Use of abbreviation in POI names

[kwlee]

Hi everyone,

When I was using MSM last year, I had several frustrating experience of trying to locate certain POIs unsuccessfully, but only to discover later my unsuccessful spell-name search is due to blatant use of abbreviations in the POI.

Since we now have the opportunity to re-build SG map for MFM. I wish we can set off with the right foot before the quality deterioriate to the level of MSM SG map.

I started to notice some short-forms are creeping back into our POI name.
Example :
CP = Car Park
Mt = Mount

I see a POI name has 2 parts : A unique part and a generic part.

For example : Normanton Park, North View Primary School. "Normanton" and "North View" are the unique parts, while "Park" / "Primary School" are the generic part.

In some cases where the unique part is good enough to identify the POI, you probably do not need to include generic part in spell-name. For example, to search for "North View Primary School", just key in "North View" is probably enough to locate the POI.

In many other cases, the unique part is a common name and you will need to complete name (including the generic part) to get to correct search results. This is where MSM often mess up.
Example : Bukit Batok Community Centre.
In Singapore, people like to use lots of short-form : Bukit becomes Bt, Community Centre becomes CC. Just imagine the different possible combinations :
1. Bukit Batok CC
2. Bt Batok CC
3. Bukit Batok Community Centre
4. Bt Batok Community Centre

Your hit rate (if abbreviation is allowed) is probably only 25%.

Hence I urge our fellow MFM mappers, POI contributors to use full COMPLETE name for POI names without short-forms / abbreviations, or whatever acronyms, unless the actual name is abbreviated, for example St Joseph's Church.

MFM has made a good start by setting the standard for proper road name with "Jalan". So let's extend this best practice to all other POIs as well.

If you look at any respectable commercial street directories (be it online or paperback), all use proper full names without abbreviations. I see no reason why we can't have the discipline to do similarly.

At the end of the day, what's the point of having lots of POIs in the map when few people can actually find them ?

[J-Slade]

I agree with you 100% bro... I have tried both MFM and the MSM (Gold map) and in the end I still choose MFM because the road name is complete and proper for example if the road in front of my house is

Jalan Example 11/13

in MFM it will display the full "Jalan Example 11/13"
in MSM it will display an awkward "Example 11, J" <-- ?!?! Firstly it doesn't identify the full name and secondly it placed 'Jalan' as a J at the end of the name.. so weird

So please do keep up the good job MFM and continue with complete names for POI

[zamad]

I had wanted to go to SYABAS office in Jalan Templer, Petaling Jaya the other day and did a search on Mapsource (with mfm v1.44). It listed 12 entries but NOT the one that I wanted. (Only) That particular SYABAS office [N3.09533 E101.63847] is listed as 'Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor'. Can we have that POI renamed to SYABAS, please...

[zuree]

I had wanted to go to SYABAS office in Jalan Templer, Petaling Jaya the other day and did a search on Mapsource (with mfm v1.44). It listed 12 entries but NOT the one that I wanted. (Only) That particular SYABAS office [N3.09533 E101.63847] is listed as 'Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor'. Can we have that POI renamed to SYABAS, please...

no...i think we should use full name instead of SYABAS name, because some people outside selangor didn't know what SYABAS is, in Malay syabas means 'Tahniah' or congratulation. U should key in 'Air' and see the result.

[J-Slade]

I think the admin or someone should put a "how-to" guide for newbies like me on the naming system for MFM such as how to find places like what we just discuss about SYABAS being Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor and that Jln must be typed as Jalan and Sg must be typed as Sungai cos so far all I learnt this is just by trial and error..

[kwlee]

I had wanted to go to SYABAS office in Jalan Templer, Petaling Jaya the other day and did a search on Mapsource (with mfm v1.44). It listed 12 entries but NOT the one that I wanted. (Only) That particular SYABAS office [N3.09533 E101.63847] is listed as 'Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor'. Can we have that POI renamed to SYABAS, please...

no...i think we should use full name instead of SYABAS name, because some people outside selangor didn't know what SYABAS is, in Malay syabas means 'Tahniah' or congratulation. U should key in 'Air' and see the result.

I agree with bro zuree, we should use the full name. But if SYABAS is also well known acronym (at least to some people), may be we could add the acronym at the back of the full name, ie "Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (SYABAS)".
Interestingly I read in this post (viewtopic.php?p=22275#p22275) that the Nuvi 765 is able to return search result for full-name POI even when acronym is entered in spell-name.

[kwlee]

I think the admin or someone should put a "how-to" guide for newbies like me on the naming system for MFM such as how to find places like what we just discuss about SYABAS being Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor and that Jln must be typed as Jalan and Sg must be typed as Sungai cos so far all I learnt this is just by trial and error..

Yes ! A guide like this will be useful for users (not just newbies!) and also serve as a useful guidelines for potential contributors to know the preferred format for POI names.

[antyong (retired)]

Belated reply...We don't favor abbreviations especially the blatant ones such as P O and CC. However, we use some well-known acronyms as HSBC, KFC, 7-11, etc.

For guides, you guys need to help. Our mappers and contributors are all busy with their own contributions. Therefore I hope someone can take up this the role of writing MFM user guide

[kwlee]

Belated reply...We don't favor abbreviations especially the blatant ones such as P O and CC. However, we use some well-known acronyms as HSBC, KFC, 7-11, etc.

For guides, you guys need to help. Our mappers and contributors are all busy with their own contributions. Therefore I hope someone can take up this the role of writing MFM user guide

Hi Antyong,

I will help to write the guidelines for POI names.