[OSM-talk] Sudden influx of bad HOTosm edits in West Bank

[Andy Townsend]

On 29/10/2017 17:18, Safwat Halaby wrote:
> There's a sudden influx of bad edits by different users related to
> Palestine HotOSM tasks.

There's a "I've seen a problem; what should I do?" section on 
http://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Data_Working_Group which explains the 
steps to follow.  You've already been doing that (for which thanks), but 
I mention it for the benefit of anyone else reading this who's 
unfamiliar with the process.

Where these are new mappers I'd suggest a "hello and welcome" message 
that asks a bit more about how they're contributing and what the 
problems are with it (for example - 
https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/536519974 has no tags but appears to 
be tracing over https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/519139010 from 2 
months ago).  I'm sure that these new mappers mean well, but they 
clearly haven't understood the task that they've been asked to perform 
(or perhaps that task was somewhat inappropriate for brand-new users in 
a place as densely populated as the West Bank). Try and find out if 
they're volunteers (e.g. they're volunteered to give up their own time 
to help improve the mapping in this area) or if they've perhaps been 
told to "map 100 buildings as part of this HOT task" in order to gain a 
credit for part of a course they're doing.

I'd also (and this would greatly help both the new mapper and the DWG) 
point out specific issues in each changeset, such as "way xyz does not 
have any tags, and without any tags no-one trying to use OSM data will 
know what it is" or "building abc overlaps with another building, which 
clearly can't be the case in reality".

Often there are a mix of edits from well-meaning brand-new HOT mappers - 
some that need reverting immediately because they actually break stuff 
(e.g. inadvertant node drags), some that need tidying and some that are 
perfectly OK to leave.  Having changeset discussion comments explaining 
what is what makes any future post-newbie tidy-up much easier.

Best Regards,

Andy (DWG member)