[OSM-talk] Proposal: New Working Group "Welcome WG"

[Tomas Straupis]

Hello

2012-10-03 Paweł Paprota wrote:
> I read the proposal and to be honest I'm not sure about the hypothesis
> ("Early contact increases mapper engagement"). For me it would seem kind
> of creepy if a website that I've just registered and done something on
> contacted me personally saying "You've added a restaurant".

  This matches my experience.

  When I contacted mappers too early I was getting a reply like "Oh,
there is a Big brother?" which apparently frightens contributors off
because they are more afraid to do a mistake because they KNOW
somebody is watching over their shoulder. And that would usually be
the end of that contributor.

  It got much better when I only contacted them IF I found some
serious mapping mistakes (mostly because people didn't get some basic
concepts from the very beginning which is natural) and only after some
time (a week or so). Such a contact mail would contain polite
explanation of a mistake and invitation to ask any other questions
personally (some people are afraid to write to public mailing lists)
or on local mailing list.

  I guess it would be better if initial information (localised) be
sent from an account which is clearly a robot (like bot_lithuania,
osm_south_africa or so). I guess something like that is done in
Belarus, because after touching a corner of one forest in Belarus
territory I got such "automated" letter with welcome message, basic
instructions etc.

-- 
Tomas