That's interesting Andy, thanks Dan
2014-10-05 23:07 GMT+01:00 SomeoneElse <li...@mail.atownsend.org.uk>: > With new editors though I sometimes think we forget how hard it is for > someone to start editing now in e.g. the centre of London compared to when > we "experienced mappers" started. Here, for example (courtesy of Martijn > Van Exel's "OSM Then and Now") is what the area I started mapping in looked > like at around the time that I started: > > http://98.202.195.171/osm/16/32520/21295.png > > I went through at least three iterations of how the paths there should be > tagged, committed numerous "X not joined properly to Y" sins and on at least > one occasion managed to duplicate all the minor roads in the area. > > Many new mappers are just "hit and run" mappers and often it's easy to tidy > up their contributions after they've long disappeared**. The ones who do > stick around do need to be given a bit of time to get the hang of things - > there are a lot of concepts to understand that really aren't obvious (the > fact that the "map data" is more than just "the standard map style as seen > at osm.org" is one of those). However often a polite message helps - not a > "you broke the map!" one, but more like "oh dear, something appears to have > gone a bit wrong", together with an offer to assist and answer any other > questions. > > As has been said earlier in previous thread, it doesn't make sense to > restrict the ability to edit OSM data to people who understand what e.g. > relations are. > > I'm certainly not the biggest fan of the way that iD does some things, but > sometimes it seems to be being suggested that the people who wrote iD > somehow "don't care" about OSM data quality and "if only it were more like > JOSM" a number of these issues would go away. The problem is that the task > that iD sets itself is fundamentally different from the one that JOSM has. > The quickest scan of the discussions on > https://github.com/openstreetmap/iD/issues would show that the balancing of > "how to stop new editors from causing problems" with "how to allow new > editors to contribute at all" is taken very seriously indeed***. > > I did try and do some systematic analysis to compare editors back in > September last year > (https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2013-September/068178.html), > and in that the "newbie error rate" in iD was lower than in P2 (and other > editors including JOSM, although the numbers are a bit too low to reliably > draw conclusions there). > > This isn't so much an "iD" problem as a "new mappers" one (and we don't have > so many new mappers coming forward that we can afford to shoo them away). > We do have ways of seeing new mappers when they start > (http://resultmaps.neis-one.org/newestosm.php and the IRC country bot > feeds). We have ways of being informed about changesets in an area that > might be problematical (WhoDidIt among others), ways to collaborate (IRC > country channels, forums, mailing lists, etc.) and everyone has the ability > to contact new mappers near them and offer to help. > > Cheers, > > Andy > > > ** Of course, people who delete lots of things because they think they're > editing _their own personal copy_ of the map data need to be addressed > immediately - but those edits are easy to spot. > > *** Some of what it feels like from the other end of "the iD debate" was > written up at > https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/osmf-talk/2014-September/002551.html > (obviously read the thread and links to get the full context of that, but > suffice to say that the reason that iD isn't perfect is because it is trying > to solve a Very Hard Problem). > > > > _______________________________________________ > Talk-GB mailing list > Talk-GB@openstreetmap.org > https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-gb _______________________________________________ Talk-GB mailing list Talk-GB@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-gb
