General Maintainers:

You say 90% of users update their ticket camera file weekly?

Really?

If I load POIs of any kind more than three times a year it would shock me.

People are really loading updates like that, several times a week?

Who else is doing weekly updates besides the OP? Am I really behind the times that much? How many changes are really happening weekly like that?

I plan on leaving town. New territory, need to know where the cams are (and where the food is!).

I upload for the RLC and speed camera

The Red Light cameras & speed cameras are forever being added and sometimes removed. It is nice to know where they are. I try never to go throught a red light (more for my own safety than it being the law)
But I have been known to go a little heavy on the gas peddle at times on highways. The longer the drive the more I want out of the car the more I have a tendancy to go over the limit.

For me, updating is at least a two step process. I check for new files daily and will download them to my PC where I place them in the folder used by POI Loader. When I want to update my unit, I then run POI Loader and pick up all the new files and updates stored on the PC. It doesn't make any difference when files are uploaded to POI-Factory, I look at My Favorite Files for updates and scan the Recent uploads that I've never loaded.

I agree with Box Car, I do the same.

Except I run POISync as a daily script to refresh my POI's daily and then run POILoader as needed.

I think this is a great idea.

I do it exactly the same as you.

I rarely update more than once every other month. The RLC's around my area have been relatively static with only some new updates recently. Usually I take the CSV file and remove everything except New York and Ontario, Canada since those are the places I frequent the most. So all the other updates are of no consequence to me and I do not update because of them. Other than that, I grab the latest Rest Area's POI before I head out on a long trip.

Of course this is just me.

This sounds like a good idea but tell me why I should wait until Tuesday night or Wednesday morning to upload the updates to the POI files that I maintain? Wouldn't downloading and updating his/her GPS files be something for the user to decide? If someone is concerned about the wear and tear on his unit by updating POIs several times a week then they should setup a schedule to look for, download and update their POI files once a week.

If all the maintainers did this, it wouldn't really help me as I have my POI files segregated by category on my GPS. Redlight and speed cameras are in a folder named "Traffic Cameras", school zones are under "School Zones", etc. When I update, I just update that folder and not the entire mass of POIs on my unit.

You might also consider storing your POIs on a memory card. They will work just as well and any undue wear and tear will be to a cheap memory card instead of an expensive GPS.

I would be surprised if it wasn't more like 20 to 30 percent update everything expect maybe redlight poi. I just check for my own poi's I made and only update all other's when I am ready to go on a trip.

I didn't know updating the unit would put much wear on it. It's all solid state memory and I would think the heat on the dash would be the biggest factor. I know memory can wear out but I thought it wasn't likely. Don't mean to veer off topic but I'm curious. I update whenever I'm doing a road trip, every month or so.

I don't update that often. I would say once a month is the norm for me.

If it ain't broke why fix it. I personally like the way it currently is, but that's just me.

i try to update 1 a month too . as others i have a folder in download called gps updates and put new things there.
mike

Like others, I do it about once a month.

I don't think Miss POI would like for EVERYBODY Updating at the same time. Think of the overload on the website.

I do like Box Car does. Wednesday's I update Red Light Speed Camera file. I check at least once a day for updates - load them on my computer and at the end of the week or the weekend I update my gps.

and generally use that opportunity to check my favorite files to see what updates have happened.

I only update POI when I go on trips. Only other times is when i know new speed/red light cameras has been installed locally.

Now for maps, I update shortly after their release.

Update weekly.If I have to go somewhere on short notice.I want to have unit up to date.

I don't use red light or speed trap files. I update about twice a year if that often.

charlesd45 - since I would guess you have lots of POI files, do you load all of them each week? Or, have you renamed the poi.gpi file generated by your POI files and let the weekly update of the camera file create a new poi.gpi file each time?

I use Extra Poi Editor to convert the csv files if not in the gpx format that I want the alerts for.Then I build the alert distance in the file so I can run Poiloader in express mode.The camera files since they have key words built into the file name I leave them like they are.If I plan to go to area that is known to have numerous speed and red light cameras at many intersections I load them in EPE and set as needed.

Yes many pois.My wife and I travel every chance we get so lots of hotel,food,attractions,Ford locations for repair if needed and of course rest stops and Walmart files.I do break the Sam's Clubs out of the file with the ones for gas.The big reason for the Walmart file is I started to buy tires and battery for the car there so when on the road I can stop and gets tires rotated at proper time and if the battery goes and still has warranty I can get it replaced.

Seems like a reasonable request, but instead of picking Tuesday or Wednesday in particular for everyone to 'jam up the place' both downloading and uploading at the same time, how about we all just try to do major updates between Sat and Tue?

If a downloader wants to do everything on one day, they already have a 50/50 shot at getting the latest file anyway. Trying to post major changes by Sat-Tue would mean a Wed downloader would have a better shot at the latest much-used file (for them).

Just a thought. The few files I maintain aren't updated much anyway so just chiming in here.

What? over update our units? 90% update on Wed.... Please post your source on that?

I guess I'm to busy to be worried about having the most current update on a weekly bases, some people have way too much time on their hands.

Do traffic cams change that often?

If you don't run Red Lights, do you really have to worry that much?

Anyone notice that the OP might be a professional driver, and just might put more miles on in a week than most of us do in 6 months or a year?

Professional drivers should have special status on the forum, so that their rants can be ignored by regular folks Just kidding! What I meant to say is that heavy/professional drivers have very different demands for POI updates than the rest of us and it may be useful to differentiate between the two

I understand the idea behind it, but I guess glwilbert needs to assess his own needs and download frequency. I'm not sure that even he as a professional driver needs to update that frequently. Agreed that it can be annoying when I update my unit only to find new updates to my favorite files almost immediately thereafter. My choice is to wait until another time to update or to do it again right away.

As someone who has built and maintains POIs, I wouldn't conform to an "upload day" because I may not have the time or interest to work on a file for a while. Then the urge to work on a new or old file pops up so I do. If the file is ready to go live, I upload it. If I wait around for a certain day then I may forget to upload it or may not be available to do so. Those who might want the update sooner would have to wait. I'm not sure just having a standard "release day" would be any improvement over the current situation as the site could be overloaded with everyone trying to download on those days. I'm sure that this might also increase the workload of our web master and mistress, which to me doesn't seem fair to them.

I have several files that I work on. I try and look at them all from time to time, but spend most of the time on the ones that get downloaded the most. Since I travel for work, I post the updates as soon as I can. It may be several weeks before I get a chance to work on it again. Corrections from other members I try and do right away, as they will probably be looking for a correction in the file. I appreciate their assistance in maintaining accurate files.

Daniel

I'm certain that those who report the changes (additions & subtractions) are doing it in good faith but the numbers do seem high.

Last month : 84 changes
2 months ago: 96 changes
3 months ago: 85 changes

Thats almost 3 per day....

Ditto here plus my POIs are on a SD card. However as a general maintainer I'll be glad to update only on specific days if that's what everyone wants.

Great idea since I check for updates every Wednesday evening.

Are you saying that if a General Maintainer of a popular POI file has a major update and is unable to post during your "Tuesday or Wednesday morning" time slot that they should wait a week (or maybe more?) to update?

Just my 2 cents, but if any General Maintainer is kind enough to spend their time and efforts to benefit us all, they should have the flexibility to update any darn time they feel like it.

Ron

I think that our system works well just the way it is;) I want to keep things pretty casual and without a lot of rules and guidelines.

This community should feel more like a hobby and not a job. Well I should say for you guys, for me it is very much a full time job.

Miss POI

Could not agree more.With the new My Favorites Files no real problem for what needs to be updated.You can do that at your leisure.

As was stated before, If this becomes an unpaid job it no longer is a hobby and my guess is some to many maintainers would just say forget it.
Many have other responsibilities in their lives already and putting deadlines on POI file updates would likely have the exact opposite effect you desire given maintaining a poi file may leave you feeling good but they will not put food on your plate.
The old saying...if it ain't broke, don't fix it is the best response I can think of to respond to you.

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year to All

Ditto.
But for what it's worth I don't think it will break my keyboard, so I'll try to update mine Sun-Tue. (Not that they add Amer Legion posts or MD Historical markers on a regular basis!)

This post was intended to make things easy for the non advance, non maintainer who would like to get all things done and updated in one time frame.

This post was never about how you do things but what would make things better for the community. Some of you like to complicate things that you may get a chance to show how intelligent you think you are!

POST CLOSED!!!

What are you getting upset about. You asked and people answered. If you don't like the answers then maybe you need to explain in better detail what you expect the answers to be

....

I usually post my Brewery update on Mondays, on Wednesday you are still getting the most recent update.

I maintain the files I have as a hobby. It started while I was out of work and had all the time in the world. Now I'm working, I like staying involved but its a fun hobby activity I enjoy.

If you don't want to do several updates then save them and do one a week. What's really the difference between the maintainer sitting on the update for several days or you sitting on them? The earlier upload allows someone who wants that specific update to get it sooner and not get outdated data because the maintainer is sitting on it waiting for a specific day to upload.

My thoughts are that it would only add a delay to the files being uploaded. On most of the files, if you are updating weekly, missing one by a day and then catching it the next week should not make a big difference. If you are very concerned about a particular file, you can check it just before needed.

In my opinion there's nothing wrong with the present system that works successfuly for years. Why change something that proved itself to be ok just for sake of inovation?

Great tip using the My Favorite Files. One of those links you see but don't click on...until now. Nice!

I usually update once a month unless I am going on a long trip then I update the day before I set off,