[Talk-ca] Road name edits in Canada

[Andy Townsend]

 >  I would have to suspect that the fact that the shop is currently 
incorrectly
 > listed in Google Maps at 1600 Queen St W is not a coincidence.

That is indeed suspicious.  Their other changesets with comments can be 
found at 
https://resultmaps.neis-one.org/osm-discussion-comments?uid=15467027 .

Some of what they have said in answer to questions there (for example on 
https://openstreetmap.org/changeset/120074372 ) is demonstrably untrue.  
Some is fairly implausible - they've used the "local knowledge" line 
about Winnipeg, Thunder Bay and Toronto at essentially the same time.  
Not impossible, but would imply a multi-day drive to travel from one to 
the other.

On behalf of the DWG and following complaints from various places (not 
just Canada) I've actually reverted significant numbers of their edits 
twice now (https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/119319346 and 
https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/119755674 ).  I'm happy to do 
the same again if necessary, but if some or even most of their recent 
edits are OK, despite the dubious claims in their comments, then I'd be 
equally happy to let those stay.

I'd be grateful if anyone in Canada with any local knowledge about the 
areas edited could comment - either here or on the changesets concerned.

Best Regards,

Andy


On 01/05/2022 20:20, Jarek Piórkowski wrote:
> Hello Andy,
>
> The mapper has been active in my neighbourhood and I am sad to report
> that their edits at least in the Toronto area must be considered
> suspect. In https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/120101768 they
> added a bubble tea shop which was not yet open at the time, and in a
> wrong location. The shop opened yesterday at 1660 Queen St W; the
> editor added it 8 days ago at 1598 Queen St W, supposedly replacing a
> long-empty storefront (which in fact remains empty). I would have to
> suspect that the fact that the shop is currently incorrectly listed in
> Google Maps at 1600 Queen St W is not a coincidence.
>
> --Jarek
>
> On Fri, 15 Apr 2022 at 16:53, Andy Townsend <ajt1047 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hello talk-ca people,
>>
>> Andy from the Data Working Group here.
>>
>> A new prolific mapper has recently popped up, adding road names in
>> Canada and elsewhere.  It has been suggested to the DWG that many of the
>> names used were just copied from sources that aren't licence-compatible
>> with OSM, such as Google Maps.  Some responses to questions about map
>> sources have been somewhat evasive (see e.g.
>> https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/119735027 ) but they now claim
>> to be using sources such as:
>>
>> "City of Winnipeg Open Data Portal - Contains information licensed under
>> the Open Government Licence – Winnipeg."
>>
>> https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/734204653
>>
>> and
>>
>> "Statistics Canada Road Network File (RNF)"
>>
>> https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/507685150
>>
>> (see https://openstreetmap.org/changeset/119761959 for more)
>>
>> Do these sources check out as reasonable, and licence-compatible with
>> OSM?  Also (and actually more important) are the latest edits by this
>> user backed up by those sources?
>>
>> Normally of course OSM mappers have considerable freedom to map as they
>> wish - we take a lot on trust, and don't check that every edit that was
>> allegedly derived from a compatible imagery source actually was and
>> wasn't from a non-compatible source instead. Unfortunately, in the case
>> of this mapper (see previous interactions at e.g.
>> https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/PopeyePopcord/blocks and
>> https://openstreetmap.org/changeset/119735027 ) I think we need to have
>> a soupçon of skepticism.
>>
>> Best Regards,
>>
>> Andy
>>
>>
>>
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