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UER Forum > UE Main > How do YOU use the Database? (Viewed 2711 times)
Aran 


Location: Kansas City
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 1839 likes


Huh. I guess covid made me a trendsetter.

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How do YOU use the Database?
< on 12/7/2017 6:26 AM >
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To start off, I'm not sure if this belongs in "Other" or "Main," but I posted it in "Other" because only full members will really be able to answer this one. Go ahead and move this if it doesn't belong here, mods. Anyway, it's a slow day and I wanted to strike up a conversation.


Do you use the Database? If so, how do you use it?

I personally use the Database frequently to find locations to explore. I post locations that I found myself (not ones shown to me by other explorers) that I have explored and can verify are still abandoned.

I also add albums to preexisting entries for locations I visit, because it provides a record. If an explorer is looking at an older Database entry (and some are over a decade old), they may be unsure whether it is even still standing. By adding an album from my more recent visits, it verifies it is still standing as of that date, and helps provide a historical record.

How about you guys?



[last edit 12/7/2017 6:28 AM by Aran - edited 3 times]

"Sorry, I didn't know I'm not supposed to be here," he said, knowing full well he wasn't supposed to be there.

jonrev 


Location: Lake Wazzapamani
Gender: Male
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Observer of obsolesence

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Re: How do YOU use the Database?
< Reply # 1 on 12/7/2017 7:14 AM >
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I never found it useful for new places to explore, though I contributed a few Gary spots years, ago. I now keep a lid on everything because nothing lasts around here.




[jonrevProjects] | Flickr flicks
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Steed 


Location: Edmonton/Seoul
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 2650 likes


Your Friendly Neighbourhood Race Traitor

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Re: How do YOU use the Database?
< Reply # 2 on 12/7/2017 8:38 AM >
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I've probably contributed about 90% of the 449 locations in my region, with 259 in my city alone. I may have used it to find locations when travelling abroad, which barely ever happens.

Over the years my corner of the LDB has become a very revealing map of urban renewal across Korea and serves as a useful archive where I can look for trends, reference dates things happened, and put together a history of an area.

Typically I only include a gallery of my first time visiting a location (or if necessary of infiltrating it) and then neglect uploading future visits, which probably would be better if I did but would take way too much time.

One thing that annoys me about uploading pictures is the process for labeling them, where you have to click a Next button to load each photo one at a time. I could more quickly do it if they were all laid out on one page and you could go down and do all the captioning and upload the results all in one batch.




Explorer Zero 


Total Likes: 2026 likes




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Re: How do YOU use the Database?
< Reply # 3 on 12/7/2017 12:20 PM >
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I moved it to The Main board since its essentially about UE.

The DB is probably the most widely misunderstood feature here. Several of us spend a good deal of time trying to keep it right. Deleting duplicates, correcting basic information and spelling like city names, turning photos right side up etc. Garbage in - garbage out.

If you explore a location that's already entered in the DB why not add your pics and stories to it? Its not about getting some kind of credit or being the first or only guy to explore something its a data base. You may document something new or important that's changed at a location someone added in 2004 for example. NO member "owns" the DB entry.

It generates complaints and jealously by those that will not see it for what it is. Some say it destroys locations by making them public. These same goobers then post it all over their flickr account. Its a long standing debate that the photobloggers and instagram kids have pretty much settled I think.

You can make a DB entry private i.e. Full Member only when you add it. Its there virtually forever and does not show up to outside search engine users and non-members.

Or you can just post all your artsy photos in the forum threads and watch them get shoved to the bottom and eventually archived. Only way to find it is if you used key words location names that will come up when someone uses the same key words in the Search feature.

To me posting a bunch of recognizable location photos and real names in a public viewable forum thread is a bad idea. Unless your UER user name, email address or home page links to another site gives you away, the UER DB is pretty much anonymous.

All that being said Ive never used it to "find a location" to explore but that's just me.




LT. Waffles 


Location: Alabama
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 10 likes


Not Yet Lost

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Re: How do YOU use the Database?
< Reply # 4 on 12/7/2017 2:31 PM >
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I normally use the database to find locations, look at the rookie forum to get more familiar with how everything works around here, Also i go to the UE encyclopedia. thats just about it from what ive been using it for at the moment.




Stay Frosty
Steed 


Location: Edmonton/Seoul
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 2650 likes


Your Friendly Neighbourhood Race Traitor

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Re: How do YOU use the Database?
< Reply # 5 on 12/7/2017 2:39 PM >
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Posted by 2Xplorations

All that being said Ive never used it to "find a location" to explore but that's just me.


That's because you're the no.1 contributor to the LDB of all time based on number of pictures. Me being no.2, I can relate to you rarely using it to find new locations.




blackhawk 

This member has been banned. See the banlist for more information.


Location: Mission Control
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UER newbie

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Re: How do YOU use the Database?
< Reply # 6 on 12/7/2017 3:12 PM >
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Posted by 2Xplorations

The DB is probably the most widely misunderstood feature here.

All that being said Ive never used it to "find a location" to explore but that's just me.


UEDB, destroyer of worlds

It's fun to look through from time to time.
Haven't used it to find any of the locations I explored either.




Just when I thought I was out... they pulled me back in.
yokes 


Location: Toronto
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 596 likes


I aim to misbehave

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Re: How do YOU use the Database?
< Reply # 7 on 12/7/2017 3:17 PM >
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I rarely remember its there these days. I do like looking at places I've explored and see how they used to look and how they've changed.




"Great architecture has only two natural enemies: water and stupid men." - Richard Nickel
Samurai 

Vehicular Lord Rick


Location: northeastern New York
Total Likes: 1887 likes


No matter where you go, there you are...

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Re: How do YOU use the Database?
< Reply # 8 on 12/7/2017 5:38 PM >
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at this point, the DB is a time machine for many locations that are long gone.





NotBatman 


Location: MSP
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 443 likes


Secret Cult Member

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Re: How do YOU use the Database?
< Reply # 9 on 12/7/2017 7:48 PM >
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I've browsed through it when I know I have travel coming up, but in general I don't actively look through it at all. In general it holds no interest for me.

I never wanted the local stuff in the UEDB (what there is, anyway) spoiled before I could see it for myself, but then after I've seen it I can't be bothered to read someone else's experiences, because... I dunno, who cares?

Day-to-day, the most I get out of it is occasionally clicking on the "Random Urbex Pic from the UEDB" when I log in. Fun Fact: Almost every time I click on something because it looks local to MSP, it turns out it's somewhere in Canada. Their grain elevators, their factories/warehouses/whatever, even their drains and sewers - a TON of it looks like something right out of MSP.




I'm a "Leave only footprints, take only pornography" kind of guy, myself.
Explorer Zero 


Total Likes: 2026 likes




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Re: How do YOU use the Database?
< Reply # 10 on 12/7/2017 9:21 PM >
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Posted by Samurai
at this point, the DB is a time machine for many locations that are long gone.




very true




Samurai 

Vehicular Lord Rick


Location: northeastern New York
Total Likes: 1887 likes


No matter where you go, there you are...

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Re: How do YOU use the Database?
< Reply # 11 on 12/7/2017 9:49 PM >
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Posted by 2Xplorations


very true


it's also a nice way to look back at members who are long gone as well... UER was a lot different in it's opening years. I remember when the post limit was activated...




DescentOnARope 


Location: Long Island, New York
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 662 likes




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Re: How do YOU use the Database?
< Reply # 12 on 12/7/2017 10:32 PM >
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After a year of full membership, I've yet to actually explore a location that I learned about through the DB. I mostly use it out of curiosity, either to see what's around, or more often, see see what a place I've already been to used to look like.




Fleeting 


Location: Toronto
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 244 likes


Join us

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Re: How do YOU use the Database?
< Reply # 13 on 12/7/2017 11:08 PM >
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The Toronto locations on the DB are sorely out of date. But it gives quite a bit of insight as to the dramatic changes the area has had over the past 20 years. It certainly makes me envy older explores.

My biggest use of the DB has been do document a fairly prolific location here that's undergoing demolition. I'm hoping some other people I've taken to explore will posts their pictures as well. My ultimate goal is to update as many locations in the Toronto DB as possible.




One day I got a good camera.
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stealthwraith 


Gender: Female
Total Likes: 298 likes




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Re: How do YOU use the Database?
< Reply # 14 on 12/7/2017 11:34 PM >
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I look at it when I head to other regions as a starting point. Sometimes the entries aren't the most useful but they show me breadcrumbs to follow to find other things. It's largely inaccurate for my area and I'm hesitant to put anything in there as the Bay is not the best for longevity of abandonments.

But to be perfectly honest my best finds come from looking at pics posted in various places and then using basic research skills to identify their location.




Stealth: adj. designed in accordance with technology that makes detection difficult. Wraith: n. A wisp or faint trace of something
Aran 


Location: Kansas City
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 1839 likes


Huh. I guess covid made me a trendsetter.

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Re: How do YOU use the Database?
< Reply # 15 on 12/8/2017 12:14 AM >
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Posted by Samurai
at this point, the DB is a time machine for many locations that are long gone.




True, but I think that's mostly because there's so many abandonments over such a wide area, but only so many explorers. In some areas, one person is responsible for most if not all the location entries in the DB. When that person stops exploring, there is often nobody to take up the mantle and keep that area's entries up to date.

I'd like to think that making an entry ties the explorers of the past to those of the future. Two explorers may find common ground in the form of shared location, even though they may never meet, or even explore during the same time period. Even after a location is demolished, it provides a record, like a historical marker in the annals of urban exploration history.

Plus, it provides a foothold for traveling explorers. Knowing for certain that there is an abandonment they can access can make a trip worth it, even if they spend the rest of their journey chasing rumors of locations that may no longer exist, if indeed they ever did.




"Sorry, I didn't know I'm not supposed to be here," he said, knowing full well he wasn't supposed to be there.

KD20 


Location: Northeast Ohio
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 281 likes




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Re: How do YOU use the Database?
< Reply # 16 on 12/9/2017 4:20 PM >
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I like to look through it sometimes if I'm bored. Some of the pictures and stories can be entertaining. I think I've only explored 1 or 2 locations that I've found because of the DB. I've added a decent amount of locations and added photos/updates to existing ones, mostly in Ohio.




https://www.flickr...tos/131085384@N06/
OH_ZOG_NO 


Location: Ottawa
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 97 likes




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Re: How do YOU use the Database?
< Reply # 17 on 12/10/2017 1:15 AM >
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I used it a bit when I first started out exploring but the Ottawa area LDB is kinda neglected. I have been meaning to get around to adding some new stuff and updating some of the older locations that are kicking around, perhaps over Christmas break.




shadowedsmile 


Location: Northwestern Ontario
Gender: Female
Total Likes: 157 likes


mines always on the mind

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Re: How do YOU use the Database?
< Reply # 18 on 12/10/2017 3:05 PM >
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Posted by Samurai
at this point, the DB is a time machine for many locations that are long gone.




Haha, I was just doing this the other night - reminiscing over some old favourites that are no longer with us.




"Adventure is the respectful pursuit of trouble." - Expedition Overland
iriderkick 


Location: MA
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 5 likes




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Re: How do YOU use the Database?
< Reply # 19 on 12/14/2017 3:20 AM >
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Posted by Samurai
at this point, the DB is a time machine for many locations that are long gone.




Definitely this. There are a few from my home city on there that I remember exploring growing up but never photographed. Unfortunately most are gone now and I enjoy viewing the photos taken by other explorers. It helps me avoid taking most places that still exist for granted.




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