[Talk-us] Facts about the world

[stevea]

Paul Norman writes:
>Yes. To substantiate this, I looked at communications from the US chapter

Hmph:  "You guys seem to armchair map, I say from my armchair mapping 
substantiation perspective."

Not me, at least, not always.  Do your stats show how I (and 
thousands like me) map away from my armchair?  Did we hear about them 
here?  Hmph, no.

Martijn wants to (valiantly) dig around to find some important gum on 
our shoe that maybe needs scraping off.  I don't think there is that 
much (nobody is perfect), so I'd say "No" to his question "do we play 
a role in this?"  It largely seems like sad (Frederik's work, I 
agree) overgeneralization about what and how we map here.  I chalk up 
a lot of the "false assumptions" to "different regions grow in 
different ways at different rates."  Europe is more of a "handsome 
young adult" while the USA might still be a bit of a "gawky 
adolescent."  That doesn't make either of us worthy of calling names 
at the other, however it happens.  So let's cool it down.

Wow, the irony.  I'm trying to be nice here (Ian and everybody else). 
But posts like Paul's make it difficult to keep my composure.  Paul, 
what were you thinking?!  OSM isn't (largely) "indoor computer-based 
events" and "chapter administrative" blog posts (as important as 
those components may be to certain individuals at certain times).  It 
IS largely about MAPPING.  Whether armchair-based (important) or 
out-in-the-world-based (also important).

If you need an existence proof, look at thousands of my edits, if 
nobody else's.  They come from the real world (and it is true, some 
of them also don't), and have been entered, vetted and enjoyed for 
years and years.  And I'm not alone here.  You simply can't ignore 
that (those, us).

SteveA
California