Updating Files

Are you aware how much work and time it takes to maintain a file? If I was paid to do this, there would be timely updates, but being that it's voluntary, bill paying activities are far higher up on my list of to-dos. Go ahead. Take a POI file...any one. Try to update it yourself. See what's involved...

My two cents.

there is a lot more work in making and keeping a POI up to date than most people think. When they keep changing different programs and the way each company list their stores. Camerabob hit the nail on the head in his comment.

For those who have never written one of these files, they have no clue how hard it is to keep them up to date. For the most part, I think many of us have kept them fairly up to date. However, if one of you finds that a place isn't there, or the coordinates are wrong or knows of a new place, get ahold of the owner and let them know.

I appreciate the efforts of the providers. Thanks.

A BIG THANK YOU to all the providers.

I too thank all the developers for all their hard work.

I couldn't do it, and Garmin/TomTom obviously is not interested in doing it. Garmin can not even keep their software working right (think GE)!

I took over maintaining one here that had not been updated in years. And although it was small (Ohio only) in comparison to most of the VERY large POIs here it was still not easy.

This particular restaurant site was difficult to extract the address information. And the map information links were not working. So it was a task of one-by-one extraction, getting the address to Lat/Lon coordinates and then verifying the info.

With less than 100 locations it still took over a week of evenings just to get a working GPX file.

My hat is off to those that maintain the larger POIs on a regular basis.

Even though I do not live in Ohio, let me say thanks for the work you have done.

It does take a lot of time when you are trying to get things up to date.

You are a relatively new member and it is gratifying to know that you must feel that this site has been helpful enough to you that you want to give back to others.

So, my hat is off to you.

Some POIs are open for contributions such as my Family Restaurants Mom And Pop Locations. I ask people from all parts of the country to contribute their favorite non chain Mom and Pop places. I obviously can't travel the the whole United States eating in restaurants.

There are other guys that have POIs that work the same way and the more people that contribute makes the POI more valuable to people when they are traveling, so contribute.

I have been trying to get my Kohl's file updated since Christmas. Funny thing is that work (and life) gets in the way. There are more pressing things that need to be done.

If you find any errors or omissions, let the maintainer know. It is a practical impossibility to physically verify every location.