[OSM-talk] remove the suggestion to credit "contributors"

[stevea]

On Apr 20, 2020, at 2:02 AM, Jiri Vlasak <jiri.hubacek at gmail.com> wrote:
> +1. I feel that "contributors" should stay in the credit.

+1 here, as well.  I correctly and not with excessive overt pride sit up a bit straighter and feel a sense of community, satisfaction and even dignity every time I see "contributors" in OSM's copyright statement.  ("That's millions of us doing good work because we love this kind of mapping, including ME!")  This recognition is important.  This is one of the best reasons I contribute to our map and I am certain that I'm not alone in these feelings.  (For every +1 you see here, there are hundreds, thousands, I'm pretty sure millions that you don't see).

Sure, the results are a darn good map which gets better every hour of every day.  But crediting "contributors" is a critical component of that happening.  Remove it and you remove my sense of belonging to this mapping community, so, the growing chant from the masses should be clear:  don't do that.  Changing the rules (licensing, recognition, rights...) in the middle of the journey is the quickest way to discourage more of us to drop out of this fine project.

SteveA
California