@Michael_Smith in reply,
You said so many things that IMHO are not correct I'm having trouble writing a reply.
If KMA's quote is correct (which I think it is) then your statement telling me to "work around" my historical place issues makes me laugh.
Please note, Genealogy IS ABOUT historical places, and if your work was in Europe as mine is you would quickly realize that towns move, change names, have multiple names at the same time, change countries, or are lost to the map. Modern places will never support these concepts.
An accuate PNA REQUIRES historical references, accurate modern references, polygons not x/y coordinates. I support your idea that names should be "UP TO DATE and ACCURATE."
But then you say, "My argument is not about a FIX for the PLA, it’s about its accuracy and the CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT of the system." and "adding ALL legitimate, current day place names to it."
The system can't be accurate if it ignores the reason I do and get paid to do genealogy, historical fact. And they can not do that with the current PNA list. And who determines "legitimate"?
Again I support your asking for additional places. However, Historical Fact, IMO should be the focus of change NOT adding a few hundred more "modern places" to the list. Places have history too and the PNA does not give them a history.
I've written FTM software support all of these and many more suggestions for improvment. I always get a real nice "thank you for your suggestion." reply. And yes if enough people yell they will improve the product. But I suspect that since they get their places from "a source" they are not real interested in adding 10s or 100s of thousands of places when they still need to improve sync. Or fix GEDCOM support, or create reports that we can use, or support large DBs better. All things I have personally asked for as well as better "places" support.
EDIT: Or support individual names where the surname is written first, or where individuals have 2 or 3 true surnames, or no surname.
Most of these issues are things that KMA and I and many others have discussed here and even written the development staff. FTM developers have a lot on their plate!!
You said so many things that IMHO are not correct I'm having trouble writing a reply.
If KMA's quote is correct (which I think it is) then your statement telling me to "work around" my historical place issues makes me laugh.
Please note, Genealogy IS ABOUT historical places, and if your work was in Europe as mine is you would quickly realize that towns move, change names, have multiple names at the same time, change countries, or are lost to the map. Modern places will never support these concepts.
An accuate PNA REQUIRES historical references, accurate modern references, polygons not x/y coordinates. I support your idea that names should be "UP TO DATE and ACCURATE."
But then you say, "My argument is not about a FIX for the PLA, it’s about its accuracy and the CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT of the system." and "adding ALL legitimate, current day place names to it."
The system can't be accurate if it ignores the reason I do and get paid to do genealogy, historical fact. And they can not do that with the current PNA list. And who determines "legitimate"?
Again I support your asking for additional places. However, Historical Fact, IMO should be the focus of change NOT adding a few hundred more "modern places" to the list. Places have history too and the PNA does not give them a history.
I've written FTM software support all of these and many more suggestions for improvment. I always get a real nice "thank you for your suggestion." reply. And yes if enough people yell they will improve the product. But I suspect that since they get their places from "a source" they are not real interested in adding 10s or 100s of thousands of places when they still need to improve sync. Or fix GEDCOM support, or create reports that we can use, or support large DBs better. All things I have personally asked for as well as better "places" support.
EDIT: Or support individual names where the surname is written first, or where individuals have 2 or 3 true surnames, or no surname.
Most of these issues are things that KMA and I and many others have discussed here and even written the development staff. FTM developers have a lot on their plate!!