[Talk-us] Difficult USA mapper(s)

[Greg Troxel]

First, I think Martijn's points have all been right on.

  1) I don't think it is a good idea to come up with a code of conduct
  as a response to particular cases. When there's an actual dispute on
  the table that might be addressed by an as yet imaginary code, we are
  in reactionary mode and it will be really hard to think outside that
  box and devise a code that will address future cases well. Also, it
  weakens the position of the arbitrator if all of a sudden a code is
  conjured up out of nothing and used to make a point in the
  arbitration.

I agree entirely.  As nerds (which I'm assuming many are), we enjoy the
intellectual challenge of solving the general problem neatly.  But
that's a huge effort, opens up all sorts of issues, and distracts from
the real question of whether a small number of individuals are
egregiously not playing well with others.  A detailed code would make
sense if we had lots of people acting in ways that are near the edge of
acceptability under the code, and we thought those people would adjust
the way they act because of the code.  From my experience, that isn't
even close to the situation in OSM.

Aside from the current discussion, I've only seen one instance of a
mapper acting in a way that caused angst (when I considered myself a
local).  It was someone new, who was overenthusiastic about an import
(of data that made sense to be imported).  Basically he underestimated
how hard it was to do right, but as the process went on he listened to
people pointing out the problems, and he slogged through fixing it - and
met others in person and talked about it.  The map is better for this
person's work, and I think all the rest of the locals agree.  In this
the person was 100% acting in good faith, we talked among ourselves, and
we're all fine with how it came out.  No code was necessary, and we
didn't even think trying to talk to one, or about DWG.

All that said, I think Richard's first draft at a code is entirely
reasonable.  Here's a normative statement that's trying to avoid being a
code, but captures the top-level sentiment (point 2 is probably
deferring to locals):

  Mappers should work collaboratively within the OSM community for the
  benefit of the map data, the tools, and the community.

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