Ben,
Ben Last wrote:
Actually, you can message them, since "they" are us (NearMap). Which
is my point; the edits come from us, and we're the ones taking on the
necessary responsibility. This is us, as a company aiming to support
OSM, trying to remove barriers from contributions; that's going to
involve us in spending effort and money in doing so. It's somewhat
frustrating to find this being immediately classified in the same box
as anonymous editing and/or vandalism.
You're trying to remove two "barriers" at the same time, both quite
unrelated:
1. The barrier of users having to sign up to OSM;
2. The barrier of a (supposedly) complicated editing process.
Writing a good and simple to use editor, aka doing "2" in the above, is
surely complicated, and takes a lot of effort. If we at OSM had an
editor available that was easier than everything else we can offer, we'd
surely have put it up on the web site some time ago - but we don't have
one. So your effort and money on that front are surely welcome.
On the other hand, doing "1" in the above, is relatively cheap; we could
do that ourselves at any time by, say, allowing users to log in to OSM
with any OpenID credentials (just like we do on help.openstreetmap.org).
I guess we might even do that one day if we get the messaging and
license stuff sorted out but we're not ready for that.
I think the problem with your suggestion is that you're offering your
help only in the form of a package (1+2). If you were to do only "2",
and link the Nearmap account with the OSM account using OAuth, nobody
would have any problem with that; your editor would be unreservedly
welcome. People are critical of your package only because of "1", not
because of "2". There is no technical necessity to package them. Yes
there would be an added burden for your users if you dropped "1", but
would that really be such a problem? One signup page, one E-Mail
confirmation, and then click "ok" for the OAuth page. How often does the
modern Internet user do that every day?
If it should turn out that all the talk of "making OSM easier for a
wider range of contributors" etc.etc. is indeed just "people cannot be
bothered to go through a signup process", then it is not NearMap we need
to fix this; then we need to discuss if we, as a project, can afford to
drop the signup and use 3rd party ID in general. But this, I think,
would a decision we'd have to take on a general level - are we happy
with 3rd party ID - instead of doing that on a case by case basis - are
we happy with NearMap relaying edits under a collective account.
If you were to decide to actually send your users to create an account
with OSM, you'd also be saving time because you would no longer have to
be the middle man in community communication. And if this is a factor
for you, you could still retain whatever rights you want on the content
submitted by the user, by way of their agreement with NearMap.
Bye
Frederik
--
Frederik Ramm ## eMail frede...@remote.org ## N49°00'09" E008°23'33"
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