[OSM-talk] THIS is the kind of enthusiasm some would reject

[Ian Dees]

Show him OSM for the abandoned rails that he can see and point him to
OpenHistoricalMap for the historical, no-longer-present rails if he's
excited about that.

Let's stop trying to generate conflict where there isn't any, Russ. The
goals behind OSM are fairly clear: we map what others can verify. If there
are visible rails on the ground (abandoned or not), we should map them and
others should not delete them. If there used to be rails somewhere, but we
can no longer see the rails, then we should not map them. If it used to be
rails and now its a trail, we should map it as a trail. If it used to be
rails and now its a bare embankment, we map it as an embankment.

Have a great holiday!

On Mon, Sep 7, 2015 at 11:31 AM, Russ Nelson <nelson at crynwr.com> wrote:

> https://www.facebook.com/groups/abandonedrails/permalink/1044885352211646/
>
> To everyone who thinks we shouldn't map abandoned railroads: THIS is
> the kind of mapping enthusiasm that you would have us reject
> forcefully. THIS is why Google Maps has people mapping for free.
> THIS is not the only person who maps abandoned rails for the
> competition, who is glad to have the data.
>
>   o What the HELL am I supposed to tell this person?
>   o How do we get him to contribute his efforts to OSM?
>   o Am I supposed to tell him "Yes, you can map the way
>     we tell you, but if you try to map what you are
>     passionate about, go away"??
>
> We should map everything that doesn't move, and maybe a few things
> that do.
>
> We need an authoritative statement that says that deleting abandoned
> railroads is vandalism, and that people who do so in spite of being
> warned not to, will be banned from the project. Until I get that, I
> cannot in good conscience encourage any railfan to map railroads,
> because of the threat from vandals to delete their edits.
>
> I could go through the discussion over the last month and identify a
> grand total of five people who reject mapping abandoned railroads. Are
> THEIR efforts worth the loss of Tony Howe's mapping?? What are we
> giving up for our "purity of essence"? Why are we listening to these
> five people when allowing people to delete abandoned rails (or
> threaten to do so, which is the same thing, just pushed into the
> future.)
>
> I'm so, so, tired of this fight. I want to encourage Tony Howe to edit
> OSM, but I don't want to look like an idiot when he comes back and
> says "Some jerk deleted my edits!"
>
> :-(
>
> --
> --my blog is at    http://blog.russnelson.com
> Crynwr supports open source software
> 521 Pleasant Valley Rd. | +1 315-600-8815
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>
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