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

[Dave Stubbs]

On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 8:53 AM, Philip Homburg
<pch-osm-talk at u-1.phicoh.com> wrote:
> In your letter dated Mon, 29 Sep 2008 01:08:50 +0200 you wrote:
>>     as OpenStreetMap draws more and more sophisticated users, we're
>>     also seeing more scripts or, as they would be called in Wikipedia,
>> "bots", modifying data.
>>
>> 1. Make a plan of what you want to change, and discuss in relevant
>> forum (usu. mailing list). If there are many objections; drop the
>> plan. If there are few objections, maybe exempt certain areas or
>> objects created by certain people in order to respect their
>> objections. Remember that they can easily change things back again
>> if you act against their will, so don't even try to play the
>> superiority card.
>>
>> I would also accompany this by the notion that if you see an
>> automated edit that you believe has problems, and it has not been
>> discussed or documented, it's ok to revert it.
>
> I think there should be two technical things in place:
>
> One thing is a structured way of rolling back edits. There should be a way
> of reporting large scale edits, and getting them removed from the database.
>
> The second thing is a reporting script that reports on large scale edits in
> a timely fashing.


This is mostly what the 0.6 API is about. Changesets will report to
you what happened, and have space for meta data (which will allow the
identification of particular bots/editors). And that'll give a basis
for reversion tools to operate.


>
> As far as politics go, I think that it would a good idea to just re-use the
> current structure for introducing new map features. Before you run a script
> you first propose it and only run it when enough people cast a vote in favor
> of running the script.

Step 1) Write OSM bot
Step 2) Write OSM Wiki vote rigging bot
Step 3) Propose bot
Step 4) Rig vote
Step 5) Run OSM bot all the while pointing at the wiki shouting "look!
13 people approved it!"

I'm not so convinced :-)

Dave