[OSM-talk] Things People Say

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

On 12/28/2011 09:58 PM, John Sturdy wrote:
> I think we need to keep the "big map with a search box" quite
> prominently, partly because that is a major use, and partly because
> that is what will attract newcomers' attention and give them a way to
> evaluate the quality of our data

This is all nice discussion among us "osm educated" people but as the 
thread that Mike was referring to shows: The average newcomer will 
measure us against somthing like Bing or Google and say things like, 
"then I searched for the satellite view and could you believe it, shabby 
OpenStreetMap doesn't even offer that". We're not a 
map/imagery/streetview portal and we should be upfront about that.

>>> I'm a little tired of people like that and I hope that by drastically reducing the amount of map on our front page we will get rid of them.
>
> The problem is, that that might get rid of a lot of other people, too.

People who are unwilling to read a main page that doesn't shove the map 
in their faces right away, are also less likely to be willing and able 
to contribute. In the thread that Mike quoted there were a few people 
who demanded everything and were not prepared to offer anything. I'm 
quite happy if we don't have to put up with them, or at least not *now*, 
at this phase of the project, when there's plenty of helpful potential 
OSMers to recruit. We can start tackling those who take but never give 
at a later stage, when we've got more manpower.

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"