[Imports] Bad imports

[Andy Townsend]

On 24/01/2016 14:53, Sander Deryckere wrote:
> I recently discovered a number of bad imports, but found out it's hard 
> to discuss those, and keep track of those discussions, as there's no 
> central platform where that could happen.

Thanks.  I think that it's helpful every now and again to raise 
"previously existing" problems as well as new ones.


>
> There are f.e. changeset discussions, but when the importer doesn't 
> answer, you don't get notified anymore, and nobody else will keep an 
> eye on it.

I've always kept notes myself about changesets I've commented in the 
discussion on, that way after a period of time I can add a note or try 
and fix it myself (or whatever).  It's a manual process, but at least 
it's a process :)

>
> So I started a wiki page to gather information about bad imports, 
> together with an initial procedure to handle those (giving some times 
> to allow discussion and cleanups).
>
> see https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Bad_imports
>
>
...

>
> If any of you find bad imports, I should ask you to also add them to 
> the list, and regularly keep an eye on the list. When that list gets 
> used more often, we won't lose track of those discussions anymore.

What we normally miss isn't people to add things to the wiki, it's 
people to chase up problems (i.e. do what you have done here).  For 
example there's already:

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Import/Catalogue#Imports_slated_for_deletion

In terms of "actually fixing the data" the same tools are available to 
DWG and non-DWG members alike*, and after a reasonable period of time 
any "simple revert" will likely be problematical anyway - there'll need 
to be a process of manually checking and patching up the data.  You say 
in a later mail that:

 > My main problem with just "solving it myself" is that I don't find 
myself qualified to say the quality of
 > certain imported data is too bad.

Although you're right that it makes sense to discuss with other mappers, 
I wouldn't underestimate your judgement here - you probably know better 
than the original importer what is OK, what needs patching up and what 
is just rubbish to be deleted (an example of the latter that I found 
recently was some untagged ways representing areas of Naples in the 
middle of the Atlantic Ocean).

Cheers,

Andy (SomeoneElse)

* the exception is data redaction,  - see 
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Data_working_group#Redactions and 
the links from there for more info on that.