Finally I have abandoned Google Gaelic Maps

mackerski · 10-02-2014 01:17PM

greenpilot wrote: »

What's this "we" business? Are you Irish, or just another Brit who, having moved over here, spends most of their time bitching about how bloody awful our country is. The ferry is dat way.......

Ah, the tactic of suggesting that those of a differing viewpoint aren't properly Irish. Genius. We haven't seen that one before...

eviltwin · 10-02-2014 01:20PM

Have to say its very confusing seeing the Irish and English names side by side. Nothing against Irish names but when a street that has always been English is suddenly presented to you in Irish its bound to cause a bit of confusion. The suggestion to tailor the page to your own personal preference is ideal, no idea why Google didn't do this.

grimm2005 · 10-02-2014 01:24PM

use it all the time myself and have never seen any street names etc in Irish, everything has always and still is in English

Tiddlypeeps · 10-02-2014 01:26PM

mike_ie wrote: »

Actually, the fact is that you are not bilingual - there are quite a reasonable percentage of us that are, and are happy to have signs written in the language of our choosing...

While yes, I agree that the likes of Google maps should allow the user to switch between languages simply to unclutter the interface, I am quite happy to see signs and such available in both languages.

I don't think there is anybody arguing that street signs shouldn't be presented in Irish. Since it's not possible to present them to english to those who want it that way and in irish those who want it that way having both is a necessity.

MadsL wrote: »

Or you could just get over the 'offence' of also seeing the other language on the sign.

Why are you getting so worked up about some people wanting to have the option to view a map in English only? It seems like a totally reasonable request and the mere idea seems to be making you pretty annoyed

Piliger · 10-02-2014 01:29PM

greenpilot wrote: »

What's this "we" business? Are you Irish, or just another Brit who, having moved over here, spends most of their time bitching about how bloody awful our country is. The ferry is dat way.......

Fresh out if the shinners get together ?

puppetmaster · 10-02-2014 02:05PM

Piliger wrote: »

Fresh out if the shinners get together ?

Ya see had you actually focused on having street names that arent irish or cluttered maps being your issue this thread might have made some sense. But you just seem to hate the irish language and anyone that speaks it. And most of your posts seem aimed at insulting Ppl that do speak or like it, build a bridge and use another map. Google maps is a free service and I see very little issue with finding anywhere when searching in English.

J_E · 10-02-2014 02:10PM

It's obviously to do with your settings because everything is in English for me.

Having said that I always feel uncomfortable with the fact Google use my map data to track my habits.

SpaceTime · 10-02-2014 02:13PM

You should be able to set your default language for maps in countries with multiple languages.

It's totally confusing in Brussels too. Suddenly streets on Google switch from French to Flemish without any logic to it. Often as you zoom in / out.

Same happens in Irish.

rustedtrumpet · 10-02-2014 02:21PM

Thought OP was losing it but noticed myself a few of the side streets in the city center are in Irish... bit strange. Even out in D12 theres a good few in Irish aswell

username123 · 10-02-2014 02:58PM

SpaceTime wrote: »

Often as you zoom in / out.

Same happens in Irish.

Yes, it seems to change depending on zoom level/view. I just don't get it, it's nonsensical to have this random mix of language for street names.

ThirdMan · 10-02-2014 03:02PM

Piliger wrote: »

Yes. Go and explore Dublin.

The only Irish street names I see have an English translation beside it?

GaelMise · 10-02-2014 03:51PM

mackerski wrote: »

I think that this is the most important point raised in the thread (and we've seen it a few times) - digital maps can readily be customised for the user and most users will have a preference for one language or another.

On a personal note, I'm glad the OP took a liking to OpenStreetMap. I and a bunch of other boardsies invest a lot of our free time to make it the best and most current map it can be. The main purpose of OSM is to expose the actual map data to anyone who wants it, mainly to allow them the freedom to do things like seeing the map in the language (or colour, or level of detail) they desire.

For instance, here's another map made using OpenStreetMap data. See how this one has been configured to prefer the English name of every place, even those places where the Irish (or whatever) name might be the norm? (Hint: look for the rare occurrence of "Dunleary" on a map).

Or how about one for the Irish speakers? Yes, some features are showing up in English, it's a proof of concept. And some streets don't have the Irish names entered - if you know them, help us by entering them yourself. OSM allows (indeed, expects) you to do so.

Happy mapping to all!

Ok, ignoring the travesty that is Dunleary for the timebeing.
How does one enter names into the map?

SpaceTime · 10-02-2014 04:03PM

Just looking at Cork City centre on Google Maps now and yeah, it depends on the zoom level and seems to be totally random.

The streets jump from Irish to English as you zoom around and it's very difficult to follow what's going on.

It's even worse where the Irish version of a street name's not immediately recognisable. There are loads of streets that I'd barely know in one language, never mind two.

It makes the system very unusable.

You should have the option of selecting which language you want to use on a map with more than one language present.

Pretty messy way of doing things more worthy of CIE than Google!

Frank Lee Midere · 10-02-2014 04:18PM

psinno wrote: »

Have you been practising that speech?

There is nothing pro English about expecting Google to respect their users language preferences. There is no actual benefit to cluttering peoples maps with information they don't want. Sometimes it is actively bad when they display Irish placenames with no corresponding English placenames.

Yeah but they don't. I previously posted a link to Dublin City centre and all of the streets were either English, or for one only English and Irish. One. I doubt if my preferences are radically different from anyone else.

Bonkers thread.

Frank Lee Midere · 10-02-2014 04:30PM

Piliger wrote: »

The fact is we are NOT a bilingual language.

The nationalists are trying to force that on us. They have no mandate. It is a form of ant democratic fascism.

And google should not be paying heed to that kind of nationalism.

Surely the only fascist here is the guy worrying about the occasional minority language appearing on a map by a multinational organisation.

As for the mandate - most people support bilingualism at the level of street signs etc. Ireland would be in violation of UN laws were it to ignore an historic minority language.

Here's Pearse st. Again

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Dublin,+Ireland&hl=en&ll=53.345889,-6.245255&spn=0.01053,0.023646&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=56.462693,96.855469&oq=dublin&t=m&hnear=Dublin,+County+Dublin,+Ireland&z=16

It's all English for me.

kowloon · 10-02-2014 04:36PM

I wish Google could get the name of the road I live on right in either language. They changed the spelling and now letters and packages are turning up late with the new address. It is a free service but it would be nice if they could get it right and I didn't have to get out a map to prove what county I'm in because people assume Google can't be wrong.

SpaceTime · 10-02-2014 05:57PM

It does actually come up with random English and Irish on the map at different zoom levels.

I think what's happening is they've a bilingual label on every street, so as you zoom one or the other word(s) shows up.

The result is that you get small streets showing up in English or Irish only.

The map would be more useful if you could decide to view in Irish or English with a slider.

pickarooney · 10-02-2014 06:04PM

Brussels actually crashes my browser if I zoom in too far. Up to the maximum zoom level both languages are retained for all streets, although one is in a larger font.

ManAboutCouch · 11-02-2014 10:53AM

GaelMise wrote: »

Ok, ignoring the travesty that is Dunleary for the timebeing.
How does one enter names into the map?

The OSM Beginners Guide is here: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Beginners%27_guide

To do something simple like adding a name to a street you'd need to set up an account (here) then browse to the area you're interested in (here, say) then click on the edit tab, login, select the feature you're interested in and add the name. Hit save and you're done.

The map will refresh in a few minutes and you've made it better for everyone, thanks!

mackerski · 11-02-2014 12:43PM

GaelMise wrote: »

Ok, ignoring the travesty that is Dunleary for the timebeing.
How does one enter names into the map?

It's a bit intolerant calling the name of a place in the language of its inhabitants a "travesty". It can hardly rank with the act of suppressing the name in all printed matter while continuing to use it in speech.

GaelMise · 11-02-2014 01:11PM

mackerski wrote: »

It's a bit intolerant calling the name of a place in the language of its inhabitants a "travesty". It can hardly rank with the act of suppressing the name in all printed matter while continuing to use it in speech.

Dunleary is not a word you will find in any language. What it is however is the bastardisation if an Irish language placename, personally I think this country has had more than enough of that.

mackerski · 11-02-2014 01:32PM

GaelMise wrote: »

Dunleary is not a word you will find in any language.

On the contrary. I found it in my language. My father is from Blackrock and I've been using the word all my life. How the word got into my language is indeed an interesting story, but it's there and it's not going away.

Some more "bastardised" words:

Hotel
Hostel
Galore
Hooligan

Carlos Orange · 11-02-2014 02:24PM

mackerski wrote: »

On the contrary. I found it in my language. My father is from Blackrock and I've been using the word all my life. How the word got into my language is indeed an interesting story, but it's there and it's not going away.

Here it is on map so it must be true.

https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/3396/212546.jpg

markpb · 11-02-2014 02:44PM

Frank Lee Midere wrote: »

As for the mandate - most people support bilingualism at the level of street signs etc.

Can you back up that statement? Or is it just a general feeling that you have?

Ireland would be in violation of UN laws were it to ignore an historic minority language.

Really? I've never heard that before. Link?

11-02-2014 03:09PM

There is an "english only" option... which is greyed out

Piliger · 11-02-2014 04:58PM

GaelMise wrote: »

Dunleary is not a word you will find in any language. What it is however is the bastardisation if an Irish language placename, personally I think this country has had more than enough of that.

On the contrary, we haven't had half enough of it.

Piliger · 11-02-2014 05:00PM

Frank Lee Midere wrote: »

Surely the only fascist here is the guy worrying about the occasional minority language appearing on a map by a multinational organisation.

Nope. Your brigade are the fascists.

As for the mandate - most people support bilingualism at the level of street signs etc.

You just make it all up as you go along. Typical of the nationalist arrogance.

Ireland would be in violation of UN laws were it to ignore an historic minority language

More completely fictitious concoctions.

Piliger · 11-02-2014 05:03PM

puppetmaster wrote: »

Google maps is a free service and I see very little issue with finding anywhere when searching in English.

“if it's free you are the product”. We have every right to complain against this kind of fascism.

Herb Powell · 11-02-2014 05:07PM

Piliger wrote: »

On the contrary, we haven't had half enough of it.

Yeah see now you are being obviously anti-Irish.

I understood what your problem was before. You wanted a map with the placenames only as you know them. Fair enough.

But now you're saying names that are already Irish, should be anglicised? WTF is the sense in that?

GaelMise · 11-02-2014 05:14PM

Piliger wrote: »

On the contrary, we haven't had half enough of it.

'We' Perhaps you want more of it, but any 'we' that includes me, certainly does not.

Finally I have abandoned Google Gaelic Maps

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