This is the second post in my How to Use Wikimapia series. In this edition I will look at “Upcoming Places” and what their deal is. (Images are clickable for larger versions.)

Mount St. Helens on Wikimapia

The other week I took a family camping trip to Swift Reservoir just south of Mount St. Helens so I checked out the area on Wikimapia. This zoom level shows that Swift Reservoir has been marked (actually by my a while back).

Swift Reservoir on Wikimapia

This is the area just south of St. Helens, namely the Swift Reservoir and Lewis River area. At this zoom level it looks as though nothing has been tagged (remember that Swift has been tagged at a lower zoom, but is not at this level). If I wanted to add a new place I should make sure that no one else has already placed it so I need to turn on “upcoming places” to be sure.

Swift Reservoir on Wikimapia

This is the upper right corner of Wikimapia. There are two ways to enable you to see all the new places that have been marked. 1) Click the red “upcoming places” (located to the left of the Wikimapia menu). When you do that, you will get this message telling you that you will now be able to review the new places. Click the “start to review upcoming places” to get going. 2) Click the “view” menu and select “upcoming places” which gets you going.

Swift Reservoir on Wikimapia

Now you can see the Swift Reservoir area with two new upcoming places marked indicated by the yellow/orange box instead of the standard white box (and to be honest here, I actually started these two place marks the other day). Let’s check out the upper left one.

Swift Reservoir and Ape Cave on Wikimapia

If I mouse over the new place it is listed as “Ape Cave /upcoming/” and is outlined in yellow/orange. Let’s get a little closer.

Ape Cave on Wikimapia

So there is the parking lot for the Ape Cave. If you happen to know that the place is correctly labeled (which I do), you should approve it to help it become an officially maked place.

Ape Cave on Wikimapia

Wikimapia editIf I click on the box, I get the information screen for the Ape Cave and the review box: “This place is waiting for your review, is it properly described? Please check: placement, title, description, language, and type selection.” From what I can see, all that information is correct. If it had not been correct (or you want to add more info), click the “Menu” and then select “Edit this Page” (see image at right) and change the incorrect information or add additional information (see my How To #1: Adding a New Place to learn more about this). If you think the place is completely wrong and not editable, click on “no” to show your disapproval. If everything looks good, click on “yes” to show your approval. Makes sense.

Ape Cave on Wikimapia

After your make your review you will see this screen (in this case the review was “yes” so it increased in its approval rating). Your job is done! Here is the criteria for the “upcoming places” to become an offically marked location (From the Wikimapia FAQ):

-must be at least 24 hours old;
-must have more than 2 positive votes (yes) and 0 negative (no);
-with 1 negative vote, it needs at least 8 positive;
-places with only 2 positive votes and 0 negative will be automatically approved after one week.
Places with more than 1 negative votes and more - will be deleted.

As you can see, it is pretty easy to help review all the new places popping up in Wikimapia. Once again, you are helping to “describe the whole Earth!” The demo location at Wikimapia: Swift Reservoir and surrouding area.

The Matt’s Wikimapia Blog “How To” Series:
How To #1: Adding a New Place
How To #2: Upcoming Places
How To #3: Pictures and Comments
How To #4: Adding Wikimapia and Google Maps to your Website
How To #5: YouTube in Wikimapia!
How To #6: Adding Polygons