OpenStreetMap
It seems I have gained a cyber fan.
I have been adding previously unmapped roads to the database using satellite imagery, but mainly in areas I have traveled, as recently as within the past two weeks. There is a particular user who seems to be chasing and changing my recent edits around the map. I say “chasing” because I moved to a totally different area of the map I don’t usually work on and this user still found and changed my work.
My main goal is to map roads that aren’t in the database yet, but it seems this user is mainly just tracking my changesets and changing what I tag when I add the roads.
Is it frustrating for the mapper? Yes indeed. Frustrating is someone else changing the classification of a road I just drove on in a regular car. I might not be as frustrated if this user was also working at adding to the road network but the bulk of their edits are changing and deleting other users work.
Rhetorical question, but if everything I classify and tag will be shortly changed after I save, should I just add the road geometry with no tags at all and let this other user do all the tagging work?
I understand the OSM project is open to all and every user has the right/ability to change information they deem to be inaccurate. But isn’t it rather rude to single someone out and chase their work around the map, rather than add new information to the database?
Not really looking for comments - I’m just venting and sharing in case others are experiencing the same issue.
Discussion
Comment from alexkemp on 29 June 2018 at 19:31
Report to the Data Working Group (DWG). It is vandalism. Do not stand for it - the DWG are used to removing vandals.
Comment from Warin61 on 30 June 2018 at 00:25
If that is what they are doing .. then I too would go to the DWG.
I take it you have contacted them to ask.. and they have responded.. and there is no resolution. If they don’t respond .. then DWG No resolution ..that then should be done through the local OSM community - a majority decision.
Comment from apm-wa on 8 July 2018 at 12:54
The DWG has been very good about stopping vandals after I tried communicating with them. Here is how you do it.
When the ID editor is open, select the road that has been vandalized, then click on “view on openstreetmap.org” down on the bottom of the left-hand column. A new window will open. Click on “View History” at the bottom of the left-hand column and find the changeset of your vandal. Click on the blue changeset number and a little box will appear in the left-hand column under the word “Discussion”. Type in your objection to the vandalism and send it. It will be sent both to the DWG and to the author of that changeset (the vandal) by e-mail. Be sure to include reference to the particular OSM guideline that is being violated. If the vandal does not respond, or responds with some sort of negative attitude, forward the link to that changeset to the DWG with a request that the DWG intervene.
Yes, the procedure is a bit cumbersome, but it works. I have had numerous vandals mess with my work in Turkmenistan and the DWG has always helped with blocking them when they refused to follow OSM guidelines.