I could imagine a scenario where a new mapper gets 10 automated emails if 10 helpful people set up automation. There's also the saying (mostly about AI-generated emails) that if someone didn't value me enough to put the effort into writing me an email themselves, why should I put the effort into reading it?
I think the target of automation ought to be to get the information to the new mappers before they start mapping - perhaps by persuading the commonly-used websites and apps to present a link to new mappers giving local guidance when they start their first session. However, I speak as someone who gave up checking other mappers because it started to annoy me too much, and I couldn't always think of a polite way to explain problems caused. Jon ________________________________ From: Steven Hirschorn <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2025 3:32:18 PM To: Andy Townsend <[email protected]> Cc: Talk Gb <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Talk-GB] OSM-Welcome-Tool and OSM-GB (Clifford Snow) On Thu, 17 Apr 2025, 14:56 Andy Townsend, <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: I'm not convinced that a "fully automatic" email is useful. It'd be treated (rightly) as spam I'm not sure a single email when someone starts contributing to a region with a load of useful links is spam? I know it'll likely be recognised as an automated email, but anything to catch new contributors and encourage them to carry on seems like a positive thing? . As Clifford wrote previously: > I basically review each changeset the user made and provide feedback as > needed, and then send the welcome message. That's the useful bit - spotting that a new(ish) user has tripped over some obscure OSM editor feature and helping them not to make that particular mistake again. The people I send welcomes to often haven't contributed much to correct, but as well as mentioning that there are lots of places to get help, I sometimes mention the other editors available, particularly if I see someone creating a lot of building footprints in ID. But the manual task is already quite a bit of work compared to a single automated email. And I only have a small area of West London covered by my OSMCha watch.
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