OpenStreetMap
I'm all for mapping a large number of unmapped roads in my area with my GPSr but I'm still waiting for the one small stretch of about 1Km of road that I did as a trial last weeekend to appear on the main map. I'm probably missing out on something really fundemental - It's there on the Potlatch map as an extension to an existing road when I go back to it (for days now) but doesn't appear on the main browser map.
Until I see my small test work out, I'm not going to spend the many hours of effort that's required to translate GPS traces into meaningful map data unless I can see it's actually being accepted.
From my experience over the last couple of days, better information for beginners would be good too...
Discussion
Comment from Adam Killian on 6 February 2008 at 02:18
The main map is re-rendered approximately weekly, so it may take a few days for your efforts to show up. If you click the little "+" on the upper right of the map, and select "osmarender" you will see a slightly different version of the map which is (generally) rendered a few hours after the change is made.
Comment from robx on 6 February 2008 at 10:15
If it still doesn't show up, is it possible that you added a way which isn't tagged as a street? There should be a tag like highway=residential on the way you added. (If you extended an existing way, this shouldn't be a problem.)
Comment from Alexander Klauke on 6 February 2008 at 23:57
You can also start a render request. Go to informationfreeway.org and press "r" in zoom 12 with the mouse over the tile you want to be rendered.
Comment from Deelkar on 7 February 2008 at 11:09
To Alexander: That will only update the "osmarender" and "maplint" layers, not the "mapnik" layer which is the default map.
To hjw2: The problem with newbie documentation is that anyone learning the ropes has at first trouble understanding it, because there is no good documentation, then when they have learned their way around, they don't bother updating the information. Secondly traditionally the project evolves quite fast, so any documentation would outdate pretty quickly. (The process does seem to slow down lately, so the chances for good newbie docs are getting better)
Comment from amapanda ᚛ᚐᚋᚐᚅᚇᚐ᚜ 🏳️🌈 on 8 February 2008 at 16:20
hjw2, the mapnik maps are updated weekly, but I've found it to be quick sporadic. A the wiki says (osm.wiki/index.php/Beginners_Guide_1.5) if you right click on a tile and select view image, then add "/dirty" to the end, it'll most likely be redrawn. This is a good way to make sure changes to an area you've been working on show up.