For anybody who uses StreetComplete - whenever you select "Can't answer" to a quest, an OSM Note [1] (ie. error report) is made. Please consider attaching a photo whenever you can so other OSM mappers can resolve the issue without the need to verify the place in-person themselves.
Another thing that's super cool is that StreetComplete allows you to answer other OSM Notes (made also or rather mostly outside of StreetComplete) with photos. There are many countries with a deluge of unsolved Notes [2] and a photographic proof allows people to resolve them remotely. Just remember to turn on displaying all notes, not only questions, in the app settings.
I don't really understand the note resolution process, I feel like streetcomplete could do more to improve this but I don't know what, because I only see it from the streetcomplete side of things.
It's pretty common for me to see a note from someone that's like a year old saying "this business isn't here any more". Indeed, it is not. I mean, I could add a picture (didn't realise that feature existed), but how would that help? It's a picture of a thing that's not there. Why not take the notes word for it when it was first posted a year ago?
If this is some multi-verification thing, there must be a better way to present that?
> It's pretty common for me to see a note from someone that's like a year old saying "this business isn't here any more". Indeed, it is not. I mean, I could add a picture (didn't realise that feature existed), but how would that help? It's a picture of a thing that's not there. Why not take the notes word for it when it was first posted a year ago?
"This place has gone or never existed" is a note from MAPS.ME generated by clicking such button in that app. But people sometimes missclick it. Or use it wrongly e.g. place exists but has slightly inaccurate position or name. Or use it on POIs they added themselves as a mistake (MAPS.ME allows adding/editing POI, but not deleting them)
If you solved as many notes as I did you would understand ;) I think that photographing something that's not there is still a valid thing. I try never to trust notes blindly, and when possible corroborate it with outside sources (no copying of Google Maps allowed, though).
> If this is some multi-verification thing, there must be a better way to present that?
Notes, their usage, and resolving are pretty free-form.
> If you solved as many notes as I did you would understand ;) I think that photographing something that's not there is still a valid thing. I try never to trust notes blindly, and when possible corroborate it with outside sources (no copying of Google Maps allowed, though).
I think this can get tricky. I've worked in several office suites where having a business listed on the directory at the entrance was an additional fee that many tenants opted not to pay (not just struggling startups; I've known this category to include large publicly-traded companies who'd existed for decades). Someone could see that a listed business is not on the directory, mark "no longer exists", even posting "photographic proof" of a directory without the business's name -- and they could still be wrong.
The only way to know for sure would be to a) verify the landlord's records; or b) regularly knock and confirm that employees of said company are routinely occupying the space.
OSM is a map first, not a business directory - although these do overlap. Admittedly, businesses without a marked presence are not de facto priority (as in: no explicit rule, but they don't get mapped first). Shops, restaurants and so on that are open to the public are more so.
That said it's only a guideline, which is deviated from in some cases (like administrative boundaries). I guess some other proof could pass, if it was plausible enough.
StreetComplete doesn't have the interface to resolve the note.
It's just asking the user to add information to a note that has not yet been resolved. It's likely enough that no one has looked at it (and it could be resolved just based on the initial note), but it won't hurt anything to add the information.
I use this quite a lot - even my kids like taking part, on walks around the neighbourhood.
Unfortunately, the app has an outdated basemap. During the lockdown I've used other apps and the in-browser editor to trace new outlines of buildings in my relatives' neighbourhoods, thinking that this would then show up in StreetComplete, giving my relatives a nice activity for future walks (adding addresses, roof shapes and street details for the new buildings I'd drawn). However, the app rarely updates the basemap - so the new buildings still haven't shown up. Worse still, the app pretends they're there, floating ghostly address, roof shape etc questions over a seemingly blank background - but a but too densely for people to reliably know what building they'd be tagging.
This is a little irritating/demotivating. It's an acknowledged issue on their GitHub - the problem is lack of resources to compile and serve the basemap. If anyone is sitting on idle server capacity and connectivity... Do volunteer!
Really think this is a cool idea and have had it installed on my phone for more than a year, but somehow, I never really feel the compulsion to do anything more than open it up and think about how cool it is. Maybe would be nice to present a list of nearby simple quests to get new users started? A little intro/tutorial sequence may help bridge the gap and suck people in.
There is an intro in version 19, released a week or two ago.
I was in a similar situation as you for a while. My perspective changed when I realised that it's a great thing to make going on walks -- another habit that I've wanted to get into (for physical+mental health) but never really did -- a little more interesting and fulfilling. Now I'm at ~2000 quests completed.
Depending on where you are, the available things to do can be limited and uninspiring.
I have been using it for a while, and I have filled out useful things like bus stop shelter and seating, road surfaces, opening hours on shops etc.
Near me right now, I have a few house numbers (adjacent to known house numbers), one probably unnamed pedestrian passage to name, and loads of default speed limits.
I like to think every last bit of that sort of information could at least improve the quality of GPS navigation apps using OSM data. I use OSMAnd for navigation and w.r.t. map completeness it's pretty good but not great. I think much of what's lacking is the finer details, thigs like many houses not being numbered.
I've seen a lot of quests on StreetComplete that seemed a lot less relevant, like the number of stories a house has, or the style of roofs. I guess that's useful for 3d maps, but personally I don't see much value in that relative to mapping addresses and street rules.
I'm just saying that as a newcomer, being able to fill out things with obvious personal usefulness like "does this bus stop have a shelter and seating" is really cool and engaging. As is having a diverse range of things to fill out.
When your area is already pretty thoroughly covered, it's not as fun to say "this stretch of road has the same speed limit as every other stretch of road nearby". However, once you are an engaged user, doing a few of those things every so often is fine.
What I was trying to say in my original comment was "if you can't find anything interesting to do in it try somewhere else (when you can)"
“Pretty good” certainly isn’t true in my area. Most businesses aren’t labeled, or are labeled incorrectly, and certainly no houses are labeled.
As best as I can tell, there are simply no boots on the ground on the east side of Indianapolis. Unfortunately I’m not in a position to do much about it myself, but the sheer volume of missing data is a pretty strong deterrent.
Depends on the signage. Intention alone usually doesn't legally restrict usage. If the parking spaces are part of the apartments then they should have signs saying so. It's fine to have a sign at the driveway that gives access to these parking spaces of course.
When asked to put in opening hours, if the sign in the window says 0800 daily, you don't write "well, I was there at 0830 last Wednesday and they weren't open yet, so maybe 0900?". Similarly, you don't write "I parked there for two hours yesterday and I didn't get a ticket"
If there are official-looking signs (not a scrap of plywood with NO PArkiNG written on it with a marker), I don't think it's the cartographer's job to investigate whether the clamping company is legitimately authorised to demand a release fee, how thoroughly the operator enforces restrictions, or how long the warden takes on their rounds.
The OSM community generally holds that access-tagging of a feature should be based on ground-truth; for parking spaces this means defaulting to what is the local law, and specifying exceptions if signs indicate that it is private parking.
The positive attitude towards this project is a great reminder of what the internet could look like (and often DID look like) without the extreme commercial exploitation and the consequential cynical and cautious user attitude.
When Google Maps bothers me with inane questions about my village pub, I'm annoyed, I won't be their unpaid data entry worker. But I'm more than happy to do it for everyone on the internet, I'll even install an app, voluntarily!
Last time I got this feeling was when I first joined what.cd. I'll never forget that "Whoaaaa, so this is what an internet music service could be like if there was no profit involved"
It might be a nice alternative to a Pokemon Go, but just as a case in point to all those who claim that "OSM is data, not an application" (so, last that I checked, pretty much everyone in the OSM community): I would really feel the pressure to use StreetComplete a lot, if there was a way for me to actually use OSM in the daily life. The best in-browser app that I know is osm.org, and the best Android app is OsmAnd (which is quite a bit better than osm.org, by the way): and you need to be extremely pro-FOSS (as opposed to pro-usability) to abandon much hated GoogleMaps in favor of them.
I mean, I am "pro-FOSS", but I use OSM when walking and cycling because it's simply the best data source out there. I've used it all over the world from the Peak District, to European cities, to remotest South Africa.
Osmand is great but maybe you should consider that there is no one app to solve all of your problems, especially given that you've already accepted that OSM is data, not an app. There's Osmand for outdoors kind of stuff, maps.me for a simpler, slicker Google maps like experience, Graph Hopper for advanced routing and planning, cycle.travel and others for cycling, hike maps, transport maps, the list goes on.
Looks like a really slick app, can't wait to walk around and use it.
It is a little funny to see that some of the quests are on map features that I have recently added. I suppose I will both fix those things and learn what I can do better when I am mapping in the future.
The game spawned creatures anywhere there were parks or water features. Players figured this out and suddenly parks appear everywhere. Parks coming out our ears.
Another thing that's super cool is that StreetComplete allows you to answer other OSM Notes (made also or rather mostly outside of StreetComplete) with photos. There are many countries with a deluge of unsolved Notes [2] and a photographic proof allows people to resolve them remotely. Just remember to turn on displaying all notes, not only questions, in the app settings.
[1] https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Notes
[2] (takes long to load) http://resultmaps.neis-one.org/osm-notes