OpenStreetMap
Special shoutout to Undearius and LogicalViolinist for their efforts in improving Wikidata coverage in Africa and for bringing a smile to the face of the Sahara.
Some trivia, the Sahara is not all endless sand dunes, one can chance upon some oases and also some potential mappers. Something to lookout for on your next trip there.
CC-by-sa TASSINE Ilyas
Sahara Race CC-by-sa Jon Doe
Discussion
Comment from BushmanK on 18 November 2016 at 21:33
Just in case: Forum discussion Changeset discussion So, that has been done with good intentions, but not really in accordance with OSM rules and guidelines. Therefore, data quality (which is the top priority in OSM, not the amount of data) could easily be compromised.
Comment from SomeoneElse on 18 November 2016 at 21:50
It’s also worth mentioning that I’m also seeing wikidata edits locally (to be clear, not from either of the users mentioned above) that seem to be linking “not quite the same thing” in OSM and wikidata, so care is still needed. As I said on the forum link posted above it’s “something that as a community we’d need to discuss”, and that doesn’t appear to be happenong, smiley face or no smiley face.
Comment from BushmanK on 18 November 2016 at 22:14
I’d add that in Europe or another place with a high density of active mappers, a negative effect of similar behavior is usually reduced by a community due to constant checking and fixing. While in Africa, harm is way more significant, because it will way less unlikely fixed if needed. So, instead of praising this kind of activity, I’d say: “oh, well, now we have the whole bunch of potentially wrong data in Africa, where it will stay forever without being carefully checked”.