gistfile1.txt

HACK Zooko-Ofsimplegeos-MacBook-Pro:~/playground/python-simplegeo-shared$ git diff
diff --git a/simplegeo/shared/__init__.py b/simplegeo/shared/__init__.py
index 7004958..a71412b 100644
--- a/simplegeo/shared/__init__.py
+++ b/simplegeo/shared/__init__.py
@@ -61,6 +61,8 @@ def is_valid_lat(x):
 def is_valid_lon(x):
     return is_numeric(x) and (x <= 180) and (x >= -180)
 
+DEFAULT_VALUE_OF_PRIVATE=# True or False goes here
+
 class Feature:
     def __init__(self, coordinates, geomtype='Point', simplegeohandle=None, properties=None):
         """
@@ -92,6 +94,18 @@ class Feature:
         "Polygon", or "Multipolygon". coordinates is a GeoJSON
         coordinates *except* that each lat/lon pair is written in
         order lat, lon instead of the GeoJSON order of lon, at.
+
+        When a Feature is being submitted to the SimpleGeo Places
+        database, the key 'private' in the properties dict will
+        determine whether the Feature is intended to be merged into
+        the publicly visible Places Database or whether it is intended
+        to be visible only to your user account. Note that even if it
+        is intended to be merged the actual process of merging it into
+        the public shared database may take some time, and that the
+        newly added Feature will be visible to your account right away
+        even if it isn't (yet) visible to the public. If you don't
+        specify a 'private' key then it defaults to
+        $DEFAULT_VALUE_OF_PRIVATE.
         """
         precondition(deep_validate_lat_lon(coordinates), "The first argument, 'coordinates' is required to be a 2-element sequence of lon, lat for a point (or a more complicated set of coordinates for polygons or multipolygons).", coordinates)
         precondition(simplegeohandle is None or is_simplegeohandle(simplegeohandle), "The third argument, 'simplegeohandle' is required to be None or to match this regex %s" % SIMPLEGEOHANDLE_RSTR, simplegeohandle=simplegeohandle)
@@ -101,7 +115,7 @@ class Feature:
         self.id = simplegeohandle
         self.coordinates = coordinates
         self.geomtype = geomtype
-        self.properties = {}
+        self.properties = { 'private': DEFAULT_VALUE_OF_PRIVATE }
         if properties:
             self.properties.update(properties)