And that ends this thread on OpenStreetMap. In summary...

And that ends this thread on OpenStreetMap.

In summary

- Underlying OpenStreetMap is a database

- The OpenStreetMap website is a demo only

- To a lot of folks it's not obvious that the OpenStreetMap website is just a demo showcasing what could be accomplished with the data. Even here on Mastodon in our nerd bubble this is not obvious.

- Communication around that could be improved; and communication around vandalism and what it means if you see it on the website's map could be improved.

6/6

Like 17 June at 22:05 | Open on chaos.social

3 comments

Fabian ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@djh I *know* that the website is just a demo. However, I still use it a lot (and its my primary map to look at on desktop)

18 June at 5:32 | Open on chaos.social

Sam Andrews

@djh Hmm, I didn't realise OSM lacked checks. It's such a useful tool. I wonder if some sort of Wikipedia community type system could be implemented to at least mitigate some of the vandalism

18 June at 6:46 | Open on scicomm.xyz

Thibault Molleman🇧🇪 🌈🐝

@oceanoculus @djh it's just different. on Wikipedia, you can lock a page. But nothing is preventing you from creating a page like "[insert name of politician]'s dumb decisions list".
Same with OpenStreetMap, even if you could lock certain nodes or ways, people could always draw over it and you can't really prevent that easily.

18 June at 6:52 | Open on en.osm.town