[OSM-talk] Streetcomplete and Geographically Large Changesets

[ndrw6]

On 25/07/2021 21:15, Mateusz Konieczny via talk wrote:
> 
> If someone wants full-scale OSM editor with full access to all data on 
> Android then I recommend Vespucci.

Thanks. I tried it too. Vespucci is a fine full-featured editor for 
Android but it isn't really designed for mapping on the go. At least I 
wasn't able to use it for this purpose. It is more a replacement for 
jOSM for people with tablets instead of PCs.

I quite liked Maps.me, when it still supported editing. Yes, there were 
many problems with it, mainly caused by limited selection of tags or use 
of outdated offline maps, but I could at add some PoIs and addresses 
with it.

The closest to my ideal tool is iD but its web interface is too slow and 
not yet compatible with touch screens. It would be great if it could be 
transformed into a mobile app.

> Quests curation is mostly limited by requirement that user is not expected
> to have any OSM knowledge - see
[...]
> It discourages adding not surveyed data (that would be typically guessed).

These are examples of arbitrary limitations I was writing about. They 
may be fine for a game but are entirely out of place in a mapping tool.

> I admit that I am quite curious what went wrong!

I tried it once and there were quite a few rather obvious issues I've 
noticed:
- I wanted to add a house number but the tool wouldn't display the quest 
because the building was only tagged as building=yes or was out of range.
- The building was not yet split into parts and needed two or more 
address points.
- The building was not yet mapped but I wanted to add an address point 
anyway.
- The building was already tagged with a wrong address that I wanted to 
correct.
- There was no way of adding comments (private or public) for more 
complex cases.

I took a printed out map with me as a back up and it only took 5 minutes 
before I have fully reverted to it. In that session StreetComplete 
wouldn't have let me add three quarters of the addresses, wasting my 
time and effort.

I doubt no one has ever noticed these issues. More likely they were 
swept under the carpet as not compatible with the game-like vision for 
the tool.

Oh, and I would have felt embarrassed creating so many trivial 
changesets. Not technically an issue but I'd gave avoided using the tool 
even if it worked for me.

> Should "despite a very nice user interface" be understood as "interface 
> was pretty but not suitable for efficient surveying"?

No, the interface was genuinely good. In a tool like an OSM editor I 
mainly care about performance and ergonomics and they were both much 
better than anything else I tried on a mobile phone. I don't care about 
aesthetics but I understand it is important for good first impression.

> If you used it before addr:street was asked or when addr:street quest 
> appeared weeks after
> add:housenumber was solved - then this issues are nowadays fixed :)

That was indeed one of the issues I've noticed. I am glad it has been 
resolved.

-ndrw6