• 6 Posts
  • 22 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 7th, 2023

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  • When you open openstreetmap.org, on the right-hand side there are some buttons. Click the one that looks like a stack of papers (it’ll say “layers” when you hover it) and there will be an option to enable a notes overlay.

    In the editor on the site (called iD) you click the icon on the right that looks like a line and a square (Map Data on hover, or press the U key) and it will have an option to show notes as well.

    Generally I leave notes alone for a week or two to see if the user intends to resolve it themself (I talk to myself a lottttt in notes while I’m surveying) but if it’s still there after that, I do my best to resolve it.


















  • OSM is not popular in Canada, partially due to a vicious cycle where there isn’t enough information filled in so people don’t use it so nobody contributes. I used it because in my old city the map was basically perfect (I think it was imported from City data,) and I had no data plan so I needed offline maps.

    After I moved I noticed that the map was incomplete so I started contributing again. There are around 5 names in my area that I see contributing on a nearly daily basis. That might not seem like much, but I’ve singlehandedly nearly finished my neighborhood’s buildings and sidewalks in the last two months.

    Still, get your friends into it. I showed a friend of mine who bikes OrganicMaps after Google Maps routed him on a 4" wide dirt footpath in the dark one night. He was sold right away when I showed him that he can search for water fountains. Another friend of mine loved how detailed OSM was compared to Google Maps and switched as well, and now they help me with Street Complete sometimes. Every bit helps.