Oh and yes, you can add any airfield to the database, even if it does not have an ICAO code. When creating a new airfield, you can select the type of airfield, and that includes "Bush/Off-Airport" and farm strips.
JP
It is good to see you turn up, here, countryman (or so I guess).
Here are some immediate concerns/remarks/questions about your project:
-) when I click the "Contact" tab, the website tries to get me registered for a Google+ account - which I do notwant. Why not just publish an e-address?
-) as has already been said, the initial database load was apparently from a not too impressive source, likely us'an. I am much annoyed by the large number of fields that are termed "airport", EBZU Zuienkerke for one striking example. If you have ever been there, you will agree that the place (nice as it is, no reproach there!) lacks everything to be called an airport, except to those who can't tell an airfield from an airport. The option to modify the title of "articles" is absolutely required, or some other possibility to correct this.
-) as an appreciation for my current and eventual contributions, I should like the option of accessing the raw database, either through a read-only account, or by being allowed to set up a replica/mirror database at mine, or by getting the full dump mailed to me periodically. What are my chances?
Kind regards, the Antwerp Daredevil
Hi Jan,
Excellent, I wonder if we might have met before without knowing it :).
Regarding the "Contact" issue - thanks for bringing that up, that was a bug. You can now contact me through the website. I'm hesitant to put an actual e-mail address there, because it would be immediately picked up by a million spambots. Do you have any good ideas to protect against that?
You're right about the airport title. Actually the title is also supposed to be editable. Fixing that will take some more time, so I'll add it to the list of "to-do's".
Regarding the database, that's a tricky one. I can send you the airport database that I currently have, is that what you want? An entire dump of the database, including all posts & contributions will be technically challenging to do. What would you want it for anyway? Maybe we can find a different solution to your needs.
Cheers
JP
Welcome.
Excellent, I wonder if we might have met before without knowing it :).
No, I think you would know if you had met Jan!!! :)
Hmmmpff. I hope I may take that for a compliment? };-) But the triple exclamation mark makes me unsure.
But I have been writing to the gentleman, he has shown speed in correcting a detected bug , and that is all to the hopeful side!
It was certainly a compliment. I agree, a good attitude shown.
I'm hesitant to put an actual e-mail address there, because it would be immediately picked up by a million spambots
I have run my business website since about 1995 so have seen the rise and rise and rise of website email address harvesters and various other vermin, and I think that there are two effective ways:
If you encode the email address using javascript, so it needs a browser to display it, that works pretty well. Look at the page source here (near the bottom) for an example of many hacks. Other hacks use hex encoding.
If you use a graphic, that works 100% - example. No harvester will be doing OCR on your website. The only spam you will get will be due to the usual reasons (infected PCs belonging to your friends who had your email in their address book; somebody putting your email address on a website or into a PDF; somebody who doesn't like you passing your address to a spammer).
However -
The problem nowadays with spam is that you can't stop it. At work we get about 10000 (10k) spams a day, against 10-30 real emails. At that sort of ratio, no filter is going to work if you still want to receive genuine emails with a high reliability. So we use Messagelabs and pay GBP 400/year. They monitor incoming emails across their large client base and that way any spammer activity is very obvious. That is the future of spam detection and it is the only workable system. And then you don't need to worry so much about protecting your email address anymore... Most ISPs now use a similar system.
As regards the other feelings here regarding the wiki site getting loads of fake reports, I think
It is unlikely to happen in GA because there is much less at stake. You are not blindly comparing 100 hotels according to TripAdvisor reports. TA is now as powerful as google. You can go to a small self catering place in Greece and when you check out they ask you to put a favourable review on TA because a report on TA makes or breaks their business. This is a real pity because TA is cashing in on most peoples' laziness when searching for a place, while it gets flooded with banal one-liner "reports" of which some will be fake but many will be real ones posted by people who cannot be bothered to write more than one line that makes sense
To an intelligent searcher (as most pilots are!) fake reports are fairly obvious, as are all the useless one-line reports. Real and useful reports usually mention some specific thing about the place, whereas some idiot who is paid to write a fake report will just write something like "super plase, wee all had a gr8 time!"
With airports, most pilots who are organised will contact the airport directly anyway, to check out PPR/PNR requirements which are so important that you can't trust any airport directory for them, and false info in a wiki database will then get picked up
The most important info in an airport directory is IMHO contact details for OPS, ATC, Customs, etc, and then information on the "less vital" services such as the quality of the cafe, bus services, etc. I normally use Navbox Pro for contact details and normally find that enough of them work to get through to somebody eventually. Other databases such as this also work, to an extent.
Hello!
To workaround this problem, anonymous users are not allowed to submit airfield reviews, but must first register.
Thats a good start. I registered and added a few bits and pieces (and somehow managed to show up as no.2 most frequent user within a very short time as the database seems to count every single action...).
What I don't really like is the "FBO" section. Firstly, there are no FBOs in the American sense in Europe, the closest thing would be a handling agent, but these are not even selectable from the list. Only "flight training", "maintenance" and "aircraft rental". For us commercial GA operators, all that really matters are handling agents and maybe caterers so it would be nice if these could be added.
What I'm also missing is more detailed information about public transport. It could really be useful to add that category with means of transport (train, bus, taxi), distance of station/bus stop from GA terminal, operating hours of service, number of connections per day, travelling time.
Regards Max
Hi Max,
You're right, the public transport is a good one and needs to be added to the wikiairports site. Keep an eye on that ;).
About the FBO section - the intention is to have a section where all the relevant airport aviation businesses can be added. I've added handling and catering as possible choices. Perhaps the term "FBO" is indeed not the best choice, but I can't immediately come up with anything better? Do you have any ideas?
Cheers
JP
