Hello PCarew_EG,

You may be aware that the problems that some of your “mechanical edits via MapRoulette” have caused; if not, please see the discussion on osm.org/changeset/126285135 and also at https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/how-to-contact-the-person-group-running-a-maproulette-challenge/2705/7 .

On osm.wiki/Organised_Editing/Activities/Expedia you have created a number of “MapRoulette challenges”. Some, like “Review of Bus Stations in Turkey” might be valid, althrough we won’t know because the link on that page is incorrect.

Some, however, like “Fix deprecated/incorrect tags on historic=* features” surely are not. This appears to be an attempt to perform a mechanical edit on OSM data without following the rules. This is not OK, and has according to the linked changeset apparently already led to a significant amount of data loss.

To be clear - the instructions at e.g. https://maproulette.org/challenge/27952/task/136008404 are an instruction to each user to mechanically change some tags:

historic=palace ‒ Use historic=castle + castle_type=palace instead.

historic=exhibit ‒ Use exhibit=history instead.

historic=fortification ‒ Use historic=fort or historic=castle + castle_type=* instead.

historic=disused ‒ Use historic=* + disused=yes instead. (i.e. historic=bunker is fine to use for WWII bunkers.)

Use official website resources where available to distinguish between a fort and a castle.

See https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:historic for reference. 

At no point is it suggested that a user might actually do a proper survey on the item in question and decide what the best tag should be. To be clear, asking people to change the tag on some OSM data from “a tag that is probably invalid” to one that is “valid, but incorrect” is tantamount to vandalism as while it’s easy to search for “probably invalid” data but nigh-on impossible to search for “valid, but incorrect” data.

Please immediately:

• Remove any MapRoulette tasks that are essentially requests that users perform mechanical edits.

• Revert any changes made to OSM (that haven’t already been reverted) for those tasks by users who have been following your advice. If that’s too hard, please email the DWG with details and we’ll do it.

• Before creating any further “mechanical edit” tasks please read and follow osm.wiki/Automated_Edits_code_of_conduct .

I’ve sent this message as one that you need to read before continuing to edit. You’ll be able to continue editing as soon as you have read it. If you would like to contact us, please email data@openstreetmap.org with a subject of “[Ticket#2022091810000104] Expedia”.

Best Regards,

Andy Townsend, on behalf of OSM’s Data Working Group