[OSM-talk] Please be gentle with newbies

[john whelan]

These days I'm retired and use my old age pensioner bus pass to grab a free
coffee.  Often there are strings attached like a group of politicans or
journalists etc. floating around.

Today I got cornered by one who had been on the receiving end of a
communication from a mapper saying they had made a mistake on their first
attempt at mapping.

It was a couple of years ago and the message was a little on the aggressive
side.  The receiver still remembers it clearly and in their mind OSM was a
well this not the place to use those sort of words.

When you send a message to a mapper you don't know who they are.  You are
representing OpenStreetMap when you send a message so please put your
passion to one side and be gentle with the poor things if only so I can
enjoy my free coffee in peace.

I do sympathize, I've come across a lot of suboptimal mapping in my time
and mentally expressed exactly the same thoughts that were expressed but I
do try to count to ten before sending a polite note that says did you
really mean to map this this way?  Have you read the wiki here which gives
guidance?

And yes I know those who read this mailing list would always be polite but
I couldn't think where else to post it.

Thanks John
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