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OSM is just political

Posted by cybermapper on 18 May 2025 in English.

I will stop editing here after more than year of contribution because of various reasons, mainly political reasons.

I feel like continuing to support the project which is politically involved in mapping scope is not my moral thing to do anymore.

OSM’s ridiculous policy about who controls the ground, those determine the border is far more ridiculous than occupation itself. I am not surprised that these people do not understand what is international recognition means. The policy of “who controls the ground” is simply supporting any “invasion / annexation / or whatever term here” and running away from the reality of internationally recognized borders. If OSM is run by Europeans or Americans or Russians (who support their invasions and military presence in Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia) I am not remotely shocked. Because if they understood, world would not have been this trash since WW2.

I have seen it first time when I was removing fake Armenian names from the Karabakh area (was under occupation in between 1992 and 2024), DWG contacted me about not removing them because they have talked to Armenians who felt nostalgically bad about those. I was in utter shock for an American in DWG who did not think about occupation a second, but being fully biased on occupiers side asking how they would feel.

The same goes to Russo-Ukrainian war, for some reason they show Donbas as Ukraine area while it is under occupation, but showing Crimea not as a part of Ukraine while it is under annexation and occupation.

Same situation is with Georgian occupied areas.

I am familiar with double standards of Europeans, so no surprise here at all. You guys can enjoy mapping with disputed areas and changing borders every day.

Good luck to you all!