[High] Globe silently omits listings missing from the static geocode table

[ChimdumebiNebolisa]

Summary

Non-virtual listings receive coordinates only when their exact location string appears in a static table. Listings without an exact match receive null coordinates and are filtered out of the globe without a visible warning.

Location

• Static coordinate table: web/lib/listings.ts lines 40-54 (GEO)
• Coordinate assignment: web/lib/listings.ts lines 160-168 (loadHackathons)
• Globe filtering: web/components/hq/globe-map.tsx line 28 (located filter)

Evidence

Measured against upstream/main on 2026-07-11:

• Visible non-virtual listings: 36
• With coordinates: 17
• Silently omitted: 19

Omitted location strings today:

• Blacksburg, VA
• Chapel Hill, NC
• Dearborn, MI
• Galaxy Innovation Park
• Hamilton, ON
• Ithaca, NY
• Miami, FL
• Newark, NJ
• Ottawa, ON
• Pittsburgh, PA
• Providence, RI
• Seattle, WA
• Stony Brook, NY
• TBA
• Toronto, ON
• Troy, NY
• Vancouver, BC

Alias mismatch example: Toronto, ON is omitted while Toronto, ON, Canada is a table key.

Relevant logic:

const geo = GEO[location];
if (geo && r.format !== "Virtual") {
  // assign lat/lng
}

const located = hackathons.filter((h) => h.lat !== null && h.lng !== null);

Impact

Valid listings can appear in the deck and README while disappearing from the product's main globe experience. New community submissions can silently reduce map completeness.

Recommended fix

Recommend a durable coordinate-coverage strategy. Evaluate:

• normalized location aliases
• coordinates stored in structured listing data
• a maintained geocode map with CI coverage
• build-time geocoding with committed results
• an explicit missing-coordinate fallback

Do not recommend runtime calls to an external geocoding service without considering rate limits, determinism, privacy, and deployment reliability.

Relation to #16

Issue #16 tracks building the globe feature. This is a current data-coverage defect: the globe exists but silently drops a majority of non-virtual listings because the static table is incomplete and requires exact string matches.

Acceptance criteria

• Every visible non-virtual listing has valid coordinates or an explicit surfaced error
• Missing coordinates fail a deterministic CI validation
• Equivalent location strings normalize consistently
• New listings cannot silently disappear from the globe
• Virtual listings remain intentionally excluded from map markers