[Talk-us] VANDALISM !

[Andy Townsend]

On 22/08/2020 02:35, Clay Smalley wrote:
> For those who aren't following, the DWG recently decided on a two-day 
> ban for the person who posted this, for the exact behavior they're 
> exhibiting right now: https://www.openstreetmap.org/user_blocks/3850
>
>
Indeed, and it wasn't done lightly - only after a very large number of 
public comments (in changesets  and block messages) and private messages 
(OSM PMs and emails) from the DWG.

It can sometimes be difficult to see how something that you see locally 
that appears "wrong" fits into a wider picture, but the way to resolve 
that is to try and understand the wider picture, not just to delete data 
that you don't understand and claim that others are "vandalising the 
map" by adding that data in the first place.  We do get "real" vandalism 
in OSM, but it is thankfully relatively rare - as an example, yesterday 
someone replaced a major US landmark with a priapic "artwork" that was 
swiftly reverted.

That "understanding the wider picture" involves asking why things are 
done as they are and listening to the answer, and if there's a local 
case that doesn't seem to fit discussing among a wider group of people 
how best to resolve the issue (as I've done with the PTv2 stop position 
issue).  Starting mailing list threads with "VANDALISM!" in the subject 
is unlikely to be helpful in doing that.

The converse of that is that sometimes people find "discussing among a 
wider group" difficult for whatever reason - I'd always try and 
understand and assist with that where possible (and have spent 
significant personal time doing so here) but sometimes clear lines have 
to be drawn about what is and what is not acceptable, and when they are 
crossed there needs to be a response.

Best Regards,

Andy (from the DWG)