of points you can add to a polygon, dependent on your user level ([[1]]). Each corner of the polygon is shown as a little red square when you are in edit mode. When you want to make a new polygon first be doubly sure that a 'new' polygon is needed (see @ [[2]] for advice) then, from the "Edit Map" pull-down menu, select "Add Place". This generates a little red cross, next to your cursor arrow, and a black box with red writing in appears at the base of the screen, with two options “save” (not yet available of course) and “cancel” whose functions are pretty obvious. There is also a “help” link which takes you to this very Guidance on adding places should you need it.

Move the red cross to a specific point on the edge of the place outline you want to tag and click your mouse-button (typically left-click). This generates a small red box in place of the cross and represents your first polygon point. (Note: when creating detailed polygons, involving say more than just a few points, it is a good idea to always start generating your polygons in the same general place, such as at the 12 O’clock point as on a clock-face, so that you always know where you are, as in how much you have done, during the plotting process). As you then move the cursor another red cross will appear again next to it and again when you mouse-click you will generate a second polygon point. Finally, a third red cross will automatically then occur and naturally a further mouse-click will generate a third polygon point. You have now generated a triangle which, of course, is the simplest polygon possible.

From here on as and if you need to add further polygon points, in order to accurately follow the outline of your place tag, you simply slowly drag your cursor across the line of the polygon side nearest where you wish to add another point and you will see the red cross appear again. Simply place this cross carefully over where the next point in the polygon is needed and mouse-click again in order to generate the further polygon point. If a point is in the wrong place, you can move it by clicking on it with your mouse and, while holding down the mousekey, moving the cursor to the spot you want it, called "dragging". To create points that are further away, you will have to create the point and then drag it to where you want it. To delete an unwanted point, click on it and release. A box with the word "remove" in it will appear. Click on this box once, and wait for the point to disappear, which may take a moment if your polygon has many points. Be aware that the system will never permit polygon lines to cross over or intersect each other. So that when creating polygon points, were that to occur as a result of that action, the red cross simply disappears first thereby preventing the point from being generated in the first place, and when removing points a warning box appears in place of the removal action sought.

Once you have finished outlining your place carefully, click on the "save" button at the bottom of the screen and a box will appear in which you can write information about the place. Although this all sounds quite involved after the first few polygons you make it will all become second nature - promise!

Place information

Language

This selects a language for the information about your new place. Wikimapia has over 70 languages in its database. This field is required. Please make sure the language you chosen is the same language you intended to create your tag in. For example, do not select English as the language choice and enter your created place or description in Dutch, French or any other languages.

Title

Enter a title for your new place. This field is required. Choose your title carefully as this is what will appear when someone hovers there mouse over the place.

Keep in mind that "CAPS LOCK" should be avoided because this is the web convention for someone shouting. It is better to type in mixed caps.

Note that if you are adding a private residence, it is is often best to simply provide the address as the title rather than the name of the person who lives there. This is also true for apartment buildings that have no business name.

Description

Type something that describes the place. It can be anything about the place: its history, its strangeness, etc. This is an optional field but a place's description is what makes a tag useful. Further and more detailed guidance about what to put and not put in the description is available here : [[3]]

You will be prompted with: Please provide a place information (be good, don't write bad words).

You can provide URL's in the text. You may find on testing the URL that you have to "URL encode" as percent-hexnum-hexnum some punctuation characters before the link works properly. If you provide a YouTube link, it will be shown with a YouTube embedded player and a preview, as well as the plan link.

Street

This is the "Street" on which your place is located. Use the arrow to the right of the field to see if your street has already been entered. If it has, select it. If not, scroll to the bottom of the list, select "Another..." and type the name of your street into the new field labelled "enter name".

For example, in the address 210 Banks Road, Swingville, USA Banks Road is the street.

This field is optional.

Building Number

The number of your place from its address.

For example, in the address 210 Banks Road, Swingville, USA, 210 is the building number. Nothing else should be entered this box, for example, name of the building. Sometimes some buildings do not have number but only the name of the building, in case like that, the name should appear in the title, and this box to be leave blank.

This field is optional.

Wikipedia® link

If your new place has a Wikipedia® entry, it goes here. If your new place does not have a Wikipedia® entry, don't invent one just so you can put it in this field. Do not enter unhelpful links to generic Wikipedia® articles such as "Park" or "McDonald's".

This field is optional.

Categories

Selecting Categories reveals a list of the most popular from which you can choose. If the required category is not in the list scroll to the bottom of it and use the search box to find it. Take care not to over categorise; in most cases a single category is sufficient.

This field is optional.

This place is a building

File:Building Checkbox Checked.jpg This box should only be ticked if a place tagged is that of or within the confines of a building.

File:Building Checkbox.jpg The box should be unticked for all other non-building related places.

The effect of a ticked box is to cause the place to display in dark grey on the Wikimapia map. Removing the tick causes the place to display in light grey. So, it is crucial this feature is used correctly to render the proper shade.

This field has a default that depends on the category chosen but take care as the default may be wrong.

For a suggestion of how best to make use of this feature see Hint and tip number 2 below.

Hints and tips

1. If the maximum zoom is insufficient to accurately place the lines of your polygon then an additional, digital, zoom level is available. To obtain it, roll your mouse wheel very very slowly forward. It sometimes takes two or three attempts to get this to work.
2. If you have the patience, add places (polygons) for both the site and each building on it. The advantage of doing this should become obvious if you take a look at the Wikimapia map. Take care to set or unset the "This is a building" tick appropriately and to clearly distinguish in their titles the buildings and the plot on which they sit.

Editing places

Editing Places is the process in which existing tags are modified. Editing places is a fundamental part of WikiMapia, since our physical world is always subject to change. However, editing should be done in a careful and responsible manner, and in accordance with WikiMapia's philosophy of Neutral Point of View.

Continuous improvement, up-to-date information, and providing usable information is what users prefer to read, so that WikiMapia will remain a useful reference tool. Sometimes this can be anything from spelling or grammatical errors, to supplying information that makes the article more useful to others.

How to edit a place

• When you select a tag, click on the red "Edit" label on the top-left corner.
• Choose "Edit this Page", and make your changes as necessary.
• Choose "Save" when you are done.

Suggestions for editing

As stated above, a neutral point of view is the best course of action: No exceptions! You can add whatever information that is relevant to the place, whether fixing simple spelling or grammatical errors, or wholesale changes to a blank or uninformative article. Describe the place as if you were informing a visitor to your area.

Title

Every unique place has a unique description; yet there is a fine line between a title that is too short and too long. Ambiguous titles or titles that are too long may be edited or deleted.

Description

This is the text box area in which you can type-in a description of the tag in question. Describe, how to use the function of the tag, the history of the place (year built, opened...), and its function (residential, business, historic, entertainment...). As long as the description is accurate and does not violate copyright laws or restrictions, it is okay to submit it to WikiMapia.

Feel free to link to other places on the Internet using links, whether to other places on WikiMapia or anywhere else on the web. If you want to properly source information (which is especially helpful about an unusual place or fact), then typing a hyperlink in the information text box is also permitted.

Wikipedia®

If the place you have described or are editing has a corresponding Wikipedia® article to assist in the description or to provide a understanding of a place, then feel free to add the entire URL of the Wikipedia® article in this location. As long as the article is relevant, it is okay to add it. Keep in mind that only one Wikipedia® article can be added in the text box.

Wikipedia® articles that do not exist or are not relevant to the topic should and will be removed. Only Wikipedia® articles will display in this box, "User Pages" and other types of namespace will not display, nor will any other outside URLs. It is recommended to cut and paste the link/URL in full from Wikipedia®, since errors will result in a no link listed in the WikiMapia article. Do not add Wikipedia link to a different language interface, for example, a Wikipedia link in English should only be applied to a tag that is in the English page, and not to insert Wikipedia link in other languages. You can insert the link to the correct and appropriate language pages if the tag had that particular languages been translated.

Category

This is a place to choose what type of place it is, so you can sort by Category Filter. Type in the first few letters, and choose accordingly.

Understanding the Editing Process

If somebody has edited an article you have created or edited, do not worry! That is a normal consequence of a wiki: Anyone can edit it. A WikiMapia article can be improved, but only if there is relevant, verifiable, and useful information to add to it.

No member "owns" the tags they create; no tag is free from editing just because they created it, or because they live in the area. Ownership of articles is not a function of WikiMapia, which means that if you do not intend to have your information edited, we recommend you not to submit it to Wikimapia!

What Is Not Permitted

Occasionally, there may be places in WikiMapia that may be lacking information, or contain too much information! Please feel free to edit appropriately, but please leave these out of our WikiMapia articles.

• Non-neutral point of view
• Vulgarity
• Slander/insult
• Invasion of privacy
• Editing wars (continually editing for the sake of ruining an article)
• Spam/advertising
• False information
• Boasting/bragging
• Using WikiMapia articles as a forum for opinions and viewpoints, specifically religion and politics.

Linear features

Watchlist

If you want to monitor the activity (new places, changes, deletions, ...) in one or more specific areas, you can do that with the Watchlist tool, which is available on the Tools tab on your profile page.

To add a watchlist you click the Watchlist link on your profile page and then click the background map (closing the profile page and revealing the watchlist sidebar). Click the "add" button, type a name of your choice where it says "Watchlist name", size the rectangle to cover the area you are interested in and save it. After that you can click the name you chose and it will show all recent changes in that region. "Old" changes are on a gray background, while "new" changes are on a white background. When you have finished examining the new changes you can click the "mark as viewed" button to bring the gray background all the way to the top of the list.

Status grid

Main article: Status grid

Status grid is a powerful tool to help in monitoring and improving the map. You can find it on the Tools page, it is avaliable for all registered users. The grid is a colorized layer over the map which collects and shows basic statistics about places for each grid cell. It should be helpful in finding badly described areas and tags. The status grid works at zoom levels between 5 and 15.

Map shift

Main article: Satellite images updates list(Map shift)

Every month or so Google updates their satellite imagery and sometimes as a result of it the outline positions of Wikimapia objects in some areas become out of sync. Such areas need to be fixed. To avoid doing this for each object individually, we have designed a special tool, which allows simply to update the whole areas, where this problem occurs. You may be familiar with it, it is called "Map shift" and is accessible from the user tools page in the top menu or user profile page and via direct link: http://wikimapia.org/#m=b&show=/user/tools/mapshift/. Now we are releasing a new version of it and making it available to more users than before.

Collaborations

See Collaboration.

Reports list: Bug/features

Reports list

Wikimapia has an issue tracker supposed to collect and process bug reports and feature requests. It is the only right way to report a problem or a bug.

Interface translation

Translation page

Whole Wikimapia interface is being translated by users. Anyone can sign up to translate the interface phrases into his language. The tool provides the list of phrases in English (with description of what they mean and where are they used) along with possibility to translate them into your language. A history of changes is maintained to avoid vandalism.

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