[OSM-talk] Cloudmade: "We are the Wikipedia of maps"

[Lars Aronsson]

Frederik Ramm wrote:

> I, too, am an active member of the OSM community and entitled to 
> voice my opinion in this capacity.

Since when is OSM a platform for voicing opinions?  Is it suddenly 
a democracy?  We're here to make maps.  You have to explain how 
your rants help the project.  The impression I get is that you 
cause division rather than unity.  Is that your goal?

I know you have done an excellent job in mapping, in promoting OSM 
in Germany, written an excellent book now in its 2nd edition, and 
manage the Geofabrik company.  But people who don't know this and 
only read your posts to this list might get the impression that 
your main goal is to nail Steve Coast.  That seems destructive and 
irrational.  If you want the public to understand the difference 
between OpenStreetMap and Cloudmade, this goal can not be achieved 
with your current rants. It would be far more efficient if you 
were to promote Geofabrik.  Use this list, not for spam, but to 
once in a while tell us what Geofabrik has been up to lately.

> I think it is only normal for me to feel offended if an article 
> makes it sound

If you take personal offense by blogs and newspaper articles, 
that's your personal problem.  The common cure is to become a 
cynic to anything that journalists write.  If, on the other side, 
you can demonstrate that your efforts to promote OSM in Germany 
were hurt by this very article, then we need this journalist to 
correct this article.  The main question is: Is your aim to air 
your personal feelings, or to help the project?


-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se