[OSM-talk] mass mailing osm mappers

[Robin Paulson]

On 13 May 2010 09:38, Frederik Ramm <frederik at remote.org> wrote:
>> we would like to make as many NZ mappers aware of the import as
>> possible, firstly to reduce these concerns, and to stop the potential
>> outfux of NZ mappers who see themselves being replaced by bots and
>> scripts. also, it would of course be beneficial to include more people
>> in what we are doing
>
> Do you not have a talk-nz list or something where this could be announced? A

yes, we have a google groups list, but there are only around 90 users.
auckland alone has more mappers than that (although most of them have
not done much)

i've been thinking about a talk-nz list hosted by osm for a while;
perhaps we should request that - i know there are some who are put off
by google groups?

> good idea would also be to create wiki page and link to this from the

yes, we have wiki links in data we've changed, but no-one looks at
them it seems, or they don't care. hard to tell

> changeset comment or so, so that anyone investigating an edit through the
> web site will get to read your pamphlet.
>
>> are there any issues with mass contacting either (a) everyone who has
>> set their location as in NZ, or (b) everyone who has made an edit
>> within NZ? is there an AUP for osm which forbids this?
>
> Both of these are unwanted; (a) is not possible without actually moving your
> own location around in small increments - a certain Russ N. reputedly has a
> script that does that and got bollocked for it. (b) is possible and you
> might *just* get away with it if you're talking 10 or 20 messages, but not
> if it is in the hundreds, and especially not if some of them complain.

i thought that might be the case.

qualitatively it's probably no different, but is it acceptable to
crowd-source making contact, mechanical turk style? so, say there are
ten of us working on the import, and we each mail 20 people...

> I think it would be nice to have a feature where users can actually enable a
> check box in their profile "I wish to be contacted by other mappers in my
> area about mapping events or other things of relevance", and then an
> interface where you can simply draw a bounding box and say "send this
> message to all mappers in this box who have the checkbox ticked".

it would indeed. of course getting them to look at the option and
actively consider what they want is the next problem...

> But as long as we don't have that, we don't normally mass-email mappers.

righto