624780 Wed Jun 03 08:34:57 -0700 2009 15 30 Site Talk 0 4738716 Is there someone who goes around erasing restaurant web sites from Place links? Or is this some sort of software gremlin that eats them for breakfast like Wheaties? I keep adding them and the next time I put up a Place link, voila! - no web site. Inquiring minds want to know if they are losing it or if anyone else has noticed this phenomena as well? Wed Jun 03 08:34:57 -0700 2009 108169 Servorg 1 4739169 Can you give us a specific example of a restaurant where this happened and a link to the place record? Wed Jun 03 10:51:01 -0700 2009 4738716 10021 Jacquilynne 2 4739185 Jacquilynne, I know that I have put in the web link for Tokyo Delve's (see below for today's link with the just added website url) before. And today when I recommended it and posted the link there was no website url. The next time I see another one that I know has had a website link previously I'll come back here and post it. http://www.chow.com/places/24188 Wed Jun 03 10:55:21 -0700 2009 4739169 108169 Servorg 3 4739237 J, just thought of another one I added today for Truxton's American Bistro (updated place link from earlier today below). I know that I have put in that web url at least twice before. The only thought I have is that perhaps the place links I was correcting were duplicates? Possible, but not probable in my mind. http://www.chow.com/places/24586 Wed Jun 03 11:10:24 -0700 2009 4739185 108169 Servorg 4 4739452 The Truxton's situation appears to be a duplicates issue -- you've added the URL to more than one Place record for that restaurant. Our records don't show any edits to the Tokyo Delve's record prior to today, other than the original creation of it. Wed Jun 03 11:57:43 -0700 2009 4739237 10021 Jacquilynne 5 4739464 Ooookay...I'll just walk away from myself slowly so I don't do anything crazy to mysel... I must be losing it. I guess I'm going to have to start a list of which websites I add and when. I feel like that guy in "Memento" Thanks for getting back to me, J. Wed Jun 03 12:01:58 -0700 2009 4739452 108169 Servorg 6 4740635 HI, maybe I'm one of the gremlins. I've deleted a whole bunch of duplicate place records in the LA area that you created. The Greater LA Places database has hundreds of dupes, sometimes 5 or more for a single location. I think I've deleted about 10 for La Espagnola in Harbor City. Not that you're responsible for all of those. I've been doing some clean up in the last couple weeks. In choosing which of the duplicates to remove, I usually leave the one that has the most threads linked to it or sometimes the one that has the most add'l info entered. Wed Jun 03 18:12:45 -0700 2009 4739464 10039 Melanie Wong 7 4740667 No problem about getting the duplicates out, Melanie. I actually create very, very few new place links - so you probably didn't get rid of any of mine. (g) It may be irrational (probably IS irrational) but I still feel certain that websites have vanished from some of the place links (but not the link itself) that I have specifically inserted. This is my latest (and only) conspiracy theory, so if you will let me possess it I can feel like I'm finally, really, truely part of of the Internet. At last, a conspiracy netizen in good standing! ;-D> Wed Jun 03 18:27:50 -0700 2009 4740635 108169 Servorg 8 4741175 Let me revise that . . . I deleted a few dozen Place records where you were the last person to update it. I'm glad that you're adding websites to the records. You might take the time to check if there are more duplicates, then pick accordingly, and mark the others as "duplicate". What i do is put the url for the original record in the website field, if the duplicate has been linked to a thread, so that it can be called up readily for future reference. Wed Jun 03 22:45:44 -0700 2009 4740667 10039 Melanie Wong 9 4741277 Thanks for the further explanation, Melanie. I'll start using that system as my template for adding website url's from here on out. Thu Jun 04 01:52:01 -0700 2009 4741175 108169 Servorg 10 4746134 Hi, here's another duplicate record for Boneyard Bistro where you've inserted a website today. http://www.chow.com/places/52863 Here is the original record, http://www.chow.com/places/8447 A bug in the Places system is that google renders addresses for both Sherman Oaks and Los Angeles with the same street address. The engineers are going to have to figure out how to deal with this. Fri Jun 05 13:09:52 -0700 2009 4741277 10039 Melanie Wong 11 4746171 So maybe there IS an answer for my paranoid conspiracy theory after all! Thanks, Melanie. I was beginning to feel like Lucy and Ethel at the end of that candy conveyor belt. As fast as I posted websites they were vanishing. Hope you have a good weekend up there in Baghdad-by-the-Bay (I always loved Herb Caen). Fri Jun 05 13:17:52 -0700 2009 4746134 108169 Servorg 12 4746233 Guess that means you're not paranoid as the google-induced conspiracy is real! The best way to search for duplicate records is to use the "find a place" box on the LA hub page, and then type in just a fragment of the name without a city, e.g., pollo. Then scan the results for similar names and duplicate addresses. Fri Jun 05 13:26:44 -0700 2009 4746171 10039 Melanie Wong 13 4749868 Melanie, I see that you updated this duplicate link - http://www.chow.com/places/52973 - yesterday. Is there a reason you didn't eliminate it? Before I start cleaning house I want to make certain I'm not throwing out the place baby with the place bath water. Sun Jun 07 07:06:31 -0700 2009 4746233 108169 Servorg 14 4750565 Putting "duplicate" in the title line will remove it from the searchable database, but you can still call up the record if you have the specific url. If you try adding Wat Thai using "link to a place", that record should not come up. One caveat, it seems to take a day or so for the database to update, so it doesn't disappear that quickly. When I say the record is deleted, that actually means removed from the database, not wiping out the record. You wouldn't want to do that, as many of these are linked in threads and provide useful info. Also, if you look at the LA places hub, http://www.chow.com/places/regions/2 , you'll see that Wat Thai is not in the 20 most recently updated places. These are in reverse chron order, and some of the others have been updated earlier than my edit of Wat Thai, so it has indeed been removed from the LTP database. Sun Jun 07 12:51:06 -0700 2009 4749868 10039 Melanie Wong 15 4778112 Along with throwing the baby with the bath water, I just have a request ... and I will say that anyone taking the time to update place records is a wonderful and Melanie is a saint for at least trying to keep up with duplicates ... If there is a website link on the duplicate record that doesn't appear on the main record, it would be really helpful to move that link to the main record before writing over the website link on the duplicate. i'm a little obsessive about Place links. I update them mainly for my benefit. I don't have to do a search through the web looking for info each time I am interested in that restaurant. At least the records I update have as complete info about the restaurant that is available. I can easily just reference it after collecting the info the first time. Sometimes the website is difficult to find. It appears nowhere else ... not yelp, opentable, menupages, etc, etc, etc. Sometimes, especially little places, I don't find that website link until after searching through a dozen pages of Google (at 100 hits per page). So it would be really nice to get that particular info moved into the original record as it is really the only info that gets overwritten when marking a record a duplicate. I can move everything else if I notice a duplicate, but the website means sometimes going through a long search again. Tue Jun 16 10:47:00 -0700 2009 4750565 10264 rworange