Poll

How should broken 6-field .list lines be handled?

Break the entire line, to give users a more clear indication that something is broken and needs attention!
8 (88.9%)
Give travelers partial credit when possible. People should be regularly checking their .log files for errors to fix anyway!
1 (11.1%)
Other (specify!)
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 9

Author Topic: Should travelers get partial credit for broken 6-field .list lines?  (Read 3670 times)

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Offline yakra

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Those of you who frequently check your log files for errors are no doubt familiar with notices like:
Code: [Select]
Waypoint label WASAVE not found in line: MN I-94 1A WasAve
Waypoint labels NB11(2) and NB530 not found in line: NB NB134 NB11(2) NB530
Traditionally, without two good waypoint labels, we don't know where to mark the endpoints of your travels, so these lines aren't parsed.

Now that Multi-region user .list file entries are possible using 6-field .list lines, it's possible for lines with bad waypoint labels to give us a partial picture of what you intended to mark traveled.

Consider any of the following:
Code: [Select]
PA I-90 32 MA I-90 BadLabel
PA I-90 BadLabel MA I-90 24
PA I-90 BadLabel MA I-90 BadLabel
Right now, since not all of the line can be read, the whole thing is thrown out and we don't get any credit for I-90.
But even if we're going from *somewhere* in Pennsylvania to *somewhere* in Massachusetts, we know that all of New York is traveled.
Code: [Select]
PA I-90 32 NY I-90 BadLabelWe know that PA I-90 was traveled from Exit 32 to the New York line.

On the one hand, we could give partial credit, when able, for what we do know people have traveled.

OTOH, Jim brings up a good point on GitHub:
Quote
a case can be made that a bad line, even one that spans regions, reasonably renders the whole entry invalid. ... a user with a long enough segment on a line to span three regions or more is more likely to notice the whole thing is missing than just segments near the endpoints.
Makes sense. If I'm only looking at, say https://travelmapping.net/hb/showroute.php?u=master_son&r=me.i095&cr I might not notice if that one segment in the northeast of Maryland were missing. If I didn't look at my log, I might not come across it till looking at my regional stats. If the whole thing's missing, that's a more clear indication that something is broken and needs attention.

How should broken 6-field .list lines be handled?
• Break the entire line, to give users a more clear indication that something is broken and needs attention!
• Give travelers partial credit when possible. People should be regularly checking their .log files for errors to fix anyway!
• Other (specify!)
« Last Edit: December 12, 2020, 09:11:57 pm by yakra »
Sri Syadasti Syadavaktavya Syadasti Syannasti Syadasti Cavaktavyasca Syadasti Syannasti Syadavatavyasca Syadasti Syannasti Syadavaktavyasca

Offline yakra

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Re: Should travelers get partial credit for broken 6-field .list lines?
« Reply #1 on: February 18, 2022, 05:39:58 pm »
After 14 months, we have 8 "Break the entire line", 1 "Give travelers partial credit" vote, and it looks like I didn't vote myself. Locking!
Took me way too long, but I'm finally with the majority here.

My premise in the OP was incomplete & flawed. I considered bad labels, but not bad regions. In
FL I-95 US1 ME I-95 41
"ME" could easily be a typo for "MD" -- 'D' & 'E' are adjacent on a QWERTY keyboard. Thus crediting someone all the way up through NH would be inappropriate.

Yes, just invalidate the whole line.
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Offline froggie

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Re: Should travelers get partial credit for broken 6-field .list lines?
« Reply #2 on: February 18, 2022, 11:01:06 pm »
FTR, I don't use 6-field lines myself.  I far prefer to break mine down by state.

Offline yakra

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Re: Should travelers get partial credit for broken 6-field .list lines?
« Reply #3 on: February 26, 2022, 12:02:02 pm »
Multi-region lines certainly present a lot more opportunities for things to go wrong.
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