[OSM-talk] Taking a break and a call for help

Paul Johnson baloo at ursamundi.org
Fri Mar 20 23:07:12 UTC 2020


So, you all know at this point that I've been heavily invested in editing
OSM and contributing to my maximum activity, less as a need to help a
charity and more of an obligation to the public to do the most good with
the short time I have on this planet.  However, I've had a few events come
up that are more or less killing my ability to keep up.

I'm taking a step back from being the primary editor in the Oklahoma region
until this passes.

3) Amazon Logistics and a revolving door team of one-edit-and-done spam
accounts keeps throwing paid contributions into Oklahoma that are of poorly
aligned, largely fictional and low quality.  I'm stuck cleaning up in a
neglected part of North America some particularly low quality edits with
limited resources and little ability to find more.  I hope other
contributors can help keep abreast and I hope OSM Foundation can help keep
paid contributors to account.  I don't think it's unreasonable to think
that paid mapper should be contributing *far* higher quality data than your
average volunteer first time mapper, and I think OSM needs to have a
serious conversation about minimum qualifications for paid mapping that I
simply don't have the time or energy for at this point.  Dealing with this
(and staying abreast extensive OkTrans highway modernization efforts
lately) have been a major part of my editing (and while OkTrans is
unavoidable, Amazon is inexcusable).

2) My truck was stolen last night
<https://social.tulsa.ok.us/@BalooUriza/103855930214022255>, along with the
dashcams I use for Mapillary, essentially making long range surveying
impossible and imperiling my survival since, if for nothing else, I need to
hit Costco for restocking my pantry and storeroom.  As such, I had to call
off work and spent most of the day today dealing with the police today.

1) I work in the IT department of a major regional hospital on the front
lines of the COVID-19 response in the US.  My vacation at the end of next
month, and my weekends for the next two months, have been cancelled, and
I'm expected to work 8+ hours a day, 7 days a week to help keep things up
and running so the medical staff don't have to think about the computers.

I really hope OSMF and the DWG takes a good, hard and critical look at
dealing with the low quality edits from Amazon and spammers while I deal
with acquiring another (or, best case, my stolen) pickup and dealing with
my professional life.
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