Hello,

I’m sending this message to you as one that has to be read before you continue editing in case there’s a problem with your email. You’ll be able to edit again immediately after reading it, but please do take heed of the contents:

I (and at least one other user) have tried to get in touch with you about the large-scale edits that you are performing, some of which are plainly wrong.

http://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/33438237

was an example of that. You misunderstood the tag used, and because you did not understand it, changed the tag to one that was completely invalid for the feature.

There is a clear code of conduct that must be followed by people making mechanical edits to OpenStreetMap data:

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Automated_Edits_code_of_conduct

Among the first things that should happen is to document the changes that you’re planning to make and to discuss them with other OpenStreetMap mappers. It’s important that this happens so that any misunderstandings that you may have can be resolved. This does not seem to have happened at all in the case of your edits - unless you can point out where you disucssed your proposed edits first?

Please note that just because you change a value from a “less common tag” to a “common tag” it does not mean that it actually reflects what is physically present on the ground. Here’s an example of that:

http://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/33506329

In that changeset http://www.openstreetmap.org/way/322964225 (a hedge) was changed from “natural=bushes” to “natural=scrub”. Of course, “natural=bushes” is an unusual tag but not a meaningless one, and in the context of a hedge makes perfect sense. A hedge made out of “scrub” makes very little sense.

I would therefore suggest that you go through all of your mechanical changesets and ask yourself whether the changes that you have made in each case are valid. Where people have commented on those changesets suggesting that something has gone wrong, it’s important that you reply and explain what happened.

There will, of course, always be cases where mappers, especially new mappers, “get things wrong”. Rather than just changing the a tag to something that you are familiar with, it’s important that you try and understand how things got to that point. Here’s an example of that:

http://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/33514376

Here it looks to me like a mapper was trying to change “place=locality” to “natural=fell” and made a mistake. Rather than just changing it back to the wrong value (which you did) a better approach would have been to contact them with a polite changeset discussion comment, explain what the problem is, and offer to help fix it. If that doesn’t work, you can add an OpenStreetMap note so that other local mappers who are familiar with the area can check and correct the data if necessary.

OpenStreetMap is a shared database - we all edit the same data. If data that people have surveyed is changed to something that is wrong by people who have not surveyed the area, it makes OpenStreetMap data as a whole less useful for everyone concerned. We have to work together to create a better map. Please, therefore, go through the changes that you have made and check that they’re valid, and please explain them where questions have been asked in changeset discussion comments. Finally, you must use meaningful changeset comments. “attrib correction” is not a meaningful comment - it does not explain what you changed and why.

Failure to do this may result in you being prevented from editing OpenStreetMap for a short period of time, or even longer.

Best Regards,

Andy Townsend (SomeoneElse), on behalf of OpenStreetMap’s Data Working Group.

If you’d like to contact the DWG via email directly, you can always do so via data@osmfoundation.org .