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Post by kentsmith9
AlanOfTheBerg wrote:
Mattiedale wrote:Sorry, sometimes you got to hit me with a sledge hammer, but, is the name is all upper case, convert it or not?
Follow the guidelines posted.
Actually I am not clear of the original question, so I will repost the question I thought was being asked:

* Are we changing the all caps name to title case, or do we leave it all caps to track it was an imported landmark?
* If converting to title case, do we want to do anything to track it was imported?
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Post by kentsmith9
AlanOfTheBerg wrote:1. Yes, that is my understanding and what I've written in the guidelines post.
Sorry, I missed that one... http://www.waze.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=129&t=46426 :(

I spend an incredible amount of time on Waze and I still can barely even touch the surface of all the threads in the forums. :?
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Post by Mattiedale
Sorry, sometimes you got to hit me with a sledge hammer, but, is the name is all upper case, convert it or not?
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Post by PhantomSoul
I don't see how anything other than the most prevalent sign you see by the side of the road is relevant here. Just my $0.02 ;)
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Post by PhantomSoul
sketch wrote:
PhantomSoul wrote:I don't see how anything other than the most prevalent sign you see by the side of the road is relevant here. Just my $0.02 ;)
Exxon Circle K has a huge Exxon logo and a huge Circle K logo on their signs. Some other places do this too (like the Cracker Barrel Store chain).

It also gives us guidance for instances where both are available in the Brand field, like Exxon and Circle K, or Shell and Cracker Barrel (IIRC). There are stations which are only Circle K, or only Cracker Barrel, but when it's both, we should put the "more gassy" brand in the Brand part.
Circle K is a convenience store brand, not gas, right? Likewise, Cracker Barrel is a restaurant, not a gas station, right? Shouldn't they be indexed accordingly, separately?
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Post by Riamus
It was suggested that I ask this here as there's little movement in the NC forum. Which name is best to use for the gas stations? In one location nearby, there are 2 gas stations across the street from one another and both were imported. Both have a local name and a brand/franchise name. One station is labeled with their local name, but all signage at the location says Citgo. You can't find the local name on any sign there. The other station has the local name on the signage, but the imported name is the franchise name. It's my opinion that these should be listed by whatever is most prominent the signage. If the brand or franchise is the most visible name, then I think that should be used. If the local name is the most visible name, then I think that is the one that should be used. Basically, on a case-by-case basis. I wanted to get some advice from others before deciding to do that, though.

Btw, just as a side note in case anyone hasn't noticed yet. If an imported gas station was imported at the wrong location (for example, one of the 2 I mentioned was imported about 1/4 mile or so away from the correct location), the update gas price feature from the client will not find it when you're at the station even if you have corrected the placement of the landmark. You'll have to drive to where it was imported in order to update the price. I'm guessing it's using the imported GPS coordinates instead of the coordinates of the landmark. I'm sure they will correct that once the gas feature is completed, but it's something to keep in mind.
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Post by Riamus
Just in case you were replying to me rather than the previous posts, I'm referring to the Name field, not the Brand field. :)
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Post by shirlig
Hi guys,

Gas stations in the US have been uploaded to the editor and they are now available as landmarks.
The idea is that gas stations will now behave in the US the same way they behave in the INTL server.

A few answers:
1) We tried to merge the duplicate gas stations but if you still see duplicate gas stations - please delete the ones that don't contain info in it (the added gas stations are usually in uppercase, have phone numbers,address, etc ).
2) Until we fix something in the server side - gas stations added by users as landmarks will not always be available in the client. We are working on it and it will be available soon.
3) In a few hours, you will also be able to select the brand of the station from a list. We know this list is not complete and we will add/remove brands as required during the upcoming weeks.
4) We highly recommend NOT to delete the gas stations that we integrated (usually their names appear in uppercase, they contain data like phone number, address etc) to the map because we will also lose automatic update of prices from the external resource. (You can edit their details, just don't delete them)
4) We will add brands to Canada in the upcoming days as well.

thanks,
Shirli
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Post by skapur1
The brand of a gas station has rarely anything to do with a refinery. In fact there are anti-trust laws in place (at least in NY State) that prohibit a franchise from requiring that a franchisee purchase gas only from the franchise. A franchisee is free to purchase gas from any company they desire.

For a majority of gas stations (i.e. all the non brand company owned ones), brand name is a pure marketing agreement and has little to do with anything else (e.g. gas quality).

After Hurricane Sandy, I learned a lot (through TV news and web sites e.g. http://www.governor.ny.gov/press/110320 ... tageupdate) about how gas distribution works on Long Island NY. All the gas on Long Island comes on barge and one barge company (Northville Industries) has a de facto monopoly on it for the middle section of Long Island. This company pumps gas from barges to a distribution point located at the center of the Island (https://www.waze.com/editor/?zoom=7&lat ... rks=391792) where all the brands pick up their gas to deliver to the gas stations. You can read more about this on Northville Industries web page (http://www.northville.com/Lipipeline.aspx http://www.northville.com/Locations.aspx)

There were long gas lines on Long Island (some of which I had the misfortune to wait on) after Hurricane Sandy and the main reason for these lines was that there were even longer lines at the Northville terminal to fill up the tankers as the terminal had taken a hit from the Hurricane and a secondary reason was that all the NY City gas stations were coming to this terminal to fill up their tankers because NY City terminals were even worse hit.

The main point of this story is that brands have little to do with the tanker truck that shows up to fill up the tanks at the gas station and even less to do with the actual fuel refinery.

The NY Metro area uses about 28 million gallons of gas and diesel every day.
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Post by skapur1
AndyPoms wrote:I think that the "Brand" field should relate to the Marketing/Signage as that is most visible.
I think this is a simple and easy to follow rule. Just like any other street sign (or expressway exit sign...)

Waze editors are not gasoline quality control police and so should not try to enforce branding agreements by what brand truck goes to what brand gas station.
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