[OSM-talk] "helpful" remote correctional edits (or "please don't correct bank ATMs in the Sahara desert" - was: Re: Planned revert of added surface and tracktype tags without local knowledge in various countries)

[Andy Townsend]

On 19/07/2020 12:10, Hauke Stieler wrote:
> Those bad armchair-tags, which are mostly wrong, are as good as random
> values [0]: Those tags are completely useless. Removing those obviously
> wrong tags is a good idea IMHO.
>
Hello,

I'm writing this here because although it's not the same issue as 
"remote detection of tracktype" at all it is another example of how 
well-meaning remote edits can cause problems:

With a DWG hat we occasionally have "fantasy" mappers reported to us, 
and need to revert everything they've added.  Usually it's pretty 
obvious to tell that needs to be reverted, and usually the reverts apply 
cleanly without any post-revert tidying needed, since "fantasy 
additions" usually just need to be removed and are unlikely to be edited 
by other mappers, since they (obviously) don't exist.

Occasionally though we find that someone has "corrected" some of the 
data - a notable example in the past included correcting the tags on a 
"bank ATM" that someone had added as an API test in the middle of the 
Sahara Desert.  "Fixing tags" on restaurants in the middle of the 
Atlantic Ocean floor has happened too.

Just now a previously-blocked "fantasy mapper" has returned to Ireland 
and added an "unlikely" shopping centre and some made some "unexpected" 
road class changes.  Unfortunately another mapper has "tidied up" the 
shopping centre, suggesting to me that they think it's a legitimate 
feature.  The tidier-upper claimed to use Esri, Maxar and Bing imagery 
(which don't show the shops, of course), but just in case it really does 
exist, I've asked the tidier-upper and on talk-ie before I delete them.

However, assuming it really is an imaginary shopping centre all the 
tidier-upper will have achieved is to waste both their time and my time, 
and have OSM maps have invalid data on them for a bit longer.  
Therefore, if you're going to edit things you don't have personal 
on-the-ground knowledge of:

1) Please do check that the thing that you are "correcting" is 
plausible.  A bank ATM in the middle of the Sahara Desert is not.

2) Do check if the thing, if at all unlikely, hasn't been added by a 
user who has had previous fantasy mapping reverted or who's changeset 
comments suggest that their edits might not entirely align with 
reality.  In the case of the "shopping centre adder", they've been given 
a 0-hour "message that they have to read before editing again" and their 
previous changesets show the comment "This changeset has been reverted 
fully or in part by changeset XYZ where the changeset comment is: ABC"

Best Regards,

Andy (from the DWG)