Wikipedia Nearby hits the boards

[EricBarbour]

Learn about the world (immediately) around you with Wikipedia Nearby
oohhh! Magic!
(Of course, it requires you to tell the WMF where you are.....which means that a large number
of Wikipedia's own insiders will never use it. Irony. I tried it, and it assumes that I'm in Santa Rosa,
which is almost 70 miles away. Using the IP address to assume the location is really, really stupid.)

[thekohser]

Funny, when I tried it, it said the thing I'm closest to is some thing called "MyWikiBiz (T-H-L)".

Next closest thing? East Bradford Boarding School for Boys (T-H-L), which Wikipedia says is "at West Chester and Sconnelltown Roads". There is no "West Chester Road" anywhere close to that building.

[Midsize Jake]

It says I'm in the dreaded nightmare corpse-city of R'lyeh, beneath a hideous monolith-crowned citadel built untold aeons ago, surrounded by towering non-Euclidean basaltic structures covered with disturbing hieroglyphs and horrifying images of McDonald's cheeseburgers from beyond the mists of time!

So, fairly accurate, at least in my case.

[The Joy]

It has me in the right location. I live in a very boring area according to Wikipedia... it is right in this respect. The strange part is it mentions a local neighborhood I never heard of in my city with no references and a one liner. Google shows that it does exist and has a population of 71, but it seems so obscure. There are many small, insignificant areas with names in my county and it is surprising someone decided to write an article about one of them. For example, there's one place with only a stop light and an abandoned mill that has a name with a street sign declaring its existence, but there's nothing there and nothing of significance happened in that area to anyone's knowledge. Looking around some more, I see most places in my county have one-liners and no significant references. Even worse, some of them have been created or enhanced by one of the Road WikiProject members.

[Anroth]

It says I'm in the dreaded nightmare corpse-city of R'lyeh, beneath a hideous monolith-crowned citadel built untold aeons ago, surrounded by towering non-Euclidean basaltic structures covered with disturbing hieroglyphs and horrifying images of McDonald's cheeseburgers from beyond the mists of time!

So, fairly accurate, at least in my case.

You are Cthulhu and I claim my five pounds.

[Zoloft]

Independent Order of Odd Fellows Building (San Diego, California) (T-H-L)

Run! It found out our HQ!

[Cedric]

There are many small, insignificant areas with names in my county and it is surprising someone decided to write an article about one of them. For example, there's one place with only a stop light and an abandoned mill that has a name with a street sign declaring its existence, but there's nothing there and nothing of significance happened in that area to anyone's knowledge. Looking around some more, I see most places in my county have one-liners and no significant references. Even worse, some of them have been created or enhanced by one of the Road WikiProject members.

That is because any old glob of tarmac becomes automagically "notable" once it is slapped to earth for the purposes of road building. Any suggestion otherwise is heresy to The Roadsters.

[DanMurphy]

There are many small, insignificant areas with names in my county and it is surprising someone decided to write an article about one of them. For example, there's one place with only a stop light and an abandoned mill that has a name with a street sign declaring its existence, but there's nothing there and nothing of significance happened in that area to anyone's knowledge. Looking around some more, I see most places in my county have one-liners and no significant references. Even worse, some of them have been created or enhanced by one of the Road WikiProject members.

That is because any old glob of tarmac becomes automagically "notable" once it is slapped to earth for the purposes of road building. Any suggestion otherwise is heresy to The Roadsters.

There are automated creation tools for a lot of that geographical crap. So what you end up with at the top of google is an article that consists of a name, a country, and (gee, thanks!) latitude and longtitude. Results for pages that might contain actual information are pushed down in favor of the Wikipedia "content."

[DanMurphy]

Independent Order of Odd Fellows Building (San Diego, California) (T-H-L)

Run! It found out our HQ!

That's in fact a classic example of what I just mentioned above. The Odd Fellows are of course a real, and interesting, and old fraternal organization (originating in the UK I think) that was big in the US in the 19th century, especially the West (I mean, they're not the Clampers, but still). And the article doesn't even link to Wikipedia's (generally unreadable) article on the group, nor provide any useful information about the building or its place in the history of San Diego.

[lilburne]

Independent Order of Odd Fellows Building (San Diego, California) (T-H-L)

Run! It found out our HQ!

That's in fact a classic example of what I just mentioned above. The Odd Fellows are of course a real, and interesting, and old fraternal organization (originating in the UK I think) that was big in the US in the 19th century, especially the West (I mean, they're not the Clampers, but still). And the article doesn't even link to Wikipedia's (generally unreadable) article on the group, nor provide any useful information about the building or its place in the history of San Diego.

That is because it has been generated from database of historic buildings. They have location and date that is was added to the database. And a map show where San Diego is in relation to the rest of California. What more do you want for free.

[DanMurphy]

Independent Order of Odd Fellows Building (San Diego, California) (T-H-L)

Run! It found out our HQ!

That's in fact a classic example of what I just mentioned above. The Odd Fellows are of course a real, and interesting, and old fraternal organization (originating in the UK I think) that was big in the US in the 19th century, especially the West (I mean, they're not the Clampers, but still). And the article doesn't even link to Wikipedia's (generally unreadable) article on the group, nor provide any useful information about the building or its place in the history of San Diego.

That is because it has been generated from database of historic buildings. They have location and date that is was added to the database. And a map show where San Diego is in relation to the rest of California. What more do you want for free.

I want it to not be crowding out the better content in the search engine ecosystem.

[thekohser]

...which Wikipedia says is "at West Chester and Sconnelltown Roads". There is no "West Chester Road" anywhere close to that building.

More than 10 hours later, and Wikipedia still isn't improving. I thought all mistakes on Wikipedia get corrected within 2 to 4 minutes? Or was it 2 to 4 seconds?

[Zoloft]

...which Wikipedia says is "at West Chester and Sconnelltown Roads". There is no "West Chester Road" anywhere close to that building.

More than 10 hours later, and Wikipedia still isn't improving. I thought all mistakes on Wikipedia get corrected within 2 to 4 minutes? Or was it 2 to 4 seconds?

It takes some time to build a new road and put up the signs, you know.

[Ming]

...which Wikipedia says is "at West Chester and Sconnelltown Roads". There is no "West Chester Road" anywhere close to that building.

More than 10 hours later, and Wikipedia still isn't improving. I thought all mistakes on Wikipedia get corrected within 2 to 4 minutes? Or was it 2 to 4 seconds?

The park service hasn't fixed it in 32 years, and you want it corrected overnight?

(There is in fact a page in the NRHP project devoted to sending corrections back to to the NPS.)

[thekohser]

...which Wikipedia says is "at West Chester and Sconnelltown Roads". There is no "West Chester Road" anywhere close to that building.

More than 10 hours later, and Wikipedia still isn't improving. I thought all mistakes on Wikipedia get corrected within 2 to 4 minutes? Or was it 2 to 4 seconds?

The park service hasn't fixed it in 32 years, and you want it corrected overnight?

(There is in fact a page in the NRHP project devoted to sending corrections back to to the NPS.)

Ming must not be impressed with the Wikipediot mantra that "instant correction with new information" is one of Wikipedia's strongest suits!