Preventing the problem in future: Would there be a way of putting a user like Liam123 into a sandbox? So that they think they're editing the map, but the updates don't get applied to the live map.
Another method (which might be easier to implement) is to automatically detect and revert any updates made by the user a short time after they're made. Then they'll immediately see the changes, but a few minutes later they get reverted (and no matter how much they try, the machine will always keep up with them. ) Then if they notice the reverts, maybe they'll get bored and find something else to do; if they don't notice the reverts, they can amuse themselves for as long as they like without killing OSM. If this sort of problem escalates, a method like that used on Wikipedia might be needed, with troublesome users getting a freeze on edits for increasing periods, maybe triggered by a threshold of reports by the community flagging a user as a vandal, or from a automatic detection of a user receiving a large number of reverts (say 5 from others in a day, self-reverts won't count). Some sort of 'referral/waiting period' might then be needed to prevent a users requesting new ids, along with originating ip address recording to prevent too many ids being requested from any one location. Another method/piece of information that might be useful is the originating ip address of edits, then if a vandal strikes, edits done by any user at the same (ip) location can be checked. Just ideas into the melting pot for those who are closer to the code inside OSM. _______________________________________________ Talk-GB mailing list Talk-GB@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-gb
