Spike of new users in the Peninsular

Haven’t sent them welcome messages yet. This week, I have noticed that several new users begin to edit OSM (via iD editor), mostly in the central region. Any idea how they found out about OSM? GIS module taught in universities?

If I had to guess based on what’s happening elsewhere in the world, I’d say Pokemon Go. One of the larger “Pokemon Go” maps switched to self-hosted OSM tiles https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/comments/5jb99f/saving_the_nest_atlas_our_expenses_enterprise/ , and elsewhere in that subreddit you’ll see people suggesting that Niantic are using OSM data in the game. See also https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2016-December/077243.html for a lot more info.

Whilst most of the edits (at least around me in the UK) have been valid, some are clearly fantasy edits to try and get more Pokemon creatures to appear near the user. New user edits that add lots of unlikely footways, parks and water features are worth double-checking…

Quite a few of them are. You can see this if look around the universities themselves, those areas are mapped pretty nicely. Also found employees from a company mapping Johor/JB area (as can be expected, putting in road names obtained from ‘somewhere’ else :roll_eyes:).

Also, from my experience, not many would return any email/correspondence that was sent to them. We need to organize a ‘teh tarik’ session sometime

Ah, yes! I agree, that could be the case. Strange, that didn’t cross my mind, although it is somewhat a significant news in the OpenStreetMap subreddit. Probably because The Silph Road uses Mapbox temporarily; so I have assumed that somehow people using that site must have known OpenStreetMap and try to edit stuff.

So far, no fantasy edits yet. I better have a look later. But the editing pattern somewhat is similar around here: new footways, new parks (actually amenity=recreation_ground is more accurate) and water feature edits.

That case… I still remember it.

In KL? :smiley:

Pokemon Go mappers are back again. Really small playgrounds e.g. in residential estates (taman perumahan) are now parks. O-kayyy… wishing for Pokemon to suddenly spawn near their homes I think.

Oh c’mon, “taman” means “park”, doesn’t it? Well, They should add “park:type=homes”… :smiley:

Technically correct :laughing:

There’s a saying in the Malay language, “taman dalam hati” to describe the tenderness of a person whom in a relationship. :laughing:

Anyway, those pokemon fans create a lot of nonsense which should be corrected. Could you tell them how to do the tagging proper?

I would definitely send a welcome message; which may point them to the Beginner’s Guide and to this forum, or even OSM Help. I have decided to send these special message to new users that have made edits across a few days only.

So far, these Pokemon Go “cheaters” have mapped imaginary parks and water bodies - yes, I saw myself, this particular extreme case in the Klang Valley area - for a few good hours and probably never return to make another (beneficial) edits. Even those who have made edits in the earliest wave a few weeks ago haven’t returned yet to make another edit. Probably, either no difference has been observed; or they’re happy that their desired Pokemons finally appeared near their homes or universities or workplace.

Facebook’s base map in Malaysia now uses OpenStreetMap for place check-ins. I have seen it through both desktop and mobile Firefox.

Here’s how it looks through mobile Firefox:

… a little bit of error there, OpenStreetMaps

Okaaay… probably that AI thingy could be soon? Who knows.

Later edit: Okay, my bad, probably too soon. Probably places quite near to Thailand would see it. Somebody just checked in somewhere in KL, it is still showing HERE maps overlay. Pan and zoom, there’s a mixture of both OSM and HERE Maps display. Definitely no idea… see also this GIF.

That could cause more trouble than useful data… Just look at a discussion in the Thai forum. Well, in the end, both Thailand’s and Malaysia’s OSM communities would need some help from a strong company. Hope they can get the problems resolved.

It’s official now, that Pokemon Go is using OpenStreetMap as map overlay.

Brace for new users… because some places is definitely unmapped. All I want is simply useful edits, not extra malice.

For new users, starting from adding / updating roads or drawing buildings area will be very helpful.
I think it will be an easy task for new users to learn how to contribute to OSM. :stuck_out_tongue:

If someone has extra time, please do send a PM to these new users, nearby; and possibly point them to the OSM Wiki, Beginner’s Guide, etc, also this forum, if it’s the best thing.

Most importantly, give a hint that there’s something else besides the Bing imagery layer.