[HOT] validating tiles

[Blake Girardot]

This is kind of a very subtle point, but I have written about it before:

I find it difficult to validate tiles because they so often need more 
work and are not really "done".

That leaves me with these choices:

1. Do the mapping myself, which I usually do, but then I have less time 
for validating tiles.

2. Mark the tile "invalid" and know that a new mapper is going to get an 
email saying their work has been "invalidated." I never do this unless 
it was clearly marked done as a mistake.

3. Unlock the tile and leave it as is for someone else to deal with. I 
do this more often than I care to admit.

I think we could do 1 or 2 things that would make the process a bit better:

1. We could change the term from "invalid", a somewhat strong term in 
English and what I consider "de-motivating". I can't think of one word, 
but we need something more friendly like "Needs more mapping"

2. Not send notices for "invalidated" tasks, and instead send 
notifications for "validated" tasks. I think mappers would be more 
motivated by getting positive feedback than negative feedback.

We could probably data mine the answer, but I wonder how many mappers 
who marked a tile "done" (often not even the person who did the mapping) 
and get an "invalidated" notice go then back and do the corrective mapping.

I think option 2 would be very easy to implement. I know I would do more 
validations and tiles that needed more mapping might get more mapping if 
I didn't have to worry about discouraging new mappers by "invalidating" 
tasks.

On a related note: I would encourage anyone who is doing training at 
missing maps or mapping parties to let mappers know, "invalidated" is 
totally fine and really just means "needs more mapping".

Cheers,
Blake







On 3/25/2015 2:51 AM, Daniel Specht wrote:
> Lots of projects are mapped quickly, but validated  slowly. This could
> be because
> (A) beginners don't feel qualified to pass judgement
> (B) people don't like to pass judgement
> (C)  doing original work is more fun than reviewing someone else's work.
>
> I have a couple suggestions for encouraging validation.
>
> 1.  Include instructions for validation on the instructions tab.
>     Because the instructions tab only has mapping instructions, readers
> may think that validation is for someone else to do.
>
> 2.  Include validation statistics on the stats tab.
>    Because the stats tab only has statistics for tiles completed,
> mappers may think that validating tiles is not essential. Also, these
> statistics give the mapper, but not the validator, a psychological
> reward. I've been validating a lot of tiles -- sometimes I seem to be
> doing most of the validations on a project -- and even though seeing the
> number by your name increment isn't the biggest thrill in the world, I
> have to admit that I miss it..
> --
> Dan
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> HOT mailing list
> HOT at openstreetmap.org
> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/hot
>