An information card is often attached to the face of the payphone which states the location or address, and may include the payphone number (which can't be trusted) and the owner/operator. Record the required address, if you aren't sure a good guess will do, such as from the nearest building. Take a photo of the phone in it's surroundings if you can. A photo of the street from the payphone point of view is more useful than a photo of the phone on a wall.
When you have the payphone number and address create a new page on this wiki by clicking the Add a Page button in the upper right corner. The title is the telephone number, so enter that in "What do you want to call it?"
Because the phone number will be the title of the entry, payphone number in the format aaa-ppp-xxxx. Don't use '()' parentheses, instead, separate the area code-prefix-suffix with hyphens '-' (minus sign.) the hyphen separator is the ITU standard (International Telecommunications Union).
aaa-ppp-xxxx, that's the format for the wiki article title - Where three digits of area code (no parentheses), three digits of prefix and four digits of exchange - that Number is the Article Title. For payphone numbers around the world, use the '-' hyphen to delimit the number in the fashion of it's locale.
Then choose Standard layout for automatic inclusion of INFObox and photo space. When you click "Add a page" at the bottom of the popup, you will be editing your brand new page!
The first entries will be in the infobox. Please include in the INFObox:
- Image - picture of the payphone (if possible) and a caption. (the width defaults to 320 pixels.)
- Location - Geocode link, latitude and longitude.
- Address or location (required)
- Tariff - Local and long distance price and duration, such as: Local 50¢/unlimited; Long Distance $1.00/3 minutes.
- Incoming calls - y/s/#/$: yes for incoming calls allowed, s for silent ring, # or #s the number of rings or silent rings before the modem picks up, or the local currency symbol $/€/£/¥/¤ if incoming calls are accepted with Charge card or Coin Deposit. [Leave blank if incoming calls are rejected].
- Mount — wall, enclosure on wall, pedestal, enclosure on pedestal, clamshell, clamshell on pedestal, Airlite booth, K6, or even Novelty.
- Directory - Phone Book, y for Yellow Pages, w for White Pages, y w for both Yellow and White pages, whether separate or combined. v for vacant directory housing/holder with missing or no directory. Include phone book/directory publisher if known. Leave blank for not-equipped/no-provision.
- Disabled Access - Method of access such as
- Credit Card = c for credit card reader, s for both smart-card and magnetic-stripe combined Smart Card/magnetic-strip card reader. b for Bar-code reader
- coinless for coinless or calling-card only.
- Not in Service - No dial tone, broken or missing handset or cradle
- ghost (evidence of former payphone).
Please include in the payphone article body:
- Incoming Calls - Yes/allowed, No incoming calls, or $/€/¥ pricing for incoming calls accepted with Charge/Coin Deposit.
- Any additional notes on the payphone or it's location.
- The hours folks are most likely to be nearby.
- Owner/Operator, if present (not required)
- The type of service organization/service/business and brand: Restaurant, Convenience Store, Gas/service/petrol Station, et cetera…
along with any interesting stories about the phone, or assistance in locating the phone. If including a photo, the file title should begin with the phone number. Include the number in the photo description. Add the number to the caption displayed here at the image bottom.
Add all relevant category tags such as: Location (required)
- Area code (required).
- City, State (required) (but do not include the State Category, that is for Cities).
- ZIP code (required).
Organization/service/business category tags such as
- Hotel, Gas Station, Restaurant & Market.
- Library, Park, Pool, Campground, & Beach.
Specific Brand Subcategory tags:
Add category tags of services which are available from that phone:
- Directory/Phone Book - Yellow and/or White pages.
- Phone Booth/mounting/enclosure such as: K6 kiosk|Airlite phone booth|Kiosk, pedestal|Kiosk, enclosure|Kiosk, pedestal and enclosure. Inside or on a Sidewalk.
- Credit card/Smart card reader.
- Disabled Access accommodations, such as:
The payphone community thanks you for your contribution.
We are working on a solution for including payphones which no longer exist as a working payphone. Suggestions on a method of index key for "Not in Service" or Phone "Ghost" entries are entertained. If the number was once known, retain that number for the title of the article and tag with the Not In Service or Ghost category.