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This is a little unrelated but it’s a funny anecdote about submitting changes to OpenStreetmaps. A few years back we build an open source app to handle employe

by moksly 5y ago

This is a little unrelated but it’s a funny anecdote about submitting changes to OpenStreetmaps. A few years back we build an open source app to handle employee tax deductions and pay for work related driving together with a few other municipalities. Part of how it works relies on a local company to download data from OSM and feed it to us in an address to address routing api, but at one point we changed the driving direction on a rather important (very busy might be the right English?) street to become one-way. OSM got the direction wrong, so that it was suddenly impossible to reach the municipality of our second largest city. This was “fun” with tens of thousand of employees sending in issues, and I set out to fix it. So with our official municipality account (and not bothering to read the rules) I used Google maps as part of the evidence. I also included a photo I had taken from the street myself. Anyway, because you’re not allowed to reference Google maps I got our account banned and the change reversed so that OSM was wrong again, and it took me 3 days of arguing with the “amateur” contributors to get them to realise that I worked in the organisation who decided which way the direction of the street goes.

pwg 5y ago
> I used Google maps as part of the evidence. This was the cause. OpenStreetMap has a very strict zero-tolerance policy of anything that might be sourced from a copywritten source. Maps were traditionally "big business" before OpenStreetMap, and map data was closely guarded (and the guards had no worries about attacking what they believed to be even the slightest infringements of their copyrights). > I also included a photo I had taken from the street myself. If you had used just the photo you took yourself, and not referenced Google at all, you'd have had no issue getting the fix made and having it stick.
- moksly 5y ago
  I totally get that it was my own fault, hence the “not bothering to read the rules) part, and I also very much regret the language I ended up using in some of the communication at the time. Looking back on it now it’s sort of hilarious though.
- hnburnsy 5y ago
  Yes, map makers have a long history of creating fake map features to catch copycats... https://gizmodo.com/the-fake-places-that-only-exist-to-catch-copycat-cartog-1695414770 https://gizmodo.com/the-fake-places-that-only-exist-to-catch...
ryandrake 5y ago
I used to edit OpenStreetMap but one unfortunate experience really soured me to it. I was going through a city, "un-braiding" the dual carriage ways, which was at one point OSM's recommendation for dual carriage intersections (can't find the URL). After fixing up about 15 or so city blocks I got a very angry message from someone who demanded that I undo my edits because this was "his" area of the map. Not wanting to get into a pointless dispute with a nerd, I just reverted the commit and haven't really been into OSM since. Thanks for nothing, I guess. Maybe this was just one guy, or maybe OSM has the same "territorial editors" problem as Wikipedia.
- habi 5y ago
  > Maybe this was just one guy, or maybe OSM has the same "territorial editors" problem as Wikipedia. I hope I speak for everyone involved, but this seems to be the problem of one person. We at OSM aim to be a friendly bunch and hope you come back to edit.

by moksly 5y ago

pwg 5y ago

> I used Google maps as part of the evidence. This was the cause. OpenStreetMap has a very strict zero-tolerance policy of anything that might be sourced from a copywritten source. Maps were traditionally "big business" before OpenStreetMap, and map data was closely guarded (and the guards had no worries about attacking what they believed to be even the slightest infringements of their copyrights). > I also included a photo I had taken from the street myself. If you had used just the photo you took yourself, and not referenced Google at all, you'd have had no issue getting the fix made and having it stick.

moksly 5y ago
I totally get that it was my own fault, hence the “not bothering to read the rules) part, and I also very much regret the language I ended up using in some of the communication at the time. Looking back on it now it’s sort of hilarious though.
hnburnsy 5y ago
Yes, map makers have a long history of creating fake map features to catch copycats... https://gizmodo.com/the-fake-places-that-only-exist-to-catch-copycat-cartog-1695414770 https://gizmodo.com/the-fake-places-that-only-exist-to-catch...

ryandrake 5y ago

I used to edit OpenStreetMap but one unfortunate experience really soured me to it. I was going through a city, "un-braiding" the dual carriage ways, which was at one point OSM's recommendation for dual carriage intersections (can't find the URL). After fixing up about 15 or so city blocks I got a very angry message from someone who demanded that I undo my edits because this was "his" area of the map. Not wanting to get into a pointless dispute with a nerd, I just reverted the commit and haven't really been into OSM since. Thanks for nothing, I guess. Maybe this was just one guy, or maybe OSM has the same "territorial editors" problem as Wikipedia.

habi 5y ago
> Maybe this was just one guy, or maybe OSM has the same "territorial editors" problem as Wikipedia. I hope I speak for everyone involved, but this seems to be the problem of one person. We at OSM aim to be a friendly bunch and hope you come back to edit.