Congratulations and excellent work! having done my own fair chunk of woodland mapping, I know how methodical it is! take a well deserved rest!

It sounds like you’ve got some stuff to sort out that’s separate, but still affecting your mapping. I can say: “I’m mapping to make the map better for MYSELF!” or even: “I’m mapping because it’s a fun hobby!”, or: “I’m mapping because I think the world benefits from a free and open map!”. Whatever your reason, don’t let fear keep you from meeting people, from telling them about your hobbies or desires if they ask. I think if you can work up the courage to meet some of these shopkeepers, you may no longer have to play it out in your head. I think it could even go really well! Maybe they’ll be interested!

I lived in a new town a few years ago and I went down the main street, adding businesses. For a few restaurants, I asked the person at the door: “Hey! do you mind telling me your store’s opening hours?” They gave them to me and asked what I was doing, to which I told them: “I’m mapping! for an open map: like wikipedia for maps!” I often use that line because most people know about wikipedia. They seemed interested enough, and I went on my way down the street.

anyway, all this is to say, good luck mapping and fight the paranoia!

@skquinn I didn’t! sorry about that, hah, but let me know if you’d like me to join you for some armchair mapping sessions. I did a bunch of building outlines in Tulsa, OK (before getting burned out on that project, whoops!). So I’m comfortable with that: sidewalks, crosswalks, building footprints, parking areas, and other armchair activities are doable.

It sure takes time and it often is lonely, but the edits really do stack up. I’m kicking myself for not having taken a screenshot of St. Pete from 2 years ago.

Hello,

I worked on this, (#462)

I used the GSI Seamlessphoto from JOSM. Is there a particular imagery layer I should be using that may be of better quality?

I’ve used OsmAnd~, as well as the F-droid Maps.me. I prefer the Maps.me-but it seems to constantly be behind- the maps in it are from September. I also have OpenMultiMap installed for good measure.

I can’t put my finger on it- something about OsmAnd~ feels oddly clustered and claustrophobic by comparison. It gets great points for technical capabilities but the aesthetics leave much to be desired. Since the F-Droid Maps may be dead, I’ll probably switch to OsmAnd~ but I’m not happy about it.

If you map buildings at all, definitely give the BuildingsTools Plugin a shot. osm.wiki/JOSM/Plugins/BuildingsTools it’s night and day faster and easier than ID, especially for adding lots of buildings. Takes a little getting used to and definitely learn the keyboard shortcuts, but well worth it.

really cool! Thank you for sharing.