Tools

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.

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 depending on your user level user level. 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 @ [[1]] 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 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 that might involve 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 for you to know how much you have done during the plotting process. When you move the cursor again another red cross will appear next to it when you mouse-click, you will then generate a second polygon point. Finally, a third red cross will automatically occur and naturally a further mouse-click will generate a third polygon point. You have now generated a triangle which is the simplest polygon possible, but try to avoid triangular polygon if possible as most outlines are not normally triangle in shape.

From here onwards if you need to add further polygon points in order to follow the outline accurately of your place tag, you simply drag your cursor slowly across the line of the polygon side nearest to 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 to generate further polygon point. If a point is in the wrong place, you can move it by clicking on it with your mouse while holding down the mouse key, moving the cursor to the spot you want it, this is 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" 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. Should that occur as a result of the polygon line crossing over each other, the red cross simply disappears thereby preventing the point from being generated.

You should ensure a polygon only outlines the immediate area of the place you are marking. Never overlap an adjacent area that is not part of the place. For example, you can mark the outline of a building's structure or you could mark the outline of the building's surrounding property, this should always depend on what you are marking. Always ensure a place is marked clearly and accurately so it can be distinguishable as an independent place object.

Satellite/aerial images show places photographed at an angle because they are three-dimensional (3D) in nature. Since Wikimapia's mapping system is two-dimensional (2D), it is recommended you add polygons that are 2D in nature. This means you should "orthorectify" or mark a place perpendicularly, as if viewing it from directly above, so that you only outline its nadir or ground level footprint. Avoid marking 3D elements of the obliquely photographed object such as the perspective projection of its sides and summit.

Once you have finished outlining your place, 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.

Place information

Remember: Titles and descriotions should be written clearly, without errors, according to national language rules. Titles should be written in one language which corresponds to chosen a language page. For languages which use case distinction, titles should be begin with a capital letter but must not end with a full stop or period (e.g. London). In some languages of name should have quotation mark.. Wrong titles and descriptions should be edited.

Language

There is a reason for it to come first: it is very important to get right. This field is required. Note that the default language is shown in the box. 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.

If you want to add a language to an already created place object, you can select 'Menu' > 'Add another language' in a place window, or you can select 'edit info in other language >>' in a place object's edit window. Choose your desired language from the list of over a hundred choices available and proceed to add your language as normal.

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 their mouse over the place tag. You should always add the officially recognized name of the place you are marking, and if by chance this is not apparent, you may add the most popular or widely used name for the title. Anything which is not part of a place's name should be included in the description section instead.

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 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 or interesting. Further and more detailed guidance about description is available here : [[2]]

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

Street/addresses is a special feature which links a place object with a road object. Therefore, both object types will share a common association much like the address of a building with its street. Road objects linked to place objects can be viewed in the place object's window and place objects linked to road objects can be viewed in the road object's window.

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 in 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

Categories are labels that classify place objects according to their place type or function. A place object must have at least one category and this is especially necessary when searching for specific place objects via the category search tool. Categories also enrich place objects visually by displaying icons and/or different polygon colours. The latter can only be viewed in the 'Map view'.

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.

There are two important points to remember, never use two or more categories as combinations to indicate one category, and only the most appropriate category that best describes the immediate function of your place object should be used. Do not add extra categories for secondary places/services found within your place object if they can be marked as place objects themselves.

This field is optional.

This place is a building

As Wikimapia is a mapping website, it is important to distinguish different object types on the map. One of the most crucial aspects of a good map is to differentiate buildings from non-buildings. If the place you are marking is a building then you should check the building check box in the edit window. 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 place objects which are not buildings (e.g. parks, lakes, external grounds etc.) ensure the building check box is not checked, otherwise the entire polygon will be incorrectly rendered as a building and will conceal actual place object buildings within it in the 'Map view'.

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

Photos

Photos are an integral part of describing a geographic location and this is apparent in sites like Flickr and Panoramio and applications such as Google Earth and Picasa. Wikimapia enables you to enjoy photos of places by allowing you to add them to their respective objects.

To add a photo, click 'Menu' > 'Add/manage photos' in the window. You can upload an image from your computer or you can add the URL of an image hosted on another website. Please note that photos must be related to the object and you cannot submit copyrighted material.

To add a photo to a street, you must open the window of a place which has the desired street as its address and click it. Click 'Menu' > 'Add/manage photos' in the window and proceed to add the image as described above.

Photos must have a direct relation with a host object. Priority is given to primary images which shows the object itself externally and internally. Secondary images which have a lesser significance to an object are also allowed as long as there is a direct connection with a host object, even in the absence of primary images. The wilful removal of a secondary image is forbidden unless it is replaced with a primary image. Examples of secondary images are:

• company logos; emblems, coat of arms & flags belonging to localities, counties & states; armed forces & emergency services insignias etc.
• unique products originating or sold from businesses e.g. restaurant dishes, clothes displayed by mannequins/models, products packaging etc. These should be unique to the object.
• people at work to demonstrate the function of the object e.g. craftsmen/women showing a unique/rare skill, teachers & students in a classroom or assembly, tourists outside a popular point of interest etc. The object must be visible in the background.

Photo Restrictions

There are restrictions on the type of images you can add. You cannot add images which do not explicitly show an object and this applies to images which are too vague or negligible. In addition, you cannot add images to illustrate or demonstrate the function of a place if they have no direct association whatsoever. It is forbidden to add images that fall in the following categories:

• Copyright images. Images which have licences and require permission from the owner to be used beforehand.
• Profane/obscene images. Explicit/shocking images of death, blood, gore etc.
• Nudity & Pornographic images. Strictly unacceptable examples of vulgarity. This includes suggestive images that exhibit blatant innuendos.
• Duplicates images. Copies of same image in one tag and photos taken with the same/similar camera angle.
• Spam images. Same image repeated in several tags.
• Politically-charged images. Hateful, or slanderous images with malicious intent.
• Non-relevant images. These include but are not limited to:
  • Personal photos, portraits, passport photos etc.
  • Cartoons, clip arts, GIFs etc.
  • Celebrities, sport personalities, models etc.
  • Religious symbols and pictures used to bless, adorn or revere an object or its religious significance.

Comments

The comments section, which is available in all Wikimapia objects, allows you to make a comment or add an opinion about the tagged object. This is the only place where you can state an opinion which does not belong in the place object's article because it is outside the scope of Wikimapia's Neutral Point of View policy. Keep in mind that unwelcome, offensive, meaningless, chat between users, and comments unrelated to the tagged object are not permissible.

To add a comment, enter your text in the comment text entry box at the bottom of an object's window and click 'Send'. Unregistered users shall be prompted to add a commentator name in the 'Your name' text entry box.

Nested places

Nested places is a term used for place objects marked within place object buildings. This feature should be used for office units, apartments and tenant units which are found inside buildings. A host place object is known as a 'parent' and a place object marked inside it is known as a 'child'. Please note that only place objects with the building check box checked can be nested.

To add a nested place, open the window of the 'parent' place object and select 'Add place (company, shop, etc.) to this building'. From the child edit window, you can choose to add a new 'child' place object (called embedding) or you can add an existing place object as a 'child' (called binding).

To add or embed a new place object, simply fill out its details in the text entry boxes of the child edit window, much like the process for a standard place object.

To add or bind an existing place object, select 'Click to add existing place to this place' in the child edit window. Select your desired place object from the drop down list and click 'Bind'.

Child place objects will appear in a nested list in the 'parent' place object's window.

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.

History

The history shows all edits made to an object since it was created. Each saved edit is known as a revision, and each revision is stored as a version number with a brief overview of the editor's name, edits made and date of edits in the history.

To access an object's history select 'Menu' > 'History' in the object's window.

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. Writing known (often meeting) abbreviation is supposed. Usual words should be written completely.

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. But you should remember that Wikipedia article about a specific object is a good way to enrich the description, while articles about the type of an object are unnecessary (ie, it’s good to provide an article from Wikipedia about the Eiffel tower to the Eiffel Tower, but there is no need to provide an article that explains what a “tower” is). 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.

Deleting Places

Some place objects in Wikimapia are not satisfactory because they do not contain useful or interesting information. Then there are other place objects which do not describe places or are offensive, defamatory or hurtful in nature. If you encounter place objects like these, you should always attempt to correct them first. If they cannot be corrected, and they meet the deletion criteria of the Wikimapia Guidelines, they should be deleted.

To delete a place object, select 'Menu' > 'Delete place' in the place object's window. You will be prompted to choose a deletion reason; it is important to note that you are obligated to confirm deletion only for the reason chosen. The place object will enter a deletion period, after which it shall be deleted. The duration of the deletion period varies and depends on your user level.

Remember, only delete a place object if it cannot be reclaimed into something acceptable. The wilful deletion of a good place object is forbidden.

Undeleting/Place restoration

If you think if a tag has been wrongfully been deleted, you can restore the tag by undeleting it. You'd first need to select 'Deleted places' option from the Map type menu, the Map type menu is situated at the top-left of the screen, when you click on the Map type menu a drop down list will appear. The 'Deleted places' option will appear on the tenth row, select it and deleted places will start to appear on the map in square boxes.

When you find the tag which has been deleted, click on the tag and hover the mouse arrow on the 'Menu' text and it will show a drop down menu. When you see the text 'Undelete; click on it and it will give you the option to write a brief explanation as to why the tag was wrongfully deleted, but this is optional. It is recommended however to write one as to clear up any misunderstandings, then you can go ahead by pressing the 'Undelete place' button which is situated at the bottom left of the tag. It takes about 2-3 minutes for a tag to be restored on the map.

Protection

If a place object has been the target of vandalism (e.g. a genuine article is repeatedly placed for unjustified deletion), you can request its protection by contacting an Advanced User. You can request protection in this forum topic (Request for Semi-protection) or you can contact an Advanced User directly through PM. Only advanced users can enable protection on place objects.

Linear features

Linear feature is a geographic feature that can be represented by a line or set of lines. For example, rivers, roads, railway lines or ferry routes.

Each set of the linear feature will have it's own unique tool to assist you to map each set of linear lines of your choice.

For mapping roads, please read the Help section : http://wikimapia.org/wiki/User_Guide:_Roads

For mapping railway lines, please read the Help section : http://wikimapia.org/wiki/User_Guide:_Railroads_edit

For mapping rivers, please read the Help section : http://wikimapia.org/wiki/User_Guide:_Rivers_edit

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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