Searching for the Springfield Post Office in an undetermined state . . . do I sense the inclusion of Waze in an episode of The Simpsons?

For the most part, I really like all the work that has gone in to the Post Office Guidance. After giving several Post Offices some hard research, I have one refinement to suggest to the Post Office Wazo:
Some Zip Codes contain more than one full-service USPS Office (not including CPO, VPO or Kisoks). I think the guidance should allow for the "- [Station]" to be added to the alternate names of USPS and the Zip code
Such as:
USPS - HRCOE
USPS - Fort Knox
40121 - HRCOE
40121 - Fort Knox

I'm posting the rest of my comments to the Military Forum

How about just "Post Office - [city name] [identifier]" where [identifier] can be the substation name, zip code, or whatever other location-based attribute is locally the most-known way ;of identifying that particular post office location?

For starters, where I live, no one calls it USPS or United States Postal Service. Ever. It's just the post office. Further, no one is going to type United States Postal Service into their phones. In north NJ, you can as well walk to a nearby post office in the time it takes to type that into your phone.

That said, besides the city a post office is in, the next best identifier, in my mind, is its address, namely what street it's on, which Waze already displays in its results. Sure it may have a substation name, and we could probably include that in the primary name, but really, unless it's the location you do most of your postal business at, who really knows those anyway? Same for zip codes - who really knows any except their own? I know banks rely on that assumption when thy challenge you for your zip code at the gas station...

Should the primary name for Post Offices on military bases or other limited access areas then be "Post Office - [Base/Installation Name]" or "Post Office ([Base/Installation Name] access only)"?

Military Bases - Wazeopedia wrote:Naming for Commercial Places
Add (*Post Name* access only) behind commonly named places, (i.e. Food/Chain, Post Office, Bank, Golf Course, etc), so that people without base access are warned when they do a search; Example: "GNC (Tinker AFB access only)".

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of Post Offices that have not been updated to the current standard.

I will propose this slight variation:

Naming

• Full Service Post Office:
  • Primary Name: Post Office - [Station]
  • Alternate Name: USPS
• Contract Postal Unit (CPU):
  • Primary Name: Post Office - CPU [Station]
  • Alternate Name: USPS
• Village Post Office (VPO):
  • Primary Name: Post Office - VPO [Station]
  • Alternate Name: USPS

Substitute [Station] with the official name of the station from USPS.*

Note: Some states do not conform to this naming convention at this time. Please consult your state or regional wiki page (see left sidebar).


* I will note that CPU and VPO station names do typically start with "CPU" and "VPO" respectively, but I'm noting this to be sure they're included on the off chance they missed one, or something.

For better or worse, "Post Office" being first in the name is crucial for instant search to work properly.

For what it's worth, I don't think it is particularly necessary to have the state abbreviation in the name in such an example, but I also don't think it necessarily hurts anything to keep the state abbreviation in the station name, and I would imagine the latter allows the guidance to be written more simply (because you don't have to carve out an exception for it). It's not like this is so common it'll be "cluttering" up post office names all over the place, either.

edit I misunderstood the context of your post. Serves me right for not reading carefully. I agree with those who have posted before me and see no reason to modify the station name in any such way. USPS doesn't include the state in the station name (which I [re]discovered by going to see what USPS says for, and what I had done with, the Springfield in Louisiana), and the search interface makes it quite clear.

Since the app is being often referred to as the WMA by more and more editors, I'd think the capitalization of "Waze Mobile App" evolved from that. Maybe adding a parenthetical "(WMA)" after it would take care of the capitalization police, and actually help new readers.
(EDIT: After re-reading my post, realized my comments might seem to be disagreeing with tonestertm. Not my intent. It was just my poor attempt at humor.)

(Personally, I keep thinking wildlife management area. )

Please correct the inconsistency in the spelling of ZIP (correct usage is all caps).

Waze Mobile App searches for "post office" will find Waze places only if they have the Post Office category or have a Google link to a Post Office. Thus, it is important we limit the amount of places we add the Post Office category to.

This paragraph has problems. The app can most certainly find post offices without the PO category, in instant results. The problem is, when the search term "post office" is pushed to a full search, the app will then conduct a "category search" and return any Waze place which has the category, "POST OFFICE" assigned. Since the vast majority of people searching for a post office are, in fact, looking for a USPS facility, not (for instance) a shipping store, and the latter tend to clog results, we must restrict the usage of the POST OFFICE category to only genuine USPS retail facilities.

p.s. why are Mobile and App capitalized?

We've been having a lively discussion of this in the #pennsylvania channel of the NOR discord server.
What should one put in the description if the post office serves several ZIP codes?
All of the ZIPcodes? As a comma-separated list?