David P Williams Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 Hi all - as you probably know the club database on the BMFA website hasn't been working for quite a while. I emailed them yesterday asking when it would be fixed, and got this reply: "We are not sure how long it will take to sort out. Here is a link to a club map that we have just got up and running it might help you find the clubs you want" Here's the link It's much better than the old list - wonder when they're going to officially launch it? David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delta Whiskey Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 Looks really good, and I like the drill down feature on the number disc's to zoom into an area of clubs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greybeard Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 It is very good, a big improvment on the old style list, it's a pity that many BMFA clubs are not included, but maybe it is work in progress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eck Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 I notice there's only one club shown in Scotland - any reason for this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatMc Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 Obviously it's WIP. Actually there's 2 now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Kearney Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 Thanks for passing this along David, it is a vast improvement. Teething problems aside it shows they are commited to their site! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eck Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 @Pat Mc - That's the one I thought was missing! There'll be a lot more by the end of the year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flytilbroke Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 There will be more additions to the list and map in 2013, based in Bonny Scotland. I shall need to go look at that map when I finish on the forum, this visit. I might find it more usefullas a visitor? Looking for a club by County does not help unless one knows the County boundaries AND what County an area of interest is in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Gilder Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 I think its great apart from the fact that they have my club shown as "Exeter and District Club" when in fact we are "Dark Peak Model Aircraft Club"!! I'm sure they will sort it out eventually!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CARPERFECT Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 If you click on any of the flags they are ALL WRONG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Brooks Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 Um, not sure about this. According to this map several clubs are within a radius of about ten miles from me, including Windermere water flyers at Winsford, Warminster and district R/C flying club at Arclid, near Congleton, and the Heart of Wales club which is apparently just outside Sandbach.Beelsby Model Club is locatedin Middlewich, whilst Llantrisant and District AC is just up the road in Goostrey! Definitely needs more work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David P Williams Posted December 5, 2012 Author Share Posted December 5, 2012 It is obviously WIP - I'll probably be kicked out of the BMFA for publishing it . I think that like the old list they base it on the contact address they have - usually the secretary of the club. It's probably the only info they have. David Edited By Captain Slog on 05/12/2012 19:57:37 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Privett Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 Yep - you beat me to it. I haven't found a single club that's right yet. Down in Surrey we appear to have the Ulster Club, a Bristol and West club, Bretons, Vale of Conwy, Rochdale, Westland and Yeovil, Ballymoney etc. I tracked down one of our neighbouring clubs (Epsom Radio Flying Club) to Skegness, but can't find my club anywhere yet! I'm sure though once they get the data sorted out it'll be great, and a huge improvement on the old club list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Yates Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 Checked for clubs near Inverness (20 miles) and it came up with the Kesteven Model Flyers near Invergordon. Great, but went on the web site for them and found they are based near Lincoln. Bit far for a Sunday morning!!!!!!!!!!!! Edited By Robert Yates on 05/12/2012 20:02:25 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Privett Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 Posted by Captain Slog on 05/12/2012 19:57:07: It is obviously WIP - I'll probably be kicked out of the BMFA for publishing it . I think that like the old list they base it on the contact address they have - usually the secretary of the club. It's probably the only info they have. David Edited By Captain Slog on 05/12/2012 19:57:37 Don't worry, it's been published elsewhere by a BMFA official. We've been supplying location details with our annual affiliation returns for several years now, and I think about 2 years ago were asked to confirm whether or not we (as a club) wanted to feature on the new map. I doubt the wrong locations are anything to do with contact addresses, otherwise there's an awful lot of club secretarys putting in a huge mileage to go flying! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WolstonFlyer Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 Obviously there is still work to do on the code that plots the locations in the right place on the Google map. Very much WIP but should be nice when it works Oh no.. ...Actually whoever built this seriously needs their head looking at, it is technically very badly done. As a professional IT manager and web developer it has taken me less than 2 mins to see that they are using an easily downloadable plain text file behind the web page that contains: The name of every club The full name of each club Sec (with Title, full first name and last name) Phone numbers (possibly home phone numbers of the above) Personal email addresses... do you want lots more junk email when somebody nasty downloads that lot. Club website URL Longitude and Latitude for location I know that many of you probably have names and phone numbers on your own websites but putting it all in one easy to access place in a plain text file is a very big no-no. The information should be loaded from a secure database and rendered onto the map and not just linked via a plain text file. I can imagine that this might be classed as a data breach by the ICO as it contains personal data that identifies individuals. Have the individual people given their permission for their personal data to be used in this way? Edited By WolstonFlyer on 05/12/2012 20:53:48 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delta Whiskey Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 It was fine this morning when I posted, now Kempton Park shows as Rochdale ! Edited By Delta Whiskey on 05/12/2012 21:02:55 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IAN EDGE Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 checked out the ones in wales to see if there is one near me , at the moment it seems every club in the country has a field in wales except welsh clubs def work in progress Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WolstonFlyer Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 Many of the points are in the wrong place because the Latitude co-ordinates the map is using have the decimal point in the wrong place. Some of the others are just plain wrong. E.g in the data file behind the map page: "BRISTOL RADIO CONTROL MAC" "5.164170000000000e+001" "-2.526000000000000e+000" Should actually be more like 51.64170000000000e+001 -2.526000000000000e+000 This looks like a nice flying field near Bristol Edited By WolstonFlyer on 05/12/2012 22:10:58 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Kearney Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 WoolstonFlyer, regarding the infomation being public, wasn't it all public before on the old club list page? I appreciate you had to select the county of choice so marginally more effort than grabbing a a single XML file, but there nonetheless. But if I remember correctly everything except the lat/long was shown. r. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Privett Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 Posted by WolstonFlyer on 05/12/2012 22:08:48: Many of the points are in the wrong place because the Latitude co-ordinates the map is using have the decimal point in the wrong place. Some of the others are just plain wrong. E.g in the data file behind the map page: "BRISTOL RADIO CONTROL MAC" "5.164170000000000e+001" "-2.526000000000000e+000" Should actually be more like 51.64170000000000e+001 -2.526000000000000e+000 Look at the figures again... Notice the last 5 characters? 'e+001' and 'e+000' where e+001 means times 10 ^1 (can we not do superscripts on here?) ie. ten to the power of one, or simply times 10. So 5.16417 e+001 is 5.16417 * 10 or 51.6417. And e+000 meaning times 10 ^ 0 ie. 10 to the power of zero, or simply times 1. Feeding 51.6417, 2.526 into Google Earth takes me to a field just north of Bristol with what looks like a small runway mown in it. If the map was actually displaying 5.16417 degrees north, 2.526 degrees west as you suggest the club would appear in Africa, near a place called Kokum in Ghana, close to the border with the Côte d'Ivoire. So it looks like the data is right, but it's not being displayed correctly somehow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Privett Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 Regarding consent, we have certainly been asked (annually) to sign to authorise the publication of the club sec's phone number - if we want it published. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WolstonFlyer Posted December 5, 2012 Share Posted December 5, 2012 Yes I agree about the e+001 being "to the power of" Google maps does not understand that as a valid notation.So my point, the data is being used incorrectly to plot the point on the map and that is why they are showing in the wrong place. As my link showed moving the decimal point does link to what looks like a flying field at the location.Probaly just a mistake somewhere in the Javascript on the page but I am not going to check.On the point about personal data, I was just highlighting the fact it is there and is not the best way to take care of this sort of data that includes names, email addresses and phone numbers. If they are all ok with this specific use and have given permission then good for them. Even if it was on the old system it does not specifically make it OK.I would personally have other views but that is just my opinion as I deal with masses of personal data every day at work.Over and out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Privett Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 The thing is, all the points on the map seem to be where they should be. But just with the wrong names attached! If the long/lat data was being misinterpreted we'd have club locations all over the place - in the sea, in city centres, on other continents, and not where other clubs actually are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 Some clubs do seem to be at sea. A few might be at Loggerheads - just outside Mold North Wales. Perhaps the majority are simply at,.... a loss! BEB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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