[OSM-talk] Code of conduct for automated (mass-) edits

Nic Roets nroets at gmail.com
Fri Oct 3 10:40:48 BST 2008


To get back to the issue of a bot running in a specific country : Let's say
the vast majority of occurrences of Strasse are spelling mistakes and let's
say there are a few occurrences of Strasse where it is not a spelling
mistake, like a surname. Should we run the bot ?

--
Spaeth wrote "Those who don't think through their actions
and do a 30 line script in python/PHP/... that breaks stuff will break
things, and they won't read through the code of conduct anyway."

I agree with you and let me explain why I do not think it's a big issue :

I often install free software on my computer (proprietary and FOSS, poorly
documented and well documented, reviewed and unreviewed) and I have no idea
if that software will waste my time, open a massive security hole or even
worse, do something malicious. And I expect the same of others, e.g. gosmore
users.

At least the OSM data structure is so simple, that we have so many ways to
fight the bot problem :
* Statistical detection of bots. From the output of my awk script I can
deduce that 'DaBear' has edited an unhumanly number of objects during
October and is most likely the cause of this thread.
* Tools for targeted reverts.
* Responding with simple server changes *when necessary*, like banning
users, limits to upload sizes, Captcha on signup etc.

On Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 11:05 AM, Sebastian Spaeth <Sebastian at sspaeth.de>wrote:

> Nick Barnes wrote:
> > Frederik Ramm wrote:
> >> One example to which I took exception is ... changing "Strasse" in the
> name to
> >> "Straße", which is the correct spelling (but nonetheless "Strasse" is
> >> often found on signs).
> >
> > "Straße" may well be the correct spelling in German speaking countries,
> > but it certainly isn't in the UK. (e.g.
> >
> http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=53.7998&lon=-1.75262&zoom=17&layers=B000FTF
> ).
>
> Slightly OT, but it's not even valid for German speaking countries.
> Switzerland doesn't even have the "ß" letter, so it uses "Strasse" as
> correct and proper spelling.
>
> spaetz
>
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