[OSM-talk] Half-mapping

[Robert (Jamie) Munro]

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Richard Fairhurst wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> Apologies in advance for the following whinge.
> 
> Could I ask people to think very, very carefully before half-mapping  
> places they've never been and have no knowledge of?
> 
> In particular, I'm talking about tracing segments from others' GPX  
> tracks. Quite often I take a track for a particular area, and come  
> back a while later to map it, only to see that someone has traced  
> segments along the line.

No one would ever trace the huge areas of data we have from ASTL etc. if
that were the case. I've done lots of this around Sunderland, Durham and
Middlesborough, so that something will show up in those areas when local
people see the map, and they can then go and fix them. I presume all the
areas I traced came from ATSL, but if part of it came from you I would
have know way of knowing.

As others have said, if you don't want something traced, don't upload
it. Perhaps there could be a way to upload traces as private, so they
are only visible to yourself in potlatch, rather than as public for all
to see.

> I'm loth to criticise anyone's efforts for OSM - but there are perhaps  
> more helpful things to do.

If I don't own a GPS, what would you suggest?

> - Unwayed segments! Gah!

I still don't think unwayed segments are bad. They allow gosmore etc. to
find shorter routes between places, they clearly indicate that the
person drawing them is not familiar enough with the area to know where
the roads start and end etc. The only problems are that potlatch doesn't
show them and let you fix them, and the much lesser problem that mapnik
doesn't display them on the default maps.

Robert (Jamie) Munro
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