A ford is something you can drive or wade through - the water only covers the road by a few cms. If the road is impassible yet it is marked as a ford this is badly misleading.

… or much better, correct it yourself rather than reporting it. That way you get the satisfaction of seeing it done immediately rather than wait for someone else, you know it is correct, after all you spotted the problem so you know how it should be and, best of all, you might be tempted to add more improvements.

Tracing from Bing or OS StreetView (in GB) is helpful, but a survey answers a lot of questions. Bing imagery is very helpful, but it goes steadily out of date as time goes by and it gives you very little naming information. Try a survey, just take a careful look at your local area. A digital camera is a great way to take notes. Taking a printed map out to write on can be a good way of recording details too. You will probably find things you didn’t know about.

Any edits that add real information as it is on the ground is helpful, but it’s much better if you enjoy it too because you’ll be tempted to do some more.

… or make a render of your own that suits what you want to use the map for. The Standard render is really an example of what is possible and will never suit everyone (I hate seeing abandoned railway lines rendered).

If you want to render your own map you can find out more at switch2osm

… but much, much better to map an area your know, by seeing what is really there now rather than what was there when the aerial imagery was made. You can still use the imagery to fix the positions of things. You also get the benefit of the signs you can see by visiting that don’t show up on the aerial imagery. It is surprising what you will find in an area you know.

OSM has no published PD licence. PD is not available in most of the world - you need to use a licence such as CC-0. If you signed up to the new licence and terms, your data will be licensed under ODbL along with everyone else’s. Checking the PD box was more a statement of wishes rather than an actual choice of a different licence.

Anyone who copies any data from the OSM database as PD using the fact that the author declared their work as PD is not respecting the OSM licence. Currently the data is CC BY-SA and soon it will be ODbL, there are no other options.

If you receive a copy of Oliver’s contributions from Oliver he can licence his work any way he wants because he still holds the copyright to that work.

Welcome to OSM and the complexity that is mapping and rendering maps.

The Standard view on the View tab does not try to display every type of object that the OSM database holds. It would be too cluttered. The Standard view is just one map, an example of what is possible if you like. There are many other renders of OSM data that show different things and your edit will appear on some of them.

The editor Potlatch (the one that starts by default when you click Edit) has many icons for things and some do not get rendered on the Standard view - the data is useful but the not on every render of the map. If I download the OSM data for your area into my Garmin Sat-nav your pool would probably appear as a point of interest (POI).

You are right. OSM website is not a site intended for people to use just as a map.

The OSM site is about editing the map data. OSM does not have the servers or bandwidth to supply map tiles for general use. The idea is that people take the data and render their own tiles. That way they can have any POIs on them that they want. They can have overlays, routers or any other detail they want and respond to clicks on the overlay.

It doesn’t make much sense to compare OSM with Google, the reason they exist is very different. Google maps are there to hang advertisements on, either directly on the map or on surrounding web pages. Google doesn’t care much about maps, they sell advertising, and do it very well.

OSM people care about maps, but many different types, so OSM could not display a single map that suits everyone (Cycling, hiking, boating, motoring, navigation, tourism, disabled access, horse-riding, archaeology, railways, skiing… ). That’s why people can render their own or add overlays to others such as MapQuest’s Open tiles.

It wouldn’t hurt to point out to the journalists concerned the mistake they have made. Perhaps, once the servers are at full speed again, you could invite them to try editing OSM for themselves, either using Bing imagery or joining (sponsoring?) a mapping party somewhere. Their inaccurate, copied work might turn into a real piece that other journalists copy and OSM gets more coverage.

And add a bit of detail if you like osm.org/?lat=53.737162&lon=-0.506077&zoom=18&layers=M

Deleting a way then undeleting it is not remapping it, you are still using the original author’s work. You need to delete it and recreate it from the resources available as if it never existed. Trace from Bing or other aerial imagery or similar resources. A survey would be best to gather the real info but that is not going to happen in a few days. Names or other such details have to come from some source other than the original mapper. This is why it is a pain and it takes time. The alternative is to just have it deleted in a few days time.

Have you tried to contact him through other ways than just OSM? Google for him, check other sites where he might have used the same username, such as Flickr. Post on twitter, G+, Facebook. All of these have helped me find people and everyone I have found like this have agreed.

L’idée de créer une proposition est OK, mais l’idée du vote est faux. Il n’y a pas d’étiquettes approuvées. Toutes les attributs sont également valables. Certaines des attributs se rendre ou utilisées par d’autres moyens, mais pas des attributs sont «meilleures» que d’autres. S’il vous plaît ne pas commencer par une fausse impression, la diversité des étiquettes n’est pas vraiment un problème et crée des opportunités qui ne seraient jamais apparaître si des attributs uniquement approuvés ont été utilisés ou si toutes les attributs ont été modifiés pour être le même.

Désolé pour mon mauvais français.

@Sanderd17 I think you have misread the Contributor Terms, that is not quite what they say.

You do not have to own the copyright, you have to be sure you are not infringing other people’s copyright, that you have the right to allow the data to be relicenced as ODbL.

The Foundation can only change the licence to another free and open licence, not just ant licence and only, as you say, with the agreement of active mappers. They need 67% not 75% agreement.

Misrepresenting the Licence or the new Contributor Terms has caused problems for people, so it is best that people quote it accurately. People can read it for themselves here

Almost all of the remapping I have done has been to replace old stuff by long-gone contributors. It is almost all poor quality because it was traced from lo-res Yahoo. The replacement is an improvement. It also has forced me to look at areas that are only traced and need surveying to find all the details you just can't get from aerial imagery. That means trips out to see new places in detail which will be interesting.

I think every large community like OSM will have people like @compdude in it, negative, moaners who want to drag the process down and pour cold water on the hard work of the other volunteers. The rest of us enjoy mapping and remapping or we do something else. If it really makes you so unhappy @compdude, take up something you like - life's too short to be unhappy.

Delay the change over? No way. It will just give the moaners more time to make a fuss over nothing.

If people haven't accepted the new terms and licence, for what ever reason, we cannot continue to use their data in the newly licensed database. They did not agree to that and it would be disrespectful, and probably illegal, to just take it.

It is an administrative boundary between Wheelers Hill and Glen Waverley.

The map you see is just a single example of the way a map can be rendered from the OSM database and it happens to display these boundaries in a particular way. Other renders could show it coloured or stroked differently or not show the boundary at all. If you want to try rendering your own styles more info is here: osm.wiki/Renderers

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Just how would you prevent cyclists and pedestrians using the UK public highway (motorways are a specific exception)? What law would you invoke?

If you want to add your café, move to the place on the map where it is and click the Edit tab. Drag the café symbol (the cup) from the icons on the left to where your café is. Add any extra details (such as its name) in the dialog that pops up. When you are done click save. Your café will appear on the map in a few minutes (usually), though you may have to refresh your browser to see it. If you found it easy you might like to add a few more businesses around your café so the area shows how a busy it is. Careful though, you might get hooked.

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