[OSM-talk] Making editing public by default

Stefan Baebler stefan.baebler at gmail.com
Fri Jul 20 05:31:55 BST 2007


Currently the situation is really bad for a number of reasons:
It is not clear what the button "Make my edits public" actually means. 
It could be:
- license my (contributed / edited) data public domain
It doesn't say that:
- your location will be revealed only to fellow mappers
- fellow mappers will see who edited a certain node / segment / way, so 
that they can contact you about it.
- community can work better this way
Anything else I overlooked?

The announced irreversibility of the action turned me away couple of 
times. But luckily i was tempted enough to try it. Why exactly it needs 
to be irreversible if it is not about the license? Even if it would be 
about the license i should be able to change my mind anytime, affecting 
only my _further_ edits.

If we go for opt-out the action should be reversible.

Corey Burger wrote:
> Currently all user have to turn on whether or not they want to show
> which edits are theirs. I believe we should change this to opt-out,
> for a number of reasons:
> 
> 1. Better networking: Finding another user in your local area is hard
> and thus we are loosing out on opportunties for local users to connect
> and promote OSM in their area
True. It is also encouraging to see other people in your area. Maybe it 
will provoke spontaneous competition (good), or spare someone from 
mapping an area where there are other mappers (they know it best) and 
focus on unmanned areas instead (good).

> 2. Better maps: A lot of new users need a bit of hand-holding. By
> making their edits public, older users can help with new issues.
Yep, some mentoring does miracles... if you know who to contact.

> 3. Better intraOSM communication: Related to the previous two, all
> aspect of communication are better off when you can see who else is
> editing near you
Undoubtful.

> 4. Finding potential vandals: One of the key advances Wikipedia has
> made is the "show all edits" from a specific user. This allows
> somebody to find a problem editor and fix all of their edits.
> Currently we would need somebody with db access to do that, a serious
> roadblock.
Hmmm, what would prevent determined vandals from opting-out before 
vandalising the data?
We'd also need some way to "mark users as vandals", "propose them for 
blockage" and "block users" for admins.

Also OSM wiki and OSM data (www) accounts would need to be shared, but 
that's another story.

> What are the downsides? Pretty much only one: Privacy. However, I
> believe that as long as we ask the user upon account creation, we are
> doing pretty well. Those that need/want privacy can have it and the
> vast majority of users can simply go on with making a map.
What about existing user accounts? _Explain_ and ask them (with default 
yes?) at next login?

> What do other people think?
Yep, definitely something should be done about it.

enjoy the day,
Stefam




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