[OSM-talk] spammy "survey" questions.

[Clifford Snow]

On Mon, Mar 2, 2015 at 3:38 PM, Richard Weait <richard at weait.com> wrote:

> I'm no fan researchers sending messages to OpenStreetMap users via the
> messaging system.  I consider them an intrusion.  And I've complained
> about them here, before.  There is another one making the rounds.
> Seems like there are more of these every time I turn around.
>
> I'd like to recommend that you "hack" any such attempts to survey the
> membership, unless the survey is organized by the OpenStreetMap
> Foundation. Hack them so that the "researcher" is  loaded with bad
> data and so that future "researchers" are dis-incentivized from
> abusing the community.
>

Richard,
I agree with you that we only want "officially supported" surveys. But I do
not think we should hack the results. Instead of giving useless data, ask
that the author first gain support from the community. We don't really want
to alienate survey authors but instead turn them into good community
members. Let's create a wiki page, much like for imports, with guidelines
for conducting surveys. We could do this by responding to the survey
request asking the author to follow community guidelines and asking that
people not respond to the survey.

Surveys can be a useful tool for improvement. I really hate to see OSM
being considered hostile towards research. We should encourage research
that will help us build better tools, understand our community better, and
help us spread OSM.

Clifford

-- 
@osm_seattle
osm_seattle.snowandsnow.us
OpenStreetMap: Maps with a human touch
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