oi its hard to verify the numbers. We dont all have unlimited time. I know I dont, having to visit voters in my ward who are also starting to moan to me about the 0870 rip off.
Im currently working thru the argos and CPW numbers, most of them dont connect or never get answered.

Why dont you volunteer to help clear the list?

mc661 wrote on Jan 23^rd, 2006 at 1:46pm:

I don't dispute that - hence my starting with an acknowledgement of the time taken and with thanks in my first message in this thread.  I'm sorry if I caused offence.

mc661 wrote on Jan 23^rd, 2006 at 1:46pm:

Thank you!  I had inferred from NGM's previous answer:
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and earlier comments in the thread, that offers of help from others were not appreciated.  I had actually thought of offering to help when I have time, and have tried to do a little bit in that direction with a few numbers added to the DB or in messages and occasional searching in response to requests.

As I said in my first post, my comments were actually triggered by nkitson & Foxy's posts:
Foxy wrote on Jan 23^rd, 2006 at 11:09am:

My concerns were / are not so much positive confirmation of geo numbers, but removal (or at least annotation) of numbers reported as incorrect or dead, etc..  Presumably even some of those in the Verified List do become out of date.

NGM's latest response has been posted since I started this reply, and follows my own line of thinking (altho' I hadn't actually said this), and I would endorse the gist of his suggestions.

I think positive confirmation of numbers by someone working through them would be a 'nice to have' but is not realistic in view of the size of the DB and the increasing awareness of the issues.

Positive or negative confirmation by someone who has actually tried to use the number would be extremely helpful, would spread the load, and would largely remove tedious formal verification.

I can quite see that when the list was started it was a good objective to have a verified list.  But realistically the site seems to have grown beyond that now, and some 'regulated' updating by all/many users would seem appropriate.  Then DB upkeep could be aimed more at ensuring consistency of company names and information, rather than actual verification of numbers.

I think I might even go further than NGM and suggest that maybe there is no longer any useful purpose in mainly two separate lists - and that the Verified and Unverified lists should be merged, especially as it seems that it is not practical even to keep the Verified list up to date now.

I hope these are some constructive comments.

I added a number for the railway switchboard (for connection to any railway location) a little while back and it hasn't appeared on the list.  I know the number works and was just wondering whether there was a problem with verification?

bbb_uk wrote on May 6^th, 2006 at 4:14pm:


bbb can you define "a while" as in my experience it can be forever.  Dave's normal position is to promote a number to the main database when someone makes a complaint so as to avoid the complainant becoming too upset.

The whole situation with the list of NGN alternative numbers needs to be completely reworked so that it is only a single list but with numbers marked as verified or unverified so the users of them can know what level of confidence in them they can expect.

Another problem not mentioned is that many verified members become defunct due to their withdrawal by the call centres concerned, especially in the case of Sky who are now utterly ruthless in repeatedly withdrawing any NGN alternative number that is uncovered.  But at present there is no way for a number in the so called verified database to be marked as dead by database users or at least reported to DaveM or whoever when this occurs.

The alleged owner of this site Daniel - has made no statements in this forum for weeks or months and it is high time that he did so on this very important issue rather than spending all his time on arranging for new and more lucrative banner ad click thrus.

Hi all!

At the risk of being called a rude newbie, how hard is it to get a number checked? I added a phone number for a Toyota garage (both the 0870 and geographical no.) 2months ago and went to search for it again cos I lost it and it's still not searchable!

Pick up phone, dial number, wait for answer "Hello, x. company, how can I help you?". Hang up. VERIFIED.
I typically make 100 phone calls a day and wouldn't mind helping out to verify some of those numbers.

Complaining that you don't have the time to do something because you have a business to run is utter rubbish. If you can't afford the time to do something or are too tired of it, then you should hand over the reigns to someone else who is more willing. Evidentally there are dozens of people on this forum willing to do that, provided that they can win the trust of the website owner. Why not make some of them "provisional number checkers" for the time being? It will free your hands to run your business/own activities more effectively.

Wikipedia.org is THE biggest and most successful free encyclopedia website on earth, you will find EVERYTHING you need to know about ANYTHING there. How did they get this big, you ask? Because anyone can contribute to it, and then their contributions get checked and deleted/added.

Constructive section: NGman made some excellent suggestions which I feel should be used. The idea of having a logging in system for users to be able to alter things should be put in place. If you don't like the idea of giving too much power to the users, then why not add a function to the entries where people can flag it up to be re-verfied?

And before anyone flames me for being ungrateful, I am VERY GRATEFUL for this site. Let me repeat, , and I do thank the moderators and founder of this website as it's saved me quite a bit of money. But as someone has stated before, this website has grown beyond it's days of being a small site run by a few friends to give cheaper phone calls to the public into a huge database of searchable numbers.

All I can see at the moment is the site slowly degenerating into an out of date dinosaur with a huge list of unverified working numbers and verified non-working numbers. Something needs to be done.

petepots wrote on Jun 24^th, 2006 at 3:34pm:

I have moved the number to the verified list. 

Quote:

You only log in for the forums. Anyone can add a number to the database.

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I've updated this aswell.