[OSM-talk] Zero tolerance on imports
Richard Fairhurst
richard at systemeD.net
Sun Feb 20 00:03:54 GMT 2011
This is getting crazy.
Exhibit 1:
http://twitter.com/#!/maproomblog/status/39053538692698112
"Whoever imported CanVec in Aylmer, Quebec obliterated hours of work and
introduced hundreds of errors. #osm #openstreetmap #whybother"
Once again, some keyboard jockey has decided that his l337 import skills
are better than the knowledge and hours of work by a local mapper. The
offender appears to be user 'sammuell' by the look of it -
http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/sammuell - though he hasn't posted
anything about his activities on the user page, the wiki, or indeed
anywhere.
This is killing OSM. We are not here to provide a free API to government
geodata that can be obtained trivially elsewhere. OSM is all about
"added value"; by deleting genuine surveyed data in favour of mindless
duplication of other, poorer quality datasets, we are _destroying_ value.
From what I can tell (talk-ca postings etc.) 'sammuell' is a fairly
inexperienced OSMer who presumably thinks "this is how things are done".
It isn't. How do we stop this impression taking hold? How do we explain
that imports are _not_ welcome except as a last resort, and if you do
them, you _must_ follow a very, very rigorous set of guidelines?
cheers
Richard
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