[OSM-talk] [OSM-talk-fr] Continued aggression against French contributors (cadastre integration)

[Toby Murray]

On Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 4:34 PM, Jérome Armau <jerarmau at gmail.com> wrote:
> Keep in mind that we're trying to make the openstreetmap project accessible
> to a larger share of the population. In every single country, that means
> appealing to a non-computer-geek crowd. For example, the usage of
> "-Djosm.home=<dir>" is dark magic to most people. Even though it's
> acceptable to most users of this list who are well used to the inner
> workings of their computer system, it's just plain wrong to advise any
> non-power-user to do this.

We are trying to make manual user contributions to OpenStreetMap as
accessible as possible. This is where our strength is. People mapping
their neighborhoods. Hour long mapping sessions with hundreds or maybe
a thousand changes on a weekend.

Data imports are not a strength of the OpenStreetMap data model and
infrastructure. So if someone wants to do a data import of the scale
that will get DWG's attention, then they should absolutely be required
to have intimate knowledge of the tools they plan on using, including
whatever obscure JOSM options are needed to get the job done right. If
they are not familiar with the tools then they WILL make mistakes and
potentially damage the map very heavily.

Also, a big +1 to Frederik's last email. It is very eloquent and
reflects my views on the subject quite accurately. Thank you for the
effort to write it.

Toby