OpenStreetMap
I was having a conversation with another mapper about the resolution of notes where the resolution of the note requires some local knowledge. These notes that require local knowledge may remain stale for a long period of time. You can read the full conversation here.
However, it is not uncommon that notes are resolved by people that are mainly interested in resolving notes. Anecdotally, based on the fact that I put in a lot of notes, there seems to be just a select few people that are going around resolving notes as their primary OpenStreetMap contribution, or at least a major part of it. I have all the respect in the world for these people. And to Danmer’s point, they don’t have enough help to get all their notes resolved, so leaving them unresolved, because notes only have two resolution options—they’re either open or they’re closed—can be challenging.
If the primary note resolution engine is people that most likely have no local knowledge, it is counterproductive to rely on that corps of people to address these notes that require local knowledge.
I think that we could probably classify notes into three categories:
- Those that anyone can resolve with just aerial photography and potentially some street-level photography.
- Notes that require some information that is not available with strictly what is presented to a remote editor, such as local knowledge, or something in the person who wrote the note’s mind.
- Spam.
Going forward, what I will do is only add notes that fall into category one. When I’m considering putting a note in that falls into category two, I will add some of that information into the note that it probably requires local knowledge. That way, if someone comes along and tries to resolve it and sees that information, they will see if any local knowledge was sought. I will use that note as a note to self to go and ask the local community, such as on Slack or on the forum. For category three, if you come across these, please hit the report button that lets the DWG close them and hide them, and potentially resolve the upstream issue with the person that is putting spam into the notes database.
토론
2024년 8월 11일 21:03에 Helianthropy님의 의견
This is my first hearing about notes! I’ll have to check them out.
2024년 8월 11일 23:29에 fititnt님의 의견
I tend to look for OSM Notes too. After some time, most which can be solved without very specific knowledge (not merely live near, but know the specific place in person) tend to be solved.
Also, some notes could be solved remotely (obviously, be in person would speed up, but can be done by open data and news reports), but they are mostly additional notes such as (soon this building will be finished, for a building that is notable enough to be noticed in some website).
And yes, I do agree (this I already do myself) with your idea of avoid adding notes that require local knowledge if I do not plan myself in visit the place. The amount of notes which could be created (by remote mapping) would be far higher than the viability of close them.
PS.: (for the author and other readers of this diary) which tools you personally use to find OSM Notes? I will start: I myself use iD with notes layer opened, however I also use the https://ent8r.github.io/NotesReview/ for search notes in tabular format, in special sort by more recent ones
2024년 8월 12일 02:22에 kucai님의 의견
The main osm page can show notes. Choose the appropriate layer from the side bar.
I have the tendency to close notes that’s half a decade old. Apparently nobody’s around to help verify, so I declutter the map. Also some people uses note as a personal drawing board but never bothered to check up on it later on. For example, the ‘trace around here’ notes that doesn’t go away even after the area has been completed.
2024년 8월 12일 07:51에 EdLoach님의 의견
Locally we follow planning applications that are approved, so some of our notes might be open for quite a long time until all the houses are completed and surveyed for their addresses. Other local notes (such as speed limit changes or footpath diversions, based on official notices of such changes) will usually have “survey required” added. Sometimes I find I’ve forgotten such notes, but have since taken sufficient Mapillary images since adding them that they can be resolved (either by me or others). When I add notes they will generally fall into category two because if they were category one I could probably just map the item, but as noticed above the Mapillary images might move them from category two to category one given time. Even some of the house building might allow tracing from updated imagery, but the note would need to remain until the addresses have been added.
2024년 8월 13일 05:31에 Tex2002ans님의 의견
Yes, that one is frustrating, especially when the Notes are cryptic.
To help keep tiny/minor issues from clogging up the public Notes…
I leave myself “personal notes” by using:
For example, I use:
website/phonenumber.When I get back to the computer, or am mapping in that area again, I can then go through each of the pins and fix it myself.
No need to have someone else fix a basic typo when I could just log in and do it myself later! :)
These 3 sites are my favorites:
The 1st one lets you:
This sometimes lets you close Notes really fast too. Like one time, I fixed it MINUTES after a user submitted from StreetComplete—so OSM was probably updated before they even got back to their car! :)
The 2nd one gets addicting if you “set a goal for yourself”. For example:
The 3rd one I use for fun or a change of pace, because it sometimes digs up some really old/obscure Notes that may have been long-forgotten about. :)
Side Note 1: I’m a new user to OSM (just started 4 months ago)… and when I first started, a helpful OSM user fixed and answered a handful of my Notes.
I then stumbled across a link to those 3 sites…
So I decided to “pay it forward” by fixing >250 Notes. :)
Now my stats currently say:
so I think that’s a pretty good open-to-close ratio. :)
If everyone closed a few more Notes than they open, we’d be smooth sailing!
Side Note 2: Another “trick” I like to do in ID is…
Whenever I finish mapping an area, I:
Sometimes a user even left multiple of the same type in the same town—like “wrong address” or “this building has to be split”—so they might be very easy to fix.
I find it’s much easier to tackle many Notes in a single pass/area/city too. :)
2024년 8월 13일 18:12에 GinaroZ님의 의견
While an improved note system would be good, I don’t think that old notes are really such a big problem? I mean notes don’t affect the map data and so long as they are still open for a good reason then there’s no urgency to close them due to how old they are.
Some require new aerial imagery, others need a bit more info or even a visit which if they are closed no one would know about. I went on a long bike ride this summer and managed to resolve a few notes that needed a survey because I checked osm.org and noticed them.
Notes are also better than fixme tags which are not visible on the OSM website and they are highlighted in the likes of StreetComplete for example to people who are out and about.
2024년 8월 15일 07:28에 Friendly_Ghost님의 의견
Instead of making notes for category 2 I add fixme=* tags.
2024년 8월 15일 17:53에 GinaroZ님의 의견
@Friendly_Ghost - can you explain why? Because fixme tags are hidden away - you need to query for them, use a tool like Keepright, or notice them when editing - whereas notes can be viewed on osm.org and in apps like StreetComplete, meaning more people are likely to see a note asking for local knowledge than a fixme.
2024년 8월 15일 19:11에 Friendly_Ghost님의 의견
They are indeed hidden unless you look for them or stumble upon them, so most mappers won’t notice them, but a local mapper who’s thorough or performing QA will notice it, and so will any person who actually uses the object for something and notices a mistake, so a fixme tag works as communication with the right people.
2024년 8월 18일 12:02에 osmuser63783님의 의견
When I make category 2 notes, I put #surveyme in the note text. This allows people only interested category 1 to easily filter them out.
2024년 8월 19일 09:18에 bagis님의 의견
For me Notes are the way for a normal user (that will not edit the map themself) to report an issue. As such mappers that use Notes for their personal surveying can be a bit of a annoyance, since it can make it harder to find the problems that a user has posted. Especially if the Notes are left open for long or they clearly create more Notes than they solve. But this is the freedom of OSM, much is done in different ways with different motivation.
I use Notes to find new places to visit and while there a do a bit of mapping. I will use JOSM or openstreetmap.org (with Notes layer) to find an interesting spot. Then take a walk, my bike or car and go on an adventure. My last vacation got me to many interesting spots based on Notes. I am thinking of planning my next vacation with the sole purpose of closing the oldest Note in my country.
Some days ago I solved a 7 year old Note, the building was still missing, the company was still there in their new building, now they are both on the map. I don’t see time as simple way to tell if a Note is valid or not, it is more a question of does something need to change in the data.
I think there is big differences on how Notes works in different countries depending on the maturity of the map data, number of mappers, “normal users” and note solvers.
2024년 8월 20일 09:02에 flohoff님의 의견
I’d like to bring a new perspective into the game as notes are a matter of Communication and to bring it even further:
It may not only be used to “report a failure” or “missing” object, it may also enable multi mappers to share knowledge of an ongoing change on the map.
I tend to use these for building a community of surrounding mappers for long running constructions. Relocating a highway may take years with 100s of small little steps in changing of intersections etc. So you want to get all interested parties to the same state.
I’d like to have new features for Notes:
Currently you can only subscribe by writing something to the note. For the reminder and reopen i wrote myself a little bot.
Flo