Hi,
Nick Barnes wrote:
> Point taken, but Wikipedia isn't trying to position itself as a viable
> and reliable alternative for a mission critical commercial solution (I'm
> thinking about mapping for SatNav devices here).
I don't think we should either, because this leads to more control and
less freedom.
> Understood, but if OSM is ever to be taken seriously there needs to be
> more control. Without control, OSM is a toy.
In that case, I would prefer not to be taken seriously.
Honestly, OSM is good and will be good for many purposes, seriously or
not. If someone operating an ambulance service does not trust OSM then
that might be a sensible choice. If the price for being taken seriously
is to take the map away from people, to raise walls, fences, and guards
that say who may edit what under what circumstances ("do you have your
OSM license yet?") then we will soon be at a point where our data is as
outdated as anyone else's, and fixing errors will take weeks or months
for the "approval process". I have presented OSM to many people and a
key moment is always when they smugly point out an error and you simply
fix it and tell them: You could have done that, right here, in an
instant. - On the day I have to tell people that they have to apply for
an account, get it approved and vouched for, then enter a mentoring
period where their edits will be watched by "superiors" until they
finally get a diploma that allows them to edit in the wild, I'll cease
showing OSM to people - it will not be "everyone's map" then, but the
map of a select team of people good enough to be allowed to edit!
> What happens if there are 100 Liam123's appearing during the school
> holidays this summer? 100 would seriously trash the database wouldn't
> they? How would 100 be dealt with? At the moment we're lucky it's only one.
And what if 100 eager new mappers appear during the school holidays?
Would whatever guards and fences you devise not also discourage them?
> Actually, another thought occurs to me... If I were Liam123, hell bent
> on trashing the database, I'd have two or more accounts - one headline
> one in which big edits will be made and the other ones for making lots
> and lots of small edits. This way, the firefighting would be on the big
> edits, but the damage would really be done by the massive number of
> small edits.
Actually, if I wanted to break OSM's back, I'd just make a few accounts,
do a little bit of damage, let the people get all heated up about it and
lock down their edit function... ;-)
Bye
Frederik
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