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Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 6:29 am
by Kent Larsen-p40
One additional problem with the new system is that it doesn't allow searching by partial zip codes in the US.

On the old Meetinghouse locator, if I choose the US and enter the first three digits of the zip code, I get all the wards and branches with zip codes that begin with those digits. For example, entering "400" in the zip code field, gives five meetinghouses and seven wards and branches with zip codes that all begin with "400"

On the new if I do the same, I get meetinghouses in another state! Entering "United States" in the country and "400" in the zip code gives me results from Plainview and Lubbock Texas!!!!

Huh?

Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 1:28 pm
by lajackson
borenmt wrote:Also note that some of the onus is on local clerks and leaders to make sure the information is in MLS correctly;
Note, though, that the only information clerks and leaders can put into MLS is the meeting times. MLS is not used to update meetinghouse addresses. In fact, it cannot be done in MLS.

In the US and Canada, meetinghouse addresses are updated at CHQ by way of inputs from Facilities Management groups around the country. I would expect that there is an area office responsibility that is similar for units outside of North America.

Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 1:48 pm
by jdlessley
borenmt wrote:This message is not from the new locator at maps.lds.org... I suspect you were in the list-driven old locator, since it would more likely return a message like this. If you can reproduce it on the new site please let us know -- something very weird would be going on, since we don't have lists of cities or towns to pick from... Unless it was on a "Did you mean" screen maybe? But I don't think the wording is as you ahve it and there is no red text... so I'm still thinking it sounds like the old site. Let me know if I'm wrong.
You are right that the page was the old locator. The situation turned out to be an IE7, computer, or both issue. For some reason while I was getting the pages for both locators simultaneously, each on a different tab in IE7, the old locator page appeared on the tab for the new locator with the results from the old locator search request. Since I had not used the new locator for a while I just assumed there was an attempt to make the new locator look in some respects like the old one. Both tabs on IE7 were now using the old locator site. There is no problem with the new locator. Until I rebooted my computer I was unable to use the new locator.

Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 2:22 pm
by russellhltn
I'm not sure of the details, but Ive found that tabs in IE7 tend to share data (cookies?). Sometimes the best thing to do is open a new IE7 Window.

Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 11:29 pm
by borenmt
@ Kent -- Wow! You're right -- I did totally misunderstand your post. Apologies! I will forward this to the right folks to start looking at this. My guess is that it is ignoring the country and going only with the first perfect postal code match that it finds, instead of using the country as a tie breaker... Thanks again!

Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 9:50 am
by rpyne
fergie34 wrote:I like the new meeting house locater. I do have a request for an update though. I would like to see added to the list the name and location of the stake the units are in. If a member is moving to a new area this would be very helpful. :D
It would be very helpful if unit numbers were included with the ward and stake information so we could use it to help get records moved to the correct unit.

Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 10:18 am
by mkmurray
rpyne wrote:It would be very helpful if unit numbers were included with the ward and stake information so we could use it to help get records moved to the correct unit.
There is a way to get the unit numbers, but it requires a little clicking...

When you are viewing the popup window with all of the information for a specific ward, click the "Go to Website" link. This brings up the LUWS homepage for the unit. In the URL, you can find the unit number. The unit number is always the part of the URL before the ",00.html" part (and the last part of the hypenated number series). For instance, in the follow example the unit number is 480312:

...units/home/0,9781,600-1-7-480312,00.html

After I get the ward unit number, I then click on the stake's link on the ward's hompage to get the stake's unit number the same way.

I learned this trick about the unit numbers in the URL when I was trying to HTML scrape the Membership directory for family photos and then linking them (unsuccessfully) with their vCard entries.

Correction still not applied after 5 weeks

Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 3:09 am
by Biggles
I checked out the the new meeting house locator map web site http://maps.lds.org/ about five weeks ago and discovered that the indicator for my former ward building was incorrectly placed on the map. I sent off a correction form on the 3rd September and duly received an acknowledgement.

Today (7th October) I re-visited the web site and found that the information has not yet been amended!

How long does it normally take to update the information submitted?

Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 7:58 am
by mkmurray
Biggles wrote:How long does it normally take to update the information submitted?
I imagine many people have had quicker response than 5 weeks, but I wouldn't think 5 weeks should be considered outlandishly too long of a wait. Keep in mind that Church employees have to verify the corrections submitted are actually...correct. That mapping software is quite public, open to the whole interent audience worldwide; so they have to double-check that the corrections are legit and not somebody playing around or trying to mess with the Church in anyway. I don't know how long it takes to do that.

I have seen a Church Employee encourage someone to resubmit their correction before, so I would say in this case, it couldn't hurt for you to do the same.

Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 8:44 am
by aebrown
mkmurray wrote:I imagine many people have had quicker response than 5 weeks, but I wouldn't think 5 weeks should be considered outlandishly too long of a wait.
... particularly in France, where it may be much more challenging to verify proposed corrections.