Hi all,

I can confirm that the transfer of the freethepostcode.org to the OSM Foundation has now been approved.

Note that I will transfer the database and code to them to migrate to their servers in due course (though they are free to change the site, they have stated they are intending to continue with the spirit of the original site - which was set up in the olden days as an OSM side project anyway :)

Cheers, Dominic.

On Fri, Jul 24, 2015 at 08:48:41AM +0100, Dominic Hargreaves wrote:

Hello all,

Thanks for the feedback. It's clear there is still an interest in keeping freethepostcode.org running, so I've renewed the domain and will talk more to Grant about transferring it to the OSM Foundation in due course.

Cheers, Dominic.

On Thu, Jul 23, 2015 at 12:06:30AM +0100, Grant Slater wrote:

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Hi Dominic,

Would you be willing to transfer the domain to OpenStreetMap?

I am part of the sysadmin team.

Unsure exactly what we'd do initially, but something faithful the original intent of freethepostcode seems appropriate.

Kind regards, Grant

On 22 July 2015 at 22:23, Dominic Hargreaves dom@earth.li wrote:

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Hi,

Does anyone care about this any more? Or should I let the domain expire in a week or two?

Cheers, Dominic.

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On 23/07/15 10:04, Andrew Stringer wrote:

But it seems that if I have a look on OSM for postcodes I know, some indicate a larger area than I would expect for a full post code.

So, my question would be:- what is the state of post codes in OSM? If they are still at a general level and not very accurate, I'd be willing to carry on updating the database as and when I visit a new site.

Well OSM itself contains whatever postcodes people have chosen to add.

I believe Nominatim (the OSM search engine) does also look at the OS Codepoint Open data in addition to the OSM data.

Tom

On 23 Jul 2015, at 10:52, Shaun McDonald shaun@shaunmcdonald.me.uk wrote:

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On 23 Jul 2015, at 10:29, Tom Hughes tom@compton.nu wrote:

On 23/07/15 10:04, Andrew Stringer wrote:

...

But it seems that if I have a look on OSM for postcodes I know, some indicate a larger area than I would expect for a full post code.

So, my question would be:- what is the state of post codes in OSM? If they are still at a general level and not very accurate, I'd be willing to carry on updating the database as and when I visit a new site.

Well OSM itself contains whatever postcodes people have chosen to add.

I believe Nominatim (the OSM search engine) does also look at the OS Codepoint Open data in addition to the OSM data.

There are known issues with the post code search in the UK not working e.g.:

https://github.com/twain47/Nominatim/issues/221 and https://trac.openstreetmap.org/ticket/4910 where EH postcodes give results in East London instead of Edinburgh (and still occurs even after the change noted in comment 4 by lonvia) e.g. http://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search.php?q=EH14+5RD which should return http://www.openstreetmap.org/way/4449960

+1 on not letting the domain lapse and get snapped up by ad merchants, OSM(F) seems like the best host, I'd be happy to put a few quid into covering costs but wouldn't be able to take it over (I'm already trying to get rid of openstreetview ;-)

John