4 ms·

It's a wiki. You are invited to edit it! :)

Mediterraneo10 9y ago
I’m reluctant to encourage people to edit OSM just like that. OSM isn’t any more a wiki than Wikipedia is nowadays; that is, while it can be edited by the community, there are an enormous amount of rules and caveats that contributors should be aware of before they start editing, and it may well be that their edits will be reverted if they aren’t clued up to how things are done. In my own neck of the woods, there’s an OSM group with frequent meetups to guide newbies through editing. I think the best way for interested people to get involved is by learning in the company of experienced mappers, not just all by themselves at home. If such a stringent perspective scares some people away, at least the contributions of those who do stick around will be much higher-quality.
- maxerickson 9y ago
  If people are reverting reasonably accurate contributions, that's the problem to fix. There are well mapped areas where just barging in and changing things will cause some issues, but for most of the planet the bar for improving things is quite low.
  - Mediterraneo10 9y ago
    I strongly disagree that the bar is low. It’s not at all unusual for people who quickly sign up for OSM to remove a defunct POI, to accidentally remove other nodes along with it because they don’t really understand yet how editing is done. It’s also common for newbies to trace from wildly unaligned aerial imagery, or to use the wrong tags because they don’t know to consult the wiki any time they use a new tag. OSM is years past the point where any additions are welcome, and like with Wikipedia, no edits at all are often preferable to low-quality ones.
    - maxerickson 9y ago
      The response should be to encourage them to slow down a little bit not to chase them away entirely.
- Doctor_Fegg 9y ago
  > there are an enormous amount of rules and caveats There really aren't. OSM is very freeform, almost anarchistic, compared to Wikipedia; very few edits are reverted and very few editors are banned. I'd say there are probably five rules: 1. Don't copy from other maps 2. Edits should be 'verifiable' and 'on the ground' - i.e. no subjective information 3. Be liberal in what you add, conservative in what you delete - someone else is interested in it even if you're not 4. There's a special process for imports and automated edits 5. Be prepared to engage with other contributors
Semaphor 9y ago
It's why I welcomed the app, it lowers the barrier of entry :)

I’m reluctant to encourage people to edit OSM just like that. OSM isn’t any more a wiki than Wikipedia is nowadays; that is, while it can be edited by the community, there are an enormous amount of rules and caveats that contributors should be aware of before they start editing, and it may well be that their edits will be reverted if they aren’t clued up to how things are done. In my own neck of the woods, there’s an OSM group with frequent meetups to guide newbies through editing. I think the best way for interested people to get involved is by learning in the company of experienced mappers, not just all by themselves at home. If such a stringent perspective scares some people away, at least the contributions of those who do stick around will be much higher-quality.

maxerickson 9y ago
If people are reverting reasonably accurate contributions, that's the problem to fix. There are well mapped areas where just barging in and changing things will cause some issues, but for most of the planet the bar for improving things is quite low.
- Mediterraneo10 9y ago
  I strongly disagree that the bar is low. It’s not at all unusual for people who quickly sign up for OSM to remove a defunct POI, to accidentally remove other nodes along with it because they don’t really understand yet how editing is done. It’s also common for newbies to trace from wildly unaligned aerial imagery, or to use the wrong tags because they don’t know to consult the wiki any time they use a new tag. OSM is years past the point where any additions are welcome, and like with Wikipedia, no edits at all are often preferable to low-quality ones.
  - maxerickson 9y ago
    The response should be to encourage them to slow down a little bit not to chase them away entirely.
Doctor_Fegg 9y ago
> there are an enormous amount of rules and caveats There really aren't. OSM is very freeform, almost anarchistic, compared to Wikipedia; very few edits are reverted and very few editors are banned. I'd say there are probably five rules: 1. Don't copy from other maps 2. Edits should be 'verifiable' and 'on the ground' - i.e. no subjective information 3. Be liberal in what you add, conservative in what you delete - someone else is interested in it even if you're not 4. There's a special process for imports and automated edits 5. Be prepared to engage with other contributors

Semaphor 9y ago

It's why I welcomed the app, it lowers the barrier of entry :)