[OSM-talk] RR8 - Possible International Vandal (assistance required in various countries)

[Mike N.]

From: "Frederik Ramm" <frederik at remote.org>
>
> Pieren wrote:
>> I say that because I spent a little bit time to look the edits of this
>> person, working intensively in different countries with a lot of short
>> edits and after one day of the first alarms about this user.
>
> But do you even have anyhing to prove that this is vandalism? Just
> because a new account makes lots of edits in different places doesn't
> mean anything...

   I ran into just this sort of thing with a new account set up about a day 
after our RR8 friend.    Rapid edits in several countries; dirt tracks in 
Italy and the wilds of Canada... and a boulevard near me in what was last an 
open field in the most recent aerial photography.     The boulevard was in 2 
segments which overlapped each other, didn't connect to any other roadway, 
and one of them was mis-spelled.     So I asked the mapper where they got 
their information for the new roadway - they replied that they used to live 
here and had a legitimate web reference to the new road name and location. 
So I believe that the way(s) in my area are real and just created from a 
rough GPS track, or perhaps even from memory.    I'll run a GPS track survey 
on it next time I drive by there.

   So while I have no way of knowing about RR8, I can appreciate the process 
not instantly vaporizing suspicious activity.    Hopefully the RR8 will be 
resolved without people losing work.