[Talk-GB] Mapbox mapping activity

[Andy Townsend]

On 20/09/2021 13:50, Sonya Khilchyk via Talk-GB wrote:
> We already notified you at the end of August that we plan to start a 
> mapping project.

... and since then I think that it's fair to say that "questions have 
been raised about the approach and quality of the edits performed".


> We updated our wiki page 
> <https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Organised_Editing/Activities/Resolve_linting_issues_in_the_UK> 
> and ticket <https://github.com/mapbox/mapping/issues/387> with json 
> files, so you can get more information about items we are working with.
>
No we can't.  Searching either 
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Organised_Editing/Activities/Resolve_linting_issues_in_the_UK 
or https://github.com/mapbox/mapping/issues/387 for json finds nothing.  
A table has been added but it adds literally no value - it does not 
explain how these alleged problems were detected, what each one 
represents, or how Mapbox propose to resolve the issues. The wiki page 
says "We will use existing OpenStreetMap editing tools" but that's about 
as useful as this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1sM29zGxeo .

Often what seems to happen is that the Mapbox mapper is simply removing 
something that is getting flagged up as "invalid" without investigating 
whether anything is mismapped at all.  Mapbox mapper's "solutions" have 
included "adding a cycleway without survey to prevent vehicle routing" 
(the actual problem was that a gate, visible on aerial imagery, was 
missing from OSM and their router was buggy) and "just deleting a road" 
(the actual problem there seems to be that the road exists, but is a 
path not open to vehicle traffic).  My experience of Mapbox's mapping 
local to me is that it is actually _reducing_ the quality of OSM data by 
removing features that people have tried to add but haven't quite got 
right, or that have become broken by some other mapper than didn't 
understand the feature.

For everyone else's benefit, the Mapbox employees taking part in the 
exercise seem to be from 
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Mapbox#Current_Data_Team_members

Based on the quality of these individuals' editing so far, I would 
regard any edits by these users with great suspicion.

Best Regards,

Andy

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