POI suggestion

If I understand your post, I think that you will find when you open a POI category, scroll down and you will find different locations for that POI. Most times thay are listed by States and Countries. So if you were looking at airports you would find them listed by States and Countries. I hope this helps. I see that you are a new member, welcome and keep asking questions.

I was thinking that it would be easier to categorize by country first, and then the various POI listings. To me, this is a logical sequence, but then again, I'm a computer tech so...

When you click on "Alphabetized List of POI Files" you get a page that needs some work. If you take a look at just the top file listings, you will see what I'm talking about.
The first five files listed are:

"The Goonies" movie locations

$40 a day

(KTA) Kansas Turnpike Toll Booths and Service Areas

-Couche-Tard Quebec CAA et FQCC Rebate

-RV Dump station-Vidange VR Quebec

1. If someone is searching this site with the scroll key, it is easy to see why these first five files are way out of order. Using quotation marks " " puts things at the very top of the list which puts them way out of order.

2. It also appears using the dollar sign $ does the same thing. If I were using the scrolling method for finding $40 a day items, I'd most likely move down to either the number 4 or the word four. If I had not noticed it at the top of the list, I'd have never found it.

3. Also while looking for Kansas Turnpike Toll Booths I'd surely scroll down to either Kansas or Turnpike files. Again, I'd miss it.

4. To begin the file with a dash - also places both the forth and fifth files incorrectly alphabetically. I must admit I have no idea what a -Couche-Tard Quebec CAA et FQCC Rebate is, but if I was knowledgeable about this term and was looking for it, I would surely scroll down to the C's. Again, I would miss it because their IS another file called Couche-Tard Gaz Station in Quebec Canada much further down the list just under the file named Costco, where it should be located in alphabetically order.

Also folks, if you are looking for a particular file, don't forget to look under the word THE.

As you can see below, we have 52 files that are listed after the word THE. The only file I can honestly say comes to mind with the word THE in front of the file name is THE Sharper Image. Some others might come to mind for others of you.

The Best Thing I Ever Ate
The Best Thing I Ever Ate
The Blues Brothers Filming Locations
The Brick - CDA
The Buckle Clothing Store Locations USA
The Canadian Rockies - Peak Finder
The Capital Grille
The Columbia Restaurants
The Complete List of SOTA Summits Globally
The Danish train stations except Copenhagen
The Fresh Market - US
The Greenwich Meridian Line.
The Habit
The Habit Burger Grill
The Hat - Southern CA
The Keg Steakhouse
The Melting Pot Restaurant (fondue) - All US locations (including coming soon locations)
The Mills Malls (Simon Mall or Center)
The North Face Retail Stores & Outlets
The Office Beer Bar and Grill / Jolly Trolley
The Original Pancake House
The Palm Beaches, FL - 24-Hour Pharmacies
The Palm Beaches, FL - AAA Approved Auto Repair Facilities
The Palm Beaches, FL - AAA Offices
The Palm Beaches, FL - Beach Parks
The Palm Beaches, FL - Holiday Lights
The Palm Beaches, FL - Hospitals
The Palm Beaches, FL - Marinas
The Palm Beaches, FL - Museums and Art Centers
The Palm Beaches, FL - Post Offices
The Palm Beaches, FL - Public Golf Courses
The Palm Beaches, FL - Public Libraries
The Palm Beaches, FL - RBC Banks
The Palm Beaches, FL - Shopping
The Palm Beaches, FL - Skate Parks
The Palm Beaches, FL - Surfing Hot Spots
The Palm Beaches, FL - Top Attractions
The Sharper Image
The Source by Circuit City (Quebec)
The Splendid Table - Where We Eat in the Midwest
The Splendid Table - Where We Eat in the Midwest (CSV)
The Splendid Table - Where We Eat in the South
The Splendid Table - Where We Eat in the South (CSV)
The Upper Crust Pizzeria
The Wave (on the UT/AZ border East of Kanab, UT)
The Woodlands Texas area School Zones
The World's Best Place to PIG out!! from the travel Channel

Dropping or moving the word THE to the end of the name would put most things above in correct alphabetical order,kind of like the card file system works in a library.

Now lets say you are looking for Filming Locations of the movie The Goonies. Under the current naming system, you'd have to know the title has quotation marks about it firstly, but then also know the word THE is in front of Goonies. Hummm not to easy to remember.
Now lets say you wanted to find filming locations of the Blue Brothers or Dark Knight movies. Well instead of scrolling to the word Blues, you'd have to remember to look under THE to find it. When Looking for the Dark Knight, you'd find it under Dark Knight... Whewww, that was the easy one.

Finding filming locations for the movie Clerks was also in alphabetical order. That one was easy to find.

Do you think having all the files renamed Filming Locations of (insert movie title here) might be a good idea?

Example

Filming locations of Dark Night
Filming locations of Goonies,The
Filming locations of Blues Brothers,The
Filming locations of Clerks
Filming locations of East/High School Musicals

Oh and one more thing to search for if you are looking for a file in a particular state.

Many files are titled with the two letter abbreviation and also have the state spelled out in another area of the file. For example

Arizona and AZ
California and CA
Connecticut and CT
Georgia and GA
Idaho and ID
Maryland and MD
North Carolina and NC
South Dakota and SD
Pennsylvania and PA
New York and NY
Utah and UT
I didn't look them all over but I think there are more.

Also in Canada
British Columbia and BC

cities too: LosAngles and LA
New York City and NYC

Be sure to search under both, so that you don't miss the needed file you are looking for.

I bring this up so that when contributors are creating new files, they take a little extra time to think about the name, so that others may find the file more easily. I hope this helps some of you while doing searches...

Very much so, Rayzers. And, for the many reasons you've pointed out, using a sub folder list for each country, (state, province, territory), and then city, makes a search very pointed, and easy. Of course, if you have a country-wide POI (say all the DD's in the US), then those can be listed in the top level folder for the the US.

It's also a relatively easy thing for the webmaster to do. Once set up, it's a thing of beauty!

Rayzers,
Thanks for the search tips. I MIGHT have thought of most of those, but now I have a check list.

I know that at least Canada is listed, but there are no sub-categories under the country. I would like to suggest that POI Factory add sub-categories, so we can find things more easily, within a country.

Why don't you pass these suggestions and others that you get to Miss POI. She is very receptive to positive feedback and ideas.

I know Miss POI reads the forums, so I take it the suggestion has been noted.

Yup I read them, we are in the middle of a major project right now.

We are upgrading the web platform over the next few weeks.

Miss POI

I knew you were on top of this; good job.

.... having the

View all POI files (listed alphabetically)

closer to the top of the page?

It might be helpful, if POI Factory offered some guidelines for naming files. The elimination of THE would be helpful, as well as some idea of designating the location. Most Rest Areas are called Rest Areas at the front of the name and the state or province etc after.

Mind you it will only help, for people that would actually use guidelines.