OpenGeofiction
Good Afternoon,
Because I have dealt with this problem TWICE in less than a week, I am going to repeat a statement from several of our fellow mappers:
Do NOT edit in someone’s territory without their permission.
If you cannot find a list of ‘open’ or ‘collaborative’ territories,
I understand that you all are new, but please read the rules before diving in to mapping!
Thanks Everyone
Discussion
Comment from eklas on 8 February 2017 at 19:38
To think mappers who don’t care enough to read the FAQ or About are going to read this in the user diaries requires a certain level of optimism. You go!
Comment from Litvania on 8 February 2017 at 21:23
People act in stupid ways sometimes what can i say
Comment from Luciano on 8 February 2017 at 23:28
New mappers dropping garbage in one’s territory is just part of life in OGF. Mahhal has seen several unauthorized edits each month for its entire lifetime. Ardisphere is apparently a less tempting target, for whatever reason, but it gets an occasional edit as well.
If I put on my admin hat, I further have the responsibility for watching for and/or dealing with unauthorized edits all over the rest of the planet, which are too numerous to count or handle. I handle ones that seem egregious or that I specifically happen to notice, and other members of the admin team and other helpful “power users” also take on this thankless task. Nevertheless, many bad edits happen and end up completely ignored.
Perhaps there might be a way to set up the site that prevented this kind of problem - I don’t know. But that is not the way the site is set up. That being the case, territory owners must simply accept “vandalism patrol” as part of the job description of owning a territory. I will second @eklas’s comment, too - the types of users that do this don’t look at User diaries, just as they don’t look at About pages or FAQs.
Perhaps I could offer a more positive perspective: I will say that in my own case, this job of “vandalism patrol” was part of what opened the doors to improving my skills in using JOSM and to becoming more engaged in the OGF community. View it as an opportunity, rather than as, strictly, a problem.
Comment from Ernestpkirby on 8 February 2017 at 23:37
I have found, strangely enough, maybe due to the small size of Freedemia, that vandalism is minimal. I actually only remember one time of “vandalism”, and that was from a friend I introduced to the site who made a motorway that spelled out “#YOLO”. I guess I’ve just been lucky.
Comment from PColumbus73 on 9 February 2017 at 00:10
What I have done with the two cases I had recently was simply stating that they are not permitted to edit in my territories and direct them to the Collaboration Page.
I agree the ‘self-policing’ is an unofficial requirement of owning a territory. I would imagine (and hope) that most new mappers don’t deliberately edit in an owned territory, so I think a simple message is a sufficient ‘warning’, depending on how much has been done.
However, I wouldn’t consider my cases vandalism, instead just ‘unauthorized edits’. If a new guy decided to drop a couple streets or a building or two, I wouldn’t consider that vandalism. But, if someone deleted huge swaths or caused massive amounts of damage, I would consider that vandalism and would most likely consult a moderator on that issue.
Comment from Easky30 on 9 February 2017 at 00:32
Is there a way to make new users read the FAQ as a condition of being allowed to edit at all? Can they send a request saying they have read and understand some of the more important rules before being allowed to edit. I would like to think that the people who have the interest to find OGF should inherently know not to edit in other user’s countries.
Comment from Luciano on 9 February 2017 at 00:41
@Easky30 - it is already the case that new users must click through an introductory page that includes this information. However, that is apparently exactly what they do, in many cases: “click through” - i.e. viewing it as one of those “fine print” situations that we all habitually click through, online.
I have sometimes advocated for a more “invitational” model for OGF - i.e. no such thing as an unmoderated sign-up, rather, an email address where users request an account, which is fulfilled at admin’s convenience. This would be a lot of work for admin, hence, it’s not feasible. Another approach would be to be more “draconian” in enforcement, i.e. “zero tolerance” - you break a rule, you lose your account. I think this would lead to a lot of annoying sockpuppetry. But it also might cause users to put more time into looking at the rules.
… The above are just my personal thoughts. Current admin team view is entirely status quo.
Comment from dryerlint on 9 February 2017 at 05:18
I wonder if it would be possible to modify the upload system so you can only upload within your own territory? It would probably mess up border editing…
Maybe new users (who have been editing for less than a week) could have the limitation applied to them, so that they can only edit in pre-defined areas like Commonia. (Since they won’t be editing territory borders anyways)
Comment from Luciano on 9 February 2017 at 05:40
Modifying the upload system is both impractical (substantial programming required) and against the spirit and concept of OPENgeofiction - where the idea is to enable geofiction using the OSM platform “off the shelf”. Anyway are we sure we want users who can’t exercise self control?
Comment from Kai on 10 February 2017 at 18:15
/
Comment from wangi on 10 February 2017 at 21:15
Kai, presumably you read this thread, left that comment… and then went and edited in a green country?!
Comment from _zM on 10 February 2017 at 21:23
Yes, yes he did.
Comment from _zM on 10 February 2017 at 21:32
No, wait. That was before his comment. You’re ok then, just delete your roads please, you did edit in a green country after all.
Comment from Kai on 14 February 2017 at 01:54
No one owns it…I want to get that territory Wednesday…If you are getting that territory than I will
BUt until then, nah fam
Comment from Kai on 14 February 2017 at 01:54
No one owns it…I want to get that territory Wednesday…If you are getting that territory than I will
BUt until then, nah fam